Oh My God, We're Back Again...

Let’s try this again; shall we? I’ve been back in Bangkok almost exactly a week now and things are already hilarious and stressful and everything they were before, and I would love to tell you all about them!

I would not even begin to try to recapitulate everything that happened between when I last blogged sometime in July and now as that would be a daunting task which would comprise the longest blog post of all time, one which I have less desire to write than you would have to read. Nevertheless, allow me to briefly fill you in on the last few months:

The term closed back in September. While the students took their finals, we foreign teachers were tasked with writing a semester’s worth of lesson plans in English for the St. Gabriel’s Foundation. This involved two weeks of sitting in a large board room doing much cutting and pasting (as I had both Grammar and Writing for M5 and M6 and they were given to fairly consistent lesson structures with only a change in the subject matter covered) and even more sporcle quizzes. What we did most, however, (at least in my case) was eat. Here at St. Gabriel’s, extra work is sometimes rewarded monetarily, but always rewarded with food…and in excess. The basic feeding schedule for this all day everyday project was as follows: 7am – 9:30am breakfast consisting of peanut butter toast, bananas, and yogurt; 9:30am morning snack consisting usually of some sort of cake-like pastry, but sometimes mayonnaise and ketchup covered mini hotdogs wrapped in a slice of white bread; 10:40am lunch consisting of a buffet of rice, soup, sometimes noodles, and either chicken and vegetables or waterfall pork with a fruit of some kind for dessert; 1:30 or 2pm afternoon snack which was something reminiscent of morning snack but more likely to involve meat; and on certain special days, 3:30pm dinner of pizza, garlic bread, and wings from Pizza Company. Needless to say, I gained approximately 20lbs in those two weeks.

October then consisted of my planned travel to Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos. About half of the photos are on facebook and I will put the rest up soon. All three countries were beautiful and definitely worth spending more time in than I was able.

November was when we were supposed to begin school again, but due to impending and occurring flooding in Bangkok, the reopening of school was pushed back, initially for two weeks. So arriving in Bangkok from Laos on the morning of the 29th of October, I booked a flight that afternoon and departed at 1am that night for the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave! That’s right; I went home for Halloween (for which I was completely jetlagged) and with the intention of instituting a faux Thanksgiving. I really wanted some time to relax after all the traveling I had done and to spend with my family. Also, winter is my favorite season and I knew I was going to miss the cold, so I went home for fall which was the closest to it I could get.

It turns out the flooding was more severe than originally anticipated, so I was able to stay home into the beginning of December! This was good because it gave me the chance to see a lot of my friends (some more than once), have TWO Thanksgivings, and do nothing for about a month. What was not good about the length of time home was that I began to get used to it, and leaving to come back to Bangkok was harder than it would have been had I left after two weeks.

On December 5th, Thailand’s Father’s Day and 84th birthday of the great Rama IX, King of Thailand, and longest reigning monarch EVER (I kid you not), I arrived back in Bangkok. My flight got in a bit later than planned, but between baggage claim (my bags had to be the last among thousands of bags as it seems the people aboard my flight took it upon themselves to check all the tiniest mini suitcases and random cardboard boxes of stuff) and the line to wait for a taxi (no BTS after midnight), I wasn’t back in my room until close to 2 am. I did, nevertheless, enjoy the ride back to John Mary because much of the part of the city in which I live was lit up for the holiday much like Christmas here; it was fabulous!

The next day was the start of school and I remember very little of it because I was so tired the whole day. After nearly falling asleep at my desk during the last period when I had a free period, I went straight back to my room after school and promptly fell asleep around 4 pm. The whole week basically consisted of me going to sleep before 6pm and waking up at around 3am ready to start my day. By the second day of work, I was already being asked to write signs to pass on messages about things we would have to do, create grading rubrics, and teach Miss Pat yoga (this last I have yet to do and I’m hoping if I don’t inquire further it will just go away). By Friday, I was back to the fabulous compliments characteristic of Thailand from Miss Pat who said I looked beautiful, to Miss Pimjai who said my outfit was cute, to Bence who said I’d make a good teacher in the U.S.

Over the weekend, I did a lot of cleaning and organizing and planning. We had a “Christmas Tree Lighting” in the common area where we each hung up a handmade ornament and then plugged in our mini plastic Christmas tree. We also set up Secret Santa which should be fun, but there is not much time for gift purchasing as we are exchanging this coming weekend because some people are leaving for break early. In fact when I did attempt to make purchases at Chatuchuk on Sunday with Emily and Amanda, we cut our trip short after Emily’s wallet was stolen out of her purse. Nothing like a pickpocket to say “Welcome back to Thailand! You’re still a farang.”

Yesterday, another holiday from regular school, I began tutoring again in the evening. It was my most awkward tutee and a painful hour. He just nods excessively to indicate understanding when he doesn’t understand, he is a bit antsy, he won’t look me in the eye, and he mumbles. Maybe it’s just because he is a 7th grade boy who goes to an all boys boarding school but doesn’t like it because he’d rather be at home with his mom and I am a twenty something American lady who is trying to read him stories that are both too easy and too difficult or his level. Anyway, most of my tutoring students will leave for New Zealand in January with the exception of a group of three new students whom I will meet on Thursday, so I will have more free time then. Tonight I have to tutor the triplets, so I need to go prepare something for them now.

Oh! Lastly, my period 8 class, which was basically five 9th graders whom I loved and who loved me, was changed. Starting tomorrow I will be teaching 1st graders I have yet to meet who are likely to be adorable but crazy and not particularly comprehending of the English language. Oh, Thailand, why does nothing ever make any sense…