Tag: adventure

ChayAdventures #2- Niagara Gorge Hiking Trails

With nothing extravagant planned for the May long weekend there was a fun opportunity for us to try something new. Mike and I decided to take a day trip to Niagara Falls and try to find some hiking that exists in the area. I am such a clumsy person it is a huge surprise that I enjoy hiking at all lmao. I can trip over my own two feet. Give me a hill to climb, stairs, broken branches and water and I can practically kill myself ten times over. Either way, with a quick Google search, sure enough we discovered the Upper Whirlpool Trails. Having lived in Toronto for my ENTIRE existence and only discovering this gem now concerns me. What other beautiful places are being hidden from me?!!!

These trails are anything but disappointing and gave me a completely different view on the typical expectation of Niagara Falls. Not that the falls are not beautiful, but how many times can you climb Clifton Hill, go to Ripley’s and visit the Casino? It gets tired after a while…

Anyways, we got up early on Saturday and began our drive over. After a long drive due to typical long weekend traffic we finally found what we believed to be the trail. It seemed to be situated across from a beautifully kept golf course which is where we decided to park. Following anyone who looked like they were hiking we began on our way, unsure where to even start. There is more than one entrance to the trails and I can only speak about the way we entered and exited. Finding the way to get down to the trails was a little confusing at first. These trails are in the Niagara Gorge and along the Niagara River so in order to get there you must climb down a huge amount of stairs. Once you get down into the gorge it is kind of up to you which way you want to go and how far. There are trails for all types of levels. With that being said we threw that all out the window and decided that we wanted to be closest to the water regardless of how hard it would be to get there. We hiked for about 3 hours total from one end to another and loved every second of it. We were even lucky enough to find ourselves at the mouth of the Whirlpool and all its rapids.

Basic tips:

  1. Stay on the trails. Mike and I tried to veer a few times only to realize its not safe (well at least for me and my two left feet)… I’ll be honest though, many of times we felt like the trail had suddenly ended only discover it again after looking around a little.
  2. Wear hiking appropriate clothing. This is not rocket science. It’s common sense. Unfortunately common sense isn’t always so common. Upon leaving the trails you will not believe how many people we saw enter the trails in dressy attire… I’m sorry but leave your sandals, dress pants and collared shirts at home. Unless you don’t care to get dirty and potentially loose your balance that is?
  3. Watch out for snakes! No for real. We scared the crap out of one that was chilling on the trail. We didn’t even notice it there until it jumped up like a mad man and hauled itself into the bushes.
  4. This is not a tourist trap! Take your time and enjoy the beauty. Put your phone down for a bit and allow the scenery to swallow you whole.
  5. This one is specific to all my fellow juice heads out there. Do not under any circumstances DO NOT come here after leg day in the gym. My legs were in for a real shocker.
  6. Also, bring snacks… I wish we would have done the same. There are some pretty spots you can definitely picnic on.

Overall, this has got to be one of the best hiking experiences I have had in a long time. What shocked me the most about this is that I never knew they even existed!!! Now I’m feeling pretty determined to discover other hidden beauties in Ontario this upcoming summer. I may just have to make a thing of it. Stay tuned there will be more!

 xoChaylavie

English Camp in Khao Wong

This weekend was a busy one. I got asked by my agency if I wanted to be a team leader for an English camp they were hosting in Khao Wong (insanely small town right near Laos and Cambodia and 4 hours away from Banphai)! The English camp was for approximately 150 mathayom students aged 14-18. The day consisted of various games, activities, competitions and even a baby powder fight that the teenagers thoroughly enjoyed! I must say the job completely wore me out. I woke up this morning feeling like I had spent an entire day at the gym but I loved it. It was an absolutely amazing opportunity to work with older students and to be able to connect with them on a more personal level! I love teaching kindergarten but the conversations that you can have with them are very limited to say the least! Anyways, I hope that everyone had a fantastic weekend! Safe travels everyone.

xoChaylavie

My TESOL journey

Koh Phi Phi

Over the last several months I have had many people contact me through email, Instagram and my blog to ask me what steps I took to move to Thailand and become an English Teacher. So, I decided it would be beneficial if I blogged about what lead me to my life changing decision and exactly how I did it! Below is my story. J

Where it all began:

I experienced my first plane ride at the age of 15 on a family vacation going to the Dominican Republic. To this day I will never forget seeing the ocean for the very first time, the beautiful palm trees swaying all around me, the warm sea-breeze gently touching my face, the long stretch of sparkling white sand and the surge of emotions that ran through me at that moment. I was so excited that I literally ran right into the waves fully clothed. You never forget your first.

Ever since then, I became totally enticed by travel. Like many, I had only categorized myself as your typical “Holidaymaker” type of traveler. Staying on an all-inclusive resort was all I ever knew and the idea to relax on the beach with a drink in my hand always appealed to me. However, my passion for learning and experiencing other cultures quickly became an obsession of mine to say the least. As I got older, the appeal of a country became more about what makes them physically and culturally unique and less about staying inside the limitations of my comfort zone. I wanted more. I needed more. Therefore, it is no surprise that I ended up studying and receiving an undergraduate degree in physical and environmental Geography. What can I say? I am just a girl who loves the world.

Upon completion of my university career I had planned (for many, many years) to move abroad and teach English as a second language (TESOL). This was going to be my first step to experience the world in a way I had always dreamt about. I wanted the opportunity to submerge myself into another culture and a more intimate experience rather than just vacationing. Initially, I wanted to teach in China and was pretty set on that idea. Many programs and schools in China offer a competitive salary, will pay for your flight including return and even provide you with a living allowance! China is a fantastic country for teachers who want to save money/pay off student loans, debt etc. However, after a lot of research I realized that China may not be the country to suit my personal goals or needs. One reason in particular was that most of the teaching positions/opportunities I was interested in China required you to sign a year-long contract. This alone scared me because I didn’t want to feel pressured to stay for an entire year just in case I absolutely hated it. Upon that conclusion I decided to look at other countries that are in high demand for native English speakers. Subsequently, I came across South Korea and Thailand and started to research programs offered in these countries as well. Unfortunately, I started to read various forums on specific programs that offer services to provide you with a TESOL placement. This was extremely discouraging for me. I read one bad review after another and came to the upsetting realization that a lot of these programs are nothing but scams. Many of them ‘claim’ to provide you with nothing but the utmost support but instead provide nothing short of a nightmare for the many victims who get sucked into the whimsical fantasy illustrated on their websites.

The typical hook, line and sinker: Get paid to travel!

It’s a no brainer really. Who wouldn’t want to get paid to travel?

Result? Many people become interested and are willing to pay large amounts of money for these services without doing their research first.

This kind of information is terrifying for a novice who is deciding to move across the globe to a country, (let alone a continent) they have never been to before. In addition, these programs are not inexpensive; hence my extreme hesitation to settle for anything less than reliable. Now, before assumptions are made about my opinion on recruiting agencies let me make myself very clear. I am not bashing every company out there that provides such teaching programs. I know that there are many above average ones that provide nothing but outstanding service. However, in my opinion, finding a credible recruiter (much like any other service) is as hard as finding a needle in a haystack. You have to weed out all the bad ones to be able to find the amazing ones. Unfortunately, at that time in my life, this intimidated me enough to make me sweep my long-time dream of teaching abroad under the bed.

My heart turned Green:

Fast forward a couple of years and I finally graduated university and was immediately offered a full-time position with a fantastic development/construction company. However, my heart had other plans and no intention of staying put much longer. Not too soon into my new chapter of life my long-time dream started to creep up on me again. Due to past research and enquiries for different TESOL programs I was still receiving advertisement emails from these organizations. Once again I found my curiousity urging me to look into other possible teach abroad options. Then something magical happened (oh Google you wonderful thing you). I came across an organization that seemed too good to be true. Greenheart Travel. I started to research forums to see what they had to say about Greenheart and I couldn’t find any dirt on them! Some people had left silly complaints but nothing that Greenheart could prevent. Some people just like to complain about everything. Those people can never be satisfied even if they’re fed with a silver spoon (those are the kind of people who leave bad reviews on Trip Advisor that boil my blood). Greenheart had so many different options all of which seemed incredible. However, I decided that Thailand was definitely the country I would want to experience teaching abroad and Greenheart offered this. For the heck of it I decided to type Greenheart Travel Teach in Thailand on Facebook and came across a closed group. I requested to be in the group and almost instantly I was added into it by Sarah (Greenhearts amazing angel who will go out her way for anyone). This group blew my mind. It is full of current English teachers in Thailand who went through Greenheart and many who are considering whether or not to join the program. Any question you have has either already been answered in the group or will be answered. I spent a lot of time reading through the comments and was almost positive that I had finally found my program. Not too soon after showing interest in Greenheart, I received a call from them. It was a fantastic one on one that provided in depth answers to any unanswered questions I had about the particulars. So there you have it. I jumped ship. I was sold and little did I know my life was about to change forever!

 TESOL Certification and placement:

Upon arrival to Thailand, Greenheart essentially hands you over to a company known as XploreAsia. This is the actual company that provides you with your one month TESOL course (120 hour certification). XploreAsia both certified me to teach English and provided me with a job (monthly guaranteed salary of at least 30,000 THB (approximately $11531 Canadian) as soon as the course was completed. This was one of the craziest, most exciting, emotional and special times in my life. Nothing could have prepared me for my first month in Thailand. My group was small one of less than 30 people. For the duration of the TESOL course we all lived in Hua Hin (just 3 hours south of Bangkok) and quickly became very close. It was amazing to meet so many other likeminded people who are as curious about this world as I am. Not to mention, these fantastic people became a support system and my family away from home. Little do they know but they helped comfort and lessen the culture shock that was consuming every fiber of my being. The best part about the connection made with these guys is knowing that I now have friends all over Thailand. The course was fun, intimidating and sometimes nerve-wracking but nothing we couldn’t handle. Everything we learned gave us the confidence we needed to move and start worker as full-time teachers. The preparation was fantastic. We were taught exactly how to write lesson plans and given opportunities to practice on our peers and in a real Thai school.

Moving day?

When you teach English abroad through an organization you will be given little room to choose where you get placed to work. In my course we were all told to be open minded about all of the potential teaching positions within Thailand and to basically expect whatever position we ended up with. If not, we would run the risk of waiting a much longer time to get another offer (which was a worry because we all had limited amount of money to get us through before our first paycheck). I am not saying that it is impossible to get a position somewhere that you may have a preference for, however it might be a challenge. In my course most (if not all) of my classmates requested that they not get placed in Bangkok. They didn’t want to get caught in the craziness of the city. However, a huge handful of people ended up with positions there regardless but they all actually ended up loving it. In my case I got a placement literally in the middle of nowhere. I am one of few western/ English speaking people in my entire town. Which has made me experience a roller coaster of emotions for multiple reasons but I must admit I love my little town.

Where do I live now?

You know what’s scarier than moving thousands of kilometers across the world to a continent you have never been to? Googling your new soon to be home/town and realizing that there is basically no pictures or information that can be found! I was told I would be moving to a small town but being unable to research anything about it freaked the crap right out of me. I mean, how could I mentally prepare myself for the next chapter of this adventure if I could not find anything about it online?

So fast forward, I Currently I live in a small town in the region of Isan, which is northeastern Thailand and is considered the most authentic and culturally rich part of the entire country. My town is called Ban Phai and it is the real Thai deal haha. It’s is smaller than a suburb but bigger than a rural farm town, although completely surrounded by farms. However it has just about everything you need to live comfortably. What shocked me the most about Ban Phai is that this town is the true Thai experience. You won’t find any Western style restaurants here and if you are anything like me it is a huge struggle. This town is big on dishes with fermented fish (stinky fish as they like to call it) which has been hard for me to accept, considering I don’t really eat fish at all. Tesco is the equivalent of Walmart in Thailand and they are everywhere except in super small towns like mine. However, as always you can always count on 7/11 to have carry many of your basic necessities (everything from shampoo, makeup to bread and other random foods and stationary). My town has one main grocery store but it is pretty far and only convenient if you have a car, bike or moped. Otherwise I walk when I’m desperate because it is the ONLY store that sells peanut butter here and I gotta have my PB. Fruit is plentiful here and all over the country no matter where you are. Thailand is huge on markets that sell everything. There is clothes shopping everywhere. However, if I want really nice western style stuff/clothes I have to go to the city and shop at the mall which is an hour bus ride. Anyways, I just wanted to give you a little insight as to how my town is and how I live.

Lessons learned so far?

I’ve been to Bangkok a few times, visited the south such as Phuket and Krabi and I realized that I am happy living where I do. I like peace and quiet and calm vibes and Ban Phai provides all of that for me and more. Also, when I came to Thailand I really wanted an authentic Thai experience and I do not feel that I would have got it if I had been placed in a more touristy area (so in a sense I got lucky with where I ended up). I can truly say that I feel at home and I know I am exactly where I need to be at this point in my life. Teaching in Thailand has taught me lessons that I will hold on to forever. The majority of those lessons focus on patience, acceptance, passion, appreciation and enjoyment. Teaching has taught me how much I love life, people and more importantly my beautiful and bright little students.

Fun fact:

As a result of living in Ban Phai I am able to save quite a bit of money. Once this semester is finished I will be traveling for almost two months with my boyfriend before I move back home to Canada. As a result, the cheap living in my town has made it possible for me to save money to do this! 😀

xoChaylavie

A new year, a new adventure- Hello 2016

 

xoChaylavie

Exploration Equates to Limitlessness

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https://www.instagram.com/p/_6CKRWAaTH/

I actually cannot stop. I am sure I have a sickness. No, I am positive. I do not think I will ever be a person who is satisfied with mediocre travel. I will choose one place to visit and the end result is me wanting to visit one hundred and one more. The sad truth is that I have to accept that I cannot possibly visit and see everything. But hey! A girl can try ;).

xoChaylavie

New Term New Memories

Teaching
Sink or Float?
Sink or Float?
Sink or Float?
Sink or Float?
Sink or Float?
Flashcard Game
Flashcard Game
Flashcard Game
Recess
Assembly
Recess
Recess
Recess

 

The second term of the year started for  many/most Thai students this week. As a result, this week in particular, for myself, has been interesting to say the least. Right away I have had to jump into lesson planning and a lot of organization just to get back into the grove of things (which is a little hard when you have been off for a month, just saying). The kiddies are way too adorable and all showed up to class with new haircuts and looking and totally refreshed! Haha man do I love them. This is going to be my first whole semester working in Thailand so I am quite excited to see what it brings me. For now, here are some cute pictures of this week. 🙂

xoxoChaylavie

Thought of the day

“I don’t want to wait until I’m ‘established’ to be able to live my life. Instead, I’m thinking that these kind of moments are exactly what will shape me as a person and point me in the right direction to become more than just established. I want to live my life knowing that I did exactly that. I lived.”

 

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I don't want to wait until I'm "established" to be able to live my life. Instead, I'm thinking that these kind of moments are exactly what will shape me as a person and point me in the right direction to become more than just established. I want to live my life knowing that I did exactly that. I lived. 😍🙌👌🐳🐋🐡🐚🐙🐠🌞🌍❤💚💜💛😊🌴✌😎😀 __________________________________________ #chayadventures#wanderlusting #wanderlust #traveling #travel #travelbug #findyourself #travelbug #travelblog #instagood #instatravel #amazingplaces #beautifuldestinations #beachbum #southeastasia #asia #kohphiphi #mayabay #bambooisland #qotd #quote #greenhearttravel #traveladdict #travelgram #travellust #traveler #wander #iglobal_photographers

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Did You Know?

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“Did you know, you can quit your job, you can leave university? You aren’t legally required to have a degree, it’s a social pressure and expectation, not the law, and no one is holding a gun to your head. You can sell your house, you can give up your apartment, you can even sell your vehicle, and your things that are mostly unnecessary. You can see the world on a minimum wage salary, despite the persisting myth, you do not need a high paying job. You can leave your friends (if they’re true friends they’ll forgive you, and you’ll still be friends) and make new ones on the road. You can leave your family.

You can depart from your hometown, your country, your culture, and everything you know. You can sacrifice. You can give up your $5.00 a cup morning coffee, you can give up air conditioning, frequent consumption of new products. You can give up eating out at restaurants and prepare affordable meals at home, and eat the leftovers too, instead of throwing them away. You can give up cable TV, Internet even. This list is endless.

You can sacrifice climbing up in the hierarchy of careers. You can buck tradition and others’ expectations of you. You can triumph over your fears, by conquering your mind. You can take risks. And most of all, you can travel. You just don’t want it enough. You want a degree or a well-paying job or to stay in your comfort zone more.

This is fine, if it’s what your heart desires most, but please don’t envy me and tell me you can’t travel. You’re not in a famine, in a desert, in a third world country, with five malnourished children to feed. You probably live in a first world country. You have a roof over your head, and food on your plate. You probably own luxuries like a cellphone and a computer. You can afford the $3.00 a night guest houses of India, the $0.10 fresh baked breakfasts of Morocco, because if you can afford to live in a first world country, you can certainly afford to travel in third world countries, you can probably even afford to travel in a first world country.

So please say to me, “I want to travel, but other things are more important to me and I’m putting them first”, not, “I’m dying to travel, but I can’t”, because I have yet to have someone say they can’t, who truly can’t.

You can, however, only live once, and for me, the enrichment of the soul that comes from seeing the world is worth more than a degree that could bring me in a bigger paycheck, or material wealth, or pleasing society.

Of course, you must choose for yourself, follow your heart’s truest desires, but know that you can travel, you’re only making excuses for why you can’t.

And if it makes any difference, I have never met anyone who has quit their job, left school, given up their life at home, to see the world, and regretted it. None. Only people who have grown old and regretted never traveling, who have regretted focusing too much on money and superficial success, who have realized too late that there is so much more to living than this”

– Wunderkammer, Did you know?

“The Darkest Night is Ignorance”- Buddha

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It seems as though my culture shock had come quickly and left just as fast. I am finally settled into my new apartment (basically a dorm room lol) and have been teaching my wonderful kindergarten class for about a week and a half now.  I feel like I have been learning a lot more than I could have anticipated and for that I am not only happy but humbled. It is funny how ignorant we can be to a culture we have never experienced. I don’t necessarily mean ignorant solely as being disrespectfully unmindful and unwilling to be open to differences. What I mean is simply and innocently not knowing. Although a touchy subject, so many of us are so familiar with how we live that it is hard to fathom how or why others live the way they do. However, what I can tell you from my short amount of time of living on the other side of the world is that no matter how far some countries are, most people all want the same thing; love, happiness, respect, and togetherness . Witnessing these characteristics in many Thai people, on multiple different accounts are definitely the reason why I feel so comfortable living here. It has caused a sense of belonging for me and has really made me feel at home.

I left Hua Hin last Monday at 6:30 am. That morning/day was probably one of the most nerve wracking days I have had yet. Sadly I had to leave all of my beloved Suchaya House ladies (miss you <3!) but it was time to start this new adventure! There were so many unknowns about where I was going that it was driving me mental (but like we have all been saying, This is Thailand, Mai Pen Rai- it means no worries!). However, the day went pretty flawlessly. Before making my way to my new town Ban Phai, I had to visit my agency in Bangkok for an orientation about my job placement and all fun things related to that. That lasted a lot longer than I expected. Once that was finished I had to hop in a taxi with all my belongings and make my way to Mo Chit bus station and somehow figure out what bus I needed to get on to start my journey 6 hours north-east of Thailand. Sound intimidating? Yup it was. However, my agent helped me out a lot. Anytime I would call her for help she would make me give my phone to a worker at the bus terminal and tell them where I needed to go. So this worked like a charm and definitely helped me navigate my way around much easier than I thought. It just so happened that like many others in my program, I was actually in Bangkok while the bomb happened, so of course I was receiving like 50 messages at a time asking me if I was safe. My internet on my phone had been acting up all day so I wasn’t sure what everyone was even talking about. I didn’t know a bomb had happened until 10 minutes before I hopped on my bus to leave Bangkok. As you can tell this situation didn’t help my already constant anxiety throughout the day. Anyways, it was close to 10:00 pm when I got on my bus and left for Khon Kaen (a major city an hour away from Ban Phai). I needed to go there first because it was too late for my agent to take me to Ban Phai so I would be spending the night in a hotel in Khon Kaen and leave for Ban Phai in the late afternoon. So I arrived in Khon Kaen around 3:00 am, got dropped off at some super sketchy side road bus stop and waited for my agent. She picked me up and brought me to the hotel where I would be spending the night. Anywho, fast forward to 4:00 pm that day, my agent finally brought me to my new home and showed me my school. I started work as a teacher that Wednesday.

Fun side notes:

  • My town is super tiny, surrounded by farms, the closest major city is an hour away and practically no one speaks a word of English. There is pretty much zero “westerner” food and no peanut butter here (I just finished my last jar today, God help me). What do I eat daily? Rice, Pad Thai, Patsiu and rice…rice and rice… lol. First night here here I thought there was a bird in my apartment. I heard squawking and it scared the shit out of me. Anyways, I ended up finding out that sound was not from a bird but a lovely lizard. Yup they effing squawk lmao. Since we’re talking about critters I should mention the cockroaches… They are a serious problem for me. It doesn’t matter where you are these suckers can be found everywhere and they ain’t small! These guys are huge, disgusting, vile, terrifying and useless in my eyes lol. I have been waking up constantly in the middle of the night scared shitless thinking one is in my bed, not a fun time.

Now to talk a little bit about teaching English in Thailand. The students I teach are the same 28 students everyday. I am considered a home room teacher which is cool because I am really bonding with these kids. The parents of my students pay for their children to receive extra English teaching. As a result, not only do I teach my kindergarten students English but, Phonics. Science, Math and Health as well.  For all of the reasons this job should be easy is exactly what makes it equally as challenging. Its not a walk in the park and it is definitely not a vacation. Its work. Just like anywhere else in the world. I can honestly say that I am slowly changing. I am truly not going to go back home to Canada as the same Chay. Something about this job makes you grow up in a way I would have never thought possible. You really learn to become an independent person and that is basically because no one can fully understand your language. The language barrier here is real. This leads to constant disorganization and confusion. Half the time you’re not really sure what the heck you are doing or if you are doing it right. But I have learned that the best thing to do here is to smile! When you are an approachable person, a likable person and most importantly a kind person you got this! People here will find some way to help you if you are in need. You might be mentally and physically drained and potentially on the brink of dehydration from the constant sweat but its worth it. As a teacher here, these kids absolutely adore you. You walk around half the time feeling like a mini celebrity. The amount of times I have been told I am beautiful, been given high fives and endless amounts of hugs have all made the intimidating factors of this job all the more welcoming.

xoChaylavie