ALERT- this post is random, cheers!
So it is almost the end of my first week teaching here at Anukoolnaree! The amount of students I have is pretty staggering, and with 20 classes a week it's quite tiring, but the kids are just so sweet.
The rest of the week went pretty similar to Monday. I have about 3 classes per day on average, and the rest of the time I spend at my desk, grading work and preparing the semesters units and lesson plans. I am still in the pursuit of finding the perfect method of organizing my classes in terms of english level, grade level and whether or not they are a S.M.A.R.T. class. Initially I wanted to plan out the entire semester in depth, but quickly realized that it would be much more simple to take it week by week with the a general idea of the semester in my head. I will be covering the topics of weather, leisure and hobbies, shopping, and food and drink.
Although all my students are either in M1 (7th) or M6 (12th) the varying levels of English is so pronounced. Some of my classes fly through my lessons with ease, while others barely understand when I ask them to write their name on their paper. The vibe of each class is also very different, some are very studious and respectful, while others are chaotic. But I have found that all classes are required to greet the teacher with something along the lines of "Goodmorning Teacher, welcome" and then I say "thank you! How are you?" and they say "Good and you?" and then I say, "I am good thank you, please have a seat." When they initially did this, all I heard was a chorus of gibberish and so for a few classes I just smiled and nodded and was like "yes".
There are quite a few of us in the English department office. The English teachers Doorji, Shelby and I, the new adorable Chinese teacher Ting, 4 student teachers and then about 4 or 5 Thai teachers. It is very cool to be placed in a setting where you encounter so many different ethnicities, and I really enjoy getting to know all of these people.
One of the student teachers, Yooyee (I don't think that is the correct spelling) just turned 22, so we had a birthday lunch for her. Various dishes were served including a mushroom soup, some kind of sweet noodle, roasted chicken, Tom Sam, and dish exactly like Tom Sam except instead of papaya, noodles were used. People, if you want your mouth to enter the fiery pits of hell, then you should probably eat this salad. I had one bite, and I felt very good initially, then suddenly I began to feel this creeping sensation down in my throat. Very soon after that, I was in full blown spice demon mode, and my only solace was a cup of coconut yogurt I had brought from home. I felt very much like a Farang in this moment, and all the Thai people present just laughed and smiled. BUT, they had not tried the salad yet. Yooyee and her boyfriend took a few bites, and within seconds they were sweating profusely, and I'm pretty sure Yooyee had tears in her eyes. It was actually so hilarious! Anyways that secretly made me feel much better about my spice threshold.
Later that afternoon, I went down to the bathroom to pee. The stall that I chose had a window that looked into a broom closet. Just as I was getting comfortable, I look into the broom closet to see the worlds most MASSIVE gecko staring back at me. It had huge yellow eyes that penetrated my soul with that cold reptilian stare. For some reason this giant, yellow-eyed gecko creeped me the heck out!!!!!!! So I promptly peed and left. The end
So Shelby and I have been on the hunt for bikes since we got here. I truly want a motorbike, but that is a much bigger investment, so at the moment, we were looking for some good ole man powered bikes. Ryan, a teacher at a different school had told us that our landlady had a few extra bikes lying around, so after school Zuri helped me ask P' Noi if I could borrow one. She said yes! The bike I am using is a cute little orange cruiser that was probably made for someone about 5 feet tall but it will do the trick! Anyways, after we dragged it out from its home under the stairs, she gave me a pump to inflate the tires, which I promptly did. The front tire went swimmingly and I had filled in no time, unfortunately things took a turn for the worst upon reaching the back tire. The air valve was some peculiar contraption that I have never seen before. I began to unscrew it, and the cap fell to the ground, right into a hole in the sidewalk (all the sidewalks are essentially slabs of concrete over drains, and often times there are holes where the water can drain). JUST MY LUCK. But it was okay, because the valve was a two part valve (wtf) and it appeared that the important piece was still attached. So then I began unscrewing THAT one. Well that one was in direct contact with the pressurized air in the tube, and just as I was finishing unscrewing it, the air pressure shot that goddamn piece right into the freaking hole with the accuracy of bloody sniper. So within 30 seconds, I had somehow managed to lose both parts of this valve device into the abyss that is the drain system of Kalasin. The tire promptly became as limp as a day old hot dog and that was the end of my excitement over the bike haha. I have been waiting until the weekend to see if I can just buy the screw thing attached to the valve or if I must buy a whole new tube. Either way, yay for having legs that function when I stupidly incapacitate my bicycle.
Another thing all of us farangs have been somewhat concerned about is getting exercise while living abroad. For the first few days, I had been doing various exercises in my apartment, which has been alright. Yesterday, Becky and I went to yoga. It was really cool to practice yoga in a Buddhist culture, and challenging being that it was all in Thai. But people, the coolest part by far is the fact that an hour long session costs, wait for it... 10 Baht. 10 freaking baht, which translates roughly into 30 cents. I dig it!
Anyways today, I felt oddly energetic after school, and decided I would run around the lake next to our apartment. Being that running is the bane of my existence, and I only do it when no other form of exercise is available, I planned on doing ONE lap around the lake. It is not that far, but it is something. I got in my workout clothes (and my hot oeg orientation shirt, shoutout to all the oeg'ers) and hit the lake. I went around 6:30, just as the sun was setting and it was beginning to cool down. Apparently me and every other resident in Kalasin thought running at this hour would be a good idea, because the track around the lake was packed. This was actually kind of nice, because I didn't feel quite as obvious as if I was the only person, let alone a giant farang, getting my run on. The run went pretty well! I had my music, the weather was nice, there was a giant aerobics class (which looks hilarious and amazing and I WILL be doing it) and people were out enjoying the evening. In fact, it went SO well, I did ANOTHER LAP. Round of applause to myself. By the time I had finished, I was beginning to remember why I dislike running, so I guess that shows I got a good work out in right? Upon finishing and entering my apartment, I began to overheat harder than penguin in the Sahara. I took a cold shower, did NOT dry off, and lay beneath my fan in hopes that I would experience a temperature drop due to evaporative cooling. False. Anyways, the moral of this story is pretty much that if you run in Thailand you will get so incredibly hot, not even a "cold" shower will do the trick. But I'll be darned if exercise doesn't make you feel great. So now I feel nice and tired and ready for bed.
Okay! Thanks for reading! Till next time, toodle dooooooo <3
So it is almost the end of my first week teaching here at Anukoolnaree! The amount of students I have is pretty staggering, and with 20 classes a week it's quite tiring, but the kids are just so sweet.
The rest of the week went pretty similar to Monday. I have about 3 classes per day on average, and the rest of the time I spend at my desk, grading work and preparing the semesters units and lesson plans. I am still in the pursuit of finding the perfect method of organizing my classes in terms of english level, grade level and whether or not they are a S.M.A.R.T. class. Initially I wanted to plan out the entire semester in depth, but quickly realized that it would be much more simple to take it week by week with the a general idea of the semester in my head. I will be covering the topics of weather, leisure and hobbies, shopping, and food and drink.
Although all my students are either in M1 (7th) or M6 (12th) the varying levels of English is so pronounced. Some of my classes fly through my lessons with ease, while others barely understand when I ask them to write their name on their paper. The vibe of each class is also very different, some are very studious and respectful, while others are chaotic. But I have found that all classes are required to greet the teacher with something along the lines of "Goodmorning Teacher, welcome" and then I say "thank you! How are you?" and they say "Good and you?" and then I say, "I am good thank you, please have a seat." When they initially did this, all I heard was a chorus of gibberish and so for a few classes I just smiled and nodded and was like "yes".
There are quite a few of us in the English department office. The English teachers Doorji, Shelby and I, the new adorable Chinese teacher Ting, 4 student teachers and then about 4 or 5 Thai teachers. It is very cool to be placed in a setting where you encounter so many different ethnicities, and I really enjoy getting to know all of these people.
One of the student teachers, Yooyee (I don't think that is the correct spelling) just turned 22, so we had a birthday lunch for her. Various dishes were served including a mushroom soup, some kind of sweet noodle, roasted chicken, Tom Sam, and dish exactly like Tom Sam except instead of papaya, noodles were used. People, if you want your mouth to enter the fiery pits of hell, then you should probably eat this salad. I had one bite, and I felt very good initially, then suddenly I began to feel this creeping sensation down in my throat. Very soon after that, I was in full blown spice demon mode, and my only solace was a cup of coconut yogurt I had brought from home. I felt very much like a Farang in this moment, and all the Thai people present just laughed and smiled. BUT, they had not tried the salad yet. Yooyee and her boyfriend took a few bites, and within seconds they were sweating profusely, and I'm pretty sure Yooyee had tears in her eyes. It was actually so hilarious! Anyways that secretly made me feel much better about my spice threshold.
Later that afternoon, I went down to the bathroom to pee. The stall that I chose had a window that looked into a broom closet. Just as I was getting comfortable, I look into the broom closet to see the worlds most MASSIVE gecko staring back at me. It had huge yellow eyes that penetrated my soul with that cold reptilian stare. For some reason this giant, yellow-eyed gecko creeped me the heck out!!!!!!! So I promptly peed and left. The end
So Shelby and I have been on the hunt for bikes since we got here. I truly want a motorbike, but that is a much bigger investment, so at the moment, we were looking for some good ole man powered bikes. Ryan, a teacher at a different school had told us that our landlady had a few extra bikes lying around, so after school Zuri helped me ask P' Noi if I could borrow one. She said yes! The bike I am using is a cute little orange cruiser that was probably made for someone about 5 feet tall but it will do the trick! Anyways, after we dragged it out from its home under the stairs, she gave me a pump to inflate the tires, which I promptly did. The front tire went swimmingly and I had filled in no time, unfortunately things took a turn for the worst upon reaching the back tire. The air valve was some peculiar contraption that I have never seen before. I began to unscrew it, and the cap fell to the ground, right into a hole in the sidewalk (all the sidewalks are essentially slabs of concrete over drains, and often times there are holes where the water can drain). JUST MY LUCK. But it was okay, because the valve was a two part valve (wtf) and it appeared that the important piece was still attached. So then I began unscrewing THAT one. Well that one was in direct contact with the pressurized air in the tube, and just as I was finishing unscrewing it, the air pressure shot that goddamn piece right into the freaking hole with the accuracy of bloody sniper. So within 30 seconds, I had somehow managed to lose both parts of this valve device into the abyss that is the drain system of Kalasin. The tire promptly became as limp as a day old hot dog and that was the end of my excitement over the bike haha. I have been waiting until the weekend to see if I can just buy the screw thing attached to the valve or if I must buy a whole new tube. Either way, yay for having legs that function when I stupidly incapacitate my bicycle.
Another thing all of us farangs have been somewhat concerned about is getting exercise while living abroad. For the first few days, I had been doing various exercises in my apartment, which has been alright. Yesterday, Becky and I went to yoga. It was really cool to practice yoga in a Buddhist culture, and challenging being that it was all in Thai. But people, the coolest part by far is the fact that an hour long session costs, wait for it... 10 Baht. 10 freaking baht, which translates roughly into 30 cents. I dig it!
Anyways today, I felt oddly energetic after school, and decided I would run around the lake next to our apartment. Being that running is the bane of my existence, and I only do it when no other form of exercise is available, I planned on doing ONE lap around the lake. It is not that far, but it is something. I got in my workout clothes (and my hot oeg orientation shirt, shoutout to all the oeg'ers) and hit the lake. I went around 6:30, just as the sun was setting and it was beginning to cool down. Apparently me and every other resident in Kalasin thought running at this hour would be a good idea, because the track around the lake was packed. This was actually kind of nice, because I didn't feel quite as obvious as if I was the only person, let alone a giant farang, getting my run on. The run went pretty well! I had my music, the weather was nice, there was a giant aerobics class (which looks hilarious and amazing and I WILL be doing it) and people were out enjoying the evening. In fact, it went SO well, I did ANOTHER LAP. Round of applause to myself. By the time I had finished, I was beginning to remember why I dislike running, so I guess that shows I got a good work out in right? Upon finishing and entering my apartment, I began to overheat harder than penguin in the Sahara. I took a cold shower, did NOT dry off, and lay beneath my fan in hopes that I would experience a temperature drop due to evaporative cooling. False. Anyways, the moral of this story is pretty much that if you run in Thailand you will get so incredibly hot, not even a "cold" shower will do the trick. But I'll be darned if exercise doesn't make you feel great. So now I feel nice and tired and ready for bed.
Okay! Thanks for reading! Till next time, toodle dooooooo <3
My new whip! You can see the bastard hole that claimed the lives of my caps
Fiery demon noodle salad from hell
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