Exercise with Elephants

I found this big guy following me on my run one evening.

Only in Thailand...

What's in a Nickname?

You might not know this about me, but growing up, I had a nickname. Kimmy. As a kid, I think a nickname is appropriate because you're little and it's cute. However, like most American nicknames, that pretty much died out by about 8th grade. Now, the only people who still occasionally call me by my nickname are people I've known my entire life and it still feels a little strange. I don't really consider Kim to be a nickname but rather just a shortened version of my longer name Kimberly.

Like most people, Thais have a first name and last name, nothing special about that. But what's unusual is that they very rarely use their official names. If you ask any Thai person their real name, you'll immediately understand why everyone goes by a nickname (or in Thai, their chue len which translates to play name). The reason is quite simple: Thai names are generally very long, complicated, and difficult to pronounce (especially for me) so instead, everyone, and I mean everyone has a nickname. And in my English classes, we only go by nicknames. I love them.

Before you judge, know that just like your own name, all Thai nicknames are carefully selected and have a meaning or a reason behind them. I've learned most Thai people get their nicknames shortly after birth as infants, given to them by their parents and used for the rest of their lives. I also know a few Thai people who have two different nicknames. One that their parents call them and one that their friends call them. However, it's much more common to just have one.

Sometimes the nickname resembles something about their personality when they were a baby (for example, "Lek" means small in Thai), sometimes it is a shortened version of their Thai name (for example, if your first name is Jiraporn then your nickname is probably Porn), sometimes it's a Thai word (for example, "Prik" meaning chili, "Poo" meaning crab, or "Moo" meaning pork), but most commonly it's just a seemingly random English word that was in some way meaningful to the parents. I've also heard that these English word nicknames are becoming the more trendy names.

After looking through my class rosters, I composed a list of some of the most common nicknames as well as my favorites. I divided them into some noticeable categories.

Food: Donut, Cake, Cream, Caramel, Oat, Jam, Noodle, Pancake, Fork, Yam, Olive, Cookies, Pear, Apple, Cucumber, Moo (Thai for pork), Nut, and Mint. I actually remember Gwyneth Palthrow got a lot of crap for naming her daughter Apple. If she comes to Thailand, she'll fit right in!

Drinks: Beer, Pepsi, Nam (Thai for water), Milk, Fanta, Pop, Ice, Goon (my Aussie friends will appreciate this one).

Leisure activities: Golf, Game, Ball, Cartoon, Art, Film, Ping Pong, Music, Guitar, Bowling, Book

Transportation: Benz (as in Mercedes Benz), Boat, Bus

Animals: Bird, Deer, Pet, Bee, Kitten, Poo (Thai for crab),

Body: Arm, Eye, Palm, Bum, Mind

Technology: Nokia (like the phone), Amp

Colors: Blue, Champoo (Thai for pink)

Months: May, June (or Joon)

Adjectives: New, Smart, Nice, Best

Numbers: Nine, Seven (my Seinfeld fanatic friends with appreciate this one).

Days of the week: Sunday

Sounds: Bim, Bam, Boom (lol)

Terms of Endearment: Babe, Love, Hun

Verbs: Spin, Stop, Get, Play

Letters: M, F, O, A

Others: Porn, Pee, Ew, Nun, Boss, King, Kid, It, Oak, Tip, Top, Tap, Sai (sand in Thai), Aunty, Dream, Note, Stamp, Oil, Oak, First, Joker, Pun, Fern, Fook, Bank, Earth, Gift, Gun, Jerk, Bell, Bow, Yo, YoYa, Ink.

But my all-time favorite nickname... Name!

Now, keep in mind that I have over 600 students with these types of nicknames. It's difficult. But I'm actively trying to learn them and the students always light up when they see I've remembered their name.

"Good morning, Donut!"
"How are you today, Ping Pong and Pancake?"
"Very good job, Jerk!"
"Gun, can you share your dictionary with Love?"
"Book, where's your notebook?"

Common things that come out of my mouth everyday. 

I know, I know, some these sound absolutely ridiculous (to a Western ear), but these are 100% honestly my students names. I can't make this stuff up. Here's some of my class rosters as proof!

And as random and unique as they may sound, after comparing with English teachers at other schools, these are all just the norm. I remember we all came back from school the first day thinking that our students had the most unique names to only find out that everyone else had students with the exact same ones. In one class, I have 5 boys named Oat and 3 girls named Pop. It reminds me how I use to have 5 boys named Matt and 3 girls named Ashley in my class in elementary school. 

However, we can sit here all day and laugh over how some Thai nicknames (like Porn, Prik, and Poo) translate into English, but you have to understand that it also works the other way around. For example, the name Jim translates to Thai as a slang word for a female body part (if you know what I mean...). I'm sure there's Thai's sitting around wondering what parents in America were possibly thinking naming their poor son Jim. 

This isn't one of my own students, but there's a boy at my school in M4 named (excuse my language) Fuck Fang. I'm serious. He's known around school as being a computer whiz, so he's constantly in our office fixing our computer. Our printer breaks quite often, so "Damn it! Where's Fuck Fang?" is a common question heard around the office. 

Also, sometimes the way that parents tell their kids to spell their nickname isn't exactly how we would probably spell it. I have a student who wrote on his name tag "Gay." "How do you say your nickname?" I asked. "Guy" he responded. Ohhhhh. Good thing I asked. Also, sometimes even though the student's nicknames are a seemingly easier version of their name, I still can't pronounce them correctly and the kids get quite the kick out of watching me try. For example, there's a common nickname "Toey" which I just cannot for the life of me pronounce correctly.

However, sometimes these nicknames come up in daily interactions that are secretly funny to only me. For example, yesterday, I randomly called on two students to come to the front of the class to perform their role play dialogue. "Okay, Poo and Pee can you please stand up." Once I realized what I had said, I just stopped and politely chuckled to myself. Sometimes, Jeff and I take the same train home as one of his students, Best. Every time we see him, Jeff makes it a special point to tell me, "That kid Best is seriously the best." I also have a student named Boss and whenever he asks for something, I secretly want to respond, "You got it, Boss."

There is no shortage of whimsical Thai nicknames. I find these nicknames to be so fun and endearing, and just one more reason to smile here everyday. Maybe I should have a Thai nickname. Any suggestions?

Celebrity Status

Sometimes when I’m at work, I forget if I’m a teacher or a celebrity.

If you know me well, you know that I’m not one to ask for attention (I actually dislike attention) but I’m definitely getting it here in Thailand. Being a minority, I obviously expected a few odd stares here and there but I never would have imagined the enormous amount of attention I would attract, everywhere I go – especially at school.

Around campus and its outskirts, I get the total VIP treatment. I get to cut in line anywhere: coffee shops, food stands, 711, the line for the motorcycle taxi or tuk-tuk. I don’t even ask for it but I’m sure not complaining (I mean, sometimes the slurpee line at lunch is like 100 kids long!)

When I walk down a crowded hallway or stairwell, it’s like the sea parts for me to walk through. If not, everyone is tapping or yelling at their friends to move out of the way for me. I don’t even have to say a word. Sometimes, I’ll walk into a room and everyone will just start cheering. I actually secretly love when that happens. Students (both girls and boys) will kindly offer to carry my purse, coffee, books, bag, papers, etc. One day I was going to refill my water bottle and a student ran up, grabbed the bottle from my hands, shouted “No Teacher!” and filled it up for me. Today, I bought a coffee at the stand on the street right outside school and a student ran ahead and carried it up to my office and nicely placed it on my desk for me. What treatment! Now if only I can figure out how to make them be quiet during my class…

Walking around campus, there’s basically a constant never ending stream of “Hello! Hello Teacher Kim! Teacher! Good morning teacher! Hello teacher! Teacher, hello! Good afternoon teacher! See you tomorrow teacher! Bye Teacher!" from nearly every single student I pass. It’s like I’m in a parade or something, just waving, smiling, and saying hello to everyone I pass. There are 2,000 students at my school so I don’t even want to know how many times I say the word hello in a day. I do feel bad that I can’t yet respond with their names. However, to be fair, I have over 600 students with some pretty odd names (more on that topic later).

I’ve also been told that I’m beautiful more times in the past month than I’ve ever been told in the entire span of my life. “Teacher, you are so beautiful!” from the students with good English, “Teacher! Beautiful!” from those with mediocre English, and “Khun suay mak!” (Thai for "You are very beautiful") from the younger ones. Even the Thai teachers, school nurse, librarian, front office workers, security officer, and copy machine lady make similar comments as the students. Sometimes multiple times a day. Yesterday, I actually found out from one of my students that the four cashiers who work the morning shift at 711 apparently nicknamed me “Phu Ying Suay” which translates to “The Beautiful Woman” and said they are sad on the days when I don’t come in. I had no idea the simple act of walking into 711 and buying a water bottle could make or break someone’s day. Living and working in Thailand is certainly an ego booster to say the least.

I'm learning that the concept of "beauty" in Thailand is interestingly very, very different than in the US. I find it to be an extremely interesting aspect of Thai culture that I'm quickly learning more about everyday. However, I have much to say about this topic so it will be a future blog post on it's own.

Finally, what's a celebrity without paparazzi? Yep, I've got that too. One day, a student politely came up to me after class and asked if she could take a picture with me so she could show her mom her new English teacher. That's kinda cute; what's the harm in this, I thought? Horrible decision. I've learned that it doesn't matter where in the world you are, but a high school is a high school and word spreads fast. Now that I'm thinking about it, it probably got posted on Facebook. But now everyone wants a picture with Teacher Kim. What's next? Autographs?

I'm really starting to wonder if maybe I accidentally and unknowingly said I was famous or something on that first day of school when I introduced myself in Thai to the whole school. 

The First Day of School

The first day of school always stirs up emotions, usually a good mix of feeling really excited and really nervous at the same time (with a little splash of dread). I've had over 20 "first days of school" in my lifetime, yet this was my first one on the other side, as a teacher. But the feelings apparently don't change; I was still really excited and really nervous.

Anytime you start a new job, you always go in the first day a little bit clueless. However, I went to school the first day knowing literally close to nothing. Things I knew: the name of the school, that I would teach English, and I would teach grades M1, M5, and M6 (although I had to look up online what that meant), and... I think that's about it. All the other details were unknown. I had no idea what my schedule was, what buildings or rooms my classes were in (or how to get to them), where my desk was (do I even get a desk?), or even what I was expected to teach this semester or let alone, on the first day. I also only had the most vague idea of how to actually get to this school 15km away from my apartment.

Luckily, one of my friends from the TESOL course, Jeff from Kansas City, was also placed as a teacher at the same school as me. Therefore, it was nice to have someone to go through this adventure with. We woke up super early today so there was no risk of getting to school late on our first day of work. Now, my commute to school is literally a hysterical story in itself. I'll post an entire separate blog on this soon. However, one leg of our commute is taking the local train. It was honestly miraculous that we even managed to get on the right train this day (can't say it's never happened...) because the announcements are only made in Thai. Our boss told us once we got on the train, we should get off at the first stop. So the train stopes, we got up, kinda looked around confused if this is the right stop and asked a few people around us "Bang Pa-In?", then Jeff got off the train and I stayed on the step of the train still a little unsure, and this women ran over to us yelling, "No! Not Bang-Pa In!" But at this point, Jeff was off the train and it started moving. We just looked at each other. Shit. Jeff was off the train. I was on the train. What the hell do we do now? Then one of the train workers figured out what happened and threw up the red flag for the train to stop. Then I had the pleasure of watching Jeff literally run after the train to get back on. I just stood in the vestibule of the train quietly laughing to myself. It's only the first day.

So eventually, we managed to get to school and show up at morning assembly with big smiles, ready to greet our new co-workers and students. The director of the school walked up to Jeff and I and informed us that we had to give a short speech in front of the entire faculty and student body (about 2000 students)....in 5 minutes. Luckily, Jeff and I had actually been previously given a heads up by another teacher that this exact situation would play out exactly as it did. On the way to school, we practiced what we would say in our supposed last minute speeches so we just smiled at each other and thought "No problem, we've got this in the bag." But if I've learned one thing, there's always a curveball in Thailand.  One of the Thai teachers came back and said, "Okay, are you ready? You're on in 1 minute. Short speech okay? Oh yeah, and you really should try to say it in Thai." Okay! Wait...what? IN THAI!?!? If I knew I would have to give a speech in Thai in front of 2000+ Thai people, then I would have been practicing everyday for the past month!

There was no time to think. We were being pushed toward the line for the microphone. I was frantically racking my brain trying to remember anything and everything I knew how to say in Thai. Ummm...banana? Mango? Where is the toilet? Can I have an iced coffee please? I don't eat meat? Ah! I can't say any of these things!

Right before the director handed me the microphone he made some joke (in Thai) to which the entire student body started hysterically laughing. I just awkwardly smiled. I THINK the joke was something along the lines of "This is the new English teacher, Teacher Kim. She is even more beautiful than I am, right?" Then I was handed the microphone.

"Hello sawadeeka. Chan chue Teacher Kim. Chan mak jak America. Yin dee tee dai roo jak ka. Kob khun ka."

That's what I said. They said short speech, right? If I managed to say things in the correct Thai tones, then I said "Hello. My name is Teacher Kim. I'm from America. It's nice to meet you. Thank you."

Considering the circumstances, I think I did alright.

Then we found out that because of extended homeroom, all classes before lunch were cancelled. Mai pen rai. This is the kinda mai pen rai I can get use to :)

During this time, I was given my schedule for the semester, got a mini-tour around campus, was shown around the Foreign Language Department office, given a desk, and met all of my co-workers. Everything was running surprisingly smoother than I imagined and everyone was extremely friendly and welcoming to us.

I felt a little bit like a freshman in high school wandering around with my schedule trying to find the right classrooms and buildings. But I quickly found that the students were always more than willing to help me. They would grab my schedule and pull or point me in the direction I needed to be.

Another aspect about teaching in Thailand that I had been warned about was the lack of communication. I heard that sometimes things were changed and we would always be the last to find out. Well, I went to one of my classes, introduced myself, started playing a game with the students and about 15 minutes in, a Thai teacher ran in and said, "Teacher! Wrong class!" Wrong class? But my schedule says Room 417...this is Room 417. "Sorry, Teacher! Room changed. 418." Apparently, I just taught for 15 minutes to students who don't even take English class from a foreign teacher. What I find funny is that none of the kids said anything. So then, I had to just awkwardly leave mid-game. The kids seemed kinda disappointed haha. Next class period, I walked in and all the students just immediatly started yelling, "MATH!!!!!! MATH!!!!!! AH!!!!! MATH!!!!!!!" Math? Why are 50 kids screaming math at me? Again, the schedule was changed. They have math now, and I come back to teach them next period. Mai pen rai.

This is just how Thailand is. You can't take things too seriously here and need to be able to just laugh at everything. When leaving work, I said to Jeff, "If the rest of my teaching career goes anything like today then this is going to be the funniest year of my life."

And so, we managed to survive the first day with only minimal embarrassment and a lot of laughs. But the stories just keep getting better, you'll see.

Work Has Begun, but Not Before a Little Fun: Week 2

Once I drank some electrolytes and mustered up enough energy to pack my bag, I bought a ticket for the very next ferry that left Phi Phi.

Second stop: Ao Nang

One of the best things about these travels was that I had complete flexibility. I knew I had to be in Ayutthaya on a certain date and had a general idea of how I would eventually get there; but, aside from that I was able to stay and leave places as I pleased. I originally intended to only stay in Ao Nang for a few nights but I ended up staying for the entire week. After way too much time spent on crazy Phi Phi, arriving in Ao Nang was seriously a breath of fresh air. The hostel I was staying at (which I randomly selected from the internet) turned out to be one of the cleanest, nicest hostels I've ever stayed at. And trust me, I've been in hundreds. The owners were also extremely nice and helpful. As it also turned out, I met seven other travelers here (from Sweden, UK, Spain, and New Zealand) who coincidentally also decided to stay for the week as well. We all instantly became friends and spent the entire week going on different adventures together. While I thought I would finally spend some time relaxing by myself, it turned out to be quite the opposite.

Some of the highlights from the week:

1. One of my friends from my course visited Ao Nang the week before and recommended a temple in nearby Krabi. Tiger Cave Temple (Wat Tham Sua) is literally located on the top of a mountain 1,237 steps up. My friend actually told me, "it was the most physically difficult thing I've ever done in my life...but it was worth it." After I heard that, I knew I had to go. 1,237 steps didn't sound THAT bad. I mean, I think I've done that many on the stair-master at the gym, it can't be that bad...

Well, what they don't tell you is that these things they call "steps" are some of the steepest ones you could ever imagine. I swear some of them were half the size of my legs. They also were extremely uneven, all different heights, tilted, and sometimes didn't have railings. Plus, once you add Thailand's heat and humidity, it was a rough journey. Luckily, there were landings along the way to stop and catch your breath. However, every landing was loaded with people sitting on the ground, panting, and nearly passed out. I also passed quite a few people walking down who would just look at us, shake their heads, and say, "Pwsh, good luck!" Real encouraging right? 

I was a sweaty mess, but I made it to the top. It was quite an accomplishment and the view of Krabi was incredible! I like things like this when there's at least a reward at the end of it all. I also loved just sitting at the top and watching everyone else as they made finally made it up. It usually involved some type of cheer, high 5, or dumping water all over themselves. I think some people wanted to cry they were so happy they made it.

2. My buddy Dan and I rented a kayak for the day and went exploring until we found this beach. Talk about an arm workout!

3. We took a day trip to nearby Railay Beach, famous for its high limestone cliffs, incredible beaches, and rock climbing.

Photo credit: Carlos Vera

4. I literally rock climbed with the Carlos, Andreas, and Felix to find this this view point on Railay Beach.

5. Okay, this was hands down the funniest thing I had seen in a while. While on Pranong Cave Beach, this pack of wild monkeys comes out of nowhere and completely ambushed these poor tourist's bags while they were swimming in the ocean. I had heard horror stories about this happening but never actually witnessed it before. Well, these monkeys were obviously very hungry. They would literally unzip backpacks, open purses, bite through plastic bottles, steal food, and then run into a tree and quickly eat it. Now I understand why they have to post signs about not feeding the monkeys. I think the funniest part was that everyone (including myself) was just standing around laughing and taking pictures of this happing instead of actually shoo-ing the monkeys away.

Photo Credit: Carlos Vera

6. After raving about his past experience in Vietnam, Andreas insisted I go with him to a Thai barber shop for an ear wax cleaning. The woman used these chopstick-like tools and managed to pull out quite a lot of gunk (gross!). I'm still convinced I can hear better now. The experience was kinda weird. I kinda liked it.

7.  Monkeys, monkeys, monkeys. I think monkeys must have been a common theme of this week. Monkeys on the beach, monkeys on the street, monkeys eating chicken wings out of garbage cans. All very normal sitings in Thailand.

Photo Credit: Carlos Vera

Photo credit: Carlos Vera

Okay, that's enough monkey business for one post. Next stop, Ayutthaya: my new home!

Work Has Begun, but Not Before a Little Fun: Week 1

Sunset on my final night in Naiharn Beach...how incredible!?

After finishing my TESOL course in Phuket, I was informed that I had 18 days before I needed to move into my apartment and start work. Knowing that I was about to start a full time job and this would be my last break for longer than 2-3 days, I wanted take advantage of the opportunity to further explore Thailand.

Despite Phuket's postcard picture beauty, after three weeks there, it started to feel like nothing but a big, expensive tourist trap. From my experience, Phuket was nice, but I don't think it accurately portrays the true culture of Thailand. I especially find this unfortunate because thousands of tourists every year visit Thailand and only stop in Phuket; even worse, they usually only stop in Patong, Phuket (infamous for its outrageous and bizarre nightlife). Anyway, I decided there was no reason to stick around Phuket and left the morning after my course ended.

First stop: Ko Phi Phi Island

Ko Phi Phi is actually made up of two main islands: Ko Phi Phi Don (where everyone stays) and Ko Phi Phi Leh, which is uninhabited because it is a national park (the only way you can sleep on Ko Phi Phi Leh is if you camp). Ko Phi Phi Leh is also famous because of Maya Bay, where the movie The Beach (2000) staring Leonardo DiCaprio was filmed. Interestingly, many people say that the beauty of Maya Bay was actually improved after the 2004 tsunami that devastated Ko Phi Phi. If you literally type "Thailand" into Google image search, I guarantee a picture of Maya Bay will be one of the first pictures to come up. It looks so serene and perfect. So this is what I was expecting Maya Bay to look like...

Source: http://www.123rf.com/photo_7669743_long-tails-boat-at-maya-bay-phi-phi-island--phuket-thailand.html

And this is what it actually looked like....

Clearly, from the rocks in the background, you can tell it's the same place. Don't get me wrong it's still beautiful, but just not the vibe I was expecting/hoping for. Needless to say, I was a little disappointed with Maya Bay. Darn tourists.

However, after a long hike (did I mention there's no motorized transportation on this island?) to the other side of Ko Phi Phi Don, I discovered Long Beach. Finally, the beautiful secluded beach with long tail boats I've been searching for!

Ironically, on this same tiny island as the above picture, you can find nightly fire shows where you can watch professionals do some pretty neat fire tricks. But then...they open it up for anyone to try out. There's fire jump rope (both single and double dutch), fire limbo, and even jumping through fire rings. Crazy! Don't worry, you all know I'm terribly afraid of fire so I didn't go anywhere near that.

My week on Ko Phi Phi was great. I made some cool friends and somehow even managed to randomly get a sweet job working for a bar handing out flyers one night. But then, as you probably already read... food poisoning struck. I don't really want to talk about that anymore, so let's just fast forward through that part and hit some of the highlights from the week:

Loh Samah Bay

Bamboo Island

Hike to Ko Phi Phi View Point

Oh shoot, how did that picture get on here...?

And there's still another week of this. Stay tuned for part 2.

"My Name is Teacher Kim"

That's how I begin every lesson.

Okay, let me backtrack a little....

As you probably already read, I spent three weeks in September/October living in Phuket while I completed my TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) Course. The course was made up of myself and 27 other students all between the ages of 22 and 30. Everyone was from the US except for two girls from Canada and two from the UK. The first two weeks of the course consisted of in classroom training sessions held in our hotel conference room from 9 AM to 4 PM almost everyday. Generally, we learned about different teaching models and techniques, lesson planning, and two sessions on Thai culture and language. I won't go into detail about the whole thing because it would probably bore you all to death. However, I learned quite a lot and I think the course has been useful to me, especially as someone without any prior formal teaching experience.

The third week of the course was teaching practice week where we had the opportunity to practice what we've learned and teach a lesson in front of real students (as opposed to just practicing with our peers as the pretend students). I think everyone can agree that this week was the most difficult and also the most useful aspect of the course. Everyday, we received feedback from both our instructors and our peers. The week was exhausting because we visited the sites during the day and spent every night preparing lessons and materials for the next day. I don't think I've colored so much in my entire life as I did that week.

Since the month of October is a break from school in Thailand, we couldn't visit any actual schools for our teaching practice. So instead, on Monday and Tuesday we visited the SOS Children's Village Phuket. This is an orphanage that was built as a result of the tsunami that struck Thailand in 2004 as a place for children to go who had lost all their relatives. At this organization, we taught children between the ages of 4 and 7. When we pulled up to the site and got out of the vans, we had about 30 precious and enthusiastic kids running towards us shouting "FARANGS!" This is generic term Thai people use to describe any Westerner, or it actually translates to "foreigner."

Fun fact: When taking this picture at the orphanage, I learned that just like how in America it's common to say "One, two, three, cheese!" before taking a picture, in Thailand instead they say, "Neung (one), song (two), sam (three), Pepsi!" Random?

First day in the classroom, I was instructed to teach about the jungle. I was excited and ready to go.

Our class was divided into groups and separated into different classrooms where we would observe some of our peers teach as well. I was lucky to go second. For the most part, my lesson went as planned and the students were very attentive and willing to participate. I walked out of the classroom that day feeling pretty confident. However, it was obviously apparent that as each one my peers went, the children got less and less interested. But to be fair, I don't think a four year old shouldn't be expected to sit through language learning for almost three straight hours.

On Tuesday, my lesson was about food/cooking. Today didn't go as well as Monday. I got the unfortunate spot of teaching second last and the children weren't too interested in what I had to say at that point. It wasn't horrible, but it was great either. I think I spent more time trying to get their attention then I did actually teaching. Also, I should probably mention that this class was only 8 students. I'm thinking that if I can hardly handle 8 students, I'm not sure how a class of 40-50 will work out for me. However, I definitely didn't have it the worst. Despite the great effort from the poor girl that went after me, the kids just turned insane. Boys were sleeping, girls were slapping each other, and it ended with a dog-pile of students on the floor in the center of the room. It was a zoo, to say the least. I walked out of the classroom feeling a little unsure about this whole teaching thing. I realized that while younger kids are absolutely adorable, I'm not really sure if I would be a good match to teach them. Unfortunately, I had no say in the matter though, which made me pretty nervous.

On Wednesday and Thursday we visited a Juvenile Detention Center in Phuket. When we first found this out, we were all a little bit nervous and not sure what to expect. But our instructors explained that many of the kids at this center are there for situational reasons like stealing food so their family could eat. They insured us that we would be completely safe there and they were right. On Wednesday, I taught a lesson about occupations and Thursday I taught about weekend activities. Both of my lessons went fantastic and I finally felt like I was getting a good feel for teaching.  I absolutely loved my teaching experience here. The students were extremely polite, well-behaved, and motivated to learn English. The students at this center were between the ages of 15-18 years old. I really, really enjoyed this age group more than I thought I would. I started to secretly hope I would get placed in a high school. Unfortunately, pictures were prohibited here, so I don't have any pictures from these days.

Finally, on Friday we visited a really unique organization in Northern Phuket called Youth Football Home Foundation which is run by a German expat. This is also technically an orphanage where they live, but the boys were selected to come here from orphanages across Thailand for their football (soccer) talent and train together as a team. I found these boys to also be extremely bright, polite, and at a very high English level. They travel around the world for football tournaments and are very advanced at English because of the opportunities they have to practice and learn when they travel. This day, I taught about camping and got through my lesson pretty quickly because their English level was so high. Once again, I really enjoyed working with the 15-18 year old age group.

After an exhausting week, I completed my training and graduated from my TESOL course! I am now officially certified to teach English to speakers of other languages. The final day of teaching practice is when I received my teaching placement for the semester, which you already know is at the high school level (phew!).

This is literally only the beginning of the teaching adventure. Check back tomorrow. The stories keep getting better!

I'm Back!

Hello everyone!

I sincerely apologize about my absence from the blog world, especially after my last post. To be honest, my absence has been because SO MUCH has happened in the last month and life has been non-stop between moving to Ayutthaya, immediately starting my job, finding a routine, and getting settled into my new life here. I had so much to update on that I was honestly a little overwhelmed about where to begin! However, I am now feeling settled and ready to update you on everything (and trust me there's a lot!). I plan to post a lot in the next week so please keep checking back regularly for updates. I also don't want to cause any confusion, so I'm planning to backtrack to last month and update you on events in the order they happened.

Ready!?