When I first imagined coming to Thailand to tell you the truth I thought I was going to be placed at a school out in the middle of nowhere with minimal contact with friends and family for weeks at a time. As it turns out I was wrong. I was ultimately placed in a nice school in the rural community of Yangchumnoi which is in the equally pleasant province of Sisaket . My arrival at the school was met with a mixture of enthusiasm and nervousness as many of the students have never seen a foreigner, besides what they've seen in most of Hollywood's inaccurate depictions of how a foreigner talks and acts. For many of them this was also their first time ever getting the chance to talk to one. Some students were even frightened of me for a little while. But their fear quickly turned into laughter with a few phony high-fives and a bit of classroom humor. Now I'm not going to lie to you; the first few weeks were really difficult (for me at least) with the whole language barrier. This of course was to be expected. I would recommend anyone who is thinking about coming over here to do some research on the language especially. Not that it is a hard language to learn, it's just better if you have a jump-start on things. This barrier was overcome by some useful vocabulary which the teachers at the school provided me with. You will find that almost all Thai people are very willing and eager to help you learn to speak better Thai. Even at some of the most inopportune moments I might add. My duties at the school include teaching every class over the span of one month, and assisting in helping organize extra curriculum activates for the students. After about a week and a half into it I found that things were running a whole lot smoother in the classroom.
Living with a Thai family has also helped improve my Thai; along with the benefit of getting a personal in-depth look at Thai culture and tradition. With the Thai family I am staying with, both the mother and the father both work in higher educational government positions throughout Sisaket. They have one son who attends school in Sisaket and a daughter who is currently studying to be a nurse at a Thai university. The family is very nice and very traditional, and insists that I take a bath whenever I go outside and come back in. This of course I find a little strange as I am only accustomed to taking at most two showers a day back home whereas here I will take anywhere up to five baths a day, talk about Zest Fully Clean.
Over the months, I have come to love Thailand, and its people, land, customs and traditions. But now, with that said, there is still one thing I just don't get about Thailand . Its bathroom! Rudimentary rooms much like that of what we have in the states. The first time I walked into one I thought I walked into the wrong room, looking around all I saw was a sink on the wall a barrel filled with water and a bowl and a weird granite rock thing protruding from the ground with what I can only describe as a dish washing spry hose attached to it.
A friend once told me to go big or go home, and seeing that I still have quite a few months left here in Thailand I guess going big is my only option.
Joshua
