A few weekends ago we had the opportunity for our first small weekend vacation. We decided to head up north to Chiang Mai for a little weekend away.
Before we had left, I had text the doctor that I work for in Salt Lake City, to see if he would fill out a reference form for me for college. He replied with a yes and asked what I was doing that weekend in Thailand...
Background information about Dr. Rachot: Dr. Rachot is from Thailand, he was born and raised here with his family until he was 13, then moved to America to get started with life and go to school in Arkansas where he became a doctor. His family still lives in Thailand so he comes back here a lot with his wife and kids and is able to see his family in Chiang Mai. His family here owns a hotel and so he has the opportunity to come back here whenever he can.
Anyways...back to an awesome weekend..
Dr. Rachot asked what I was doing that weekend.. I told him that my girls and I were headed to Chiang Mai for the weekend. He text back and said that he was in Chiang Mai and wanted all of us to come stay at the hotel/guesthouse at no charge.
He put together 4 rooms for all 7 of us, and let us come relax at this awesome hotel. He is such a sweet man. On top of that, the hotel fed us all of our meals for free and Dr. Rachot took us all around Chiang Mai with his personal driver for the whole weekend.
He took us go to see the elephant show, feed them and have one on one contact with the elephants. He took us to see the tigers, to the orchid farm, the butterfly farm, to the jade factory, to a temple and 2 different night markets.
So he treated us above and beyond anything expected. I was so grateful to have had him there. The whole weekend was perfect. Everything lined up the way that it was suppose to for us to be there at the exact same time. The girls and I loved it.
Thank you to Dr. Rachot for the generosity he showed all of us and for the great weekend we will always remember.
Dr. Rachot and I
Thank you Dr. Rachot!
It was such a great and memorable weekend!
"The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams." -Oprah Winfrey
I had decided fast to come to Thailand. I am pretty sure it was the best decision I have made, yet. I am loving it here. China was fun. But I am loving Thailand wayy more. I can't tell you directly why I love it so much more. But I just do. I love how much work we are doing that keeps us busy as teachers, and I love being in charge, as a head teacher.
I am in Phichit Thailand, smack dab in the middle of Thailand. It is basically the half-way point between Bangkok and Chiang Mai. It is a small beautiful city. It is clean, the people here have the best hearts, everything is so green and there are blue skies almost every single day! Right now we are in the rainy season..but it will be over with by the end of October.
The school that I live and teach at, is immaculate. It is called Imperial Phichit Bilingual School. It was built 2 years ago. It kinda looks like it belongs at Hogwarts, from Harry Potter. It is beautiful. Tang, is our foreign coordinator, the owner of the school and the designer of it.
My room is gorgeous. I think I made the right decision to be the head teacher. I get my room, while the rest of the 6 girls get to share a dorm room with bunk beds and it is so hot that it isn't even comfortable. I have the best view on the second story, and best breeze of air during the day. We aren't allowed to turn our AC on until 7 at night. Then we turn it off at 7:30 in the morning. So we tend to have long days in the heat and humidity. It isn't nearly as humid as China which is totally bearable, but some days can be better than others.
Imperial School
Previous ILP Group, and ours with Tang and Ton
When Tang was 9, her parents sent her and her brother, Ton to England. They were sent to a boarding school which required them to pick up English to communicate with others. They both continued their education in England and she graduated from Imperial College-London with her Engineering Degree. She moved back to Thailand and started working for the gasoline company, Shell. Where she met her husband, Ake. Tang soon realized that she needed to have kids learn English to better their future. So Tang built the school and decided that she wanted to make other kid's lives better with English. She found out about ILP through Ake. Ake was going to school at BYU and he was previously living with a family in the mid-west. The family that he lived with had told him about ILP and the great things that it does to help other kids for the future. Ake told Tang about it, Tang fell in love with the program and how it works for kids..long story short...now we are here.
Within our first few days here, we were being trained from the previous group. I was getting as much information as I could from the previous head teacher. Then our teaching started the following Monday. I was nervous for my girls as new teachers. They didn't know what they were doing, just as I was, when I was teaching in China. But we made it through the first day alive. Everything went well..well except for one of my teacher's... Poor Paige got puke on 3 times that day from different students. I just heard her yelling my name as I was frantically going from classroom to classroom seeing how all of my new teachers were doing. I run over to help Paige and she has a poor child leaning over, with puke in front of him, then another child with projectile vomit exploding at the same time. I felt so bad for her. But other than that, we all made it through the first day alive.
We loved exploring our small city that we have. It is about a 20 minute bike ride away from the school. Tang and Ake took us around in the back of the truck the first few days to see the town and take us out for lunch. The girls loved sitting in the back of the truck with the wind blowing in their hair. They thought it was the coolest thing. One of the first stops we made was for lunch, we ate some true authentic Pad Thai. Pad Thai is a Thai dish that has stir fried noodle dish (just like anything else here in Asia..for the most part) with many spices and fried egg. It was wonderful.
She then took us to the best drink stand ever.. It is basically the Starbucks of Phichit. We tried many different drinks, but we all decided that the ovaltine was the best. It is an ovaltine based drink with sweet and condensed milk, evaporated milk, sugar and water as it sits in a bag of ice with a straw. It is heaven.
So they give us ghetto helmets that don't stay on as we ride our bikes..
I promise I wasn't flipping off the camera..I was just trying to point to the helmet.
Kate and I.
Trying new Thai drinks.
Riding in the back of the truck
During one of our first weekends here. There was a massive boat festival that people from all over Thailand, Laos and other countries come to Phichit. The boats hold anywhere from 25-40 people and the people on the boats practice all year to try to become the best. The boats race and I cannot believe how fast they are. It is so competitive. The huge festival consists of over 100 vendors. They completely close down a street and put vendors all up and down it. I found a pretty legit hammock and headband that were both hand made.
The boat races were so intense to watch. They have cheerleaders set up in the back ground. It was quite a fun place to be at.
cute lady making food
Thai Police Officers.. pretty official stuff.
Takraw Players.
They had a set of guys who played Takraw which is basically a wayy more legit version of volleyball. They play it with only their feet. It was crazy!
On one of our first night adventures, we were on our way home from being out on the town and we see this massive elephant walking on the side of the road with a guy. No biggie. We pulled over, stopped the elephant, fed him and took pictures with him. I named him Travis. It was such a cool experience.
Travis and I
We tend to see elephants quite frequently here. Shortly after that fun weekend we were walking through the fruit market and there was a baby elephant walking in front of me. So we stopped and got pictures with him. I named him Turk. Turk just wanted to play when we stopped to say hello to him. He had the cutest personality.
Turk and I
Our students are the cutest little things ever! I love the unique names their parents give them when they are born. Thai people have a Thai name which is super long but they have another name which is what they go by. So some students here have some bazar names. It is weird because the student's names totally match their personalities. We have a student named Pizza, she is cute and corky. Ghod, he is just like a replica of God to a "T". D-day, who is the devil and most rambunctious child (but he is my favorite). Nest, who is a sweetheart and he watches out for everyone. Post who can be so stubborn. We have another named, Name, Nui, Qing-Qing (Pronounced, Ching-Ching), Prima, and Pluem. We also have a Mee Phoo and Moo Pee.. They are brothers. So we have quite the variety of names. I love it!
I just want to bring all of my kids home. Mostly Teacher Kate's class. They are a class of 5 young boys that are beyond precious. These boys include D-Day, Prima, Pluem, Max, and Ghod. They are all 3-4 years old and are a handful. But they know how to melt my heart.
Picture Above
Top Left: Ghod
Top Right: D-day
Left Lower: Prima
Right Lower: Pluem
Picture Above
D-day behind me
Pluem and Ghod on my lap
I cannot wait to continue my journey here in Thailand. It will always be one to remember.
"Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world." -Harriet Tubman
