Besides being here for adventure, I guess we are also here to work. That’s just a side note though! HA! Really though, I spend almost 40 hours a week at my school, but it is the easiest 40 hours. We have to be in front of our building at 7:15. That’s early, but in Thailand life, people seem to be up way before this. This town is hustlin and bustlin when I’m just opening my eyes. Stephan, Kirsten, Julie and I are the four teachers at Benjama. We luckily have a ride every morning and afternoon to and from school. An English teacher in a different and much better department at Benjama lives and owns a bar/restaurant on our street, so he scoops us up for school each day. It is fahbooolusss! We get a/c and a safe ride to school. Sometimes Stephan and I will go search for some weird Thai things to eat before we get picked up. Like today we found Kau Nau wrapped in banana leaves. Kau Nau is sticky rice by the way, if you aren’t an expert in Thai like us. Just kidding! And let me tell you that sticky rice sticks to my stomach like glue, but it is so good! A little sweet a little sticky a whole lotta weird. They put weird things on top, but sometimes that put really yummy things on top—-like toasted coconut or mango. Scrumptious! Our rides consist of lots of “ahhs” and “waahaaas” (that’s the noises we make when it seems like we are going to hit a motorbiker or another car). Driving is nuts here, absolutely bonkers! Once we get to school, we sign in which always seems pointless, nobody ever checks. Then we go to assembly. They have assembly EVERY SINGLE MORNING! It is weird and scary and you can ask Stephan…all I ever want to do is go hide in the office. We have to stand like statues when they play the national anthem and raise the flag. Then they say some prayers to Buddha or the King or both and then someone lectures them/scolds them/scares them for about 15-20 minutes. EVERY MORNING! I feel so bad for the kids because a lot most of them seem bored out of there minds. Once we have snuck away from assembly, we head to our offices and prepare for the day. We usually teach 4-5 classes a day. The other hours we are not teaching are left for lesson planning/eating. I count down the hours until lunch time. Favorite. time. of. the. day. There is a restaurant we go to every day with the cutest ladies that cook us the most delicious vegetarian food for $1. Then often on the walk back to school we’ll grab a fresh fruit shake/smoothie from our dear sweet lady that owns “Dearly Home”. She gives us the biggest smiles when we walk in her shop and she makes us the best treats. Anyways back to the teaching…classes are great! The students are so smart and most are interested in learning. I like the class clowns the most. Probably because they are the most outgoing and the most willing to communicate in English. I have my favorites, but I won’t mention any names. Speaking of names, the students have the weirdest nicknames like Phone, Jar, Pure, Sand, Beach, Pim, etc., etc. About 5 students in each class have the same nicknames. I CANNOT learn their names for the life of me. Benjama is a government school which means the students wear the same uniform, have the same haircuts, etc. The haircuts throw me off so much. I cannot tell anyone apart and good luck trying to discuss descriptions of people and using the students as examples. The classes are 45-50 minutes depending on what schedule we are on. The schedules change all the time and most of the time we are always out of the loop. The other Thai teachers never feel the need to tell us anything. They make announcements over the intercom almost every period, but clearly I can’t understand a word. Just gotta go with the flow. I have to tell myself that every day. Sports day is coming up on Saturday and that is a HUGE event at the schools. Cheering is the most important. I have students skip class all the time to go “practice cheer”. It is so goofy and crazy how serious they are about sports day. I haven’t had a full week of classes, due to preparation for sports day. There are so many days that I will sit in class for 30 minutes and then realize my students are probably not coming. It’s really ok if I have a free period, but now I am getting worried because midterms are the week after sports day and the students are supposed to have a certain amount of grades. But don’t worry they just told us all of this last week. Sports day (Thai cheerleading) > Academics. Stephan has a video of all the teams practicing cheering—I’ll post it asap. When we are finished with classes we ride back home feeling exhausted and confused most days. The school days are just an adventure within itself. Everyday is really different and I just have to keep reminding myself that I am in THAILAND teaching English and I think that that reminder makes everything worth it.
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