Caught Some Where Between Alive and Living the Dream

I just realized that five months is over in less than a week. It feels like so long ago that I was here but at the time has seemed to fly by way to fast! I’ve grown incredibly close to so many people here. Have you ever had that bipolar feeling of being intensely sad but then the next moment being completely happy!? At one moment I’m sad I have to leave every thing. But then another moment I’m so happy I got to even be here and have one of the greatest experiences! Here have been some random events during my time living in Sattahip on the Royal Thai Marine Corp. base. I helped a girl out with her English homework one night and ever since, the family has been incredibly generous and invited me over to their house to eat amazing home cooked Thai dinners. They took my roommate and me to the local fair with the whole family and some friends. One of them won me two cute stuffed animals. Later that week he was moving to a new base so he invited me out to the beach with him and his friends for a going away party. Another great friend takes me out to dinner, to use the Internet at his office, and brings us food whenever he thinks about it. Once he took me to a party after sports week and I was of course the only girl there, seeing that this place is all men. Their faces were priceless when I walked in with him. All stunned to see the farang there. Then I got to sit at the officer’s table, which is a huge deal here! His friend last week took us to karaoke and even once to his base to have a bb gunfight on a real playing field for the Marines. We got all dressed up in their camo uniforms and everything! Imagine paint ball fight except this was in the dark with little tiny pellets. Then they took us to dinner and dessert to celebrate being promoted to a very high-ranking officer.

With just those people, my stay here would have been more than warm and welcome. But the list continues! If Julia and I are ever walking somewhere on base a soldier will pull over and pick us up whether he speaks English or not. Yet they always seem to know where we live. Some how that strikes me as very interesting and creep at the same time. My favorite is when I’m sitting on the beach on the weekends. I’ll have my headphones on, reading a book and just enjoying the beautiful weather when out of no where I can hear a faint voice beside me. I always have a random person come up and start talking, asking me questions. They are so sweet and just want to speak English or meet the foreigner that they get up the courage to come talk. The Thai people are just so intrigued by foreigners. Oh and yesterday I went the massage place that Julia and I have been a frequent customer at. Julia went in and I decided to wait for her and not get anything done. For the hour I was out in the front, I sat in the best massage chair I’ve ever sat in. Then they made me an iced espresso outside at their drink stand. When I asked how much, she just smile and said, “For you free.” Then she came back with a little bag with an amazing bracelet of beads from Brazil. She apparently also makes jewelry and gave me one of her pieces. Also in the bag were Buddha “coins” that everyone wears. She noticed I had nothing to put it on so in 2 minutes she made me an adjustable string necklace. She told me it was for her friend; me. We exchanged email addresses and chatted the rest of the time through an English-Thai computer dictionary. I have a feeling they don’t do all this for their normal customers but that’s just how nice they are to foreigners, they always want to make sure we are happy! It’s been absolutely amazing here. And that’s just my life outside of school. Which is only half of my life in Sattahip.

The people at school that I teach with are some of the nicest I’ve met. We always sit around and chat about life, school, Thailand, travels, the children and so much more. This is all by the way in very, very little English. I teach kindergarten which is in a different building so I’m always around the same teachers. If I have a mosquito bite, they will go get something to take away the itch. If I have a headache they’ll get me medicine and if I have a little time before class, they’ll make me try all types of foods and drinks and desserts. The other day one of the teachers invited me to her hometown with a couple of the other kindergarten teachers. Now for the reason I’m here. The kids of course!

Every day I walk up to the sliding gate and I’m welcomed by little shrieks from the students in their adorable uniforms. “TEACHERRRRRR!!! DENELLEEEEE. TEACHERRRRR!!!” It’s too adorable to ignore. They run up and want me to give them high fives or they’ll just attach themselves to me legs. In class they’ve gotten used to my teaching. They cheer when I do a game or teaching method they enjoy. The kids will sit and try and talk to me in Thai even though I still don’t speak much Thai. Although, after a while of hearing the teachers speak to them, I’ve caught on to some words so when a student comes and asks me a question and I here that word I can at least tell them yes or no to their question. But to try and help me out they will point and make gesture. The most adorable part is during nap time. They sleep on little pink blankets and are sprawled out in the most awkward positions. It’s so cute that sometimes I go over to the building just to hang out in the room. The other Thai teachers don’t understand or sometimes think it’s a little weird that kids that I know or even some I don’t will come up and hug me in the halls. It’s hilarious because they only come up to my legs.  I’m guessing they don’t get this kind of attention from anyone. Even when they say bye to their parents in the morning, they bow. So things like hugs, hand shakes and high fives are extremely exciting for them. I’m going to miss them so much!

This last week will be concluded with what else than parties! First the school was supposed to have a dinner for us on the last Friday with the teachers from school. But the soldiers at the Navy where we also teach some times wanted to have a bigger party so they called the school, had the dinner moved to lunch on Thursday and then planned to have their party for us on Friday at dinner on the beach! If you can believe this they even put this into their party budget. (Yes, the base has a party budget. haha)

We have been so lucky to be here. We are the first and only foreigner to live on the base, ever! So we get extra attention and care from everyone. Not just people at the school but also the soldiers that live on the base. It’s only been five months but I’ve grown so attached to everything in Sattahip that I’m genuinely sad to leave this extraordinary place, amazing people and even better friends. I hope that I don’t lose contact with them and that one-day I’ll be able to come back and visit. I will never forget my time here.

Sorry, no tips on this one, just my thanks and appreciation to everyone who has been so great and supportive of my blog. My time here has been so amazing that I have decided to stay for another term. But I will be moved to a new school in the Southern part of Thailand. Be sure to come back and look for more amazing times from here in South East Asia. I’m Denelle Plummer and this will be my last entry from Sattahip, Thailand. Good night and good luck. Peace!

New Life Beings, Again

Six months later and culture shock has finally set in. I’ve seen some pretty interesting things, met some interesting people and done some interesting things since I got here half a year ago. But as I make my way around my new home in the south of Thailand, Hat Yai, I realize I’m in a whole new world. Jessi, my old college friend and new roommate, and I got in two days ago. The first night I noticed a huge change from Sattahip, my old town. There is a good amount of expat’s here. A noticeable difference from living on a military base in a quite town where my old roommate and I were the only foreigners. Now, starting my new life in what people call “The Bangkok of the South”, I can tell I’m going to enjoy myself in a whole new way. There are real restaurants, bars and cafes I can spend my time. It's great. The huge difference here is that the town is made up of Chinese, Muslim’s and Thai’s. So I’m going to be getting a whole lot of culture here. Though, unlike Bangkok, there’s a whole lot less smell, smog and traffic.

Our second night in Hat Yai, Jessi and I went to the Chinese Vegetarian Festival. A lady we had met here told us there’s lots of great food and activities. We would probably even see people walking on coals. That sounded great. Our first new cultural experience. Did we see anyone walking on coals you ask? Oh no. But what we did see might leave me with nightmares for a while. The first crowd we came to were people in interesting garments literally looking like they were having seizures or even possessed. Painting on people’s foreheads and sticking their hands in boiling oil were just a few of the things we saw. The next crowd got even more intense. About four boys were covered in red. At first I thought it was the paint from before but then I saw what they were doing. One boy, bare-chested, walks back into the crowd then comes running out and slides head first into a huge pile of broken glass. I looked at all the boys and they were covered in blood. Through out this “show”, they would have the boys jumping off tables into the pit of glass. Some boys were tossing others up and down into the pile. One guy even sat in the dull, rusty, sparkles throwing glass on his face. After Jessi and I were taken out of our own trances, we turned and left the circle. We dared to look over at a new crowd. Bad idea. From where we were standing it looked like they were pulling out their teeth. Making quick jerking motions across their face. Until we looked closer from another angle. These boys, standing there shaking in the hypnotic way that many of these people seemed to be, had axes in their hands ripping it across their tongues. They were literally cutting their tongues. We didn’t stay more than 10 seconds knowing we would be haunted that night of nasty images of blood and heads spinning in circles. Straight out of a horror film.

Set in this funky mood we decided to go straight back to the hotel and watch a movie. It’s been interesting living in this hotel. Even the staff already knows us. But great news! We saw a house yesterday that our friend found us. Normally teachers don’t get a house since usually they aren’t staying for very long and the houses aren’t furnished. But some how we got connected to this awesome 3-bedroom house in a little neighborhood, fully furnished. Apparently the teachers living there are all moving out and leaving everything. It’s perfect. But we can’t move into the place until the 1^st of November. Which leaves us making a home for our selves in this hotel room for the next 2 weeks. And thus begins my life for the next 5 months.

PS-As I was on my way to the Internet café to post this, Jessi and I were stopped by a passing parade. It was that darn Chinese Festival again. We happened to be on the corner where the parade would stop and people would do their rituals. Not only did we get 6 people taking blades and cutting their tongues, boys who were covered in blood from the glass they threw them selves in, but we got to see a whole new crazy ritual. Mostly men and a few women were walking by with medal rods stuck through their cheeks. All the way through! Most had poles with signs hanging off them. Not just medal rods though. One guy had three samurai swords and another had a bike! Each one of these guys would have another person standing next to them squirting water on their mouths to wash off any blood. At least 50 people walked by before Jessi and I decided we had to leave before we got sick. Not to say anything against their culture but to watch little boys and men my age mutilate themselves for a cultural festival, well I just can’t see what’s right in that. That was an interesting welcome to this new town. We’ll see how it goes.