Thailand teacher travels

Holidays, Thai style

nicholebaldino — Tue, 21 Jan 2014 18:45:00 GMT

Since we teach at a private school, we don't get too many days off. So, as a courtesy to the foreign teachers, the principle granted us off the 24th and 25th of December. So... for Christmas, Catie's mom warmly gave us a night at the Sheraton Resort, Pattaya. It was a great night in a little slice of paradise. Pattaya is generally not known as a beautiful place. It's laden with ladyboys and prostitutues, drunken old white men, and a lot of rundown bars. It also includes a beautiful beach, the largest beachfront mall in SE Asia, and some beautiful resorts and hotels. So, for one night we stayed in this beautiful hotel with three pools and a private beach, had drinks at a rooftop bar, ate some street food and had beers in a robe and slippers on our balcony. I woke up on Christmas morning, had a breakfast of poached eggs and toast, and an afternoon of pampering: a massage and body wrap courtesy of Alex. It was bliss.

Although I much prefer Christmas Eve with my family, gorging on seafood, watching It's a Wonderful Life, waiting for Santa to come by on the firetruck, and Christmas Day with lasagna and presents, this Christmas made a close second. Not having any snow on the ground, surrounded by Thai children who love red and green and Christmas music but have no idea why, and living my life 12 hours ahead of my family made the separation a lot easier. It didn't FEEL like the holidays, and so I wasn't entirely spirited, but I think that also made it easier. I enjoyed my Thai Christmas... but I missed my Baldino Christmas and already can’t wait for next year.

New Years was also a holiday to remember. Immediately following our international day celebration at school, where I dressed up as a French man, we ran home to change and pick up our bags, and were out the door! We were headed to Krabi, a southern province with beautiful beaches. After a one hour to Bangkok via minibus, a 40 minute skytrain ride, a 15 minute motorbike chase, and a 12 hour overnight bus, we had finally arrived. We made our way to the hostel, quickly changed and made our way to the beach! After about 5 hours of sleep, and it only being 9 am, I couldn’t concentrate on anything but a cup of coffee and a nap on the sand.

Overnight busses are definitely the way to save. However, be forewarned that they are not the easiest or most comfortable. I heard so many bad reviews about bus companies rummaging through your stored luggage throughout the trip, so I kept my backpack with me. I had little leg room, but wasn’t worried about my belongings. However, my friend did store her backpack and everything was fine. You are assigned seats and given a blanket, as well as a small box with water and a pastry. I immediately wished I had more snacks with me. The ride began with a safety video, where I think they explained how they breathalyze the drivers, and then the Thai language television shows continued all night. A little after midnight, we were shuffled off the bus to walk around and get dinner at a rest stop, and we didn’t stop again until we arrived.

Krabi was immediately beautiful, and we were eager to do everything the islands offered!

Filling my stomach: A Thai food review

nicholebaldino — Mon, 6 Jan 2014 19:28:00 GMT

If you know me at all, even just a little bit, you know I claim that about 60% of my reason for choosing to teach in Thailand was the food (slight exaggeration, but just slight). I love Thai food and was so excited to be surrounded by it, especially by the prospect of eating Pad Thai every day.

Yet, here I am to find that Pad Thai is street food, and therefore something I just won’t find in my hometown. On the streets of Bangkok it’s a delicacy, and in a restaurant it’s just not good. I learned that the sauce for Pad Thai uses too many ingredients to be easily made anywhere, so it’s not so easy to find. Anytime we leave Amata, I jump at ordering the dish when it’s on the menu, only to become disappointed. In the touristy places, it’s often too sweet and the flavor balance is off! I want a little kick to my Pad Thai, and was more impressed by my local Thai joint in Philly than any restaurant in Thailand. That was until my 30 Baht Pad Thai cooked in a hot pot on the ground on the street in less than 5 minutes. The flavors and textures were perfect, and I never looked back. I solemnly swear to never order Pad Thai in a restaurant with 4 walls ever again.

Side note: Is it still called Thai food if it’s made in Thailand, or is it just food?

One of my favorite dishes to order is suki (soo-key) hang gai. It’s a clear mungbean noodle stir fry, mixed with vegetables (usually cabbage, kale and morning glory), egg, and chicken. A sweet chili sauce comes on the side. You can also order this dish suki nam, and it will come as a soup. Gai is the protein (chicken), but you can order it with just veggies (pak), moo (pork) or goon (prawn). When I order goon, it’s more expensive and I usually get only 4 pieces of prawn, so I usually stick to Gai. At our local joint, this dish is about 35 BAHT (or $1.06).

Next up is Pad See Ew Gai: thick, wide egg noodles with the same mix of veggies, chicken, and oyster sauce. Delicious, but the noodles are very filling and almost pastey. I feel rather gluttonous as I slurp up my noodles at dinnertime. Again, 35 BAHT.

No matter how sick I am of rice, I always find myself craving Khao Pat Gai, chicken fried rice. It’s a light dish, made with cabbage, morning glory, some Chinese broccoli (so much better than real broccoli), fresh tomatoes, egg, and whatever else they decide to throw in with the chicken. A lime squeeze makes it pop, and some chilies pickled in vinegar give it a kick. Tastes worlds better than any fried rice I’ve ever had in the states, and for a buck (30 BAHT), it tastes even better.

Some other dishes I’ve come to know and love…

Kratium Prik Thai Gai, or garlic pepper chicken.

Pad Kapow Gai, or chili basil chicken.

Kanaa Moo Grob, or crispy pork with Chinese broccoli and oyster sauce. AMAZING.

Green curry is always great, although I only order it in places where I can point to the picture or it’s translated. Massaman is also delicious, and is a southern curry.

Coconut milk soup, similar to green curry. Same story!

Chicken with cashew nuts, delicious but don’t know how to say it in Thai!

While here, I’ve also learned that the regions of Thailand have different cuisines. Most of the food I’m eating is Central or Southern Thailand cuisine, but I have to say that Isaan (Northeast) has become my absolute favorite. We discovered the Isaan restaurant in our town our first week here when eating dinner with our new co-workers. The food was so unfamiliar, and I wasn’t crazy about it, nor did I get the hype. After going back a few times, it began to grow on me. Let’s just say that after being here for three months, I crave it every single day. We go to our Isaan joint so often, and order the same exact things in our broken Thai every time, that they have started just bringing us our usual order, and not even asking what we want. Here’s what’s on OUR menu at Isaan.

Khao Neow – sticky rice. So much better than steamed rice.

Som Tam Thai – green papaya salad. Made with strips of green papaya, carrots, cucumbers, string beans, cabbage, tomatoes, dried shrimps, roasted peanuts, and chilies. Mixed with a sweet and sour salty dressing.

Moo yang – barbequed pork strips with a chili sauce.

Gai yang – barbequed chicken, which they're often sold out of.

Moo dai Dio - Literally traslates into "One Sun Pork"; sundried strips of pork, served with flash fried sweet basil. Mouth. Watering.

Larb moo – Minced pork with onion and chilies.

For the three of us, we usually order one of everything, except two Som Tams, and two Moo dai Dio… small portions, I swear! Usually, our meal costs us about 80 – 90 BAHT each (that’s about $3, folks).

OH.. don’t forget to order MAI PET (little spice) or the food with be laced with chilies and your mouth will be on fire. And if you’re Alex, you’ll get a mad real sweat stash.

I’m determined to take an Isaan specific cooking class, as well as a regular Thai class, so I can make myself all the Som Tam Thai I want when I return to the states.

As far as desserts go, I’m not a huge fan of Thai sweets. They are SWEET and everything is topped with condensed milk and more sugar. However, I do love fresh mango with sticky rice, and I love this dessert we get at school with these baby bananas in coconut milk. Fresh coconut ice cream is delicious topped with peanuts, and you can get a bag of fresh fruit anywhere on the street.

Speaking of school lunch, let me just say that it may be free but it’s absolutely HORRIFIC 75% of the time. We have a few solid dishes, but other than that it’s total hit or miss and I often find myself eating way too much white rice with chilies and fish sauce. Mai pen rai!

My Perfect World

nicholebaldino — Mon, 6 Jan 2014 15:19:00 GMT

I love my job. I can say that with a straight face and a smile and truly mean it. I am enjoying every minute of it… even the most awful minutes. Sure, my most awful day in Thailand was nowhere close to a good day in the states, but it sure as hell beats my worst days back home. All I have to do is pinch myself and focus on where I am, and it doesn’t seem so bad. I’m lucky to be having any day, good or bad, in this beautiful, backwards country.

I’ll admit that teaching is a lot harder than I imagined it would be. Laugh and call me naïve, but before I arrived I pictured a perfect world where my classes would sit attentively, take notes, and hang every word I say, because isn’t educated so widely respected in this country? I imagined that my days would end early and I’d have the rest of the day to explore my town, shop, hang out in coffee shops, and practice my Thai, because I thought I’d be in the center of a city. I imagined a class with no exams, projects or formal grading – just playing games and having conversations, because English is supposed to be fun! I imagined that my classes would love to speak English and talk to me every chance they had.

However, in my current world, most of my students chat throughout class, don’t bring a pen with them, let alone a notebook, and literally don’t understand a word I say. I’ve spent entire classes yelling at my 10^th graders to “shut up and listen”, walked out of class 10 minutes early, made my 7^th graders sit in silence (which lasted for about 30 seconds), and threatened all of my students with failing grades and no re-testing. I’ve given speaking tests where the students don’t even understand the question I’m asking, and I’ve had students struggle to tell me their name. I’ve given two tests and two projects, and graded my students on characteristics such as patriotism, endurance, morality, and intelligence. Oh, and I’m at school until 5pm, and spend my evenings at the gym, tutoring, and hanging out on the one road we have in town or at Tesco Lotus, because I live on an industrial estate.

BUT I watched my 10^th grade Humanities class attempt to rap Eminem when I played them Lose Yourself as a listening exercise, I’ve played games with my eighth graders where everyone willingly participated, rewarded students with candy after their midterms and received the most sincere thanks, and had long, intelligent conversations with my best students. I’ve seen my students eyes light up when something finally “clicks”, I’ve seen smiles when they get an answer right, and I’ve seen my students literally jump into the air when I tell them their test grades. I’ve shared inside jokes with my students, I’ve had conversations that required no speaking, I’ve been greeted in the morning by 3^rd graders yelling “Good Morning Teacha Nichole!!!!!”, and I have students who willingly raise their hands to ask and answer questions. These moments are why I love my job.

I’m at the halfway point of my semester, though, and I think I’m done teaching to the test.

I want to make connections with all of my students. I want to see all of them smile, and laugh, and participate. I want them to enjoy English! Sure, I have vocabulary and concepts I have to cover, but I’ve begun brainstorming ways to do that including games and activities and American culture. We’re going to have fun.

As far as living in Amata Nakorn… well, the situation is inevitable but I’ve learned to just live with my down time and try to fill it with productive and proactive activities. I’ve begun a 20 minute yoga un-wind session in the evenings. I’ve made a fool of myself singing at the local bar, practice my Thai by ordering coffee in a bag, and secretly love that our Isaan place knows exactly what we’ll order every time, and I secretly love the karaoke parties that occur outside of my apartment almost every night. I love my tutoring class and have learned so much from them. I’ve taken invitations to hang out with them so they can practice English while I learn some Thai, and I’ve come to appreciate my travels and time away from Amata so much more! I am working on not taking one minute for granted while I am in this place, because in just 10 short months it will be gone.