Fish, Snails and The English Teacher

So Friday night I'm hanging out at home, just chilling, after a while my roommate gets home. Before she even opens the door she yells, "Pack a bag!!!" Then I start asking twenty questions, "Where are we going? Who is going with us? What is going on?!?!?!" She explains that the other intern, Sprite, is taking the visiting L.A. intern to Patayaa for the weekend and he invited us, and the bus is leaving in two hours. By the time she was done explaining, I was done packing, (I pride myself as the worlds fastest last minute packer) and was just sitting around waiting to get this adventure started. My roommate went to our directors house down the street to let her know what our plans were and as she was gone, I started to get this weird feeling, like a feeling that I shouldn't go. Then I remembered that I had promised a teen int he neighborhood that I would hang out with her that next day. I was really looking forward to it because I havn't been able to hang out with this girl in a few weeks due to scheduling conflicts. So when Sprite came to the door to get Elena's stuff and me, I told him I wasn't going. I knew they would have tons of fun but something just felt like I should stick to my word and go hang out with this girl. So the next morning I woke up and went to Nutty's house. No, her name isn't really Nutty, that's just her nickname and what she likes to be called. Don't ask me why, because I don't know.I met nutty my second week in Thailand when she asked me to teach her english. So every once in a while I will go over to her house to teach her english, hang out and eat lunch, it has been really fun. And that's pretty much what we did Saturday except it ended differently. After lunch Nutty's mom said she was going to her home in Korat to help farm rice...and asked if I wanted to go with. I said yes in a heartbeat. They explained that it would be for a few days and we would stay at her sisters house. Nutty wasn't going but her little sister beau (short for beautiful) was going. After asking my director, we left the next morning. So that Sunday Beau, PKob (nuttys mom) and I left for the bus station, got on a bus and traveled for about 5 hours till we reached Korat where PKob's sister picked us up and we went to her house. That's where I met a lot of people, which all seemed to be related to Pkob...I think. And each time I was introduced as the english teacher. This was my first time in Thailand without one of my team leaders being in the same city as me and translating for me. So I was a little nervous, but everyone was very gracious ...or they just stared. Everywhere we went people were asking about the foreigner. Thus started the "I have never done that" adventure. Let me break with an important phrase you should know if you are traveling to Thailand, "Kin praraa mai pen" which means, I am not able to eat fermented fish paste. Fermented fish paste is simply a lot of ground up raw fish that has been in a jar for a very long time fermenting. In Korat and the Isaan area, alot of the food has it mixed in. Some people who are not used to eating  praraa can get sick off it, hence the phrase above. But back to my story, the ladies would laugh every time I or someone mentioned not eating praraa. Speaking of food,we ate fried fish, some other fish dish and rice for dinner. Have I mentioned that I don't eat much fish, well I will talk about that later. After swallowing a few fish bodies, we just hung out for the night. Somehow I ended up having a few kids ask me to teach them english and play games with them. It was an awkward but fun day with lots of jokes about the foreigner. So the next day Monday we had breakfast, (chicken yay!) got suited up for farming and then headed out the fields. We talked  to some of the neighbors on the way, most asking the same questions,"Who is the foreigner? Where did she come from?" all that mumbo jumbo. I thought it was so adorable to see the kids walking to school with their mini rice baskets as lunch pails. Once we were out of the village, we jumped on a truck to take us to a specific field. The rice paddies were beautiful, breathtaking and bountiful. With clear blue skies, aging trees sprinkled throughout the land and a water buffalo, the scenery was beyond words. After riding in the truck for some time we jumped on the back of a motorcycle, it was my first time riding three on a bike! Then we got  to the field and I wasn't really sure what was going on because they were talking in Thai and in like 20 minutes a tractor like machine rolls up so we end up riding on the tractor (instead of hand cutting the rice). After the fun of that wore off we all just watched as they machine cut the rest of the rice. While we were watching Beau decided to walk through the rice paddy looking for snails and I soon decided to join her. I took off my shoes and started to wade through the water and mud. As I tried to suppress the idea of animals in the water trying to eat my toes, we collected the biggest snails we could find, some as big as a small orange. So once we were done with the snails, the guys came back to have lunch with us, as a snack they later brought us a fish to cook. PKob started a fire, put a stick through he fish and started to cook it, she also threw a few snails in the fire to cook. As they were cooking all I could think about was how I was not about to eat some of that fish and the snails I just caught, no way! When the time came to eat the fish, with the Thai I know I just kept telling them that I wasn't hungry, hoping not to offend anyone. But like a good host they kept offering the fish so I ended up trying it...and liking it but just for the record they could not get me to eat the snails. After a while we returned back to the village to hang out at Pkob's sisters house, playing with the kids and watching the chickens try to eat the freshly picked rice piled in the front yard. If dinner was a star wars movie it would be Return of the Snails (OK that was cheesy but I though it was funny at the time) yes the snails had been boiled and served up with dinner but I still resisted from eating them. But guess what...we ate more fish and they were eating praraa which all most made me throw up just at the sight of it. Once it was to dark to play outside, the same kids, with pencils and notebooks in hand sat by me picking up whatever english they could. Then we went to sleep around 8pm like most of the other people (the farming schedule is much different than the city schedule). On the last day of the adventure in Korat we woke up early, went to the nearest field and I learned how to tie bundles of rice and...I actually got to cut rice by hand. It is hard work and has some technique to it so that you don't cut off a finger. I have a new appreciation for rice and the people who farm it. After some food and a gift of a bag of rice from Kkob's family we headed home. As I write this ( about a month later) I can still imagine the beauty of Korat, the rice, the fields and the people. I feel so blessed to have had the chance to go and to get to know this family better.