Teaching English

Since I've started this job, many many people have asked me if I will be teaching English in Laos, and I always had the same answer: no. At least until recently. 

A few weeks ago my manager Ya asked if I would be up for tutoring his cousins in English so they can get better at their pronunciation.  I was very hesitant because I like my free time on the weekends and I didn't want to spend additional time outside of teaching to prepare for English lessons.  But since he was so excited about the possibility of me helping out and assured me I wouldn't have to prepare lessons because they already take English class (it would just be for pronunciation), it was difficult for me to say no, and I ended up caving pretty quickly. I started almost immediately and I now meet with Ying (girl), Jee (girl), Lao-Jee (boy), and Dtee (Boy) on Saturday and Sunday for two hours each day. They are all cousins and between the ages of 16 and 18.  We meet at Ying's house which is about a 5 minute walk from my house, so it can't get much more convenient. Its also nice because I sometimes pass the house on my way to work and I wave to their family.

So far we've had 5 lessons and it is challenging and rewarding at the same time. The hardest part about it is how they have learned English in the past and how they are taught in schools in general.  I was told that students don't always learn how to think on their own - if they are asked a reading comprehension question they will look for the key word and copy that whole sentence down even if it doesn't answer the question.  I have really seen this with the younger of my group (Ying, Jee, and Lao-Jee). We will read a paragraph, them repeating each sentence after me so they get the correct pronunciation, and then I will ask them clarifying questions about the passage they just read.  They will answer my question by giving me a full sentence from the text, or the wrong part of the correct sentence - aka they don't actually know what they are telling me.

The most frustrating class was last week when we read a new passage with 10 new vocabulary words that were highlighted. We first went through the vocabulary words and I looked up each word in the Lao-English dictionary so they knew what it meant. Then we read the passage and I asked them clarifying questions. THEN comes the annoying part. I asked them to create their own sentence using one of the vocabulary words. They could not do it. I broke it down and did one word for them and gave them about 5 unique sentences using the word (retired was the word).  I asked about their father and grandfather and if they were"retired". I told them about what people do in the US when they retire. They still couldn't form a sentence.  I then tried with the word "permanently". Again - absolute failure. I spent 10 minutes giving examples of permanently, to the point of drawing on myself with pen and saying it was not permanent because I could rub it off.  And then one of the girls asked Lao-Jee (the better English speaker of the group) to ask me to explain what the word meant.  I just sat there for a second wondering what they thought I was doing for the past 10 minutes.  Needless to say, that was the most painful class yet.

I'm now trying a different tactic. Finding an American book that they would enjoy reading that we can read out loud and do basic vocabulary and reading comprehension.  I started with Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingles Wilder because I've been wanting to re-read the series, I had a copy on my computer, I thought a 4th grade reading level would be appropriate, and I was excited for them to see what it was like living in the US that long ago.  Boy was I wrong.  To read one page and discuss it took one hour, and I don't think they understood any of it. There were too many old-school words like "wagon-track" instead of road and weird animals that they would never need to know about (muskrat, otter, wolf). Since I didn't have Internet to show them pictures, I attempted to draw...

This was supposed to be a little house in the big woods made of logs. At the top are the words they had trouble pronouncing and be trying to explain what woods are

At the top are some fill in the blank sentences that I had them do and then at the bottom... this is obviously a wagon cart draw by a horse

As I don't think this story will work, I'm looking for other books a little easier but not necessarily picture books.  I was thinking maybe Boxcar Children or another 2nd grade level chapter book that is more current. If you have ideas, please please please let me know! I am going to try to get a book to download on my computer or on my kindle so they can try reading it when we meet. 

End of Buddhist Lent and Fireboat Festival

As Buddhism is the main religion in Laos, we got off from work October 7th, which is the day that marks the end of Buddhist Lent. My friend Elly (and former coworker at PwC) is in South East Asia for three months teaching English and she is currently in Luang Prabang! So to kick off the end of Buddhist Lent, we got up super early in the morning (5am) to get downtown to watch the giving of the alms to the monks. This happens every morning in Laos, but since this is a major holiday for them we knew it would be an even bigger event.

Based on things I've read and heard here, it is best to stay a respectful distance away from the alms giving ceremony.  Some tourists think its a good idea to get right in the monks faces to take pictures, and others have bought and given inappropriate or spoiled food to the monks.  It is also inappropriate for women to touch monks or their buckets where you put the food and you are supposed to dress conservatively.  Since there are so many rules and unspoken cultural do's and dont's, we wanted to make sure we did not offend anyone. Therefore, when Elly and I went we tried to stand either on the other side of the street or far back on the side walk to just observe.  Of course, despite Elly and I trying to be respectful, we did see many tourists giving alms and being that annoying person standing in the monks way as they try to walk and collect their alms.

Me in front of a fire boat float!

The next day, October 8th, is the Fireboat Festival. Leading up to the Fireboat Festival many villages created a large boat out of wood and banana leaves covered in candles, and then on the night of the Fireboat Festival lined them up on the main street for a parade. There were at least 25 boats and each had a small group with them to push the float down the street.  The groups were sometimes a classroom or school with kids in their school uniforms, and others were just a group of friends having fun and playing music while walking down the street.  At the end of the street there was a judging table to decide which boat was most beautiful and wins the prize!


Each temple is also decorated beautifully with thousands of candles and paper lanterns. 

Another aspect of the Fireboat Festival is the lighting of paper lanterns that are like hot air balloons, and as you release them you supposedly release your sins.  

You can also buy little floating banana leaf/flower boats with a candle on it to signify the same thing as you release it onto the Mekong River. 


Elly and I didn't buy any of the lanterns or boats, but we watched everyone light them and send them into the air and river.  It was beautiful seeing the sky full of lights that looked like starts.  The only scary part is when the lanterns blew out they fell down to the ground! We saw a few on the ground, but luckily did not see anyone get hit with one!

Weekend in Bangkok

Two weekends ago (October 3-5) I went to Bangkok to meet up with my friend Amanda.  Amanda and I have been in a book club together the last 3 years in Boston, and for the last 3 months she has been doing a rotation in Deloitte's India office.  As it is approaching the end of her three months, I reached out to check in and see how things were going, and she told me she was going to be in Bangkok for the weekend.  I jumped on that opportunity since Bangkok is one of the few cities you can get a direct flight to from Luang Prabang.

Getting out of Luang Prabang was a slight headache. In order to stay in Laos for an extended period of time, you need to renew your visa every 30 days, and every day you are late there is a $10 fee.  Three weeks earlier I had brought my visa to the office and someone at PoP brought it to the Department of Immigration to get it renewed.  However, when I got to the airport to leave for Bangkok, the passport control men could not find the renewed visa, and I couldn't either.  Even though PoP had paid for a new visa, the Immigration officers did not stamp my passport with the new date, so according to my passport I had overstayed my visa by 25 days (aka $250 worth of fees).  After calling people from work frantically and worrying I was going to miss my flight, I paid for the fee out of pocket (to be reimbursed later thank god) and hurried through security. I was very upset and frustrated that this happened, and the last thing I wanted to do at that point was jump on a flight and sit in my frustration for 2 hours. 

Thankfully, guess who I sat next to on the flight! A guy from Boston! What are the odds.  We talked through the whole flight which helped me relax and put things into perspective again.  My new friends name is Andrew and he lives in the North End. He graduated college a year after me and he is now working for a travel company, so he has been travelling around South East Asia for the past month getting information to tell his clients (what hotels are good, what to see, etc). It was a lot of fun to talk about Boston and share travel stories of South East Asia.  And to make the world even smaller - we actually knew someone in common! A girl I played field hockey with at Union went to high school with Andrew. Weird.

When I arrived in Bangkok, I hopped on the train to get downtown. I was told that the airport is very far away from the city so its best to take a train to the city, and then a taxi from there to get to my hotel.  My sister Lauren told me I was most likely going to have culture shock going to Bangkok because it was such a big city and very modern in some aspects - and she was very right - my culture shock had begun.  I was thoroughly impressed with how modern Bangkok's train system was.  First of all, it was so much smoother than Boston's T-system - I barely had to hang onto the poles and it was so quite.  I got to the amazingly beautiful hotel and finally met up with Amanda and her friend Nina from work. 

Amanda and I at dinner on Friday night. We went to a sketchy restaurant under the highway overpass near our hotel. Good, cheap food though!

Me at the Bridge over the River Kuay

On Saturday we had a 4:30am pick up to go to the tiger temple!  We were picked up at our hotel by our tour guide and were ushered into a van with plush, leather, reclining seats. Thank goodness - we all needed to nap after getting only 4 hours of sleep the night before.

Nina on the bridge

Our first stop was at the Bridge over the River Kuay.  A railroad was built through Laos into China and many many prisoners died from working on the railroad (including US and Australian prisoners).  There was a book and movie made about the horrific number of deaths that occurred, but I have not seen the movie so I didn't really have any appreciation for this stop.


We next went to the Tiger Temple.  We first gave alms to the monks, which is a daily ritual for Buddhists (it happens in Laos too). As Buddhists are not supposed to have any possessions, the food that they receive during the Alms Ceremony every morning is the only food they have to eat all day - usually only 1 meal.  Women are not supposed to touch the monks or their bowl, so when we put the food into their little bowls we had to be very careful - I was kind of tossing my food packages into the bowls.  After this, we went to see the Tigers. There was a number of activities on our itinerary

1) Feed the baby tigers

Yes this is still considered a baby... you can tell by my face I'm kinda freaked out!

The monks are eating breakfast behind us

2) Walk the baby tigers - I'm having trouble locating a picture of this. One might come in the future.

3) Bathe the teenage tigers

They got a treat (chicken drumstick) as a treat for behaving well during the bath

4) Play with the teenage tigers - We held long bamboo poles with blown up garbage bags or shoes on the end. Its to get the tigers to jump and use their back legs.

5) Walk a full grown tiger

6) Have a 5 year old tiger's head on our lap

7) Watch the tigers play together in the water

After the tigers, we drove to see the elephants! This was my favorite part of the whole day.  Our elephants names were Miss Apple and Miss Universe.  We first fed them bananas and pineapples then went down to the river to start our bathing process (aka playing in the water). Similar to the tigers we had a few things on our itinerary:

1) Climb on them bare back

2) On verbal command (the elephants know Burmese!) they sprayed us

3) On verbal command they dunked us and you had to try and stay on

4) Water fight

5) Sit on its trunk

6) Photo time!

7) Then we rode the elephant bareback back to the camp

Back in Bangkok that night, we went to Khoa San Road which is a top tourist attraction.  It is in the Old City and a very touristy area. According to my guide book,  Khao San Road is the scene where East and West collide. There were clubs pumping music, eclectic market stalls, and great street food vendors.  Street pad thai - I could never get tired of that.  We had an early night on Saturday because of our super early wake up call that morning.

Amanda and Nina at Khao San Road

On Sunday, we went to a mall to get "safe" street-food. It was a huge gourmet food court with all the delicacies you could find on the street, but you know the hygiene was top notch and you wouldn't get sick from any of it. This way, we could be a little bit more adventurous and get sausages and other grilled meats.  I personally would prefer to eat just on the side of the road, but it was a nice feeling knowing I wouldn't get sick.  We then headed to Chatuchak market - The 35-acre (68-rai) area of Chatuchak is home to more than 8,000 market stalls. On a typical weekend, more than 200,000 visitors come here to sift through the goods.  Some of the stalls are so nice that they have air-conditioning! I bought 2 nice shirts for $3 each, 2 big mugs (Lao mugs are so tiny!), and some food. 

Sunday night we had scheduled a city bike tour. I'm not going to lie, biking in Bangkok scared the living day-lights out of me, but luckily biking comes second nature to me so I at least felt relatively safe.  However, someone in our group had not ridden a bike in many many years and had a collision with a car.  Luckily she was ok and she was just embarrassed and shaken by the ordeal.  She was a trooper though and kept going through the rest of the tour! We went to Wat Arun (Arun Temple), Wat Pho (Pho Temple), and the flower market that only happens at night. (Also photos might be coming if I can find them)

Monday morning we went to the airport together and went our separate ways after a very fun and tiring weekend.

Health and Beauty

It took awhile, but unfortunately I started running out of toiletries, mostly conditioner, soap, and toothpaste.  So last weekend, I went in search for them. Luckily, a little market on my street had a ton of options at first glance.  Once given a closer look, all soap, body wash, and cream advertised "white" or "become lighter", etc.  To me that screams bleach, and I prefer not to douse  myself in bleach when I take a shower.  Similar to in India, it is seen as very beautiful to be fair skinned here, and I've noticed it in a lot of the pictures my coworkers post on Facebook.  They really like to use Instagram and other tools to alter their photos to make them look pale. After staying about 30 minutes in this tiny store and reading almost every label, I found Pantene Pro-V conditioner, Dove body wash, and Vaseline soap.  And I found a loufa, nail file, and q-tips! Of course I had to pay top dollar for these products, but I think my skin will thank me later.

Last Saturday night I went to go get a message with my new running buddy Julie!  Julie is my coworker Karin's sister-in-law.  Karin's brother also works in Laos for several months of the year so his wife decided to join him for 9 months since she recently finished her PhD program.  Luckily for me, Julie loves to run, she has done several marathons and half-marathons, and she is training for the Luang Prabang half marathon that is in 1 week.  Julie told me that Laos is a great place to train because of the cheap massages. There are a few different tiers of massages:

• High - the nice hotels have great massages and it is supposed to be comparable to a massage in the US. These are about $60 for an hour but will range based on the hotel.
• Medium - Hibiscus is a place in Louang Prabang that has very nice massages and it less expensive than the hotels.  An hour long massage will be about $10
• Low - There are many many massage places along the Mekong River that are hole-in-the-wall places. You can get an hour long massage for $4 - but you don't quite know what you are going to get and the people giving you the massage are definitely not trained.

Julie had been to one place on the Mekong River with her husband and she said that it was very good for what you pay for (aka one of the cheap places), but she wouldn't go alone because you are in one big room and she prefers to know the person next to her. Even though that kinda sketched me out, I still wanted to try it so we decided to go that night.  The place we ended up going to was called Mekong River Massage.

Everyone who works there is outside in the front, so you just tell them what massage you want off the green board. The Lao massage is pretty intense and I think it is when they stand on you. Julie and I opted out for that and chose the oil massage, which is as close as you can get to a Swedish massage. We had to go up the stairs and go to the room on the second floor that had about 10 "beds" like the ones below. The ladies who own the shop put down the curtains between the beds Julie and I would be on and the rest of the room to give us a little bit of privacy.  There is also no place to change either so we just had to strip down to what we felt comfortable wearing in the room and put a towel over us.

We were kindly asked if we would mind having men, and we both didn't have a preference.  The two guys came in and started on our legs and worked their way up.  As you can see from the picture above, the beds Julie and I were on were incredibly close to each other. At several points the guy doing Julie's massage was touching my right hip and arm and felt like he was sitting on me. I had to stop myself from laughing several times as they maneuvered around the beds to work our various muscles.  You could tell they were not trained masseuses as sometimes I had different movements and massage techniques done on different sides of my body (ex right leg vs left leg) but I can't complain that much because I had someone giving me a massage for a full hour! We tipped them very nicely, aka $2 US dollar which brought us up to a grand total of $6 USD each. So crazy that this is available! But I agree with Julie, I will not go by myself.