happy groundhog day?

today is groundhog day. marking the holiday while in bangkok, i have realized what a bizarre holiday it is. it really doesn't translate to a tropical nation like thailand (or countries in the southern hemisphere- like australia). the "cool" season is pretty much over now. we have even started getting some rain- this afternoon there was a real thunderstorm. apparently it is very unusual to get rain this early in the year.

well, i'm almost one week closer to the end. earlier this week i bought my ticket home- its official, i will be back in the good ol' u.s. of a. on may 2! so close- and yet so much to do before then. but i am glad to have a set end date, so that plans can become more certain. here are the basics of the weeks to come:

- six weeks of school
- david arrives as school ends- then a week in northern thailand, and some classic bangkok tourism.
- move out of my apartment.
- travel through laos and vietnam
- fly home!!

well, off to bed now. hope everything goes well with the groundhogs back home!

year of the Dragon begins...

well, its a new year and so i'm returning to my neglected blog. i'll have to do a very quick summary of the last almost six months. the first term ended well. there were moments of stress, but it all ended with me getting on plane back to the states. i had a wonderful visit back in raleigh for a couple weeks at the start of october. when i came back my parents came with me. we arrived in a very bizarre and confusing situation. thailand was just realizing the extent of the flooding disaster it would experience. the water was starting to move south. we managed to salvage the visit, somewhat. we went to khao yai and did our jungle trek- saw some wild animals, including holding a scorpion and a mass exodus of bats from a cave. the only difficulty we dealt with was the lack of stock in the grocery stores. due to a flood of contradictory and vague information, people had over stocked on necessities like water and rice so the shelves were pretty empty. my parents flew off during my first week of extended vacation. in the end, my october break was extended by six weeks. i was lucky that my part of the city stayed dry, but countless thai people in other parts of bangkok were devastated by water up to a meter high. for me it was a fairly quiet couple of months- enjoying the free time, but never sure of when school would start up again.

we returned to school at the beginning of december. the second term had to be rearranged a great deal to make up for the additional six weeks of break. the most significant changes were the canceling of christmas break and a two week extension into march. and now i am just focusing on work, trying to deal with the unusual situations that keep changing.

while i was back in raleigh, i settled my decision to move back at the end of my contract (march 16). there are many thoughts and feelings that went into that final decision, so i'll just sum up a few of them. first of all, i am floundering a little with my teaching- it is such a different situation than the one i trained and planned to do. here i am teaching four different classes (one hundred boys) and only one subject. i am doing ok, but as a new teacher i don't think i am establishing the best practices for the future. so i want to go home and teach in an american elementary school for a few years. i need stability and consistency to develop basic teaching skills. all in all, i believe i can be a great teacher, but i am not there now and i don't feel that i am even on the right path here. i can see moving abroad again in the future, but now is not the right time. also, asia is just such a foreign world to me. there are several things i really like about living here, but on the whole i just want to be back in the western world. one year has been good, but i am ready for the adventure end. i am tired of the rootless feeling of the last few years.

well, i am going to try to actually use this blog over the next few months. so this is hopefully the start of a year of more blogging.

Renewal Part 1

i am embarrassed at how awful i have been at keeping this up to date. i don't know that anyone is reading it, but since i haven't been writing in my regular journal either i figure i'll try to make the most of this venue for thoughts. it is terrible how not writing becomes a vicious cycle with me. i am absentminded enough to forget for a while, and then so much time has passed that i don't know where to start, and then as time continues to pass more things happen. next thing you know, it is almost two months later and i've written nothing. so to take the pressure off, i am just going to write about right now. i'll try to catch up with the past two months later.

just got back from my first visit to the bangkok hard rock cafe. one of the teachers from work was celebrating her birthday. it was a nice dinner out. hard rock cafe has held a special place in my heart throughout my travels. it is something of a safety blanket. i always know it is there when i need something familiar. and tonight it felt like a little piece of america. i also enjoyed some good company. there are some great people teaching with me at assumption. of course the topic of next year came up. my feelings concerning next year are currently mid pendulum swing. but i'll write those thoughts out later.

tomorrow will be the end of a long week. we are learning about fractions right now, and some of the boys are really struggling. since i am teaching one hundred boys, it is difficult to address all of their different levels. the usual challenge of differentiation in instruction is multiplied in this situation, especially as a new teacher. i get so frustrated with my own limitations and inexperience in this area. all i can do is learn from past mistakes and keep trying to get better. and i do think i am getting slowly better...but it's positive change.

well, good night, dear cyberverse. so much more to update soon.

Election Day

now for a very sketchy intro to Thai politics.

today is election day. on the personal "how does this affect me?" level, the country is dry from 6pm saturday until midnight tonight. in other words, no alcohol can be purchased (there are signs roping off the liquor section of my local market).

on the streets, i have been inundated with the upcoming election by a flood of campaign posters. they are displayed along the sidewalks, often one poster ever few feet. the posters themselves are very interesting. i am sure my reception of them is largely shaded by the fact that i cannot understand the words. they present the candidate's form prominently, almost life size. they remind me a great deal of real estate agent ads back home.

A very little taste of the campaign posters along the sidewalk.

in addition to the candidate, each poster has a party number. apparently, on the ballot you vote for a party by their number. so far i have seen numbers up to 33- wow.

my understanding of the actual political issues is much hazier than my observations of the advertising. these are the elections that were agreed upon at the end of the tensions between red shirts and yellow shirts last may. i know that Thaksin's sister is running for prime minister for party 1. Thaksin is the former prime minister living outside Thailand since being ousted in a bloodless coup in 2006 (he faces corruption charges here). despite the large number of parties on the ballot, the race is basically between two parties- the current ruling party and Thaksin's opposition party. well, i won't try to say anything else about that, since i am not confident enough in my own understanding of the situation. there is some concern as to the reaction of the election from the losing party. so, i'll try to update again soon.

*update: Thaksin's sister Yingluck Shinawatra won yesterday's election. now we just wait and see what happens next...*

School Takes Off

i am a little embarrassed to return to this blog- it has been so long since i last posted. i am in the middle of week 6 in the school year. that also means i am only one week away from the first exam period. they take their exams very seriously in thailand. even in primary school, they have four exams a year (one for each quarter). not only do they have to take exams in each subject, but there is more than one! for example, in math they have three different exams to take- they are different formats. one is a multiple choice exam, the second is short answer and the third is a problem solving exam. i feel bad for the stress and work these kids have to deal with- it is done in all grades!

but i need to backtrack some to fill in the blanks of the last six weeks. school got off to a running start with just one fairly significant snag: no math books. the publisher had sent the old edition of the math books, and of course this wasn't noticed until the day school started. this began several weeks of suspense. we sent the wrong books back, and struggled to move forward through lessons built around the three books (textbook, workbook, and homework book). in the end, it meant making a lot of copies- so much paper. we were told the correct books would arrive "early june". which is sufficiently vague to make every day full of hope, and eventual disappointment. i did end up getting the textbooks after a week. that saved very little paper though, as the workbooks and homework books are where the boys have all their practice. but we made it through and the books finally arrived week 4. and thus began the process of re-training the kids and myself to use the books instead of the pages of worksheets i had gotten used to.

enough of that, let me talk some about the kids. i am teaching 100 boys (it was 99, but last week we got a new boy so we are up to 100!). overall, they are a good group. each class has one or two boys with a disruptive lack of focus, but in the end they are good kids. there are many excellent boys that are a pleasure to teach. i really lucked out, because math is one of their favorite and best subjects here (fewer esl issues). there are also a fair number of supremely lazy boys, however. it is definitely different to be in an expensive private school. these boys are pampered and babied at home to a great extent. i really can't complain, though, we have a good grade. the team of teachers certainly helps. i am working with four other excellent teachers, and we have a good working dynamic. as i am teaching in level 2, which is run much the same as secondary school back home, we all teach all the boys. that makes for a great source of support or just a sounding board.

at week 6, i am starting to settle into a nice routine. aside from work, i have been going to yoga in the evenings three times a week, and then on saturday morning as well. i am totally hooked. i am going with one of my new friends, emma. cynthia also comes on a regular basis. on tuesdays, i am taking a DELF preparation course at the bangkok alliance francaise. my participation (and even attendance) has been somewhat half-hearted though. next week is the last session of this course, and i am looking forward to it ending. though i enjoy the course, after a long day of work i don't often feel like going to a 2 and a half hour course. if it was just an hour or so i would have no problem- but 150 min. just seems so long. the exam is in november- i still haven't decided if i will take it. we shall see.

unfortunately, my grade coordinator has gone back to australia for a couple weeks after the death of his mother. it is so very sad. in addition to not seeing him in the office, i am helping out by covering his homeroom responsibilities. this has upset my routine somewhat. hopefully things will calm down with his return next week and the exam period will give me some time to gather myself for the next quarter. we have a four day weekend (thanks to a couple buddhist holidays) between the exams and the next test period.

well, i'm going to go ahead and post this. i will try to write more school and life details soon.

"Summer"

well, summer vacation is coming to an end. the school year starts up in just a few days. i am both excited and anxious to be working again.

summer school was an interesting limbo period of time, and a great way to ease into work at a new school. everything went really well, and i'm really looking forward to spending the school year as part of this team. the english program operates like a school within a school. the entire primary school houses over 3,000 students. the english program includes about 600 of those students. there are about 30 faculty members in the english program. starting in Grade 4, they have different teachers for each subject, much like what happens in middle school back home. the main difference is that the students don't change classrooms, instead the teachers come to them. as the math teacher, i will be teaching math to the four Grade 4 classes and all 100 students. surprisingly, though summer school is optional, we had about half of the incoming Grade 4 students. the students were split into just two groups, so it was pretty much the same size of the classes during the school year. i was team teaching with gary. gary is also one of the few americans in the faculty. he teaches PE to grades 3, 4, and 5. he has a Grade 4 homeroom though, so he is officially part of the Grade 4 team. it was great to work with him during summer school. we spent the four weeks of summer school primarily using worksheets to review math topics covered in Grade 3.

the last few weeks of vacation went by in a blur. aside from a short trip down to koh tao, i spent the time settling into my life in bangkok. koh tao was wonderful- i enjoyed my first scuba diving experience. our scuba instructor was great and the dive was incredible. the underwater world was so beautiful and multivalent. it took a little while to get the hang of moving around underwater. i'm not going to lie, i did bump into a couple coral formations. oops, so not on purpose. i also need to work on not breathing through my nose- my mask kept getting fogged up, which kind of takes away from the vibrancy of the colors underwater. in addition to the diving, we found a restaurant with a delicious and cheap steak meal. it was a great, though short, trip with some good friends.

in bangkok, i used my new paycheck to register for a preparation course at the Alliance Française. it is preparation for the DELF exam, and meets once a week in the evening. i am glad to be using my french again- i am a little embarrassed how much of the official grammar i have forgotten in the years since i studied it formally in school. so much to review. i am also enjoying being a student again, even if it is only part time.

well, i better get some rest before i return to the daily grind of full time work. tomorrow is like at teacher work day for us to prepare our classrooms and get in some professional training. wednesday is when the kids return to school. one of the most exciting things to happen tomorrow, is i will finally get my schedule. the kids only have math four times a week, and i am teaching all four classes- so i'm not quite sure how that is going to break down to how much i teach each day. all that will become clear tomorrow.

Songkran

the biggest holiday of the year in thailand was celebrated recently. it is the thai new year, called songkran. the holiday officially lasts three days, april 13-15, but everyone gets the entire week as vacation from work. since summer school was closed for the week, the school celebration was held on friday. the holiday is celebrated with water. it was traditionally performed as a quiet ceremony in which water was poured over each other's hands as a symbol of washing away the old year in preparation of the new year start. it has since become a country-wide water fight. on friday, at school, there was a school wide assembly that began with the traditional enactment of thai dance and water poured over the school leaders' hands. it then devolved into a water fight. the students had brought their water guns- it was impressive display.

i took advantage of the holiday week to visit pam and co. down in krabi. pam, andy, and ali moved down there at the beginning of march. i took an overnight bus (it is a nice 12 hour ride) down on friday, arriving saturday morning. and after a short time at the bus office, i saw pam, andy and ali drive up on their motorbikes. krabi is a great little town. apparently, it was quieter than usual due to the holiday- also i think many people changed their plans to travel south after the recent floods. krabi town was not badly damaged from the rains. much of the damage and scary stories were focused on the eastern coast and islands. after dropping off my bags at pam's place we were back in town for breakfast.

pam and ali are renting apartments on the first floor of a house. there are three small rooms, and a bathroom- but they came unfurnished. as of now, only the bare minimum has been purchased- so just sleeping furniture. that meant an adorable chaise lounge/sofa for me in the front room. it is definitely different than what i have gotten accustomed to in bangkok. there is no air conditioner or kitchen/fridge (which means we ate out for every meal). but it is a nice, basic residence. the first day we just relaxed before going into town for a nice italian dinner and wandering through the night markets. sunday we went to the nearby tiger temple. the tiger temple is on top of a mountain, and one gets there after climbing over 1,200 steps. ali and i took our time walking up (which meant a liberal number of breaks), whereas pam and andy seemed to climb up nonstop. the view at the top is incredible and well worth the climb. i was not expecting the awe inspiring cliffs spread throughout the krabi area.

the next day, we were off to ton sai for some rock climbing. we first drove over to ao nang, where we were able to get a longtail boat to ton sai. though ton sai is on the mainland, because of the cliffs and general landscape the only way to get there is by boat. upon arrival, we went to the hotel that they have used in the past, called the forest. they have simple guesthouses, complete with mosquito nets over the beds. after lunch we took a little hike/climb over to the neighboring railay beach. after returning to ton sai beach, we had a nice swim.  we left the guesthouses for dinner, and within minutes of leaving the shelter it began raining. the rain soon turned to a torrent. we took refuge in a bar along the path. we stayed there for about an hour, having some drinks and playing jenga. soon enough the rain slowed and we finally made it through the mud to utopia, a delicious indian restaurant on the beach.

the next morning we were off for our rock climbing. our rock climbing instructor, porn, was wonderful. after setting up with harnesses and shoes, we made the walk over to railay where we were going to be climbing. it was fun and challenging. i did pretty well with the first climb, but quickly lost the momentum in the next two climbs. andy, pam, and ali all did very well- reaching the top of all four climbs.

after the climb, we waited for a bit before getting a longtail boat back to ao nang. unfortunately, upon returning to the motorbikes we found that two of our helmets had been stolen. oh well, we safely made it back to krabi and got more helmets.

the next day was the start of the official holiday. just riding into town for lunch, i got a bucket of water dumped on me. after a nice quiet lunch in krabi town, we decided to head off to ao nang for the big celebration. the drive was a bit nerve-wracking. to begin with, the roadside was lined with groups of people with tubs of water and buckets who would try to pour the buckets of water over passing motorbikes and drivers. much of the traffic was made of pick up trucks carrying groups of people with tubs of water and buckets. these were throwing water on other drivers while in motion. the entire spectacle was so unexpected. we made it safely to ao nang, and parked on the outskirts of town. upon walking into town we stopped to buy waterguns so we could participate. i should say, we were basically wet through by the time we parked. it was an exhilarating and absurd experience. we walked into town trading water shots with the pick up trucks caught in stop and go traffic and groups on the sidewalks. as we went along, we were also marked with powders or colored substances (of the consistency of paint) on our cheeks and foreheads. it was a lot of fun. i had not been in a water fight since i was a kid, and it was a very exciting and good natured fun. it was great to see the complete joy and friendliness. there was no kind of malice or mean-ness present as people dumped buckets of ice cold water over our heads. the ice cold water was particularly shocking. after going through town, we turned around and began the walk back to the bikes. at this point the traffic was even heavier, and the street had turned into a one way street. so once we started the drive back we were forced to go back through town. the drive out of town was done by weaving in and out amongst the cars. we were moving slowly enough that people would step out into the middle of the road to stop us and pour water over us or brush the powder on us. as we were leaving town, it began to rain and the temperature dropped. but the water fight continued. we eventually made it back to krabi and showers and dry clothes. unfortunately i don't have any pictures as i didn't want to risk my camera. but i took some pictures later of us with our water guns.

the next couple days we just relaxed and recovered. there wasn't much holiday celebration in krabi town over the next few days, though i have heard that it continued through friday in bangkok. pam and andy got a badminton set that we played, we also went to a nearby park tennis court. andy and pam started playing recently and they are getting good. having not played much ever, let alone in recent years, i was not so good. but it was fun. friday evening i got the bus back up to bangkok. i was back home by 5 am on saturday- and i rested from my great week in krabi.