well i leave in one week, wow. time flies so fast.
today was my last day of teaching :/ tomorrow we have school but no teaching, just songkran festivals all day. we are all wearing "traditional thai clothing" to school and are apparently going to get really soaked, because well thats part of what songkran is all about :) so tomorrow will be a big water fight with the kids and teachers- fun fun! and we are also doing some traditional ceremonial things too. there is a special drink that you drink during songkran- its like a plant juice. supposedly really healthy. they were making it today in the kitchen.
then after school tomorrow i get on the long 14 hour+ bus ride to southern thailand for songkran.
this last weekend i went to Hua Hin for a 10k race. it's called the Preserve Hua Hin Heavy Half-Marathon and Quarter Marathon. and yeah now i know why they have the "heavy" in there. there is a HUGE hill, like almost a mountain that you have to run down at the start (it is about a mile straight steep downhill on pavement- cars cannot drive up it) and then you have to finish the race right at the top of the hill, so you have to run UP it. so the whole race i was just trying to imagine how i would get up that hill. i was like flailing down the hill, my legs were out of control, it was so steep! i knew my legs were gonna hurt, and they really do. there are no hills around most of thailand so i have not been running any hills. the way up was hell too, i thought my legs were gonna fall off, it was so hard to keep them moving and not walk up the hill, but i made it!
i got 3rd place and was MUCH slower than the previous race, but this was the hilliest 10k i have ever seen or imagined. it was super hot out too. i got a trophy and 1,200 baht for getting 3rd place, so thats kinda fun. the trip was a lot of fun and we made lots of friends on the bus. i went with my thai friend Nig. we took a free bus there organized by the race from bangkok (a 4 hour drive). and then we ended up getting a free hotel room too. and then we got free lunch and breakfast. all in all the trip cost me like -25 dollars. i made money off of it, ha.
at the race i met some really cool and really good runners. there were people from all around the world, but i liked talking to the kenyans the most. a lot of the people there thought i was a professional runner and that i had just came to thailand for this race or something and that i had sponsors, and some were even telling me that they would be watching me on the olympics because they thought for sure i was on the team usa. they were surprised that i just taught english and ran for fun.
the rest of the weekend (monday was a holiday too) involved shopping, and hanging out with Nig and her sister. it was a good weekend.
my last week of thailand will be very interesting with songkran and the political craziness going on at the moment here.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
2 weeks left?! eeek!
okay wow. i need to catch up on my blog writing. let's see....
one weekend i went with a couple of my english teacher friends to play in an ultimate frisbee hat tournament. we played from 9am until 4pm basically non-stop in the heat of the day. the only breaks we had were a lunch break and then a break when it started storming. they were intense ultimate frisbee players and it was a good mix of people: thai and farang, teachers and travelers, pros and first-timers. i scored 3 goals and was proud of that, they were very good players and i felt very rusty with my frisbee skills. we had a lot of fun, but it was SO hot! i was very surprised to see so many thai women playing because you dont see a lot of thai women that will go outside and workout especially if the sun is out, and they were really good at ultimate frisbee also.
that sunday me and my friend lindsey took a thai cooking class and i learned to cook 10 different dishes including curries, soups, pad thai, desserts, som tam, etc. and i bought some spices/sauces and cookbooks so i can make some tasty food when i get back to the states.
this last weekend i took a "sick day" or a "mental health day" (i needed a break and hadnt taken a day off of work yet) so i started my weekend on friday morning, it was nice and much needed. i took the free buses to thammasat university area and was first in line for thai boxing, then i did some shopping around my old apartment area.
saturday i went to the huge chatuchak weekend market for the last time and bought some things. i went with my friend Nig and spent the whole day with her- she got really tired. apparently i have a lot of energy. we then went to thammasat and did thai boxing for my last time :( the coach gave me his address and gave me a big hug saying that he will miss me a lot. he's so much fun. then me and Nig and another thammasat thai boxer went on a journey to the Lumpini Thai Boxing stadium to see an evening thai boxing match. (it wasnt as exciting or intense as we had thought, its a long story though). then we went shopping at the nearby night market and also saw a thai heavy metal concert which was pretty fun to watch.
then sunday i went with Nig to Koh Kret, an island on the chao phraya river by my town. we basically just walked around and shopped, saw their cool pottery that they do on the island, and bought a bunch (heavy for in my luggage!) we also ate the island dish of fried flowers and plants... it was interesting and sweet. it was a really hot day. then we got back to our town and they were having the end of the month sunday market, which is HUGE! so i did more shopping and bought more stuff! i hope i have room in my luggage for it all!
i now have 1.5 more weeks of teaching left, its crazy how fast it went. but i feel a little burned out with it. luckily monday is a buddhist holiday, so no school. this weekend i will run a mini marathon in hua hin. it should be fun. the winner wins 3000 baht, which would be very nice to have.
then the rest of my time here is a holiday, songkran, thai new years, and i will be going to my friend Nig's hometown in southern thailand. it should be fun, and interesting for sure.
one weekend i went with a couple of my english teacher friends to play in an ultimate frisbee hat tournament. we played from 9am until 4pm basically non-stop in the heat of the day. the only breaks we had were a lunch break and then a break when it started storming. they were intense ultimate frisbee players and it was a good mix of people: thai and farang, teachers and travelers, pros and first-timers. i scored 3 goals and was proud of that, they were very good players and i felt very rusty with my frisbee skills. we had a lot of fun, but it was SO hot! i was very surprised to see so many thai women playing because you dont see a lot of thai women that will go outside and workout especially if the sun is out, and they were really good at ultimate frisbee also.
that sunday me and my friend lindsey took a thai cooking class and i learned to cook 10 different dishes including curries, soups, pad thai, desserts, som tam, etc. and i bought some spices/sauces and cookbooks so i can make some tasty food when i get back to the states.
this last weekend i took a "sick day" or a "mental health day" (i needed a break and hadnt taken a day off of work yet) so i started my weekend on friday morning, it was nice and much needed. i took the free buses to thammasat university area and was first in line for thai boxing, then i did some shopping around my old apartment area.
saturday i went to the huge chatuchak weekend market for the last time and bought some things. i went with my friend Nig and spent the whole day with her- she got really tired. apparently i have a lot of energy. we then went to thammasat and did thai boxing for my last time :( the coach gave me his address and gave me a big hug saying that he will miss me a lot. he's so much fun. then me and Nig and another thammasat thai boxer went on a journey to the Lumpini Thai Boxing stadium to see an evening thai boxing match. (it wasnt as exciting or intense as we had thought, its a long story though). then we went shopping at the nearby night market and also saw a thai heavy metal concert which was pretty fun to watch.
then sunday i went with Nig to Koh Kret, an island on the chao phraya river by my town. we basically just walked around and shopped, saw their cool pottery that they do on the island, and bought a bunch (heavy for in my luggage!) we also ate the island dish of fried flowers and plants... it was interesting and sweet. it was a really hot day. then we got back to our town and they were having the end of the month sunday market, which is HUGE! so i did more shopping and bought more stuff! i hope i have room in my luggage for it all!
i now have 1.5 more weeks of teaching left, its crazy how fast it went. but i feel a little burned out with it. luckily monday is a buddhist holiday, so no school. this weekend i will run a mini marathon in hua hin. it should be fun. the winner wins 3000 baht, which would be very nice to have.
then the rest of my time here is a holiday, songkran, thai new years, and i will be going to my friend Nig's hometown in southern thailand. it should be fun, and interesting for sure.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Okay it's been a while
Alright so it is now day 3 of Summer school here. I will make a short update of my travels these past two weeks while I was on break: brief synopsis:
1. I went to Cambodia by train and stayed the night in the Thai border town called Aranyaprathet and stayed in a very nice hotel, my favorite 200 baht spent on a hotel, that equals about 6 dollars. It had nice rooms, hot water, AND the best part: a resort style swimming pool: very big and had a slide and had plants surrounding it. I got off the hot long train ride and jumped in and swam for over an hour until I had to go eat some pad thai from the local market because I was starving. I then went first thing in the morning to the border to get my passport stamped and get my visa renewed- after 4 attempts at scamming me with visa stuff I made it across the border and got in a shared taxi with locals and went to the town called Battambang. I arrived in the afternoon and grabbed a hamburger (they have lots of beef in cambodia, which i miss. its still not the same as nebraskan beef though). then I hired a nice motorcycle driver who worked at the hotel to drive me around to some tourist spots of old Angkor temples and caves, and historical, infamous Khmer Rouge areas. I also saw the Bamboo trains that they use to get around on the rails when trains arent going by and we mingled with some friendly villagers and ate really good Khmer Food (all beef). It's like thai food only not as much chili, and beef instead of pork. it was a nice change. we were out all day on this tour i paid 10 dollars for, having my own driver i thought was worth it.
I then mingled with some foreigners at a small australian owned bar/restaurant and gave them tips on thailand (their next stop). i had a Cambodian style beer as well, called Angkor. it was pretty good. I shared a taxi to the border with some of these foreigners the next morning and then hopped on a train back to bangkok.
2. the next day I went on the trip to Ko Kret with the other teachers from my school. it was VERY nice. we stayed in a very nice resort-supposedly the best on the island. we ate TONS of good food- the owner of the school paid for everything. we swam, we rode on a boat around the whole island snorkeling in the cool areas and looking at the coral and the fish. we ate at a restaurant that was in the middle of the water held up by stilts- we had to get to the restaurant by a wooden boat on a zip line type device. we ate lots of fresh seafood.
it was a lot of fun to mingle with the teachers because we are normally so busy during the day and dont get to talk. it also forced me to use my thai since i was the only foreigner on the whole trip.
3. then i spent most of the week at thammasat university thai boxing every day and hanging out in the old area i used to live. it takes about 4 hours out of my day to go to thammasat by bus from my town, but it'd worth it for the thai boxing with friends at the school.
4. then i got really sick, i had an eye problem- went to the doctor and he said i had conjunctivitis- basically pink eye i think, so i had some medicine for that. at the same time i had a stomach problem going on and after a few un-fun days of staying inside my room really sick, i went to the doctor and he said i have a infection in my intestines so i had to take 5 different medicines he prescribed. then i got a cold after that.
5. once i finally got better i went to Hua Hin with one of my Thai friends and we stayed a night there and swam a lot in the sea. just relaxed.
6. then this last weekend i went with the rest of the Thammasat Thai Boxing Team to Ayutthaya where there was an International Thai Boxing Festival/Gathering/Conference deal. And there were tons of people there from all countries who were thai boxers. there were big fights on monday and tuesday but we only went for the first day which was sunday. we participated in traditional ceremonies that honored our coaches and the ancient sport of thai boxing. we also ate a LOT of traditional thai food- tasty. and saw exhibitions of traditional thai bamboo tattoos in the making, and how they made the swords, etc. we all had to dress in the same attire, thai boxing outfits, they are fun.
now it is summer school, which is more fun and more relaxed than normal school days, so that is nice. i have control over what i teach them and what we do in class, so we have fun and play games and do outdoor activities. its been raining a lot lately though. but i have a soccer club and we meet once a week. it is fun, but hard to keep their little attention spans occupied!
1. I went to Cambodia by train and stayed the night in the Thai border town called Aranyaprathet and stayed in a very nice hotel, my favorite 200 baht spent on a hotel, that equals about 6 dollars. It had nice rooms, hot water, AND the best part: a resort style swimming pool: very big and had a slide and had plants surrounding it. I got off the hot long train ride and jumped in and swam for over an hour until I had to go eat some pad thai from the local market because I was starving. I then went first thing in the morning to the border to get my passport stamped and get my visa renewed- after 4 attempts at scamming me with visa stuff I made it across the border and got in a shared taxi with locals and went to the town called Battambang. I arrived in the afternoon and grabbed a hamburger (they have lots of beef in cambodia, which i miss. its still not the same as nebraskan beef though). then I hired a nice motorcycle driver who worked at the hotel to drive me around to some tourist spots of old Angkor temples and caves, and historical, infamous Khmer Rouge areas. I also saw the Bamboo trains that they use to get around on the rails when trains arent going by and we mingled with some friendly villagers and ate really good Khmer Food (all beef). It's like thai food only not as much chili, and beef instead of pork. it was a nice change. we were out all day on this tour i paid 10 dollars for, having my own driver i thought was worth it.
I then mingled with some foreigners at a small australian owned bar/restaurant and gave them tips on thailand (their next stop). i had a Cambodian style beer as well, called Angkor. it was pretty good. I shared a taxi to the border with some of these foreigners the next morning and then hopped on a train back to bangkok.
2. the next day I went on the trip to Ko Kret with the other teachers from my school. it was VERY nice. we stayed in a very nice resort-supposedly the best on the island. we ate TONS of good food- the owner of the school paid for everything. we swam, we rode on a boat around the whole island snorkeling in the cool areas and looking at the coral and the fish. we ate at a restaurant that was in the middle of the water held up by stilts- we had to get to the restaurant by a wooden boat on a zip line type device. we ate lots of fresh seafood.
it was a lot of fun to mingle with the teachers because we are normally so busy during the day and dont get to talk. it also forced me to use my thai since i was the only foreigner on the whole trip.
3. then i spent most of the week at thammasat university thai boxing every day and hanging out in the old area i used to live. it takes about 4 hours out of my day to go to thammasat by bus from my town, but it'd worth it for the thai boxing with friends at the school.
4. then i got really sick, i had an eye problem- went to the doctor and he said i had conjunctivitis- basically pink eye i think, so i had some medicine for that. at the same time i had a stomach problem going on and after a few un-fun days of staying inside my room really sick, i went to the doctor and he said i have a infection in my intestines so i had to take 5 different medicines he prescribed. then i got a cold after that.
5. once i finally got better i went to Hua Hin with one of my Thai friends and we stayed a night there and swam a lot in the sea. just relaxed.
6. then this last weekend i went with the rest of the Thammasat Thai Boxing Team to Ayutthaya where there was an International Thai Boxing Festival/Gathering/Conference deal. And there were tons of people there from all countries who were thai boxers. there were big fights on monday and tuesday but we only went for the first day which was sunday. we participated in traditional ceremonies that honored our coaches and the ancient sport of thai boxing. we also ate a LOT of traditional thai food- tasty. and saw exhibitions of traditional thai bamboo tattoos in the making, and how they made the swords, etc. we all had to dress in the same attire, thai boxing outfits, they are fun.
now it is summer school, which is more fun and more relaxed than normal school days, so that is nice. i have control over what i teach them and what we do in class, so we have fun and play games and do outdoor activities. its been raining a lot lately though. but i have a soccer club and we meet once a week. it is fun, but hard to keep their little attention spans occupied!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
cambodia soon
update: thursday morning i am leaving for cambodia because i have to go do a visa run so that i can stay in thailand for sixty more days. i will bus it from bangkok to aranyaprathet, and then cross the border to cambodia in the town called Poi Pet. then i think i will travel to Battambang and stay a few nights there and then go to Koh Samed island with the school teachers and boss on sunday.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
if you dont have facebook, here are public links to my photo albums from thailand:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025605&id=165401361&l=ccac1
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024618&id=165401361&l=5bb76
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024104&id=165401361&l=392e1
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2023658&id=165401361&l=383af
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024618&id=165401361&l=5bb76
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024104&id=165401361&l=392e1
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2023658&id=165401361&l=383af
Coming soon
Well nothing new around here really. Just hanging out at school during the day and trying to pass the time by- reading and using the internet, and learning thai (mostly practicing writing) and spanish (online). (I've been finished with all of my work for the semester but i still have to physically be at the school for the next week).
Then on next thursday or friday i have to go to cambodia to do a visa run- probably take the train. go there and come back right away, because i will be by myself and have already traveled for a week there to the hot spots.
then on sunday our head of school is taking us teachers to Ko Samet island to stay at a resort for a couple days (someone she knows owns it). so we are meeting at the school sunday morning and someone is driving a van there full of us i think. that should be fun. and i was looking up the beach and area we will be staying and it says
"One of the only beaches on Ko Samet's west coast, Ao Phrao is a scenic bay with a sweeping shallow beach. It's also the most luxurious beach on Ko Samet, with just three top-end resorts."
It's supposed to be an exclusive beach with a great view of the sunset. i love islands. im excited for this. we will all actually get to mingle for a chance, because throughout the school days we are all so busy-mostly the thai teachers chasing kids around.
this weekend: going to a movie, thai boxing, playing frisbee and doing some shopping maybe at Chatuchak.
Then on next thursday or friday i have to go to cambodia to do a visa run- probably take the train. go there and come back right away, because i will be by myself and have already traveled for a week there to the hot spots.
then on sunday our head of school is taking us teachers to Ko Samet island to stay at a resort for a couple days (someone she knows owns it). so we are meeting at the school sunday morning and someone is driving a van there full of us i think. that should be fun. and i was looking up the beach and area we will be staying and it says
"One of the only beaches on Ko Samet's west coast, Ao Phrao is a scenic bay with a sweeping shallow beach. It's also the most luxurious beach on Ko Samet, with just three top-end resorts."
It's supposed to be an exclusive beach with a great view of the sunset. i love islands. im excited for this. we will all actually get to mingle for a chance, because throughout the school days we are all so busy-mostly the thai teachers chasing kids around.
this weekend: going to a movie, thai boxing, playing frisbee and doing some shopping maybe at Chatuchak.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Racing in the BKK
This last weekend I ran a “mini-marathon”, 10.5 km, in Bangkok at Suan Luang Rama 9 Park. The race started at 6am, which meant that me and one of my thai friends had to get a taxi at 3am so that we could make it there at 4:30am to warm up and get our racing stuff. So I had to wake up at 2:45am to get ready for the race, which is crazy. When I left my apartment complex at 3am, the security guard asked me in thai where I was going, cuz im sure I looked funny leaving at 3am in skimpy (in thai standards) running clothes. I went with one of my thai friends from my town and met a couple of my other English teacher friends there at the race too.
The Prime Minister came to the race and made a speech and then he came to the front of the runners at the start line and got his picture taken- I was in the front so I am probably in some of the pictures of him at the race- wherever those pictures went- but I was inches from him, it was crazy. He had body guards all around him though. Fun politics in Thailand.
The race started at 6:15… Thai time I suppose (it was supposed to start at 6am), and the starting gun was a fog horn. It was still dark out for most of the race, the sun started coming up around 6:30am. The park was nice to run through, and 10.5k went pretty fast. It wasn’t too hot out yet either, but still humid. I finished 1st in my age category and 2nd overall- but 1st place was only 200 meters ahead of me- I probably could have got 1st place but I didn’t sleep much and I went thai boxing the day before- excuses. I was happy with 1st in my group though. I got a trophy. One of my English teaching friends, Claire, got 2nd place in our age group. She wants to start training with me, so maybe we’ll start doing that.
After the race it was awesome because there was so much free food. At Lincoln races it is just a few bagels, a pop, water and a banana, maybe a cookie. But here it was soymilk, milk, donuts, thai rice dish, thai noodle dish, seaweed snacks, tuna sandwiches, pop, water, Gatorade, cereal, oranges, and bananas (and you could take whole bundles home with you.) And it was free for participants as well as spectators- then I understood why so many people were there to watch!
It was also interesting/weird that one of the only stands that they had at the race that was selling stuff was a sauce stand selling stuff like fish sauce, so it smelled like fish sauce after the race- gross. They love that stuff here though and its in everything. Yesterday at my school they were eating raw mango dipped in a spicy fish sauce thing- it smelled horrible and tasted worse. Yuck. I told them I like my mangoes sweet and ripe.
So yeah all in all the race was a lot of fun and I will do it again. Everyone was asking me where I was from and stuff, and we had to put something down for our “team” we run on, so we put Team USA. We were representing the USA at the Don Bosco Mini-Marathon in Bangkok on February 22nd 2009. Yep. 1st and 2nd place.
The Prime Minister came to the race and made a speech and then he came to the front of the runners at the start line and got his picture taken- I was in the front so I am probably in some of the pictures of him at the race- wherever those pictures went- but I was inches from him, it was crazy. He had body guards all around him though. Fun politics in Thailand.
The race started at 6:15… Thai time I suppose (it was supposed to start at 6am), and the starting gun was a fog horn. It was still dark out for most of the race, the sun started coming up around 6:30am. The park was nice to run through, and 10.5k went pretty fast. It wasn’t too hot out yet either, but still humid. I finished 1st in my age category and 2nd overall- but 1st place was only 200 meters ahead of me- I probably could have got 1st place but I didn’t sleep much and I went thai boxing the day before- excuses. I was happy with 1st in my group though. I got a trophy. One of my English teaching friends, Claire, got 2nd place in our age group. She wants to start training with me, so maybe we’ll start doing that.
After the race it was awesome because there was so much free food. At Lincoln races it is just a few bagels, a pop, water and a banana, maybe a cookie. But here it was soymilk, milk, donuts, thai rice dish, thai noodle dish, seaweed snacks, tuna sandwiches, pop, water, Gatorade, cereal, oranges, and bananas (and you could take whole bundles home with you.) And it was free for participants as well as spectators- then I understood why so many people were there to watch!
It was also interesting/weird that one of the only stands that they had at the race that was selling stuff was a sauce stand selling stuff like fish sauce, so it smelled like fish sauce after the race- gross. They love that stuff here though and its in everything. Yesterday at my school they were eating raw mango dipped in a spicy fish sauce thing- it smelled horrible and tasted worse. Yuck. I told them I like my mangoes sweet and ripe.
So yeah all in all the race was a lot of fun and I will do it again. Everyone was asking me where I was from and stuff, and we had to put something down for our “team” we run on, so we put Team USA. We were representing the USA at the Don Bosco Mini-Marathon in Bangkok on February 22nd 2009. Yep. 1st and 2nd place.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Koh Chang
Okay, so I haven’t written in here in a while, and uncle mark called me while I was on an island and reminded me of that. Here’s for you uncle mark! J I’ve been keeping busy with writing up assessments for the 100 kids, then testing all of the kids individually, and then grading them all and typing up written English Assessments for each kid. It’s been keeping me pretty busy. But as of today, I am probably going to be finished with it all by next Tuesday at the latest. Which means I will have 2 weeks of “nothing” really to do at school- I just have to physically be here from 7:30am-4:30pm everyday. I still have to teach my after school English clubs, but that isn’t much work. The last week of the month is parent teacher conferences, so that will be interesting too.
This last weekend I decided that I needed a break and that I needed to get out of the Bangkok area. So me and my friend Lindsey went to an island called Koh Chang with 11 other “farangs” (foreigners) working in Thailand- mostly English teachers. It was a very fun time. We stayed in bungalows on the beach and spent our days relaxing- swimming in the ocean, playing Frisbee, tennis, running on the beach, getting thai massages on the beach, and hiking to waterfalls. I found one of my new favorite dishes too on the island at a really good restaurant/bar- fried rice with chicken with yellow curry powder and raisins- it was so good!
I’m also glad I went on the trip because I got to meet 11 other really cool people (they were Lindsey’s friends). They all play ultimate Frisbee on Sundays on a team and invited me to come play with them. A couple of the girls are also runners, which is fun, and they told me about some cool races coming up. So this Sunday I am running a 10k in Bangkok with them, and then in march there is a duathlon in Koh Phagnan that I am going to run. The other duathlon is in northern Thailand and I might still do that too.
That’s what I’ve been up to. I’m not thinking I will be a superstar at this race on Sunday, but it will be fun. I’m going to thai boxing practice on Saturday, which isn’t something I would normally do before a race, but I don’t care, I need to get my thai boxing fix in while I’m here. More later! Take care everyone!
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
assessment week. surprise!
This Monday when I arrived at school at 7am the principal informed me that this week is assessment week- last Thursday she told me it was review week and assessment week was in 2 weeks. The syllabus also said I had 2 weeks until assessment week- I had not made tests yet and I had full lesson plans made up for a review week.
Apparently the Thai teachers decided to make assessment week a week earlier, and no one told me until that week. So I made 2 days be packed with review and wrote up tests for all 6 classes overnight and today I started testing the kids- which to me sounds silly almost to test 3-6 year olds- they’re so little!
So far its been a headache and it is really tiring. I pull the kids out of their Thai classes and do their tests with them one-on-one, and I have 100 KIDS to test! Today I got through about 33 kids. The nursery kids were the hardest because they just wanted to play, 3 year olds aren’t meant to take tests of any sort. Normally I have a Thai teacher with me, but they didn’t accompany me today, so I was all alone with 5 nursery kids at a time trying to test them.
In my kindergarten 3 class the bully kid was beating up on another kid and totally punched him really hard against the wall. It was bad, but the kid was alright. The bully kid (his name is First) started freaking out and crying as I carried him to his teacher’s room, and he was telling me in Thai that he didn’t want to go to the teacher, so I made him go back once he calmed down and apologize, so he did. It went very well. I was very surprised. Then I got them both to do their tests even after that.
Well, 70 tests left to go in the next two days, wish me luck!
p.s. I’m probably really tired today also because I woke up at 4:30am and went on a 5 mile run at 5am. I was woken up by mosquitoes eating me. I need to find a mosquito net because I sleep with my window open, and my window has a screen on it, but it doesn’t seal, so mosquitoes get in and love to suck my blood while I sleep, then I wake up to buzzing in my ear and itching all over. It is really annoying. Sometimes I wake up and spray bug spray all over myself, but then I just wake up in the morning feeling really gross from inhaling all the bug spray and having it all over me.
Apparently the Thai teachers decided to make assessment week a week earlier, and no one told me until that week. So I made 2 days be packed with review and wrote up tests for all 6 classes overnight and today I started testing the kids- which to me sounds silly almost to test 3-6 year olds- they’re so little!
So far its been a headache and it is really tiring. I pull the kids out of their Thai classes and do their tests with them one-on-one, and I have 100 KIDS to test! Today I got through about 33 kids. The nursery kids were the hardest because they just wanted to play, 3 year olds aren’t meant to take tests of any sort. Normally I have a Thai teacher with me, but they didn’t accompany me today, so I was all alone with 5 nursery kids at a time trying to test them.
In my kindergarten 3 class the bully kid was beating up on another kid and totally punched him really hard against the wall. It was bad, but the kid was alright. The bully kid (his name is First) started freaking out and crying as I carried him to his teacher’s room, and he was telling me in Thai that he didn’t want to go to the teacher, so I made him go back once he calmed down and apologize, so he did. It went very well. I was very surprised. Then I got them both to do their tests even after that.
Well, 70 tests left to go in the next two days, wish me luck!
p.s. I’m probably really tired today also because I woke up at 4:30am and went on a 5 mile run at 5am. I was woken up by mosquitoes eating me. I need to find a mosquito net because I sleep with my window open, and my window has a screen on it, but it doesn’t seal, so mosquitoes get in and love to suck my blood while I sleep, then I wake up to buzzing in my ear and itching all over. It is really annoying. Sometimes I wake up and spray bug spray all over myself, but then I just wake up in the morning feeling really gross from inhaling all the bug spray and having it all over me.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
thai boxing
today i went to thammasat university campus- the one i studied abroad at. and i went to thai boxing practice today and it was a lot of fun. the coach was really happy to see me and then there were other thai boxers that remembered me from 2 years ago. so that was cool. so i hung out at the thai boxing gym for quite a while, working out and talking to the thai people. then i ate at the school cafeteria called the 'canteen'- which is actually a really awesome tasty and cheap place to eat. and i had one of my favorite dishes and my favorite coffee.
then i went shopping at some of the markets nearby and i found a lady making jewelry and through a mix of english and thai and drawings i told her how to make my favorite thai necklace that i lost a while ago. so i am going to go pick it up tomorrow from her. that's fun that i can get a customized necklace for 5 dollars without bartering.
these next few weeks i have to test the kids on what they learned this semester. that will be fun, im not sure what exactly my plan is yet but i will figure it out. the school hasnt told me what they want me to test on exactly so i guess i get to make it up. i have to write assessments for each of the 100 kids i teach. which'll be fun.
then i went shopping at some of the markets nearby and i found a lady making jewelry and through a mix of english and thai and drawings i told her how to make my favorite thai necklace that i lost a while ago. so i am going to go pick it up tomorrow from her. that's fun that i can get a customized necklace for 5 dollars without bartering.
these next few weeks i have to test the kids on what they learned this semester. that will be fun, im not sure what exactly my plan is yet but i will figure it out. the school hasnt told me what they want me to test on exactly so i guess i get to make it up. i have to write assessments for each of the 100 kids i teach. which'll be fun.
Monday, January 26, 2009
30 minutes
I'm at school and I just finished with my 7th class of the day, phew. I kind of had to wing it because the copy machine decided to stop working, and well... i had procrastinated lesson planning for the After School Club, but i'm getting better at winging stuff- that's what makes a good teacher i think- being able to make up activities on the spot and keep the kids busy. :) Mondays are long days. This last 30 minutes that I have to be at school always lasts the longest. It's like, I don't know why I have to stay until 4:30, when I'm done at 4, sometimes I'm done at 2, but I still have to stay til 4:30. AND the clock that we clock in and out of at school is SLOW- so I really leave here at 4:45pm every day. The post office closes at 5pm, and that is the reason I am slow to send out postcards, because it's nearly impossible to get there in time.
Today is the Chinese New Year, which they celebrate here because there are a lot of Chinese and half-chinese half-thai people living here. Last chinese new year i spent with my thai friend Kwang at her parents house and did the family thing which was really cool. this year i stayed at my town and they had a HUGE market with all kinds of foods, produce, cooked foods, bakery food, and all sorts of products from clothes to plants to dinnerware to perfume. I bought quite a bit of stuff. something really cool for dad! they didnt do anything at night though, there were some fireworks during the day. but from what i have heard and read, this chinese new year was really lame. not as many celebrations and stuff because of the economy being bad.
K time to head home!
Today is the Chinese New Year, which they celebrate here because there are a lot of Chinese and half-chinese half-thai people living here. Last chinese new year i spent with my thai friend Kwang at her parents house and did the family thing which was really cool. this year i stayed at my town and they had a HUGE market with all kinds of foods, produce, cooked foods, bakery food, and all sorts of products from clothes to plants to dinnerware to perfume. I bought quite a bit of stuff. something really cool for dad! they didnt do anything at night though, there were some fireworks during the day. but from what i have heard and read, this chinese new year was really lame. not as many celebrations and stuff because of the economy being bad.
K time to head home!
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
i have 1 minute to update this...ready go!
Ok, last weekend i went to Sukhothai which was the first capital of thailand during 1200's-1400's-ish. It was very beautiful- the nature surrounding the old city ruins as well as the ruins themselves. it reminded me a lot of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. I took a night bus there and left bangkok at 10pm and arrived in sukhothai at 5:30am and then took a bus to the historical ancient city. then i rented a bike and biked around the old city in the historical park- everything was very spread out, and it was very cool to get there early in the morning and see the sun rise and beat the tourist crowd. i then took a evening bus back to bangkok and arrived the next day.
teaching is going well and i am getting prepared for examination period, i have to test all of the kids on what we learned this term and turn in evaluations for every 100th kid in the school on their english skills. i have to write up a report on each kid and give them 'marks' on their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. that will be interesting. i barely know all of their names! but i will make it work. okay. i have to head out of school im going shopping in bangkok today!
teaching is going well and i am getting prepared for examination period, i have to test all of the kids on what we learned this term and turn in evaluations for every 100th kid in the school on their english skills. i have to write up a report on each kid and give them 'marks' on their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. that will be interesting. i barely know all of their names! but i will make it work. okay. i have to head out of school im going shopping in bangkok today!
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
inside thai life in my town
this might be a long entry. fair warning. its wednesday which means i dont teach, i just hang out at the school all day. so i have ample time.
a week ago i was exercising in the park and a thai girl came up to me and introduced herself in english and said she wanted to practice english with me, so we did and kept bumping into eachother at the park and talking. then she invited me to play Takraw (thai traditional sport which is like volleyball only u cant use your hands) with her and her friends yesterday. so i met them and played, and they were surprised it was my first time playing and told me i was really good at it, but its a lot like juggling a soccer ball so i was used to it. there were a lot of people playing Takraw at the park so i felt like a local. we were speaking in thai and in english. then we stopped at a stand and got fresh coconut juice.
then they invited me to dinner with them- thai style, where you share everything like at thanksgiving dinner. so we sat outside on the sidewalk at a restaurant and ate the usual grilled fish, spicy papaya salad, sticky rice, tom-yam-kung soup, but then they had other different stuff that i hadnt ate before they had a squid salad, and some part of a cow, and liver, and pig intestines- i didnt know what it was until after i ate it- there was a language barrier and then they pointed to the part of their body and i knew it was intestines. yuck. but everything was super spicy- even for the thai people. and the only thing they bought to drink was heineken. (the way they drink beer here is with ice in it and a straw p.s.) and so i kept drinking and drinking the heineken trying to get the spicy burning out of my mouth. and as usual with thai style dinners, the oldest person always pays for the whole meal- and i was by far the youngest one there, plus i was a guest. but i always feel like a mooch when they pay for the whole meal. but thats the thai way.
then they invited me to go to karaoke with them at a bar nearby, because the thai people love their karaoke. so i decided why not. i told them i wasnt going to sing, but they made me sing anyways. i was quite the spectacle, singing in a tiny karaoke bar in a small town. all the thais wanted to practice their english with me and have me sing every english song- mostly oldies music. so i finally agreed to sing a maroon 5 song, because they are quite popular there. then i was singing some thai songs with my new friends as the night went on- they were impressed that i could sing some songs in thai. but at the karaoke bar again it was more heineken, and every time a glass would be half full, the waitress or one of my new friends would fill it up again with more beer and more ice. it was an expensive night but again i didnt have to pay for anything because the eldest always pays, which is crazy. the beer bill alone for the karaoke was 960 baht!
then we left the karaoke bar together and they all walked me back to my apartment and told me i had to come play takraw every day at 6pm with them from now on so we can practice thai and english and takraw. haha. it was a fun night.
a week ago i was exercising in the park and a thai girl came up to me and introduced herself in english and said she wanted to practice english with me, so we did and kept bumping into eachother at the park and talking. then she invited me to play Takraw (thai traditional sport which is like volleyball only u cant use your hands) with her and her friends yesterday. so i met them and played, and they were surprised it was my first time playing and told me i was really good at it, but its a lot like juggling a soccer ball so i was used to it. there were a lot of people playing Takraw at the park so i felt like a local. we were speaking in thai and in english. then we stopped at a stand and got fresh coconut juice.
then they invited me to dinner with them- thai style, where you share everything like at thanksgiving dinner. so we sat outside on the sidewalk at a restaurant and ate the usual grilled fish, spicy papaya salad, sticky rice, tom-yam-kung soup, but then they had other different stuff that i hadnt ate before they had a squid salad, and some part of a cow, and liver, and pig intestines- i didnt know what it was until after i ate it- there was a language barrier and then they pointed to the part of their body and i knew it was intestines. yuck. but everything was super spicy- even for the thai people. and the only thing they bought to drink was heineken. (the way they drink beer here is with ice in it and a straw p.s.) and so i kept drinking and drinking the heineken trying to get the spicy burning out of my mouth. and as usual with thai style dinners, the oldest person always pays for the whole meal- and i was by far the youngest one there, plus i was a guest. but i always feel like a mooch when they pay for the whole meal. but thats the thai way.
then they invited me to go to karaoke with them at a bar nearby, because the thai people love their karaoke. so i decided why not. i told them i wasnt going to sing, but they made me sing anyways. i was quite the spectacle, singing in a tiny karaoke bar in a small town. all the thais wanted to practice their english with me and have me sing every english song- mostly oldies music. so i finally agreed to sing a maroon 5 song, because they are quite popular there. then i was singing some thai songs with my new friends as the night went on- they were impressed that i could sing some songs in thai. but at the karaoke bar again it was more heineken, and every time a glass would be half full, the waitress or one of my new friends would fill it up again with more beer and more ice. it was an expensive night but again i didnt have to pay for anything because the eldest always pays, which is crazy. the beer bill alone for the karaoke was 960 baht!
then we left the karaoke bar together and they all walked me back to my apartment and told me i had to come play takraw every day at 6pm with them from now on so we can practice thai and english and takraw. haha. it was a fun night.
Monday, January 12, 2009
package in the mail
mom and dad sent me two packages in the mail- full of american food that i miss. mmm. one came last week and one arrived this week. the one that arrived today had salsa, tortillas, black beans and peanut butter in it. but one of the salsas had broken in the box and got all over the other stuff in there- it was a big mess, and smelly, and moldy- yuck.
on another note i had my first unsuccessful trip. me and my friend fred tried to get to an island to go to a full moon party, but long story short we travelled the whole 4 hours (almost 8 hours for me since i came from bangkok) to get to a town where we could get a ferry to the island. but we came 12 minutes too late! we missed the only ferry to the island that day. so we couldnt go. it was sad. so we had to stay in the land town for the day and night and just come back to bangkok the next day. it is sad to go all the way there and not be able to make it. we were just a ferry ride away. sad.
well today a thai woman who i see exercising while i am running a lot is going to teach me how to play takraw- the thai traditional sport. it should be fun. im so exhausted after my k3 class though. they are so bad. and then i walk 3 miles home, then i run 5 miles and then i will play takraw. then im going to try to go to the mall after dinner if i have energy.
on another note i had my first unsuccessful trip. me and my friend fred tried to get to an island to go to a full moon party, but long story short we travelled the whole 4 hours (almost 8 hours for me since i came from bangkok) to get to a town where we could get a ferry to the island. but we came 12 minutes too late! we missed the only ferry to the island that day. so we couldnt go. it was sad. so we had to stay in the land town for the day and night and just come back to bangkok the next day. it is sad to go all the way there and not be able to make it. we were just a ferry ride away. sad.
well today a thai woman who i see exercising while i am running a lot is going to teach me how to play takraw- the thai traditional sport. it should be fun. im so exhausted after my k3 class though. they are so bad. and then i walk 3 miles home, then i run 5 miles and then i will play takraw. then im going to try to go to the mall after dinner if i have energy.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
failed trip
well this weekend i went down to the resort town of Hua Hin to visit a friend named Fred who is also an English teacher. then we decided we wanted to try to go to the full moon party in Ko Phagnan, but long story short we took a bus down to the town where we catch the ferry... 4 hours away. and we had missed the ferry by 12 minutes. so then we were stuck in Chompon town. so close but so far away from the full moon party and the island. but we made the best of it and stayed the night there. then we took trains back in the morning, for me it was about 9 hours of a train ride. starting at 6:40am. then i had to get two buses to get to my apartment and hung out downtown for a bit. now im tired and have to get ready for school tomorrow.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
wow! it's been a while
For New Years break I had to go to Laos for a visa run to get a new visa. I had to take a tourist tour van there because my school waited too long to tell me that I needed to go to Laos- they changed my visa. It was an expensive trip, but I enjoyed Laos. I would go back definitely. We stayed in Vientiane, the capital city, which was very small and very laid back-much more than Thailand. it was interesting mingling with all of the other foreigners. the tour paid for our hotel and food and transport which ended up i think cheaper than if i had went alone. i shared a hotel room with a girl from the philippines who was nice. i walked everywhere in the city to see the sights because it was small and because i like my exercise. on one of my walks a monk approached me in a temple and he wanted to practice his english so we talked for a while walking around the temple. it was fun. he invited me to go to a new years festival with him, but i couldnt.
the bad part about the trip: the lines. we arrived at the thai border at 5:20am and had to wait there for 3 hours and then we arrived at the lao border and had to wait there for 2-3 more hours. then we had to go wait at the thai embassy for 2-3 hours in lines in the heat. everything was so inefficient it seemed.
new years i spent in thailand alone because all of the buses were full to go anywhere and i didnt have time to travel before new years since i did the lao visa run. so i went to central world mall downtown where they had their big ball dropping countdown for the new year. i was amazed at how many people were down there. it was crazy, and dangerous because people were packed in so tight with not enough access to water or an exit even. people were passing out/fainting all around me and i almost did too. it was so hot and so packed and i was so dehydrated.
now im back at school. tomorrow is 'Sport Day'. at school which im not sure what that entails, but i guess they're gonna play games all day. i dont have to dress up, yay! maybe i get to play soccer with them even. fun!
well this is my update for now. oh yeah, and a kid from wesleyan arrived yesterday early in the morning 1am, and i picked him up at the airport and he stayed at my place and then i sent him off to thammasat- i miss thammasat.
the bad part about the trip: the lines. we arrived at the thai border at 5:20am and had to wait there for 3 hours and then we arrived at the lao border and had to wait there for 2-3 more hours. then we had to go wait at the thai embassy for 2-3 hours in lines in the heat. everything was so inefficient it seemed.
new years i spent in thailand alone because all of the buses were full to go anywhere and i didnt have time to travel before new years since i did the lao visa run. so i went to central world mall downtown where they had their big ball dropping countdown for the new year. i was amazed at how many people were down there. it was crazy, and dangerous because people were packed in so tight with not enough access to water or an exit even. people were passing out/fainting all around me and i almost did too. it was so hot and so packed and i was so dehydrated.
now im back at school. tomorrow is 'Sport Day'. at school which im not sure what that entails, but i guess they're gonna play games all day. i dont have to dress up, yay! maybe i get to play soccer with them even. fun!
well this is my update for now. oh yeah, and a kid from wesleyan arrived yesterday early in the morning 1am, and i picked him up at the airport and he stayed at my place and then i sent him off to thammasat- i miss thammasat.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)