I've been back now for a little while, so I figured I'd fill you in a little, though not much has happened since my last post.
The gecko made a triumphant return last night. At least I'm pretty sure he did. I never saw him; I only heard him. He had made himself scarce since early in the week when I enlisted two of the guys on my floor to get him out of my bathroom. That was a comical event; let me explain:
As I said before, the reason I find Mr. Gecko so problematic is that he is far too big and animal-like (rather than bug-like) for me to conceive of beating him to death, but he is also quick and squirmy and reptilian, so I really don't want to touch him, and, consequently, I get scared when he darts across the walls in proximity to me. Because of all this, when I saw him again one evening, I decided to get some fearless men types on the job. Ryan and Devin came courageously into the bathroom, making all kinds of comments about a woman asking men to do "man's work." The next minute or so consisted of startled squeals and childish giggling, and in the end, all that was accomplished was the gecko took refuge in hiding behind the toilet where he lay in wait to make his escape by way of the pipe shaft sometime later.
Essentially, they did exactly everything I had managed to do on my own except more femininely in their utterances. Hilarious.
As far as school goes, my classes are going well. I get to teach a lot which I like. I hate that I have to use this book created by the St. Gabriel's Foundation which SUCKS! Not only is it poorly manufactured (some students' brand new books shed pages), but it looks childish, the exercises and examples are frequently stupid and/or suspect, and certain things it says are simply wrong; not to mention the sprinkling of grammatical errors. Sigh.
But I digress, my classes are pretty great. My co-teacher, Master Worawat, is very nice and is pretty good at controlling the classes. The classes themselves--that is to say the students,--being largely unchanged from last year, are still hit or miss with regard to behavior. The same classrooms are given to chatty rambunctiousness and those that were well-behaved last year are again that way. Overall, I think it's better, owing most probably to a few factors: 1) I knew exactly what to expect coming into this year (e.g. what is good behavior by the Thai classroom standard and what is actually bad); 2) the students know me, at least to an extent, and I them; and 3) I have many fewer classes this year, so my patience is tenfold what it was in later periods on long days last year.
I am teaching an after school TOEFL study course on Mondays and Wednesdays. In typical SG fashion, I learned I would be doing this the same day as it was to begin. Fortunately, the material for the class is all pre-prepared, so I just had to familiarize myself with it.
The class is a little rough. Because it is an extra period after the school day AND it is not a voluntary study course, but instead mandatory for all M6 students, at least seven eighths of the class doesn't want to be there and doesn't care what I have to say. However, I've learned just to work through the practice exercises with the seven or so students who sit in the front and want to get something out of the class, while the remainder of the class does whatever they feel like in the rest of the classroom. That seems to be working pretty well.
My teaching the vocabulary practice is super funny, though. I can't simply tell them in Thai what the words mean for the obvious reason of my lack of knowledge of the Thai language. So, I have to try to explain what the words mean through synonym or more extensive definition. This is harder than it sounds because you have to use synonyms that are simpler than the word given. Very frequently I can come up with more sophisticated synonyms for the words, but my students have even less clue what they mean. Not infrequently am I then forced to rely on gross approximations of word definitions, extensive explanation and example, and, from time to time, drawings and gestures. There are also times when I simply admit defeat and tell them to look it up later (or right then on their iPhones). What's nice about this whole vocabulary debacle is that both the students and I find a satisfactory amount of amusement in it, enough to make the studying-for-a-standardized-exam process a smidgeon more enjoyable (or less miserable, depending on your personal philosophical outlook).
The final thing I'll write about today is the awesome fun of political demonstrations! Currently the Parliament is set to vote on some sort of Amnesty bill which, if passed, would grant amnesty to all of the previously imprisoned Red Shirt activists (from back in the Yellow Shirt power days). Effectively, that would mean good ol' Thaksin could come back to Thailand, regaining the billions of baht he had stolen and was forced to give up when he was exiled and never having to spend a day in jail. Needless to say, the Yellow Shirts "no like" and so today, the day of the vote, they decided to stage a demonstration (arguably a protest) near-ish the Parliament building which is a mere few blocks from our dear St. Gabriel's. Beginning around noon today parents began taking kids out of school and the school was officially closed at 2pm today, all because of this political demonstration. My personal guess is that the mass early exodus from school was inspired more out of fear of the traffic ramifications of closed streets and additional police units than out of any real concern for the safety of their children while at school. In fact, shy of one siren, I have heard no sound indicators of any kind of disturbance from the norm and my window is open.
Anyway, we'll see how this continues to play out. Just know that whatever you may hear from the international news, things are fine; I'm completely safe where I am at school. In fact, I'm confident that I'm just as safe as I have always been anywhere in Bangkok, with the singular exception of the area directly in front of the Parliament building, actually in the protesting crowd, attired in yellow; then, I grant, I might be less safe than I'd have been a few months ago, similarly attired, in the same spot.
