wheels

Surat Thani is a place with blistering sun and oppressive humidity, a place that makes you grateful for every breeze. The steaming bowls of spicy noodles do little to ease the burn. I find my brain and my limbs sluggish in this heat, every movement a great effort. As the sun sets and the waitress pours a beer over ice, the world clears up and my pulse quickens to normal.

Life is busier here than it is in Zafra. The streets wake up before seven every day, and rather than European microcars and pedestrians, they're crowded with motorbikes, SUVs, and smoke-belching pickup trucks. Food carts ring their bells as they pass houses and shops and cars and motorcycles blow past them. Lane markers are mere suggestions, to be taken or ignored according to the driver's whim or convenience; most choose to go where they see empty pavement, regardless of those yellow lines.

Frankly, I'm terrified of the streets, but it was too much of a hassle to be without transportation, so Levi and I bought a motorbike, a used teal Honda with some scratches and cracks, but she's got spirit. I haven't yet mastered the art of Thai driving, but I'm determined.

I'm getting the hang of my classes. Teaching little kids is like putting on a show. Since they won't learn if they're bored, the goal is to keep them laughing while tricking them into speaking English. It's not a difficult task; they're eager to please and highly excitable, and even if they don't understand a word I'm saying, they're quick to respond with cheers and grins. It's hard not to leave smiling.

whirl

It took 54 hours, a bus, three planes, and one panicked double-back to the airport to recover forgotten luggage, but we got here. Surat Thani is still a bit of a mystery to me, as we have yet to acquire a bike and it's not a walkable place with its traffic and unmarked backstreets and occasional lack of sidewalks. We've been riding around in tuk-tuks, little trucks with benches in the back who will take you anywhere for about 50 cents, but whose route and travel time are ever uncertain. So it's been a strange week, spent half in transit and half on the attempts to pull together a life--learn the job, set up the house, figure out what food to ask for and where to buy the various objects always necessary after a move. All I know for certain is that the food is delicious and everyone smiles. Once we buy a motorbike I'll figure the rest out.

In the mornings I'm at Thidamaepra School, a shiny modern ring of a building that encircles 2000 children and a handful of nuns. I teach three sections of Intensive English Program second-graders, fifty-five to a class. This week I instructed them on demonstratives and body parts while their Thai teacher menaced the troublemakers with a ruler. They give us free food at lunchtime and when we walk through the building dozens of little hands surround us for high-fives and "Hello Teacher!" comes at us from all angles.

In the afternoons I'm at Super English, the school that hired us. Here I have two classes of ten kids, aged four to six. Since I'm alone with them and they don't understand a word I'm saying, keeping the situation under control has been a bit of a challenge. But they have fat cheeks and call me 'Teacher Sawee" so it's pretty hard to get irritated. After finishing classes, it's a short walk to a one-dollar dinner of curry or noodles.

It's all still a blur of spicy food and sleepiness; I don't think it's really hit me that I'm here. This weekend we're shopping for a bike and I'm gonna get this place figured out.

PS I'll keep this blog at its current address, despite the fact that I am no longer anywhere near Europe.