Surreal

Hello faithful readers, your sweet encouragement has been such an aid during this first week of classes. I have never been more thankful for a Friday evening, but I'm sure I will be saying that numerous times over the next coming weeks. How to describe teaching in Bangkok...firstly, there are two different aspects of the school at the palace - Prathom and Mattayom, I teach the latter which consists of 7th - 12th graders. I teach the equivalent of 8th, 9th, and 11th graders but their English levels are more consistent with US students at least 2 grades below. So far, my biggest trouble seems to be with my 9th graders and not even the boys, it's usually the girls... I'm not sure how to explain it but my boys are seemingly well behaved and try to be of help to me in the class.

The most frustrating thing about teaching there is that we are on our own to create all of our own lesson plans. We are given the books and told when the tests are but it is entirely up to us to create a curriculum and to know how we want to teach each class. For someone who never even stepped foot into an education classroom, I daresay that this has been the most challenging aspect. Luckily, I share 6 of my 9 classes with a wonderful girl from Sacramento named Angelica, our personalities clicked from the moment we met and there is hardly a moment where we are not together. The first couple of days were indeed the hardest but I am starting to warm to the students just as much as they are to me and I'm sure that within a month I will be gushing non stop about them.

In the same way, I hope that more of the teachers will begin to warm up to us. A few have reached out to us and it has been such a joy getting to know them. I don't know what I would have done without Chiraporn, Tip, Namtip, and Suttida...just to name a few. We are also graced with an elderly British man named Geoffrey who brings hilarity to our English office every morning with his dry wit and hilarious dance moves. Nevertheless, this all continues to seem so surreal to me...every morning when I leave the enclave of our English-speaking office, I step into a world where everything is so different and I always feel like I am in the wrong. I want to get to know the other teachers so Angelica and I are determined to meet some of the ones who are similar in age to us.

In other news, this weekend will be filled with trips to the vast weekend market in Southern Bangkok (the school has a very strict dress code and we have all been swapping shirts amongst ourselves to keep from getting in trouble). We are also having a dinner at the Person's - an American family, who graduated from Baylor, that has been in Bangkok for 17 years - they have invited all of the American teachers at the Palace school as well as the Baylor teachers that are elsewhere in Thailand. I daresay that it will be a fresh of breath air to have an easy conversation with those around me. But, I am enjoying learning some of the few Thai phrases that I have picked up from the wonderful woman named Sai who owns the convenience store on the 1st floor of the hotel... I'll leave you with the remainder of the pictures that I did not get to put up earlier.

Pop kan mai!
(See you later)

Star


Ronald McDonald is doing the "wai". Whenever you greet someone, especially elders, you "wai" them - you put your hands together and lower your head while saying 'Sawatdee kha' (kha if you are woman and krop if you are a man) which means hello.


The view from the Wat Saket temple...beautiful!


Part of the temple...there is so much architectural beauty in Bangkok...


The bells near the top of the Wat - that means temple


Trees on the grounds of the Wat


7-11! There are as many of these in BKK as there are Starbucks in America...at least 2 on every corner. You can get anything here and they are open 24 hours a day so they come in handy!


The traffic in BKK is as colorful as the city itself! Check out those taxis!