10:10 am--bell rings
10:15 am--i arrive in the classroom. no students.
10:25 am--still no students. keep in mind, this class only goes until 11 am, and the kids only have english with me once a week.
10:30 am--students finally trickle in. we're still missing half the class.
10:35 am--miew says the students are ready. the kids don't stand up and greet me or anything. i just start...halfway through class.
10:45 am--even more students walk in. we've started the activity already, so i tell them they can just sit to the side and wait. they ignore me.
10:47 am--i get mad at a kid for talking; i shush and look angrily at the whole class; i get mad at another kid for wearing headphones and having NO IDEA what's going on.
10:50 am--i scold the same kid for putting his headphones back in.
10:55 am--i decide to give these stupid kids some homework.
teacher nicki mad.
5.11.09
3.11.09
"um, it was good"
one of the other thai teachers in the office, miew, got married on sunday. she didn't even mention it last week; we found out through the grapevine from a teacher in a different office. when we asked her last thursday, she sort of smiled and shrugged and went, "who did you find out from?" no glowing. no nothing.
she wasn't around yesterday, so we asked her about it when she walked in just a second ago.
"good morning, miew."
"ohh, good morning."
"how was your wedding?"
(miew shrugs again, sort of looks to the floor, shakes her head, looks up with a half-smile) "it was okay. good."
that's it. no honeymoon, no wedding photos, no gushing over a gorgeous dress and no giggles about the first night as a married couple. basically just another sunday, but this time with her wedding. nbd.
she wasn't around yesterday, so we asked her about it when she walked in just a second ago.
"good morning, miew."
"ohh, good morning."
"how was your wedding?"
(miew shrugs again, sort of looks to the floor, shakes her head, looks up with a half-smile) "it was okay. good."
that's it. no honeymoon, no wedding photos, no gushing over a gorgeous dress and no giggles about the first night as a married couple. basically just another sunday, but this time with her wedding. nbd.
penny and peter
"come here, nicki." kanchana, our coordinator, stood near the window and motioned to me to come over. she pulled aside the curtain and pointed to a pigeon.
"pigeon is hurt, so we have to let it get better until it can fly again. one week, maybe two. we let it get better." in a cardboard box in the corner of my porch sat a sick-looking pigeon, missing a few feathers and looking like she'd seen better days.
but here's the thing. she's not always alone. sometimes, there are two pigeons. i couldn't really figure it out for a while; i didn't know if maybe there were always two pigeons and i just didn't look hard enough before. but no, there was indeed only one pigeon sometimes, two other times. penny and peter, i decided to call them (because maddy's around, and since she names everything, i might as well, too). penny is the injured one. she managed to hop out of the cardboard box and now spends most of her days in the corner. peter flies in to keep her company (and food/water, i assume, because she's still alive), usually at night.
it's a bird love story.
whenever i open a curtain to look at them, both of their eyes bug out and peter scoots closer to penny, protecting her from whatever potential evil i might inflict on her (which is obviously nothing, but how is he to know that?). so i try to give them their privacy, but i still check on them everyday because i'm a worried momma. for the last week, they've just been in the corner, waiting for health to float down on penny. nothing's really changed.
this morning, both of them were standing and walking around. my face broke into a proud-momma smile and i came immediately here to tell you guys about it. i think it's a good sign for today.
banana tree stumps, fireworks, and beauty competitions: loi kratong 2009
i keep waiting for things to calm down here. i keep waiting for a boring day, for a day when i might just miss the usa, for a day when all i want to do is go to bed.
but it's just not happening. every day has been beautiful in some way. oh, god, i sound so lame when i say crap like that. whatever.
today was loi kratong (often spelled loy kratong, but since romanizing thai words is all a phonetic guessing game anyway, i decided i'd like to spell it l-o-i), which meant no classes, an introduction speech from us farang in front of the entire school, and a traditional thai dance put on by us farang ourselves.
oh, yes, friends. we did the dance today. after hours of practice (hmmm...that's actually a generous term for how much serious practicing we did), we took the stage and shook our groove things like nobody's ever seen. here, i'll set the scene for you.
more than three thousand thai kids are sitting in the gymnasium, enjoying the loi kratong assembly and festivities. when i say "enjoying," i mean screaming their heads off any time one of their classmates gets on stage to sing. these kids are easily excitable. after maybe 20 minutes of other performances, our dance leader tuk signals to us that it's our turn, and we line up in order with our partners.
a word about what we look like: bizarre. we've all got our thai costumes on, which for girls means a red jacket with a black wrap around skirt and a scarf-type deal wrapped over our shoulder, and for boys means a neon green shirt with a bright red sash tied around their waist.
as soon as the thai students see us farang walking toward the stage, they go wild. i've never seen an entrance like this at a school, much less for me. we felt precisely like rock stars.
we got on stage, the music started, and we messed up the dances about 80 times. the girls went in when we were supposed to go out, nobody faced the outside of the circle when we needed to, blah blah blah. but we (farang and students) were all cracking up way too much to notice. i know somebody took a video, so i'll try to let you know when that comes in to play.
oh, we gave little introduction "speeches" earlier in the day (speech=two sentences, one says where you're from, the other says how excited you are to be here), but they weren't really a big deal. especially in comparison to the rest of the day.
so on loi kratong, the big to-do is to make a "kratong" (which means something like boat) out of some trunk from a banana tree, the banana tree leaves, and a crap ton of beautiful flowers. then you stick a candle and some incense in it, take it to the river at night, and float it ("loi") in the river. in the afternoon, bird, who's another one of the thai teachers, brought us some kratong stuff and helped us make our own. at the end of the day, she told us to go to this one wat where everybody in town goes for the loi kratong fest.
around 8 pm, seven of us found a taxi (hrmm...don't think of a car when you read this. more like an enhanced motorbike with a tiny, open trailer), showed him the piece of paper bird wrote the name of the wat on, and hopped in. when we got off, we were greeted with fluorescent lights, firecracker noises, and enough kratongs for the world. look at pictures. i can't say that enough when i talk about thailand. my words are a petty excuse for explaining how incredible things are here.
we found our way to the river and set off our kratongs, which is supposed to bring good luck and health. you can write the names of whomever you like on a piece of paper and stick it in your kratong, and legend has it that the buddha will bring all of those people good luck and health. (of course i put your name on it.) you also put a finger nail (which i forgot) and a piece of your hair in the kratong to bring good luck to yourself.
with the kratongs headed down the river, we were content to hang around the festival and soak it in. the guys (ian and sam) got all pyro-happy and found some fireworks. these things aren't regulated here whatsoever (the fireworks, not the boys), so people were setting them off pretty much everywhere. getting hurt potential was at about 78%.
on our tuk tuk ride back, we were all so giddy from such a phenomenal day that we couldn't knock smiles off our faces. now i'm going to bed way later than i planned, and i meant to upload more pictures for you, and i meant to watch that episode of glee, but i don't even care. i fucking love this country.
p.s. i forgot so much stuff. i meant to tell you about the beauty contests, the flying lanterns, the general thrill of tuk tuk rides, and more specifics about kratongs. but this is already a novel, so i'll hold back. i'll save the stories for another time.
but it's just not happening. every day has been beautiful in some way. oh, god, i sound so lame when i say crap like that. whatever.
today was loi kratong (often spelled loy kratong, but since romanizing thai words is all a phonetic guessing game anyway, i decided i'd like to spell it l-o-i), which meant no classes, an introduction speech from us farang in front of the entire school, and a traditional thai dance put on by us farang ourselves.
oh, yes, friends. we did the dance today. after hours of practice (hmmm...that's actually a generous term for how much serious practicing we did), we took the stage and shook our groove things like nobody's ever seen. here, i'll set the scene for you.
more than three thousand thai kids are sitting in the gymnasium, enjoying the loi kratong assembly and festivities. when i say "enjoying," i mean screaming their heads off any time one of their classmates gets on stage to sing. these kids are easily excitable. after maybe 20 minutes of other performances, our dance leader tuk signals to us that it's our turn, and we line up in order with our partners.
a word about what we look like: bizarre. we've all got our thai costumes on, which for girls means a red jacket with a black wrap around skirt and a scarf-type deal wrapped over our shoulder, and for boys means a neon green shirt with a bright red sash tied around their waist.
we got on stage, the music started, and we messed up the dances about 80 times. the girls went in when we were supposed to go out, nobody faced the outside of the circle when we needed to, blah blah blah. but we (farang and students) were all cracking up way too much to notice. i know somebody took a video, so i'll try to let you know when that comes in to play.
oh, we gave little introduction "speeches" earlier in the day (speech=two sentences, one says where you're from, the other says how excited you are to be here), but they weren't really a big deal. especially in comparison to the rest of the day.
so on loi kratong, the big to-do is to make a "kratong" (which means something like boat) out of some trunk from a banana tree, the banana tree leaves, and a crap ton of beautiful flowers. then you stick a candle and some incense in it, take it to the river at night, and float it ("loi") in the river. in the afternoon, bird, who's another one of the thai teachers, brought us some kratong stuff and helped us make our own. at the end of the day, she told us to go to this one wat where everybody in town goes for the loi kratong fest.
around 8 pm, seven of us found a taxi (hrmm...don't think of a car when you read this. more like an enhanced motorbike with a tiny, open trailer), showed him the piece of paper bird wrote the name of the wat on, and hopped in. when we got off, we were greeted with fluorescent lights, firecracker noises, and enough kratongs for the world. look at pictures. i can't say that enough when i talk about thailand. my words are a petty excuse for explaining how incredible things are here.
we found our way to the river and set off our kratongs, which is supposed to bring good luck and health. you can write the names of whomever you like on a piece of paper and stick it in your kratong, and legend has it that the buddha will bring all of those people good luck and health. (of course i put your name on it.) you also put a finger nail (which i forgot) and a piece of your hair in the kratong to bring good luck to yourself.
with the kratongs headed down the river, we were content to hang around the festival and soak it in. the guys (ian and sam) got all pyro-happy and found some fireworks. these things aren't regulated here whatsoever (the fireworks, not the boys), so people were setting them off pretty much everywhere. getting hurt potential was at about 78%.
on our tuk tuk ride back, we were all so giddy from such a phenomenal day that we couldn't knock smiles off our faces. now i'm going to bed way later than i planned, and i meant to upload more pictures for you, and i meant to watch that episode of glee, but i don't even care. i fucking love this country.
p.s. i forgot so much stuff. i meant to tell you about the beauty contests, the flying lanterns, the general thrill of tuk tuk rides, and more specifics about kratongs. but this is already a novel, so i'll hold back. i'll save the stories for another time.
1.11.09
suphanburi, thailand
i'd liken this town to san jose, i suppose. it's about an hour and a half outside of bangkok, depending on how you get there. lots of people live here, but mostly just because they work here. you wouldn't go out of your way to visit suphanburi as a tourist. lots of schools in this area, lots of stores, big ol' mall and a tesco lotus, which is a thai version of target (it's been a fantastic substitute so far).
so even though it's not filled with gorgeous waterfalls, huge buddhist temples, or famous old bridges, this isn't to say there's nothing to see and do in suphanburi. like on thursday night, ally, maddy, and i took a walk toward the river that runs through town, just because we wanted to get outside. we just kept wandering, and eventually stumbled upon this:
just a gigantic dragon, chillin there like it ain't no thang. we asked some people at school about it the next day, and it's apparently a big chinese culture museum. if i did things like actually research a town before i live in it, i probably would've known that, but so it goes. either way, we were massively impressed and plan on going back in the light of day to actually go inside.
then yesterday, on the hottest halloween of my life and also the only one i didn't dress up for (sadface), a bunch of us were wandering the streets of suphanburi on our way to the tower, which is this big thing in the middle-ish of town. we figured we'd get to the bottom of it, look up and go, "whoa, that's really big," then go home.
but then there was a fountain. i just tried to attach a picture but blogger was like, "no, stop it, you can't do this right now," so you'll have to look on fbook. the fountain was a massive circle and water spurted up from the ground, choreographed with some thai tunes. we frolicked (i've never used this word more appropriately) in the fountain forever, then walked home along the river in our comfortably wet clothes. perfect halloween.
just a gigantic dragon, chillin there like it ain't no thang. we asked some people at school about it the next day, and it's apparently a big chinese culture museum. if i did things like actually research a town before i live in it, i probably would've known that, but so it goes. either way, we were massively impressed and plan on going back in the light of day to actually go inside.
then yesterday, on the hottest halloween of my life and also the only one i didn't dress up for (sadface), a bunch of us were wandering the streets of suphanburi on our way to the tower, which is this big thing in the middle-ish of town. we figured we'd get to the bottom of it, look up and go, "whoa, that's really big," then go home.
but then there was a fountain. i just tried to attach a picture but blogger was like, "no, stop it, you can't do this right now," so you'll have to look on fbook. the fountain was a massive circle and water spurted up from the ground, choreographed with some thai tunes. we frolicked (i've never used this word more appropriately) in the fountain forever, then walked home along the river in our comfortably wet clothes. perfect halloween.
30.10.09
that messy teacher
you know that teacher who sweats and gets the blue whiteboard marker all over her face and her white clothes?
that's me.
both wednesday and thursday, i managed to give myself a blue mustache, and yesterday i was smart enough to lean against the eraser holder along the bottom of the white board, which put a huge line of blue across my cream-colored skirt. good job, nicki.
oh, well. the kids don't seem to mind or disrespect me for it, but then again, they're not the type to openly be rude to me. i don't have to teach today...my co-teacher told me yesterday that she'll be doing all the lessons, so i'm just going to sit back and relax.
so one of my activities has been to pair the students up and have them introduce their partner in front of the class. i thought this would be a boring activity and the kids would hate me, but it's turned out to be a riot. even my choosing of partners has lead to hilarity. i paired this guy and this girl up, and when they were called to the front of the classroom, the kids uttered a huge "oOoOOoOoOo!" i leaned over to one of the girls and asked what everyone was so excited about.
her: "they're both the tallest in the class."
me: "ohhhh, so they're going to be in love." (and i make a heart with my hands)
her: (squealing and giggling) "yessss yes!"
so i'm a thai match maker. nbd. later in that same class, two girls came up and everyone just busted up. i asked another girl what was so funny, and she goes, "they have the same hair!"
everyone here has the same hair. seriously, everyone wears a uniform and all the younger girls have to have their hair cut the same (it's at this hideous length right below their ears. tough haircut for a pubescent girl). these two girls who had "the same hair," i guess, maybe hadn't had a haircut for a few weeks? both had their hair parted in the middle?
another question i like to ask the kids is where they want to live. one of the most popular answers from the girls has been korea. in fact, the first girl to mention korea in class usually gets another one of those "oOoOOoOOo!" noises. so i asked them what was so great about korea. i guess there's some sort of singer or multiple singers from korea? my co-teacher tells me they have "korean fever." lolz.
anyway, i'm off to another day of class. this afternoon we get fitted for our thai costumes for monday. one of the american directors took the big sizes to america, so we're going to have to squeeze into some tiny thai ones. this will be interesting.
that's me.
both wednesday and thursday, i managed to give myself a blue mustache, and yesterday i was smart enough to lean against the eraser holder along the bottom of the white board, which put a huge line of blue across my cream-colored skirt. good job, nicki.
oh, well. the kids don't seem to mind or disrespect me for it, but then again, they're not the type to openly be rude to me. i don't have to teach today...my co-teacher told me yesterday that she'll be doing all the lessons, so i'm just going to sit back and relax.
so one of my activities has been to pair the students up and have them introduce their partner in front of the class. i thought this would be a boring activity and the kids would hate me, but it's turned out to be a riot. even my choosing of partners has lead to hilarity. i paired this guy and this girl up, and when they were called to the front of the classroom, the kids uttered a huge "oOoOOoOoOo!" i leaned over to one of the girls and asked what everyone was so excited about.
her: "they're both the tallest in the class."
me: "ohhhh, so they're going to be in love." (and i make a heart with my hands)
her: (squealing and giggling) "yessss yes!"
so i'm a thai match maker. nbd. later in that same class, two girls came up and everyone just busted up. i asked another girl what was so funny, and she goes, "they have the same hair!"
everyone here has the same hair. seriously, everyone wears a uniform and all the younger girls have to have their hair cut the same (it's at this hideous length right below their ears. tough haircut for a pubescent girl). these two girls who had "the same hair," i guess, maybe hadn't had a haircut for a few weeks? both had their hair parted in the middle?
another question i like to ask the kids is where they want to live. one of the most popular answers from the girls has been korea. in fact, the first girl to mention korea in class usually gets another one of those "oOoOOoOOo!" noises. so i asked them what was so great about korea. i guess there's some sort of singer or multiple singers from korea? my co-teacher tells me they have "korean fever." lolz.
anyway, i'm off to another day of class. this afternoon we get fitted for our thai costumes for monday. one of the american directors took the big sizes to america, so we're going to have to squeeze into some tiny thai ones. this will be interesting.
28.10.09
"hello, teacher!"
tash, maddy, and i walked into sanguan ying (school) today at 8 a.m., just as planned. everybody stared at us when we walked through the middle of campus, like we were celebrities. it was just like that scene from 500 days of summer. we needed more group dancing, baseball hitting, and campy music.
we were shown to our desks (hell yeah i have my own desk in the teacher office), so we sat down and started sifting through papers left behind by former english teachers. we were introduced to some other english teachers who would also be our co-teachers (typically they pair a westerner with a thai teacher for the sake of order in the classroom. westerners can't really discipline the kids, so we leave it to the thai teachers. other than punishment, the westerners are in charge). at about 8:35, miew (who is my co-teacher for my M4, or 9th grade, students) came up to me. here's pretty much how the convo went:
other teacher: "nicki, you ready to teach?"
me: "today?"
other teacher: "yes, at 8:30."
me (after i look at the clock and realize that's five minutes ago and i have a minor freak out inside my body): "umm...yeah, i think i can. i would rather start tomorrow, if that's okay."
other teacher: "relax, nicki. just play game."
well, okay, sure. that sounds easy enough. so i get all enthused but also nervous, so i sweat, but that's okay because there isn't a/c in the classroom so i'd be sweating anyway.
the thing about this situation that's most baffling to me is that it wasn't even that big of a deal that i was just thrown into my brand new job with little introduction. the thai teachers didn't seem to mind that i hadn't actually had teaching practice or that i didn't even know what a thai classroom looked like. it was just like, "okay, go on, start teaching. everyone does it. you'll be fine. just head on out. we'll help you if you need, but you probably won't. you'll be great."
and surprisingly, i didn't even do that badly. i used up all of my class time and my students seemed to like me, so it's all good. i did some simple introduction activities (introduced myself, had students pair up then interview and introduce each other) and learned thai kids are their own breed. for example, dark brown and gray were both favorite colors in my classes (and these are classes full of girls). when asked where they wanted to live, more than a handful of my girls in the smart class* said places like "belgium, germany, luxembourg, and "holliand."
since i only have each class once a week, i figure i'll get to use this same lesson until next wednesday. ballin. this teacher thing is the best. we also get free lunch every day, and next monday we foreigners will be participating in the holiday (koy kratong or something like that...i'll probably be able to explain more next week) by doing a traditional thai dance on stage in front of the whole school in the full get up and everything.
SERIOUSLY.
*this is really what the thai teachers call the kids in the gifted class. they openly favor them and like them better.
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