Sa wat dee kah!

Sa wat dee kah! I arrived safely in Ubon on Monday morning, and have now been “living Thai” for about four days. Initial impressions: fantastic! It’s true: the people here are some of the friendliest I’ve met; they’re incredibly welcoming, are eager to help me in any way they can, and what I’ve found most striking is that they truly want to befriend me, through language barriers and all. At this time in my journey, I am hugely thankful for this, because although I have just moved to a foreign country and do not speak the language, I don’t feel alone.

Probably my favorite thing I’ve done so far is touring the city on the back of a motorbike. I felt like I was in a movie, and then I kept remembering that it was real life, and I was totally blown away. One of my fellow teachers took me all around the city, including driving through street markets (complete with unrefrigerated raw meat sitting out on big platters and large bowls of insects), past a few of the multitude of temples that pepper the city, along the slow-moving Mun River (pronounced “moon”), and through China town, with our final destination being this fantastic outdoor food-cart plaza. There were dozens of carts just finishing setting up by the time we arrived for dinner, with culinary delights from the region. I had chicken satay with peanut sauce (my new favorite food) and a traditional Lao sausage, which is a pork sausage containing sticky rice that is allowed to age or ferment, making it a bit sour. We ended the night by going to a local ex-pat hangout, owned by an Australian, to have a Thai beer. I have to say—so far, Thai food has been unbelievable, but man, I’m going to miss my dark Vermont microbrews! 

Other foods I’ve tried so far: frog (a whole, but very small, frog fried up so it’s like a fishy french-fry), crocodile meat, lotus root, dragon fruit, and guava. Not a bad start, eh?

Today was the first day of school, which I’ll post more about later. One thing I will share, is that I’m going to have to get a heck of a lot better at teaching people who don’t really speak English. Challenge: accepted. (PS Thai 5^th and 6^th graders are ADORABLE)