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.
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