My name is Rose Apple

That’s right. My name is Rose Apple. Apparently Thais like to give people nick-names and most of the time it is either an animal or a fruit. I scored with the fruit. Champu is my Thai name, and its translation is Rose Apple. Obviously I eat tons of this fruit. I would suggest picking some up at your local supermarket, but I’ve never seen it in America. My family gets a big kick out of telling all the neighbors about this name. They even had me write it on my bike. Ha-ha funny American.

The PC staff has been really strict about our dress code. I wish they would have mentioned that skirts need to totally cover our knees. Perhaps I would’ve bought more of them. Oh, and I can’t wear pants to teach. Great. It’s been a real treat hearing how inappropriate (mai riap roy) I am because part of my knee is showing. Once again, my Thai family likes to make a big joke and for a few days now they have been saying that my new nick-name is “mai riap roy”. And the neighbors know too. Always.

Had a nice surprise this week. PC office in Bangkok called:

Them (in broken English): Kelly, we are missing your passport papers.
Me: What?!?!
Them: Why did you take your papers?
Me: Huh?!?! I didn’t take any papers.
Them: We can’t process your visa.
Me: What?!?!
Them: You need to go to the police station to fill out papers.
Me: What?!?!

That was a nice phone call to get. I had my first real freak out-moment.

Overall it ended up being OK. Some papers got lost – whatever. One of the admin ladies took me down to the station in her car. Actually it went fine (I just smiled a lot) and I got to ride in an air conditioned car so it was actually a bonus in disguise.

Today was my first day practice teaching. Practice. Ha. Puh-lease.
So I will be working with grades 4-6 for nine days in Singburi. I was playing a color game with the kids and the 2-3rd graders heard, and wanted to play too. So they came over and I ended up teaching 2nd-6th graders in one room today. Really it was only 35 kids (totally normal for LA) but it was half the school. I was having the kids find objects around the room that were different colors and when I said “black”, one kid brought me a black knife. Ummmm… really? Interesting that he could find it so quickly. Hmmmm…

OK random info time:

-I saw a topless old woman today (mai riap roy).
-I pet a water buffalo (a friend has about 5 at her house).
-One of my sisters speaks some English. If only she didn’t live a couple of hours away…
-This is supposedly the “cold” season… yeah right. I’m soaked in sweat as I type this.
-My Thai mom made the cat sit on the bike as she pushed him around (VERY funny – wish I had taken a picture).
-I’m getting used to the squat toilets – really.
-I’m NOT getting used to the cold showers.
-I make my little sister chase the frogs out of the bathroom before I’ll go in.
-The transvestites recognize me (of course they do) around town and sing “hello” to me.
-I saw a baby elephant walking down the road on my way to school last week.
-I’ve got at least 40 mosquito bites at any given time.
-I REALLY miss cheese. Haven’t seen any yet.

Still happy.