Settling into life in Thailand

A few weeks ago I was chatting with some friends at Khon Thao, the burger place foreign teachers frequent on Friday nights, when suddenly we were overrun by insects.  Arno, a tall South African explained to me that when these bugs come out of the ground, they mate so ferociously that their wings fall off.  Subjected once more to terrestrial life, they crawl into the ground, lay their eggs, and die.  The next generation will repeat this hour-long charade a few months later. 

Sure enough, just as quickly as the bugs came to swarm around us, they disappeared into the earth, leaving nothing but windless wings lying on my plate. 

I came to realize soon after this event that I had witnessed the previous generation of this swarm a few months prior.  I was in my apartment in the early evening and had gone to the bathroom for no more than five minutes.  When I came back, there must have been a hundred of the buggars dancing around my overhead light. 

Only after remembering this event, paired with the newfound knowledge of the cyclical nature of these insects, was I able to grasp the amount of time I’ve been living here in Thailand. Four months and counting.  Already, half of my scheduled time in Thailand is gone and I feel as if my wings too are about to come off and send me down into the wretched grasp of reality and responsibility.   

I am doing what I can to continue flying high with wings attached.  Now, I am considering extending my contract with my school and staying until the end of March 2023.  It seems I ended up in Thailand because I long ago caught the travel bug.  Now, I am fully infected by the bug as I have gained confidence in my ability to get by on the road and in radically new environments.  Many future travels and adventures are on my mind such as traveling through Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, farming and trekking in Nepal, biking around India, a year teaching in South Korea, and a lengthy backpacking stint in South America.  I realize that it is unhealthy to anticipate so far in the future because it takes me away from enjoying the present.  Nevertheless, whether I stay or leave when I am scheduled to is top of mind for me right now, and I am trying my best to allow the experience to wash over me and not force anything one way or the other.

I do love it in my small corner of Lamphun and I grow to love it more every day.  Lamphun is a sleepy city, and there isn’t much to do here besides going to the Friday market.  They close down the main drag parallel to the river and in front of the Temple, and vendors set up stalls for at least a full kilometer.  On one side there is food, and on the other clothing, nick-nacks, plants, electronics, and the like with some live music dispersed intermittently.  I quite enjoy going, and look forward to it every week.  

Perhaps it is unfair though to say that this is the only thing to do in Lamphun.  The reason why I am falling for this ancient city is because I always seem to be stumbling into something new and interesting here, like a religious ceremony attracting thousands of people at the main temple, pickup basketball games, ancient ruins, or quaint little cafes. 

This July, the football season will begin. Supposedly, the Lamphun club has an endless budget, and has been able to purchase phenomenal players.  This has allowed them to win the T3 division, move up to the T2 division, win the T2 division, and now this year they will be competing in the “Premiere League” of Thailand.  

I learned that the team is owned by a very famous Thai drug dealer who used to drive a gold Lamborgini around the city.  Last year, one of his houses was raided, and the police confiscated 120 million Bhat, hundreds of kilos of drugs, and his beloved golden Lamborgini. Fortunately for the future of football in Lamphun, all charges against the owner were “mysteriously” dropped, and now it is expected that the team will be replaced with even better players for the coming season.  Needless to say, I am quite looking forward to going to the games. 

Besides being a burgeoning football town, it seems many people here are factory workers.  There is a bustling local economy and in general there’s alot more money here than I initially expected.  The vibe of the city is very authentically Thai.  Many speak poor English, as their businesses are not accustomed to servicing tourists.  I quite like this though, as the taste of the food is tailored to Thai palettes and the price reflects the average Thai salary.   

As often as I can, I get Pad See Ew from a vendor at the local night market.  It’s so delicious, that it is almost painful watching it quickly disappear from the bowl in front of me, as I will have to wait until next time to experience the ecstasy that comes with it.  What really tears me up inside is that when I inevitably come back to America, I will pay close to $15 for Pad See Ew that doesn’t even come close to the $1 version I eat here. 

I must be one of 20 “farangs” (the Thai word for foreigner) here in Lamphun City and only one of 6 around my age.  We have a small but intimate foreign teacher community here, and we do things like board game nights, weekly burgers at Khon Thao, and celebrations for birthdays.  In particular, I have grown quite close to Erica as we are the closest in age and proximity (one month younger, and 6 doors down in our apartment building).  Shortly after meeting each other, we agreed to travel together for nearly a month on an island-hopping tour…more on that later. 

At school, my best friend is Jessie, a Philipino teacher who has been in Thailand for about 4 years now.  However, all my Thai colleagues are extremely kind and often invite me to eat with them.  This has created a trend of me having two lunches, one with Jessie and one with the rest of the Thai teachers.  Outside of school, I spend much of my time alone, although I sometimes get dinner at the night market with Erica and/or Blake, both of whom teach at the other public high school in Lamphun. 

One thing I like about my life here is how structured it can be, if I want it it be of course.  For me, a perfectly structured work day is getting up at 6:50, writing 3 pages of stream of consciousness journaling, going to school, teaching 2 to 5 classes a day while lesson planning and reading recreationally in between, coming home, working out, making this Ginger Mushroom tea with Gingko and sitting out my balcony sipping and reading, going to the night market for food, and then either continue reading or watching a TV show or movie.  I try to go to bed between 10 and 11, I listen to War and Peace by Tolstoy on a 15-minute timer to help me fall asleep…at the time of writing, I only have 2 hours remaining (it’s a 60-hour-long audiobook lol). 

All in all, I enjoy this routine and I think that it’s been good for me.  If I stick to it, I should leave Thailand a better writer and teacher, more physically fit, and well-read…seems like a good deal to me!

The mere idea of writing about my month of island hopping in the South gives me anxiety because I did so much, and met so many cool people that I could probably write a short novel about the experience.  The SparkNotes version of the month is that Erica and I started off at Railay Beach (one of my favorite spots in Thailand), went rock climbing, and met lots of Brits who were sure to let me know of my striking resemblance to Manchester United Captain Harry Maguire, visited Khao Sok National Park, met up with friends from Xplore Asia at a villa in Phuket, traveled to Koh Phi Phi where I busted my foot in a Muay Thai fight with my friend Tim where the prize was a bucket of alcohol and completely obliterated my face whilst diving into coral (on my birthday), attended the full moon party on Koh Pangang (sober, because I was on antibiotics), traveled to Koh Samui, had my friend Georges and my cousin Vanessa travel from America and meet me in Koh Tao where we had lots of fun and got scuba certified, traveled back to Railay beach and then finally back to Chiang Mai nearly 4 weeks later.  

Throughout this experience, I wore one pair of shoes (my trusty Tevas), had a very saucy love affair, and drank and smoked more than I probably should have.  All in all, I couldn’t have asked for a better month, and I would do it all again in a heartbeat…except maybe I would check the depth of the water before diving in!! 

Since getting back from my long vacation, I’ve been taking it much slower.  I’m not spending the weekends partying in Chiang Mai (a huge city 30 minutes north of me) as I would often do before vacation.  Instead, I opt for weekends at home relaxing, or fun day trips to nature areas and points of interest around me.

As for my experience working as a teacher, I must say that I am quite pleased with the experience.  I teach about 18 hours each week, and between 2 and 5 hours every day.  The kids are so sweet.  I walk around the school campus and my throat gets dry from saying “good afternoon”, “hello”, or from the numerous short interactions with a myriad of students who are eager to engage with me.

If you ever need a huge ego boost, teaching in Thailand is the place to be.  Its happened once before where I said hi to a group of girls and one of them screamed as if Harry Styles had just acknowledged her presence.  Much more common are giggles, and the occasional “Teacher you’re so cute!!”  Needless to say, I feel like my presence at the school is something that is highly valued, and I am really glad that is the case.  

In classes, I usually command respect just from my presence.  Kids do get chatty, sleep in class, and play games on their phones, but I don’t need to focus too much on classroom management.  I do clapping call and response to get their attention, and when only some of the class is chatty, I stand at the front of the class silent as can be and stare at the talkers with an expression of total exhaustion and disappointment…this usually shuts them up.

In terms of classes, I teach conversational English to four different classes of 7th graders (M1), English for News and English for Literature for 8th grade (M2), and health and PE for 7th, 8th and 9th grade (M1, M2, M3).  Recently, I’ve started making an effort to memorize all my student’s names which is certainly challenging, but this simple effort has changed my perspective on teaching so much as now I am building relationships with my students and am concerned with their individual progress as opposed to the progress of the class as whole.  The kids take on English nicknames which can sometimes be quite funny,  There are names like Boss, Idea, Master, Pee Pee, Poo, and Poon which I have a little internal chuckle with every time I read their names for attendance.  

At the end of classes, my students all stand up, put their hands together like they are going to pray (in Thailand this is called the Wai), and they say in unison “Thannnkkkk youuuu Teaacchhhher Steeevvveeeeennnnnnnnn” to which I reply, “yeah yeah, my pleasure…have a good day everyone!”