eat it

10/6/2009
Khun chan mak

Another day here in Lop Buri. All I can say is TGIF. This has been one of the longest, most wearing weeks I have had in awhile! First week of teaching huh…Well I think I have an extremely hard school. I have talked to some of my friends in other parts of Thailand and yes they have LOUD, rambunctious kids…but they don’t have long classes or don’t have to be so professional. We are in an office of ALL women who honestly hate us.

10/10/2009

Okkk sooo I skipped a few days and am jumping around a bit. I am a little disheveled lately!! I am overwhelmed with everything I am doing for school. Now back at home I don’t think this would be a challenging job..BUT the fact is, at home…the kids would speak fluent English, the classes would be small, the politics in the office with the bitch ass ladies who only speak Thai, and tell Elise that she is weird for her hair color, and ask her “Do you like black” Well you ho, YES she wears black because it is 90 degrees outside and she is sweating through her teeth. Its not our fault you can wear table cloths as your dresses and not sweat. But besides those few things everything would be easy! Thus far, the classes this week have been better. I am doing a “Feelings” lesson. So I do a few different fun things. The first I ask them how they would feel if……Then I write someone said they loved you. They have to pick out of the emotions/feelings and tell them to me. I also have a worksheet for them. On this worksheet they have fill it out in complete sentences. So the first one would say, 1. I am proud of…… 2. I dreamt of..Well the I dreamt of, the boys fill in “Teacher” or “Sex” Boys don’t change anywhere you go. Sex is on the mind wherever you go in the world. Then I had one question that said …………………………makes me sad. A couple of the students (girls) I have put…boyfriends…Wow I told them to get rid of them and pointed at the door! I said boyfriends should make you happy. Damn boys, always breaking hearts! So for the most part, everyone is paying attention to me and actually participating. I did have about 15 boys leave one of my classes, at first I felt as if I did something wrong, but the other teachers here told me it happens and truly there is nothing you can do about it.

So everyday here at Pibul (my school) I eat at the teacher canteen, usually with the other new teacher Kevin. I am truly thankful to have Elise and Kevin here. I feel like we are all going through the same thing. We have all been overwhelmed at some point, all have felt out of places, and all agree on the damn politics in this “English Office” All three of us have found a couple of places to work out everyday after school. ONCE AGAIN, my stomach has not been up to par and I have been absent from exercising. I have decided it is the oil or some seasoning that all the Thai places use. I can’t seem to kick this bug in my stomach. I mean cmon, this was even going on in Phuket! The last thing any student wants is a teacher that needs to leave the classroom because their stomach “hurts” But today after school I am going for a nice little run. I can now officially say I am feeling a bit more at home. I am starting to feel like people are respecting us (or at least accepting us) in their community. Now that we have a place to workout, we know some places to eat, and have a few to hang out with..everything is getting better. I think for a few days I was feeling in a rut. The people we spent the last 5 weeks with all left, we come to LopBuri…have to dress like nuns…literally! We have to cover our shoulders, knees everywhere we go. Elise and I bought wine in a store and this is no joke, we had people stop and stare and look in our basket like we were some kind of horrible people who just made the biggest sin in the history of Lop Buri. Teachers here (especially women) do not drink, smoke, wear tank tops…NOTHING! So I have had to be extremely cautious on everything I do. It is a very sexist area. I am sure Thailand is like this everywhere, but that is why we work with so many males here. They don’t hire back the female teachers (English) who were out in public caught drinking. I mean even just a beer. So at times Elise and I sit in our rooms and have a beer or a glass of wine because we can’t go out in public, it is ludicrous.

My next weeks lesson is going to be on body parts. I am sure the boys will be the same way with that, and do as they did before and twisted their nipples and said MAMA to me…hmm I guess we will see….This weekend I am trying to get out of Lop Buri and go to Khorat. This is a provience that is north east of us. There is suppose to be some kind of boat festival that sounds fun. Plus some of the group in Phuket is going and it would be thrilling to see some of them. But…no money…no honey….That is the saying again they use here.

So lets see…my diet has been consisting of…(EVERYDAY) …Breakfast=yogurt/banana. Lunch=fried rice or Peanut butter and honey sandwich. Dinner=Peanut Butter and Honey sandwich or cheese and crackers. And…the day I finally eat out, I wake up mid night sick. GREAT! I love Peanut Butter…..mmmmm

So we found out for new years we are for sure going to LAOS….do some tubing down the river, a little drinking! We will all be going with the Phuket group! Then there is my birthday, plus my friend Liz (12th) and Felix (16th) all meeting up in Bangkok. BUT most importantly my best friend Shannon just bought her ticket to come see me!!! She arrives November 27th and leaves December 6th. ALL which I have off of school..So we are going to hit up Bangkok, and BEACH (Phuket) I can’t wait. So at first I was a little depressed about Christmas. But the group here I think will all make it exiting. We are going to find a stove and each cook an individual dish. I am going to make deviled eggs!!! (ohhh mom I will miss yours!!) Then we will have secret santas, I will then bring a xmas tree I found at BiG C (walmart) and I am going to bring in to EACH of my classes. I will then have the students write 5 things they want in their stalking. I will have them each design a stalking as well. THEN we are also having a teacher play. We will all dress up as Santa’s or something and sing! Oh dear god! What a sight to see……
So pretty much I can say I am enthusiastic about December!!! I also feel so much better about my lessons! I am finally nailing it. OK NOT nailing but getting a little more sufficient, well except for my sweat dripping down my feet..

ONE last story..today…first class….UGH! Talk about a mess as a teacher…I had just bought some little heels for school..Yeah nice little black heels I only wore two days. I start teaching and while I am walking I start to feel and hear a flop flop…I look down, along with me the whole class looks down. They all start laughing. The heel is falling off my shoes. So I start laughing but precede to teach. Well it got to bad so I just ripped off the bottom. But then I couldn’t teach in one heel and one flat, so I took off my shoes….Well since the classes are outside and it reaches about 90 degrees each day, I sweat…a LOT. So after that ordeal one of the students looks at me and says “Teacher, Teacher” and she points at my face. She gave me a mirror and I have black marker all over my face. After erasing the board, my hands get dirty and since I wipe my sweat away from my face it got on me. Sooo the whole class starts laughing again. THEN I turn the fans on to go faster, and my papers go everywhere. I look at the students and I said “Teacher is having a badddd day!!!” Ha It was so funny. I saw that particular class at the end of the day while I was walking home, and they all turned around and just started staring at my shoes. I started laughing!!

This week just keeps getting more interesting!!! So I guess we don’t have school on Friday??? Haha we will see!! Three day week please!

Until next time!!
I am trying to pictures but it is impossible!! UGH!

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Part of trip: Oh that Thailand we go!

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