Fresh eyes

I remember how wide-eyed and clueless I was when I first arrived in Thailand. Luckily, I had friends who knew their way around that acted as tour guides for me and the rest of the newcomers. Lindsey, Andrew and especially Erin could tell me how to do just about everything. And if they didn't know, then one of us would consult the know-it-all Lonely Planet Thailand travel guide.

I remember the first time I saw an elephant walk down the street. I saw it at night on my way to the ATM by 7-11. A man carried sugarcane sticks in a plastic bag and offered to let anyone feed it for a price. The elephant strolled down the road running under an overpass as cars and motorbikes zoomed past it. I immediately pulled out my camera.

I think back to this time because now I am the tour guide. If there are any questions I can't answer I ask Tan. She's the real tour guide. I am so lucky to know her. She is a wonderful girlfriend and a very helpful person. I keep telling everyone that they are spoiled because they know her. And I am spoiled too. She translates what we want to eat. She tells the girls where to go shopping. She knows more than any book. Although, occasionally she'll look up information in the Lonely Planet.

There were many initial moments that hit me with great surprise when I entered Bangkok, Thailand for the first time. But let me share some of these moments from the other teachers at my school.

In Hua Hin, we went to a temple and it was crawling with monkeys. One of the monkeys tried to steal Tim's bag of food. Tim fought it away by opening his umbrella and sheilding himself. Shelly, his fiancee, shrieked with surprise. The monkey ran off. Shelly stayed close to Tim for protection as they continued walking around.

We were walking around the school grounds and Jaron saw a monitor lizard. He said, "Whoah. That's cool. Would they care if someone grabbed one and wrestled it." The rest of us were really surprised. "Are you joking? I'm sure they wouldn't like it." I said. "There is a guard right there with a loaded gun. I wouldn't go near the moat if I were you." "They wouldn't shoot me, would they?" "Probably not, but why would you risk it?" Jaron started towards the moat. "Stop. Don't do it. It would be disrespectful to go near the Palace. That's why the guard is there," I said. He stopped. "Okay. I didn't know it would be rude," he said.

While Caleb taught a lesson students were distracted by a black spider. He got fed up because no one was listening. The students surrounded the spider and pointed at it. So Caleb squashed it. The kids in his P4 class got very upset. They started to pray for the spider. Caleb felt really bad. Then the kids spotted a white spider. One of them said, "The spider reincarnated." Caleb says he didn't make this story up.

Jill and Rori have gone to aerobics in the park near our apartment. Everyday at 6pm a group of about 200 Thai people show up and do aerobics for 45 minutes. They play an interesting variety of techno music like the Achy Breaky Heart Song and hits from Michael Jackson. They were trying their best to keep up, but they were a few steps behind. In the front an old Thai man noticed they were out of step. He said, "You come up with me. You come up to the front." He said it forcefully, so they obeyed. He said, "You count out loud in English. 1-2-3." They obeyed. And they were exhausted by the end. Rori said, "He was really into it. He added extra hops into his steps. And he told us to come back everyday at the same time so he could show us how to do it. We were like, whoah, we have other things to do. We can't come everyday. His name's Jack. He grew up in Chicago. He's a really intense old man." They've seen him everytime they've gone back to do aerobics. Usually his wife is there with him, but she doesn't do the extra hops.

I'll add more to this later. Peace out.