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Published: September 20th 2014
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Week 2? Check.
The CELTA course has gotten nothing but more intense over the past week. On the one hand, this made the 5 days fly by, but on the other - as days fly by - there's a faster climb necessary to keep up. I'm hanging in there. Like most people, I've run into challenges with the written assignments and am overwhelmed by the workload. But, I came here with a go-get-em attitude, and that adjustment is definitely paying off.
Work Hard, Play Hard
As a collective group, we are finding plenty of time to play. For one, we live at a resort with a pool. This leads to plenty of opportunities to relax outside, and hopefully talk about something other than class for awhile. On the weekends, we're also taking advantage of opportunities to get back into Chiang Mai and continue exploring. Last weekend, we found a street market and a neighborhood of expat bars. This weekend... well... another night market and a neighborhood of bars.
This is something I need to get better at. See, at "home" in China, my life consists of 5 days of working my butt off, followed by an evening
Reason #14876 why Thailand is awesome...
...this is perfectly acceptable attire for work today. or two at the local expat haunts - a couple of beers until bedtime. I have voiced to the new group of people that my intention has been to do something wildly different. Unfortunately, old habits die hard and it seems that the routine continues. Perhaps tomorrow or next weekend I will put on the adventurer hat and find myself a path to follow. I will say, however, the last couple of weekends have brought new experiences along with the old habits. For example, last night there was plenty of entertainment to be had at the bar of choice. First of all, we selected a "Lady Boy" bar where the waitstaff was made up entirely of... well... Lady Boys, for lack of a more appropriate phrase. For those who find themselves mind blown by this statement: Thailand is widely known for its freedoms of sexuality. There is a high level of acceptance for all kinds of sexual preference, orientation or identity. It's just... not an issue here, really. So, sitting at a bar, being waited on by "LadyBoys" and watching beefy male Muay Thai fighters beat the living daylights out of each other all at the same moment is... completely
Reason #18749 why Thailand is Awesome
...the flavors are as bright as the colors. normal. Right, so therein lies the second part of the adventure: we stayed around at said Lady Boy Bar (the actual name of it) long enough to maintain our front-row seats to a Muay Thai spar. This cluster of bars surrounds the entrance to the Chiang Mai Muay Thai training center. So, fights are a nightly entertainment ritual, somewhat-staged though they may be.
Anyway, so that's been a great taste of expat life in Chiang Mai this week. Next week, however, I'd really like to save my time and money for something a little more adventurous. We're surrounded predominantly by rice paddies and rice paddy workers, but something tells me that there are new experiences to be had in this area. Something must have drawn our hostess to build a shining resort out here in what appears to be the middle of nowhere. I'm on a mission to find out what that is.
For now, it's back to the books and homework, of which I still have loads to do. I'm keeping a pretty good pace that allows me to still feel like I'm on vacation... but I don't want to get too comfortable this afternoon. It's time
to get back to it. This week, my group of teacher-trainees is switching class levels. We've been teaching Intermediate learners and now we're switching to Elementary -- in other words, we're moving from a group of students with a solid grasp on English to a group with little to no English. A note on that: 50% of our time is spent in live teaching practice. This is a very hands-on course, and this is a live English training school. At the moment, the students have signed up specifically for this course wherein they know that teacher-trainees will be teaching them... but they are actual English language learners, and we're teaching them actual English language classes. Not a bad approach, actually... because nothing says, "you screwed that instruction up" more clearly than 8 blank faces staring back at you when you say, "ok, go."
Anyway, enough from me. Have a delightful weekend! More photos below and on Facebook. Enjoy 😊
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dave white\
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Jessi
Thanks again for the wonderful report. Take good care LOve Gramps and Grandma