The day after I met the other trainees and took a tour of Phnom Pehn marked my first day of classes.  For the next two weeks I spent everyday in a classroom hardly having any time to actually get to know the city.  At 8:15am we were expected to be waiting in the lobby with all our material to start our journey to Panassatra University.  Depending on the traffic, which was normally horrendous, it took anywhere from 25 to 40 minutes to get from our hotel to class.  We always traveled by tuk-tuk, in fact, I don't remember seeing a single taxi my entire time there.  It took us a few days to settle into a routine, but it was still a struggle everyday for us all to agree on a time to head to school so half of us could eat at cheaper places near the school.  Normally we could get 4 people to agree to about 7:50 but our drivers wouldn't leave without 5 people in a tuk-tuk.  It really sucked since there was always one person *coughBlakecough* who would wake up at the last minute possible and pay to take a moto, thus throwing off the numbers and leaving those who wanted a bite to eat just minutes to grab some food once we got there.

Our typical breakfast, my favorite meal everyday and something I crave here in Bangkok, was a fried egg with sweet and sour coleslaw on a toasted baguette.  It was absolutely delicious and only 75 cents!

We had 4 classes each day that were nearly 2 hours apiece and an hour long lunch brake in between.  That said, we spent everyday between 8am and almost 6pm either on our way to, or in class.  I skipped out on a lunch time trip with some classmates to S21, an old school converted into a prison and torture center during the Khmer Rouge, but did go along to see the Killing Fields.   Most days we cajoled our instructors into discussions about Cambodia's history having them tell us about the Khmer Rouge where the entire city of Phnom Pehn was evicted and many, many cambodians were executed or died from the extreme conditions they were subjected too.  Khmer is what the Cambodians call themselves and is pronounced either as it is spelled or more informally as "ka-mai'.  However, what they told us did not prepare me for the reality presented at the Killing Fields.  This place, where many thousands went to die, contains mass graves that are still being excavated and occasionally, heavy rains will wash away the topsoil causing bones and old clothes to surface in the walking paths.

On a lighter note, Phnom Pehn has come very far in the past 15 years.  While it is still very rough around the edges, the people are very friendly and accommodating and seemed to thuroughly enjoy us trying to interact with them and learn about their city and history.  Another thing about the city; since it is still so "new" traffic and other laws tend not to be so strict.  Case in point, Happy Pizza.  Happy pizza which is also the name of a chain found in other larger cities in Cambodia is a place where you can get happy "herb" pizza, or anything else on the menu "happy".  And for dirt cheap.  These restaurants can be found all along the riverside in the more happening part of town, a part of town that was on the complete opposite side of town near our classroom since LanguageCorp decided that the best place to buy a hotel in the city was on the very outskirts.

Throughout these two weeks I got to know a bit about my classmates, a real interesting bunch, and take an excursion to Siem Reap.  The one weekend we had in the city was our chance to spend over 8 hours packed into a van each way to go explore one of the most defining sites in all of Cambodia: Angkor Wat.  We took a sunrise tour of Angkor Wat, for which we had to be up and ready by 4am.  From there we returned for breakfast, I got to hold a baby crocodile from the crocodile farm behind our hotel, and then spend the rest of the day exploring the many ruins that make up the Angkor complex.  This included wandering the towers of the Bayon Temple as the giant faces that adorned all 4 sides of them smiled down gently at us.  

A bit of R&R before finals

Since I’ve got some free time on my hands (as I have my entire time here) I figured I would post another update.  Classes ended over a week ago now and I have passed my time by running away to Phuket for a few days and then coming home and causing some problems at school!  

First off, Phuket.  I had a great time there when I went the first time back in September, although it’s hard to believe that it was all part of the same venture abroad.  This time, Lizzy and I met up with a friend of hers from college and some of his friends who, after doing their TEFOL training in Barcelona, decided to move to Phuket to teach.  I can’t say I’m not a bit jealous of them all.  Not only did they get to live in Barcelona for a few months and then backpack across Western Europe and Morocco, they now get to live on a tropical island.  Yeah, I know I could have too, but I feel like I would have been even more bored than I am sometimes in Bangkok.  Plus, I would definitely have skin cancer or something since I enjoy lying out a little too much.

Fun with Glow Paint!

Anyway, we got to Suvarnabhumi airport at 7am, flew an hour to Phuket, hopped on motos, met back up with Kenny’s roommates in the southern part of the island,  got in a van to take us to the pier before embarking on a two-hour ferry ride to Koh Phi Phi.  We didn’t get to the island until around 4:30pm and were drinking by 5:00.  Not only did I not know we were headed there for the weekend, I also wasn’t prepared for how crazy a Saturday night could be on this island after having traveled all day.  

The night started pretty chill, with a couple of beers and progressed from there.  The night is a blur of climbing on a wrecked boat stranded in the low tide, watching fire dancers twirl and toss flaming batons high in the air, sharing buckets with the group, finding glow-in-the-dark paint and decorating my face and arms (and clothes) and thinking I lost Lizzy’s camera.  I stumbled back to the hostel around 3am.  Most of the group was planning on heading back already the second day since they had to teach the next day, but those of us planning to stay decided we couldn’t handle another night on Phi Phi and boarded the ferry with the rest of the group.

Big Buddha

View of Chalong Bay from Big Buddha

Back in Phuket, we spent the next couple of days motoring around the island to check out various beaches and lookout points, getting some serious sun and paying a visit to the Big Buddha watching out over the island from its highest peak.  I ate my first sandwich in months (yum!), had a few great panang curries and snuck into a 5-star resort to enjoy the infinity pool, comfy lounge chairs and waiters bring around fresh lemon water and fruit kabobs.  Suffice to say, it was tough to leave, but after 5 days and one last sunset, Lizzy and I had to make out way back to Bangkok, and back to work L  Thankfully we got a great deal on tickets and paid as much for a one hour flight as we would have for a 16-hour bus ride

Vijitt Resort

Back in Bangkok, we reported to school on Thursday even though there was no school and most of the teachers left after just an hour or two.  We took this time to get some serious grading in, but after just 4 hours I, too, was ready to go.

Thursday, Lizzy and I met up with some more friends of hers that were passing through Bangkok.  This time it was two guys she went to high school with, T.J. and Jason.  We went out a little harder than we had planned and come 6:30am when it was time to get up and go to work, one of us wasn’t able to make it in.  Thinking that we didn’t have anything to do again, we decided that I would sign Lizzy in so she wouldn’t get docked pay for not being there.  Unfortunately, no one had told us we had to proctor all day, so when they went to tell Lizzy which class she was supposed to be in, she was no where to be found.  It didn’t help that I was in the dark as well about where I was supposed to be, so I was just sitting in my office having a great time chatting with friends on Skype.  After they finally told me what was up, I raced off to my assigned classroom and tried frantically to get a hold of Lizzy’s phone to get her to come in.  As our luck would have it, her phone decided not to take any of the twenty or so calls I tried, nor the countless others from the school’s office AND our agency.

Just before lunch, I was called out of the room, fessed up to signing Lizzy in, and came up with a decent enough story to keep her from getting fired on the spot.  Just after that, I finally got through to her, but since there was less than 90 minutes left of the day, we worked out a more thorough story and planned to get a nice long talking to from the office come Monday.  It was a bit stressful, but we brought it on ourselves.  Thankfully, things had pretty much calmed down by Monday and we are both employed and still counting down the days until we are completely done with the semester…or on our plane back home.

Last thing… Less than 20 days until I’m headed back home…that is if Expedia helps me figure everything out since 2/3 of my flights home have been canceled by Korea Air.   So if everyone who reads this could just keep their fingers crossed that they can find me a replacement flight, I’d greatly appreciate it.  Until then, I’ll try to get out and enjoy the last of my time here so I have more great stories to share when I finally get home!

Finally Finals

It’s down to the final week.  Yesterday (Tuesday) was my last day actually having to teach anything in class, if you can call what I did all semester teaching, and today I start with finals.  Technically, I started with oral exams with my M.3’s on Monday, but still have to give them the listening portion.  My M.4’s are doing debates.  It’s been a struggle, to say the least, to get them to prepare over the past week.  They know it’s almost the end of the semester, I know it’s almost the end and it has been ridiculously humid which makes me not want to be at school even more.  I have no idea what to expect out of these debates, especially since one group chose to debate over which is more important: A pretty face or a rockin’ body.  Should be riveting.  Haha  Don’t get me wrong though, there is one, maybe two groups out of the eight that actually seem prepared and eager to present.  Well, maybe not eager, but they do want a good grade so they’ve put a bit more effort in.  Not surprisingly, they’re also the kids with the highest grades at the moment and really don’t have much to worry about.

The main thing getting me through this week, though, is the fact that I leave Saturday morning for a few days back in Phuket.  I can’t imagine anything better than going down to a tropical island and spending my days lying out and reading or exploring the nearby beaches and mountains by moto.  We were originally supposed to have next week Monday and Tuesday off for study days and with Wednesday being a religious holiday, classes were canceled as well.  Key words being were.

When we started the semester, we were told that finals would be the last week of February 27 through March 2.  Then they got pushed up a week so they ended on this past Monday.  Next, they were pushed back to March 8-15 with the week before being a reading week with Mon-Wed off.  It’s been temporarily moved back and forth from all these dates, but in a meeting in January, it was confirmed that they would be that second week of March…until two days ago.

Now, at this point, Lizzy and I had already booked a flight to Phuket over those three days of vacation we were supposed to have and don’t have the desire to cancel, nor can we justify not using these tickets we paid close to $100 for.  It’s not that big of a deal for us, as we had planned on finishing up with finals this week anyway and just getting a sub to have an end of the semester party with our classes on Monday and Tuesday.  However, it kept getting better!

While giving our final review in our last class with any of the M.3’s last week we found out that they have standardized exams scheduled for the Tuesday and Wednesday we planned to give half of their finals.  We freaked out for a bit, but decided just to give up our lunch periods the remaining 3 days and having them come to us.  Great, right?  Not so great when we walked into one of the four classes on Monday to give the oral portion and they told us that class was canceled for a tutor session for the next day’s exams.  We then went back down to our office and someone came to tell us that the tutor session was pushed back an hour and we still had class.  We trudged back up the steps only to see two more teachers clearing out the classroom again and marching the students upstairs.  Back in our office they told us that, yes, they did have tutor, and didn’t see how it was a problem that they took this period even though this is the only time we can give them their finals.  Thankfully, it was the only class we see twice this week so we could afford not having class, but it still makes things a bit more stressful since we now have half the time to go through just as many students.

On top of all of that, we were told that we only needed a speaking portion for the finals where we would create situations based on the workbook and have one-on-one conversations with each student to test their skills.  Friday, 7^th period we were told that we also needed a listening portion.  That left us with one class period for each class to give a listening exam and test each of their speaking abilities.  At forty students a class, this would take two full classes anyway, especially since they want each student to be tested for at least 3 minutes apiece.  I freaked out a bit, but now I’m too the point where I’m just happy to fit all the kids in and grade them based on how they did in what little time we have.  Less work for me, more fair to them since our original schedule we told them about changed so much and they’re all going to pass anyway since that’s how they do it in Thailand.

In other news, I come home in 32 days!!  I’m hoping that March flies by since I have a few trips planned before I hop on that plane back home.  First there is next week’s trip to Phuket, a week of sitting around doing nothing at work, a weekend English camp with GIE, a few more days of nothingness at work, 4 days in Chiang mai and one last week of sitting around getting paid to do nothing before I pack up all my stuff and say goodbye to Bangkok! 

Yes, I'm still alive

I’ve been severely lacking on posts for over two months now, but here is an update on teaching. Midterms have come and gone, I’m still waiting on my username so I can submit grades electronically and half of my students have now started on their final projects. There are just over three weeks left of teaching followed by a week off and then finals week, the second week of March.

The first half of the semester went relatively well. My M.3’s did hours of mindless bookwork and listening activities just to prove to their parents that the money spent on workbooks is put to good use. Instead, we all suffer from listening activity after listening activity on topics that don’t really interest 13 year olds: leaving phone messages (that’s what texts are for these days, right?) and how to go about conducting a business meeting. On top of that, we have assigned a Current Events report that turned into us sitting through many lunch periods listening to our students read back to us, word for word, the news we read online and in the paper each day. They also did a News Report segment, of which some were actually enjoyable, others painful to sit through, if we could hear them over the chatter of their classmates that is. We are just finishing a product invention/commercial presentation and Lizzy and I have no idea what to do with them after since there is so little time and they are getting rowdier by the day.

With my M.4’s we’ve done a few major presentations this semester and not a whole lot more. First, there was an oral history/interview project. In the end, I realized I was way too lenient with the grades I gave, since most of my students just stood up front and read me what they learned in their interviews and failing to use proper introductions and conclusions. I had a couple that were really good and funny, including one kid who approached me three weeks after it was due and gave the best presentation of all four classes even though he hasn’t come to class since week two or three of the semester. He was also the only one to give the entire thing without any notes. Next, we were supposed to cover interviews again, not really sure why, but Diane and I went with Celebrity Interviews. Once again, I had a few pairs in each of my classes who went all out, as I had asked, and came in with props and costumes and actually acted like the celebrity they chose to be. The best was probably a Lady Gaga interview by some of my students in M.4/1. She got up there with high heels, a leather jacket, crazy glasses and hair, sparkly shirt and had watched several interviews with the actual Lady Gaga to get her personality down. She even dropped the F-bomb. It was great to see that even though some were pretty lame, the information they had researched was spot on since it was a topic they all enjoyed. Several groups brought in guitars and performed and another boy showed up in a leopard print mini-dress, painted nails and heavy eyeliner on just one eye and did a choreographed dance to a Lady Gaga song. We just finished watched Slumdog Millionaire, which is leading into a discussion on social issues to set them up for their final project, a debate. Not sure how it will go, but after starting the lesson with one class I’m feeling a bit more optimistic.  I also went on a day trip with M.4 to the nearby province of Ratchaburi.  We went to a floating market, a sheep farm and Candle world or something like that where we made our own small candles on a stick and looked at wax sculptures.

I also just got back from my final visa run! My last trip to Laos (which I failed to ever post about) was back in November and was for a double-entry visa. This time, I cashed in on that second entry by spending 5 hours traveling to the Cambodian border just to wait in two separate lines for just about half an hour, getting all the necessary stamps and having a huge nasty bug crawl over my foot, before getting back on a bus headed back to BKK. Overall, it was nearly a 12-hour day just for one stamp…thankfully nothing more since I don’t have room in my passport for any more visas!

My weekends in January were pretty booked. The first weekend (New Years), I was in Koh Samui with Lizzy and our friends Andy, Liz and Joeri. We got back on a Wednesday and Lizzy left already that Friday to go to Chiang mai. Oddly enough, she went with our M.3’s for an English Camp with the same company that we used to work with, AYC. The camp director pretended to not remember her at first and the rest of our ex-coworkers gave her the cold shoulder. We like to think it’s because we actually went out and were able to get real teaching jobs since most of them lack a college degree…others didn’t even finish high school. I went out with Liz, Joeri and Andy that weekend and drank way too much Sangsom, a cheap local whiskey. That following week one of our friends from TESOL training, Gordan, was back in town for a few days before catching his flight back to the states. It was great to catch up with him and have him meet all our Bangkok friends. He also joined Lizzy and I at our work holiday party that Friday night. We decided to leave school a bit early to meet up with Gordo and grab some (okay, four) margaritas before heading all the way back across town on motos and were almost late for the start of the party. Although we weren’t the last to arrive, I had forgotten to wrap my gift and ended up finding a piece of newspaper outside and a worker who had some tape…oops. After a mediocre dinner and two hours of drawn out name calling for the gift exchange (with several karaoke intermissions) I was called to give out my gift (a planner and two very nice pens) and receive one from the next person. I got my gift and we took off before we fell asleep. Once we got to the parking lot, I opened my present only to see that I had been given 100% Essence of Chicken. According to Liz, it works wonder for a hangover, but I didn’t even get the best brand. Not sure if I’m going to try it, though, since I can’t imagine being able to stomach chicken essence after consuming a few too many drinks any given Saturday.

Welcome Class. I am teacher Maggie...

According to Lizzy, one of my New Year’s resolutions should be to stop putting things off.  While I would like to protest, it is partway through my third week of teaching and I have yet to write any update as to how it’s been.  So for anyone who’s curious…

The days (weeks) leading up to my first day teaching left me somewhat of a nervous wreck.  Then I actually had my first day and realized that my class is more or less the student’s lowest priority and that I really don’t have to do all that much to make it through the semester.  As terrible as that sounds, I don’t feel the need to pour all I’ve got into this semester knowing that, no matter what, the kids really couldn’t care less about listening and speaking classes. 

Another thing is that I came in expecting these kids to have terrible English, which is definitely not the case.  I teach at one of the oldest EP (English program) schools in Bangkok, one that serves as a model for other schools around the country.  The kids take all of their core subjects in English along with a few more supplementary English classes and one or two in Thai language and culture. The students I have are in Mathayom 3 and 4, essentially 9^th and 10^th grade in the States.  Therefore, they have been studying English for quite some time and have been in this particular EP program for at least 2 years already.

You would think that since this is the oldest EP program in Bangkok that they would have everything all sorted out.  It just so happens that I am here during a semester that was not only affected by the worst flooding this country has seen in over 60 years (pushing the semester back by 6 weeks) but also the semester they decide to implement a new system for their listening and speaking classes.  In an effort to reduce class sizes to promote increased participation from the students, each L&S class has been split in half.  This also means that there are twice as many classes as there are available rooms so 1 of every 2 classes they have each week is spent in either the Sound Lab or E-Learning.  While it is awesome that this school can afford such amenities and are actually putting them to use, they both have terrible atmospheres for a teacher trying to hold her student’s attention in a subject they have already written off as unimportant.

That said, most of my students are enjoyable to have.  However, I now understand a bit of the predicament that some of my fellow classmates put my teachers through in high school: some of the most entertaining students are also the laziest or hardest to control.  I also have a group of girls that sit off to the side and talk amongst themselves all class, but when it comes time for them to hand in the worksheet it is filled out and not copied.  I’m pretty sure that all of my students’ families are just rolling in money so they already have the mentality that they are set when it comes to their futures.  They will be going to great colleges either here in Bangkok or abroad in the US, Europe or Japan.  Their dads are the CEOs of some of the biggest companies in Thailand or hold government positions.  A decent portion of the students will spend at least a semester abroad in high school.   They also know that essentially, we can’t fail them.  There is some law in Thailand that allows kids to keep retaking tests they have failed until they get a passing grade.  Normally they take it once or twice and then the teacher will just grade in a way that is just above failing so they don’t have to deal with it anymore.  This in turns promotes me to think that if they aren’t going to try, I really shouldn’t as well.  I know that some effort is necessary.  Time drags by when you have to pull teeth to get students to go along with what you are trying to teach, but I also know that they will only humor me and participate for so long.

Overall, I’ve stopped worrying about how things will turn out.  Unless there’s another natural disaster or political unrest, I will be here through the end of my contract in March.  Once I finally get paid, I’m hoping that I’ll also have to desire to go out and actually get to know Bangkok a bit more.  I’ve basically been broke since I got here and cannot wait to know that if I wanted to, I could treat myself to a nice $4 dinner instead of my typical $1 of chicken and rice that I eat every meal I am not at school.

From sun to smog...

Aside from my little rant a week or so ago, I last left off with me leaving the gorgeous island of Phuket heading towards the big city of Bangkok.  We arrived in Bangkok 5am on a Thursday, by 6am I was waiting outside the GOT Building about to head into an interview in yoga pants and in need of a shower.  Thankfully, AYC has some pretty low standards and had no problem with how we looked seeing that they were hardly awake mainly due to the fact it was 6am.  Anyway, I signed my life away and was told to report back to the same place 5:45am the following morning.  Blake, Lizzy and I set off to an apartment/hotel that someone from AYC set up for us and proceeded to sleep most of the day away.

A little background on AYC: AYC is a teaching agency that also does a lot of English Camps, mainly during school breaks.  We just so happened to be getting to Bangkok right when the first semester was ending and their  break was starting, leaving us with the impression (well, that and the many reassurances from our boss) that October would be a crazy month filled with long stretches away at camp allowing us to rake in enough dough to make a decent enough living for the time being...  more on this in a bit.

Friday morning, Lizzy and I crawled out of our box of a room just after 5am after a cold shower and drying off with shirts due to a lack of basic amenities in our room.  We arrived, got our beautiful orange staff shirts and set off towards a school of screaming 6-9 year olds!  The kids were nuts!  Thankfully it was just a day long camp, but it help once again remind me that teaching loud, snotty kids is not the thing for me.  After struggling through lessons on shopping and professions with first graders more interested in coloring whatever worksheet I gave them, I got to try and teach them field day activites in the hot sun.  Around 4pm we got back into a taxi to head back across the city in rush hour to collect our 1,000 Baht (just over $30) and head back to get ready to celebrate/mourn Blake's last night in Thailand.  We tried to enjoy a night out on Khao San, but it fell a bit short of our last experience there, plus the fact that we all knew goodbyes were in order the following day.

Saturday started off strong with Lizzy having one of her worst skype (or any) conversation ever and dragged on in a bleak mood until we could wait no longer and had to bid farewell to Blake.  After a few tears and promises to meet back up stateside, our group was once again downsized until it was just Lizzy and I left.  Sunday was spent inside with the curtains drawn and only a few necessary food runs outside.

Monday marked the start of my first 3-day English Camp.  Lizzy and I were assigned different camps so while I boarded a bus headed to Khao Yai a few hours north of Bangkok, Lizzy was headed south to Hua Hin or some other beach resort.  The design of these camps is to allow the students to pay a decent chuck of money (which is nothing to them since most of their parents are loaded) to spend 3 days at a resort a few hours from the city to speak English and have a good time.  The resort I was at was just outside a national forest and our field trips on the way there included a stop at a mock Italian village in the middle of nowhere, a dairy farm (where the smell and sight of spotted cows made me miss home) which included a rodeo, petting zoo and an animal talent show.  During the camp we taught lessons on volcanoes and other natural disasters, built volcanoes, witnessed a terrible Halloween themed skit show and had a dance party.  After 3 long days where I worked nearly 15 hours every day and put up with some pretty odd coworkers, we arrived back in Bangkok and I received my envelope with 3,000 Baht (about $100) not nearly as much as I think I deserved.

One more night was spent in "the box" the hell-hole of a room in the middle of nowhere and one more morning was started with our alarms blaring before 5am.  Thankfully, Lizzy and I got a spot on the same camp.  It was nice to have an ally and the next group was a bit older, better at english and put on an entertaining talent show.  We got to tape fake news segments on the beach and the convenience store down the street had a cheap bottle of gin which made the talent show/blacklight dance all the more fun.  

One of the funnier moments of the camp came during an activity called "Pandora's Box".  The idea is that one person has a disease and the only cure is the box in the middle of the circle.  The catch is that in order to get rid of the first disease, you have to pick up a new one to pass on to another person in the large circle around the box.  To indicate your disease you have to walk, crawl, roll or just act goofy between the circle and the box, a different act to and from the cure.  Lizzy, as clever as always, decided her "disease" would be to stand in the middle of the room and clap.  The MC, Michael, proceeded to say "It looks like Lizzys got the Clap".  She then walked to another staff memeber in the circle and passed it on, thus giving James the Clap.  He began to clap quite feriously which prompted Michael to say, "And James has a serious case of the Clap"  Sadly, Lizzy and I were the only two to get the joke.  This is definitely a "you had to be there" moment, but I hope it brings a smile to one of your faces.

Well this post has dragged on long enough, I'll be back again soon to add more updates and stories.

Please excuse this break from our normal programming...

I know I still have catching up to do, but I felt the need (more so for my own sake than anyone else’s) to update about my current situation.  First off, I sincerely meant to write a Thanksgiving post writing all about what I’m thankful for this year and all that stuff.  Unfortunately, I’ve let another week of sitting around doing nothing get in the way.  However, the past few days I’ve been in a bit of a funk again so I just want to take the time now to send out my deepest thanks to all my friends and family members who have taken the time to hear me out, put up with my (mostly useless, endless, childish) complaining, and offering up your words of wisdom, condolence, and support!

For those who care, here are a few of the things that have me feeling a little down:

• I’m been feeling incredibly homesick;
• It’s the holidays (part of the reason I think I’m feeling so homesick);
• I have no idea what to expect from teaching and the fact that the start date is now set and starts on Tuesday, I’m beginning to freak out,
• I’ve been part of the worst floods to hit Thailand in over 60 years, and lastly;
• I’m more or less broke and just found out that the money I was supposed to paid two days ago (only half on my normal monthly salary) will now be included in next month’s pay…if they decide to give it to me at all, that is.

I realize that most of these things are pretty superficial or materialistic and the fact that I am conscious of this makes me fall deeper into this little pity party I have been throwing for myself as of late.  Of course I miss my family.  Who wouldn’t miss getting to spend time, especially the holidays, with a group of people who support me no matter what, are entertaining as hell, put up with me when I’m acting my weirdest and insult me for no reason other than I’m easy to pick on.   Of course I’ll miss spending the holidays at home!  I personally enjoy the whole Christmas (or to be more P.C. “holiday”) spirit.  I’m bummed I don’t get to help cut down a tree, decorate my house, jam out to Christmas music in my car, and gorge myself on yummy food simply because it’s the holidays.  I have every right to be nervous to teach, most people go to school for 4+ years to be a teacher, I had 4 weeks of training.  My practice teaching was with 6-11 year olds and will now be teaching high school students.  I don’t have a book or set curriculum to go off of and have no freaking clue how to go about accurately assessing a student’s speaking and listening skills….yet.

Therefore, I’ve been trying to remind myself the positives of my situation:

• I’m in freakin' Bangkok;
• It is sunny and in the 80’s or 90’s everyday;
• It is early December and I am not all pasty white, but in fact have a nice tan;
• I’ve had the chance to explore the ancient ruins of Angkor Wat, bask on the beaches and surf the waves in Phuket, snorkel off of Koh Phi Phi, sleep under a mosquito net in a bungalow less than 100m from the beach in Koh Samet, volunteer to raise money to help the many Thai people affected by the floods, made friends with people from all over the world, is on a first name basis with the food vendor down the street and can essentially nod my head to signal “the usual”

 I could go on, but it should be obvious by now that I have it pretty darn good and have no right to complain.  I have a nice apartment with an awesome roommate who puts up with me even when I decide it’s okay to wear my towel as a cape and hop from bed to bed or tell one of my meandering stories that struggle to reach it’s original conclusion.  I have had not one, not two, but three jobs in the past two months and while the pay hasn’t been all that great nor the work steady, I’ve at least had work to do and some money coming in.  Not only did my apartment stay dry in the floods, my neighborhood failed to see any water.  I have my great parents back home who are all too willing to help me financially…I’ve just refused to accept most of it.  Moreover, I have my health.  Besides the one scare where I thought I had malaria…I didn’t.

In the end, I just want to apologize to everyone who’s had to listen to me complain, but also thank you for just letting me vent for a bit.  I know that once classes start I will have significantly less time to just sit around and overanalyze.  While I hope that this means that time will fly by so I get to go home and help my friend, Cassie, celebrate her wedding, I also hope that I don’t allow this great experience I’ve been given just pass me by.  So I’m asking of anyone who reads this to encourage me to keep going out and seeing this great city and exploring what other parts of the country I can before I go…once I get paid again, though.  Thanks for hearing me out, and now I will get back to posting pretty pictures and telling funny stories as to make you insanely jealous of me! J