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

Mastering Thailand Transportation: Round One

Getting to Khon Kaen:   
    
           It may have taken a minibus, a sky-train,  an airplane, a taxi, a bus, and a Tuk Tuk, but we made it to Khon Kaen and we had a blast. After our incredible weekend on Ko Samed island we hopped on the ferry back to mainland Thailand. It was at this point that we began the adventure of understanding how to get from point A to point B in Thailand. Now this may seem like a very easy task, but in Thailand everything MIGHT happen when it is supposed to happen and I am not an expert in Thai language yet. If you look up the bus times and see that the bus leaves every hour from Ban Phe to Bangkok then it MIGHT really leave every hour, but it MIGHT not leave until it is full. A common saying in Thailand is Mai Pen Rai, no worries, and this is a necessary attitude to have in Thailand. Mai Pen Rai is a great way to live and I love how laid back it is in Thailand, but when you are catching planes it is important to be on time. 

       When we got to Ban Phe we had to wait about 30 minutes to get the minibus to Bangkok and it was a 3.5 hour ride. Minibuses are basically just vans that you hire to take you from town to town and they are the quickest cheap transportation option. The minibus ride was not long, but wow was it quite the ride. You know when you are sitting in traffic and you see the emergency lane and think, "it would be so nice if I could just drive in that lane and pass all these cars"? Well that is exactly what the minibus driver did the entire way to Bangkok and most of these buses don't have seat belts. Yee Haw! Ha Ha Luckily we made it to Bangkok in one piece and were able to get a cheap hostel to stay for the night. Was the nicest hostel, no, but we made it work for one night.


             The next morning we woke up, had breakfast, and caught the sky-train to the airport. Again this may seem like such an easy task, but when the signs are all in Thai it can be very tricky to buy your sky-train ticket, find the correct train line, switch trains, and ultimately get to your destination. I have learned that traveling in Thailand is a learning experience and I hope by the end of my time here that I will be an expert in all things related to Thai travel. =) 

        The sky-train was really awesome and we were able to see a lot of the city on the ride to the airport. After our ride on the sky-train we checked in for our flight and boarded the very bright colored plane. Here are some pictures from our journey. 

Hello minibus line....                                                                      Hello Bangkok hostel....

                                                                                                

 

Above: A few sky-train pictures 

Above: My favorite sign in Thailand that we found on the sky-train. Can anyone understand who has priority seating?

People with babies, pregnant women, elderly individuals, handicapped individuals, and saving the best for last... Monks. =)

I got us to the airport with help from this guy!

                                

Aboard our bright and colorful plane to Khon Kaen. I was excited for the snacks and happy the flight was only 50 minutes.

Khon Kaen Airport with security that takes a total of 30 seconds to go through. I could sure get used to that! =)

Getting to Phu Wiang:

           After all that traveling to get to Khon Kaen, one would think we were finally to our friends, but after getting to Khon Kaen we still had to get to the little city of Phu Wiang. Phu Wiang is where our friends Dustin and Julia live. From Khon Kaen airport we had to take a taxi to the bus station, a bus to Phu Wiang bus station, a tuk tuk to Julia and Dustin's school, and then we rode on the pegs and fenders of their bikes back to their house. 

When we got up on the bus we had no idea if we were actually going to the right town because no one spoke any English. I did my best to speak Thai/ show the driver my google maps picture of Phu Wiang. The bus driver even rearranged passengers when we got on the bus just so we could sit together. Luckily we were on the right bus and we made to Phu Wiang on the first try. Here are some pictures from the second half of our journey to Phu Wiang. 

               

 Our "hopefully this is the bus to Phu Wiang" faces!

Bus to Phu Wiang

When there is no A/C on the bus and the windows are down... Mom, want to frame this and add it to the hallway?

                               

The Tuk Tuk ride at the end of a long day of traveling

 For Dinner:

                              

                       Thai pizza                                   and                        Smoothies with a cool holder

(You don't know what kind until it comes out)

       The first night we spent most of the evening just catching up with Julia and Dustin and the next day we went to school with them to meet their classes. Julia and Dustin teach primary school and their students are the cutest little things I have ever seen. I really hope that I can teach primary school next semester if I stay in Thailand. Here are some pictures of their students.

Left: Dustin's favorite student, Tang


                             Right: Julia's favorite student, Chopper

                                       
         

Julia's class

          Below is the temple behind Julia and Dustin's school

Bright Lights, Big City!     

      After our day at school with Julia and Dustin we all got back on the bus to Khon Kaen to go explore the big city for the weekend. Once we arrived in Khon Kaen we stumbled upon a sound system car show. Here is a video, but beware it was REALLY loud!

Because we are all living on a budget now, we didn't want to spend more than $10 each on the hotel room, so we decided to slum it a bit at the Glacier hotel.

Ha Ha not quite slumming it!

        After the awesome car show we decided to go out and try the infamous Asian D'lite drink. It tasted a lot like a pineapple juice to me, but it was tasty.

 Ya, we aren't the most normal bunch! 

Dustin, being a champ and loving every minute with us three gals! =)

        The following day our friend Lauren joined us in Khon Kaen and we did more exploring. Again we stumbled upon some interesting events, like this teen bop concert in the shopping center. I have no idea what the name of this band was, but based on all the girls' screams, I think they were the Backstreet Boys of Thailand. Good thing I was able to get my dose of live music in this country. 

The audience cheering on the boy band!

                                   

                                                             

         As Khon Kaen is a big university town we decided to go out and try to find where the college kids hang out. Our first stop was a club, or so we thought, called Rads. I won't go in to much detail and I will let the next picture tell the story, but I will tell you all a little secret: Rad=slut in Thai. Guess I better refrain from telling my students how rad I think they are. 

Me: "Ummmmm guys, I think we are in a strip club!"

Before I was able to inform the whole group of this discovery Julia had already ordered us all a beer. When the beers and the bill came the server told us that is was 1,200 baht each. For those of you who don't know the conversion that is a $40 beer! We were all freaking out, unable to return the beers, and realizing we were spending more on one beer than our whole weekend in Khon Kaen, so we decided to talk to the manager. The manager was kind enough to give us the beers for 1,200 baht total. I like to think that was the original price and that the language barrier is to blame for the confusion, but if not those are some expensive beers. We didn't hang out for long, but on our way out I found myself an exciting bunch of guys, Cranium MC biker gang. Here is a picture of all of us with the Khon Kaen biker gang.

After this photo was taken I made a deal with the guy with the watch on (probably the president) that I would teach the gang English in exchange for my own biker vest. If only I lived in Khon Kaen....... Ha Ha

Phu Wiang National Park

       The following day we returned to Phu Wiang and Jill, Lauren and I went to the Phu Wiang national park where dinosaur bones had been discovered. The national park was beautiful and I wished that I had proper hiking gear, but we were still able to see a lot of the beautiful sites. Here are some photos froom our adventure to Phu Wiang National Park.

Lauren, Jill, and I at the first lookout point

                                                    

Above: National Park Gate                                                  Above: First site we made it to!

         Below: Ewww!                                                             Below: Jill, Lauren, and I at site 1

   

                  

The long long long staircase to.......

These 4 little dinosaur bones! Ha Ha

By far the prettiest view ever. It was very foggy but you could see trees and mountains for miles and miles. We were on top of the world, or at least Phu Wiang. =)

Last Day in Khon Kean:

         On Saturday I received a text message that our plane back to Bangkok was cancelled, but then late Monday night I received an email that they had found another plane to put us on Tuesday afternoon. I was very sad to leave the endless laughter we had with Julia and Dustin in Phu Wiang, but I was also excited to get back to Klaeng and start school. The trip home was another adventure, but we made it home safely. Luckily P' Tit picked us up from the minibus drop off because we didn't know how to tell the bus driver exactly where we needed to go. We live on the outskirts of Klaeng and the bus dropped us off on the other side of Klaeng. 

Next up: Klaeng and my first day of TEACHING eeeek =), but I will leave you with this very very realistic photo of our group right before Jill and I left Phu Wiang. Yup, that is me that the dinosaur caught! Ha Ha

XoXo