Join me as I explore Thailand for a year!
I'll be updating sporadically, but I will try to share as much of my experience as possible with all of you!
Sorry! I have been slacking lately (well, lately has turned into two months). I have a couple of ideas for posts , hopefully I can get my computer fixed and get a few of them written before my adventures in october!
I actually wasn’t going to post about this- but I have been thinking about it a lot and decided I wanted to contribute my own story about what happened this day 10 years ago.
I was thirteen, and I was about two weeks or so in at my new school- The European School in Bergen, Holland. I was living in a new country with my family for a year. All of my classmates spoke english, most of them were from England, and I was one of three Americans in my class. It was the end of the school day, around 3 o clock. I was a little thrown off because my mom had parked our car and ran up to meet us in the school yard (at least this is how I remember it, correct me if I’m wrong Mom). She was pretty visibly upset, which, combined with the break in our normal routine of her waiting in the car for us to get out of school, threw me off. She told us that two planes had crashed into the World Trade Towers. I think at first I was confused, because there is a World Trade Tower in the inner harbor in Baltimore, but I was quickly corrected.
We went back to our apartment, and I spent the rest of the evening glued to the television, eating food my dad brought back with him- which was weird within itself.
The next year was a strange one- I got teased a lot in school just because I was American and because of how Bush handled our relations with the US. It was confusing to be teased for something I had no hand in. I had already begun leaning towards the Democratic party at this time, so being accused of being a “typical red state American” really hurt.
I think I’m thinking about this so much because I just so happen to be in a foreign country ten years later. It’s funny how our lives take us in places we would never expect.
Ok, so I’m preparing for a 12 hour bus trip down to Koh Samui (Koh means island, so another tropical island, yay!) but I have some time to spare at work today so I figured I’d post about CAMP!
Camp was a couple weeks ago but it was definitely one of my most memorable weeks here so far. I was actually surprised that I was told that my 4th graders would be going to camp a week in advance- because usually things don’t happen like that- we are given a day’s or sometimes even an hour or two warning. However, when my co-teacher told me, I wasn’t sure whether I would be going along.
The next week though, there was a sheet of paper posted in our office saying that for the next three days, I would be leaving at 7:15 to go to camp with P.4. My name was in a list of 8 other american teachers and 1 other foriegn teacher from Switzerland.
The next morning, we were taken to camp, which is a St. Gabe’s owned property about a half hour outside of the city. It is a beautiful retreat center, with seperate “houses” for each class and an open air center where all the activities took place. Each morning, we were given breakfast (toast and jam, and soup), and then a little break before we were told what we would be doing for the day. The premise of the camp was intensive english- they would be learning how to travel. The first day, we were each given different tasks to simulate air travel. Some teachers checked their “passports” and gave them a “boarding pass”, while I was an air hostess. Another teacher was decked out in a tiny little dress and pink hat, but I just had a smock to designate that I was an air hostess. We handed out snacks and had them watch a short video, and then they landed.
The next day- they “arrived” at four different countries- Japan, USA, UK, and New Zealand. We were split up into the four countries- a fellow teacher PK and I were in charge of USA. We sang the national anthem and then helped the kids make dream catchers. There was also a casino element but it didn’t really happen. Apparently that’s all that America has- the national anthem, dream catchers, and casinos. In the new zealand part, they ate kiwis and painted thier faces like Maori warriors, in the UK part, they talked about soccer (football), and in Japan, my fellow air hostess apparently wore a kimono and they made little ghosts.
Finally, the third day (thursday) we interviewed all 7 sections of 4th grade, and they made souveniers and postcards from their trip.
Now, there were two great things about camp. First, we were given food every couple of hours, which was mostly delicious, although sometimes I couldn’t eat it because it seemed suspicious. The second was the fact that we had a huge break in the afternoon and we were ENCOURAGED to take naps in a conference room upstairs. One of the pictures is of the little nest we made.
Overall, camp was a great basic concept although a little bizarre- just like most of my experience here in the land of smiles.
| I had to interview kids today during my P.5 class and this gem came up.... | |
| Me: | What would you like to be in the future? |
| Kid: | Pokemon |
| Me: | Wait, a Pokemon? |
| Kid: | Yes, Pokemon |
| Me: | Are you going to change into a Pokemon? |
| Kid: | Yes |
| Me: | I didn't know you could do that... |
Today, I wore this getup and did a Thai dance that we learned in two weeks in front of the entire school.
More details to come later.
Hi Guys-
Sorry I’ve been pretty MIA lately- I’ve been meaning to post about Camp and about a typical school day here at St. Gabe’s, but between being pretty busy at school and on the weekends I haven’t gotten around to it yet.
It doesn’t help that we haven’t been able to connect to the internet for the past few days. Apparently someone from our group got a computer virus which was affecting the internet. Our boss’ solution was to cut us off from the internet entirely.
This weekend was great however. We went to a 4th of July festival at an American school, and it was pretty fantastic. We all woke up around 11 or so and started the festivities on our rooftop. We got pretty decked out in red, white and blue, and then at 2:30 headed out to the festival. The only downside of the day was that we were provided a bus to get there, but it did not have any AC and acted as a pretty effective sauna. I think that was the most I have EVER sweated in my life. When we got out of the bus, it actually felt cool and refreshing- which for Bangkok is pretty remarkable. At the festival, there was plenty of American style food and drink, and I definitely indulged. I was missing cheese- so that’s what I ate the most. At around 6, it began down-pouring. Instead of going inside like most sensible people, we danced out in the rain for a while and then played some tug of war, and basically hung out in the rain for the rest of the evening.
Afterwards, I actually saw someone who lived down the hall from me my freshman year at GW. I hadn’t seen him since, so in about 5 years. I hung out with him and some of his friends, who are all teaching English as well. It was great to meet some new people and get out of the little “Loyola bubble” we have created.
More updates to come soooon. ESPECIALLY about camp.
If you’ve had a conversation with me since we got here (which considering about 5 people read this and I’ve talked to them all), you know my mantra has been, “Yeah, it’s great but I don’t feel like I’ve gotten out and seen much yet”. Let’s just say that this weekend has really changed my tune. I approached it saying, “I want to be a tourist and actually go out and see what the city has to offer.”
Thankfully, most of the group was on the same page as me. After spending a night out where I bought 8 pairs of earrings for 200 baht, (a solid purchase on my part, as that is about 6 dollars give or take) I woke up at 8 am, pretty ready to go. A few girls starting stirring outside and we decided to go off to the Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha Temple. Instead of taking what has become a standard method of transportation for our group, cabs, we walked about 10 minutes to the riverside and took the Klong, a small river ferry. It is much cheaper than a cab and took us straight to where we needed to go. We walked up to the grand palace and temple area, and I reluctantly donned the sweater I had brought. When you go to the temples, your shoulders and legs have to be completely covered. I really don’t own a lot of long dresses, so I bought one before I left. The dress/sweater combo really wasn’t such a bad one, as it is a lightweight, t-shirt fabric sweater. It is just hot and sticky all of the time in Bangkok, so a sweater wasn’t my choice garment.
As we began wandering around the palace grounds, we were quickly offered a tour by an official tour guide. Seeing as we had no idea what was going on, we took him up on his offer. He ushered us through the gates and we began our tour of the palace. One perk of being a teacher in Thailand is that it allows us to get into a lot of places for free. Teachers are highly valued here (a nice change of pace from what it’s like in America), right below the king and the Buddhist monks.
During our tour, we were able to see all of the different temples. It’s hard to explain everything that we saw, but what really struck me during the tour was just how different everything is. A lot of what we saw was unlike anything I had ever seen before, besides in pictures. I am really just awestruck by how lavish everything is and that is what impressed me the most.
Our tour guide also acted as our photographer, as you can see by the numerous group photos taken throughout our tour. A few highlights: rubbing the golden temple (made from real gold) for good luck, the little boy lounging in his Scooby Doo pajamas, tapping my head with a flower dipped in holy water for happiness, health and wealth, and being interviewed by several very shy Thai students (that’s the big group picture with the kids in uniform).
Unfortunately when we got to the palace (designed similarly to Buckingham palace), my camera died. I think I will try posting some of the other girls’ photos later this week. Facebook is blocked from our use during the school day so I can’t access them right now. We got a great street market lunch and then did a little shopping. I got some elephant key chains so that I can keep track of my keys. I’ve been scared to lock my doors in the past couple weeks. Then, we took the Klong back up the river and explored several more temples closer to us. We saw the standing Buddha temple, the black temple, and the golden mount. The golden mount was my favorite of the temples that we saw. It is a huge hill, that you climb winding steps up to a gorgeous golden temple. All the way up the hill is a gorgeous park, and beautiful little bells and gongs. I want to go back so I can buy a bell, I didn’t have enough money for one by the time we got there. When you get to the very top, there is an amazing view of Bangkok.
We finally arrived back to our dorm around 6. I rested, showered, and then got ready for going out. We went out to “The Club”, a dance place that we have gone to almost every time we go out. I wiped out, AGAIN, because I tripped walking in the entrance. I don’t know what it is about this place, but I need to stop falling! After going out, I cheered on two of my fellow teachers who decided to run a race on 0 hours of sleep and a lot of alcohol.
I got about four hours of sleep, and then headed to Christ Church Bangkok. I went two weekends ago and really enjoy ed myself. I was in contact with a couple of people about getting involved there and met one of them. I will be teaching Sunday School once a month to two and three year olds. I am actually really excited about this!
The rest of the day was pretty relaxing, I went to a HUGE electronics market with a few people. There were about 5 floors of anything you can think of related to electronics, it was pretty stunning. Then dinner, and relaxing, watched Saved! with my brand new speakers that I bought at the market.
So apparently I am going to camp this week with my 4th graders, but I think I will still do a “day in the life of a St Gabe’s teacher” at some point this week. Stay tuned!!
If you know me at all, you know that I have an INSANE phobia of anything resembling a rodent. I currently sprayed my room with pesticides (they only had the bug kind, but I am not risking seeing a rat trapped in my room), so I have a wind open to avoid getting poisoned.
DAMN IT I am not getting a rat in my room. So much for eating in here, never again.
So, today I was zoning out a little bit in my fifth grade class when all of a sudden, I hear barking. It sounds so real I almost get up to check the hallway until I realize, a student decided to start barking. And then the ENTIRE class begins barking like dogs for a good two minutes. It was absurd, and hilarious. I had to stop myself from laughing.
Also, that class was kind of a clusterfuck of ridiculous things. Ashley, another Loyola teacher and I each have half of the 8 sections of primary 5. We were asked to put together a worksheet based on the student newspaper the students get every week/month?(I’m not sure). She made the copies and left them on her desk so I could grab them when I taught the lesson. The thing is, I had the very last section and so the bottom of the pile. So I didn’t have enough copies to teach my lesson. Ihad to run down to the copy center a few floors down. The guys working there made the 15 copies no problem, and I was about to walk away when they said “7 baht 7 baht!!!” I had become so used to being allowed to make as many copies as I wanted for free at Elmwood that I didn’t realize they would want me to pay. I promised them I would come back after finishing my class. I walk upstairs only to realize that half the class did not bring their newspapers with them. So we couldn’t even do the worksheet, we just talked about the definitions of the vocab that I picked out from the newspaper.
Upside was that I didn’t have to wait for 65 crazy fifth graders to line up for lunch because I needed to run down to the copy center to drop off 7 baht. So there’s always a silver lining.
I’m thinking about doing a “a typical day teaching at St. Gabe’s” post tomorrow.
****EDIT****
So to continue the crazy teaching day I’ve been having, here’s another story. I was teaching a vocabulary word and we got to the word “destroy”. I had the brilliant idea to demonstrate how to destroy something by ripping up a piece of paper in pieces. The kids gasped at first, but then they got into it and began to stand up, holding up their worksheets screaming, “DESTROY DESTROY DESTROY” and pretending to rip them up. Thankfully, none of them actually ripped the hours worth of work but it was close. I can’t decide whether it was a brilliant teaching tool or the worst idea I’ve had yet.
So, this past weekend, we traveled to a tropical island for two days and a night, no big. The pictures shown are the view from our lunch table, the ferry in, and some of the festivities of the evening (I’ll explain those a little later :P)
We woke up, packed and headed out the door at 6:30 to cram ourselves into 2 buses. All of the teachers, both from St. Gabe’s and ABAC (the university where 7 loyola students chose to teach) decided to go, plus another foriegn teacher from the secondary office, so in total we had 32 in all. The vans fit 15 each, but it was a very very tight 15.
After a long van ride, we arrived at the port. We took a bumpy, but beautiful ferry ride in. I took a lot of pictures, one is included here. Afterwards, we walked up the main road to the main part of the island. Part of Koh Samed is a national park, so it costs money to go in. We just got our teacher id’s last week though, and that grants us some serious discounts around Thailand. So instead of paying 100 baht to get in, we paid 40. We walked around and found a bungalow to stay in. Shimmy, Britt and I decided to splurge a little to get a room with airconditioning. It was basically a room with a bed and a dresser, with a nice little porch outside.
We went to lunch right on the beach, and I got nachos, because I was craving cheese. I’ve been eating a lot of Thai food, I promise, but nachos seemed too good to pass up. They were ok, but I think I’m going to stick to Thai food as much as possible, seeing as it is much cheaper. We then hung out on the ocean for the rest of the afternoon. I got a beautiful silk tapestry for 200 baht, which I am going to hang in my window. Then, I went back to our room to take a nap.
That evening, we went to an absolutely amazing bar/restaurant. There were low tables on carpets right on the sand, and we sat on little cushions. I had some pretty delicious green curry. We then got to watch a fire show. Several local boys/teenagers basically played with fire for a half an hour. They were pretty excellent, but there were some mistakes made on the way. For example, they were launching rags attached to ropes that were on fire. One of them launched into a table that was right near the water. Thankfully no one was hurt.
After the show, it was our turn! They set up a burning limbo pole. It had various heights. I did try the highest one- it was so exhilarating! I was not brave/flexible enough to try the other heights, but thankfully other people were. I was the picture taker instead. After the limbo pole, they set up a ring of fire that people could jump through. I was pretty sure I would land in a split on top of it or belly flop onto the ring, so I held back from doing that one too. Shimmy, however, had no fear, and decided to do a round off (something she had never done before). She actually catapulted right into the ring, which burned her legs and broke the pole! That ended that portion of the evening. After an epic tug of war contest, we were escorted up to the stage, which had been turned into a dance floor with black lights. Conveniently, the men who had been wielding the fire now had glow in the dark paint in their hands, and they painted our faces and in some cases, chests (ahem, mine), with several symbols, like the star of david for some bizarre reason.
We danced the night away and then decided to cool off with a nice swim. I won’t say much about that but let’s just say I checked something off my bucket list. I then headed back to the bungalow to sleep. Unfortunately, the establishment seemed to misplace the mattress itself and just left the box spring, which really irritated my epic sunburn. I swear I re-applied consistently, maybe even a little obsessively, but I still got really burned. I have some nice peeling action going on now.
I woke up pretty early and spent the morning/afternoon, reading, eating, and playing card games with some of the group. We then took the same ferry and vans back to St. Gabe’s, and here I am now!
It was such a great and refreshing first adventure out into Thailand. I can’t wait to take many more. I keep having to remind myself that we are in a tropical climate, which means tropical islands actually exist here. Pinching myself is sometimes necessary.
Hellloooooo sunburn city. That’s ok, because Koh Samet (ie. tropical island) was epic.
Pictures will go up soon as well as a real update. Now its time to put my freshly showered/aloed self into bed.
Bangin’ soft shell crab with black pepper and red chili sauce for dinner, at the most amazing riverside restaurant. Lit with laterns, warm summer breeze off the river, good drinks, good food,great company.
Such a happy girl right now.
I might have to post a weekly food update or something, because I’ve been such a tourist with the food pictures I’ve taken.
Went to this absolutely insane market yesterday- they had pretty much everything you could think of. Got a couple of cool new things for my room, two plants- a tiny little heart shaped one and a hanging one, and then lights for a round my desk. I gotta say, I’m definitely making this place feel like home. :)
Feeling so overwhelmed right now I can’t even describe it. Day 2 so far? Not so much a success.
Ok, so day 1 of teaching is slowly drawing to a close, so I figured I would share a little about what I’ve experienced so far.
I woke up at about 6:45 today. I had a little trouble dragging myself out of bed as I had woken up at 2:45 in the middle of the night (sorry dad, I was in no shape to skype). I got ready and had breakfast in my room- granola bars and yogurt which was surprisingly delicious and satisfying. I have a feeling I’m going to have to find other breakfast foods though, or I’m going to get tired of it fast. We then walked into the oldest building on campus to scan our fingers (that’s how we clock in) and meet our co-teachers. I was very confused at first because on my schedule I was told that I had two Thai teachers, but only one met me in the conference room. I soon learned that all of the 5th graders had gone to camp for the week- which meant I would only be teaching 4th grade classes. When something like that happens or if we have a free period (I have about 3 a day on average), we are supposed to sit in the foreign teacher office, which is on the 7th floor of the primary building.
The whole day was a little overwhelming. The kids are cute, but are pretty rowdy and loud, one took the opportunity to play drums on my butt as I walked by his desk. I had four class periods today ( I would have had 5 but one was cancelled). My teacher taught the same lesson to four different sections of 4th graders. Each time, she asked me to introduce myself. The first time, I just said my name and then wrote it on the board. The second time, I got a little bolder and decided to let me ask them questions. The first question was “Why is teacher so fat?” The next time, I just told them a little more about myself, but no questions were asked. My final period of the day, I decided to try again, and the questions were much tamer. They were a little amazed that I was 23 years old though. I have to say I’m a little hurt/upset by that first question, but I had been warned that they were rude/obsessed with appearances, so I was expecting it. We met this random American man who has been living in Thailand for a long time at lunch on Sunday, and he said that a lot of people lose up to 25% of their body weight. I would be 100% ok with that happening.
I then came back and fell asleep for 2 hours. I used to do this all the time when I was student teaching, but I did want to actually explore a little more so I was disappointed. We wound up going down to Khao San, the backpacker’s road, and had middle eastern food. I’ve been eating a lot of noodles and meat, so some hummus and schwarma was a nice change of pace.
I’m sure there’s a lot more I could say but I’m running out of steam. Let’s just say that this weekend I managed to lock myself out of my room, fall on hard concrete twice, and lose both my driver’s license and debit card. I’m really hoping this isn’t setting the pace for my trip because I would not be a happy girl if so.
