Could it be that I might be getting the hang of this?

Alrighty, last I left it, I was still recovering from the world's worst first day and looking forward to the weekend. And what a weekend it was. I've never been a big blowing off steam kind of person. For me, the best way to heal from exhausting experiences isn't to go out and go crazy. It's to do as little as possible, preferably pool-side.

And go to the pool I did. There's a pretty nice hotel about two blocks from my apartment building and for 50 baht (a bit under 2 dollars) you can use their pool for as long as you want. Jenny - my fellow teacher who was placed at a different school and who had an equally traumatizing experience - and I had some serious lesson planning to do for the upcoming week. We decided the best way to do that was to take advantage of the good weather and two full days of nothing else to do (for the first time since landing in Bangkok) to figure out a game plan.

It turns out that Jenny and I, brilliant alone, are geniuses together. Not only did we make some general teaching breakthroughs (ex: "Maybe, if we use the books as a guideline, we might actually know what to teach!) but we also planned our lessons for our 1's and 2's. Jenny, having a normal teaching schedule, only teaches 1's and 2's, so she was done. I still had three more lessons to plan, but I was riding high from my success and I still had all of Sunday.

As luck, fate, and the grace of angels and the gods of teachers would have it, I also have fantastic resources, also known as the other English teachers who live on my floor. Katie (because there can never be one) and Brittany teach at Jenny's school and were there last semester. Katie teaches 5 and 6 and Brittany has 3 and 4. My reaction after learning this was, "Hey, someone who's done this and survived! Maybe they can teach me that trick." And, not only are they teaching me, they also provide me with tips, lesson plans, and reassurance that it does get better and also no, it's not just me, Thai students do some strange things.

All of which helps immensely. What also helps is that, apparently, once I got past the initial (and massive) lesson planning block, it's been getting easier. I use some past lesson plans, adapt a few, and plan the rest myself (or in the case of my 1's and 2's, with Jenny). It's a lot more manageable than it seemed at first. And, with my first full week finished, I can say that it was a success. At first, I considered the electricity that kept going out and classes that rarely started on time because the students are always late as snares, but I quickly learned that these things will be part of my routine. The only truly odd thing that happened at school last week was my meeting with the principal. My coordinator grabbed me as I was on my way to make copies and told me it was time to meet him. I was pretty taken aback, but since I was being dragged into his office (with a brief stop to take off my shoes) there wasn't really anything I could say about it. The whole meeting took five minutes and all five of those minutes were weird. The principal doesn't speak English and I haven't spontaneously learned Thai in the last three weeks, so he talked to my coordinator. And looked at my coordinator. And in no way acknowledged my presence, other than to point at me. I didn't contribute anything, just sat and enjoyed the air-conditioning. I found out later that the only thing he had to say to me was that I couldn't use my backpack anymore (my choice of bag since I've been carting a ton of books home to catch up on the years of training I didn't receive) because it made me look like a student. As a point of fact, the students don't have backpacks. They have leather satchels. And also, they are Thai. Neither of these things apply to me. So now I have a new bag.

And now, moving on to my new home. The first way I can think of to describe it, at least aesthetically, is as a slightly rundown beach town, with a lot more motorbikes and some farm animals thrown in. As I write, there is a rooster crowing somewhere outside my window. Not having spent much time in the vicinity of farm fowl, I'd always thought they cock-a-doodled at dawn. Myth disproved.

Suphanburi is fairly quiet, especially when compared to Bangkok, although I live in one of the noisier parts. I live right around the corner from a secondary school (where the other teachers are) and in the morning and afternoon the whole block is packed with students, street vendors, and traffic. Plus, the construction, which follows no schedule I've been able to pin down.

There isn't a whole lot to the town, as far as I can tell anyway, which is fine. I'm dealing with so many new things and Thailand, even small, quiet Suphanburi, is so different, that I don't need a lot of amazing sights and outings. Going to a food stall and figuring out how to order dinner is adventure enough for now. When I need more, I can take a quick trip to Bangkok, which I did this past weekend and will go into later.

Street vendors are a major part of the Thailand experience. Thailand, especially outside of Bangkok doesn't often do restaurants in the way we think of it. They have them, of course, but most people go to food stalls along the street, or the slightly bigger outdoor vendors, which sometimes have a place inside where you can sit as well. You usually eat there, at the tables they have next to the stall or on the curb if there isn't anywhere to sit. Thais don't do a lot of eating and running. The food is always cheap (on average, I spend around 2 dollars a day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner) and always delicious. I'm learning the art of adding the various spices (sugar, chili powder, fish oil, and vinegar) and it is an art. They don't all taste good on everything and the balance has to be just right.

And, speaking of food, I think I'll go get some dinner. I can now say five dished without stuttering and my tolerance and surprisingly, my appreciation, for spicy food gets higher every day. Later, more on my trip to Bangkok and the strange things that are rapidly becoming part of my normal day.

Now class, pay attention.

I suppose I can officially call myself a teacher now. Not in the way that I have an appropriate degree, experience, or any idea what I'm doing, but it's my actual job description. That counts for something, right? I've been at school for almost a week, so I'll break it into days.

Wed: It was my first full day in Suphanburi and luckily I didn't have to teach. the plan was to sleep in, but the construction got me up early and there was no point trying to sleep through a giant banging machine (real name unkown) that makes my bed jump - just a little, but still, it jumps. Wattana, my coordinator and thai mother/keeper of the crazy Westerner, picked me up before noon to take me to school and show me around.

The school is called Kanchanapisek. There's actually at least four more syllables, but that's what everyone calls it and I can barely pronounce that. It's huge and beautiful and surrounded by rice fields. I litterally can see people pick rice on my way home. It's about a ten minute drive from my apartment, so the school van (Thailand mostly uses vans instead of buses) picks me up and takes me home. I could tell right away that finding my way around would be more than a bit difficult, but (thankfully) I found out I teach 90% of my classes in the same room and - this is key - that roomis air conditioned. They put me with a lot of advanced classes and - their their words, not mine - the smart kids get air conditioning as a reward for being better learners.

Thurs: My first day of teaching. I got up with plenty of time (a trend I'm sure will not last) and thought about panicking, but decided it was too early. I got dressed instead, in heels I already knew I would regret. But almost all of the Thai teachers wear them and as the Thais do, so shall I. After I left the building, I realized I wasn't really clear on where I'm getting picked up or what my van looks like. I live right next to another school so while I wandered back and forth, hoping someone would shout "Teacher, get in" I had hundreds of uniformed students staring and giggling at me. I have it on good authority that the staring and giggling will not go away and that I will not get used ot it. Finally, I saw a promising vehicle and said the school's name to the driver. He nodded, looked confused, but let me in. I successfully made it to school, only to find out that I took the wrong van and my van's driver called Wattana, who in turn got everyone worried about me. Not the greatest start. Then, I found out that I had five classes that day, and the first three were right away, back-to-back. Nothing like getting throgn into the deep end.

My classes that day probably could have been worse, but if they had I think I would have quit right then and jumped on a plane home. Five minutes into the first class, I realized I should have just said "screw the heels, the Thais are crazy anyway". My lesson plan was less than stellar. It's hard to prepare when you have no idea who you're teaching until the day before. And that still doesn't help determine skill level. Luckily, the students had no idea. They consider teachers in general to be pretty infallible, and Westerners? Every word we grace them with is pure gold.

The first two classes were not in my main room, so they had a computer and projector system instead of a white board. Fancy, but I didn't know how to use it, although it didn't matter because they weren't working anyway. So the classrooms had to get switched. And on top of everything, changing climates and pretty much my entire lifestyle finally caught up with me and I had a massive cold. But I did learn something useful: it's not the sun you need to watch out for, but the humidity. By my third class (in a row) I was swaying on my feet and figured out that although I'd been sipping water all day, I need to be gulping it. Constantly pouring sweat tends to dehydrate one.

By the end of the day, I was more exhausted than I've been in a long time (26 hour plane ride included), I was forcing myself not to limp, and the heat, humidity, and illness had not me the prettiest person at school. I still had to figure out a way to improve the lesson plans for tomorrow, but I couldn't get my brain to work. It was time to go home and die - or, at the very least, shower.

Fri: I can't fully explain how much better this day was. I woke up illness free, learned from my unfortunate shoe decision and wore flats, and found the right van without any trouble. Hooray! I only had three classes that day and, even though I didn't do any work the night before on the lesson, somehow I managed to wing it and things were better. I had a long talk with Wattana about all the levels I'm teaching, which is the primary source of my stress. Just about every teacher in school, in most Thai schools, teaches one or two grades. Kanchanapisek goes from 7th to 12th, although they call it 1 to 6. I teach all of 1 (which is 11 classes), three classes in 2, one 3, one 4, and four in 6. And they all have 50 or more students in each class. It's a massive amount of prep and while they might think I'm some sort of language god because I'm a native English speaker, I'm not even close to being a qualified teacher. I asked Wattana if I could replace my 3 and 4 classes with ones from the other levels, which would make my load much more manageable. We're giving it a week and I don't know how likely a schedule change is, but at least I told her right away that I wasn't sure I could handle it.

This is already a monster post, so I'll cut off here. Don't worry, things go way up from this point. Later, my weekend, my apartment building mates and fellow English teachers, and life so far in Suphanburi.

Nit noi: Little bit. As in, "a little bit spicy". I don't use it much, because they don't listen anyway.

Consider me orientated

I don't know if it was orientation or just life here in general, but time has been going pretty slowly so far. I've been here just over a week, but it feels like at least double that time. I spent a lot of that time in "class"; teacher training, basic Thai language lessons (I'm pretty much fluent already), and learning tips for how not to die in Thailand. So far everyone is still alive, so I'd say the lessons were a success.

During the nights we tried to figure out the Skytrain and the subway, which were shockingly clean. We very clearly weren't sure where we were going, so a couple people volunteered directions. We were pretty sure the directions were wrong, but who wants to be the foreigner who tells the local they don't know what they're talking about? No one wants to be that person. Although, I kind of wish I were, because it turns out they were absolutely wrong and it added almost an hour to our travel time. But no use getting angry or frustrated. That gets you nowhere fast in Thailand. Mai pen rai.

It's pretty hard to miss the start of the rainy season here. Especially when it wakes up in the middle of the night with the loudest thunder I have ever heard in my life. I was so disoriented, for a second I thought it was an explosion and I thought "great, after telling everyone over and over that the violence in Thailand isn't that bad and it's safer than home, I'm going to die in my hotel". I don't know how people deal with the rain here. After twenty minutes, all the streets were flooded. Also, the hotel lobby. I'm going to need some rain boots.

Sunday, we left for Kanchanaburi, which is the province west of Bangkok that borders Burma/Myanmar. K-buri (I have a feeling I'll be abbreviating a lot these next few months) was beyond excellent. It's basically jungle everywhere and then some towns here and there. Monday was the best day of orientation. In one day we went rode elephants (our elephant trainer found out we were American and started singing Jingle Bells), went bamboo rafting down the River Kwae (although it was hot so we jumped off and swam next to the raft for most if it), visited an orphanage in the jungle that's set up as a village with teachers and staff workers acting as parents, and walked over the Death Bridge over the River Kwae. Dinner was on a barge, which was relaxing until they started blasting the extremely random music: Thai karaoke versions of Hotel California and Lady in Red; Dido, the original version. This is pretty representative of "American" music in Thailand.

Now I'm in Suphanburi (Soo-PAHN bur-ee), listening the construction work going on outside of my apartment building. It's loud and shakes the room, but if Dickinson did nothing else, it prepared me for this situation. I have plenty of experience living with construction. Noise aside, my place is nice. It' s more dorm style than an apartment, but it's not like I would use a kitchen if I had it. I also am the only one on the floor with hot water because the girl last semester splurged to have it installed. My I should let people use my shower and charge for it.

Now that I'm settled, I'll start posting pictures. But first, unpacking.

mai pen rai: No problem - Thais use a lot. You don't let anyone know if you're bothered or burdened
mahout: elephant trainer - The ones where we went lived together in a village. The children gave us flowers and held our hands

Sawatdee ka!

So, I've arrived in Bangkok and - except for having to flat out run from my first flight to the second when I heard them call my name for final boarding - everything went suspiciously smoothly. The whole trip went by faster than I thought it would, I met up with someone else in the program so I had a cab buddy, and we made it the hotel without any problems. I was waiting for something to go wrong.

We found another program member at the hotel and we only managed a couple hours of sleep before we got up for the free breakfast at the hotel (because, really, sleep or free food?). And then it was time to look around the neighborhood. Bangkok is a little overwhelming, smell-wise. There's a lot smog and pollution, but underneath that are a lot of yummy food smells from the many (many) vendors along the sidewalks. And still things went smoothly. The heat wasn't too bad, I successfully said hello and thank you in Thai (the woman at the register was probably humoring me but I like to pretend), and although I almost got run over by an old woman an a motorbike, I didn't.

And then it happened. The plan was to not sleep and tough it out until the night. But since we were tired, we decided to relax for a bit - read, watch T.V. Nine hours later, we realized there's no beating jet lag. Now it's around midnight, we're wide awake and about to try out vendor food for the first time. And then after, hopefully trying catch some sleep.

Thai phrases:
Sawatdee ka (khrap, for male speakers)/ Hello
Khawp khun ka/khrap / Thank you

Price of a 1.5 liter bottle of water: 12 baht/33 cents