Advertisement
Published: November 15th 2009
Hello Everyone!
I apologize for not posting an entry for some time. These last few weeks have been the most exciting/stressful weeks of my life. I have had to go from being a flexible teacher to a travel bum to a professional teacher with tons of responsibility and deadlines, all within the last month. I am still having a wonderful time here in Suratthani, but I am fast realizing that the “real world” is not as glamorous as it sounds when you’re a college student. Though, I have been experiencing some pretty great stuff.
The cultural richness of Thailand never ceases to amaze me. A few weeks ago I witness something called the “vegetarian festival.” It originated in Phuket (on the opposite coast from Suratthani) and is a Taoist celebration where “soldiers of God” pierce various parts of their bodies with large skewers and walk barefoot over hot charcoal. I witnesses Suratthani’s vegetarian festival while my housemate Paul and I were walking home one evening. All of a sudden our road was bombarded with drums and people parading down the street with huge wooden and metal skewers sticking out of their faces. Women were also dressed up all in
white and sat on paper mache lotus flowers on top of slow moving trucks. It seemed almost like a warped homecoming parade. At first we were horrified and felt like we were involved in some sort of strange ritual, but as we asked around, we realized that this is an annual celebration that takes place all over southern Thailand. Quite interesting actually.
Last weekend a bunch of us “farang” attended Loi Krathong, which literally translates to the “float raft.” It is know to the farang as the “festival of lights” and is a night to give offerings to Buddha or the original Siddhartha, depending on where you’re from and what you believe. People buy little floaty rafts and decorate them with flowers, candles and incense. It is also thought of as a kind of Thai valentines day. When you light the candles and incense and let the raft float away on the river, it not only symbolizes your devotion to Buddha, but also represents your undying love (if you let it go with a loved one). People also release spiritual lanterns which are very cool. We all ventured down to the pier which was full of locals and tourists
setting their rafts afloat. As the night progressed the sky became filled with tons of lanterns which was like a sky comparable to what I witnessed in Tanzania.
*A fun side note that I witnessed was that of how sly children can be. People often put money in their little floaty rafts as another offering to Buddha. As I explored the river further down I saw a group of little boys pulling in all the rafts that people had set a float and tear them apart looking for the money that people had hidden inside. It completely destroyed the symbolic significance of the festival, but I had to laugh at the slyness of the little trouble makers.
Those were the two main events that happened in Surat these last few weeks. Other than that I’ve just been trying to get to know Surat better. I’ve been figuring out good places to eat and getting to know the local vendors in my area. I’m constantly blown away by how sweet everyone is here. All I have to do is smile at someone to get a big smile back. I did get a motor bike this week, which makes getting
around town much easier. I can now go grocery shopping and get to class when I want and leave when I want. It adds an element of freedom that is nice when you want to just explore.
There is a huge night market in town where you can get the yummiest Thai food EVER and there is also a fantastic day market in town where you can get fresh vegetables and meat and fruit, which I frequent when I want to cook my own dinner. I’ve been on a curry rice kick lately. My spice tolerance is going up, though my digestive system still has yet to catch up. A few weeks ago I suffered from traveler’s stomach…NOT FUN!!!! It was after a Halloween celebration. A bunch of us (farang teachers) went to a place called Kanom (about 45 minutes outside of Surat) and had a fun Halloween party on the beach and stayed the night. I wore a Hawaiian shirt and my kickboxing wraps and went as…”Hawaiian Punch”….I know pretty awesome right? Though it was a fun night, we all wound up with traveler’s stomach after eating the food at the hotel we were staying at. A very
unfortunately 4 days went by after that. However, I got better just as the stress hit.
That next week all of us new teachers (all the old teachers left this week) had training. This meant 12 hour days for me. I was in training everyday from 9am-4pm, then had to observe the teachers I am taking over for until 7pm. Then this last week I began teaching full time completely on my own. I have to say that I have a new found respect and admiration for teachers. I have never been so stressed and exhausted in my entire life…not even in college, not while traveling. Being responsible for children is hard work, as my parents have been waiting for me to find out. It’s a great reminder that I’m SOOOO not ready to have children!
I teach two classes at a public high school called Suratpittaya. I work with one of my housemates, Paul, and two other farang teachers that are employed by our private language school. I have my own desk with a name tag and everything. My students are the equivalent of 8th graders and remind me every day of their age. One class is
great, very respectful and intelligent and love the activities I have for them. The other class however, is a nightmare. We all have to teach them and have decided to start taking their lunch minutes away every time they misbehave. It seems to be the only thing that keeps them focused and in line. I hate disciplining students though so I’ve agreed to do a good cop/bad cop routine with one of my fellow teachers. I will take the lunch minutes away and he’ll sit and glare at them while they sit there during their lunch time…it works well.
I also teach two classes at the private language school that I’m contracted with. It is an after school program that provides an English learning environment for all ages. I teach a class of five year olds and a class of 8 year olds. My 8 year olds are wonderful. They love to learn and have so much fun with all the activities I plan for them. It’s a phonics class so we work a lot on pronunciation of different sounds in the English language. There are quite a few sounds that are very difficult for Thai speakers to pronounce.
“L’s” & “R’s” are especially difficult.
My 5 year olds however are a bit too young to really follow any sort of lesson plan. This is my most challenging class. I’ve never taught children this young and haven’t quite gotten used to the fact that they have no attention span whatsoever. I spend most of my time trying to get them to stay in their seats, singing songs, and cleaning up after them. We do a lot of crafts, a lot of coloring and games. I’ve been so used to making detailed lesson plans for teenagers and adults and now it’s hard to wrap my head around the fact that my lesson plans for this class consist of singing songs for 15 minutes, coloring for 20 minutes and playing games for another 20 minutes. Though, it’s English exposure that I’m after for this class…not specific target language.
My weekends have been taken up by lesson planning, filling out progress reports and grading. Again I ask, when did I become an adult with a real job and real responsibility?! I’m not sure how I feel about this!!! Hopefully this next week will be a bit easier now that I
have a game plan. I keep waiting for that “Dead Poet’s Society” moment with my classes, but I think it’s going to be a while before I get there. Stay tuned for how things go this next week.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.085s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 12; qc: 58; dbt: 0.0486s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
13347 529300311091 32000200 31601817 6737074 n
anonymous
non-member comment
Wow! What an opportunity for you! See, I always knew you'd be a great teacher! Hang in there...we all still have our moments with classes that misbehave, don't do homework, won't stay in their seats...and these are high school kids! :>) It's so great to hear of the travel adventures as well as your experiences at school. I hope you get to meet the kids/teachers from Supan Buri that came to visit us. They are great people. And you're right about smiling...they smiled all the time! I guess that's a great way to look at the world. The lantern festival must have been incredible to see. The picture itself is amazing. Take care. Keep posting. I love to read of all your adventures.