November's Adventures in Teaching

The beginning of November, I left Ban Phe for Bangkok. The position that I mentioned in August working for the Princess came back up. After telling them I did not want to commit to a long term position, I thought that gig was out the window. However I received an email the last week of October, saying they really needed someone, even if only for a short while. So I met up with Su, the woman I had been communicating with about the position (who is wonderful). After a quick discussion about commitments, Su got her driver and he took us to the school ... which is not teaching monks, and it is the nicest school I have ever seen, in Thailand or the US. It is in the middle of Siam, which is an area flooded with high class, fancy, Vegas-ish malls (without the clubs), but the students are all from very low income families. Basically to cut to the chase … I took the job, after making sure they understood that my family comes first, and should I need to come home, I would leave, and I needed two weeks off for when Mike was here … Not a problem. They were awesome and understanding about everything. Here is a link to an article about the school telling about its history http://bangkokpost.net/education/site2007/cvnv0607.htm. One of the women they talk about, Adisai, is the head of the English department … A lovely lovely woman.

So I moved into the Princess’ Palace the next day (yup … the Palace). So what if I don’t actually live on the same side of the compound as Princess Sirindhorn? I live with the people who work on the grounds (and their kids … some of which are my students). The place is awesome. I have a separate living room, a kitchenette, a bedroom, a bathroom, a TV, a DVD player, a stereo, a couch, a dining room table, a balcony, a bed, extra blankets, a fridge, pots, pans, silverware, washing machine, dinner delivered to me nightly, a fruit basket delivered every other day ... need I go on? It does have its down sides … I have to wear a collared shirt and long pants or a skirt any time I leave my room, and in the beginning, the kids would come in and take over my apartment without much regard to the fact that I live here. I finally hung up posters for them so they would know how to ask for things and whatnot (that is some of my only décor, aside from the pictures they draw, of course). I also cannot have visitors past 8pm (although I don’t know who I would invite over anyway) … Which brings me to my biggest con … It’s lonely. I am the only westerner at the Palace and at the school and no one speaks English well enough to have a fluid conversation without any explanation, which is exhausting. In turn, I haven’t really met anyone but the kids, and my co-teachersin Bangkok. Some times I’m fine with it, and some times I’m bored and lonely.

The day after moving into my place, I started teaching. I am teaching 6 classes over the course of 10 hours every week. They are all M1 to M3 (which is the equivalent to about 7th grade to 9th grade). They are a blast. I am by far most happy when I’m at the school with them. I’m not sure what I was thinking when I second-guessed my desire for teaching after college. Unfortunately, I love it, and I know I’ll be overworked and underpaid, but I really don’t care.

My second week of teaching, I got to see Princess Sirindhorn. It was an amazing experience. I walked out with Rin (one of my co-teachers), wearing one of her XS purple suit jackets (I couldn’t move my upper body), to the temple in front of the school to see a red carpet that we could not walk on and floods of people. We had front row spots, because we are teachers at the school. Guards came around perfectly lined us up, and I was “taught” how to curtsy when she walked by. When she pulled up (she rode in an S500, in case any SBAG-ers are reading this ☺) the crowd roared with cheer. I have never seen anything like it. When she walked by, she made eye contact with me, which Rin thought was the really cool … And so did I, but I also I thought I stood out like a sore thumb. I stood about 3 inches taller than everyone around me and was wearing a bright yellow shirt with a really small, bright purple jacket. It was an amazing experience despite being hot, immobile, and looking out of place.

I was able to spend one weekend in Ban Phe with Jenny, and one night out with some of the TEFL-ers from one of the courses I observed in October … So it hasn’t been all work and no play.

Stay tuned … I haven’t even gotten to Mike’s 2 week visit yet!