Scatterbrains!

SO MANY RANDOM THINGS. This is going to be really choppy.

Two weekends ago was Drew’s birthday and we did a loooot of things. First of all, we made a taco night happen. As normal as that sounds, here in Thailand it’s not. Cheese was difficult to obtain, tortillas and salsa were nearly impossible, and there were no avocados. Despite all these obstacles, it was actually really delicious and Mexican tasting. Drew loves basketball so after dinner we all went to our rooms, put on jerseys, and came running out of our rooms doing an athletic talent (I hoolah-hooped, Haas used a fly swatter as a fake tennis racket… “athletic”) as Ryan announced us… it was like a comical opening scene of a basketball game. Then we played drinking games in our jerseys and it felt like college. We planned to go out to a club-like venue in our athletic get-ups, but Drew’s Thai friends warned us they might not let us in so we settled for normal clothes and running shoes.

Absurd.

We went to a home stay in the mountains and had an extremely Thai experience that weekend, staying with a Thai family whose mountain village population is 100 people. We ate algae and giant red ants and ant eggs. A 9-year-old little boy lead us on a hike up a mountain where we found a monk who lived in a cave with golden retriever puppies (MORE?! Where do they keep coming from?), and he made us cups of coffee—literally made the cups from a bamboo stalk he’d just cut down. Unreal.

Wednesday we had school off for the Buddhist holiday Makha Bucha. We went to a temple at 8am to help with the final touches on the building, and then the HMIC (head monk in charge) taught us about meditation. Emily’s friends were visiting from home so we also took them to two other temples that day.

We went to the Wiang Kosai national park about an hour out of the city in the back of a pickup, where we picnicked and hiked up a 7-level waterfall.
(Of course I jumped, sorry Mom)

Ta (fried rice lady) has become our really good friend (in the crazy old lady kind of way) since we eat there at least 3 times a week, and she introduced us to my favorite Thai dish by far. It’s this simple yellow curry with chicken, scrambled eggs, and veggies over rice, and it’s SO GOOD. It’s also called “pad prongali,” which translates to “fried prostitute” in English so it’s always an odd thing to order for lunch.

Speaking of food, there’s this house on the walk home from school that always smells like an Italian restaurant. ITALIAN. I’m talking Italian basil, marinara, and fresh mozzarella. My mouth waters every time I walk by, and it’s inevitable that one day I’ll lose self control and demand to speak to the Italian mafia leader that must live there in witness protection (because that’s the only explanation). I’ll force him to make me Italian food in exchange for keeping his whereabouts secret.

Also the other day I had my hand on the classroom door handle, about to walk in, and I looked down the hallway and 3 other foreign teachers were doing the same. We looked like a line-up of scarers from Monsters, Inc. about to heroically walk through doors that had dangerous children behind them (accurate).

A girl who taught here last semester came to visit with her parents, and they (very kindly) took us all out to dinner, and I was surprised to be hit with the realization that I really miss parents… which sounds weird, but just parents in general. Obviously I miss my parents. So much. But that was a given. Hanging out with Molly and her mom and dad made me realize how much I also miss all my friends’ parents. They fill such a unique and interesting role in our lives; it’s kind of funny to think about. (And also all Thai parents are somehow really young or really, really old, so it’s a different kind of interaction). SO GIVE ALL YOUR MOMS AND DADS A HUG FOR ME.

I’ve adapted to Thailand in every way I can, but these 2 things are out of my control and it’s the worst: the heat and the mosquitoes…
“Winter” (lows in the 60s and highs in the 80s) lasted about a month and it is definitely over. I haven’t stopped sweating in the past 48 hours (except for when I am in a cold shower, and even then once I get out, I’m immediately sweaty again), and I know what it’s like to have my eyelids sweat (WHAT?! Are there even sweat glands there?).
Mosquitoes. Why haven’t these awful creatures gone extinct yet. In true blog fashion, here’s a list of the 5 worst places to get a mosquito bite (because I’m an actual expert on them now):
5. Forehead: not too bad itch-wise, but aesthetically pretty displeasing
4. Elbow: always getting accidentally itched and irritated whenever you rest your elbow on something (so always)
3. Upper inner thigh: in addition to feeling like you’ve kind of been violated by a mosquito, that area is tender and those bites get SO. UNBEARABLY. ITCHY.
2. Knuckles: similarly as annoying as getting a paper cut on your knuckle… but 10x itchier and worse
1. Feet: I don’t know what it is about the feet, but these are by far the worst. Anywhere on the foot is awful—top of the foot, bottom of the foot, arch, heel, side of the ball where all shoes rub, between toes, ANKLES, bonus points for knuckles on your feet (double whammy)

^That sounds whiny. It’s not. Every rose has its thorns; every paradise has its mosquitoes. It’s still paradise.

Speaking of paradise, this is a jackfruit. It tastes like juicy fruit gum or some kind of fruity candy. And it’s a fruit! It’s a healthy candy—MY DREAM. But also in order to get the actual fruit out, you have to hack away at this giant thing and it looked like a fruit C-section was happening at the night market

We’re wrapping up the school year and it’s been pretty hectic, but here are a few fun photos from the madness:

Mork…Grading finals: “Thwee” (also, note his name is Beer) and “He in love the cake”… they obviously both got the points

One of my favorite things about teaching 4^th grade is that it’s the peak of the awkward hitting-puberty gap that happens between boys and girls. For example, this is Idea and Iccq (yeah try pronouncing that name):They are the same age.

A few weeks after I got here I was given a Thai name by some of the Thai math teachers: “dok rak,” which is the Thai flower of love. Cute, right? Well, last weekend in the mountains our home stay dad pointed out the actual plant to me, and it looks kind of alien-like…… But I’m kind of okay with it. Pretty fitting no?

AMANDA IS GETTING ON A PLANE TODAY AND SHE’LL BE IN MY SWEATY EMBRACE ON SUNDAY. I get on the first bus ride of the next two months of travel on Saturday night and I’ll probably be out of touch for a bit. If you want to know where in the world I am, check out my approximate schedule, stalk me on any other social media, or send me an iMessage.

For now I’ll leave you with a few of my favorite lines from a recent (very endearing) email I received from my dad in which he bulleted some tips for my trip:
– “Amanda – She is there for the first time and vulnerable to illness. Don’t take unnecessary risks with food or water with her. You’re her guardian, you know!” (Everyone take a moment to digest the idea that I am “Amanda’s guardian,” and start praying to whatever higher power you believe in… for the both of us)
– “Enjoy the food and sights but always keep an eye on what’s going on around you. If the same face keeps showing up as you walk around, maybe you are being followed.”

YIKES. So many concerning things. But as I embark on this crazy adventure, it’s nice to know that given this email my dad is probably highly capable of going Liam Neeson a la Taken if anything goes wrong.

OFF I GO!