Last Days in Pla Pak

Jan 12

Pla Pak Noi is Caitlyn's second school and is a much different atmosphere. The teachers were incredibly welcoming at Pla Pak Noi and the set up was pretty much the same in terms of her schedule. The children were very curious at this school and seemed much more comfortable asking questions (perhaps because the class size is smaller). One young girl seemed to really take a liking to me and was asking Caitlyn to ask me if I had a boyfriend. Caitlyn told her she needed to ask me that question, so she did and I said no and she ran off outside and yelled down the answer to all of her friends below, haha! She then came right back to ask me how old I was and ran and told everyone I was 24, it must have been exciting information :)

We had lunch at noon and the teachers made an extravagant feast, I guess it is commonplace at Pla Pak Noi, and in Thai culture it is seen as a status thing to have much too much food at the end of a meal. Caitlyn counted and there were 21 plates of food for the 6 of us eating! I got to try Som Tom (Spicy Papaya salad), fried chicken wings, a garlic and pork omelet, sticky rice, and sweet banana soup. It was all delicious (sap!) but so filling!

PiTook, who sometimes stays in the classroom while Caitlyn instructs seemed to get on Caitlyn's nerves a bit today, which was entirely understandable to me! She kept interrupting her in the middle of her sentences to tell the students to repeat of to say the English words herself, maybe thinking the kids would understand better with a Thai accent or perhaps just for her own practice! I absolutely know she had no clue it might be disruptive for Caitlyn but it was still difficult. After school we went over to see the gardens that the students tend to at Pla Pak Noi. Each grade has their own plot and they plant herbs and vegetables to use for the lunch meals.

When we got in the car to head home PiTook had many questions for me including how much my car cost and if my family owned a plane! I thought it was quite humorous :) They expect that everyone from the US is very wealthy from the TV they see. She didn't seem to understand why Caitlyn and I found the question so funny! Once we got home I was standing outside and the neighbor's daughter who is a nurse in Nakhon Phanom asked me to come over, so I did. She asked me if I would get on her motorbike and I said noooo way since they scare me here in Thailand (well also in the states) and so she insisted I jump on the back of her bicycle. I had no idea where we were going since neither of us spoke more than a couple words of the opposite language. She took me to the village center markets and bought us a bunch of sweets. She wanted to buy more, dinner food, but I told her that was not necessary since we had stuff at home already.

After the little adventure we had dinner and one of Steph's co-workers , Thon, the chemistry teacher ate with us. I felt kinda bad because he seemed very envious that I was heading to the islands after Chiang Mai and he has never been there. He lives about 20 hours away so that makes it hard and I guess I have not ever seen Boston and would love to so maybe I shouldn't feel too bad!

Jan 13

Last day in Pla Pak! It was quite sad after just meeting all these wonderful people having to say goodbye already. School was nice in the morning since their was a visitor so everyone was all geeked up to make sure it went well for him. Since we were leaving for Chiang Mai after lunch they moved all of Caitlyn's classes to the morning. She had fun activities planed so that was nice :) We grabbed the lunch they provided and got all our stuff together and waiting for Caitlyn's principal to come get us to take us to NKP. He helped us negotiate the purchasing of the tickets which was a challenge since it was not straight to Chiang Mai, we had to stop in Udon Thani on the way.

After buying the tickets we went to find a pharmacy in town to purchase some Dramamine for the bus ride. It was difficult to find (the 4th pharmacy had it) and then we waited for the bus to arrive. The bus was a bit smaller since the trip was shorter. The bus in Udon Thani was AWFUL. We both slept with fabric over our faces so we didn't breathe in the fumes being blown into the bus and I kept getting whiffs of the toilet smells, yuck!

We made it to Chiang Mai after a mid-night stop (Caitlyn ate the provided rice soup and veggies, but I couldn't handle the thought at the time). Once we got off the bus we had to find a taxi or bus to find the SpicyThai Backpacker hostel. We ended up overpaying (150 Baht when we could have gotten there for 20B on the bus that wasn't running at the time) but we made it safe and sound and the hostel is going to be fun and interesting I can tell already :)