One Semester. Done and Done.

I probably should have written this like a month ago. But, we all know how I feel about blogging.

Anyway, I am officially finished with my first semester of teaching! Half-way there (if this is indeed the only teaching I do). I think I have a lot to reflect on of the past 5? 6? [whatev] months. I think about my first day a lot, and how scared I was and how thoroughly unprepared I felt. And, to some degree this hasn't totally gone. I start teaching again in just a few short days and I feel unprepared, yet again. However, I learned a lot in my first few months in Bangkok. A lot of times I walked into a class completely unprepared, with a half-ass plan of a game and a worksheet, and other times I walked in with every moment of the two hour class planned--only to fail miserably. I learned what works and what doesn't. It's been a long time since I was in high school, and my American high school was really nothing like CSB. However, I do remember what it was like being 16 years old, and how not fun learning was. So, I'd like to think that I learned to cut a little bit of slack, without being too much of a pushover. It was different every day, and while most days I really wanted to pull my hair out, there were a lot of classes where I really, genuinely loved teaching.

After talking to other friends in Bangkok, who are also teachers, I feel that I have really learned what I did right and things I can do differently. Hopefully I can use some of these ideas and act like more of a teacher. Looking back on the semester I maaaaaybe had a few too many free days because the thought of teaching was so daunting. But for the few students who paid attention, I feel like I did teach them something. I truly think their English is better because of my classes. Even if that's not true I think I'll continue thinking it.

So, I guess I don't have much else to say about it. I'm glad I'm teaching. They're teaching me as much, if not more, than I'm teaching them. I hope next semester I become more confident. I hope that I can get past the noise. I hope I can be more fun. I hope that more students listen. I hope that there is a little less make up next semester. And I hope that I don't want to jump off the roof every day.

Ok, I guess that's all about that.

Whoa.

Today I saw a kid get his ass kicked by a disciplinary guy with a stick. Note to self: buy a stick.

The Best Idea I've Ever Had.

So, I was thinking about what to do with my classes, and I decided I would teach them about syllables. Then, as I was thinking about that, I had the GENIUS idea to teach them how to write a Haiku (a 3-line, 13-syllable poem, with lines alternating between 5, 7, and 5 syllables each). As it turns out, I did this only for my amusement. I was not disappointed. My students can barely string a sentence together, so I knew that trying to get them to write poetry would just be magic. Ohhhhhh, it was. Anyway, I don't have much else to say about it, they will really speak for themselves. If there are words in [these], that's just my way of correcting things that were spelled very, very wrong.

Okay, here we go:

This is genuine

Import from America

Are you nauseated?

Thai land and people

I like Girl Frieng [Friend] beautiful

I dinner boy fring [friend]

(This next one goes out to Sarah Fasen...)

I would have a show

For when I'm a billionaire

Sarah so stupid

I tired of waiting

Angelina love Brad Pitt

I'll be playing ball

I have one mobile [as in phone]

My mobile is beautiful

and I like mobile

I have dog and cat

my dog is so very fat

my cat is so cute

How I'm I!

My name is Jelly

I like to took [talk] tellphone [telephone]

I'm smile so cute

Britny [Brittany] is teacher

teache is very beauty

chilred [children] lovey she

(and now, for the grand finale....)

Market has seller

seller selling children

children expensive

Okay, that's all. Seriously the best idea I have ever had. Ever.

Ancient City

Last week we were off school for most of the week for the Queen's Birthday. They take Mother's Day prettttttty seriously around here. So, because we were off, we decided to go to the Ancient City (it might be called Ancient Siam...I'm not sure). Anyway, we met Kat, who used to teach at CSB (where I teach), and we headed out of the city. Once we got there, we rented bikes for the day. I think it is technically a museum, but it is HUGE. There were just temples and statues and ruins everywhere. It was amazing. We just got to ride our bikes around wherever we wanted, and go into certain temples, and pass by others. There was even a small floating market in the middle of the place. It was seven thousand degrees that day, so while the bikes were awesome, it was disgustingly gross and sweaty. After we had been there for a few hours, and had seen a lot of the place (but there were whole areas we never even got to), we decided to call it a day. We were walking around, and we saw these steps. So, we decided to climb them. Every time we reached the top of one set of stairs there was another. On each level there were different ruin-type things. So we climbed and climbed and climbed, and we reached the top. It was gorgeous. Well, my typing this doesn't really do it justice, so I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures. So this is a visual blog.

Okay, I guess that's it.

Sidenote--does anyone read this?

Amphawa and Fireflies

So I am really no good at blogging.

I should have written one about our holiday to Hau Hin. I'll sum it up for you:

1. We stayed at a place called the Fat Cat Guest House

2. It was cloudy and we got gnarly sunburns

3. Nick ate good seafood

4. I stepped on an urchin and the bastard stung me six times

[I should write all my blogs that way.....]

Anyway, last week, I think, Nick and I went to the Amphawa floating market with our friends Matt, Kae, and Taw. They are my favorite Bangkok people. We always have a ton of fun.

The market is about an hour and a half outside of Bangkok, but, lucky for us Taw has a car, so she drove us. Before we got to the market, we went to this super old temple. It was kinda in the middle of nowhere, and it was awesome. The temple was literally in a tree. It was amazing! We walked around there for awhile, and saw these statues of super old Thai soldiers preparing for battle. So, naturally we had some good, inappropriate fun with them. Here are some pictures of that: Also, I just realized I have no idea what the temple was called. But I'm okay with that.

[Outside of the temple]

[Inside of the temple]

[Weird fighting statues]

After we walked around there, we left for the floating market. I don't know if you guys know what a floating market is, so I'll explain it. I sure didn't know what it was before I went to one. First of all, it was huge. AND SO CROWDED. There were so many people there. The market was on a river (at least I think it was a river. That may be incorrect), and there were boats on the water that had fresh seafood that was cooked on the spot for everyone at the market but me. Because that stuff is gross. Pretty much anything you could ever want is at the market. There were clothes, and toys, and bags, and food. OH, THE FOOD. All we did from the time we got there until the time we left was eat. [I'm going to go off on a huge tangent for a minute...I really like having Thai friends because I really like going out to eat with them. At any point of a day there are people eating all over the city, and I love that. So when we go out to eat, we order like ten thousand different, amaaaazing things and all share. I've had some of the best food I have ever eaten in my life. And had it not been for my Thai friends I wouldn't have had it because for the most part menus are not in English. Okay, that's my tangent. Food is awesome] So at the market we ate. And we ate a lot. We had little sweet bread things, meats on sticks, seafood, dumplings, fruit, noodles, and so many other things that I absolutely cannot remember. So for most of the day we walked around and tried on funny hats and ate food. It was so fun. It was one of the best days I've had in Bangkok. Here are some random pictures from walking around:

Taw and I were feeling especially adventurous, so we decided to get fish massages. I've seen these all over Bangkok, and have been totally creeped out by them. I do not like fish. But, I was feeling gutsy. So all you do is stick your feet in a tank full of these little fish, and they just attach themselves to your feet and legs. They're very cleansing, and suck out all the bad toxins, energy, and eat dead crap. Now, feet and fish are two of my least favorite things in the world, so at the beginning there was A LOT of screaming and screeching on my end. After about five minutes I got used to it, so that was good. Pretty much it felt like a mixture of vibration and slight electrocution the whole time. I can't say that I enjoyed it, but it was....interesting.

So after walking around and eating more food, we waited for it to get dark and we got ready to see the fireflies! Amphawa is famous for being near one of the largest natural habitats for fireflies. So we got on a really long boat, and they took us for a ride on the water. So for an hour we just got to look for fireflies in the trees. It was gorgeous. I didn't take any pictures of the fireflies, because that would be dumb, but I did take some from the boat. So...here they are.

So, that was our day! I wish I would have written this right after we went, because there's probably a lot I'm forgetting. So I apologize if this is super lame. I'll try and be better. But it was amazing. Definitely a day I won't forget.

Today we went to Ancient Siam. I'll try and blog about that soon.

ps, I can now say "shut up" and "you are lazy" in Thai. I feel like I've learned all I can.

pps/pss, Hi Lauren. Thank you for being such a dedicated blog reader :)

Happy's, Flappy, Mr. Sits, and Other Things I've Named.

So, at any given point of any day, there are a million things going on on our Soi (street). There are carts with vegetables, various meats on sticks, fried bananas, ice cream, coffee, and many other things. There aren't really sidewalks, and if there are, there are carts and businesses that take up the whole road. So, road and sidewalk are the same thing. Which makes for very eventful walks, with people, bikes, cars, and motorbikes all sharing a very small space. The walk to school takes like ten minutes, and to go anywhere else we have to walk another five minutes beyond the school. So, we spend a lot of time walking by the same things multiple times a day. Because of this, I have, with help from Nick, named several of the best/worst things.

A very common conversation had with Thai people (and other teachers at school) consists of them asking if I've eaten lunch. It's the Thai version of small talk. Anyway, when answering the question you either say "rice" or "noodles." There is a noodle place and a rice place pretty much right next to the school. I've only been to the noodle place once--it's good, I just forget about it. But I eat at the rice place pretty much every day. The guy who owns it is super nice, and the food is amazingly good. We really like him and his large plates of food, so we started calling him Happy. Happy knows what I like, so I barely have to order before he completes my sentence. It's awesome. The portions are huge, and I think the most I have spent there is 30baht, or a little less than one dollar. So that makes it even better. Anyway, Nick and I always refer to the place as "Happy's," and I forget that other people don't call it that. Which is fun. So, that's Happy's.

There are fifty billion street dogs that are all over the soi. They come out more at night, but there are still a lot of them out during the day. I like some of them, but a lot of them I hate. They just kinda creep me out a little. One night I had a puppy follow me home from 7/11, and that was awesome. But the other day I had like four circle me, and it was terrifying. Anyway, there are probably like 15 dogs that I see every day. I say hi to some of them. There are two in particular who have gotten names. Nick named one before I came, and I came up with the other one. The first one is Flappy. Ohhhhhhh, Flappy. It's not that I don't like Flappy, but she makes me feel a little dead inside every time I see her. I'm not sure how old she is, but she looks pretty old. Her lady parts have huge tumors and just kinda hang off of her (hence the name), and it's gross. Her hair/fur is gone and it's discolored skin. Also gross. She's blind, and about a month ago her leg broke so she can't walk. Disgusting. The only Thai I want to learn is, "I will pay you 3000 baht to run over that dog," so I can ask a taxi driver to "take care of it." Effing sick. Next up on the disgusting tour of the soi is Meat Grinder. Meat Grinder is also female, and has "been around the block" one two many times. Her insides are on the outside. Thus, it looks like she's been through a meat grinder. I realize this is an unpleasant blog topic, but I'm okay with it. Those are the dogs. Wah.

Mr. Sits is one of my favorite soi sightings. Mr. Sits is only around at night. He sits (every night, I think) on this little ledge outside of someone's house. He wears the same blue shorts, green flip flops, and no shirt every day. He always has his right leg crossed over the left and never has a shoe on his right foot. He just sits and looks around, his cane/walking stick resting next to him. I really like him. I'm not sure what he does during the day. I've never seen him not on the ledge. He's way more pleasant than the stupid dogs. I always want to sit with him. But I don't.

Coffee Lady is a woman who owns this little coffee stand by school. I kind of love her. I go there pretty much every day, so now I don't have to order anymore. She always says, "Good morning teacher. Same thing?" It's awesome. It takes her about five hours to make a drink, but it's worth it. And she speaks English. HUGE.

I forgot to mention the dead frogs. I don't have much to say about them. They're just everywhere. Crack my shit up. There was a dead mouse the other day. I saw a cat staring at it. The next morning it was gone. Hmmmm...

Well those are the best [and disgustingly worst] parts of the soi. I love it.

ps, a motorbike driver made me wear a helmet the other day. DISGUSTING.

"Teacher, Toilet!?"

Well apparently I suck at blogging. I've been meaning to for a few weeks, but I'm lazy. Oops.

So, I started teaching 4ish (I think) weeks ago. I wish I had written a blog my first day, because I don't remember exactly how I felt, but I do remember how awful it was. Nick had prepared me a little for what classes would be like, and I observed a class or two before my first day. However, as I was walking into my first class it really hit me that i had NO IDEA what I was doing. I have no idea how to teach. I was an education for a hot second in college, and I never got to the actual "teaching" part. So, not only do I not know how to teach, my students speak very little English. They know some, but for the most part they can't understand me. And I talk way too fast. After my last class of my first day I walked down the street and cried, so that was super pathetic.

After my mini-breakdown, things got much, much better.

I like my students a whole lot more when I'm not teaching them. When I see them in the halls or on the street, I love them. They're funny and nice and really entertaining. However, in class they're a bunch of little assholes. I have one class who demands movies every time. That's not annoying at all. I would say each class gives me about 20 minutes (of a two hour class) to actually teach. The rest of the time they just yell and don't pay attention. That's been the most difficult thing. They just never shut up. They just scream at each other. Thai students only have one volume, and it's LOUD. They're always late, they never pay attention, and they're just all-around pretty annoying. Most of the time they spend their time talking on their cell phones and putting on makeup. The amount of makeup that is applied during class is amazing. I didnt know people needed to wear so much makeup. Mostly I'm a babysitter. More babysitter, less teacher.

This is a pretty standard class:

I think the most important thing I've learned about teaching is that it is much better if I don't care. I have learned to teach the six students in every class who actually want to learn. So I just focus on them, and ignore the rest. I do love some of my students very much. Like a girl named Jiraprapa. She is fantastic. This is her.

So, I feel like I should have a lot more to write about teaching, but...it has just become my normal routine. I like it sometimes, I hate it sometimes, but I'm glad I'm doing it.

Here are the main things students say:

"Teacher! Toilet?!" (I swear, they go to the bathroom every three minutes)

"Allai Wa?" -What the F...

"teacher! Check name!" (They are obsessed with attendance and it is annoying)

Okay, that's all, I guess.

ps, after I just wrote all that bad stuff about my students I had two classes of extremely well-behaved kids. Karma.