Hello from Bangkok, Thailand! It is still so surreal that I am actually here. The past few days have been sensory overload! Here's just a very small part of what I have experienced so far:
Monday to early Wednesday: 28 hours of travel time from Dallas, to San Francisco, to Tokyo, to Bangkok. Thankfully no trouble at all with any of the flights or getting our bags. (I flew with 4 other fellow teachers.) Japan Airlines was great, and the layover in Tokyo made me really excited to visit there in October; I'm planning on visiting my brother who lives there.
Wednesday: Got picked up from the airport, had our first experience of CRAZY Bangkok driving style and traffic, and arrived at our apartments around 7:00 am. We had time to unpack and "rest" until about 12:30. Our apartments are a lot nicer than I had expected! They are somewhat minimal, in my room I have a wardrobe, desk, nightstand, fridge, and a queen-sized bed which I call my "rock bed" because, well, the mattress is so hard it feels almost the same as sleeping on the ground. Unfortunately, no kitchen or cooking appliance of any kind. But I'm very thankful!
After unpacking, the 5 of us ventured out to the nearby main street and decided to get some street food. I ended up getting rice with vegetables, tofu, and congealed pigs blood for less than $1. It was actually pretty good (the blood really tasted like nothing), I am still trying to be able to handle spicy stuff and thankfully it wasn't spicy at all. We wandered around a bit more, and then at 12:30 we went to the mall to get cell phones sorted out. There are 3 people also teaching here for a second year from a school in California, and they were helping us the whole time explaining the various transportation systems, and helping us with the cellphones. They are SO helpful, helping us find our way around and get situated much sooner than if we had to on our own.
The Bangkok mall was an overwhelming experience. It was 5 huge floors, with tons and tons of vendors selling a bajillion products, and tons of people everywhere. One of our guides from California knew just where to go to get our cellphones thankfully. I couldn't get my iPhone unlocked unfortunately so I was given someone's crappy old Nokia, but it works. I had the same sort of thing in Italy and it worked out fine; I think it's good for me to not constantly be relying on a smart phone.
To get back home we had to walk through the mall we were in, through another mall, through ANOTHER mall, to the sky train, connect to the subway, take a bus, and then walk to our apartment. There are so many forms of transportation it's just a whole other world in terms of getting around, but it's pretty cool and I think I am getting the hang of it.
Some overall impressions of what I have seen of Bangkok:
- The people are SO friendly, Thailand is appropriately named "The Land of Smiles" - everyone really does smile at you, which really crosses the language gap.
- It is so stinkin' humid. People from Texas, we think it's humid in Texas... it's got nothing on Thailand. Seriously.
- Traffic and pollution is pretty wild. The way they drive here is so aggressive and would never fly in the States. You have to be pretty patient to get though rush hour.
- You experience every kind of smell in walking even very short distances, it's really weird. And they are usually nasty smells.
- Everything is so cheap, if you convert Thai baht to dollars. My salary won't allow me to be a big spender, but it's great if you are traveling on small budget.
- The food is pretty delicious. It's great for me that hardly any of it has gluten in it. A LOT of it is very spicy, but I'm trying to adjust to that. As is my stomach to all this new crazy food.
- It is so crowded everywhere. You are bumped and jostled all the time whenever you go anywhere.
- The Thai language is difficult to learn but so fun, and pretty hilarious sounding.
Thursday: We got picked up by a van at 6:30 am to go to school! The Chitralada Palace School is, guess what, located on the palace grounds. The grounds are beautiful, with tons of lush plants and a river and armed guards everywhere. The buildings where we teach are not breathtaking or anything, but they are very clean and functional. (Will hopefully post pictures soon.)
We go to the school and did some paperwork, and got shown around all the rooms. We have air conditioned offices, but the classrooms are not. There is also a computer lab and craft/resource room for us to use. At lunch we met a lot of the teachers, and they are all so nice. As a whole, Thai people are some of the nicest people I have met. So helpful and always smiling and welcoming. It turns out that I am teaching 5th grade, and I am paired with a funny, smiling, really nice Thai counterpart teacher named Suk Jai. (Also once a week I will be helping teach the PRINCE in 2nd grade!) We teach one grammar class to 3 different groups of students in our grade, and tag team a speaking class with another American teacher once a week. 5th and 2nd grade are matched up, so I'll be helping teaching the prince!
We are going to have a week of teaching with our Thai counterpart, and then I believe after that we will be more and more on our own in the classroom. School starts Monday and I am nervous but excited! It will be a new, amazing, sometimes hard, sometimes fun experience!
Friday (today): Got picked up for school again at 6:30. Soon after we got there we went to the bank to set up our accounts for how we will be receiving our salary, and then went to get our pictures taken for the teacher badges we are getting for the palace school. After that was lunch, then I set up the bulletin boards in my classroom (with materials last year's teacher thankfully left for me). We left school at 4:00 and were home around 5:00.
One other distinctly Thai experience I need to elaborate on: riding an open air public bus. It's just one of those things where you think "I am really getting the full Thailand experience here" while you are on it. The bus literally does not come to a complete stop when you are getting on or off of it. It's usually super crowded, and the way driving is there, you are desperately trying not to fall totally on top of the tiny Thai people around you. Also, it's disrespectful to put your hand over someone's head, so it limits where you can hold onto in the bus. You are also trying to pay the person collecting money (8 baht, about 25 cents) while keeping your balance. I know it doesn't sound fun, but I just love experiencing and getting fully immersed in other cultures like that. So much better than taking taxis everywhere and staying in plush hotels.
Tonight we ventured out to a new district, Sukumwit, and had sangria and tapas at a Spanish restaurant, giving our stomachs a rest from the new and exotic Thai food. There are so many white people in that area, and it was so weird to see that haha. The only other white people I had seen the past 3 days were my fellow teachers.
And now, I finally get to sleep in some tomorrow. We are planning on going to the historical center to see some temples and stuff, and I may go to a street art festival too. I can't believe I am going to be here for 10 months, I don't think that is going to set in until I am really teaching english in the classroom by myself. Sorry this post is so long, there's just so much new stuff that I have been absorbing and this is only a fraction of it. It's a totally different world and really nothing is familiar, but for some reason, I find that truly exhilarating. I can't wait to see what else is in store for me in the coming year, but I know it's going to be so amazing.
Well I'm off to go sleep on my rock bed now. Thanks for reading and feel free to email me anytime! (elisafisher04@gmail.com)
~ Elisa
Also, I promise I will take and post pictures soon. :)
