Week two of being back in school (and my being back in the blogosphere) and much is going on. Due to the delayed start, school is extended to 4pm everyday and 5pm if you teach the extra period (which I do twice a week). Monday through Thursday I also tutor from 7-8 (7-9 on Thursday) but as it is far away I have to leave by 6:30. This makes for an awkward 1 to 2.5 hours in which I must finish any planning of my lessons and eat dinner. I usually come home from tutoring ready to go right to sleep, but I also have to find time to do grading and planning for my regular classes, grading of the student journals, and other various chores/errands. Additionally, we have had class on Saturdays in December (again to make up for missed time) and all this week and last we have had to come in a half hour early to work in order to do reading aloud tests with the students for an hour each morning.
So, my schedule is a bit hectic to begin with, but because I’m awesome (I only surmise this is the reason), I have had to miss classes—and more importantly my free planning periods—to record vocabulary lists or write up memos, letters, etc. for Miss Pat. Yesterday and today, Ashley and I do not have to go to Read Alouds but instead are giving dictation tests to the Secondary 5 and 6 students (my students). Apparently this is a largeish portion of their grade. Basically we read a list of 25 vocabulary words and the students write them down, give the Thai translation, and group every 5 into a subject category. For me this is kind of fun and a nice change up from the monotony of Read Alouds.
Also in the category of extra work I am made to do is exam correction. Supposedly, starting today, I, and a handful of other teachers, will be reading and editing the Formulative and Mid-Term exams. This means I will be missing my classes through Friday which is a shame because I’ve actually been teaching a lot this semester.
That, in a nutshell, is my day to day life these days. Now onto things of special note that occurred in the last week: I had my first class with my new Period 9 class, Primary 1 or first grade. They are adorable!! I have had them twice now and they’re great. They were so much better behaved than I was anticipating and than the third graders I had initially were. Also, some of them are very, very smart. I love my new class.
I also acquired new tutees on Thursday nights. I have three new Vajiravudh students who will not be leaving for New Zealand in January like all of my other tutees. They are in M3 or 9th grade and they are a pretty funny group. They’re fairly willing to talk, but less willing to write or do other “work” than my other tutees. But I like them a bunch so far and they remind me of my old Period 8 M3-ers at St. Gabe’s whom I no longer have.
Hilarity ensued this week when I had two really fabulous moments of both dazzling my M6 students with my knowledge of Thai language (of which I think they assumed I had absolutely none) and of bonding with them. The first was in 6/1. My teacher had stepped out of the room briefly and I was doing the vocabulary exercise with the class who was being decently behaved; only talking some. Then I was interrupted by a few students in the back corner causing a bit of a ruckus, shouting “Teachaa!! Teachaa! He farted!” and pointing—while smiling broadly—at their friend. I turn from the board, look their way, and hit them with a “Kai tot?,” a phrase I learned from my very mature neighbor who took it upon himself to learn only the most sophisticated phrases in Thai and which means “Who farted?” I think “awed and inspired” accurately sums up how the students felt about my employment of this phrase. They laughed heartily while simultaneously being very impressed. A quality bonding moment.
In 6/7 that same day, I had started the class alone because Miss Pimjai had to run an errand and she wasn’t sure she’d make it back in time. This is not too bad because 6/7 is always a small class and as it was Saturday, there were several absentees. Anyway, I get class started and everything is going fine and then Miss Pimjai returns to the usual chorus of “Krou PimJAI!” (This class loves to joke around with my coteacher, but as it is in Thai I don’t often have more than a vague idea what about.) A student said something about “krou farang” which I know to be me (“foreign teacher”) and Miss Pimjai said something back also about me. Then a student said both “krou farang” and “soi,” then Miss Pimjai said “krou farang,” some words, “soi,” some words, and “na ka?” to which another student responded with “krou farang” and “soi mak.” At this point I interjected with a laugh and an “I know what you’re saying!” (The exclamation because I was excited to understand). They had been saying I was “soi” meaning “beautiful” and “soi mak,” “very beautiful.” To this I gave a small curtsey and said “Thanks, guys!” and then moved on with the lesson.
Later in the lesson, the vocabulary word was “delicate” which I told them was a synonym of “fragile.” Miss Pimjai then began to explain in Thai that while “delicate” means “fragile” it can be used otherwise. She asked the students (as far as I could gather from context and the use of “Miss Jennifer” and “delicate”) what “delicate” means if it were used to describe someone like me in terms of frame or build. (Side note: I have never in my life been described as delicate and I think it might be among the more hilariously inaccurate descriptions of me ever.) One student day, rather enthusiastically declared “Sexy!” which was again hilarious. Miss Pimjai then corrected him saying it meant “slim.”
But a big thanks goes out to 6/7 for really inflating my ego on Saturday! It was hysterical and I loved it.
The last matter of note from this week was our John Mary Christmas celebration held on Sunday. We residents of John Mary (the American teachers) had set up a Secret Santa gift exchange. On Sunday, our only day off, many of us went to Chatuchak or Khao San or Central World to shop. We then reconvened in the evening to exchange. Despite some initial worries from some of us about others, it worked out so well! Everyone did a great job shopping and picked perfect gifts for their Secret Santa. I had had Stoll and since I’m around Stoll a fair amount, I got her all things she said she needed/wanted plus an ice cream bar she loves and a random cute dress for kicks. It was most successful! Connor had me and he gave me cash designated for a dance class at Rumperee (a studio in Bangkok where I have taken one ballet class before)! It was perfect! I was so surprised because I don’t know Connor very well, but he knew I like dance and looked up studios in Bangkok and how much classes were and gave me the “gift certificate” of sorts. I was so happy! We all laughed a lot together and took a group photo. It was a great time.
Now I really need to stop writing this and get ready for another busy day. I’m very much looking forward to Portugal at the end of this week!! Though, at the same time, it seems so unreal that Christmas is nearly here.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Monday, December 12, 2011
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…
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…
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Hooray (Mr.) Beer!!!
Sorry for the unannounced hiatus, folks. Beginning 4th of July weekend my computer got a virus, and they shut off the internet to our building for the weekend. Then, after the virus was removed and the wifi restored on Monday, my computer's network card remained blocked by the school's firewall for another full week, until I was able to find Mr. Beer in his office to get him to un-block me.
So, this post and my triumphant return to the interwebs in general is brought to you in part by Mr. Beer, "Olympic Computer Master" (or something like that, wrote a student of Mr. Beer). I shant try to cover everything in a single post. My hope is to cover up to the 4-day weekend and then to complete another post later encompassing the holiday through now. Here goes:
To celebrate the 4th of July, we went on Saturday afternoon to the KIS school in Bangkok for an Independence day fair-ish thing hosted by the American Embassy. There was pretty good, but expensive food (I had a cheeseburger, chips and guacamole, apple pie, and free DQ ice cream--Did I mention I'm a fatass?), yet beyond that it was generally kind of boring. Then the rain came. While most fled for cover in the gymnasium or under the awnings of the booths, Sophie and I started running around in the rain. We discovered the tug-o-war rope had been abandoned in the field and we immediately picked it up to challenge one another in a feat of strength. We were quickly joined by two fellow krous/ajarns farangs and then by several of our friends. The parents--who I imgaine were hoping to prevent their children becoming mud-soaked, grass-stained ragamuffins--could finally no longer refuse their children's pleading, given our example, and we were joined by a dozen or two kids, 7-14 in age. We even managed to entice a few adults onto the "field of battle." When the thunder and the heaviest part of the rain had passed, they turned music on and the mud battles turned into a misty rain and mud dance party for all. It was so much fun!! I like to think that Sophie and I are solely responsible for saving the Independence Day celebration and that the US Embassy owes us a debt of gratitude. I have yet to receive their "Thank You" note, but I'm sure it's just lost in the mail.
That Sunday our usual group woke up and went touring Bangkok. We visited a few wats, went to the small and sketchy "Monk Bowl Village," and most importantly consumed "ice cream sandwiches." This Thai delicacy(?) consists of several melon-ball sized coconut ice cream scoops served over sticky rice and topped with corn all atop a smallish sub roll. You can check out the picture on Facebook. It is surprisingly delicious!
The following week, apart from the usual teaching and unsuccessfully stalking Mr. Beer, we had our dance performances on Thursday. Our Thai dance was so much fun and more fun was getting costumed for it. The makeup, hair, and costume were fabulous (again, pictures available on Facebook)! We all had bright pink lips, gold fake eyelashes, and really intense eyebrows. I definitely taught the rest of the day in my regular uniform with that makeup. It was hilarious. The actual performance went well, a little iffy on the timing at the end, but it was as good as we'd ever done, so I was pleased; and I was bound to have a blast anyway because I love dance an inordinate amount compared to the majority of the human population. The group doing American dance did a fabulous job as well! I think Miss Pat was a little worried at first, after having seen the first run-through during rehearsal; but, they greatly improved during rehearsal and killed it (for them) at the actual performance! Some groups of students performed at the same event and they did fantastic boy-band lip-sync/dance performances! Some did breakdancing. They were in upper middle school/lower high school, so they had the sort of I-think-I'm-awesome-but-I'm-self-conscious-and-awkward-at-the-same-time vibe to their performances. I loved it! Ashley, Nick, and I hosted a quick quiz for the students and then a few students sang songs. They had a similar performance style to that of the dancers because of their ages, but they were quite talented all the same.
During that next weekend, on Saturday, I (along with Meryl, Lisa, Nick, Dan, and "The Student Club of St. Gabriel's College") went to a nursing home for elderly women that was run by an order of nuns.
Allow me to use this venture as an example of how things work at St. Gabe's: On Friday morning, Miss Pat asked me to see if I could get a couple of foreign teachers from the secondary office (so obviously me) who would go to do "charity" for "homeless" elderly folk on Saturday (the next day). She told me the bus would leave at 7:30am, we were going about an hour outside of Bangkok, and we'd be back by 3:30pm. Were students going? What exactly would we be doing? How were we supposed to be of help when we can't even speak to the people? None of these questions I knew the answer to. Here at St.Gabe's you just say okay, go where you're told, and ask questions as you go.
So the next day we go outside at 7:30am and mill about a bus that's being loaded with food etc. for awhile. We try to ask the bus driver if the bus is going to help the homeless and after we responded "yes" to his question of "charity?" we we established that indeed it was. We boarded the bus and waited until a St. Gabe's teacher got on board and politely asked us to relocate to the "wan." In the 15 passenger "wan" we talked to some of the older students, four of which were my students so I was able to learn the names of four of my students (Pai-5/6, Non-5/1, Boss-6/4, and Scott-6/3). We had hilarious conversations about how Thai is a really hard language to learn if you come from a non-tonal language and about how it is silly that they all speak great English there, but are afraid to speak to me in school and all say "Good Morning, Teacher" really oddly as a group at the beginning of class (probably because they had been reciting the same beginning of class, monotone greeting since Primary 1). That was great. When we got off the "wan" we found ourselves at an elderly care center and a nice, breezy, shaded, open one at that. I imagine that since the place was run by nuns and accepted donations, it was for elderly people whose families could not afford to care for them, but that is not the same as the connotation "homeless" has in English. Only when we arrived there did we get told what we would be doing. What was that exactly? Why being paraded around as farangs of course! I jest, but it is not entirely untrue. We were to stand in front of the group of elderly women and perform exercises with them. At first one of the Thai students gave the directions ("Head"-they touch their heads, "Shoulders"-they touch their shoulders, "Knees"-they touch their knees) in Thai while we followed along at the front with one or two Thai teachers. Then, it was our turn to do the same thing in English (we added "Up," "Down," "Left," "Right," and "Nose" to the mix) while the students--there was one student seated/kneeling on the floor in front of each of the women--translated into Thai and also demonstrated the movement to help out. Then a few of the old women sang songs (fabulous!) and then they were read simple stories with mental math problems embedded as a means of mental stimulation. Prizes (aka boxes of cake snacks and milk boxes) were awarded to those who excelled in exercise, correctly answered the questions, or performed, and then everyone who hadn't gotten a prize already also got one. After the performance/exercise session (which I actually loved), it was lunch time. We were to help the ladies with their lunch. Again, because of the significant language barrier this basically consisted of the boys helping them with lunch while we milled about, smiled pleasantly, and felt awkward. We, each of the girls in this case, held the hand of one woman who had her student helper ask us. Meryl was the first to do it and it was incredibly awkward because the woman started crying (like really crying) while holding her hand and Meryl had no idea why or what was going on. The boy later explained that the woman was crying because she missed her daughter whom, presumably, the visit of young women put her in mind. The woman didn't cry for either Lisa or I, so it was much less awkward. It was not even that uncomfortable considering I don't really like to be touched; it felt rather nice to know that you were keeping someone company and brightening her day even though you couldn't communicate. We did help by clearing plates and bowls and the like which put me much more at ease because I could actually be helpful and not feel useless (This puts me in mind of Colonel Brandon's line, "Give me an occupation or I shall go mad."). Then, it was our turn to lunch. It was fun to kind of just hang out with the students in a less formal environment. They're very funny boys. After lunch we just took the wan home and pretty much everyone but me passed out almost immediately. It was a good day overall despite the lack of info at the start. (Oh I forgot to mention that we didn't actually leave until about 8:30am and got back at 2:30pm. Classic St. Gabe's.)
On that Sunday all I really did was clean my room--really clean it. I had once over dusted the room when I first arrived (the rooms had rather apparently not been cleaned in between residents, so one's room was only as clean as the resident prior had left it), but I had yet to scrub the bathroom or the floor. It was disgusting. I don't want to go into too much graphic detail, but suffice it to say I discovered the toilet was an entirely different color than I had thought (white, in fact). I washed my hands about 8 times in a row afterward. Upon discovering the extent of the filth I may have been a little too liberal with the cleaning product seeing a bunch of skin peeled off my hands in the days following.
The next week (last week) was a short week because of the holiday which began on Friday. It was a good week though. I started swimming everyday after period 8 for a little over a half hour until the pool closes. It's been great. It's only a little awkward because women in this country don't really exercise, at least not publicly, so one frequently gets weird looks. I do the best I can to respect the cultural modesty--it's not as though I'm strutting in in a bikini to float about during the most crowded pool hours. I show up for the last half hour of the pool's opening hours when few to no people are there clad in a racing one-piece, cap, and goggles to dive in and swim legitimate laps. I think the few gym teachers who are there all the time the pool's open are getting used to my showing up and becoming unphased by my presence. Anyway, swimming last week made me feel really energized and healthy, and I'm disappointed that it's been rainy all this week during the swimming hour, so I've been unable to go.
Also last week, I was grading a plethora of writing. For M5 I finished grading the formative exams. The scenario given in the passage was that "Steve" was on a cruise ship which caught fire and needed to be abandoned. Steve's lifeboat was overcrowded and beginning to sink. There was an injured man aboard who wasn't going to survive no matter what, so Steve throws him overboard into the sea. The first question asked was whether Steve's behavior was morally wrong and the second was what you would do in the same situation. The responses were sometimes hilarious and always in varying degrees of coherent English. One of my favorite's was a student who said that in the same situation he would shoot the injured man in the head with a gun and then throw him overboard. He added that it would be easy because the injured man, being injured, would be unable to fight him. Great! Another student included as the last two sentences of his second response, "If Miss Panasawat was on the boat, I would save her. I would help Miss Panasawat immediately." Too bad for him it was I and not Miss Dee who was grading the exams.
I've also been grading M6 essays about Mother's Day which are all awful because the students blatantly put almost no time into them. Largely they are all hyperbolic in their glowing praises of their mothers, or if not, I teach many a Momma's boy. When I finish grading them all I will post highlights from any standout works should I come across any.
Also, this week I've been recording the vocabulary books. This entails me reading hundreds of words some of which are repeated others of which are misspelled. I am fairly sure I pronounced more than a few incorrectly due either to my lack of knowledge of random specific science terms or because I only after realized that "conduct" had been designated as a verb though I had pronounced it con'-duct (not con-duct') as if it were a noun. Oh well, close enough. The whole process is actually exhausting. One day I felt like I was putting myself to sleep while reading. I'm sure that will be a great audio CD.
To conclude this post, I will share one of my favorite things about Thailand (other than that everything comes with a straw or the prevalence of chocolate milk boxes): People tell you are beautiful so much more often here! One day last week my co-teacher told me that some of the ladies (also Thai teachers) in the M5 office said I was beautiful because, he contributed, it is true! Love Bence! Also, twice now, on the street strangers have told me and those I was with that we were beautiful. One of my Period 8 students said I was beautiful and that was how I was going to win in Unreal Tournament (we had a fun day in class; I can explain the game to those of you who are unfamiliar with it upon request) but he was intentionally trying to curry favor at the time. Anyway, it is hilarious and makes you feel great. I'm fairly certain that I haven't gotten better looking since being here, but people here just contribute unsolicited compliments much more often than Americans do. I love it! When it happens it immediately improves your day. So, I hope you all go out today and tell someone they're beautiful, even if that person is a stranger and foreigner you see on the street!
So, this post and my triumphant return to the interwebs in general is brought to you in part by Mr. Beer, "Olympic Computer Master" (or something like that, wrote a student of Mr. Beer). I shant try to cover everything in a single post. My hope is to cover up to the 4-day weekend and then to complete another post later encompassing the holiday through now. Here goes:
To celebrate the 4th of July, we went on Saturday afternoon to the KIS school in Bangkok for an Independence day fair-ish thing hosted by the American Embassy. There was pretty good, but expensive food (I had a cheeseburger, chips and guacamole, apple pie, and free DQ ice cream--Did I mention I'm a fatass?), yet beyond that it was generally kind of boring. Then the rain came. While most fled for cover in the gymnasium or under the awnings of the booths, Sophie and I started running around in the rain. We discovered the tug-o-war rope had been abandoned in the field and we immediately picked it up to challenge one another in a feat of strength. We were quickly joined by two fellow krous/ajarns farangs and then by several of our friends. The parents--who I imgaine were hoping to prevent their children becoming mud-soaked, grass-stained ragamuffins--could finally no longer refuse their children's pleading, given our example, and we were joined by a dozen or two kids, 7-14 in age. We even managed to entice a few adults onto the "field of battle." When the thunder and the heaviest part of the rain had passed, they turned music on and the mud battles turned into a misty rain and mud dance party for all. It was so much fun!! I like to think that Sophie and I are solely responsible for saving the Independence Day celebration and that the US Embassy owes us a debt of gratitude. I have yet to receive their "Thank You" note, but I'm sure it's just lost in the mail.
That Sunday our usual group woke up and went touring Bangkok. We visited a few wats, went to the small and sketchy "Monk Bowl Village," and most importantly consumed "ice cream sandwiches." This Thai delicacy(?) consists of several melon-ball sized coconut ice cream scoops served over sticky rice and topped with corn all atop a smallish sub roll. You can check out the picture on Facebook. It is surprisingly delicious!
The following week, apart from the usual teaching and unsuccessfully stalking Mr. Beer, we had our dance performances on Thursday. Our Thai dance was so much fun and more fun was getting costumed for it. The makeup, hair, and costume were fabulous (again, pictures available on Facebook)! We all had bright pink lips, gold fake eyelashes, and really intense eyebrows. I definitely taught the rest of the day in my regular uniform with that makeup. It was hilarious. The actual performance went well, a little iffy on the timing at the end, but it was as good as we'd ever done, so I was pleased; and I was bound to have a blast anyway because I love dance an inordinate amount compared to the majority of the human population. The group doing American dance did a fabulous job as well! I think Miss Pat was a little worried at first, after having seen the first run-through during rehearsal; but, they greatly improved during rehearsal and killed it (for them) at the actual performance! Some groups of students performed at the same event and they did fantastic boy-band lip-sync/dance performances! Some did breakdancing. They were in upper middle school/lower high school, so they had the sort of I-think-I'm-awesome-but-I'm-self-conscious-and-awkward-at-the-same-time vibe to their performances. I loved it! Ashley, Nick, and I hosted a quick quiz for the students and then a few students sang songs. They had a similar performance style to that of the dancers because of their ages, but they were quite talented all the same.
During that next weekend, on Saturday, I (along with Meryl, Lisa, Nick, Dan, and "The Student Club of St. Gabriel's College") went to a nursing home for elderly women that was run by an order of nuns.
Allow me to use this venture as an example of how things work at St. Gabe's: On Friday morning, Miss Pat asked me to see if I could get a couple of foreign teachers from the secondary office (so obviously me) who would go to do "charity" for "homeless" elderly folk on Saturday (the next day). She told me the bus would leave at 7:30am, we were going about an hour outside of Bangkok, and we'd be back by 3:30pm. Were students going? What exactly would we be doing? How were we supposed to be of help when we can't even speak to the people? None of these questions I knew the answer to. Here at St.Gabe's you just say okay, go where you're told, and ask questions as you go.
So the next day we go outside at 7:30am and mill about a bus that's being loaded with food etc. for awhile. We try to ask the bus driver if the bus is going to help the homeless and after we responded "yes" to his question of "charity?" we we established that indeed it was. We boarded the bus and waited until a St. Gabe's teacher got on board and politely asked us to relocate to the "wan." In the 15 passenger "wan" we talked to some of the older students, four of which were my students so I was able to learn the names of four of my students (Pai-5/6, Non-5/1, Boss-6/4, and Scott-6/3). We had hilarious conversations about how Thai is a really hard language to learn if you come from a non-tonal language and about how it is silly that they all speak great English there, but are afraid to speak to me in school and all say "Good Morning, Teacher" really oddly as a group at the beginning of class (probably because they had been reciting the same beginning of class, monotone greeting since Primary 1). That was great. When we got off the "wan" we found ourselves at an elderly care center and a nice, breezy, shaded, open one at that. I imagine that since the place was run by nuns and accepted donations, it was for elderly people whose families could not afford to care for them, but that is not the same as the connotation "homeless" has in English. Only when we arrived there did we get told what we would be doing. What was that exactly? Why being paraded around as farangs of course! I jest, but it is not entirely untrue. We were to stand in front of the group of elderly women and perform exercises with them. At first one of the Thai students gave the directions ("Head"-they touch their heads, "Shoulders"-they touch their shoulders, "Knees"-they touch their knees) in Thai while we followed along at the front with one or two Thai teachers. Then, it was our turn to do the same thing in English (we added "Up," "Down," "Left," "Right," and "Nose" to the mix) while the students--there was one student seated/kneeling on the floor in front of each of the women--translated into Thai and also demonstrated the movement to help out. Then a few of the old women sang songs (fabulous!) and then they were read simple stories with mental math problems embedded as a means of mental stimulation. Prizes (aka boxes of cake snacks and milk boxes) were awarded to those who excelled in exercise, correctly answered the questions, or performed, and then everyone who hadn't gotten a prize already also got one. After the performance/exercise session (which I actually loved), it was lunch time. We were to help the ladies with their lunch. Again, because of the significant language barrier this basically consisted of the boys helping them with lunch while we milled about, smiled pleasantly, and felt awkward. We, each of the girls in this case, held the hand of one woman who had her student helper ask us. Meryl was the first to do it and it was incredibly awkward because the woman started crying (like really crying) while holding her hand and Meryl had no idea why or what was going on. The boy later explained that the woman was crying because she missed her daughter whom, presumably, the visit of young women put her in mind. The woman didn't cry for either Lisa or I, so it was much less awkward. It was not even that uncomfortable considering I don't really like to be touched; it felt rather nice to know that you were keeping someone company and brightening her day even though you couldn't communicate. We did help by clearing plates and bowls and the like which put me much more at ease because I could actually be helpful and not feel useless (This puts me in mind of Colonel Brandon's line, "Give me an occupation or I shall go mad."). Then, it was our turn to lunch. It was fun to kind of just hang out with the students in a less formal environment. They're very funny boys. After lunch we just took the wan home and pretty much everyone but me passed out almost immediately. It was a good day overall despite the lack of info at the start. (Oh I forgot to mention that we didn't actually leave until about 8:30am and got back at 2:30pm. Classic St. Gabe's.)
On that Sunday all I really did was clean my room--really clean it. I had once over dusted the room when I first arrived (the rooms had rather apparently not been cleaned in between residents, so one's room was only as clean as the resident prior had left it), but I had yet to scrub the bathroom or the floor. It was disgusting. I don't want to go into too much graphic detail, but suffice it to say I discovered the toilet was an entirely different color than I had thought (white, in fact). I washed my hands about 8 times in a row afterward. Upon discovering the extent of the filth I may have been a little too liberal with the cleaning product seeing a bunch of skin peeled off my hands in the days following.
The next week (last week) was a short week because of the holiday which began on Friday. It was a good week though. I started swimming everyday after period 8 for a little over a half hour until the pool closes. It's been great. It's only a little awkward because women in this country don't really exercise, at least not publicly, so one frequently gets weird looks. I do the best I can to respect the cultural modesty--it's not as though I'm strutting in in a bikini to float about during the most crowded pool hours. I show up for the last half hour of the pool's opening hours when few to no people are there clad in a racing one-piece, cap, and goggles to dive in and swim legitimate laps. I think the few gym teachers who are there all the time the pool's open are getting used to my showing up and becoming unphased by my presence. Anyway, swimming last week made me feel really energized and healthy, and I'm disappointed that it's been rainy all this week during the swimming hour, so I've been unable to go.
Also last week, I was grading a plethora of writing. For M5 I finished grading the formative exams. The scenario given in the passage was that "Steve" was on a cruise ship which caught fire and needed to be abandoned. Steve's lifeboat was overcrowded and beginning to sink. There was an injured man aboard who wasn't going to survive no matter what, so Steve throws him overboard into the sea. The first question asked was whether Steve's behavior was morally wrong and the second was what you would do in the same situation. The responses were sometimes hilarious and always in varying degrees of coherent English. One of my favorite's was a student who said that in the same situation he would shoot the injured man in the head with a gun and then throw him overboard. He added that it would be easy because the injured man, being injured, would be unable to fight him. Great! Another student included as the last two sentences of his second response, "If Miss Panasawat was on the boat, I would save her. I would help Miss Panasawat immediately." Too bad for him it was I and not Miss Dee who was grading the exams.
I've also been grading M6 essays about Mother's Day which are all awful because the students blatantly put almost no time into them. Largely they are all hyperbolic in their glowing praises of their mothers, or if not, I teach many a Momma's boy. When I finish grading them all I will post highlights from any standout works should I come across any.
Also, this week I've been recording the vocabulary books. This entails me reading hundreds of words some of which are repeated others of which are misspelled. I am fairly sure I pronounced more than a few incorrectly due either to my lack of knowledge of random specific science terms or because I only after realized that "conduct" had been designated as a verb though I had pronounced it con'-duct (not con-duct') as if it were a noun. Oh well, close enough. The whole process is actually exhausting. One day I felt like I was putting myself to sleep while reading. I'm sure that will be a great audio CD.
To conclude this post, I will share one of my favorite things about Thailand (other than that everything comes with a straw or the prevalence of chocolate milk boxes): People tell you are beautiful so much more often here! One day last week my co-teacher told me that some of the ladies (also Thai teachers) in the M5 office said I was beautiful because, he contributed, it is true! Love Bence! Also, twice now, on the street strangers have told me and those I was with that we were beautiful. One of my Period 8 students said I was beautiful and that was how I was going to win in Unreal Tournament (we had a fun day in class; I can explain the game to those of you who are unfamiliar with it upon request) but he was intentionally trying to curry favor at the time. Anyway, it is hilarious and makes you feel great. I'm fairly certain that I haven't gotten better looking since being here, but people here just contribute unsolicited compliments much more often than Americans do. I love it! When it happens it immediately improves your day. So, I hope you all go out today and tell someone they're beautiful, even if that person is a stranger and foreigner you see on the street!
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Cover Your Life
Hello again, friends and family (predominantly family)!
Last week was awesome and completely random and absurd, and so is worth blogging about.
First of all, the food was much improved all week! Normally the cafeteria food is tolerable at best, but last week with the exception of fried fish Friday, the food was actually good! Lunches included, pad thai, fried chicken wings, regular fried chicken, and something else good that I'm forgetting. Great week for food. Yesterday it sucked again, but today was good (cooked kale with rice). I'm hoping we can stabilize at a minimum one bad day to one good day ratio.
Last week began being great on Monday when I was given the task of organizing the American teachers into two groups for required DANCE PERFORMANCES!! That's right! All the American teachers have to perform in either the Thai style dance number, choreographed by "Jesse," or in an American style dance number which is whatever we want it to be. I, with 8 other Americans, have been learning and am going to perform the Thai dance and I am choreographing and teaching the American dance to "Whip my Hair" by Willow Smith (song choice derived from a vote.) So, I found out about that on Monday.
On Tuesday, we had our first Thai dance practice. It was hysterical!! We were so bad! Miss Pat was there for the beginning and she started cracking up. Amidst laughing very hard, she managed to say to Nick, "No one can help you!...Not even God!" We were all very awkward and the teaching style was a little different. We would begin with the feet, the steps, and that was fine. It was either marching in place or step, step, step, touch repeated over and over. So our instructor "Jesse" (his nickname not his real name) would lull us into a false sense of ability by having us do just the feet for a long time, but then he hit us with the hands and it all fell apart. The arm movements in and of themselves are alright, but the hands have to do all of these intricate poses that require thinking a lot about which hand is supposed to be doing what. We all failed miserably during our first practice at this. There was a part where the guys had to do one thing while the girls did something else and one of the guys asked Dylan what they were supposed to be doing, to which he responded, "Improv it. Just be smooth with your pinching," (referring to the Thai hand gestures). Later Jesse was explaining to Dylan that the move was the man trying to seduce the woman. Dylan said, "Oh! This is what I've been doing wrong all these years," as if to say he hadn't been great at picking up women because he hadn't been doing the "pinching" dance move. Basically our first practice consisted of more laughter than dancing, but it was fabulous. Especially because it ended in free snacks!! (Anytime you do something extra at St.Gabe's you get free food or drink which is amazing!) The snacks were "orange drink" (essentially a very sugary orange flavored beverage, like uncarbonated orange soda) and mini hot dogs wrapped in a mini slice of bread and topped with ketchup and the Asian sweet mayonnaise. That probably sounds disgusting, but it is surprisingly delicious. I had two.
Also Tuesday, I found at, oh, 1pm that I was no longer going to be teaching Primary 3 (3rd grade) for Period 8 (afterschool class), but instead Secondary 3 (9th grade) beginning that afternoon. Now I had done a lesson plan for my P3 kids, so I had to run that over to the primary office to give to our newest arrival Nick who was involuntarily volunteered to cover my P3 class on my days for the rest of the term. He wasn't even there at the time so I just had to drop everything off and tell Ashley what to tell him. I felt pretty bad, but at least I gave him something to do that day. I, on the other hand, had nothing to do in my first class with M3, so we ended up just doing introductions, talking about the rules and how the class would be run, and repeating all of that every so often when more kids came in late. Nevertheless, we still ended 20 minutes early the first day. Having taught them more now, I've pretty much figured out what level they are and there are only 8 of them when they are all there, so that's pretty manageable as well. They're less cute than my 3rd graders were, but they're better behaved and nice kid. I also have them teaching me a Thai word before they leave each day. So far I have learned "Kang-keng" which means "pants" and "kra-prong" which means skirt.
On Wednesday, Miss Pat came in first thing in the morning to tell me I wasn't going to any of my classes that day, instead I was going to be recording listening exams for St. Gabe's scholarships as well as certain pages of the student handbook which were to be played over the loud speaker before school. (I actually heard myself yesterday morning and this morning and, let me tell you, it's weird.) What free snack did I get out of this, you may be wondering. Iced Coffee!! It was actually like an iced caramel latte and it was fabulous. Win! Anyway, recording entailed me chilling in a recording studio while the sound tech "Bob" (again, Thai nickname) gave me instructions and recorded. It was a little interesting when I would have to spot correct grammar in the questions or when I would expect a certain question only to find it was slightly different resulting in some, shall we say, "unique" inflection, but I'm sure the kids won't notice.
In the afternoon, I had some time to do some grading. As I was reading Draft 2 of M 6/6's letters of application I noticed, where on one Draft 1 I had rather cheesily written "I'm from Maryland!" (mostly I was pretty pumped people knew Maryland existed and 6/6 was the first set of Draft 1's I graded so I wasn't sick of them yet) below some kid's made-up qualifications that said he had done some kind of training or something in Maryland, he had then written below that--presumably upon having been returned the paper--"Gorgeous! Miss Jennifer" with the i's and the point of the exclamation point dotted in hearts. This cracked me up. Now, when next I have 6/6 I have to scope out who #49 is and assess whether or not he is one of our ladyboy students (you know, given the heart-dotted i's) and I'm just curious.
Thursday, I did more recording with more free coffee. This time I was recording listening tests for performance exams for every primary level in every subject...every subject. Yes, these kids have listening portions in English to Math, Science, and Social Studies exams in addition to their English exam. It is absurd to read out math problems. This time Bob and I had a few good laughs whenever we would get to social studies. From Primary 3 onward, the passages I had to read would contain names or places in Thai, like Rattakakosin, Ramkhamhaeng, and Dvarvati. So I would have to stop mid-sentence, let Bob pronounce them, and then do my best to mimic his pronunciation. I never actually heard the end, edited result, but there's no way it was good. It was pretty funny though.
Friday was a regular school day, but it ended with a meeting where we got paid (literally handed and envelope of cash) and the health insurance people came to tell us about the benefits we would be getting in a presentation given in semi-successful English, but containing gems like the one in the title of this post and "protect your health." It seemed they were really big on generalization. At the end of the presentation they asked if there were questions. The only question anyone asked was if we would be getting the information in writing. They said yes and then everyone returned to their previous occupation which was being anxious to leave.
Later in the afternoon, we had Thai dancing again. We were much, much better this time, but it was still a laughter-filled rehearsal. And again we got the same snacks! I'm honestly looking forward to them at tonight's rehearsal.
Saturday we went to see the Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho, then stopped in a local, absurdly named temple, and then visited Wat Arun. It was a good day and photos are on facebook.
Sunday, we went to JJ market again this time with Baht to burn. We just split up and went as individuals because that is really the easiest way to maneuver and bargain. I bought a school bag which I needed and a purse, t-shirt, green sort of moo moo (Don't judge too harshly. It's actually really cool.), and some jewelry I didn't need. Another good day.
Last night we had our first American dance rehearsal. It was fun and some people seemed to have a really good time. I think some of it is a little more difficult than I had thought, so I will have to bear that in mind while choreographing the rest. We'll see how both of these dances turn out come a week from Thursday.
That's been pretty much the week. Sorry I got behind and this is an absurdly long post. Kudos to you who make it to the end!
Last week was awesome and completely random and absurd, and so is worth blogging about.
First of all, the food was much improved all week! Normally the cafeteria food is tolerable at best, but last week with the exception of fried fish Friday, the food was actually good! Lunches included, pad thai, fried chicken wings, regular fried chicken, and something else good that I'm forgetting. Great week for food. Yesterday it sucked again, but today was good (cooked kale with rice). I'm hoping we can stabilize at a minimum one bad day to one good day ratio.
Last week began being great on Monday when I was given the task of organizing the American teachers into two groups for required DANCE PERFORMANCES!! That's right! All the American teachers have to perform in either the Thai style dance number, choreographed by "Jesse," or in an American style dance number which is whatever we want it to be. I, with 8 other Americans, have been learning and am going to perform the Thai dance and I am choreographing and teaching the American dance to "Whip my Hair" by Willow Smith (song choice derived from a vote.) So, I found out about that on Monday.
On Tuesday, we had our first Thai dance practice. It was hysterical!! We were so bad! Miss Pat was there for the beginning and she started cracking up. Amidst laughing very hard, she managed to say to Nick, "No one can help you!...Not even God!" We were all very awkward and the teaching style was a little different. We would begin with the feet, the steps, and that was fine. It was either marching in place or step, step, step, touch repeated over and over. So our instructor "Jesse" (his nickname not his real name) would lull us into a false sense of ability by having us do just the feet for a long time, but then he hit us with the hands and it all fell apart. The arm movements in and of themselves are alright, but the hands have to do all of these intricate poses that require thinking a lot about which hand is supposed to be doing what. We all failed miserably during our first practice at this. There was a part where the guys had to do one thing while the girls did something else and one of the guys asked Dylan what they were supposed to be doing, to which he responded, "Improv it. Just be smooth with your pinching," (referring to the Thai hand gestures). Later Jesse was explaining to Dylan that the move was the man trying to seduce the woman. Dylan said, "Oh! This is what I've been doing wrong all these years," as if to say he hadn't been great at picking up women because he hadn't been doing the "pinching" dance move. Basically our first practice consisted of more laughter than dancing, but it was fabulous. Especially because it ended in free snacks!! (Anytime you do something extra at St.Gabe's you get free food or drink which is amazing!) The snacks were "orange drink" (essentially a very sugary orange flavored beverage, like uncarbonated orange soda) and mini hot dogs wrapped in a mini slice of bread and topped with ketchup and the Asian sweet mayonnaise. That probably sounds disgusting, but it is surprisingly delicious. I had two.
Also Tuesday, I found at, oh, 1pm that I was no longer going to be teaching Primary 3 (3rd grade) for Period 8 (afterschool class), but instead Secondary 3 (9th grade) beginning that afternoon. Now I had done a lesson plan for my P3 kids, so I had to run that over to the primary office to give to our newest arrival Nick who was involuntarily volunteered to cover my P3 class on my days for the rest of the term. He wasn't even there at the time so I just had to drop everything off and tell Ashley what to tell him. I felt pretty bad, but at least I gave him something to do that day. I, on the other hand, had nothing to do in my first class with M3, so we ended up just doing introductions, talking about the rules and how the class would be run, and repeating all of that every so often when more kids came in late. Nevertheless, we still ended 20 minutes early the first day. Having taught them more now, I've pretty much figured out what level they are and there are only 8 of them when they are all there, so that's pretty manageable as well. They're less cute than my 3rd graders were, but they're better behaved and nice kid. I also have them teaching me a Thai word before they leave each day. So far I have learned "Kang-keng" which means "pants" and "kra-prong" which means skirt.
On Wednesday, Miss Pat came in first thing in the morning to tell me I wasn't going to any of my classes that day, instead I was going to be recording listening exams for St. Gabe's scholarships as well as certain pages of the student handbook which were to be played over the loud speaker before school. (I actually heard myself yesterday morning and this morning and, let me tell you, it's weird.) What free snack did I get out of this, you may be wondering. Iced Coffee!! It was actually like an iced caramel latte and it was fabulous. Win! Anyway, recording entailed me chilling in a recording studio while the sound tech "Bob" (again, Thai nickname) gave me instructions and recorded. It was a little interesting when I would have to spot correct grammar in the questions or when I would expect a certain question only to find it was slightly different resulting in some, shall we say, "unique" inflection, but I'm sure the kids won't notice.
In the afternoon, I had some time to do some grading. As I was reading Draft 2 of M 6/6's letters of application I noticed, where on one Draft 1 I had rather cheesily written "I'm from Maryland!" (mostly I was pretty pumped people knew Maryland existed and 6/6 was the first set of Draft 1's I graded so I wasn't sick of them yet) below some kid's made-up qualifications that said he had done some kind of training or something in Maryland, he had then written below that--presumably upon having been returned the paper--"Gorgeous! Miss Jennifer" with the i's and the point of the exclamation point dotted in hearts. This cracked me up. Now, when next I have 6/6 I have to scope out who #49 is and assess whether or not he is one of our ladyboy students (you know, given the heart-dotted i's) and I'm just curious.
Thursday, I did more recording with more free coffee. This time I was recording listening tests for performance exams for every primary level in every subject...every subject. Yes, these kids have listening portions in English to Math, Science, and Social Studies exams in addition to their English exam. It is absurd to read out math problems. This time Bob and I had a few good laughs whenever we would get to social studies. From Primary 3 onward, the passages I had to read would contain names or places in Thai, like Rattakakosin, Ramkhamhaeng, and Dvarvati. So I would have to stop mid-sentence, let Bob pronounce them, and then do my best to mimic his pronunciation. I never actually heard the end, edited result, but there's no way it was good. It was pretty funny though.
Friday was a regular school day, but it ended with a meeting where we got paid (literally handed and envelope of cash) and the health insurance people came to tell us about the benefits we would be getting in a presentation given in semi-successful English, but containing gems like the one in the title of this post and "protect your health." It seemed they were really big on generalization. At the end of the presentation they asked if there were questions. The only question anyone asked was if we would be getting the information in writing. They said yes and then everyone returned to their previous occupation which was being anxious to leave.
Later in the afternoon, we had Thai dancing again. We were much, much better this time, but it was still a laughter-filled rehearsal. And again we got the same snacks! I'm honestly looking forward to them at tonight's rehearsal.
Saturday we went to see the Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho, then stopped in a local, absurdly named temple, and then visited Wat Arun. It was a good day and photos are on facebook.
Sunday, we went to JJ market again this time with Baht to burn. We just split up and went as individuals because that is really the easiest way to maneuver and bargain. I bought a school bag which I needed and a purse, t-shirt, green sort of moo moo (Don't judge too harshly. It's actually really cool.), and some jewelry I didn't need. Another good day.
Last night we had our first American dance rehearsal. It was fun and some people seemed to have a really good time. I think some of it is a little more difficult than I had thought, so I will have to bear that in mind while choreographing the rest. We'll see how both of these dances turn out come a week from Thursday.
That's been pretty much the week. Sorry I got behind and this is an absurdly long post. Kudos to you who make it to the end!
Saturday, June 18, 2011
A Day at the Temples
First, the week in review: Monday was a longish day because I was still tired from the weekend and I had to run errands after school and then skype the parents. Apologies to the parents for having been even more unpleasant than usual because I felt ill. I later spent from about 11:30pm to 2:30am intermittently vomiting in my bathroom. Good times had by no one. So Tuesday was miserable because I was really, really exhausted at this point, I still felt a little off, and I had four courses, some grading and period 8 that day. My 3rd graders were also miserably behaved on Tuesday. So, I came back after school and slept until about 7. I woke up, got food which I ate with some friends, and then went back to sleep. Wednesday began the week's improvement. I only have two classes--though I did have some grading--and no period 8. Thursday my period 8 kids were much better behaved (I would not go so far as to say "well behaved") and my activities for them were pretty successful. Thursday was one day closer to Friday and it had the best lunch of all time in the Canteen! Most days eating in the Canteen I consider it a win if I get the food and think "I can eat this." Thursday was spicy pork with some little vegetable on rice with a cabbage and carrot soup that was (for lack of a better term) "clean." It was literally delicious and something I might have ordered out. Friday was Friday. After work we relaxed for awhile and then later went out nearby.
Yesterday, I spent the day traveling throughout Bangkok to visit temples. We started by taking the Klong (mass transit river boat) to the Grand Palace. I'd been before, but the temples are definitely worth seeing twice especially when they are so convenient. We got a tour guide, "Geoffrey," (his real name was something like Kirishna, but "Geoffrey was the Americanized version of his Thai nickname) who was great! It cost us about 3 bucks each, but that was totally worth it for all the information and for the number of photos he took for us. Also, because we have our teacher ID cards now, we get to go through the Thai national line and visit places for FREE! Win! The temple and palace were beautiful. Pictures are on Facebook.
We then took ferries, the Klong and walked to see some other temples (pictures also on Facebook). We kept being stopped to try to get scammed into going to some Jewel/tailor shops, but we were intent on walking and doing our own thing. We saw a demonstration against some candidate (elections are July 3rd). There were posters, a march, and people chanting things and shouting into a megaphone. By the end of the day we were exhausted, but felt pretty accomplished.
Today, I did almost nothing. Just odd jobs I needed to get done in the morning and then had a long leisurely lunch. I'll probably spend the rest of the day cleaning, etc. as it looks like rain.
Cheers!
Yesterday, I spent the day traveling throughout Bangkok to visit temples. We started by taking the Klong (mass transit river boat) to the Grand Palace. I'd been before, but the temples are definitely worth seeing twice especially when they are so convenient. We got a tour guide, "Geoffrey," (his real name was something like Kirishna, but "Geoffrey was the Americanized version of his Thai nickname) who was great! It cost us about 3 bucks each, but that was totally worth it for all the information and for the number of photos he took for us. Also, because we have our teacher ID cards now, we get to go through the Thai national line and visit places for FREE! Win! The temple and palace were beautiful. Pictures are on Facebook.
We then took ferries, the Klong and walked to see some other temples (pictures also on Facebook). We kept being stopped to try to get scammed into going to some Jewel/tailor shops, but we were intent on walking and doing our own thing. We saw a demonstration against some candidate (elections are July 3rd). There were posters, a march, and people chanting things and shouting into a megaphone. By the end of the day we were exhausted, but felt pretty accomplished.
Today, I did almost nothing. Just odd jobs I needed to get done in the morning and then had a long leisurely lunch. I'll probably spend the rest of the day cleaning, etc. as it looks like rain.
Cheers!
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Koh Samed
This weekend was pretty fabulous. On Friday we went out to actually celebrate Dylan's birthday. It was a fun night with great people and much dancing. I love that pretty much everyone in our group is not only willing to, but is enthusiastic about going to clubs to dance to pop or techno music. It is great!
On Saturday we left very early, 6:30am, to load into two mini buses we had rented (really 15 passenger vans). We drove about 2 and a half hours and then took a 30 minute ferry ride to Koh Samed--that is to say, the beach. It was beautiful and the water was so warm. We laid on the beach and played in the water all day.
A few of us took a walk down the beach and then decided it would be a good idea to scramble over some rocks to get out to one particular rock in order to take pictures of us acting like Ariel from The Little Mermaid. However, some of those rocks had unavoidable barnacle-esque remnants that sliced open my hands and feet some and having not broad appropriate bandaging material/having another 24 hours or so of walking either barefoot or in sandals on sand, the cuts may be mildly infected/they hurt a lot.
Later in the evening we went to dinner and stayed for the "Fire Show." Basically some really cut teenagers and twenty-somethings perform various silly hobbies like baton twirling, poi balls, that game with three sticks, etc. except everything is on fire. The whole show is set to techno music and they stand on one another's shoulders and dance around. It's pretty great all around. Then there's the audience participation part where we all got to play limbo with a flaming limbo stick. About halfway through that I left to go to the bathroom, put my water bottle away, and take a walk down the beach. Evidently in my absence, they brought out a big ring of fire that people could jump through. One girl in our group, having already made a successful leap I believe, decided to do a round-off through the ring. She knocked the ring down such that it was kind of stuck around her and it took her a bit to get it off. She has some pretty nasty burns on her leg now, but was totally fine then and continued to dance the night away. I really wish I had witnessed it for myself.
The rest of the night the restaurant plays pop/techno music (in fact, several songs they like so much they play them way too many times) and everyone was dancing and there was blacklight paint. I did not get painted and was for a majority of the evening trying not to dance. My feet really hurt and I was trying not to get them too disgusting so I kept off the stage and took long walks through the salt water which made them feel better. I was also trying to help people in our group find their things that had gone missing for awhile, etc. I did end up dancing later in the evening when one of the fire dudes had gotten a whistle and was just blowing it and dragging people onto the dance floor. Oh! Funny things to note. The fire people that spoke English did so with a thick Thai-Australian accent meaning with the loud music, they were essentially incomprehensible.
Throughout the evening, down by the beach, small children like 5-10 year olds would give fire twirling demonstrations/practice for themselves I guess. They were pretty freaking awesome. Near the end of the evening, there was a break dance show wherein some of the fire guys, but also some other kids break danced on the stage. They were ridiculously good and I am always happy to watch dance, so I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Sunday morning, Amanda and I got up to watch the sunrise...and by watch I mean photograph. Yes we only got a few hours of sleep for the second night in a row, but it was definitely worth it. Then we had to hangout until breakfast opened. When we did get it, we had a delicious coffee, juice, eggs, meat and toast breakfast. The great thing about beach areas is that though they may be comparatively expensive, they have widely available Western food.
The rest of the morning it rained a bunch. I walked up and down the beach (I was really enjoying being outside in a non-urban environment) in the wind and rain and got soaked, but it was great.
In the afternoon we ventured home where I, sunburned and cut up and exhausted, showered tried to clean my cuts as best I could, and then went immediately to sleep.
I'm now at work and still tired, especially after teaching 6/2 this morning--6/2 being a bunch of rowdy clowns. I will write again when I am better rested, I have finished cleaning and organizing, and/or there is something worth writing about.
'Til the next!
On Saturday we left very early, 6:30am, to load into two mini buses we had rented (really 15 passenger vans). We drove about 2 and a half hours and then took a 30 minute ferry ride to Koh Samed--that is to say, the beach. It was beautiful and the water was so warm. We laid on the beach and played in the water all day.
A few of us took a walk down the beach and then decided it would be a good idea to scramble over some rocks to get out to one particular rock in order to take pictures of us acting like Ariel from The Little Mermaid. However, some of those rocks had unavoidable barnacle-esque remnants that sliced open my hands and feet some and having not broad appropriate bandaging material/having another 24 hours or so of walking either barefoot or in sandals on sand, the cuts may be mildly infected/they hurt a lot.
Later in the evening we went to dinner and stayed for the "Fire Show." Basically some really cut teenagers and twenty-somethings perform various silly hobbies like baton twirling, poi balls, that game with three sticks, etc. except everything is on fire. The whole show is set to techno music and they stand on one another's shoulders and dance around. It's pretty great all around. Then there's the audience participation part where we all got to play limbo with a flaming limbo stick. About halfway through that I left to go to the bathroom, put my water bottle away, and take a walk down the beach. Evidently in my absence, they brought out a big ring of fire that people could jump through. One girl in our group, having already made a successful leap I believe, decided to do a round-off through the ring. She knocked the ring down such that it was kind of stuck around her and it took her a bit to get it off. She has some pretty nasty burns on her leg now, but was totally fine then and continued to dance the night away. I really wish I had witnessed it for myself.
The rest of the night the restaurant plays pop/techno music (in fact, several songs they like so much they play them way too many times) and everyone was dancing and there was blacklight paint. I did not get painted and was for a majority of the evening trying not to dance. My feet really hurt and I was trying not to get them too disgusting so I kept off the stage and took long walks through the salt water which made them feel better. I was also trying to help people in our group find their things that had gone missing for awhile, etc. I did end up dancing later in the evening when one of the fire dudes had gotten a whistle and was just blowing it and dragging people onto the dance floor. Oh! Funny things to note. The fire people that spoke English did so with a thick Thai-Australian accent meaning with the loud music, they were essentially incomprehensible.
Throughout the evening, down by the beach, small children like 5-10 year olds would give fire twirling demonstrations/practice for themselves I guess. They were pretty freaking awesome. Near the end of the evening, there was a break dance show wherein some of the fire guys, but also some other kids break danced on the stage. They were ridiculously good and I am always happy to watch dance, so I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Sunday morning, Amanda and I got up to watch the sunrise...and by watch I mean photograph. Yes we only got a few hours of sleep for the second night in a row, but it was definitely worth it. Then we had to hangout until breakfast opened. When we did get it, we had a delicious coffee, juice, eggs, meat and toast breakfast. The great thing about beach areas is that though they may be comparatively expensive, they have widely available Western food.
The rest of the morning it rained a bunch. I walked up and down the beach (I was really enjoying being outside in a non-urban environment) in the wind and rain and got soaked, but it was great.
In the afternoon we ventured home where I, sunburned and cut up and exhausted, showered tried to clean my cuts as best I could, and then went immediately to sleep.
I'm now at work and still tired, especially after teaching 6/2 this morning--6/2 being a bunch of rowdy clowns. I will write again when I am better rested, I have finished cleaning and organizing, and/or there is something worth writing about.
'Til the next!
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Wai Kru
Yesterday was Wai Kru, or basically bow/pay respect to teachers day. It was really cool. Formwe students returned from university to bring flowers to their teachers as did current students. During the Wai Kru ceremony (there were in fact several ceremonies throughout the day for different grade levels), students presented rather ornate floral arrangements to their homeroom teachers and we, the foreign teachers, received the traditional Thai flower bracelet things. I wrote "received," but that doesn't begin to cover it. I was presented these flowers from a student on his knees. And when I say "on his knees," I don't mean he walked over, knelt down, and gave the flowers to me; I mean the students literally traveled the length of the stage on their knees, stopped in front of each teacher, if space allowed, bowed to the floor, if not lowered their head to the knees of the teacher, and presented them with the flowers. It was unreal and unlike anything I've ever experienced before. Family, I should like all of my food to be presented to me in this manner on subsequent birthdays that I celebrate in the US. Thanks.
Despite how great it was, I think I would trade one day of excessive respect for a year of the students simply being quiet and self-disciplined in class. I don't need kneeling and bowing if I can just get attentiveness and diligence.
My 8th period class didn't so much grasp the concept as many of them continued to stand on chairs and to punch one another and to read comic books and draw. I do however like to think they are in fact learning something.
Last night was also Dylan's birthday, so I bought him a "sausage pizza" (this is a packages snack item from 7-11), koala snacks, and I made him a card during a free period when I had nothing to do. We tossed a frisbee (I'm horrible) until it began to really rain. The rain felt great! It had been so hot and muggy up to that point that the storm was quite a relief. We later went out to dinner and a casual brew in Khao San which was an adventure because the rain was still coming down hard at the time.
Now, it's Friday and I have only two more classes to teach, but many hours yet to sit in the office. I'm looking forward to the weekend. I think the beach (potentially in the rain) will be involved.
Until the next, my friends!
Despite how great it was, I think I would trade one day of excessive respect for a year of the students simply being quiet and self-disciplined in class. I don't need kneeling and bowing if I can just get attentiveness and diligence.
My 8th period class didn't so much grasp the concept as many of them continued to stand on chairs and to punch one another and to read comic books and draw. I do however like to think they are in fact learning something.
Last night was also Dylan's birthday, so I bought him a "sausage pizza" (this is a packages snack item from 7-11), koala snacks, and I made him a card during a free period when I had nothing to do. We tossed a frisbee (I'm horrible) until it began to really rain. The rain felt great! It had been so hot and muggy up to that point that the storm was quite a relief. We later went out to dinner and a casual brew in Khao San which was an adventure because the rain was still coming down hard at the time.
Now, it's Friday and I have only two more classes to teach, but many hours yet to sit in the office. I'm looking forward to the weekend. I think the beach (potentially in the rain) will be involved.
Until the next, my friends!
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