It’s Wednesday night in Thailand and like most people, I am already looking forward to the weekend.Though not an earth shattering conclusion, I’ve realized this week that working in {what many consider to be} a tourist destination is the same as working anywhere else; you wake up early, you put in your 8 hours, you head home, and then you do it all over again the next day, anxiously awaiting quitting time on Friday.I almost feel like I’m back in my summer routine, packing a bag most weekends and heading to the beach.The only difference is for the next four months, I’ll be heading out to explore a different part of Thailand instead of heading south on 95 and Rt. 1 to Dewey Beach.
How’ve you been old friend?
The school term is officially underway and I’ve spent the past ten days writing seven lesson plans.I am teaching three sections of three levels of high school, two sections of three levels of kindergarten, three special language classes, a teacher clinic, and I’m also helping a couple of students prepare for a competition.If that sounded confusing to you, imagine how I feel; I’m having a hard time keeping these classes straight, and I’ve pretty much given up on trying to learn anyone’s name (not that I can pronounce the names anyway).Did I mention that I have no experience writing lesson plans?
I am the only American English teacher in my school; there is another full-time teacher from the Philippines who also teaches English, and I noticed today that there are a few teachers from Ireland and Scotland who come in for a couple of hours a week on a contract basis.Everyone in the school is really nice, and I’m getting used to hearing, “Teacha, Teacha, Hello!!!” as I walk through the halls.It’s pretty cute actually.And such is my Monday-Friday life for the next four months.
A few of my classes:
The classrooms are not air conditioned and it's 100 degrees....
I noted last week that my high school kids were pretty difficult.Things have improved a little bit because I told the Academic Director that I needed some help, and she has since made sure that there is a Thai teacher in every class to help with discipline.Though not perfect, it has helped because the Thai teacher can speak to them in Thai when clearly they have no idea what I’m saying.In an effort to keep my sanity, I’ve decided that I’m just going to come to each class prepared and ‘hope for the best’ (my Thailand mantra); that’s really all that I can do anyway.
Last weekend, I went to the island of Koh Samet with Pooja and Audrey.What we expected to be a 3-3.5 hour trip ended up taking us 5.5 hours.Bru-tal!Besides being super slow and getting stuck in traffic, our bus broke down, so we had to wait for a new one in Random Town, Thailand (to be fair- we only lost about 10 minutes).After arriving in Rayong, we had to take a songthaew (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songthaew) and then a ferry to reach the island.We left Chonburi at 5:30 on Friday and arrived in Koh Samet at 11:00; definitely a long ride for a weekend!We managed to stay out until 4:00 am though, so I think we made the most of it. On Saturday morning, Shari arrived from Chantaburi, and we met our fun neighbors in the bungalow next to us, Katie and Alex from the UK. Most of our day was spent chilling out on the beach and eating non-Thai food (needed.a.break); it was just what the doctor ordered.
Saturday night was much like Friday night, and we ended up jumping from beach bar to beach bar and running into other people from our program, as well as some Polish and American guys we met the night before.A good time was had by all.I’ll be back Koh Samet!
Tomorrow is Thursday and it’s a pretty big holiday in Thailand called Loi Krathong (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loi_Krathong).The biggest celebration happens in the north of Thailand in Chiang Mai, but it’s too far to go for the weekend (and we have to work on Friday), so we are heading to our local beach Bang Saen to check out their celebration.I copied this picture off of the internet; it may be the coolest thing you ever see on your computer
We had talked about heading to Chantaburi this weekend to go hiking and check out a waterfall park, but I just got news that Pooja has decided to go home to England :-( For her final blowout, we are headed up to Bangkok for the weekend to send her off properly. I am excited to see more of the city, as I think I only explored about 1/5 of it. Until next time….Sawatdee Kah!
