Travels

After earning a teaching fellowship from Princeton University’s program, Princeton in Asia, I moved 10,000 miles to Chiang Mai, Thailand. I taught 8th grade English at The Prince Royal’s College, a K-12 private school. Here is a photo journal of my ten months in Thailand.

: The Prince Royal’s College

: This is my desk in a shared office of about 12 teachers. We had three native English-speaking teachers, 2 Chinese teachers, and 7 Thai English teachers

: Here I am teaching M5. I taught 12 sections of 8th Grade English with each class having 43-48 students.

: Great students

: Students working on a newspaper scavenger hunt.

: Sports Day!

: Floats made by students.

: All of the students participating in Sports Day

: Playing with cut out fish on Sports Day. Not sure why…

: Kindergarten English Camp. I got the fruits and vegetables identification station. It was fun

: Kindergarteners–they were so fun to hang out with.

: My 8th Grade Gifted English Students. <3

: Students, me, and my boss, Ajarn (teacher) Saowanee

: Basketball courts

: Ping pong is huge here. When the nets broke, students would stack bricks the length of the table and continue play.

: Family transportation

: Warrorat Market

: Rickshaws hanging out and waiting for business.

: I saw this man driving his wife every day on my way home from school.

: Besides walking and motorbike rides from friends, my most frequent mode of transportation were song teaws, aptly named for their two benches inside (song=2). Fares were usually 20 baht each way, roughly 60 cents.

kitchen

Bar in the front, desk in the back. Pretty clever, huh?

Our apartment was about 500 square feet and we really loved it

From our balcony we could see the wat (temple) next door. The monks woke up at 4am and at 4:15 they would bang their gong, chant, and the temple dogs would go crazy!

Golden wat at Doi Suthep

Bells at Doi Suthep

Lanna-style dancing

marble buddha

Praying at Doi Suthep

wat

Wat's doors

This was at an elephant camp. While it was sad to see the elephants chained up, many "free" elephants in Thailand go hungry since they eat massive amounts of food that they're not able to get on their own.

Stalls in Chiang Mai Night Bazaar, which was five minutes from our apartment.

Starbucks in Chaing Mai. I went one time during my 10 months there.

Ping River that runs through Chiang Mai

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At the lake

Princeton in Asia group at the lake

fruit!

rice!

Our cooking instructor, Perm Poon

Cooking, Thai style!

goodluck

The mango rose I made

My best mate, Kate

Roman finished up his MFA in Creative Writing at Boston University and joined me in August (I got there in June). Two weeks later we were married

We loved getting massages! Foot massages usually ran around 200 baht, $6.

We loved getting massages! Foot massages usually ran around 150 baht, about $5.

One of our favorite places to hang out was the Van Bar, aptly named because they served drinks out of a converted van. They served the best popcorn there, also

blue yellow lanterns 2

Loi Krathong is a Thai holiday that takes place on the full moon in November of each year. Lanterns are lit and released into the sky and candles are floated away on rafts down the rivers to let go of any negative thoughts a person has. Monks assist with lighting the lanterns.