The end is in sight

Wow, apparently I'm just not very good at logging my adventures, almost a month has passed since my last update, and now, with 19 days left in which to adventure, I find myself in quite a tizz.
I don't think I left enough time to finish everything that I wanted to - for example I spent the first part of our school's Recognition Day (like prizegiving) celebraktions in my class, packing up and filing and deleting browsing history etc.

I have yet to do the gift shopping that I need to, and feel like I didn't say goodbye to school properly. My Grade 10's are wonderful souls who dedicated a song to me and KC, and though their band practise has been something of an issue for me, they were really good! Naturally I sheened a bit, and may even have dropped one solitary little tear. Haha what a lie...at one stage during the concert me, Jennie and KC were blubbing in the corner like crazies.

We had a staff celebration at the pool when all the kiddies left, and it was a bit reminiscent of leaving Cambridge, with the difference being that I may never see most of these people again. That always scares me - that you can see someone every day for such a long time, and develop a rapport with them, and know their lives, and share in each other's every day moments,  and then in the passing of an hour, its all over. Its obviously true of all big transitions, finishing high school, finishing university, moving to a different town, changing jobs etc, but the losing people aspect is quite jarring for me. And I'm terrible at keeping in contact with people too.

There are 20 days between the date of finishing school and my flight home, and KC and I resolved a while ago that we would do a monster holiday trip to everywhere that we hadn't yet seen. Naturally this ideal has had to be tailored a bit, since we can't see absolutely everything, 20 days isn't all that long, and there are a host of places that we felt we simply have to go back to.

So tomorrow we set off back to Kanchanaburi - this time without buses of schoolkids, and only for a day, with the sole purpose of climbing up all seven levels of the Erawan waterfalls. I have decided that since these are a spectacular example, they will be the last waterfalls I climb, since I always manage to stop breathing on the way up.

After Kanchanaburi we go to Cambodia, with no more planning than a few names of places to see, and Ben's borrowed Lonely Planet. Then  south to Phi-Phi, then Tonsai and Raleigh, then down to Koh Tao again. I'm going to do my diving course down there, and I am so freaking excited!
And I think that will be our last stop before heading back to Bangkok, or we'll head back to the other side of the coast to Phuket to say goodbye to Kimmie.
According to the plan, we should arrive here with three days to pack up and settle everything, but as I said it's a very loose plan and very open to suggestion. This is how KC and I travel best, sans plan.

And then it will be done, and I'll be on my way home.

I finally took some pictures of my school and my classroom so everyone can see where I've been for such a long time. There will be more on my facebook page.
Love xx

Teachers in the pool

The empty building that gets used for advertising...

My lab, and my skeleton!

So many adventures!

Right, its long past time for an update, and I have plenty to write about.
I don't even remember everything that has happened since the glorious trip to Samet and the less glorious school camp, but I'll do my best.

The third term of school melted swiftly into the fourth, with but a weekend separating the two. This is very strange planning to my mind, and made it feel like there was no difference at all.
About two weeks into term a friend came to visit from England, Matthew Gush, and so me, KC and Nicola duly made the trip down to Phuket to see him. We had a really really good time, and naturally the fact that it meant going back to the beach was part of that.
Ty's parents were in Phuket the same weekend, but as transport in Phuket is distinctly lacking (and the fact that I don't like driving a motorbike) I didn't get to see them until the next week when we were all back in Bangkok. It was really good to see them, I even got a bit emotional saying goodbye, since it was like having a piece of Ty with me again.
The next week (11 - 15 April) was eventually a break from school. This was because of the Songkran holiday, which is Thai New Year. Thais celebrate the New Year three times: once at the end of December with the western world, the Chinese New Year and then their own as well. Lucky!

We had heard that Songkran is basically one week-long water fight, and had a taste of this on the last Friday at school. Traditionally, Songkran is a time when Thais visit their elders, and many of them visit temples to pray and give alms to monks. At school 99 monks came to pray and chant, and we lined up to give alms, before the water  fight started.

After this ceremony and a concert by the kids, all seriousness was over and kids and teachers alike descended into madness, with buckets and hosepipes all over the place. I got dunked a good couple of times, and all were soaking within minutes. There aren't many pictures of that, as obviously its not a good time to be waving a camera about.

 

But what happened at school in no way prepared us for what happened in Chiang Mai. We arrived on Tuesday morning, and although the festival was only due to officially start on Wednesday, there were already opportunists out with buckets and water guns. Its such a beautiful thing to see strangers, foreigners and Thais alike spending hours in the street wetting each other with whatever they can get their hands on. It starts at about 9am and continues to 7pm, every day for a week. Glorious. What is not so glorious is that some people have ice water, and a bucket of that poured over your head gives you a fright every single time.
'We' entails me, Nicola, KC, Kimmie, Ben and his girlfriend Lin, Jennie and her friend from England, Bernie. It was hard keeping track of such a huge group, and most of the time we didn't. But it was really good to spend some quality time with the girls, especially with Nic's departure so imminent. While there, we also met up with Mario, who was living in Chiang Mai for a bit, and Avery and her sister Mollie, friends from Phuket. Chiang Mai was full of tourists, not only foreigners and the atmosphere was really festive.
As Songkran is a  religious holiday, we went and visited some temples, there were many Thais taking a break from the water fight and paying their respects.

On returning from Chiang Mai, there was not much time before it was time to say bye to Nics, our Thai pioneer. She flew back to Zim on Tuesday night and we went to see her off at the airport. I miss her very much, but we have plans to see each other in December. Her leaving brought home to me how my time here is also coming to an end, and I feel a bit frantic with all the things I still want to do. There are plenty more adventures to be had!
More about this weekend tomorrow.

Moving swiftly along

Anyway, the other adventure was going on Adventure Camp with my school. I really don't want to delve into it too much, so suffice it to say it was unlike any adventure camp I've ever been on in life (and I've had my fair share).

 Originally, the whole school (Grades 1 - 12) and staff were supposed to go (already a logistic nightmare) and it was scheduled to take place in a 5 star hotel resort. Unsurprisingly, this pushed costs through the roof and most of the kids pulled out, which meant that not all the teachers got to go, and it came down to my boss-lady's favourites. What is surprising is that I am apparently one of them. Who knew?
So much so, in fact, that KC and I were initially told that we'd have to plan all the activities and things for the kids to do. Insert panic. Luckily as the time got closer (and then further again, because the camp was postponed twice) this became more clear and Jennie's help was also enlisted. Jennie's been on loads of camps and worked as a camp counsellor abroad, so she had lots of really good ideas.

It sounds like the situation should have been completely manageable, right?
Enter my boss-lady, who 1) doesn't speak/understand very much English, and 2) changes her mind faster and more often than some people blink. This was the true spanner in the works of the whole business, and much as I would love to say we eventually got the hang of it and everything worked out, that would be a lie. Great fun WAS had by all, despite crazy boss-lady, but I don't remember a more stressful 3 days in my entire life, and we were very glad to get home.

That said....

A while ago I wrote about new year's resolutions. Mine have gone the way these things always go, and so I have a new and more tangible one - to read the news. I feel this is a considerably more measurable goal than 'taking responsibility for my own happiness', and I have taken to it with gusto. Now, you may not know that before making this resolution,  I was not a person who could ever be found reading the paper. I talk while my poor father tries to watch the 7pm broadcast, and I use newspaper mainly to wrap up broken glass. So now I have decided to be informed. And boy, am I informed!
I was all over the protests in Egypt like white on rice, I spent an hour boring my sister to tears telling her every detail I had read on the subject. I know all about Gaddafi and how China and the States (and that scoundrel of a Zuma) don't want the UN security council to impose a no-fly zone etc. I know about that silly Manyi and tracked down Trevor Manuel's open letter in The Mercury (a Durban newspaper), I even know that Sheryl whatshername is in court for possible drug trafficking with a Nigerian.

But it all makes me so angry and sad, I can't stop thinking about it. KC says after a while I won't get so personally involved. I can't imagine reading what I did today about how Gaddafi's forces have pushed the rebellion almost all the way back to Benghazi, and not wanting to cry. Or seeing all the horror in Japan and not wanting to join a search and rescue team and go help where I can. And though it breaks my heart sometimes, I can't stop going back to see what else has happened, every day.

Today was a lovely day. The weather is changing in Bangkok, its been rainy and therefore cooler in the last two days, which has truly been a treat. KC and I had to go to the hospital on Monday to get medical certificates for our work permits (which, after being in Thailand for 6 months, I STILL don't have) and this necessitated getting on the dreaded scale.
Needless to say, we're now viciously attacking our fat in the swimming pool every afternoon and today also bought tennis rackets with which to do further battle.
Thereafter we went to what was supposed to be a supermarket, but as a result of badly worded directions to the taxi-driver on my part, ended up at the mall. There was a man handing out flyers for a deli restaurant with beautiful sandwiches and glorious cheesecake, so I guess we'll be swimming even harder tomorrow.

Most importantly, I bought a fridge. It is the tiniest fridge in the world, but I love it. I think I may even name it. I was desperate to buy this here fridge, because as I may have mentioned before, one cannot drink the tap water in Thailand. To compensate, the state provides filtration machines that dispense water at a minimal cost. The problem is that Thailand is sweltering hot, and so is the water that comes out of the machine. Enter my new fridge. This way I am not constantly buying new plastic bottles that I can't bring myself to throw away for fear of harming the environment. I realise the fridge releases things that are also harmful, but let me deal with one issue at a time.

Birthday by the sea

I have since been on two more adventures since I last wrote.
The first of which was my birthday trip to the island of Koh Samet with my friends. Its the closest island to Bangkok, it only takes about 4 hours to get there. At least, that's what they say. Koh Samet is also the island with the whitest sand beaches, and that part is true. It is so beautiful, I almost wish Ty and I had gone there instead of Koh Phangan in December! Almost...
Participating in the adventure were myself, Ben, KC, Nicola, Jennie and Dave and his girlfriend Mai. Luckily, my birthday fell on a Saturday this year, and even more so, the Friday was a public holiday. Maka Bucha day in fact, which according to Wikipedia marks a day when 10 000 monks spontaneously turned out to visit Buddha. It took place exactly 9 months after Buddha received the Enlightenment, and he shared important teachings with the monks. It's also said to be the beginning of Buddhist Lent.
Anyway, a great day all round. We left pretty early in the morning so that we could have a full day on the beach, a bus trip for 3 hours and then the ferry for about an hour.

Besides beach activities, Koh Samet is also perfectly designed for partying. Its a small island so you can (and I had to) walk from one end of the beach to the other and explore various pubs along the way. With all this temptation and the sea salt frying our brains, we got a bit out of hand, and by the end of the weekend, I had a broken phone, neither Ben nor Nicola had any shoes, Ben also had no camera, Jennie discovered that she is not a monkey, and we all had various cuts and bruises.
My birthday itself was pretty awesome, we chartered a boat to go on a trip around the island, stopping at prime snorkelling sites as well as at a fish farm. The water was crystal clear; at one point I was in water at least 12m deep and I could see right down to the coral on the seafloor. Truly an amazing experience.

So now I've come to a decision about my birthday. I've always been a bit crazy about my birthday, I tell people weeks in advance so no one can possibly forget, I've been known to instruct classes of children to prepare appropriate surprises for the day (this year's Grade 12 class was no exception). I always make sure I enjoy the hell out of it, and I make no excuses for that.
And this year I hit the quarter century mark, which means that some people are starting to tease about getting older and so on. But I've decided I honestly don't care. If I get to have a day that's all about me every year, I suppose it must come with some drawbacks - I have to get older. Oh well. Also, I've decided that I don't want birthday presents anymore (no Ty, that does not apply to you). Instead I want to have an awesome adventure and people must just pay to come with (and maybe pay for me...)

The other adventure was going on camp with my school, but I don't feel like talking about that travesty right now, perhaps tomorrow.

Ty and Tasj's Thai adventure :)

The last time I wrote anything was the night before Tyron arrived. I couldn't sleep, and was determined to fill my time. I was even a bit frantic, and thinking way too much. I hadn't seen him in a little over three months or more, and I wasn't even sure why anymore.

But I did fall asleep, and I did make it to the airport in good time to fetch him, and it was amazing. And then I had the best month of my life. I'm not going to write about his time here in as much detail as I have my other adventures, partially because it ended a month ago, and partially because I'm actually a pretty private person (she says, writing a blog) and I don't want to make it less special by telling everybody.

I saw more of Thailand with Ty than I did the whole time I was here alone. We stayed on an island for a week and did amazing things like snorkelling and a jungle canopy tour, and laying on the beach doing absolutely nothing. It was glorious and restful and so much fun! The island we were on is Koh Phangan, which is famous for its Full Moon parties every month. The Full Moon party is one of the biggest beach parties I've ever seen, and filled to bursting with drunken crazed high-school leavers and gap year kids looking for a new thrill. The sheer amount of wallets, handbags and shoes lying at the on the beach and floating away on the waves was overwhelming - I really don't think I experienced a phase of being so utterly loskop.

After we got back from Koh Phangan, we stayed in Bangkok for about a week and a half, to celebrate Christmas. Before leaving for the island, Ty had to amuse himself for a week in the city, as he arrived on the Monday and I had to work until the Friday. He was much more adventurous than I had been when first arriving here, and picked up the necessary Thai very quickly. So when we came back we got a chance to show each other the city as we had found it to be.
It was quite a full house for the entirety of December; there was the 4 people who legitimately lived there, KC who paid to legitimately live there but didn't have a room, Carlos (Nicola's boyfriend) and his brother Mario, and Ty. There was also on occasion my friend Ben, when it was more cenvenient to stay over than go home. So we had lots of people to cater for Christmas, and we really did have a lovely one. Everybody was a bit sensitive about not being at home, and wanting to do their own Christmas traditions, but it worked out well in the end with a bit of compromise.
Ty and I walked for miles on Christmas Eve, having taken down the directions to the church incorrectly, but we made it and the service was beautiful, if different.
Christmas lunch can only be described as majestic, everybody made their contribution and I had so much fun being a busybody in the kitchen. Cooking in Thailand is something that just doesn't happen for me, and I really enjoyed it.

Santa and his helper

Lunch that turned into dinner

Singing the blessing

  KC, Nicola and Carlos left for Laos on Boxing Day, and by this point our easy living had taken its toll financially, so we stayed in Bangkok for another week or so after Christmas, not going out much or seeing anything, just spending time together and regaining ground.

We all met up for New Years in Chiang Mai, north of Bangkok, and a lot more Thai. I know that makes no sense, but what I mean is that the sense of living in Thailand, in a completely different culture, is much more prevalent in Chiang Mai than in Bangkok. I really loved the feel of the city, and I finally knew what Jennie had been waxing lyrical about for so long. Its more old, really, less brash. Its the more dignified grown-up sister of teenage Bangkok.
Kimmie came to Chiang Mai as well, with her friend from home, Nicole. I really enjoyed being part of a big group of really good friends all the time, it made every little experience so much more fun.
Chiang Mai does New Years in a really big way, which is interesting since Thai New Year is only in April. There were lanterns and fireworks at this big stadium. Ty and I got caught up in town, and had to rush to the stadium, running the last kilometre or so to get through traffic. It really felt so great to finally get there with 6 seconds to go before midnight, and find them in the nick of time.

After Chiang Mai we went to Pai, which is a little town about 4 hours drive up a very windy mountain pass. By the time we arrived, KC and Nicole were so unwell that it took a while for their stomachs to settle. I thank God that the only motion sickness I have ever suffered is induced only by boats.
We spent the first couple of hours in Pai looking for somewhere to stay, and it took longer than planned, as Pai seems to be a little hive chock full of hippies. Its a really lovely little town, with one main road and good shopping.
The best thing about both Chiang Mai and Pai, which I failed to mention before, is the weather. I was more cold in Chiang Mai than I have been since entering Thailand. It was literally necessary to wear a jersy and scarf (none of which I had until reaching Pai). As much as I've been saying I'd love a bit of winter, I discovered I was lying the whole time. I hate the cold.
We didn't do very much in Pai, went to look for waterfalls and springs on motorbikes. Ty developed a love of driving a motorbike on Koh Phangan, and is convinced he's joining the Hell's Angels (on a scooter, I ask you).

An interesting thing happened at the entrance to the spring - there were what looked like Thai soldiers monitoring the gate. All the Thai people were allowed to walk through for free, but they wanted us to pay 300B. This is the worst example I've experienced of double pricing in Thailand, something that is actually very common. Vendors and security people don't even think its wrong to expect you to pay so much more as a foreigner, its just policy. You're foreign and come from a Western country and therefore have more money to spend. I wonder what would happen if all countries adopted this policy...

After Pai, coming home to Bangkok was a relief. I was tired and broke, and just wanted to spend the last bit of time alone with Ty.
He went back to South Africa just over a month ago, and saying goodbye again was hard enough to make me absolutely sure that I want to go home. I won't leave immediately, because I still feel responsible for my students. But when the academic year ends in June, so will my Thai adventure.

Coloured People

Trevor Noah was right, it is damn difficult to explain coloured people to non-South Africans.
The first time in recent memory that I've attempted this was in August, when me and Ty took our trip to Coffee Bay. We went on a hike (voluntarily, I know right?) to see the sights and to do some cliff jumping. We bonded with a bunch of people, Sofia the Australian tightrope-walking nurse, Lisa the Britsh volunteer, and the Dutch couple who were hilarious but I can't remember their names.
That night, we got to talking over some drinks, and Lisa asked the inevitable question. I didn't see it coming then, but by now I've learned to recognise that the moment is approaching.
You're both getting quite comfortable with each other, and moving into 'personal questions' territory, the ones that you ask somewhat tentatively, ready to retract at any moment in case you offend your new friend.
"So, are you black then? Cos you don't look very black."

I still don't know how to really answer this question. Sometimes I say yes, for three reasons: 1) its a much shorter answer, 2) well I mean I'm not white, and 3) I don't feel much of a connection with the person, and so I don't have the energy for this mammoth explanation.

The difficulty for me in the explanation comes with the term 'mixed race', which I'm discovering is way more politically correct in the rest of the world than you would think. And yet I can't bring myself to ignore the knee-jerk Trevor reaction "Jou ma se mixed race!"

Experience has taught me to make the compromise "Its simplest if I say 'mixed race' but don't tell anyone I said that."

And then I launch into the discussion, because I for some reason feel compelled to, about how I am NOT mixed race, both my parents are the same as me, and all 4 grandparents. And that the white man and the black woman (or the other way round) who were originally responsible for this 'mixing' lived several generations ago and that by now this has created an entire new race of people in South Africa.

I'm still getting blank looks at this point, so I use my genius brother's explanation to clarify even further:
"You know how Jan van Riebeeck landed at the Cape in 1652 with Drommedaris, Reijger and Goeie Hoop? Well, his lady wife arrived at the Cape a whole four years later, and its in that in between time that the Dutch started dipping into the pot of tar."
The reference to the 'touch of the tar brush' always makes me laugh, but it does make politically-correct Brits kind of giggle awkwardly. Hehe.

And I figure this is the best I can do, without overloading people's brains with two much information about how there's also Malaysian heritage, and British, and just about everybody else who settled at the Cape and later Durban and PE. I mean, its already a far longer answer than they were looking for.

Sometimes I just let people believe what they want, like an American girl I met on a beach trip once. I was sharing a room with two American girls, both black, and we were getting into swimming stuff to go laze around, when the more outspoken of the two burst forth with:
"It is so GOOD to meet another black person out here. I tell ya, these Thai people be lookin at me all crazy, checking out my ass. They just don't know what it means to be black, you know what I'm sayin?" (Now please read that quote again, with a deep South accent, and you'll get what I mean.)

She says this to me, completely disregarding the other girl in the room, who's from the same place in the States that she comes from, and also black. I wanted to say that I'm not sure I know what it means to be black either, but I would've just been saying it to make her feel awkward, and the beach was waiting for me.

I've had to answer this question more than ten times since arriving here, by now Nicola starts laughing when she hears the conversation headed toward this business of being 'mixed race'. I just can't bring myself to see it as a blank term, without any connotation attached. I don't like it, I associate it with images of weak tea, and the Oros that's still in the bottle. And even worse, it starts sounding a bit Nazi/ Harry Potter-ish, all this pure blood nonsense. But its very likely that it means nothing at all, and that its only my holding on to the negative connotations that give them power.

Perhaps the next time someone asks me, I'll smile coyly and say "Why do you ask?" and avoid the conversation altogether. Feels much healthier that way.

Good times :)

Today is the first chance I've gotten this week to write about my weekend, which was really good, for the most part. But I also wanted to write about other things that've been on my mind.

First things first, the Americans celebrate Thanksgiving this Thursday, and I only take note of it because I find myself surrounded by Americans and it means so much to them. Gareth Cliff says its the day we give thanks for not having been born a turkey, and I'm inclined to agree with him!

But I'm also thankful for lots of other things, and I like the idea of taking a day to be aware of them.
1) I'm thankful that my body is whole, my mind is whole and I have the capacity to do and be anything I want. There are people for whom life is so much harder than it is for me, and I'm grateful for the perspective to see that my problems are pretty small in comparison.
2) I'm thankful for my parents for giving me all the opportunities they could, and for always helping me, even when the help was in not helping. They have moulded me.
3) I'm thankful for South African school children, for making me a teacher. And to Thai school children for showing me that I don't know it all yet.
4) I'm thankful for Tyron, for being Tyron, and for being MY Tyron, and everything that means.

There's lots of other things that I'm thankful for, but I didn't intend it to be that kind of post, so I won't go on.

Now, about my weekend:
Sunday marked the celebration of Loy Krathong festival in Thailand, as previously mentioned. So my school was dead set on having this really massive event with each grade doing a dance, and a big catered supper and so one. Teachers also all had to do a duty, which is fine.
However, we were required to be at school from 8am on Sunday to do these duties and supervise the last rehearsals. So Ben, Jennie and I planned to go to the cinema on Saturday night, to stop ourselves going too big and being useless at school on Sunday morning. Naturally I'd been looking for an excuse to see the new Harry Potter movie anyway. Very dark, and too much suspense for my weak heart, but I'm keen to see the next one.

Anyway, we were late for school on Sunday, and arrived just after 9am. I thought we'd have to sneak in, but there were hardly any teachers around, and even fewer kids. Most of the parents seemed to have had the good sense to ignore the school's request to send their children to school for no particular reason.
There was no rehearsal that we were aware of all day, so we stayed in Jennie's room amusing ourselves with Spongebob Squarepants. I even straightened my hair for the first time since coming to Thailand (and I'll admit that I thought my hair was going to refuse!). I cannot emphasize more how much nothing was going on. I didn't even see my Grade 12's until 5 minutes before the performance.

We started primping at about 2pm; there's only so much Spongebob a grown woman can/will watch. That part was quite fun, I haven't spent that much time and energy on getting dressed in a couple years lol. I even managed to have a quick Skype with Ty before we started.

The show went off ok, pretty boring. The fun part really started afterward, when I joined some teacher friends for a beer on one of the klong boats on the canal opposite the school. I know, I don't drink beer, but I'm not really high on options over here. Besides, if you drown it in ice it doesn't taste quite so bad :)

On the way to the boat I bought a krathong and convinced Ben to come with me to do the traditional floating. You're supposed to put a piece of your hair and a coin into the krathong, light the candle and the incense and then say a little prayer. You think about all the hurts and bad things that have happened in the past year, and all the water wasting and stuff, and you put it away from yourself. Then you put the krathong in the water and give it a little push. Its such a beautiful ritual.
The other traditional thing you do is send up lanterns. I don't know if you're supposed to say a little prayer while doing that, but they're very pretty :) I'll put up some pictures later today.

No one wanted to go out after having a beer, so we decided to all split taxis and go home. But I got waylaid by some of the Thai staff  sitting outside the school having a drink. So Ben, Jennie, Katie and I were just going to sit for a very little while, and had the time of our lives. I love being surprised by having a really good time! It was so much fun that I only got home at 5am, luckily we had been given Monday off school.

I was so proud of myself for not flaking out and going home, which I've been known to do. I want to trust my instincts more and take more chances and not always be so tired. And I think I'm doing it.