This is OUR town

Welp, after an 11 hour bus ride to the city of Ubon, and then another 30 or so (I fell asleep so I have no clue) to Phibunmangsahan, we made it.

We are now temporary residents of Phibunmangsahan - spending our nights in the local hotel (there is only one).

Once we arrived, we checked into the hotel, dropped our bags and wandered around. We found the market, saw the wild horses grazing on the soccer fields, and saw where our school is. While walking around, everyone kept staring. I guess they don’t see too many (if any) westerns in this area. The girls would give us these HUGE smiles and giggle when we said hello, and the boys would shout “HELLO, HELLO” to us - since they didn’t know anything else. We would just wave and say hello. I guess this is what a celebrity feels like…well, except the fact we can’t understand anything they say to us.

This morning we woke up on a hunt to find apartments. We got lunch (I tried to order in Thai - but had to just end up pointing). Then we kept walking, and ended up in the part by the river. There were TONS of people sitting by the water, laying in hammocks, etc. sleeping, picnic-ing, and plenty with their bottles of Hong Thong and Coca-Cola. We kept walking along the water, exploring the shops, and just saying our hellos to all who stared (everyone).

Then we got to the coffee shop in our hotel to get some internet action. There was a young boy who kept coming over to us, so I decided to practice my Thai (from the thai dictionary) on him. Everytime I asked something in Thai, he answered in English. That gave me promise that I might be able to communicate with my students! It also made me realize he probably WILL be one of my students. We will see once I step in class this week.

Afterwards we headed down to get some dinner - I had to order for us since the menu was in Thai Script and I carry a “cheat sheet” of traditional Thai dishes.

As we walked past, we passed a family eating outside their house and we said Hello, and they invited us to eat with them! Well, since we don’t know much Thai yet - we didn’t realize it until we were a block past. Then we felt like morons! We are going to “casually walk past” again tomorrow, and if they ask us again we will DEF say yes and sit with them!

Tomorrow we get to meet with the head of our department and he will show us some apartments, and hopefully the school - we start teaching on Wednesday!

Sawasdee Kha,
Apes