For lack of a better name for this blog, I chose this one. Thursday was a national holiday in Thailand so there were no classes; I found out Wednesday evening. So I found myself ecstatic and happy as a clam for my first day off. Went to a Thai barbeque with one of the head english teachers at my school and two other teachers from another school right next to ours. Me and three older men. It was kinda like hanging out with my Dad and his buds... but not really quite as entertaining. I've come to find out that the Province, Suphan buri, that I live/work in isn't at all extrememly touristy, so any and almost all white people you see here are working and/or teaching, and apparently most of them are older men. By older I don't necessarily mean 40s or 50s like my father, I just haven't come across any other females or 20 somethings. I do work with one man whom I would guess to be around 30 that is from Minnesota. Everyone is extremely friendly, and we actually were discussing over dinner techniques for teaching younger children. Anyway, after dinner with the men, I came home to my apartment and looked online for somewhere to explore the next day. I decided on Chai nat - seemed like a nearby place that is still part of my province (i think) and there was a very interesting looking lake and wildlife extension center that I realllllly wanted to see. Finalized. That was my plan.
Skyped with the madre in the morning and took off for Chai nat, only to find that the tuk tuk was going to charge me 1,000 baht (YEAH, RIGHT!) so I told him to take me to the bus station. I figured I should learn now how to use the bus station anyway. On the way, the driver dropped the price to take me there himself down to 700 baht. Got to the bus station, where again no one spoke english, and jumped on the next bus to Chai nat for 60 baht. What a bargain, eh? Needless to say, I had NO idea when to get off as the buses stop about 34 times between the two places... I saw the lake area that I wanted to go to and got off a few stops after... was warned by the thai bus worker to come back on the bus and I tried to tell him that I just wanted to get off here (it looked pretty lively, and I didn't want to get too far from my intended destination). The bus ride was great. Such a beautiful landscape here - I've heard that about Supan buri but haven't had the chance to experience it. It pretty much is the academic capital of Thailand. We passed so many universities, research centers (totally thought of you, Uncly Jerry, when we passed that) and completely open green fields and rolling hills. I do not, however have any pictures. The bus was wild. I felt like I was back in the 70s riding on a Greatful Dead groupie bus. Fans on the ceiling, mirrors everywhere, obnoxiously colored, etc. I noticed that all the windows, although open, had serious cracks in them. I was assuming that the bumpy ride might have caused them to slam shut at some point so I was too scared to extend my arms past the bus interior. My sentiments were echoed when the bus worker collecting fares came on and only had one arm. I'm not saying it was a bus incident per se, but hey, I wasn't about to head to the Thai hospital just to send you freaks some likely blurry pictures of landscape you can just google.
Which brings me to Pinky. Sitting in front of me were what I assumed to be a thai high school couple. They got pretty comfy during the bus trip. A woman (there is always a good samaritan in this part of the world to help out helpless tourists like myself) talked to them in thai and told them I needed to get off at Cha nat. I was, however, unaware of this conversation. Ten minutes later Pinky jumps off the bus and when he comes back he brings me a Pepsi - I was shocked. He then asked me my name.. and told me his, which I will now be referring to as he/she. I'm not saying thai men are by any means masculine like our beefy American boys, but sometimes woman just have features, such as teeth, that are quite unique in presenting themselves as very feminine. Pinky had femmy teeth. And he/she was much smaller than his/her 'partner' with a much higher voice (I should not base judgment on tone of voice because we all know I'm a bit deeper than most girlies). It was an interesting and up close and personal engagement with a ladyboy. I figured I could just take the bus all the way home because that was about enough enjoyment for one day in Thailand alone, but I got off anyway... The way I see it, there shouldn't be a problem if some boy wants to dress like a female, play with his long and luxurious hair, or even find love with a female classmate. I mean, half of the marriages in the world don't even work out, probably weren't even meant to be. Love, in the end, will not, despite what they tell you, conquer all... so whatever works. Life isn't on paper, and if it were it would be much less boring. I would, perhaps, have less panic attacks when making small decisions because they would be made for me, but I'd even prefer my freak out sessions to bounded copy of my predetermined life.
MY SCHEDULE:
Monday/Friday:
8:30 Kindergarten 2-2
9:50 Kindergarten 2-1
10:50 Kindergarten 3-2
11:40 Lunch (yessssss)
1:00 Kindergarten 3-1
2:00 Primary 6-1
Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday
8:50 Primary 6-1
9:50 Kindergarten 2-1
10:50 Kindergarten 3-2
11:40 Lunch (yessssss)
1:00 Kindergarten 3-1
2:00 Kindergarten 2-2
Holy monkey balls. Teaching Kindergarten is a trip! The first day was chaos. Laura = not prepared for kids of this literacy level in 100 degree weather. Thank god some of the classrooms were air conditioned. I literally didn't have any direction and was only told that the first week I should get to know the kids, etc. Well, the name game doesn't work if they don't know their own names (I actually had a 6th grader today tell me he doesn't know how to spell his last name?!). I ended up trying to repeat a lesson from our training that I had to do about the jungle. I acted out as many animals as I could (elephant [a noise and action that I am not at all timid to say I have mastered/perfected], monkey, frog, cat, lion, snake, etc). The K classes laughed so hard at my immaturity as their new english teacher. I only have about 25 kid in each of my four classes of Kindergarten, which is much smaller than most people (at least that is what we were told) and around 16 kids in my 6th grade class - wayyyy small, which is nice. I can't imagine having 30 or 40 Kindergarteners in one room and trying to do ANYTHING. After my first day I came home and passed out for a few hours - my legs are literally burning. So sore. I feel like I used after high school track practices. Yes, Hensler, I just compared teaching K to your 2.5 hour conditioning drills. I was going to look for a gym in the area but I'm thinking I'll never make it seeing how active I have to be every day. I do run some mornings and have my therapy band to do my weight stuff and do quite a bit of yoga in my room (I used to do it on the beach but now I'm no longer withing walking distance unfortunately).
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