The Latest.

It stopped raining! Of course, you wouldn't know that because I'm a horrible blogger and have left you out of the loop for the past few weeks. So I apologize. But the truth is that my schedule has become more routine, so me telling you about my days, with variations only in the breakfast menu and nightly TV schedule, could get quite monotonous. But I have gathered up a few stories that I thought you might enjoy.


The Rain.
It poured for three days straight. And now it's stopped. This actually disappoints me, since I really started to love the rain once I learned that it dropped the temperatures for three days straight and provided great excuses to do "TV work" (assignments given to me that are done best in front of the TV, such as cutting out thousands of felt pieces for Bible lessons). The only problem with the rain is that it causes flooding, so tons of fields and houses are now destroyed. But I'm going to be self-centered right now and say that I miss the rain because I hate the heat. Here in Thailand we have two seasons: the rainy season and the hot-as-hell season. They often mix, since after a short 20 minute rain the sun normally decides to make a grand appearance and scorch the land (and anyone who happens to be on the land). I don't mind hot, and I don't mind humid, but when you mix them together, they form a toxic potion that literally makes me and my soul melt into the ground. I hate heat and humidity when combined. Remember that when I wind up in a tropical, humid rain forest in the future.


Let's Make a Toast.
We've all seen those movies where the toaster pops the toasted bread five feet into the air and the perfect housewife in the checked apron catches the toast on a perfect plate and sets it down in front of her two patient children (a girl and a boy, no doubt), who then thank their mother sweetly and proceed to butter their fresh toast. Well, my toaster here does that, but I don't catch it. For a while I didn't even know it popped my toast all over the kitchen. You see, some days I eat one piece of toast and other days I eat two. So I didn't notice the disappearing pieces of toast that popped their way to track behind the microwave until I cleaned behind the microwave. And sure enough, I found 9 pieces of lonely toast being enjoyed by the insect critters that share my kitchen with me. I now eat oatmeal for breakfast.


Hmong.
We had a Hmong team come! Hmong is a type of village people from Northern Thailand and Laos who speak, you guessed it, Hmong. During the Vietnam War many Laos Hmong people helped the US and then couldn't go back home to Laos, so the US lovingly took them in and gave them new lives. They all live in communities in Kansas, Minnesota, and other states, and they speak Hmong! And English, of course. There's a Hmong church in Minnesota that sends a team to minister to the Hmong people in Thailand every year, so 17 Hmong teenagers invaded our compound last week, using my toilet paper and eating my bread and messing up my kitchen. Needless to say, we weren't the best of friends, but they did some good work and they're gone now. Life can go on :)


Tennis... in real life.
I've never played tennis in my life, nor have I considered playing tennis. But Jo, a PE teacher from an International School in Chiang Mai has been here for the past few weeks, and has pulled me into tennis. Let me say this: it is WAY harder in real life than it is on the Wii. I have no idea how people do it. Those stupid yellow balls fly all over our compound. I've also taken up watching tennis on ESPN, since the Wimbledon is currently going on (or it was yesterday). This also means that I watch a lot of Badminton tournaments, like the Thailand Open, which is also going on this week. Let me explain the difference between my sport and other sports: I run. This means someone tells me where to start, when to start, and I try to beat everyone else to wherever I'm told to stop. That's it. The same goes for biking and swimming, which I've started participating in for triathlons. But other sports, like tennis, badminton, basketball, baseball, football, and everything else involving a moving sphere, mess with my mind. Watching them is tolerable, and even enjoyable. But playing them confuses me, especially when the rulebooks are heavier than the latest edition of Webster's Dictionary. Objects flying back and forth in between specific boundaries and kept track of by crazy scoring methods don't exactly float my boat. So I'll keep running, and those hunky model-like guys can keep sweating it out on the tennis court. No problem.


P90X
I don't run when it's raining because there are no sidewalks or groomed trails around here. This means I run on the road, where cars drive. And, just like every other third world country, drivers are insane. So heavy rain + dark + insane drivers + Gabbie running on the road= something not good. So I've been borrowing Cheri's P90X DVDs to keep me in shape in the rain. Have you ever tried P90X? It hurt me more than skiing hurt my pride, and skiing was pretty brutal to my soul. I suppose I could tell you that if you wanted to get in shape, you should order P90X, but I'm not going to because it's abusive. End of story.


Weekend English.
We have an English class on Saturdays and Sundays for young adults, most of whom are Buddhist. And guess what? Last week some of them came to church! Obviously, a ton of teenagers who have never, ever been to church (not even for Easter or Christmas!), coming to church is a pretty amazing thing. We just have to pray that they keep coming.


So other than that, there's not tons of new exciting stuff going on. Except that in the time it's taken me to write this it's started raining again!  I am happy :) 
I'll let you know when something headline-worthy happens.

English, English, English...and a little bit of Thai.

First pick out the misspelled word. Then we'll play Guess Why Gabbie's Here.

Alright. So now that I've told you about Thailand, I'm going to tell you about what I actually do in Thailand: I teach English. It's that simple. Before I got here I thought I would be an assistant of some sort. Wrong. I am the teacher! But I don't have just one classroom or one class, so I'm going to tell you about all my classes and students. Here we go.
Sunday, 9:30 am: I teach English. Instead of Sunday School before church for the kids, they have an English class. It's a class that varies from 2-18 people, depending on whether the kids from the Chiang Klang dorm show up. We learn about clothes, weather, numbers, colors, opposites, body parts, and family members. Since these children have ages ranging from 4 to 14, we just play it by ear. Sometimes you repeat lessons, sometimes you skip them, sometimes you review them. It doesn't really matter whether a set curriculum is in place, simply because there's no structure to the attendance. So that's my loosey-goosey class.
Monday, 11 am: I teach at Bon Den! I used to teach at Bon Den on Tuesdays and Thursdays and at Soi Prow on Monday and Wednesday, but they integrated the schools last week, so now it's just one school. Soi Prow only had about 30 students to begin with, so couple that with no principal, extremely below-average kids, and poor facilities, and you get a sudden integration a month after school starts. That's how they do things here in Thailand.
So I teach at Bon Den during the week. On Mondays I teach second grade. Let me fill you in on what a typical one hour class is like:


11:00-11:10
Good morning, teacher. They do this funky introduction thing before class, where the students all stand up and chant "Good morning, teacher" like zombies. Then I tell them to sit down, and they thank me. Then we throw the formal stuff out the door and start English. Thai school is pure lecture and memorization, and we try to change that for English. For example,  I asked some kids once "What's your favorite color?" I asked them a dozen times with no response. When I wrote it on the board, I was immediately answered with either red, green, blue, or yellow. So that's where these kids are coming from. They have no experience in talking or listening to native English speakers. Most Thai English teachers are not fluent (or close to it) in English, either.
First task after the zombie chant: Genki Disco. They love it. I don't. Just listen to it and you'll see why hearing it three times at the beginning of every class will slowly make you rip your brains out with a toothpick. But that's okay. I can deal for a summer in exchange for their happiness in singing and dancing to Genki Disco. You can even listen to it here if you're interested!


11:10-11:20
Review from the previous lesson.


11:20-11:50
New material. The average human brain can hold about 10-15 new vocab words a day. It also takes about 40 times of saying a word or phrase for it to stick. So we do that. Example:
Weather: Sunny, Rainy, Snowy, Windy, Stormy, Hot, Cold, Beautiful, Cloudy.
Key Phrase: 
A: How's the weather?
B: It's _____ today.
A: Oh, how nice.
So we repeat the vocab about 10 times, preferably with some kind of hand motion.
1 and 2: Repeating after me in order.
3: In Thai.
4: Girls.
5: Boys.
6: Together, loud.
7: Together, quiet.
8: Together, out of order.
9: Without me, in order.
10: Without me, out of order. 


Then we learn the Key Phrase. Every language has a beat. English has a 4/4 time. So we clap and dance to the key phrase together, repeating after me. Example:
Gabbie: How's
Class: How's
G: The.
C: The.
G: Weather.
C: Weather.
Repeat five times.
Gabbie: How's the weather?
Class: How's the weather?
Repeat 5 times.
Gabbie: It's
Class: It's
Gabbie: Mmmhmmmhmmmhmmm.
Class: Mmmhmmmhmmmhmmm.
Gabbie: Today
Class: Today
Repeat about 5 times.
Gabbie: It's mmmhmmmhmmmhmmm today.
Class: It's mmmhmmmhmmmhmmm today.
Repeat 5 times or more. They love the mmmhmmmhmmmhmmms.
Gabbie: Oh, how nice! (With a super exaggerated OH!)
Class: OHHHH! How nice!
Repeat 5 times. They love the OHs too.
Then they stand up and ask 5 people the key phrase, filling in the blank with whatever vocab word they choose. We also have Genki songs for every lesson, so we'll sing the appropriate song a few times.


Now comes the fun part: we play games. Either Go Fish, Matching, Revolving pairs, and Gender competition.
Go Fish: Children split up into groups of four and get a deck of cards with vocab words on them. They have to ask  each other "Hey Pin, is it sunny today?" And if Pin has a sunny card, she says, "Yes, it is!" and hands over her cards. If not, the asker has to draw. Matches of 4 must be made.
Matching: Every child gets a card with a weather vocab on it. One other student has a match to that card. They must ask everyone "How's the weather?" "It's sunny today." "Oh, how nice." If they have a stormy card, they move on. 
Revolving pairs: Children stand in two lines facing each other. One side has a card with a weather vocab word on it. They ask the partner with the card, "How's the weather?" and the partner replies. When everyone has finished, the card people shift down one until they have talked to everyone. Then the sides shift.
Gender competition: Girls against boys. Whoever wins gets candy. It's just that much fun. Sometimes it can be me pointing to a word on the board and the first team to shout it out gets a point. Sometimes it's who can speak more clearly. Sometimes it's them writing it. You just never know.
The nameless game: I haven't named this one yet. Everyone stands in a circle with one loner in the middle. He must close his eyes and turn around while the circle says the key phrase three times. When we stop, he opens his eyes and asks the person he's pointing at the key phrase. Then the person replies. Then they switch. They love this game too. Once again, I don't know why.


11:50-12:00
We have a test. We always have a test at the end to see who actually learned something. The tests can vary, but they're always verbal, requiring the child to say a few words or a sentence. Then they do another zombie chant ("Thank you, teacher.") and go to lunch. 


And that's your typical one hour lesson. Songs, dancing, funny faces, songs, and competition. I don't use pen and paper for two reasons: they take FOREVER to write, and they do that every other minute they're in school. It's good to give them a break.


Tuesday, 1:00-2:00
I teach 6th grade. These guys are higher level, so we're learning things like a slice of pizza, a carton of ice cream, a bar of soap, etc., and big/bigger/biggest, tall/taller/tallest, etc. But it's the same idea: games, singing, dancing, and competition. And yes, we still do Genki disco : )


Wednesday, 9:00-10:00
I teach the students that were previously at Soi Prow. They were a 4th, 5th, and 6th grade combined class, but at Bon Den they're just a 4th grade class. However, we follow the same lessons that we do for the 2nd grade. The Soi Prow kids are very low level. To give you some background: Soi Prow is a Lao village, so their primary language is Lao. Then they learn Northern Thai, which is the regional language. Once they go to school they have to learn Central Thai, which is only about a 60% overlap (the same difference between Spanish and Portuguese). So teaching them English fries their brain. Soi Prow also has a lot of interbreeding and lacks diversity in the gene pool, so you end up with awkward facial structures and lower level students.


Thursday, 11:00-12:00
I teach my 6th grade again! I love this class. They know what they're doing. They are the bomb diggity (is it illegal to say that in this decade? If so, I apologize).


Friday: Off. All the Thai staff from the Life Development Center (the ministry here on the compound) comes back from the villages and we have a refresher day.


Saturday, 10:00
I hand out with the Sop Gorn kids. These are kids from a few villages over who study English in school and want two things: English practice and an American friend. I just so happen to provide both of those! So we usually just talk about Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift and play Bananagrams. They love that game. And they're getting good at it, too. I've had to stop letting them win.
1:30-3:00
Adult English class at the church. I'm not in charge, but I help out. It's fun getting to be the one who already knows what the weather's like today ;)




And that's my week. English, English, English, and then Thai when I get sick of English. When I'm not teaching I'm helping Cheri and Jeri with projects, babysitting Sydney and Noah, or reading through the box books my parents send me. This week was special, though, because the Nehemiah kids got here! I think I told you about them before, but they're college kids coming through the International Mission Board to teach English. They don't teach here at my schools, but we're their home base for the summer. They arrived Friday morning and jumped into four days of Thai learning, teaching training, cultural immersion, and curriculum planning. They leave tomorrow morning for their destinations. Kaitlyn and Amy are going to dorms in Mae Charim, Catherine and  Bailey are going to dorms in Pua, and Laranda and Rebekah are going to dorms here in Chiang Klang. I'll get to see Laranda and Rebekah at church occasionally. The guys, Adam and Nick, are going to a village in the middle of nowhere, Ba Kahm. They have to rough it, but then again, they're guys. They should live. They're taking a live chicken with them, if that tells you anything.
If you care to keep up with any of the Nehemiah kids, blogs are:
Bailey
Amy
Adam


This weekend was also super exciting because I met Megan! Megan is a Peace Corps volunteer who lives in Chiang Klang and is in need of American friends to keep her sane. Luckily, I can do that! She hung out with the group on Friday and Sunday, and she'll probably be mentioned a few more times in this blog.


And now, although I know you love procrastinating on whatever task is waiting on another browser, I must go plan lessons for tomorrow. Genki, here I come.

My old classroom at Soi Prow.

The King looks over every classroom.

A waterfall in Thailand!

Nehemiah kids at the waterfall.

Amy and Sydney.

Noah doing whatever Noah does.

At the top of the falls!

A horrible picture of my Bon Den kids eating lunch. I apologize for not being a good photographer :(

Singin' in the rain... in Singapore!

I am now a legal "tourist" of Thailand! Praise Jesus. Here was the problem: back in 2010 I received false information about my visa for coming to Thailand for 90 days. Normally, people from the USA and other rich countries are allowed into Thailand for 30 days, free of charge. After that they require you to have a visa, which costs money and time. Unfortunately, I didn't know this until I had already come to Thailand and received my 30 day visa. So the safest and most exciting plan to renew my visa? Go to Singapore.


Fast facts about Singapore:
-Singapore is a city-state.
-It is the southern most country in Continental Asia, comprised of 63 islands. How an island country is considered a part of "continental" Asia beats me, but it's true.

Me standing on the southern-most point of continental Asia.

-Singapore has a tropical rain forest climate, averaging 79% relative humidity in the morning. This made coming back to Thailand feel like a trip to the Sahara. The relative humidity here is only about 34%, so I'm making a pact with myself to stop commenting on the humidity.... tomorrow.
-About 5 million people live in Singapore, of which only 2.9 million were born locally. Most Singaporeans are of Chinese, Malay, or Indonesian decent. About 40 percent of the population are foreigners (like you and me)!
-The Port of Singapore is one of the world's five busiest ports.
-The main religion is Buddhism, with Christianity coming behind in second place.
-There's no specific culture that defines the Singaporeans due to foreign invasion and mixed background. It's like the melting pot of Asia.
-But most importantly, Singapore is everything America wants to be. It's like a 272 square-mile America. Most people are fluent in English, there are big, pretty buildings dedicated to shopping and movie theaters and restaurants and spas, and it's clean. There are also random abstract sculptures on every corner. Oh, and everyone takes public transportation. Bonus: Lots of cute little Asians in matching school uniforms carrying massive textbooks. Americans just can't get enough of this little country, which is probably why so many Americans live there.
Although my visit to Singapore was brief, I had a chance to do quite a bit (that is, when I wasn't chilling at the Royal Thai Embassy). Like I mentioned before, Singapore is a tropical rain forest, located about 85 miles north of the equator. It rains quite a bit there, something I didn't find out until after I arrived sans raincoat and umbrella. So what does Gabbie like to do when it's raining outside? 
Watch movies. That's right, I spent the majority of my time in Singapore watching movies, simply because the theaters are accessible underground from the subway stations, so getting wet is totally unnecessary. I watched Fast Five, Kung Fu Panda 2, and the Hangover 2. Fast Five was the best by far, simply because it contained both Vin Diesel and Paul Walker. The Hangover 2 could have been completely unavoidable, but my curiosity finally got the best of me. For those of you who don't know, Hangover 2 was filmed in Bangkok, which is in Thailand, which is where I have been for the past month. So I had to watch it. And to answer some questions for those of you who've seen it: No, not every woman in Thailand is a transvestite. Yes, we do drive on the opposite side of the road. Yes, you can drink soda out of a bag. No, you couldn't get a monk to drink and do drugs after kidnapping him. No, monkeys don't run through the streets of Bangkok, especially not drug-dealing ones. And now that I've ruined all the excitement for you, you must know that you can still count on Bradley Cooper, who, no matter what role he plays in Hollywood, will always capture the hearts of any female audience (maybe males, too. I don't know).
I also went to Sentosa Island while I was in Singapore. Two words: Tourist trap. This little island has lots to do, as long as you have lots of money to give it in return. So I wasn't too impressed. I did, however, learn to ride a Segway because it was reasonably priced and I'd never done it before. It was like a nice hour-long stroll on the beach, except you didn't get all that disgusting sand in your toes and all over your legs because you were on a Segway! It was absolutely fabulous. Next item on my Christmas list: Segway. 
The other fabulous thing I did in Singapore was eat. Not because the food was fabulous or because it's different from that in the States (or in Thailand), but because I ate at the same place all three nights. Genki Sushi. Genki means "happy" in Japanese. I know this because one of the English teaching resources we use here is called Genki English. But Genki Sushi was awesome. Here's what goes on:
You are assigned a table by a hostess.
This iPad is waiting for you.

You order.
Your food comes out on this little train from the kitchen! 

And if you order tea, the hot water is right there at your table.

You send your train back.
You eat your food.
The end.
Absolutely fabulous. I have never been so impressed with impersonal food service in my life. I'm not a fan of interacting with cashiers, waiters, bus drivers, etc. So anytime I can live life without human interaction I become overly-thrilled. Genki Sushi needs to come to my college next year. 
Okay. So visa, movies, Sentosa Island, Genki Sushi. There was one more thing: THE LION KING!

I must say that I was absolutely thrilled to find that when I typed "Shows in Singapore" into Google, The Lion King Musical stint in Singapore comprised the first dozen hits. Tickets weren't cheap, but then I do have the greatest parents a traveling teen could ask for. So, I bought my ticket. And I went. And I would be violating the quality of the musical if I tried to explain it in words. The choreography, the music, the songs, the plot, the lighting, the sets, and, most of all, the costumes, made for the most magical theatrical performance I've ever witnessed in my life. No exaggeration. When I left, I was in awe of every ounce of creativity poured into the production. It was absolutely phenomenal. Go see it. Now. Or whenever it comes back to your country. HUGE thanks to my parents for letting me go and experience it. It's definitely something I will never, ever forget. 
So that was Singapore. Then I left and came back to Thailand.
I arrived in Bangkok on Friday afternoon and then took an overnight bus back to Chaing Klang, where I did an immediate 180 turn-around to teach at an English camp being held at a village about two hours from here. 

I taught weather. It was perfect, because the day went from sunny to cloudy, then to rainy, then to stormy. 
I enjoyed teaching the 80+ kids, all ranged from 6th to 9th grade, but I'm glad to be back from Singapore so I can go teach at the schools next week! I missed an entire week last week, so Cheri subbed for me. It was actually great that she subbed for me one day, because as she was having lunch with the teachers, she was asked about Christianity and about what we believe in. (Remember only .25% of the Thai population is Christian). So it was really incredible for her to be able to share what we believe and why we're here. There's no way I could have done that because I can barely ask for a fork in Thai. Cheri, on the other hand, is fluent. The Lord just keeps opening up doors for the team here, which is super exciting :)
Other side notes about life here:
Schools around here like to cancel simply because they don't feel like having school. So showing up to a school on a Wednesday morning only to find crickets chirping is quite common. This has happened to me twice now, and I've learned to roll with it.
I finally got curtains in my room! It didn't bother me when I didn't have them, but I think the other missionaries were a bit concerned about accidentally getting a free show.

I have called off the co-existing with certain bugs. This includes ants and the bugs that are attracted to my lights at night. They just couldn't keep their side of the deal. Oh well, their loss... literally.
The Nehemiah students come Friday! The Nehemiah kids are college aged kids who are coming for the summer to teach English. There are six girls and two guys, all teaching in schools and villages in the area.
Biw still thinks I'm anorexic because I don't eat rice 24/7. She's constantly telling me to eat more (in English), and I'm constantly telling her I'm full (in Thai). Those are two phrases we know well.
In Bangkok I bought a bunch of postcards. If you would like a postcard from yours truly, just give me your address and I'll stick one in the mail.
I also went to the Botanical Gardens in Singapore. Here are some pictures:

I got a care package! Full of books and pretzels and magazines. For those of you who didn't know me well before I started traveling, I will tell you now that about 70% of my former diet consisted of pretzels. But they just don't have them here. Nor do they have books in English. So I got both :) Once again, I have the greatest parents in the world. No doubt about it.