Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Scott Neufeld
So Jazzy and I are on our Christmas break right now, so there hasn't been much posted to the blog. Right now we are relaxing in Phuket on Christmas eve, and are going to the Fantasy Show tonight which is a Thailand speciality, complete with dinner. Should be fun. Tommorow we are going to relax in our hotel for Christmas day, and then fly home on boxing day. Then off to Bangkok for new years. Having a three week break has been great, but we do miss home at this time of year, even the snow I guess. But certainly our family and friends. So for all those who check this blog, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from both of us. We love you.
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Scott Neufeld
On a nice day on Koh Phi Phi, three girls saw a monkey sitting calmly on the beach enjoying the beautiful weather in Thailand. Said the girls to themselves, "We should get it to look at us". They all agreed. In their great wisdom, they decided against purchasing bananas or fruit (sold at a nearby stand) to feed the monkey and make it friendly. Rather, they chose simply to throw sand at it.....this video captured it all. Well done Jasmine (the one throwing the sand), Victoria (the one who ran the fastest) and Claire (the one in the far back).
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Scott Neufeld
Jasmine tried her best to be a chef at a local thai restaurant.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Scott Neufeld
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Scott Neufeld
So last weekend our school was involved in the cross bay swim challenge. This is sponsored by the rotary club of Pattaya and raises money towards a charity here. Jasmine signed up to participate as a swimmer. This involved a lengthy swim across the bay (gulf of Thailand). Basically, it costs so much to enter, and you raise this money by being sponsored, and that money goes to Charity. As you can see, many students and teachers were involved in this. All the swimmers got medals and t-shirts afterwards, plus a nice little lunch.
I too was involved. Initially I was going to be a swimmer too until one of my friends asked if I would help in Kayak support. I hadn't been on a kayak since grade ten, but I gave it a go. Basically, Kayak support stays alongside those swimmers who choose to do the 3.5 km swim and make sure they are okay. After the start, one of the thai officials assigned me to watch a certain participant, who happened to be the slowest guy there. At one point he was losing ground doing the breast stroke, so I was literally sitting still for about twenty minutes going nowhere. At this point, I decided to put my feet up and tan for a bit, and then proceeded to doze off. Falling asleep on a kayak sounds peaceful enough, unless you put too much weight to one side, which I did. I woke up to the wonderful feeling of ocean water as I flipped over. It was not great, but a lot of fun. Altogether that day, with the extra journey we went on, I kayaked about 12 km, which felt pretty good. Plus, I got a t-shirt out of it as well, so all was good. Jazzy and I have decided to enter an adventure race in early February next year, which would include running, swimming, biking and Kayaking.....so let the training begin.
Do you see the the guy in the blue kayak between the two boats. That's me!
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Scott Neufeld
Loy Krathong is held on the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar. In the western calendar this usually falls in November.
"Loi" means "to float". "Krathong" is a raft about a handspan in diameter traditionally made from a section of banana tree trunk (although modern-day versions use specially made bread 'flowers' and may use styrofoam), decorated with elaborately-folded banana leaves, flowers, candles, incense sticks etc. During the night of the full moon, many people will release a small raft like this on a river. Governmental offices, corporations and other organizations also build much bigger and more elaborate rafts, and these are often judged in contests. In addition, fireworksand beauty contests take place during the festival.
- Wikipedia
So at our school we celebrated Loy Krathong by dressing up, making "Krathongs" or boats made of wax and banana leaves and having a parade and celebration in the school oval. It was a long day in the hot sun, but it was quite fun. As I understand it, thai people float their Kathongs on the river to float away their sins and begin fresh. Its also a celebration to thank the goddess of the water for the water itself. Its quite a party in the Buddist faith. As you can see, our kids at school looked adorable.
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Scott Neufeld
Now where did I park my....aw crap!
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Scott Neufeld
You know that game where you sit a group of people in a circle, and start with the first person and whisper something in their ear, then that person tells the next, and all the way around the circle, and at the end the last person says what they were told and you see how close it is to the original statement. Well, we are learning in Thailand that that game is alive and well. Here at our school, it is a soap opera of people gossiping about other peoples lives. "Did you hear about", or "Well I heard" statements are quite common in these parts. I am told that gossip and straight forward statements are a part of Thai culture. Here however, at an international school, it has been proved to be quite dangerous. People love to gossip about other people, and even if its not true, they love to spread it. There is nothing that I can do about it, except that, lately I have found myself craving such "gossip" and knowing about other peoples lives as well. I am trying to stay out of those conversations as best I can, but quite honestly, it is very difficult. My friend Vicky tells me that English people LOVE to gossip, and that it is almost a way of life. The truth is its quite dangerous and can demoralize, demean, or devastate people and relationships. So again, I can't do much about it, except try to avoid those types of conversations myself. But did you hear about Scott.....apparently he's finding it quite hard.....
Friday, October 30, 2009
Scott Neufeld
After school today we had a "friendly" game of football (soccer to you folks in Canada) at the school. It was the bitter rivalry between the primary staff and the secondary staff. The youth and speed of the primary group versus the skill and experience of the secondary. The good looks and incredible talent of the primary versus the guys who talk slow and whose eyeballs don't quite match up. I played for the primary in case you couldn't guess. After 90 minutes of hard fought football, incredible goals, unbelievably bad calls by the ref, and alot of fun, the primary gang edged out the secondary squad 8-3. It was a victory of epic porportions and one that will go down in the history of Regent School football as one of the greatest matches of all time. Years from now our childrens children will be talking about this match and the skilled men who played it. Names like Reardon, Willms, Arnold and even Neufeld. And now, onto the weekend.....Brilliant!
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Jasmine Neufeld
So on our last day of classes before the midterm break our school had a fun day. We had been doing "literacy week" and had a bit of a dress up party on Friday to culminate it. Jasmine and I dressed up as football (soccer) players as that is what the year 3 class was studying all week. There was all cooking, Alladin, and food options, but we chose football. It was quite a fun day, and the kids all looked great.
Once the day was over, our week off "mid term break" began. We had decided that Bangkok would be a wonderful option for a few days, since it was close, cheap, and unexplored to this point. We and a group of friends stayed on Khaosan Road and enjoyed hanging around and exploring Bangkok. The shopping is incredible, and cheap, the food is very good, and the sights are amazing. Jasmine and I went on a boat ride around a Bangkok village that has roads made of water. It also has a floating market, many cool houses, many shanty town houses, and a cool spot where you can feed some fish. You throw bread into the water, and these huge fish come by and eat it. The size of these fish was amazing to say the least. We also saw the Kings old palace and the largest Buddist temple in the world. (We didn't go inside this time, but we will next time). We had a great time with our friends Rich and Claire, James and Lesley and Vicky. In Bangkok they have "Tuk Tuks" which are little motorized taxis that will take you anywhere. Since we were only there for three and a half days, there was much more to see. We are hoping to go back soon. Oh, we also found out that we missed the ATP Asian open tennis tournament by a week or two, so we will definetely be looking for that next year.
Once we got home we were quite tired (or Knackered as our English (Thanks Claire!) and Welsh friends would say) so we just relaxed for a few days back in Pattaya. We headed to the zoo, but on the way it began to rain really hard, so we stopped in a mall till it stopped. When it did stop the rain was making its way to sewers at a rapid pace and the street we were on was jam packed and flooded.
Nevertheless we made our way to the zoo, where we had a great time. It cost us each 3 bucks to get in, and they had an amazing display of animals. Lions and tigers and bears (don't say it). Gorillas, monkeys, porcupines, elephants, birds of all kinds, exotic animals, crocs, and many more. Jasmine and I went on the night safari which is where they take you on a tram and shine lights on the animals in the open so you can see what they are doing (apparently animals become more alive at night). I loved it. I don't think you can every really outgrow the zoo. We didn't take a lot of pictures because it was quite dark, but here are a few.
The next day, we had a lot of fun just hanging around Pattaya. We went and played Badminton, which I have not played for at least ten years, and man did my butt ever hurt the next day. We also went to Pizza Hut and enjoyed a pizza, bread sticks, and some pop. Pizza hut had a promo on that day. It was a pizza with a bunch of toppings. Fish, Squid, Shrimp, and other such vulgarities that do not belong in pizza. Have a look at the pic and tell me if that looks appetizing to you. We passed. Thanks anyway Thailand Pizza Hut.
All in all, a very restful and relaxing week. Oh, and during this week my Broncos won again to go 6-0, and my Oilers beat James Canucks 2-1 so it was a great week. Jazzy and the girls got their hair chemically straightened, we watched a movie (Law Abiding Citizen) in a theatre, and we had a wonderful incident with the Thailand police that worked out well in the end. So we are rested and ready to get started back at school for six weeks until our Christmas break, where we get three glorious weeks off. Beautiful. Thailand Beautiful.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Scott Neufeld
Hey, I have a question. What?
Monday, October 12, 2009
Scott Neufeld
When we came over here we knew we would have some challenges diving into a new culture. Our school is made up of many children from many nations. Korean, Indian, Thai, Chinese, English, American, Saudis, etc. There are many great aspects to working in our school as well as many challenges. The learning levels of all of these students range widely, so its tough to keep them on a moving path through the cirriculum. For example, in year three they are learning a list of 100 spelling words in term one, and my learning support kids are still on the first ten, while the other kids are learning the latter half of them. Some of my kids speak such good English that they won't shut up, and some hardly understand a word. In math, they split up the four classrooms into levels, and we work with the lower level. I asked one of my year three kids last week what 11+11 equaled, and after thinking about it she blurted out....."Twoty Two". (I had to stop myself from laughing right in her face, but it was super cute). I asked one of my students in year two a few weeks back to give me a word with the letter "E" in it, to which he replied, "E....U....N....A.........mouse". Hmmmmm. The other apsect is that it costs a lot of money to send your kid to this school, so most of our students are rich kids with maids and such, and don't know how to do alot of things on their own. Plus, in some cases, the parents don't spend a lot of time working on things at home with them, so at times this school makes you want to pull your hair out in terms of progress. Still, there are such wonderful pleasures in small rewards. I watched Jasmine teach her class the other day, and it was clear that the kids all love her and love music, and get excited to be in her class, even though they don't understand everything yet. Its quite a site to see a bunch of students dancing in a theatre and singing, "Peel Banana, Peel Peel Banana" while they dance around. And the girl who said Twoty Two was on the right track.....baby steps. So for now we will simply enjoy the process of helping our kids learn literacy, math, music, and become members of a sociological process, whatever that looks like. It is certainly good to be a part of it. And I think sometimes, we learn more from the kids than they learn from us.
Monday, October 05, 2009
Scott Neufeld
So we were downtown in Pattaya one fine night with some friends of ours, and we decided to stop in at KFC for a little snack. Right beside KFC was a band playing a bunch of cover songs and generally just having a good time. As we stood in line the girls, (we thought) were just waiting outside. When we came out we learned that not only were they not waiting for us anymore, but they had literally become the lead singers of this band. The former lead singer, a ladyboy to be sure, had been kicked to the back to make way for Jasmine and Lesley (Canadians) and Vicky (British). They made us proud, belting out a Katy Perry tune and dancing on stage. Well done girls! Surely, the music scene in Thailand will never be the same thanks to these three!
Thursday, October 01, 2009
Scott Neufeld
Okay, okay. I'll admit it.....I kinda miss our cat out here in Thailand. He is pretty great and does make life very fun. We often think of him and his crazy personality. He is scared of his own shadow, so it would be great to have him out here so he could be terrified of all the crazy traffic and the barking dogs and such. He would freak out all the time. He would never be able to relax. Dexter, for a cat, is a pretty great cat for sure. He has this fun side where he will play hide and seek with you, or fight with you for a bit while he purrs away, and then he has a super cuddly side where all he wants to do is lay beside you and cuddle up and sleep the day away. If he didn't shed so much he really would be the perfect cat. So as a tribute, and because we do miss him a bit, we dedicate this blog post in honor of our cat, Dexter. And a special thank you to Melissa who is looking after him for us while we are away. Melissa also has a cat named Dexter. They are becoming quite the pair. Here are some pics I stole off of Melissa's facebook page:
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Scott Neufeld
Enough Said?
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Scott Neufeld
I work in an english school. There are lots of people here from the UK, therefore, football is talked about all the time. My friend James (Canuck fan, brutal) recently caved and picked a team to cheer for (Manchester City) so I felt like I had to do the same. I could not pick the same team as James so I researched it and went with Liverpool. Great slogan on the top of their crest, exciting highlights, nice jerseys, they really are the whole package. Currently in third, behind Manchester United and Chelsea, they have a little catch up to do. So now I have a team to cheer for and talk about with the blokes (guys) here in Thailand. I still want to call it soccer, and defend hockey at all costs as the real sport, but for now, Liverpool it is!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Scott Neufeld
Today, I feel really discontent. I don't know if it is because I was quite sick with a bad cold yesterday and just have no energy, or because we have almost been out here for seven full weeks and have yet to receive a paycheck, but today my heart is longing for more. I have found in my life that discontentment is actually quite a dangerous feeling, because it forces me to spend a lot of energy focusing on the negatives aspects of my life rather than the positive. I hate having the "poor me" attitude, especially when I am in Thailand, and I am healthy and have a good job and good friends around me. However, for whatever reasons, today I feel quite discontent. My kids (students) seem especially rowdy today, and could care less that they all failed their spelling tests, and it just makes me want to give up on them. (I doubt very highly that I made my teachers feel this way ever when I was in school. Ya right!) Even the staff today seems unusually quiet and depressed. And its FRIDAY for goodness sake. We found out this week that some student in the secondary school has been diagnosed with H1N1 flu, and that the common cold seems to be going around. (I do feel quite better today by the way, and had no flu like symptoms, so I am sure I don't have the swine flu). I just feel discontent. I am staring out of the window of my classroom looking at this beautiful palm tree, and knowing there is a whole country out here that I have yet to explore, but I don't have the energy or the desire to do it right now. For those of you reading this, I would love for to leave a comment or two about what you to combat discontentment in your own life. I try to focus on the positive, and move on from there. It is friday, we do get paid in five days, there is basketball after school, and I am in Thailand having a great time and hanging out with good friends everyday. And that should be enough, really. But for some reason....
Monday, September 21, 2009
Scott Neufeld
This is a little video I took of it raining at our school. The thunder scared us all half to death when it cracked. For the full effect turn your speakers up. The rain here in Thailand is very cool. The skies will open up and it will pour for a while, then after it stops, the ground soaks it up so fast it looks like it didn't rain at all. Plus it is very warm rain, so its fun to be out in.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Scott Neufeld
This was an actual picture in the Pattaya newspaper this last week. It shows a young lady pointing at the assailants who robbed her. How is she identifying them with a sweater over her eyes? Why are there vehicle plates laying on the floor in front of the accused, and why is there a car in the living room? All very strange. In Thailand, you will regularly see pictures in the press of the victims of crimes pointing at the crooks who wronged them. If you get caught, you don't have any privacy laws to help you. You are going straight in the papers with someone pointing at you.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Scott Neufeld
So you want to come to Thailand and visit us in Pattaya? Well we would love to have you. Before you come though you need to practice saying no in a mirror, because when you get here you will be surrounded by people trying to sell you stuff. In malls, stores and streets people are always trying to get your attention, and more importantly, get your baht. You will be stopped by a sweet lady with a bunch of t-shirts, and soon as you say no to her, there is a man shaking your hand calling you "boss" and inviting you into his tailor shop where he wants to sell you a nice suit. Yeah, i'm in Thailand and it feels like +40, i really do need a suit. As soon as you move past him there is a street vendor with Thai food and another one with fruits calling your name. You say to them Mai ow (my ow) which means "I don't want that". You buy some food and sit on a bench to eat it and a child with flowers approaches you, and then a girl with a rack of hats, and a guy selling thai lottery tickets. I couldn't keep the money even if I won so why are you selling me that. You figure that you will be better off walking along the beach then in the market, but here you go again. Friendly thai people by the bunches approach you with a plethora of items for you to buy, including beach loungers, boat rides, parasailing coupons, food, fruit, jet ski rentals and scuba diving packages. Mai ow. Mai ow. MAI OW. The problem is that these people are so friendly, and so willing to serve you to make sure you have everything you need that you can't really get mad at them. So you just smile, and make a habit of saying, Mai ow with a smile on your face so not to offend. So again, we would love to have you come and visit us, but get ready to say no alot as we take you into the streets and markets. And when you do say yes to these people and buy something from them, they smile at you, thank Buddha for the blessing of the sale, then move on the next person. The thing of it is this: as much as it gets tiring saying no and trying to walk in peace, it is one of the many amazing things that makes this feel like such a warm and inviting country. I wouldn't change it if I could.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Scott Neufeld
Excuse me....I believe I ordered the large calzone......HELLO!
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Scott Neufeld
On Saturday, James and Lesley called us and told us that they heard about a waterfall hike, and wanted to go and see it. So we all grabbed moterbikes and headed off for a great adventure together. It was only about 45 minutes away on the bikes, so that was great. However, the day provided more excitement than we had anticipated. Here is our sequence of events:
-Rent motorbikes and get on our way
-Get pulled over by thailand police. Expired insurance on the one of the bikes and didn't have my drivers license on me. Offer the cop that standard 100 baht bribe ($3.12 Canadian) and we are on our way again.
-Arrive at hike, get to waterfall, and have a great time.
- Leave for home
-James rear tire goes flat. Pulls over to the side of the road where we notice this lovely snake.
-Get to shop. Fix tire. On our way again.
-Arrive at home.
All in all, a very fun day. Oh and about the cop. In Thailand they will pull you over without cause or reason. If they do, when they ask for your papers, you simply but 100 baht in the paperwork, which they pocket and then happily send you on your way. No problems. No questions. Is it shady and corrupt? Yes. Still, better than the $200 plus tickets you get in Canada for minor offenses.
