Survived the first week, now off to Asiatique!

Bangkok for the Weekend           

             

                  After a week of, “TEACHA! TEACHA! TEACHA!”, one would think I would need a weekend of rest, but instead Jill and I decided to go on a mini adventure to Bangkok. We were invited to go to breakfast with one of the computer teachers P’ Rachai on Saturday morning and while eating our breakfast and sipping our green teas he invited us to ride with him to Bangkok. P’ Rachai is going to school to get his degree in English and his university has weekend classes in Bangkok. P’ Rachai may hate his weekend classes, but we appreciate the free lift to Bangkok. We weren't in need of a getaway, but were excited to have an American dinner and even more excited for a hot shower.

Family and Friends, meet P’ Rachai!

Ha Ha Ha This isn't really him, but it is his face and I don't have a picture of him yet so this is all I have to show you.

In addition to his awesome hair, P’Rachai has a sweet ride decorated with only the most manly of items, for example:

Needless to say, he has a minion and we get along just fine.

                After our 2 hour drive to Bangkok, Jill and I checked in to our fancy $20 a night hotel, took a hot shower (we had to), and then headed out for the evening. We decided to check out the famous Asiatique. Asiatique can only be reached via ferry, as it is a little peninsula of Bangkok. Even though it was raining, we took a night boat ride to get to Asiatique. You would think we were starving based on how quickly we made our way to the first Italian restaurant we saw, but really we were just craving a familiar meal. Don’t get me wrong, the Thai food is really good and  I have found a lot of dishes that I really like here, but you can only eat so much rice and noodles. It makes perfect sense that we were in need of something other than noodles and we went to have pasta, right? =) The thing about the food in Thailand is that I rarely know what I am getting or what it will taste like. The only dish I know will always taste the same is the ginger chicken and rice, but otherwise it is all a mystery. Sometimes the mystery is a fun adventure and sometimes you just want to order something you know you will really enjoy.

        Besides eating a yummy Italian dinner, Jill and I also attempted to spend all of our money at the hundreds of shops that Asiatique has. Asiatique is a tourists heaven and is filled with all sorts of trinkets and souvenirs. We were also lucky enough to catch the late night firework show before heading back to our hotel room. Here are some pictures from Asiatique.

                                                                  

                                   

        The following day Jill and I, of course took another hot shower, then we ventured out to the world’s largest weekend market, Bangkok’s Jatujak Market. This market had everything from food, to furniture, to paintings, to jewelry, to fake chuck taylors, to souvenirs, and everything in between. The market is set up like a large outdoor swap meet. JJ market was really fun. Weaving in and out of the narrow walk ways and checking out all the shops was a unique shopping experience. Here is a picture of the JJ Market:

        After the market Jill and I jumped on the skytrain to our favorite place in Thailand: the American market. This market has some American candy, American cookies, cheese, tortillas, refried beans, and nearly everything we need.  The market isn’t as good as home, but it is a darn good fix for now.  I know it seems like this weekend was a cry for America, but really I am doing just fine here. Of course there are things I miss, particularly Mexican food and sour candy, but I can’t express how much I love this place. The people are incredible and I feel very welcomed here.

          After our day of market trips, Jill and I went back to meet P’ Rachai and head home. Now is a good time to tell you that P’ Rachai is a cool guy and we have become very good friends with him. I am so thankful to have him here at our school. He was kind enough to introduce us to some of the other Thai teachers who get together every night to eat dinner, watch movies (even movies in English), play cards, and drink whiskey. These teachers get together at P’ Lee and P’ Bird’s house that is on campus, like Jill and I’s house. There are about 10 teachers who gather here Monday- Thursday nights and I like to think of this group as the young and fun teachers of Chamnan School( our school).  Although most of the conversation is in Thai, I am doing my best to learn enough Thai to speak with everyone and between Yaya and P’ Rachai’s translations we are able to have a good time. Here are some pictures from our nights spent with the fun teachers. =)

 

                P' Rachi and P'Off                                         P'Lee and P' Bird, our kind hosts

The "Cool" teachers =)

           

3D Smurf Movie Time!

           Now that we have gotten very close to this group of teachers we decided that teaching them some college beer games was a good idea. We started with a game from UCSB called Gaucho Ball where you sit in a circle and you want to bounce your ping pong ball in to your cup before the person ahead of you. If the person before you beats you then you drink and the last person to drink has to drink a full glass of beer. It is hard for me to explain the game, but it was truly hilarious and so much fun. Here are some pictures from the night we taught our Thai friends college drinking games.

      

                           

                           

          

   

       

I have one last picture for you all and it is a picture of my first Thai motorbike ride with the PE teacher P’ Off (The cutest teacher and the loser of Gaucho Ball). Please note that in Thailand you ride sideways on the back of the motorbike.

 This riding style may not seem safe, especially without a helmet, but mai pen rye (No worries) mom and dad, it is VERY safe! Haha

Sending you all lots of hugs. Miss you all, but sure love my Thai friends! =)

Xo

Amanda

Teacha, Teacha, your nose, your nose!

Sawadee Kha family and friends!

        I am excited to report back to you all that I survived my first week as a teacher! YAY! =) My respect for teachers has always been great, but it has tremendously grown over the last week. I have yet to have blogged about my first week because I am honestly just too tired by the end of the day.  Teaching is the most challenging job I have ever had, but the reward outweighs the cost 100%. 

             Before we get in to the first week I want to rewind and introduce you all to a few people and places that I was introduced to in the few days before my first day of school. First, foremost, and by far the most helpful person at my school is the other foreign teacher, Yaya. Yaya is Chinese, but her English is perfect and her Thai also sounds perfect to me. Yaya can order us food, ask for directions, translate the things my students say, and barter like pro. What else would you need to say in Thai? Ha Ha. Yaya is also our neighbor and she was kind enough to spend the few days before school started showing us the best spots to eat, the best coffee shops, and how to wash our clothes. Yes, my mom did teach me how to do laundry, but trust me it is very different in Thailand. In addition to all of this Yaya also introduced us to what she likes to call "Target". Here is a picture of  Thai "Target" and  a picture of Jill, Yaya, and I at "Target".

Let's just say Yaya needs to visit a Target in America. Ha Ha

In Yaya's defense this store really does have all you need to survive. Thai Target has toilet paper, chips, Oreos, water, and ice cream. That's all you need to survive right? =)

         Besides introducing us to target and ordering our meals, Yaya really has been our saving grace. I am really happy that we made friends with Yaya and it is very nice to have one more person to speak English with. At this point I want to tell you all that Yaya is my favorite person here, but fair warning: you are going to hear that a lot from me because I love all the people I have met so so much. The people in this country are truly phenomenal. 

            The topic of phenomenal leads me to this next special lady, P' Jenny. P' Jenny invited Jill, Yaya, and I to her house to have noodles with her family and the noodles were the best noodles I have had in Thailand. P' Jenny's husband cooked our food and we spent the time chatting a bit with P' Jenny and her children. Here is a picture of Yaya, Jill, P' Jenny (on my left), and I eating noodles. 

I also took a snapchat with her cute son, Sean, while he was playing with my phone. I told him to make a funny face, but I don't think he understood as much as I did!  =)

            At first I was a little nervous to talk to P' Jenny and wasn't sure how much English she understood, but little did I know her English is amazing and she is hilarious. As I said before, everyone in Thailand is my favorite, but P' Jenny has a very special place in my heart. Maybe she has that special spot because within the first week of school she told me I had "big mountains". For any of you who can't guess what that meant, big mountains meant big boobs. Ha Ha Ha. It was both hilarious and embarrassing, but she meant no harm. 

       If the big mountain story didn't make you laugh, well no worries, I have one more P' Jenny story for you. One day at school P'Jenny was very quiet, so I asked P'Jenny what are you doing over there. P' Jenny responded to this question with, "looking at something erotic on my phone". Jill and I both started laughing and then began the daunting task of explaining to a room full of English teachers what erotic means and why that wasn't something P'Jenny should say. Ha Ha 

      Needless to say P' Jenny is very cute and was so sweet in welcoming us in to her home. She also took us to Tesco to buy some more snacks and a trash can. P' Jenny didn't have enough seats for us all in her truck, but Mai Pen Rai (My Pen Rye=No Worries), in Thailand you ride in the bed of the truck with your groceries. Good thing it is safe because they completely abide by all the street laws in Thailand. Actually, I am not sure there are even street laws to abide by in Thailand.

Sunday Market

     On the Sunday before school started, Yaya introduced us to our town's Sunday/ Wednesday market. Imagine a dirty farmer's market, with sketchy, but yummy food, and elephants walking around. It is a really cool market and we have tried some awesome food and desserts here. I was extremely excited to find mango and sticky rice at this market and it was delicious (arroy: A-Roy). Here are some pictures from the market.

Biking to the market!

            

In addition to fruits and veggies this market also has live creatures for sale like these frogs and turtles.

Many of the creatures are covered with netting like you see in the frog picture, but as you see in the turtle picture other creatures are not covered. While I was busy photographing the turtles for you all to see, this guy in the picture below decided to sliver out and say hi.

Yup, a snake! He literally came out of the bucket right next to my foot. You can all imagine that my reaction consisted of a little squirming mixed with sheer panic. What you probably wouldn't imagine is the reaction that followed. All of the vendors and Thai people around me started hysterically laughing and pointing at me. I had no problem laughing at myself, especially when a little boy pushed me out of the way, picked up the snake, and put it back without a single fear. I am sure the little boy was thinking, "Really white girl it's just a snake". Ohhhh, Thailand.

We also found this meat kebobs that look like cartoon characters. Mysterious meat angry bird kebob anyone? 

I opted out on the angry bird kebobs, but I did get this tasty and refreshing coconut ice cream.

and these dessert tacos that tasted like thin crunchy pancakes with marshmallow cream filling.

Here are a few other things I found at the market....

Thai Lotto tickets

Chicken anyone?

 This little one taking a nap in the midst of all the chaos and heat.

And of course this cute little guy who was walking around

Teaching in Thailand: Week 1!

Teacher Amanda Day 1 =)

              Obviously in my twenty two years of life I have had many first days of school, but this first day of school was unlike any other. I was anxious to see what my new job would be like, nervous about if the students would understand me, and excited to brace the unknown. It was all a mystery on day one because I didn't have my class schedules yet, I didn't know how advanced the students would be, and thus I didn't have anything prepared. It is still a work in progress to get used to, but I am learning that Thai people don't plan things very far in advance and EVERYTHING is subject to change. As a planner this isn't the easiest for me to get used to, but the more I embrace it the more I love it. 

        The first stop once we arrive to school each day is to sign in, which is our school's way of clocking in or taking attendance for the teachers. The teachers have to sign in by 7:40AM or we are late. The first morning we were greeted by P' Jim who is our program coordinator and the head of the English department. She is a very sweet little lady and has welcomed Jill and I with open arms. 

           After signing in each morning, the first order of business for the teachers and the students is to attend the morning assembly. On the first day of school Jill and I were told we would be getting up on stage to give an introduction speech to all of the students and staff. Luckily by introduction speech they simply meant introduce yourselves and where you are from, but it was very nerve racking to speak on a microphone with over 1500 students and 50 teachers all staring at you. We were asked to speak very clear and very slow which is hard to do, especially on a microphone. Here are some pictures from the morning assembly and our five minutes of fame.

P' Jim introducing Jill and I

The sea of students and teachers waiting for us to talk

        Luckily we only had to speak at the morning assembly on the first day and every other day we attend morning assembly, but can't understand a word of what they are telling the students. Mostly I spend this first twenty minutes of school trying to wake up. After our introductions at the morning assembly P' Jim gave out the schedules for the teachers. One thing you should all know about the Thai school schedule is that it really doesn't make any sense. There is no rhyme or reason to the days or times I see my students. For example, I see my 5/1 class Mondays period 7 and Tuesdays period 4. Here is a copy of my schedule.

       Some of you may have noticed (probably not), that one period ends at the exact same time that the next period begins. In Thailand passing periods don't exist and because of that the students are usually about 5-15 minutes late for class. You can't reprimand the students for being late because they may have needed to go the bathroom, or "toilet", and they may have been let out late by the last teacher. With fifty minute periods and students that are 15 minutes late, it  is very hard to get much of a lesson plan in after taking attendance. 

         On the topic of attendance, the first 5 minutes that the students are in the class it is full of laughter and chaos as the students listen to me butcher their Thai names. I am getting better at pronouncing the names, but with names like Thiraporn,Chachowkorn, Benjawan, and Sirilak (See-lee-lake) it is quite tricky. In a desperate attempt to remember all of my students names I decided to give them all American nicknames. Before the students come in to the classroom they all take their shoes off, so the hallways of school are filled with hundreds of matching shoes (the students have a uniform and shoes are included in that uniform).  Here is a picture of the shoes outside the classroom.

        Because I don't have a first period on Mondays, P'Jim took me to meet the director (Principle in Thailand). The director doesn't speak English, but P'Jim was able to translate for us. He was a very nice guy, but Jill and I are 99.9% sure he was hitting on me. He kept asking P'Jim to tell me how kind, smart, and handsome he was and to tell me that I need a Thai man. Ha Ha. We didn't get a picture with the director on the first day, but luckily I got one today, so that I could show you all what my future husband looks like...NOT! Here is a picture of the director and I.

      After visiting the director we went back to the Foreign language department to meet all of the teachers in our department and get our desks setup. Because we teach in different rooms for every period we spend all of our time in the Foreign Language office when we are not teaching. There is a constant flow of teachers coming and going between classes. Really this office is our home and we come to this office in the morning, for lunch, for all periods we aren't teaching, and for the time before we leave work.  These teachers are the ones we spend all of our time with and I really enjoy talking to, or trying to talk to, all of them. Here is a picture of our foreign language department sitting at our desks. 

Left teacher with her purse on her desk is P' Wee and on her left P' Palm, in the back from left to right is P' Jenny, then P'Mow, then P' Jim. In the middle in the gray shirt and glasses is P' Aon, then in front of her is the only guy, Mr. Bom, then in black Jill, and stripes ME. Behind me and peaking over my shoulder is P' Tit and next to her on her right is P' Tooney.  To my right in this picture is Yaya and that's our office! =) I know that was a bit confusing, but hopefully you kind of followed.

     

          For my first days with all of my classes I decided to play a little game to help me determine the English level of my students for my future lesson plans. I would love to tell you that all of my students are angels, but I would be lying. I love all of my classes, but some are more challenging than others, particularly the ones with more boys than girls. It is hard to accurately explain how happy teaching makes me, but I LOVE working with the kids and their smiles brighten my day. Even the challenging classes are fun because it is funny that I can spend the entire 40 minutes yelling to be quiet and they will still laugh when I say, "Be Quiet!". I attempted to get a picture of every one of my classes to share with you all, but 3 of my classes were too chaotic to make this happen. Even though there are a few missing, here are all my cute students. =) 

Monday Classes

                                                                      1/4 class= No picture

^ 5/4 Class

5/3 Class (look at their perfect 3 rows, well as perfect as it gets)
So you may have wondered why the title of this blog is Teacha, Teacha! Your nose, your nose! and that is because during this 5/3 class the students all started laughing and yelling this at me. Turns out I had only made it through 2 periods of day one before becoming "that" teacher with marker all over her face. It was a really funny moment for me and I was really grateful that they told me.

                                                                           ^5/1 Class

Tuesday

     On Tuesday I see the 5/1 class for the 2nd time and then my 1/1 class below. The 1/? classes are the littlest kids at our school. I think they are adorable. =)

If you look closely here you will see one of the boys in the back with his head down and his hand up (he didn't want to be in the picture). Just to embarrass him a little more I made him take an individual picture (below), but his friend popped in and saved him (he is the one on the right).  Ha Ha 

Wednesday (the day students wear their boy/girl scout outfits to school)

2/4 Class= No Picture

^2/3 Class

On Wednesday we also had a meeting that all of the staff had to attend (It was all in Thai or I would tell you what it was about, Ha Ha). We were of course bored sitting there for over an hour, but at least we didn't look like these two Teacher's Assistants. =P

Really hiding with your bag up buddy! =)

Thursday
     
      On Thursdays I see my 1/4 class for the second time, but here is a picture of one of my favorite girl students from that class. Her nickname is Poo Pa

^ 1/4 Class

 ^2/2 Class

^1/7 Class  (Clearly a very well behaved class =/ )

Then 1/1 for the second time followed by 2/8 below.

2/8 Class (Yes, that kid on the floor in the front is VERY entertained by me! Ha Ha)

Friday

   2/10= No Picture

1/7 for the second time and here are my favorites (Diew and Pone, plus some friends)

Left= Diew (cute and short like me haha), Ice (smarty pants who answers every question), and Non (quite quiet)

Left: Dream (Possibly dreaming in this picture) and Pone (really could he be any cuter? He is too cool to look when I take his picture)

Then 5/4 and 5/3 for the second time. I love my 5 classes and I can't really narrow them down to favorites yet. All of the kids I teach are adorable in their own way and I love them all. =)

          Before I let you all go I also wanted to show you a video of what the students say at the beginning of every class. This greeting is very robotic (obviously because they say it 8 periods a day to their teachers), but it is also very funny to me. It was impossible to video without them knowing, so you will see in the video they get a little bashful. =)

At the end of the school day (3:30PM) most of the teachers, at least in our department, try and race the students out to the food trucks that line up outside to get crepes, ice creams, and other sweet treats. After we snack for a few minutes and talk to the other teachers we get to leave and go home around 4:00PM. Our days are long, but I enjoy every minute and I couldn't be happier with the school I am at. It is safe to say I love Thailand and I may never return.... Ha Ha =)

When I get a break between classes P'Tit is teaching me a little Thai and in light of being a teacher I thought I would end this by teaching you a few Thai words.

Smart= Chalad (Like Salad, but with the Ch sound)

Mom= Mae (May)

Dad= Poa (like Paw)

Today= Wahnee (Wa-Knee)

Tomorrow= Prungnee (Proon-knee)

And last, but not least....

Fun Dee (Good Night!)

=)

Hugs from Thailand to you all!

~ Teacher Amanda