Mobile Uploads: Onward-Ho! Bangkok to Muang Thong Thani

10/18/13 First time taking the sky train!

If I remember correctly, I was headed to Asok to meet up with a group of friends.

Ooh, a lit pathway!

I reached Asok, I think, and then proceeded to take a taxi to 

RCA, the party street.

10-24-13 through 11-1-13 A Blur of Insane Days

     Wow, let’s just say when I walked into my classroom the first day, the first graders were angels! I wanted to tell the other teachers that they are just perfect and that everyone I had heard might just have been wrong... Let me clarify though. They are always angels in the morning, but as the day goes on, their behavior breaks down and barely anything works on them. They become insane. Praising good students, staring at them for over a few minutes, shouting. Seriously, I tried all of those. I even attempted to clap patterns and turn off the lights. NOTHING. I rewarded good students with stickers and let them go outside early for break. The wild students in my class paid no attention whatsoever. Even when the classroom was empty except for them, they chose to continue running after each other, punching and kicking their friends.

     Now, when the Thai teacher stands up front and calls their attention, they suddenly become perfect little angels again. On Friday, October 25th, only my second day in the classroom, I almost cried. (It seems like I want to cry a lot, but this was from complete hopelessness as I watched them transform in mere seconds.) I was shocked at how little of an effect I seemed to have on them.

      To explain my teaching situation, I am another new teacher in this first grade classroom, 1D. Our school, located in Muang Thong Thani, literally 3 blocks from my place, is a Catholic school named St. Francis Xavier. To locals, it is just St. Fran, pronounced “fron.” To taxi drivers, it is rongrien farang (foreign/western person school). 

      There are two sides to this school, the English Program (EP) side and the Thai side. The Thai side has Thai teachers that teach every subject almost the entire day, except for a period or two when students take an English class taught by foreign teachers. My friend from the ATI program is doing that. On the other hand, the EP students see the foreign teachers for 3 to 4 periods per day to learn Science, Math, English Comprehension and Skills, and Health. Thai is taught to them once a day, although they have other computer/gym non-core academic lessons in Thai. I teach on this side.

10/26/13 to 10/27/13 My Journey to the Beautiful Countryside of Thailand

10/26/13

     Because my friend had visited me in Muang Thong Thani, cleaned my apartment, AND taken 3 separate very long bus rides (Thai people tend to say they know places, even if they don’t, so the bus ride was very extensive as they headed who knows where. Anywhere but the correct destination, apparently), I decided to visit in return. It’s funny because even though my friend speaks Thai very well and fluently, when they didn’t understand, they would look at me as if for clarification. I, of course, stood there cluelessly, blinking at them. It seems like I do that a lot, but I don’t think that’s a new thing. Even in Chicago, I would stare at ceilings and blink a lot, I think lol. 

      In any case, I took a bus (again, these “buses” are vans) to Mo Chit because the last time I took one, I took it to Victory Monument, and this time, my friend said I could take either or. Wanting to learn more on my own, I went to Mo Chit. Unfortunately, there was no bus station there. I ran downstairs to some station where I assumed I’d be able to ask for directions. The security guard, once he noticed I was speaking English at him, just chose to ignore me, which was fantastic. A guy who had been walking behind me walked past, but when he heard me asking for directions, he turned back and asked me where I wanted to go. 

     Not understanding my terrible attempts at saying Hankha, Chainat, the guy took out his iPad and asked me to type it out. When he saw that I actually meant a place that was about 3 hours away, he said, “Wow!” and proceeded to ask directions for me. He was very sweet, taking me back upstairs even though he had been on his way to a mall. Actually, he told me he thought I was looking for a shopping mall too. Nont (that’s his name) took me to a bus station via city bus, and I offered to pay him back with some baht or a meal, but he refused everything I tried to give him. 

10-22-13 to 10-25-13 Since Moving In

     Sorry for not updating, but now, because I’m getting ready to work, it’s not all fun and games anymore (unfortunately). Here are some things that have been going on though--teaching will be in an entirely different post because it completely stresses me out and I don’t want to talk about that just yet.

10/22/13

     So, with Gina, I headed to Bangkok on a failed mission to visit a friend. At least I enjoyed a weird salty orange juice drink... Anyway, Gina thinks we reached Rama 3, but I have reason to believe we never made it there.  However, the place we stopped at had an Italian restaurant which looked pretty snazzy, with its endless stream of cars entering and leaving the parking lot, live music, beer, and completely full house of 2 floors. Gina and I couldn’t even find a place to sit! We wandered around a bit, and then, really exhausted, decided to just call it a night and split a cab home. It was actually hilarious because we had taken some buses all the way out for at least half an hour, ventured onto city buses, did virtually nothing, and then turned right around to go home. 

     It was pleasant though; we were able to explore the transit system a little and when we returned, I visited her little neighborhood. Because I don’t drink beer, I watched her drink her beer lol, and she bought me those steamed peanuts that I love from home. It made me nostalgic because my mom would sometimes bring those home from the store. Here in Thailand, though, it seems like they’re sold by Indian guys and a bag is only 20 baht = $0.67! Great prices and good food. Gotta love Thailand! :)

10-21-13 Looking Up

     Before you read, there are a few things you should keep in mind for this post. There are random thoughts that pop up in my head, and with no rhyme or reason, they’re all just thrown here. I made my best attempt to label each section (Shopping, Negative Things, Lazy Info About Impact, and Random Bad Things About My School). As you can tell, they’re not really related to each other at all. But it’s 4 AM here, so you’ll have to cut me some slack.

Shopping

     Today, I went and met a fellow colleague and new friend by the Amazon Cafe in our area. This only came about because Pook (the HiValue representative that we have in case of anything and who also connects us to our school) texted me while I was in the Central Mall yesterday and I texted back telling that I was afraid and having a lot of trouble. 

10-20-13 Second Day Living Alone

     I feel like ever since I’ve come to Thailand, I’ve been living in increments of time. I waited for a bus for 45 minutes. I waited for my photos for 5 half-hour periods. I wait for my internet to start working for several quarter-hours before I finally throw my hands up.

     Anyway, I’ve been sitting in my hallway for most of the day, which is pretty sad, even for me. Actually, I woke up around noon, waited for the internet for a few hours, and then headed out to grab lunch. My pork and rice only cost 35 baht (a little over $1) and I ate by myself for once in seemingly a long time. I still had random tears filling my eyes every once in a while, but I think I’m adjusting. Slowly but surely, right?

10-19-13 Lonely

     I took the sky train back to my hostel with some of my friends who were going to a cultural orientation. I met Matthias again in the lobby of my hostel but as it neared check-out time, I ran back to my room and went crazy packing.

     I then took a taxi out to Muang Thong Thani where I’ll be living for the next 5.5 months or so. My new home is an apartment complex in a large cluster of other apartment complexes. We are very close to a department store, an exhibition hall where concerts and big events take place, a night market, ten 7/11s (Thailand loves 7/11), a Tesco Lotus Express (a convenience store), and 2 long indoor streets of cheap food (YES!!!).

     I’m also only about a 5-minute walk to my school; it’s about 3 blocks away and looks pretty large.

10-18-13 The Temple Tour of Bangkok

     I woke up today with 3 different plans with 3 different people, but let me backtrack a little first. 

     Yesterday, as I moved into my hostel and finally showered, a guy who was moving into one of the mixed dorms waved at me from the doorway. Confused, I walked up to him and we talked a little--he actually wanted to find out if I knew where he was supposed to stay in the hostel. Anyway, I learned a bit about him; he was traveling from Israel, a rural-ish area, and was in Bangkok for a night, planning to head to Chiang Mai the next day. I forgot how long he was planning to travel, but he was going to visit other countries in South East Asia.

     So my three plans were to explore the temples with a friend, take a bus across Bangkok to see my other friend Lindsay and go shopping, or go exploring with the Israeli traveler. While the guy from Israel and I were in the lobby eating breakfast, two other guys turned to us and we all agreed to visit the temples and Chinatown (Yaowarat). I let Lindsay know and she decided she would join us.

10-17-13 Bangkok Mini-Adventures

10/17/13

     After a crazy 12-hour double decker bus ride, which felt like it was very unsafe because we were, as Jess puts it, “swinging back and forth like a pendulum,” we arrived in Bangkok! Yay!!!!!! Also, after plenty of rest, even though the bus was driving dangerously, I felt a lot better. 

     Back to Bangkok. Of course, there were taxi drivers everywhere outside of the bus station who wouldn’t turn on their meters and wanted to charge us about 260 baht (a little under $9) to reach our hostels. Jess was very angry with the prices because she knew they were trying to overcharge us--she was still angry about the boat drivers at Railay and the grouchy bus driver the day before--so we kept walking away. Luckily, she had Google Maps on her phone and we found a bus for 7 baht ($0.23 ONLY). 

10-14-13 and 10-15-13 Krabi: Getting Sick!

10/14/13 

     My friends and I went to Krabi on a 4-hour bus ride and stayed in a hostel called Pak-Up, which was really cute! It was like a dorm room and had a school theme, which really appealed to me as a teacher who LOVES themes. Because the day was quite old, we decided to just explore Krabi Town (just kidding about the "old" day, but we had arrived too late in the day to really do anything). 

Our hostel, Pak-Up

PE dorm!

10-9-13 to 10-13-13 School's Out and Explosive Thai Traditions!

10/9/13

     I taught at juvie for a second day (Wednesday) and felt like I didn’t do as well as I did on the first day. However, my observer said I did pretty well; I sense discrepancies in the way I view myself and the way others view me. 

10/10/13

     On Thursday, I taught late high-school or early college students at the Phuket poly-tech college. They terrified me, but my observer that day said I looked calm and confident, which I thought was hilarious! The whole time, I was sweating like crazy and panicking as sweat ran down the sides of my face and my legs. That night, we went to the beach because some of my friends were going to set up fireworks on the beach.

Phuket Poly-tech College

10-8-13 The Rainbow After the Storm

      Today, I went to the juvenile detention center and was placed to teach six 12-14 year old boys. I was terrified, but they were obedient and a few students definitely tried their hardest. Imagine, they had to sit through six 30-minute lessons (3 hours!) of our lessons, but they actually seemed to enjoy them. It’s probably better than the punishment they get in the center. :( One of my students even left in the middle of the lesson to probably do physical punishment (like push-ups or sweeping). Poor kids. One of my friends pointed out that they are just paying for their crimes, but still, when I looked at them and interacted with them, they were really just children.

     I truly loved teaching there and wish I could teach there more--I guess my wish is coming true because I am going to teach there again tomorrow. This time, I will be teaching about the hospital, so my vocabulary words will be “doctor, nurse, emergency room, x-ray, and medicine.”

     My observer was different this time, but he was a lot more detailed. He pointed out these things in my lesson plan:

-Good move to mix up the students (my comment: two of them were talkative, so that was actually my way to separate them and to get the other students moving)

-Positive and patient, great teacher presence!, perfect pronunciation, SMILEY :D (my comment: yes, he actually drew a smiley)

-Showed great energy. Excitement is contagious

-Great rate of speech and pronunciation

-Good use of body language (comment: he proceeded to draw my hands making a heart shape to show them what love meant)

-Kept things fun... laughed/smiled a lot (comment: ugh! I’m supposed to be firm, not happy all the time! :( )

-Good job having students help you write on WB 

-Showed great patience with students

-Good work helping with pronunciation issues

10-7-13 Disaster Day

If you read the title, you already know that many disastrous events occurred today. Jk, kind of.

       The Child Watch Program school (Holland School) we visited today for our first day of teaching was not a bad school at all. The children were adorable and charming, the teacher was loud and commanded respect, but the problems were that we were trying to teach using our materials to itty bitty toddlers. Even toddlers back in the United States could not grasp those concepts or sit around and stare for long enough to learn a word in a different language!

Child Watch Phuket 

Child Care Center 

(You can clearly read it on the poster too!)

The students singing songs for us before we began teaching

10-6-13 An Unplanned (And Then Totally Not My Plan At All) Mini-Adventure

     I had no plan for today, except to relax and hopefully walk around to prevent stomachaches. In the morning, I left to use the wifi in the hotel lobby and Skype with Nick as I was working on creating my materials for teaching tomorrow. When I finished, I walked to a restaurant and ate larb moo by myself--I finally was able to check my phone to see if I had gotten any Voxes and Snaps. As I headed back to my room, I noticed that the rain had stopped but I was feeling pretty lazy, so I was really surprised when I actually forced myself to hop on my bike to go to Rawai Beach. 

      What initially motivated me to get off of my butt was that I needed to return my adorable green bicycle today. I walked over to my friend’s place because she needed to return it too. Apparently, while I had been working in the lobby for about 3 hours, she had wheeled BOTH of our bikes to the store and returned them all on her own. I felt horrible, but asked her if she wanted to hang out later instead. 

10-4-13 Mall Rats

     Friday, after class, we were supposed to head over to Krabi by taxi and then bus. We planned to stay in a place called Glur Hostel, so that Saturday, we could begin rock climbing (supposing the rain had stopped and the rocks could dry overnight.) However, it was raining so hard, we decided to head there on Saturday instead.

     My friends and I drove back into Phuket Town to watch a movie. Unfortunately, the movies were either all full (we weren’t sure and the person didn’t understand English), not dubbed or in English (although I wouldn’t have minded), or too late. 

One of the Thai movie posters

(The trailer made it look a tiny bit 

creepy, but seemed to be aimed toward funny.)

10-2-13 A Crazy Wild Adventure

After School

     Today, we had a beautiful late afternoon. As we left class, the sky was bright blue and the sun was shining down on us. I talked with some friends about our weekend plans and visited Wat Nai Harn on my own. (Wat means temple in Thai. And yes, I know you know that, Nick.) It is the temple I took a few pictures of during the evening when the lights make it glow. I have wanted to visit it for a while, especially as it is right across from our hotel, so I could walk for 3 minutes and be there. My friend Bon said hi to me on the way back from there.

Wat Nai Harn

Depictions were all over the wall.

10-2-13 A Class Full of Crazy

Morning

     Ack! 4 new mosquito bites! Also, the internet is NOT working when I was scheduled to Skype with my parents!!! It is so frustrating, just like my ordering of pad thai that wasn’t even available. Or SPOILER ALERT FOR HIMYM FANS: when Robin never wanted to have kids. She found out she could not even have kids from her doctor and was devastated. Although she didn’t want kids, she always wanted to know that she had the option to have them. It was a real tearjerking episode. :(

But anyway, that connects to how I finally planned something important, and yet when I went to do it, I never even got the chance because something was going wrong. Hopefully, I can try again tomorrow. However, it is sooo frustrating because we spent so much money on the internet, and it’s slow, choppy, horrible, and always disconnects. And today, of course, it doesn’t even work at all! :(

Okay, that’s enough of my complaining about the internet... for today, anyway.

10-1-13 Random Thoughts

Right now, I’m outside and these are all the random thoughts and observations I happen to be making:

• I think a cat is in heat. It won’t stop meowing.

• There’s a bird outside that sounds like it’s crying, “Owwwww, owwwwww, owwwww.”

• I need to visit a temple soon!

• I practiced turning with the scooter this morning from 6:30 to 7:00. I might ride into town tonight to see what’s around.