Teach Teacher

Week 1

I arrived in Thailand on Monday May 7^th after leaving the U.S. on Saturday May 5th at 3:00pm.  I had a 9 hour lay-oa total time change from New York to Bangkok is 11 hours.  At the airport I got a Taxi to take me to the bus terminal which was about a 30 minute drive.  Then I took a 6 hour bus to Surin.  I arrived at about 9pm at night.  The flights were very nice, I used American Airlines and Cathay Airlines.  The bus from Bankok to Surin was amazing.  The bus was spacious with reclining chairs and foot rests allowing you to lay completely horizontally.  There was air conditioning, comfortable seats and snacks, food and drinks served throughout the journey.  Compared to anything I ever used in the East Africa region this was heaven.  I was awoken when I arrived in Surin by the women sitting next to me.  Luckily I had been asked where I was going so she knew to wake me up.  English is not spoken even by the educated population so it was a lot of motions and such to figure out what she meant. 

When I arrived in Surin, I was groggy, exhausted, and just wanted a shower and a 24 hour nap.  I was picked up by some of the teachers and the landlord of the apartment where I will spend my first month.  There were 2 other foreigners on my bus and I thought nothing of it.  It turns out they both worked at my school too.  One was even the other kindergarten teacher for a different class.  When I got my baggage off the bus I was then told that school was actually starting the following day.  I was so confused I was assured it would be no problem to arrive a week late and that school would not be starting until the 15^th.  Well, welcome to Thailand, things change at the last minute, they decided they wanted the kindergarteners to start with half days a week early to get them used to school.   

The next morning I was expected to start work at 7:30am.  When I got to my apartment I bought some toilet paper and toothbrush and toothpaste and then scrabbled into bed for what I thought would be a easy good night’s sleep.  It unfortunately was not I woke up at 3am wide wide awake.  And could not fall back asleep.  My first week I went to bed around 8pm and woke up just a little bit later every day.  It took about a week to adjust. 

My first week of teaching went somewhat smoothly.  There are 3 other Thai people in the classroom with me at all times. There is a nanny whose job it is to take the students to the bathroom and clean up after them.  There is also my Thai assistant who translates between me the students and the Thai teacher.  Which brings me to the third teacher the experienced Thai teacher who speaks only Thai but has been teaching for 32 years. 

Our daily schedule goes as follows: arrival at 7:30, flag ceremony 8:00- 8:20, health check 8:20-8:25, songs 8:25-8:45, news and new English phrases 8:45-9:10, drinking milk 9:10-9:30, creative activity 9:30-10:30, independent activity or open play 10:30-11:00, lunch 11:00-11:30, nap time 11:30-2:30, (gym, computer or music classes) 2:30-3:00, closing ceremony 3:00-3:20, parent pickup 3:30-4:30, home 4:30.