Ass grabbing and motorbikes

Wednesday December 15th

So the traveling has been good, the culture is interesting, the people are so nice, but the teaching is so difficult. I have such a hard time being taken seriously. I speak and they just look at me. Even when I think I am being mean they think I'm funny. It has shown some signs of improvement but it is still exhausting. I come in every day with lessons planned and rarely do I get through an entire one. Just when I give up planning lessons and I don't do much for the next day, that's when the kids decide to behave themselves and listen to me and I don't have enough prepared. I have to plan a lesson every day like they are going to sit there and listen and then cross my fingers.

My kindergarten classes don't show up or if they do it is an hour or so past the time they are scheduled. I am really trying to go with the flow but it's hard. I thought I was good at going with the flow. This is testing all kinds of patience. I thought working behind a bar would prepare me for this but I think it's the other way around. The kids here are like a collection of small, very intoxicated customers. At least I can have customers thrown out. They frown upon that here, I tried once.
The kids told one of their teachers that they like me because I look like a barbie doll. Not something you want your grade school kids saying about you. One kid keeps trying to look up skirt and one of my 2nd graders pinched my ass yesterday. I guess they are more like bar patrons then I thought.

Tomorrow the school has sports day which means they all go downtown for a parade and they march to the river. I think it ends in some sort of sporting even (I would assume) but I'm not sure. The school band has been practicing all week which has been cool to watch. If there is one thing the Thai people know how to do it's put on a parade. They go all out. It should be interesting.

The other weekend in Lopburi was just what I needed. I have been a little discouraged about my time here and about being out in the middle of nowhere by myself so to actually get out and travel and see other teachers (who speak english!!) was great. I think that city is more like what I pictured I would be living in. I like my town it's just a lot more difficult to get around. In Lopburi you are within walking distance or a short songtaew (pick up truck taxi)  ride away from everything. I luckily have very nice people around me who are looking out for me. I have a motorbike that I borrowed and am getting more comfortable with that. I drove it into town to the market by myself the other day. That was very exciting. Its nice to not have to call someone to take me into town when I need water or food or toilet paper. I really like riding it because when I have my helmet on, I think that they can't tell I'm foreign. I'm sure I still stick out but its the only time I think that I might blend in a little.

Long weekend in Lopburi

Monkey Temple in Lopburi

that's not really what it's called, but they have taken over

Lopburi (monkey city)

Carl, Patrick, Emer (AYC teachers)

hitching a ride

Sunflower fields (Lopburi)

Afternoon at the lake

My motorbike 

(I'm still learning)

My first attempt at doing laundry!! I think it was a success.

These pictures are from the first week here in Kamphaeng-Phet. 

 The local temple

                                                                         Temple

                                                                      My house

                                                                   My classroom

Learning to ride a motorbike                                                                    

Pictures finally!!

So Just to catch up with some pictures... These are week 1 from Bangkok. Most are from the Great Palace which is unbelievable. It is so massive and amazingly detailed. I traveled around like a big tourist through Bangkok with the group of other teachers from AYC during the orientation week.

Week four begins...

I have officially been in Thailand for a month. I can't believe how fast the last couple of weeks has gone. Things are definitely getting easier or maybe I'm just learning to let go a little. I don't care so much about the lizards anymore. That's a good sign.

The annual Loy Krathong festival was last night. It is held on the night of the full moon in November. People gather at the river and release 'Krathongs' into the river with lighted candles on them and burning incense as a way to give back to river for what the river provides to them. They also light lanterns and set them lose into the sky. They are sort of like mini hot air balloons. The river and the sky are covered in glowing specks, it's a beautiful sight to behold. Ten there are fireworks over the river and beauty contests and food and games and a lot fun. I went downtown yesterday with the teachers and walked in a parade behind a float that the students from the school had built. I think I was the only white person walking. There were many cameras filming and a lot of them stopped on me cause I was so out of place. I may have made the local news:) We walked about 3 Km to the river where all the floats stopped so they could be displayed. It was such a fun night and a great experience. I released a krathong into the river and watched it float away and mix with the hundreds of others. I also lit a lantern and released it into the sky. It was such a  to be apart of this ritual. One of my kindergarten students came in 3rd in the Miss Noppamad kid contest. She was adorable. One of the teachers at the school got the most popular award in the Miss 'Lady-Boy' Noppamad competition which is a drag beauty contest. I felt like I was back on Halsted Street in Chicago! This night was a really great chance to witness the beauty of this culture. I'm finally able to put up some pictures!!! These are from last night but I'll get more up soon!

Thursday, November 11th

I just had an epic battle with a giant black spider... to the death! Luckily I’m the one still standing. I feel like this journal is more of a journal on my war on bugs and lizards than anything else. I guess its fitting because that mostly sums up my free time here. I actually factor it into my schedule: after dinner plan lessons for tomorrow; battle the creature of the night; brush teeth; go to bed. 

One more for the bug journal... apparently for the last 20 minutes, I have been eating a Pringles can full of cashews and red ants. As i’m still finding bits of cashew in my mouth I can’t help but think i’m digging tiny ants out of my teeth. I’m thinking that chugging hot black coffee with wipe out any that survived ingestion. And the saga continues....

Week 2 down

So today was the beginning of week two at school. Mondays I have kindergarten 1, 2 and 3. K-1 is a class of 3 year olds and they are adorable. All we do is color and put together ABC puzzles. They are well behaved and quiet and I wish I had them all day every day. The kids in K-2 are 4 and 5 and are a little more rowdy but still cute enough to get away with it. We study numbers and other simple things and play games. K-3 kids are a little more difficult. They have more of a personality so their learning is more evident but they are much harder to control. Overall today was good. I still can’t get used to the laid back nature of things here. I consider myself a laid back person but this is literally a whole new world. My classes never show up on time and sometimes not at all. If K-1 is scheduled in the morning I could get K-3 or K-2, it changes every day. I am really trying to embrace it but it makes planning hard. With kindergarten it is easier to be flexible but with my 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classes, it’s a lot harder to keep the lessons straight. I also spend a lot of time coming up with fun activities and games and rarely get completely through one. Tomorrow I have P-1, 2 and 3 and they are a challenge. Tuesdays are my longest days full of chasing kids around the room who don’t listen to me. I hope that I get into some sort of routine with them soon and that they learn to cooperate. The girls in these classes are sweet and they are always sneaking up behind me and petting my hair. They always want to be near me and touch me. It’s really endearing. When I walk down the pathways past all the classrooms I feel like a celebrity. Kids will look out the door of their classrooms from their desks and yell ‘Teacher!’ at me until I wave, or they’ll run up to me from across the soccer field yelling ‘Teacher!’ the whole way. Those moments make this whole ordeal worth it. Those faces, they really make you melt. I hope that I can make some sort of difference here. I don’t want to just get through the semester, I want the kids to actually learn something and take something away from me being here. I know I might not see it but I really hope to do some good. I was told that the kids like me because I look like a Barbie doll. That is not what I want to be known or remembered for. It’s only week two... 20 more weeks to go. 20 more weeks to make some sort of difference here and in myself. What did Mr. Magorium say? “Your life is an occasion... rise to it!” I’m trying my damnedest. 

Finished week 1 of teaching

So I’ve just finished my first week of teaching. I feel like all I do is bitch but I’m going to continue... The kids are terrors and they treat my class like a joke and because I’m an “alien” they don’t have to listen to me. They may not know what I’m saying but they know how I’m saying it and I say things sternly or smack the whiteboard and they just stare at me for a second and then go on screaming and kicking each other (or humping the floor as one young boy likes to do). Not all of them are like this. The girls are relatively quiet and obedient but they are distracted by the rowdy boys. I feel for the little ones who want to learn. I spend most of my time trying to regain control of the class and not so much time on teaching. I hope that this is something that will correct itself over time or maybe I just need to be more astute. 

I like my house and I’m sure I have better living conditions than a lot my colleagues but I am constantly on lizard patrol and giant spider tried to attack me in my bathroom the other morning. My fear of moths and butterflies has been squashed by bigger more threatening things. By biggest fear here is that I wake up with a lizard on my chest staring at me. I think within the five months that I am here that the odds are pretty good of that happening. Those ass-holes chirp at me! I can always tell one is near by the chirping! I thought they were crickets at first and was pleased to hear nature since I don’t get it in Chicago. It didn’t take me long to figure out that it was those slippery, speedy little jerks. 

It has been such a long week. I can’t believe I have only been here a week. It feels like a month. The week in Bangkok dragged on and on and was so stressful. I was a anxious wreck the entire time. When I said that my situation was better than most that was kind of a lie. I would say it’s better then 5 or 6 out of the 53 that are in the program. Some people are still in Bangkok partying it up for another 2 weeks. Some people are on the beach with others to keep them company. Five of them are together in some resort town in a really nice school. Then there are 2 girls that were sent to war zones on the Cambodian border. Another intern, Mark, who was in the van with me on the way up here, has it so much worse. The AYC people dropped him off after me a few hours north. I talked to him on the phone a bit ago and his apartment smells like gasoline, so much that he can’t sleep in there. He slept in the office of the school last night. He is completely alone with no english speakers in a giant school that is right off of some major highway. He said that there is nothing else around for miles.

There is no reason that we should just be dropped off out here in the middle of nowhere in a country that is foreign to us at schools where no one speaks english and where we are expected to teach the entire school single handedly with no experience at all. That is not an “Internship.” I have been praying for peace and for wisdom to know if and when I should pack it in and head home but I am feeling okay right now. It comes in waves. I just hope that this teaching thing isn’t too overwhelming. 

Week 1- Simple Things

I am somewhere in the northwest of Thailand in the capital city of a province called Kamphaengphet. My situation is better than most. It’s really scary and I am completely alone. Two people here speak very broken English and the rest only speak Thai. The house I am staying in is about 3 km outside of town and I have no transportation to get there besides my feet. There is no refrigerator, so even if I got to town to get food it would have to be packaged stuff like chips and things. I got to town yesterday with one of the nieces (Puy) of the director at the school so that I could get an internet card. I was really excited that if I had to be alone in the woods then at least I would have internet. Well I’m too far in the woods so the usb thing that I bought can’t pick up any signals. 

The people at the school have been taking care of me though. They have made sure that I have eaten and they even took me to a movie last night. It was completely in Thai but I know that it was about drag queens and terrorism. Then we went out for noodle soup which consisted of wide rice noodles, squid, a pink marshmellow teady bear, onion, egg and a chocolate bar.

After dinner we went to the night market so that I could get work clothes since apparently none of mine were appropriate. I was in a little shop trying on skirts and tops over my clothes and I felt like a giant. None of the shirts could button up over my boobs and the skirts were made for barbie dolls. People were laughing at me. I think in Thai sizes I am a super XL. The girl that was helping me (Puy) said that I will lose weight eating rice. 

Bangkok

So it's my first night in Bangkok... so far so good. I have had two Thai meals and I have actually liked what i have eaten. I am not exactly sure what it was that I ate but I liked it. That's a really good sign for the upcoming months.
I have a roommate this week while we are going through orientation. She's Irish and seems pretty nice, and likes to drink so we get along well. Till tomorrow....

Hong Kong

I just landed in Hong Kong, safe and sound. The flight was really long (14 hrs.) but not too bad. I met Patrick at the airport here, he is an American from California that is in this program as well. It is nice to have another American around for the last leg of the journey.
I can't see much from the airport but from the plane I could see the city and it is massive. I wish I had some time to spend here. Another trip maybe. Off to Bangkok!!

T- 1 week

I have exactly one week left in Chicago before I head off to Thailand. There is so much to do and so many people to see before I leave. It's a little overwhelming. I have actually had time this week to think about what I am doing and how much life is changing and it's equally as scary as it is exciting. I'll keep you posted!!!