Monday, July 01, 2013

Adventures in Thailand Part 4: Getting Settled

I can't believe that in just a few days I will have officially been in Thailand for one month. Sometimes I swear I've been here a year and others it's like I just walked off the plane. Life is currently a bit crazy. When I first got here I was able to find an apartment right away. It took a little over a week to truly get settled in an I actually switched apartments (same building, just different floor) in that first week or two. The landlady and her son are both super and helpful. They got me a motorbike (moto - because I just can't call it a motorcycle, and a bike is something I power, not an engine... and it's what they call them in CR so it's kinda ingrained in me) to rent that was terrible and terrifying but then got me a good one which I love.

Last week I got incredibly sick. I'm still not really sure if it was food poisoning or some kind of flu. I went to school Monday morning with my stomach feeling not so great. I've actually come to expect this in the morning here as I assume my body is just getting used to the food and more specifically the spices. Usually it goes away pretty quickly and I'm good to go. This time it just seemed to be getting worse. By lunch I felt awful and asked if (since it was 11am and I didn't have another class until 1:30pm) I could go home and lay down and then I would come back for my 1:30pm class. I managed that and after school went home and went immediately to bed which is where I spent the next two days as well. I returned to school on Thursday, but I really wasn't feeling back to 100% until Saturday.

Other than being sick, I've very much fallen into a groove at school. The Thai teacher I have now continues to be fantastic and I feel like I can actually teach the kids. That is, of course, if they were ever actually in class. It seems at least once/week there is some kind of special activity. There was Teacher Appreciation Day (which I VERY much appreciated), some cultural day, Boy Scout somethingorother day, who knows what's next.

So now I feel nice and settled at school but it's looking like I'm going to end up moving apartments. When Kiki moved into our building they told her they would work on getting wifi there. I moved in under the same assumptions. After lots of talking to Kung (the landlady's son) and going back and forth with various internet providers (all of whom we have had to seek out and get info from because the landlady and Kung weren't actually doing anything) it seems we aren't going to be able to get internet. On top of that, after talking to some other friends, it seems we're paying quite a bit more for utilities than anyone else, which makes our super cheap place, not so great of a deal afterall.

I spent the entire day Sunday riding around on my moto just stopping in at different places asking about apartments. It's not like back home where all the places have websites and on every street corner there are free "Apartment Guides" that give you all kinds of information. No, you just have to go... and go... and go... and go.... and ask the same questions over and over and PRAY that someone at the apartment complex speaks enough English that you can get the info you need. In the end, I still haven't found anything, but there are couple that might work. I'm not excited about moving away from Kiki (who is not moving because she's only here for 3 more months and she's decided coping with the stupid AirCard for internet is tolerable for that long), but on the plus side I'll be moving closer to Fums and OyOyOy, and Fums will actually be here about as long as I will. (More on those lovely ladies later). Overall I'm still really loving it here, I'm just ready to actually be settled and start feeling like I really live here.

Labels: apartments, Pathum Thani, teaching, Thailand

Friday, June 14, 2013

Adventures in Thailand Part 3: Cat Herding for Dummies

I know there are many who have been anxiously waiting for this post. Sure I've been talking about how excited I am that I get to teach Kindergarten, but I know all my teacher friends and others who work with children regularly are just waiting for me to eat my words.

After getting cleaned up from the moto incident, I arrived at school (in a taxi) ready to go. My schedule had me with K1 and K2 (together in the same class) from 8:30am to 11:00am. Having not been given the kindergarten schedule or curriculum, I really didn't know what to expect. Luckily the Thai teacher who is supposed to be my co-teacher was there and almost immediately whisked them away to music class. Hm. Okay, well I guess I don't teach until 9:20, nice.

After music class, 2 of my 6 students (yes, my k1/k2 class only has 6 kids... my life is awesome!) came running into the classroom and immediately started stripping off their clothes. The other kids just started playing. My co-teacher was nowhere to be found, and I was quite confused. I tried asking the kids what they were doing, but well, there's that whole, they don't really speak English and don't speak Thai thing. Finally, one of the kids, we'll call him MoonPie, reached into his cubbie and pulled out a swimsuit, which was great since at the point he was stark naked.

I had seen swimming listed on my 1st graders schedule, so I figured all was good. My co-teacher arrived and took the now bathing suit clad students to the pool. At this point I still didn't have a clear explanation as to why some kids were going to swimming and others weren't, and it didn't make sense to do school work that a third of the class was going to miss, so we played with clay and legos. (Turns out the 2 that went to swimming are the K2 students and the others are K1. Might have been good info to give to their teacher... maybe.)

The swimmers returned and again stripped down to nothing and started putting on, not their uniforms, but... yep... those are pajamas. Again, my Thai co-teacher appears from who knows where and starts rambling something that I can only assume means (did I mention that my co-teacher speaks no English) that she doesn't understand why all the kids aren't in their pajamas yet, they're going to be late to lunch. If only someone had been told that that was what was supposed to happen. The munchkins are shuttled off to lunch, and I eat lunch myself. They get to take naps, hence the pajamas, while I go meet my 1st graders for their first English class.

My first grade class has a total of two students. Yep two... and they are about as opposite as they can be. We spent the hour going through the various pictures and posters on the wall (body parts, numbers, animals, etc) and singing some basic songs (we've got the ABCs and Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes down pretty well) so I could get a feel for their level of English. I don't have an actual curriculum, so I'm unsure of exactly what I'm supposed to be accomplishing.

Fast forward to today, I've officially completed a full week of teaching and am starting to actually feel like I know what's going on. On Mondays and Tuesdays I'm only with my first graders and teach English, math and science. (For those of you who knew what the job was going to be before I left, if you're scratching your head thinking, "I thought she was going to have all Kindergarten, and she definitely didn't mention math or science." You're not crazy. I had no idea until I arrived at the school last week that I would be teaching 1st grade and teaching more than just English. Welcome to Thailand!) Wednesday through Friday I have the K1/K2 class from 8:30am - 11am and then a couple classes with the first graders in the afternoon.

I still don't have an actual schedule for K1/K2. There is a schedule posted on the door, but it's all in Thai. There are 3 class periods between 8:30am and 11am, and to this point I've just been trying to figure out if I'm supposed to be teaching them or if they are supposed to be at a different class. It's quite confusing. However, today I got a new Thai teacher, and I LOVE her. She actually stays in the class the whole time, helps control the class a bit (I assume by their behavior that she is threatening to call their parents or beat them or something, I don't know, but they behave so well! It's delightful!) and actually teaches them (CO-teacher... interesting!).

I think someone finally figured out that maybe it made more sense to put an experienced teacher with the foreigner (farang) rather than the person who I'm pretty sure is part time and/or temporary. Sadly, I think the reason I got the new awesome Thai teacher was because of yesterday's "incident."

To make a long story short, one student scratched another enough to leave marks. I tried to talk to both sets of parents when they came to pick up the kids, but language was definitely an issue. The director later came up and asked what happened and told me that in the future I should have a the Thai teacher help with the situation. I pretty forcefully said that the Thai teacher wasn't there to help with the situation. In the end, the student who did the scratching was moved to another class (I don't think this was the first incident for her) and I got a new awesome Thai teacher that makes me feel like I will actually be able to teach... as opposed to just, as the title says, herding cats.

We also just had Teacher Appreciation Day where every primary student in the school presented a teacher with flowers. So much cuteness that words can't do it justice. So, check it out...




So for all of you waiting for me to say how stupid I was to want to teach Kindergarten, it's definitely had its interesting moments and I'm sure there will be more. It's had its ups and downs in the short week I've been here, but at the end of day, I get paid to play with those adorable faces all day! And how many of you spend the last hour of your work day playing with giant legos?

Labels: kindergarten, Pathum Thani, teaching, Thailand