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.

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!

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.