Bangkok Has Him Now

Weekend of November 9-11

 View from Skybar

Anyway on Friday, we decided to go into Bangkok – Laura had some friends visiting from the states and she wanted to take them to Firehouse, a really good hamburger place. After not eating hamburgers (or much “western” food in general) for the past 3.5 weeks, I was happy to go again. And it was once again delicious. After dinner, we went to a bar called Cheap Charlie’s. Cheap Charlie’s is basically an outdoor bar in the alley that a lot of tourists and ex-pats go to. They are popular for their relatively cheap drinks (70 baht). The bar itself is covered with a random assortment of stuff – wooden things, old toys, and much much more. Next time I go, I need to remember to take a picture.

 Firehouse Hamburger. mmmm...

After Cheap Charlie’s closed, we decided to go to “Soi Cowboy”. This is a, *ahem*, red-light district in Bangkok, but on the “classy” end of things. The first thing you notice when you arrive is the crazy amounts of neon lights – it’s practically blinding. The second thing you notice is the scantily clad women outside the various bars, enticing the people walking by to come inside and order drinks (...and possibly more). After walking up and down the street, we decided to hunker down at a sports bar patio and people watch. And you definitely see all sorts on Soi Cowboy. The street is mostly frequented by tourists and ex-pats – we heard that Thais in general aren’t allowed into these places. Although things having to do with the sex-industry, from stripping to prostitution, is illegal, police will generally look the other way. In all, it was a very surreal experience, helped by the neon lights.

On Saturday, I went into Bangkok to visit my friend Karima, who is teaching in the city. That means I had to take the bus into the city by myself for the first time. I went to the bus station, and hopped on the number 6. I asked the driver and attendant if it went to the bts/sky train and they said it did. I had no idea where to get off, so I hoped they would let me know. I knew the bus passed under the bts tracks at one point, so if I got to that point, I would just get off and double back. Fortunately, when the bus arrived to the BTS stop, the driver and attendant both said “Farang! Farang!” and motioned for me to get off (and it was the right stop). So I was very thankful for that. 

I met Karima at the Sala Daeng BTS station. First we wandered around in search of food – we settled on frozen bubble tea and fried noodles at a street restaurant. Both were very tasty. We also wandered into the mall in the area: it was very big and fancy looking, and had many of the same stores as back home. Also, the malls have started putting up Christmas decorations (Christmas isn’t officially celebrated in Thailand, but people will have parties and things). We walked around Lumphini Park, the biggest greens space in Bangkok. It was nice to see some trees and grass. There was also a man-made lake. We saw some cool birds and this one HUGE lizard. You see small geckos all over the place, but this one must have been 30-40cm long. I managed to take a picture of it before it disappeared into the bushes. 

After the park, we took the BTS to Karima’s neighbourhood. We stopped first at Chattuchak market, were I bought a pair of pants I’m going to attempt to turn into a skirt, and a pair of sandals. We then took the bus to the mall near Karima – I managed to break my camera already so I needed to buy another one. I am smrt. While we were there, we had Dairy Queen dipped cones, and dinner in the food court. We also stopped in the Tesco and bought a bottle of Thai mystery alcohol. Once we arrived at Karima’s apartment, we had drinks on her roof (there’s like a patio and a gym up there). It was very nice up there: a perfect place for drinking and talking. 

We eventually left for the Lebua hotel’s “sky bar” restaurant. If you have seen Hangover 2, this is the bar they filmed part of that movie at. We had to dress up to get in: no flip-flops, shorts, and what not. We arrived at the hotel and were herded onto the elevator. We got off on the 64^th floor, and made our way to the bar. The view was amazing – you could see the entire city. The bar itself was super fancy, drinks were about 13-15$ (hence us drinking before we arrived). Fortunately, there was no cover and no one forced us to buy drinks. While there, we also met up with a few friends of mine from orientation who were visiting Bangkok.

 More of the view from Skybar

Although the view was gorgeous, we didn’t stay for too long. We didn’t know where to go next, so we took a random tuk-tuk to this bar that I think the driver is paid to drive people to. This was my first time in a tuk-tuk, so it was pretty fun. When you stopped thinking “I am going to die”... But we arrived safely, but decided we didn’t want to pay cover at the bar. After a bit of walking, we went into a McDonalds and had more ice cream. Good times. From there, we went our separate ways. In our taxi ride back, we tried to speak Thai to our taxi driver, who laughed at us a lot. 

Sunday, we went to Chattuchak pretty early (after a breakfast of French toast. Mmm...). It was great going early because it wasn’t so ridiculously crowded. Karima continued her search for shoes, and I bought a blouse for school. We found a place that made Indian food, and had chicken masala naan wraps for lunch. It was awesome to have Indian food – although Thai food is v tasty, every so often it’s nice to eat something different. I headed home, I took a lovely 2 hour nap. 

In the evening, Erin, Thomas, Anna and myself went into Bangkok AGAIN to see the new James Bond movie (skyfall) in IMAX. There is an IMAX theatre in the Siam Paragon mall: the Paragon is super fancy and the 2^nd biggest in SE Asia, I believe. They had a lambourgini store in the mall. Crazy... The movie was entertaining enough, and it was my first trip to the theatre in Thailand. The movie was in English with Thai subtitles – most of the people in the theatre were farangs anyway.

Now it’s back to work!

PS I watched the Hangover  2 last night (Monday), as it is set in Bangkok. It was cool to see the hotel we were at on screen. Other than that, it was not a very accurate portrayal (big surprise). From the level of English, to the accents, to the monks... But it was still entertaining.

It's not enough that we have to be disciplinarians - now we need to be psychologists

Today marks my first full week as a teacher! Hooray! And many more to go... Here is a summary of my day yesterday, which is pretty similar to my usual teaching days.

I had to go in early to greet parents/students at anuban (nursery school/kindergarten). Each foreign teacher has to do this once a week. So I arrived at school around 7:20am, and was at the kindergarten gate by 7:30am. The kids arrive with their parents on motorcycles, taxis, bike-taxis, in cars, or on foot. The head anuban teacher would try to get the kids (1-5 years old) to say “Good morning” to me, and I tried not to look to awkward when wai-ing the parents. FYI the “wai” is how Thai people greet each other: you place your hands in a prayer position and bow your head. I just don’t know if I’m doing it properly, or at appropriate times! Anywho, at 8:00am, the school has their assembly, so I went up to the English teachers’ office to grab my things. Each day is divided into 7 periods, each 50 minutes. The first class starts at 8:30am.

In the morning, I had two classes – 4.1 and 3.2. Each grade has different levels: 1 and 2 are the best, and are in the English intensive program at my school. For 4.1, are doing a unit on health and working on body parts and injuries at the moment. This morning was one of those mornings to me... I forgot my pencil case (with all my white board markers) and the paper I was going to get the class to draw on. Was not pleased with myself. I attempted to write on the board with markers that were near death. First, I played Simon Says with the kids. It took a while to explain. Explaining activities is the hardest thing to do because you have to use more complex language. At first, they didn’t get it but after a few minutes they caught on. After that, I reviewed the injuries we talked about the previous day. I attempted to get the kids to mime out injuries in pairs, and one would ask “what happened to you?”. That didn’t work especially well – so far, pair work doesn’t really seem to work in general. A few pairs will get it, but most won’t and just sit around and talk in Thai. After that, I did a final review of the words/phrases, and the kids asked to play Simon Says again, which I was more than happy to do as I forgot the paper for the drawings I had planned for them to do... Oh well, will have them draw tomorrow! Also, I have really no idea how I’m going to be able to explain words like “carbohydrate” as the unit goes on...

Next, I went to my 3.2 class. The 3s are much more rambunctious than the 4s, and therefore are harder to control and keep interested. Let me rephrase that, they are basically insane. They LOVE games, even more than kids at home. Whenever we play anything, they yell and scream and are 1000%T into it. Unfortunately, this means they hate everything else. Well, they kind of liked to sing. Today, we were working on “Mine, yours, his/hers”. I’ve been teaching the 3s the “itsy bitsy spider”, so I did that as a warm up. I think they mostly like doing the hand actions. After, I introduced the words, and demonstrated them by taking items from the students and asking other students “is this yours”. That kept them entertained for a while. Then I tried to do an activity out of their workbooks, but it did not work at all. I feel the work book we have for the kids is much too advanced, so it’s hard to pick out what will and won’t work or is worthwhile. I’m planning on asking the Thai teachers to see the exam so I know exactly what I need to teach the students. So I gave up on the work book, and had them toss around a ball saying “This ball isn’t mine. Is it yours?”. Like all games, they LOVE the ball game, and tend to get very loud and wild. But they are practicing speaking, and some of the students can even be heard coaching each others on what to say! So I don’t know if the ball game is a good idea or not haha. 

For lunch, we eat in the school cafeteria. Our school makes delicious noodle soup, and I’ve generally been eating that. One thing about kids in Thailand is they eat A LOT of sugar. It’s indescribable, really. For example, in the noodle soup, the lunch ladies will but in a spoonful of this sugary syrup. Then the kids will proceed to heap MORE spoonfuls of regular sugar in their soup. I’ve never had much of a sweet tooth, so it really baffles me. Sugar also goes in many other dishes, on fruit, and basically on any food. I can see that some of the kids have bad cavities in their teeth. Every day before lunch, all the students have to brush their teeth, but I guess teeth can only take so much sugar.

After lunch, I had a break before my 2 afternoon classes. So I caught up on the news with the American election (yay Obama!) and prepared for the afternoon. The classes themselves were much the same, with a few exceptions. For the 3.1 class, I didn’t use the work book and went a bit slower. Then at the end, I wrote words all scrambled on the board and tried to get them to figure out what word it was supposed to be. This one kid, who is a bit of a trouble maker and doesn’t seem to keen, was ON IT. He figured all of them out first, even the hard ones. I was very impressed! He was basically jumping up and down to give his answers too. Crazy... 

For the 4.2 class, I did the same thing as the morning, but remembered to bring paper for their drawings. I told them to draw themselves with an injury and write a sentence that described it (IE I broke my leg.). Once again, lots of very meticulous drawing. One thing was moderately hilarious, some of the trouble maker boys were running up to show me their drawings – one had cut off his leg, another had a stab-wound to the neck. So I told them to write, “I cut my leg/neck”. I was able to take some pictures, which make me smile. I wonder if I will get in trouble for letting them draw gruesome images... but they were writing! And making associations.

The thing I really took away from today is how some activities will engage the students who are causing trouble or not interested. I guess that’s one of the keys to teaching. Note from today (Thursday), that same trouble making kid in 3.1, who did really well with the word scrambles, won the game I played in class today (introduced vocabulary, and make them face off and slap the correct word on the whiteboard with flyswatters). He basically beat the entire class. Crazy. Because earlier in the class, when I was trying to introduce the material, he was talking, and distracting the other students. I almost took away his chair to make him stand, but I was torn because I felt that would draw even more attention to him. Maybe I’ll get him to stand in the corner. I assume he makes trouble because he is bored? Hmmmm...

Anyway, here are some of my students’ drawings. Enjoy!

It's a magical world, Hobbes, ol' buddy... Let's go exploring!

Ko Samet

This past weekend, Anna and I decided to go to Ko Samet. We heard Ko Samet was relatively easy to get to, and we decided it would be a good place for our first solo adventure in Thailand. And the promise of picturesque beaches was much too enticing... We also realised it would be a great opportunity to meet up with some of our friends from Orientation who are teaching in Rayong.

Anna, Ricky, Michelle and I at Ko Samet

Ko Samet is small island on the coast of the Thai province of Rayong, about 220 km from Bangkok. The main attraction to the island is its several beautiful beaches. It is a popular destination among and Thais as it’s so easy to get to from Bangkok and other cities. Although it is quite a tourist spot, the island isn’t overrun with massive hotels (like the Caribbean). Most of the island is a national park called Khao Laem Ya/Ko Samet National park, so building is more restricted. 

Anyway, on Fridays, I finish my last class at 1:30pm. At our school, we only have to be at school when we have a class to teach, which is very nice. We decided to leave after I finished my last class (Anna is finished on Fridays by like 11:00am!), in hopes that we would be able to catch one of the last ferries to the island. After my class, I came back to my apartment, grabbed my bag, and we were on our way! We took a taxi to Bangkok’s Ekkemai Bus Station (Eastern bus station), where we would catch the bus to Ban Phe (where you catch the ferry). The taxi ride took a looooong time, because traffic in Bangkok is always terrible. We eventually arrived at the bus station, where we found out that the bus was leaving in a few minutes. We bought our tickets, then hurried onto the platform. We were beckoned to a mini-bus (or large van) and hopped in. These mini-buses/vans are a common way of getting around in Thailand. They are generally a bit more expensive than the large buses, but I think the large bus was not going all the way to Ban Phe. 

The bus/van ride took about 3 hours, and I slept for a large chunk of it. All the other passengers disembarked in Rayong (city – the capital of the provinces of Thailand is always a city with the same name), so the driver took us to Ban Phe. Once we arrived, we realised that we had indeed missed the last ferry (which, for future reference, is at 6pm). To get to the island, we had to take one of the speedboats. Although these boats are faster and can take you to different beaches, they are MUCH more expensive. But you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do. And “expensive” in Thailand means about $10, so it wasn’t the end of the world. 

The boat dropped us off at Ao Hin Khok, one of the main beaches. We asked for directions to the guest house that had been recommended to us, and set off. We were directed to Ao Phai, the next beach over. The great thing about Ko Samet is that the Eastern Side of the island is basically a series of beaches, so we were able to walk along the beach to find our accommodation. We decided to stay at Naga Bungalows, one of the cheaper guesthouses. We went with the cheapest bungalow option, about 425 Baht/night (divided by two ). The room was very basic – it had a bed, mosquito net, a light, and a fan. But that was all we needed, and it was much better than paying 1500-1800 Baht per night. We didn’t need air-conditioning at all – I was even cold at night. Naga was also just across the road from the beach, which was lovely. After we checked in, we had dinner at a near-by restaurant – small tables and cushions on carpets right on the sand. It was very nice! A few fire dancers also made their way down the beach, providing us with our evening entertainment.

On Saturday, we got up pretty early and hit the beach before the crowds. We basically had the entire beach to ourselves – it was fantastic. The water at Ko Samet is perfectly clear: you could always see right down to the bottom. Also! This was my first time ever swimming in the Pacific Ocean! The ocean was also a great temperature; not cold, but not so warm as you feel like you’re in the bath. The sand on the beaches was so fine it almost felt like powder. Much of the island is still undeveloped, so there are lots of trees near the beach and in the interior. Even as it got later, the beaches were never super crowded. There were lots of Russian tourists, and various others. We ran into a few other OEG people from Bangkok & area, and Rayong. Although Ao Phai was lovely, we decided that in the afternoon we would wander over to Ao Phrao, the only beach on the Western side of the island.

 Our Bungalow at Naga

Ao Phai - early in the morning

The famous mermaid statues at Ao Phai

Around noon (I think? I didn’t look at my watch/cell phone very much this trip), we met (read: ran into) Michelle and Ricky. After they checked into their room, we made the trek to Ao Phrao. Ko Samet has a couple roads through the island but they are unpaved and are more like roller coasters. There are sawng-taos (two-rows)(AKA trucks with 2 benches on the back that work as taxis) that will take you to the various beaches and whatnot, but we decided this was a waste of money as it was only 2.5km to Ao Phrao. The walk was quite nice, despite the swamp/large puddle crossing on the way.

Ao Phrao was everything it was supposed to be – much quieter, fewer speed boats and fewer people. There were also more rocks, which means more fish. The water was so clear, you could watch them from above water. Michelle and Ricky are avid snorkelers/scuba divers, so they were able to name many of the fish they saw. The downside of Ao Phrao is the only restaurants are quite expensive, so we ventured back to the Eastern side to have lunch. I had a shake with coconut ice cream, coconut, and pineapple. It was SO GOOD.

Anna and I at Ao Phrao

 Ao Phrao

In the afternoon, we wandered south down the island, mostly on the beach. The farther south you go, the quieter it gets. We passed by some very nice, more natural beaches. In the evening, Anna and I walked back to Ao Phrao to watch the sunset – very beautiful. At night, tide goes out and we saw hundreds of little crabs digging their holes for the evening. It was really neat. After the sunset, we went back to the same restaurant as the previous night for dinner on the sand. I ordered stir fried chicken with cashew nuts (delicious) and we all shared an order of French fries. (Note: if you ask the students what they like to eat, they will answer: Pizza! French fries! Hamburger! A large part of me always wants to say, “Really? Pizza? Where do you find pizza in Phra Pradaeng? In case you didn’t know, pizza is relatively rare and expensive in Thailand. It’s because of the cheese, which is also rare and expensive). After dinner, we watched a passing fire show, bought a few beers, and drank them right on the beach (as far as I know, there are no “NO drinking in public” rules in Thailand. You can buy alcohol at 7-11s and drink them right on the street.). All in all, it was a lovely day.

Walking South

 Sunset at Ao Phrao

Fire!

On Sunday, we had crepes for breakfast – a popular food at the Ko Samet hotel restaurants. I had a the banana and chocolate option, and it was very tasty. Michelle and Ricky left after breakfast as they needed to go shopping before returning to their school the next morning. Anna and I once again walked to Ao Phrao for one last swim. I took a closer look at the rocks this time, and saw lots of fish. Some zebra-striped ones, some bright blue ones, and various others. In the afternoon, we took the ferry back to Ban Phe (30 mins), the mini-bus/van back to Bangkok (3 hours) and the taxi back to Phra Pradaeng (30 ish minutes). The only time we got lost this trip was in the taxi ride back to the apartment: the driver didn’t really know where to go, and drove past our road... Which took us a minute to figure out. But we made it home, safe and sound. And so ended our first adventure in Thailand!

Teach-ah Ca-te-reen!

First Day of Teaching

 Thai schools generally have a morning assembly to start the day. Oh, and if we didn't stand out already, all the other teachers had essentially matching outfits.

It finally arrived – I had my first day of teaching today!

On Monday, Anna and I went to the school for the first time. We were shown the English Teachers’ office, and given a tour of the school. There are 2 main buildings I believe (I haven’t seen everything yet), and I think they are divided into 7 total smaller buildings. The school has 2,200 students, from kindergarten/nursery school to grade 9. I will be teaching Prathom (Primary) 3 and 4, which is 8-10 years old. We also met our fellow English teachers – Thai and foreign. Within the foreign teachers, there are 2 Americans (Laura and Erin), 1 Canadian (Thomas – who is also from Ottawa. Crazy.) and 1 Brit (Wayne). 

The English Teachers' Room

 My new desk

Since Monday, we have been hanging around the school, preparing for our first days. And yes, I did get a chance to celebrate Halloween! Last night, Erin, Thomas, Laura, Anna and I all dressed up and went into Bangkok for a while. It seems that most Thais (at least in our neighbourhood) don’t celebrate Halloween. We received a LOT of weird looks, laughter, shouts, and so on. In Bangkok, several people took pictures of our costumes. We went to Silom soy 4, where some bars were decorated. There weren’t too many people in the Halloween spirit there, so we went to the famous Kao San Road (where the backpackers hang out). It was CRAZY – there were so many people! And definitely more people were dressed up! It was fun to wander around and look at the costumes and what the bars were doing.

Most costume items were found in a cupboard in the teachers' room

Anyway, so today I had my first classes. I had my two P4 classes in the morning and the two P3 classes in the afternoon. I decided that for today’s classes, I would have the students create name tags for their desks, so I can learn their names. We were told in orientation that Thai kids love to draw and colour, so I figured that would be a good activity to start with. In the class, I introduced myself, talked a bit about myself, asked the students if they had any questions (they were too scared to ask), and then explained the activity with the demo name tag I made for myself. All Thais have “nicknames”, which are usually short and often in English. Thai names tend to be quite long, so most Thais go by there nicknames on a day-to-day basis. Some examples of my students’ nicknames are Boss, Ink, Pare (very popular), Auto, Pooky, Palm, Rin (pronounced “Lin”), M, and ...Poo. I wish I could remember more, but alas, after meeting 120 kids in one day, my brain is a little fried. Sadly, I don’t have any kids named “Beer”, which is apparently pretty popular!

I would like to take this time to thank my parents for giving me a name that is universally hard to pronounce in ANY language other than English. Seriously. People who are not Anglophones really struggle with my name: French, German, Chinese, Japanese, Thai... I don’t really know what it is that makes it so hard to pronounce, but I think it’s all the consonants and how they interact. I spent a few minutes getting students to say my name. Most students call me something like “Ca-te-reen”. Someday I’ll have to show them my last name and/or whole name. 

“Teaching” itself went well. I mostly monitored the students while they were drawing. I must say, I have never seen so many rulers used to write in block letters, or to make sure one’s writing is level. We were told Thai students were very meticulous when it comes to drawing and colouring, so it wasn’t that surprising. Many of the students are very good little artists too! They definitely put my “drawings” to shame. Most of the kids looked like they were terrified of me, especially when I went to talk to one individually. I’m not sure if they understand or not, or are just scared/shy? But I’ll figure it out I’m sure. Many seemed pretty keen to show their work when they had finished, saying “Teech-ah! Teech-ah!”. I also saw a few anime-ish renditions of myself, which was amusing. 

With the help of  one of my fellow teachers (Laura), I was able to have lunch in the cafeteria. I had pork noodle soup, and it was very tasty. There seems to be an elaborate lunch system, and I had no idea what was going on. After lunch, I had the P3 kids. The first class was a bit noisier, but they had also just come back from lunch. But things still went smoothly enough. The class after was much quieter. I've already spotted some students that I think are going to be a... challenge when it comes to classroom management. I guess it's part of the job... I still think it's hilarious that I switched out of music eduction. And now I'm a teacher, at least for the next 5 months. Winning.

I’m teaching “intensive” level English classes, so I have a Thai teacher in the room with me. For one of my classes today, my co-teacher had to leave so I was by myself. But it went well. Tomorrow I’m going to do a more involved activity and hopefully get the students to start talking I'm trying to find that balance between my teachers respecting my authority (haha) and not being too afraid to talk.

PS: Every class starts with the following dialogue:

Students (standing): Good morning/afternoon Teacher!
Teacher: Good Morning! How are you?
Students" Fine, thank you. And you?
Teacher: Fine, thank you. You may sit down.

Except my students say it really loudly and slowly so it sounds like "GOOOOOOOOD MOOOOOOORNING TEEEEEEEEACH-AAAH" . There is a dialogue when I leave the class but I haven't been able to figure out what they are saying. It sounds like "HFUAOJDEAIHFEHAU. GOOSE-BYE!"