Hello from Chiang Rai!
I arrived here on Monday, so I've been here for five days. After waking up at 4:30am to say goodbye to everyone, I flew with my province buddies and arrived nice and early Monday morning.
Chiang Rai is definitely the complete opposite of Bangkok, but in a good way. There is no traffic, and tons of lush, green landscape; mountains and rice fields galore, which is a nice and refreshing change from the smog and traffic congestion of BKK. PCC is a beautiful campus with palm trees and ponds (it kinda looks like a resort) and everyone in the Foreign Languages Department is super nice! The director of the school LOVES me; she has decided that I have "tan skin" and she LOVES it. The other day Alexis, Jessie, and I were standing at morning assembly, and the director came over to compliment me on my tan skin and "poo pooed" Alexis and Jessie's skin color. Oh well. At least I have gotten them to accept that darker skin is just as beautiful as White skin. At least I think I have. Cultural Ambassador Job # 1 is completed!
Am I making friends? Well I am one of three American English teachers here. My housemate, Alexis, is from New Orleans, while Jessie (the other teacher) is from Idaho. Jessie lives off-campus with her boyfriend. Both are great, and both have been supremely helpful in terms of showing me around school, helping me get situated, etc. Alexis has rented a scooter for two weeks, so free transportation for me! We go into town for dinner and to walk around; she took me on a nice ride around town to see everything. We are thinking of renting one for a month at a time and splitting the cost, as it comes out to the best method of transportation to get to and from town.
So far the only negative thing about Chiang Rai and PCC is my new house. If you could even call it a house. I would say that the word "garage" or "shack" is a better description. It's definitely as cold as a garage. I didn't believe them when they said that Thailand has a cold season and that it gets cold up North. But it sure does! I wake up freeezzzing every morning. Granted it's only like 60 degrees, but when you're used to 95 degree weather in BKK, 60 feels like winter! Did I mention that my house is legit just made out of cement and wood? Yeah, it's real rustic. Oh well, it seems to be the only downside to PCC, so I'm learning to live with it. I'm trying to make my room as cozy and comfortable as possible, so that it will be a place I want to go home to at the end of the day. I bought a rug, a full-length mirror, and new sheets (they gave us ugly brown plaid ones), and it already looks better than when I moved in! All that's left is some wall decorations (wish I had my tapestries from Skidmore) and maybe a floor lamp.
I haven't done actual teaching yet. This week I've just been introducing myself to my students. They ask me questions about myself, NYC, and the U.S. and then I show them pictures of my family and friends. All of them looked extremely confused each time I showed them a picture of my mom, so I finally started to explain that my mom is White, my dad is Black, and that's how I am Brown. A lightbulb goes off in their head and then they all go "oooohhhhh". They mean well so it's cute. So far my students seem like a good batch kids!
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