New Apartment

I promised some pics of the apartment, so here they are. We are in a suburb of Bangkok called Nantaburi, in an area called Mueng Thong Thani. There are maybe 25 large apartment complexes that house about 10,000 people all together. We're in C8, on the 15th floor, number 15/63. Here's the picture of the other side of our building, taken from the 15th floor. The little squares that you see are boxes to hang laundry: a very clever idea.

Here is the inside of our apartment: a view of the living room and kitchen. It's like a studio, except that there are half walls to separate the bedroom, and the divider can close to block out light. It's super nice, especially for this area. Of course, the walls are white at this point. You can see our one piece of artwork over the table...

And here's a picture of the teachers' desks at school.

This is the outside of our building. It's nice to have a fruit stand right outside our front door! We are literally 2 blocks from school. It actually takes longer to take the elevator down from the 15th floor than it does to walk to school.

The other day, we went to the mall nearby, where we were thrilled to find a sweet treat. As expensive as always, of course!

A Week of God-Moments

Saturday night, we had to say goodbye to Chiang Mai, and take a 12 hour train ride down to Bangkok. It has been crazy ever since then, but God has taken such good care of us. It was crazy hauling so much stuff on the train, when most people just have an overnight bag. In fact, John had to jump on the moving train to grab our last bag; the train was already leaving! We were so grateful to have a lady named Pook meet us at the train station at 10 am Sunday morning. We were handed over from ATI to a new placement company called High Value. She is our new go-to person as far as the job is concerned. She bought us some breakfast and took us to a hotel room right by the school that I interviewed at the next day.

On Monday morning, I (Dana) had to do a teaching demo for 5^th grade at St. Francis Xavier School in Nantaburi, a Northern suburb of Bangkok. Apparently it went well, because the school hired me immediately after and told me to start the very next day. As we were chatting with the head of the academic office, it somehow came up that I spoke French, and that’s when they decided to have me teach High School instead, and take on some French classes as well!! So I am now an 11^th and 12^th grade English teacher, and a 10^th and 12^th grade French teacher!

This opened up the 5^th grade position, so John was asked to demo the next day, and he also was offered the position. He will be teaching 5^th grade full time! So God truly provided for us, especially since the school does not usually like to hire couples. I especially wanted to teach high school, and John wanted the younger kids! It is a very good school for this area. It is air-conditioned (which is the absolute best part), offers free lunches for the teachers, and has not only a paid October break, but also a paid break at Christmas, something that we would not get if we were teaching at a public school!

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we were allowed to observe the classes we would be teaching, and start planning for next week, our first full week of teaching. On Wednesday, we went to visit a few apartments next to the school with one of the administrators. We had looked at about 3, and weren’t thrilled with any of them, but as we walked out of the last building, a man walked up to us and asked if we were looking for an apartment. He took us upstairs to this beautiful, brand-new apartment; new furniture, new A/C unit, new tiles on the floor, and he was asking the same price as the other apartments! We accepted on the spot, and moved our stuff in that afternoon. He said that when he saw us, he knew that we were the right people. So another God moment! It is about 2 blocks from the school, and another 2 blocks from a big market.

Finally, Wednesday night, we got in a van for another overnight trip, this time to Lao to get our work visas. It was pretty amazing crossing the border. In many ways, it is very similar to Thailand, except that Thailand has the British influence, and Lao was a French colony. So as you cross the border, there are signs telling you to cross and drive on the right side of the road (instead of on the left like in Thailand), and the road signs are all identical to the ones you find in France. And the best difference: the baguettes sold along the side of the road!!! So good! Of course, you know you’re still in Asia when you order a baguette sandwich, and it comes back with tofu, red pork, papaya salad, and spicy chili sauce inside! J

Now we’re back in Bangkok, settling into our apartment. Please pray that we will be able to find a good church soon. And also for me: I’m feeling really sick today, and I need to get better to teach on Monday. Love you all!

John and Dana

Elephants

I apologize that I haven’t written in a little while. It’s been such a crazy week, and we haven’t always had Internet, so let me bring you up to date…

Our TESOL course ended last Thursday afternoon, and we had the most amazing last weekend in Chiang Mai. As some of you know, the national symbol of Thailand is the elephant. You’ll find elephants on everything from jewelry to bed spreads to key chains. The national beer is even called “Chang,” the Thai word for elephants. What some of you don’t know, perhaps, is that there are only 2 kinds of elephants in the world: African elephants, and Asian elephants. The Asian breed is smaller than their African counterparts, and has small ears and big heads, relatively small ears, that is. Our guide liked to tell us that’s why Asian elephants are smarter, but then maybe he was a little bias. Anyways, it is not uncommon to see working elephants in the streets, and elephant shows are very common.

John and I had the awesome opportunity of seeing some of these amazing creatures up close and personal last Friday. We went to a place called the Thai Elephant Home, where the mahouts rescue abused animals from the streets or from other farms where they are mistreated, and bring them to this shelter to teach people how to treat elephants in kind way, and allow them to roam in the jungle. We went with our friends Charlie and Natalie from England. It was an amazing day!

They picked us up from our hotel in the morning and took us about an hour outside of the city. We changed into the typical outfit of a mahout, and were taught some useful elephant commands. Then we learned how to mount and dismount, and some of the different ways of riding elephants bareback. I didn’t know that you are supposed to ride an elephant on the back of its neck, instead of on its back like a horse, but it’s actually much more comfortable, and you can place your hands on its head for balance.

Once we were all familiar with the basics, we each received our own elephants, and started off on a 5 hr trek through the jungle.

The elephants were very hungry on the way, so it was slow going up the mountain. Every few steps, they had to stop and have a few bites to eat. By “a few bites” I mean an entire banana tree, a huge branch off of a tall tree, that sort of thing.

If you pushed them to keep going when they wanted to stop and eat, they would turn their trunks toward you, and blow a huge string of saliva and mud in your face (that’s why they gave us clothes to wear). The best part was going through a large mud field. The elephants had to slurp and spray at every step. You can see by the pictures how dirty we were!! Especially John!

We got to walk with them through a mud pit, eat some delicious phad thai on top of the mountain, and come back down to take a wonderful bath in the river. My legs are just now recovering, but it was totally worth it!!

Surprises

Chiang Mai never ceases to surprise me. Yesterday, we went to the Sunday walking street with our British friends. The Sunday walking street is a huge market that invades a couple of the major streets in Chiang Mai every Sunday afternoon and evening. It stretches on for blocks and blocks and goes off on most side streets as well. They have crafts, jewelry, clothing, and every kind of food imaginable. There are small concerts and big dance shows. I think it would be possible to come every Sunday for a year and still not see everything there is to see.

One of the best surprises of the night was finding this French bread stand. The lady who bakes the bread lived in Paris for a while, and we were able to speak French with her! Who would have thought?!! We had to buy a small loaf of bread to eat for breakfast today, and it was wonderful! You don't realize how much bread we eat at home until you go somewhere you can't get it.

Another fun thing was this potato on a stick. It don't know where they found the potato, because those don't exist here either, but it satisfied another craving. They somehow unraveled the potato so it was one long curlicue, and covered in paprika and (of course) lots of sugar. Have I mentioned that they are addicted to sugar here? Seriously addicted? Those that know us know that we have sweet teeth (??), but some of the stuff here, we can't even swallow.

One of our favorite things about the markets here is the selection of hilarious T-Shirts. They take any English word they can think of, put it on a shirt, and people love it. We could make a fortune if we opened up a T-Shirt shop! One of the first shirts we saw when we landed simple said "Dentistry." Another thing they love is matching his and her t-shirts. One set said "I am Tarzan" and "Jane am I." Here are a few more we liked.

And finally, as we were walking along at the end of the evening, it started to pour, monsoon-style. We ran into the first cafe/restaurant we could find, just to escape the rain. As it turns out, we had found a chocolate cafe, completely by chance. Everything on the menu was chocolate, chocolate drinks, chocolate cakes, a chocolate lover's dream. We looked over at the family next to us: they were having chocolate fondue!!! We pointed to them and told the waitress, "We'll have one of those!" It was amazing!! Mom, we've got to add mango to our list of fruit for this Christmas' fondue. It was so good.

And you'll all be happy to know that John is feeling much better. Thanks for the prayers.

Teaching Practice

For the past three days, our group has been traveling about an hour outside of Chiang Mai to a monk's school for our teaching practice. They are obviously all boys, from ages 10 to 18, that board at this school and study 5 days a week. Although they are better behaved than a lot of public school students, they are still teenage boys, and the setting presented some unique challenges.

For one thing, there are a lot of cultural differences to keep in mind. We teach barefoot, as in a lot of Asia. The foot is considered unclean in Thailand, so we have to be careful not to move anything with our feet, touch anything with our feet, or rest our feet on anything. Also, we can't touch any of the monks' heads, or even pass papers to another student over someone's head. A really hard thing to remember is that in order to call someone up to the front, we have to wave at them with our palm down. The typical "come over here" motion that we use in the Western world is the way they call dogs. We both keep messing up on that one... But the hardest thing is that monks are not allowed to touch women, so the women teachers have to be super careful, especially in small classrooms. We have to drop the chalk into their hands instead of handing it to them, and use very clear instructions. But it has been a really fun experience.

We've both been able to teach three lessons. The first was a young learner's lesson to 13 yr old boys with a pretty low level of English. The next day, we were supposed to have older, more advanced students, but they all decided they didn't want to come to school that day, so we ended up teaching the exact same students a much more difficult lesson. However, I guess that word got around to the older ones that class was fun, because when we showed up on Saturday, all the older kids were in class, so that lesson was much smoother. We have two more lessons next week before our course ends.

John has been feeling sick for the last couple days, so please pray that he will get better soon and that I won't catch what he has.

Adventures in Chiang Mai

We had a very wonderful first weekend in Chiang Mai. On Friday night, we were able to get together with a friend of the family, LeaAnn Hoppe. She and her husband have been missionaries in Chiang Mai for seven years now. Although we'd never met her before, I was wonderful to meet another Christian, and we had a great time. She took us to Carrefour, yes, to my astounded French friends, a Carrefour in Thailand, except that they pronounce it Ka-Foo. For those of you who have never heard of Carrefour, it's actually a large French supermarket chain, and apparently it's made it all the way to Asia. She treated us to some good, familiar food: Pizza Hut and Dairy Queen, and helped us maneuver through the sea of people to get some school supplies and shaving cream (a very difficult thing to find here, and only in men's scents. I guess I (Dana) will get to smell like a man for the next 5 months.)

On Saturday, we got in another song thaew with our British friends and set out to explore downtown Chiang Mai. I had a very cultural experience in the Warorot Market.

I was trying to find a Thai skirt that would fit me, but the longest one available was still three awkward inches above my ankle. So, somehow, with a combination of my broken Thai and the salespersons few words of English, I was able to buy material and have a tailor sew it for me. In 45 minutes, I had a beautiful, custom-made skirt, that even fit my Western hips! It was amazing! Here's a picture, please forgive the clashing shirt.

Sunday morning, we went up the mountain on the edge of town to visit Doi Suthep, one of the most famous temples in Northern Thailand.

The architecture was so intricate, and the view was beautiful!! Oh, and did I mention, there were a lot of steps!

That afternoon, John and I found our way to the International Church, where we worshiped with people from almost all the continents. We met some people from world venture who had been in Chiang Mai for a long time, as well as people visiting the church for the first time. It was amazing to realize that no matter how far we go, we will be able to find other believers if we look hard enough.

However, the adventure was really on the way home from church. We jumped in another song thaew, but it must have been this driver's first day on the job, because he had no idea where our hotel was... or our street... or the bigger street near our street... or any of the landmarks we were familiar with!! In fact, even when we pointed out where we wanted to go on a map, he still had no idea how to get us there! But since this is a "saving-face" culture, he kept nodding and repeating what we said with a very confused look on his face. The result: we drove around for a very long time and saw many unfamiliar parts of the city. Fortunately for us and the poor driver, we finally hit a road that we recognized, had him drop us off, and walked from there! The moral of the story is: if the driver looks confused, wait for the next song thaew. Yikes!!