Teaching in Phra Pradaeng Thailand

View from my balcony

So the last place I left off was Devon and I returning to Bangkok from Chiang Mai. As stated in the last blog, Devon's job had yet to start because of the flooding so she decided she would stay at my place until things figured themselves out. Once we got off of our bus from Chiang Mai, we hopped in a taxi to my apartment in Phra Pradaeng, about a 20 minute taxi ride south of central Bangkok.

The next day was my first day of teaching, and I felt I was walking into it blindly as I still hadn't heard from the school about what I would be teaching. Once I arrived there was a lady named Sassy who was assigned to help me with my classes for the first two days. I will admit that is was nice to have her there. I also met the other ESL teacher at the school who is a man in his late forties named Rob.

The first week of school, my game plan was to be strict so I could show the kids who was in charge, and then ease up on them in the following weeks once the boundaries had been put in place. The plan was going over really well with all my classes, from the second graders all the way up to the sixth graders. It was working great until.... the first graders showed up. I have to admit that at that point in time I was not ready to teach 1st graders. Disciplining older kids, and disciplining first graders are two different things. If you lose control of your first grade class even for a few moments you can kiss the rest of the class period goodbye. I remember the first day I had first graders, which are two classes of them on Wednesday's. After the bell rang I had their attention for about five minutes before the foundation of my class collapsed. One minute they were sitting quietly listening, the next they were running around the class, giving each other piggy back rides, and dragging each other along the floor. When I attempted to stop a few kids the rest of the kids would go wild, and then when I attempted to stop another group and turned my back to the first group the original group would go wild again. When I got home from class on that Wednesday I told Devon how much I was owned by my first graders. She kind of laughed and told me about her relaxing day by the pool reading and swimming.

The same day Devon told me she had finally got a job, and would be moving to her school the following day, Thursday. She told me she would be back later that week either on Friday or Saturday to pick up her bag, and also so we could have a pizza and beer night on Friday. The next few days of class went a lot more smoothly and I finally figured out how to get along with my first graders.

By Friday evening I was ready for a pizza and beer night, and Devon told me this reminded her of her days of girl talk back at UCSB and how she missed them. I told her we could girl talk so she attempted, but after a short while told me I sucked at it. The rest of the weekend went by pretty quickly and uneventfully. Devon and I walked to the Big C, which is a lot like a Walmart in the states. It is the place where I go when I want a little homely comfort. Big box retail store, flourescent lights, and the likes. I find it pretty funny that when I want a little homely comfort I go to a place that reminds me of Walmart, that says something. On Sunday Devon left and I prepared for my next week of classes.

The second week I was still quite strict with the students, and I had finally began getting the first graders under control. My discipline runs from staring at them, moving them around, making them stand in the back of the class with their arms out, and hugging a pole outside. This tends to work with varying degrees depending on the class and the grade. The second week Rob and I also agreed that we would begin testing the kids the following week, because of the amount of class kids miss due to assemblies.

That was the last full week of classes that we had with the kids up until the writing of this blog at the end of December, nearly two months of class, without one week being a full week of 24 classes. That weekend I headed into Bangkok to buy some used books and ended up meeting with Devon, and spent half of the day in Bangkok with her. She was going to hang out with some friends, because it was Thanksgiving, and I was going to head back to my apartment. I remember that we ended up getting very tasty salads that were jam packed with vegetables. Yum Yum.

The next week was an interesting week. I finally started relaxing the rules with the kids as they had learned what they were and were not allowed to do in the class. While I was walking my kids to lunch on Tuesday, I was talking to one of my students and I ended up running into a low overhang-- SE Asia walkways are not built for Westerners. I ended up bleeding profusely, a lot of the kids were shocked, and I ended up getting six stitches in my forehead. I can drive a motobike through the jungle at night while it is raining, can waterslide down rocky waterfalls, and backpack through Burma without getting injured, but I can't say the same about walking kids to lunch at school. The school was extremely friendly about it, and told me if I needed to I could take the rest of the week off and it wouldn't be a problem. My head really didn't hurt that bad so I decided against the offer, although it was very kind. They were surprised when I showed up the next day, but I think were slightly impressed. The director of the English department, this stern old Thai woman who will still give students a good whack on the hand with a piece of bamboo, came up to me and gave my a huge hug. She told me "My son! Are you alright? Do you need anything? I am happy you are okay." I was completely shocked and I was the one who was kind of awkward when she gave me the hug, which is kind of opposite in Thailand where hugs are not nearly as common as they are in the West. It was still an extremely kind gesture and I appreciated it.

The clinic where I got my stitches was funny because the doctor and nurses were all female. This led to a lot of Thai gossip. When I got my stitches the doctor told me I had to come in everyday for seven days to have them cleaned, where else can you get stitches, have them cleaned everyday, and taken out for 20 dollars? Well anyways as the week was passing along I found it kind of overkill that she was having me go in everyday, but I still liked it as it helped in reducing the scar. I realized halfway through the week that they were having me go in everyday for their gossip!! I started to notice that when I would walk in they would all fix their hair before I got in and would shuffle around, my suspicians came to a head when the nurses all asked me for my Facebook and phone number. I didn't mind too much as I stated above it helped the improvement of my scar, was all in good humor, and can't say I minded the attention.

That weekend Devon came back to my apartment to wash my hair for me as I wasn't allowed to get my face wet due to the stitches. She also came to help me get rid of my SECOND case of lice that she so kindly gave me most likely in Chiang Mai. In order to say thanks I decided to go watch Twilight with her, and you must understand that this was my first ever involvement with Twilight. I can't say I was overly impressed with the film, but it was nice to watch a movie in the cinema. This was also the weekend of the kings birthday, so the Sunday night market I go to was even bigger as it had carnival games, along with the usual clothing and items to buy, and the music that occurs on the stage.

On the Monday night of his actual birth their were fireworks right outside of my window, on the field of the elementary school. They were exploding right above my apartment, which was really cool to watch. Never in the U.S. would you be able to get that class to fireworks as to have them explode right over your head. The explosions are honestly quite loud and being on the 13th floor, gave me a front row view to the fireworks.

The following week which was my fourth week of teaching began to become quite fun. I was at this point able to joke around with the kids and have a good time in class, but still keep order as well. It is also nice going to school and having kids rush up to you left and right every moment you are outside of your classroom saying teacher teacher how are you!! The kids love foreign teachers, and always want to touch you, even if it is just a quick touch of the hand. On that weeks Tuesday I went to the Big C to buy some scar ointment and ended up buying some soymilk as well. When I was checking out I told the cashier I didn't need a bag and he could throw my receipt away. By the time I got to customer service in order to get my bag that I checked, a security woman came up and told the gentleman who was giving me my bag to ask to see my receipt. When I told him I didn't have it he called out his manager and she very rudely said "May I help you?" and I said yeah you can let me leave. And she said "Can I see your receipt?" I said "No, but I can take you to the cashier who sold it to me if you want." and she said yes.

I stormed off towards the cashier who sold it to me and asked him to please tell the manager I bought the soymilk. When he confirmed it I gave the security woman a death look saying in my head is that good enough for you? But she was too embarrassed to look me in the eyes. I stormed off back to customer service with the manager following close behind saying sorry sir sorry! I didn't stop and when I got to customer service I placed the receipt on the desk and said "Can I leave now?" I grabbed my bag and left before anyone could say anything. All of this happened because I was trying to be environmental and didn't want to use a bag!!

That weekend I decided to stay in the area and explore where I lived since I hadn't yet. I ended up walking to this really cool park that is under a major bridge and sits right on the river. You can sit in the shade of the huge expanse of the bridge reading a book, while watching the huge cargo ship slowly mosey up and down the river. There were also kids diving into the river at the park and plenty of people playing football.

The next week of classes, my fifth week went much like the fourth and was very enjoyable. It went by very quickly as I was preparing for my mom and Paul to come the following weekend. I began getting a lot of compliments from teachers about my class control. I guess last semester or previous semesters there was a lot of noise complaints from teachers whose classes were close to mine due to the amount of noise and one of the academic offices is right below my classroom, and they said it used to be hard to get work done because of all the stomping on the ceiling. They said the complaints and the stomping ended once I arrived. One of the teachers went as far as to tell me that she believed I was there really wanting to teach the kids. Which I took as a very nice compliment. There had been a lot of trouble with the teachers who filled my position the previous semester, as there was three of them in one term!!

That is all I am going to write for this blog, and I will update it soon with my weekend trip to Koh Samet.

Phra Pradaeng.

Park by my apartment.

Sunday night market.

My classroom.