French Cheese,Crepes and King Cobras....

So after a night of celebrating our first teaching experience in the local: Supan's house, we used Friday as a rest day to nurse our hangovers and decided to take it easy. 

Stephens new toy!!

When Saturday came we went shopping for an early birthday present for Stephen, as it was something we had discussed buying for a while now. We had just gotten our last paycheck and feeling flush, we purchased the new Samsung S4 Zoom, as this solved the issue of not having a second phone and not having a decent camera for travel pics. The Samsung Zoom, which if you aren't aware of what it is, it's probably because it hasn't arrived in Europe yet. Instead of giving you a run down of how amazing this piece of technology is, have a look for yourself in this link: Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom. All I can say, after playing with this for a while is, it's a beast and will now allow us to take much better pics for this blog and for ourselves.

Saturday night we headed back to the local as they were having a themed party: French cheese,wine and crepes, cooked by a french girl that is friends with the bar owner, and attended by all the local Thai and farangs who frequent the bar. We had a great night and capped it off by taking on the challenge of "crepe face" The idea is you place a crepe on your face for fun then try to eat the whole thing without using your hands, I (Stephen) was the only one to complete it in one go, nearly choking in the process, but totally worth it as I announced my joy with a mouth full of Crepe☺.

Kristine was also extremely happy as they had a special on french cheese and bread, and as she had been craving real cheese as she called it for a while and because it's soooo expensive here as is all imported foods she was delighted, and easy singles weren't going to cut it. I know there's a "cut the cheese" joke in there some where...

Aaron and Pim

On Sunday we had our day planned and with new camera in hand, we set off on the road again with Aaron and his other half Pim, who was visiting from Bangkok. We planned to head to the King Cobra Village only 1 hours drive by moped from Khon Kaen, we made a quick pit stop in the local shopping center to get some food and found ourselves drawn to the arcade for Stephen to get his gaming fix. We found ourselves playing mainly guitar hero and Stephen and Aaron showing off their moves on the dance machine.There is a video but he has requested it not be shown... we'll see!!

On the road again and after what seemed like forever after passing some unusual sights such as a woman/ninja taking a few water buffalo for a walk down the main street and a cow that looked like it hadn't eaten a meal in weeks. I tried to help out by shouting "Your surrounded by grass cow, tuck in", but I think it's the language barrier here ☺.  Better brush up on my Thai!

And finally  some healthier  looking cows who had a bit more "cop on" and looked a lot healthier against the serene Thailand country side which we will never tire of seeing.



We arrived at the main attraction and took our seats for the snake show. The show itself was free and they only asked for donations after each act which consisted of a range of Thais coming on stage and trying their best to be killed by antagonizing some of the biggest cobras we've ever seen face to face.


They allowed us to take photos of the show and we witnessed some crazy things ranging from a woman putting huge live pythons heads into their mouths and men doing the same, only down their trousers to which every man in the audience winced slightly. 

Also a 70 year old man being chased by a 10 foot python and swinging him around, so he was only a meter from where we sat. Next they had a boy come on who was six years old and he danced with a snake, as it launched itself towards him only for him to move at the last second reminiscent to bull fighting only with with a cobra that looked pretty mean.

Aaron smooching

After the show we were allowed to take pics with some of the snakes ourselves and they placed some of the heavy pythons around our necks, which we all gave a go some braver then others. ☺ 
One woman offered to put a King Cobra around my neck but after seeing the show and how angry they could be I declined. I was happy to pose for some pics for some curious Thais, who were amazed by the falang with the snake on his neck.

We had a brilliant day and after another hour on the bikes to get home, we went for a well deserved Thai massage.The 1 hour Thai massage with herbal tea and a foot bath in rose petals and lime before hand that only set us back 8 Euro.. don't mind if we do ☺

Teacher Stephen and Teacher Kristine

Ready to rumble

So the day had finally arrived, we had our first teaching experience with real students and an assessor who would be sitting in the corner grading our performance and making sure we followed the structure. 

Needless to say we were both bricking it. So our school week finished at 4pm on Thursday and the class was timed in for 5pm.

We had been given an hour to prepare our class room and ourselves. So we got "suited and booted" and began preparing the board. 

The class started off with us telling a story of a police man and a driver. We played both parts the policeman and the driver. The policeman stopping the driver for driving to fast (doing our best motorbike impressions ☺)  and asking him questions from an ID card such as “What is your first name?” and answering “My first name is___.” and so on...

We tried to get them to use proper sentences structure and also work on pronunciation, but also trying to make them laugh in the process which they happily obliged, as Thais love nothing more than joking and smiling.
For this lesson we had to teach 4 students ranging in age. The premise is to write 4 sentences using present tense, asking the students questions about what’s on an ID card.




What is your _________?
My ________ is ______.
Is your ______ ________?
Yes, it is. / No, it isn’t.

Comparing answers from the Exercise

We would have to explain nationality as opposed to country, gender, height, weight etc. Which when I asked, "What is your weight?" they would answer fat or skinny ☺. Having to explain it, was where it got interesting and fun.

Roleplay

We both walked out after an hour with huge smiles on our faces.It is an amazing feeling, having kids come into your class room with next to no English and before the end of the class they are able to answer all the questions even when we had removed all the information on the board and they also were able to complete some exercises and test sheets. We both got a 9/10 from our evaluators, and they said it was close to perfect for a first try and that we would only get better with time.

The relief of having the first teaching experience under our belts has given us a lot more confidence and we are looking forward to next Thursdays class. This time we will be doing a restaurant lesson, and the aim is to teach them the verbs: would, can and may, using similar structure.

We got home that night, still on a high and celebrated with a well deserved drink ☺ It was then we had fully realized that we had made the right decision to quit our jobs and head off to Thailand to start this new experience in the "land of smiles".

Absinthe cocktail 

Saturday at the market and bad luck Sunday

So Saturday night came and we were all set to head into town to find this market we have been told so much about. The walking market, from what we have read, is open from 5.30 till 10.30 and takes roughly 3 hours to navigate. 

We headed into town on the "Rocket" and after searching for nearly an hour to no avail, we stood on a corner and were waiting to meet Aaron who was out on a date. 

While waiting, a Thai approached us in the usual friendly manner, announced he could speak English and asked where we were heading, as they also tend to do. After telling us the market we wanted was miles away he sent us to the Tontann Market, the second biggest market, which was only 10 minutes’ drive.  

We parked up and began to explore, the market itself was a midst 100’s of lit up palm trees, beautiful ponds and Thais running around full of excitement. We were unsure what all the commotion was about and followed them to a stage where we had to push through to see the spectacle which at first shocked us as we were greeted with 200 men standing in line greased up, wearing only a banana hammock and a smile. We read the sign and seen it was a body building competition.

Next group waiting to flex their muskles

The Thai people were cheering and whooping as they brought each group on stage.  Myself and Aaron covered the girls eyes and expressed that there is nothing to see here we should move on quickly ☺ Nudies!!

The market was huge and at every stand the sellers were more interested in watching their screens and cheering then trying to sell us anything, turns out Thailand was playing Japan in a final of a volleyball tournament which seems to be one of the national sports here, so we cheered when they did too, many a returned smile and it lifted the spirit of the night as they won. We spent a few hours walking around taking the usual tourist pics and viewing all the art pieces set around the perimeter of the grounds.

Koi-Pond

We purchased a few items and forgot to haggle, as it seemed cheap enough and had some food from the stands... not the bug stand though, as the stomach wasn't ready to be eating cockroaches and crickets like last time we were here. 

The Thais seem to love them but to us they just taste like burnt popcorn and it was just the issue of knowing what you were putting in your mouth.

A good night was had by all and I even got back in time to watch some of the footie with Kenny in the local with a large outdoor screen!!

Then came Sunday…. SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY!!!

We were told about a large Shopping center around the corner from us and said we would check it out… this place was crazy, they had all manner of Thai restaurants and even a few American one’s. We've seen places with 4 course meals for 3.50 and even a KFC... 

Here’s one for you, the Thais eat KFC with a knife and fork, probably the first time I've seen them use a knife as its all fork and spoon here… oh yes they’ll happily shove a few cockroaches or spiders down their throats with their hands but they ain't picking up no KFC chicken leg.. Yuck ☺

They also had an arcades there and I was very happy to see they had Pro evolution soccer, as I have been getting PlayStation envy with all these FIFA 14 and GTA 5 Facebook posts...

And then I saw they had booths where you could sit in for the day and order a few beers while singing karaoke in a sound proof room.. We have penciled it in for next week and hopefully I’ll put up a video of me and Kristine singing some Thai songs, oh and of course I’ll get Kristine to sing some Jolene… Feck off she is shouting at me as I write this.. Too late it’s in ☺

As we were leaving the bad luck began, Kristine slipped and her knee popped a way it shouldn't have, leaving her in agony on the ground, turns out she sprained it after slipping on a surface outside of the Tesco Lotus here.. Unfortunately suing is out of the question, so it was a trip to the pharmacy.. 

We came home first and I put her into bed while she screamed in agony. I ran to the freezer hoping to find something to put on her knee to bring down the swelling but we go out for every meal, as it’s cheaper and all I could find was a bag of sweet chili sauce from our last take out. Popped it in the freezer and it worked just as well ☺☺

I was nurse Stephen for the day…

Later that day I went out to try hunt down somewhere to watch the Dublin v Mayo final (not easy in Thailand) and with the help of some friends back home found some sites I could stream it on, so big thanks to everyone that tried to help me. And here is were my luck ran out, 10 minutes before the game started while in a bar the WiFi went down and the Man United game started. 

My super sister sent me 10 minute updates of the scores as they happened in the GAA Final and I realised I was missing a great game. All the while, Manchester United the football team I support, began to get a spanking from a rival, Manchester City, ending 4-1. I had raced home at half time to try get the end of the Dublin game on our WiFi at home, only to arrive as it finished, damn time difference turned me around.. oh well the win is the important part.. g'won the Dub's.

Tuesday now and Kristine's leg is much better, she is taking pain killers, anti inflammatory tablets and wearing a bandage and is alot more mobile now, so it doesn't seem as bad as we had feared. Roll on our first teaching class on Thursday :) 

Meeting our first Tarantula and the start of the weekend!!!

Our Running track at night

It finally arrived, our first week of school done and we all let out a unanimous sigh of relief and decided we needed to relax, let our hair down and enjoy a drink or several. We said we would be good and went jogging by the lake first.
We got there around 8 and it was already dark for an hour as the sun goes down early here and the town comes alive. We were happy to see that we had the lake to our selves lit up by lamps around the edge for most parts but some of the track covered in darkness and some strange noises coming from the over growth surrounding it. We finished our laps and decided to throw in some push ups, as we finished we looked down to the same spot we had been working out and seen a big hairy spider as thick and as big as my hand.

Cobalt Blue Tarantula

We all jumped about 3 feet in the air and then cursed ourselves as we didn't have a camera with us and got out of there pretty sharpish. After looking up spiders of Thailand we discovered we had met our first Cobalt Blue Tarantula (not poisonous, but packs a nasty bite)
And that's when we realised why we had been having such quiet runs in the evenings as the Thais' are not stupid and are aware that all these nastys are nocturnal and only come out at night. After telling a few Thais about our rendezvous with the 8 legged beast of the lake they said: "Ohh just spider, no snake." So we will now be running in daylight only. Lesson learned....

Hootive - Graffiti master

That night we went down to our local bar, Supans House and had a few drinks with the owner Rainny, her sisters boyfriend Hootive, who studies fine art and sells graffiti paintings which are amazing and a few of the falangs (Thai for foreigner) that live above the bar. One of them Dylan an American guy who has been living in Japan for the past 9 years and is over here for research. He is also a big fan of movies, so as the drinks started to flow we debated all our favourites for hours.

Thairish dancing 

Halfway through the night Rainny told us she new some Irish and proceeded to shout "Ah here leave it out" in her best Irish accent which had us cracking up. In return once I had the confidence of a few rums, I announced I could teach her Irish dancing, making most of it up on the spot but they believed me anyway.
We had a few beers and realised it would be cheaper to buy a bottle of Thai Rum and just pay for the mixers (bottles of local spirits only cost about 8-10 €) and we only spend about 2 euro on mixers for the whole night for the two of us.. saving money already :-)

The next day we nursed our hangovers and decided to attempt a high intensity work out to sweat out any remaining rum in our systems before heading out for dinner.

We came across a place which did a Thai BBQ buffet. It consisted of paying €3.50 for all you can eat but the only draw back or bonus which ever way you want to look at it is, you cook it all yourself at your table using a hot pot and chopsticks.

The Wolf-Pack

It took a while to get the hang of it but worked out pretty good, as we worked our way through the variety of mystery meats ranging from steak pieces, chicken, pork, shrimp, squid and a few more we didn't recognise but we assumed they were possibly stomach lining, liver, heart pieces and unusual marshmallow fish pieces. Classic Thailand!! Aaron had more guts when it came to trying the mystery meats then we had. Which is ironic, as we believe some of the meat might have been guts... ;-)

After having so much to eat and struggling with the meat sweats we retired to bed, excited about the weekend and visiting the night market tomorrow...

Starting the TEFL Course 1st week of School

So it finally arrived, our first day at the TEFL course (bricking it a bit ;-). 

It’s been while since we were both in school, probably a decade now, so hoped the brain could still function at taking in information that wasn't related to what boozer I’m going to on the weekend and what teams to pick for my accumulator (gambling is illegal in Thailand, which is another good thing as I (Stephen) was useless at it :-)

Our training consists of a 6 week course Monday to Thursday (3 day weekend baby) and each Thursday from the second week on-wards we would be straight into the classroom, teaching 3-4 kids they round up from around the area.

1st day of school

Day one we woke up early, knocked into our American neighbor and class mate and set off on the red rocket 5 minutes down the road to where we would be taking the class. 

We went in early to get breakfast in the complex and of course had to take the first day of school picture, like the ones that engulfed Facebook back at the start of September.

The complex was huge and had 30 food stands with all types of food and juice bars to pick from.

My breakfast usually consists of chicken, rice and a fried egg, whereas Kristine is a lot more adventurous an has tried nearly everything they have to offer at this stage.

Teacher Boris

We got to class early and met our new mentor for the next 6 weeks (Teacher Boris). In Thailand the kids refer to you by first name so we will soon be teacher Stephen and teacher Kristine... We can’t wait.

We filled out the required forms and where given a rundown of the course and then went straight into grammar and the 12 tenses...WHAT! 12 tenses!!... Past present and future and each one having 4 tenses within... At this stage I realized how little I knew about my first language and got very nervous about the thoughts of teaching but as the day progress it all started to come back to me, Kristine was the star pupil on the first day, as she had done this more recently and that night helped me understand and memorize everything I needed, she was awesome. 

I think the last time I had to learn this stuff was when I was 6 or 7 years old and the fact I struggle to remember what happened last week, I knew this would be a challenge. 

The first week we went over everything we need to know about conjugating sentences and the difficulties we would face teaching Thai kids, as the Thai language doesn't have tenses, articles and prepositions.

So if they talk about going to the market it’s usually summarised as:

- I go  market yesterday

- I go market today

- I go market tomorrow

It was the same with plurals if they want more than one of something they put the number at the end i.e.: "bowl rice two, please" instead of: "I would like two bowls of rice please." and it will be our job to teach them the correct sentence structure. We continued the week in this manner and did some presentations and practice sessions while studying at night and were glad when 4 pm hit on Thursday and it was the weekend and we could relax. 

And then the drinking could begin...... :-)

Aaron, Kenny, Kristine and Stephen

Our new home and Bangkok belly ;-)

For those of you who don't know what Bangkok belly is, your very lucky, as it left me (Stephen) bed ridden and with a permanent tie to the toilet...so that was my first day in Khon Kaen.
However, Kristine got a tour of the University grounds from the daughter of the owner of the apartments Izumi  and came back filled with great stories of our new surroundings, which she explained to me through the bathroom door. "Good to know", I replied: "Now please blare some music, this next part is gonna get ugly." ;-)



She described the area and all the amenities on offer including:

• football field,
• basket ball, 
• gymnasium,
• out door gym equipment and 
• running track around a beautiful lake
• and much more

It also has a lot of shops, markets and student bars mostly with live music.
"We were sold!" and once my ailment had cleared, I too was ready to explore.

The red rocket 2

We met our new neighbor and as it turns out, fellow class mate, a nice guy from Washington DC who gave us the run down and the best places to eat and visit. So after getting our new mode of transport we had our newly formed bike gang and were ready to venture into the city and explore the campus in it's entirety.

So in the first week we have tried to go jogging every night and are hopefully starting Muay Thai soon.
This time next year it will be me and Conor Mcgregor showing the UFC how its done :-)

Next week, after a stressful week of studying, :) we will try and treat ourselves to a trip to the national park and big Buddha on the mountain, so we will keep you posted...

Train journey to Khon Kaen

Thais tend to ask you a million questions.
They vary from where you're going, how long your going for and for what reasons.
But everyone we told that we were heading to Khon Kaen laughed in our faces, which we have to say, made us a bit nervous but we later realized it is just because tourists don't normally go there, as it's quite a bit out of the way and it isn't really a tourist destination but a great way to see the real Thailand.
The questioning isn't spying but curiosity and they seem generally interested in what these "farangs" are up to in their country.

 Train to Khon Kaen, Hua Lamphong

So after much deliberation on our part, we decided on taking the 8.20am train to Khon Kaen from Hua Lamphong Railway Station, which Stephen kept calling "Hua Long Dong" train station, he couldn't remember it after being told 500 times...
The tickets were 399 baht (10 Euro) for a 8 hour, 2nd class with air-con journey. Classic Thai time keeping, it actually took about 10 hours...
One thing we had to learn quick is that Thais don't believe in time keeping and if they are late, then this is the norm and not to be questioned..
It's Thailand - so get use to it.

The journey flew in and at every stop street food vendors came on the train and we were offered food and drinks and we have also seen some amazing surroundings and villages heading into rural Thailand away from the city, you can see a bit in the video but not easy to record while being bounced around in between carriages.

We arrived at 6 pm and walked out of the train station hoping to find a taxi but we were no longer in touristy Bangkok and there was none to be found.
After a 30 min agitated walk through town asking everyone if they recognized the address we were given, only to be met by dumbfounded expressions so we apologized and kept walking.

The hunger took over and I exclaimed I required a toastie from the 7/11, a quick easy cheap snack (24THB), when I came out Kristine was chatting with a Thai man showing him the address using all her arsenal of Thai words we have learned to communicate. He then called over a police officer who tried his best but had to call over a Tuk Tuk driver to join the now comical group standing in the middle of the streets with 60kg in backpacks and suit cases trying to find our new home, using a method of pointing at maps and names we had written down and trying the old "Point and speak Louder" technique to no avail.
After some deliberation and a few phone calls the Tuk Tuk driver decided he knew where we were going (or so he claimed). Even Mr. Pilkington could have called that one! ☺

So what we thought would be a 20 min journey turned out to be an hour of stopping and asking people for directions every 10 mins, we finally arrived at Khon Kaen University and were brought to our new home down an dark alley way past a lot of barking and chasing dogs.

We arrived at the Mijang Mansions and were shown to our new apartment by the daughter of the owner who spoke fluent English after growing up in America, her name is Izumi and she took away a lot of fears by explaining that we are still on campus and everything is only around the corner, but at 9pm at night in the pitch darkness, we just thought we were living in a field in the middle of nowhere.