day 4

4th day in the city:
The past two days have been full of training and preparation to start teaching next week. I will be teaching 2nd through 6th grade English at Chaipithayapat School, which was given to the Princess’s foundation to takeover. We visited the school on Wednesday, it’s in Tomburi (a “town” on the other side of the river from Bangkok). Right now its being remodeled for the new school year, it’s being painted all purple and white, the colors of the Princess. It seems like her foundation is investing a lot of money into making it a good school for the community. Yesterday and today we (Christina and me) went to Yamsa-ard school; they have two campuses in the city and one somewhere else. We observed classes and got teaching materials, it seems pretty straightforward from what I can tell. All the lesson plans are made and so forth. Today we had lunch on the side of some road in some suburb of Bangkok with an Italian man who lived in Denmark who is now teaching English in Thailand. Random. We all shared a cab back to the city with another teacher, Guy who is from all over, but most recently left his accounting job in Boston to move here for his girlfriend. Just a little warm up to all the random stories/people I will come across during the next year. Right now I am off to aerobics in the park…yes a way to get Thai people into shape; free, public aerobics….can’t wait to make a foreign fool of myself.

here

I'm here! The trip over was swell.. On the long flight I sat by a girl, Rainbow, she was from Taipei and didn't speak a word of english. This did not keep her from telling me that Jesus love me and showing me over 300 pictures and videos she took on her trip to LA. She liked faking people out and filming them while they thought they were being photographed. She may have taken a few shots of me sleeping too. weird. I think she went to some sort of revival. I managed to comunicate with the universal head nod, smile, and the occasional thumbs up. She was a strong believer in prayer because everytime we hit turbulance she prayed out loud frantically in Mandarin...once for about 20 minutes. Any fear I could have of flyign was muted out by that.
In other news, I'm here. Yesterday was our first training day at the Palace school. We set up a banking acount, got cell phones and then Christina and me went to tour our school. Our school is about a 45 minute commute, which we are going to test out for a few weeks to decide if we want to move closer. The school is being remodeled and painted all purple and white (the colors of the Princess). This is the first year it has been under her patronage/ adopted by her foundation. Our supervisor person, Apple, is very kind and will provide us with all of the curriculum to teach. There are only about 160 students grade k-6 so one of us will take the little ones and the other grade school. We haven't decide quite yet who will do which.
Bangkok is crazy, you have to be constantly aware of traffic and zooming motorcycles. There is so much contrast here, from wealth to color to just about anything that was once common to me in Waco. The food is great, and pretty cheap once I figure out the local spots. It's VERY humid, who knew a body could sweat so much, it doesn't bother me too much since there really isn't anything I can do about it, just drink lots of water so I don't pass out.
Today we will go over curriculum and get thing rolling to start teaching on the 1st. I may go to the public aerobics in the park...its pretty redunk, but I am all about making myself look even more foolish while here.
I can't think of what else to say, I miss you all dearly. Cheers.

it had to start sometime

Hello there,

It's true, I am moving to Bangkok for 10 months one week after I graduate. Yes, I am graduating... B.A. in International Studies. What do you do with that? Move to Thailand and teach for 10 months!

So with no further ado, here it is, my new and improved blog! (Much more sophisticated than that Xanga junk). If you care about me enough to type/save this address you can read about my day-to-day adventures, life lessons, and overall experience teaching English in Thailand. Enjoy.