Elephants in the Streets of Bangkok

Another fabulous week in BKK! Other than the various illnesses going around (none of which I have caught, knock on wood), this week has been a good one.

On Monday, Ton (he's the one making the lovely face :), one of my ESL students, turned in his newspaper article. The assignment was to select a specific section (front page, culture, sports, entertainment) of a newspaper of their own creation and write a three-paragraph article. Well, Ton picks the sports section of the Thai Times and writes about a famous basketball player by the name of Micro Jordan who has HIV! I had to explain to him that his name is actually Michael (who is far from micro!) and he is confusing him with Magic Johnson, whom he had never heard of! I printed out information from the internet on Magic and gave it to him to peruse. Funny kid!

On Wednesday, Leah stayed home because she was deathly ill and had been up the two nights previous with a hacking cough. It started out as a sore throat, moved into her chest, and eventually traveled to her stomach, giving her flu-like symptoms. Not fun, but she wasn't alone. I'd guesstimate that at least ten other teachers complained of similar symptoms throughout the week. One of the Thai office staff asked her if she'd gone to the hospital because it's very common for Thais to visit the hospital for even the smallest of issues. Often the hospital will not let you go home and you are admitted for things that would never get you a stay overnight in the U.S. You can get antibiotics over-the-counter just about anywhere, so most Thais have a small arsenal of medications in their homes at all times. Matt, the Special Education teacher, had a three-day stay at the hospital last week due to an infection in his lower intestine. He was hooked up to an IV due to dehydration for three-nights. It seems almost everybody has had an overnight stay, so don't be overly concerned if it happens to me.

On Thursday, I went to my Bikram (hot) yoga class again http://www.pranabangkokyoga.com. Other than the ohm (I found out the "proper" terminology), they are now making cat sounds! Again, I couldn't get myself to hiss, but it was quite comical when the entire room erupted.

On my walk home, I almost ran smack into the behind of an elephant!! Not something I was prepared to see on the busy streets of Bangkok; maybe in the north near the jungle, but not in a city with over 6.5 million residents! There he was, walking along the sidewalk of Thong Loi! Of course, I was armed with my camera so I took a couple of shots (I'll post them on the blog tomorrow). The guy accompanying him was trying to get me to buy bananas to feed him, but I passed on spending 100 baht (which he immediatly lowered to 20 baht when I laughed and walked away). With 100 baht I can eat lunch for five days at school, I'm not feeding an elephant with it!

Today (Friday) I found out that I got the Language Arts Program Leader position here at TCIS which will mean an extra 3000 baht/month (only $75, but it goes a long way). As a ProgramLeader, I'll be working with teachers in grades K-12 to develop a Language Arts curriculum. I'll serve as the go-between the teachers and the administration, including the Curriculum Coorinator. It'll be an excellent learning experience and something that will look good on a resume for my next international excursion, wherever that may be.

Tonight, we're attending a Welcoming Dinner at a Thai restaurant for two of our new administrators, Dr. Lalima and Dr. John (who are married to one another). Dr. Lalima is the Upper School Principal from India and Dr. John is the Lower School Principal from the U.S. Tomorrow, we have an Open House for the parents at school from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 pm. I've heard that very few parents attend, especially in the upper grades, so it should be quite low stress. Saturday evening, a few gals planned a TCIS Girls' Night Out and it was decided that the pre-party take place at our apartment. I gave Jenifer the tour last week and she volunteered us. It'll be fun to have everybody over; about 29 people have been invited and afterwards we're planning to go to some pubs or dance clubs, not sure which yet. I'll fill you in on the details at a later day. Enjoy your weekend!