Friday, June 8, 2012

Home sweet home?

Phew, I have finally made it to my apartment in Chonburi, Thailand. Actually I do not live in Chonburi, it is a sub-district of a district of the province of Chonburi (make sense?). The past few days especially have seemed rapido. There has been intense teacher training, Thai language learning, meeting my new boss, coming to Chonburi, and then actually teaching a class.

Where to start? I guess I will start where I last left off. We were in the middle of orientation in Bangkok. There was a lot of boring things to go over, although the OEG staff was trying to make it as exciting as could be (and I deeply thank them for their efforts, they are GREAT). I met my coordinator/boss at my school. I have no idea how to say her name, as it is a lot of things in Thai. As a side note I have made sure to learn the words for an extra shot of espresso for lattes and spricy food, kem kem and pet pet. Back to the story. I was told my apartment was going to be about a five minute walk from E-Tech (my school) but it is at least a 10 minute drive, with traffic it turns into almost an hour or more on a songthaew (a converted pickup truck to passenger vehicle). I am okay with it though, there are many people who do not have as nice of accommodations as I do and they came in the same group as I did. So, again, I feel very fortunate. 

Chonburi is an industrial town, so this is slightly a drag. But E-tech is huge. The largest school in Thailand with an amazing 10,000 students packed on a tiny campus. They bus kids to the school every morning from towns that are hours away. It is very fun. I have had the chance to talk to several of the staff and the students. For the most part they are great. I taught one class today. The class was comprised of 50 females and one male. Classes in Thailand, at least at E-Tech, are usually better well behaved if the students are women and studying business, They are worse if they are boys and studying automotive tech. So from what I have heard, my classes will run the gamut from cooperative and smart to as some would say "naughty". 

So I taught my first class. I was a different experience. It was definitely a "first" class. I was a little nervous, the students were laughing a lot. Did I say I was nervous? E-Tech staff introduced me and the next thing I know I am there in front of fifty some students by myself, no one else is there. But here is the great part about my classes, I have 24 different classes a week. All 24 classes study the exact same lesson once per week. Yeah? I ONLY HAVE TO MAKE ONE LESSON A WEEK. Yes, it will get monotonous and all, but I will have it fine tuned indeed. So although today's class was a bit new, things will quickly become routine. 

I was able to take my first run in Thailand today. It was only about three miles, but it was very hot and humid. The run was followed by some Muay Thai. This is the sport that I most closely associate with wrestling. I wrestled for many years and this is the things that came to my mind today. Now I am sure I will get the questions of why are you doing this violent thing, peace studies major (actually, I already have). But if you know anything about Muay Thai it is a practice of respect towards each of the participants, a sort of yeah I am going to pound away at you but there is a bond between us. There is something special about it. I do not know if I will continue to do it, but it was something I wanted to try. It looks like it will all be the best way for me to stay in shape, it is also only a five minute walk form E-Tech. 

Well that is all for now. My travels take me back to Bangkok this weekend for pleasure and leisure. 

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