First "Real" Week of School

I just finished a great week with the fantastic students at TCIS! As was the case in Saipan, the students here are great! They're respectful, willing to go along with anything you throw at them, and really fun to listen to and interact with. The students pictured are Angel and Lee, seniors in my Spanish 2 class. Lee is a complete character and I just found out he's our neighbor! He lives in the same building as Suave, Craig, and Tyson, which is directly next door to us. In a huge city like Bangkok, it was a bit of a coincidence. He has a pretty long commute to TCIS, which says a lot about what his parents must think of the school.

I think I've mentioned that I love my schedule. During the first period (45 minutes) of every day, I do a "push-in" which involves going to a 6th grade mainstream classroom and making sure my ESL kids are understanding the material, etc. It involves no prep work and no grading, so it's a real breeze! In addition to that, on Mondays and Thursdays I have a 90 minute ESL class, a 90 minute Spanish 2 class, and a 6th grade department meeting. On Tuesdays and Fridays, I have a 90 minute Spanish 1 class and a 90 minute ESL class. On Wednesdays we don't follow the block schedule, so the students have 45 minutes of all of their classes. I supervise elementary school detention (I'm sure that'll be tough - haha!) for 20 minutes, as well as have a Spanish 1, Spanish 2, and ESL class. This is not typical for teaching in the US. Usually you have fewer breaks and time to take care of prep work/planning and grading.

We are completely settled now - yeah! It's been a little difficult because of the language barrier to pass on proper information to Liza, our building manager, but we're finally set up with high-speed internet access, cable television (no more Thai tv!) including three movie channels - what a bonus!, and a house-keeper. We're not sure about the house-keeper, though. It only costs 300 baht ($7.25) each time she comes (once a week), but she came yesterday and Leah and I were not impressed with her work. Liza set us up with her and we're going to see if you get what you pay for or if they all do only surface-type of work. The floors didn't appear to be as clean as we had expected and there were still water stains on the kitchen sink. It didn't look like she did much, but again, maybe that's what you get for 300 baht. We're willing to pay more for a job well-done, but we're asking around to see what other people have experienced.

I'm continuing to learn more and more about Thai culture every day. It's so interesting to see how people live. This morning during our walk to school, some guy on a large tricycle pushing a trailer/basket was barreling up Sukhumvit Road delivering what appeared to be bags of ice to vendors at their sidewalk "stores". Meanwhile, a monk was waiting on the street corner to receive alms from the neighborhood residents. You see monks of all ages, from 5 years old on up to ancient. I plan to read a book to find out more about the life of a monk and I'll be sure to pass the information on to you :)

There are so many drastically different things constantly going on around me, I'm pretty much in a state of constant wonderment. If only I could beam my thoughts to my blog, so I wouldn't forget about the unusual things that occur. Yesterday after stopping at Tesco, the local version of a WalMart, I stopped in the Food Court to grab a bit for dinner and a to-go lunch for today. As I was waiting for the guy to make my spicy papaya salad, I was again amazed that for 50 cents, I was getting a meal that involved the use of a large, wooden bowl and stick and the smashing of fresh spices, hot peppers, and some sort of yellow paste together until they've properly blended. This is not the fast food that I'm used to! It seems I'm constantly laughing to myself about the "weirdness" of it all, but I guess that's why I love overseas living.

After school today at 3:45 pm, about 35 teachers are headed directly to Ko Samet, an island in the Gulf of Thailand three hours away from Bangkok for some rest and relaxation. It should be a good time. Most of the teachers, and I'm sure all who are going, are fun people. The entire trip will only put us out $100, which continues to amaze me. That includes all transportation (bus and short boat ride to the island), two nights in a guest house/hotel, food, drinks, and massages on the beach! We've been told that 4000 baht is plenty, so we'll see...I still can't believe that! I'll post an updated blog upon my return! Enjoy your weekend!