Chinese Half Year

Apparently in Thailand we do not just celebrate the Thai holidays, but the Chinese holidays. The Half Year was on September 7th. We went out with Annie's Thai friend Gift. There was going to be a parade through the downtown area of Suphanburi. For most of the parade it was normal. Off in the distance we could see the dragon bouncing up and down being carried by people. The dragon started to get closer and closer and as it was coming near fireworks were going off. Finally, the dragon drew near to us. A man in the parade started to tell everyone to move to the side of the road quickly because people started to light fireworks right by the big crowd of people. I swear I thought my foot was going to be taken out because of all the fireworks shooting off. I saw one shoot up in the air and land in a Thai persons cart. The dragon went past us and my feet did not get shot off, thank god.

We then went walking down into the market, where there were many vendors selling all kinds of treats like food or souvenirs. We walked by a vendor that had kiddie pools filled with fish. You could pay 5 Baht for a paper catcher to catch as many fish as you could. There was a small arena where a person would try to drive a motorcycle around and around, like that scene from the Simpsons movie. Farther on down the road there were carnival rides like a ferris wheel and go carts.

My First Thai Funeral

I was asked to go to my first Thai funeral the other day by my boss. I was curious as to what goes on during a Thai funeral, so I wanted to go. Wipa, a woman I work with, unfortunately lost her mother, so we were going for her. We got picked up and went to the Wat to where the ceremony was being held. Everyone was gathered around sitting, but there was no body. There was a picture of the mother and a shrine with some candles and incense burning. About 10 monks showed up and sat down in front of us. The monks were chanting some prayers. One guy on the mic would be chanting with the monks. Going back and forth.

This seemed pretty standard and normal for a funeral. The odd thing was that one person was taking pictures of everybody like this was a momentous occasion. He was documenting everyone that showed up. I know in the States this would not happen at all. Also, another person was video recording the whole event. This would be considered worse than the pictures with the camera. This simply boggled my mind that people would be recording such a somber event. And then as we left, we were given a gift. A box of treats. WE were given a gift as we left. It seemed a little backwards to me. This is what I could not believe.

I soon found out that they do this to make a scrapbook of all who showed up to pay tribute the one that has died. I still don't think it makes it any better. I also found out that this goes on for 7 days. On the last day, the body is brought out for everyone to see. After that, the body then gets cremated.

On day 7, we got invited to go to the last day of mourning. We showed up at the Wat, and many people were dressed up in white suits. Like white uniforms that admirals would wear in the navy. I was asking a Thai teacher that works with me what the white uniforms meant. Also, our boss was carrying the flame from the school to the Wat, so I also asked about this. If you work as a public servant and die you can get the King to light a flame and be sent to the funeral. The white uniforms also shows the public servants. The King lights a flame and it gets carried all the way from Bangkok to Suphanburi. The flame then gets transported to someone who then brings it to the "altar" of the deceased. At the end we get to walk by the remains and place our fake flower underneath the casket to show our respect.

Sports Day @ School July 30 and 31

Day 1

For all of you wondering the name of my school is Sa-Nguan Ying School. I teach in the english department in the school. I have been teaching for about 3 weeks now and it has been interesting to say the least. The students know most of the math work tha

t I have been doing, but it is telling them the new vocabulary that goes with it. Well, this is the boring stuff, so onto Sports Week.

I went to a high school that had absolutely no spirit. We did not have Pep rallies. The school did not force us into the gym to chant or cheer for Ridgewood Football. Thank god. I liked this. I would not want to go to these events and I am glad that their was no effort into this. Now the high school I worked at for a year had a sp

irit day. Midland Park is the name to be exact. This event was fun, but missed a little something. Students just did not want to participate. It was hard for everyone to get into the spirit of sports when some kids were being a nuisance to the whole event. It just did not seem like it was worth it. Now onto Sa-Nguan Ying. This school in Thailand knows how to throw a sports day. We can call this just a big spirit day and it lasts for about 2 days. This is the mother all of spirit days. This is what I like. Go BIG or don't go at all.

For the whole month of July the students have been practicing after school for this event. Practicing there dance moves or the sport

they are assigned to play. Sometimes I would hear drums from my house at 7 o'clock at night. This is almost 4 hours after school ended. The whole school is divided into 6 colors. And then its on! It is your color against the other colors. Anna and I were the same color, Yellow!! We were pumped to see how our color would do. July 30th, finally the day has come. Most of the students have to be in a parade that starts in the middle of the city. This is about a 2 KM hike. (Yes, the US is the only country that uses miles.) Some of the girls had to make this walk in high heels. Others had to carry a platform with a person on it. As they started to finally make their way into the school they are a

ll dressed up in different themes. Not only do they have their own color, but they have come up with their own theme. Well, yellow turned out to be The Lion King or Jungle. The girls were dressed in tiger or lion outfits. There was a lion mascot running around. We also had a big mural of a baby lion in Africa. Each color had its own song and dance for their theme, so as the parade was coming in the other students were all drumming and screaming and singing their songs. Everyone of them was into it. Everyone was screaming as loud as they could. Each color had its own mural and theme for the day.

The day is broken into 2 parts. The morning and the afternoon. The morning is all about the play that the students will put on. Each c

olor comes up with its own play to perform for everyone. Each play is judged, but I am not sure what is judged. The yellow had a jungle feel with the dancers dressed up in tiger outfits. The purple were dressed in Muay Thai boxing shorts and had a boxing ring in their play. My pictures will address the other themes of the other colors. Each color had a song that went with the dances. Now, since all the songs were in Thai I could not understand the meaning of the play. The only thing I could get from the songs were Nung, Saung, Sam, Si.... which is 1, 2, 3 , 4. All 6 colors performed and then it was onto the afternoon.

The afternoon is all about the sports. Basketball, soccer, volleyball, toccra ( I am not sure about the spelling. It is a combo of volleyball and soccer. They have to get this small wicker ball over the net using anything but their hands), bocce

ball. Theses are the events that the students will be competing in. The kids bring their drums right on the side of the volleyball court and start drumming and chanting. Its a free for all out there. This is the ultimate spirit week.

Day 2

I thought that today was just going to be the final games of all the sports. News to me is that their will be more plays done performed by the students. Again the morning is filled with more plays. Unfortunately, I did not think I needed my camera today, so I did not bring it with me. Well I will explain a little bit of what the performances were about. The blue's play started off with them singing, "I'm a Barbie Girl." The red's play was about a "Love Festival." There were some inappropriate dance moves done by some of the kids. (Annie has this all on video). The green dancers had the most unique dresses. They were dressed up very trippy like. The green had the funniest plays on both days. They definitely put some humor into their acts. Today's play had something to do with jokers or jesters from a deck of cards. The purple's play had a big cake wheeled into the middle of the field and they started to sing Happy Birthday.

To think the amount of time and effort these students had put into these dances and songs and themes. It is amazing they have any time to do their work. These 2 days have been an amazing display of school spirit and team camaraderie with the colors. I have been truly impressed with what these students have been able to show me. It has been really fun to be apart of and witness. Pictures will be up on my website soon. Make sure you go check it out.

http://sailorman.smugmug.com/Thailand-2006-and-2009/Sanguan-Ying-School-Sports-Day/9128986_rUcJG#609781713_CFHJL

Here is a link to the pictures that I have taken from the Sports Carnival.

Koh Samet (July 3 - July 8)

I landed in Thailand on Thursday morning and that Friday Anna and I were out heading down to Koh Samet. The beautiful island in the south. So Friday night Annie and I got to Bangkok and we planned on staying for that night. We stayed at this hotel called The Key. The place was gorgeous. Living the life of luxury. Thank god Anna got a discount on the hotel to make it worth it. Pretty much we got food and then went back to our place to sleep. We ate at this mexican restaurant. It was actually pretty good. Surprising for a place all the way in Thailand. We really just wanted to get as much rest as we could for Koh Samet.

We got up nice and early to head to the bus towards Koh Samet. The bus ride was good, but really uneventful. We got to the pier to hop on the ferry to the island. We were staying at a place called the Vonduerin Villa. The was the second stop on the ferry. It took us about a half an hour to get to the first pier for the first beach. We waited as most of the tourists got off at this stop. After about 10 minutes our boat finally set sail to our destination. We started to turn around the point of the island and started to head towards our beach. Anna and I both looked at each other because there was no dock for our boat to tie up to. "How the hell are we going to get to shore? Well we soon found out." So what happens is that the big ferry boat anchors to a mooring about 50 to 100 feet from shore. Then, a smaller boat comes to the ferry boat to pick up the passengers. We have to pay 10 Baht to get the ride from the ferry to the shore. As soon as we get to shore we are greeted by the Thai police. Koh Samet is a National Park, so there is a fee to get into the park.

The next 4 days were gorgeous. Well actually there was one day where it rained all day, but that was kind of necessary. I would sit in the sun for maybe 45 minutes and I would get burnt. I don't know if I was not use to the sun or the sun was way more powerful in Thailand, but I sure did get red. Now we were hopping from bar to bar during the day and night eating and drinking and being merry. We never found the perfect place to just sit around and hang out. One night we went to the Baywatch Bar. We ate their first and had some delicious pizza. Anna said it was the best pizza she had so far in Thailand. We started to drink a little bit and went to the bar. This bar was owned by a "farang." Farang means a foreign person in Thailand. This man who is named Robert has owned the Baywatch Bar for 12 years. He was from Holland. He decided to move from Holland to go to Australia with a stop over in Thailand. He went to Koh Samet for a little while and he never left. He purchased the bar and has been there since. He still has his ticket to Australia hanging up. Anna and I got there finally on Monday night, so the rest of our trip we were at that bar. It was cool and interesting to talk to this man who just picked up and left everything to start a new life. So we enjoyed Robert and his bar tremendously. I know that I would recommend his bar to anyone who goes to Koh Samet and I am pretty sure Anna would agree.

Our trip was really good. It was very relaxing to lay on the beach for four days straight. It was a perfect vacation to start my life in Thailand. We left the island the same way we got to it. We had to take a small boat to our ferry boat. Then the ferry boat brought us to the mainland of Thailand. Now, it was off to Bangkok to catch our bus to Suphanburi. The place where I teach at and live at.

The flight over!

3 O'clock Tuesday June 30th. My dad is driving me to the airport. (First, I know that this is a little late. I have been lazy and vacationing so bare with me.) I actually was a little nervous. Why? I thought to myself. It could have been leaving a perfectly great teaching job at Midland Park. It also could have been picking up and moving for Anna. Starting a different chapter in my life. Whatever it was, I was a little bit nervous.

My father drops me off. We exchange our good byes and I head out on this new, but old journey. You see for those who do not know me I have been to Thailand before. This is my second time here. I loved it so much I had to come back. I have been skeptical about my flight since the day I purchased my ticket. The reason is because I got it from Air India. It was the cheapest one way ticket, but I got kind of skieved out because of the plane being from India. I get to the end of the line where I finally can now check my bags. I give the person my passport and things are not going good.

One! My connecting flight from India is not the same carrier or something, so that is causing all kinds of problems. Second! I do not have a visa for India. It never crossed my mind to get one. I was not staying there. I was simply passing through. The guy went to his supervisor asked some questions and thank god everything turned out well. Well turns out that I do not really need the visa. Thank god. It was pouring rain in Newark, so my plane was very late to finally lift off. The plane finally left Newark around 8:00 PM on June 30th. I got on the plane and sat in my seat and shit I was pissed. I was in the aisle seat, but I was sitting with two other people. Thank god the flight was not filled and I got to move to the empty row behind me. I had the whole row to myself. That made my day. I got to lay out. After about 7 hours I landed in Frankfurt. If I was still in New Jersey it would be about 3:15 AM, but Frankfurt time was 9:15 AM on July 1st. We had to get off of our flight and get back on the plane. As I went through the Frankfurt airport again my VISA got questioned, but thank god no problems. We finally got on the plane at 5:45 AM if I was still in New Jersey, but Frankfurt time it was 11:45 AM. Now it was on to Mumbai, India. My seat was again a good one. There was one person in my row, but we had a seat in between us. This flight lasted about 8 hours. We arrived in Mumbai 1:35 PM if I was still in New Jersey on July 1st. In Mumbai it was about 11:15 PM on July 1st. Of course it took some time to get off the plane and I missed my connecting flight to Bangkok. Shit! I gave my passport and ticket to an Indian person working for the airport and off he went. I saw around waiting and waiting, just hoping my passport was not being stolen. So about 20 to 30 minutes passed and finally the guy came back and led me the way. I cut the whole line to be checked to make my new flight I was getting on. We ran through the airport and he showed me the gate. He asked for a tip. I gave him 10 bucks and he was like that's it. I mean I guess he did save my life, so I have him another 10 and off I went to Bangkok finally. We finally left around 3:25 PM if I was still in NJ and landed in Bangkok around 7:35 PM if I was still in NJ. In Bangkok, it was around 6:30 AM in the morning on July 2nd. I was worried Annie left the airport or something because I was 2 hours late, but thank god her beautiful face was there. I had no idea how I was going to find her, so I just started walking with all my stuff and then I finally saw those golden locks in the distance. We found each other and kissed and off we went to her place in Suphanburi.

The total time I was in the air was 19 hours and 15 minutes about. Well thank god I landed in Thailand safely and with my girl for the first time in a couple of months.