Tuk Tuktastic

So as you can see from the previous post, the best word to describe the Grand Palace is probably “ornate.” Everything was covered in reflective glass, art, sparkling statues, and in some cases gold. I’m glad I saw it, although the crowds and stop-and-go tours were a little much for me. I don’t enjoy feeling that much like a tourist, or constantly bumping into people who are taking photos. I did enjoy our subsequent lunch on the river, it was nice to be by water again, albeit murky and brown.

I’ve been doing countless lessons in Thai Culture & Language, Teacher Training and other related things during the day, and at night I’ve been eating and going out with members of my program. There are a lot of us, but everyone I met has been very friendly and easy to get along with.

Last night I had a fantastic time out on the town with some friends from the program, although we were all tired this morning as a consequence. I caught a subway with a couple friends to Sukhumvit, where we ate at a Lebanese restaurant. The food was pretty good (I tried lamb liver!), and we were extremely flattered when the owner assumed we lived in Bangkok—I figured we’d come off as tourists.


After walking a bit, we ended up succumbing to our secret desire to take a tuk tuk, even though it was more expensive than a cab—it didn’t end up being too steep after I haggled the price. Our spunky driver was a quite comfortable swerving through traffic at high speeds, which was definitely a new sensation considering that there are no windows or bars to protect you from flying out of the tuk tuk. I actually loved it (see happy picture of me?). It felt like a theme park ride, with a greater element of danger that played to my inner thrill seeker. We emerged with our hair standing on end (a style I’ve decided to call “tuk tuk hair”) at a pretty touristy street called Khao San Road. We met up with over half of our program members there, and the crowd of us basically took over Club Khao San. I haven’t been out dancing in a long time, and the international hodge podge of people there made the night even more entertaining.

Moving on to academic matters, we finally met our school coordinators. They were two young teachers from Chonburi, and they joined us for a meeting, followed by dinner and a Thai dance show. At the dance show one of our coordinators noted that she could never be a dancer because she didn’t “bend her fingers back enough” when she was a girl. It wasn’t until I saw the dancers that I understood what she meant (they display an incredible arch in their fingers while dancing).

During our meeting, the coordinators tried their best to explain our teaching schedule since most of it was written in Thai. It was interesting to note that our coordinators are both English teachers, and although their grammar skills could put me to shame, their ability to speak fluently was still limited.

There are three other American girls teaching at my school, Kasetsart University Laboratory School in Chonburi, and we all have very different teaching jobs. It turns out they divided the teaching work among us before they received any information about us, so our assignments were completely random. After comparing my schedule with that of the other girls, I began to suspect I got an easy load. I’m largely covering Reader Club and a little bit of reading comprehension and assessment. My Reader Club happens in thirty minute sessions, and I’ll be working with Primary as well as Secondary students throughout the week—I believe I teach several classes in the U.S. equivalent of 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th grade, as well as 10th 11th and 12th grade.

I’m a little disappointed, although I know that we were told to expect very different job assignments (for example, some teachers working in small rural schools have their own classroom and teach from 8am to 4pm straight, with no clear curriculum… a little daunting). I can’t help thinking that if the coordinators had more information available to them, like the fact that I was an English major, they might have given me more responsibility. One of the girls teaching alongside me has no teaching experience, but she’s been handed longer classes, and is expected to teach in depth courses on English language, culture and humanities. She has advised me to count my blessings for not having such an overwhelming assignment. I’ve assured her that I will help her as much as she needs me to, partially to help her de-stress and also because I came into this wanting a challenge.

On the bright side, I love reading, and although the past teacher wrote me a note saying students don’t like Reader Club very much I’m going to try my best to make it fun. I am required to give students a midterm and final, and will be covering units on reading comprehension with grade 10. As if reading comprehension drills won’t already inspire antipathy, it turns out grade 10 is also reading Black Beauty for the second time—no wonder they hate Reader Club! I asked if I could change to a book they haven’t read, and the coordinator shook her head: “we must stay with the curriculum,” she said. We’ll see…

Our coordinator also told us that we’re not in the main town of Chonburi, and it certainly sounds like we’ll be making our own fun. There’s one restaurant, and not very much within walking distance. I’m still looking forward to arriving there and thoroughly assessing my entire situation, not to mention settling down after this exhausting orientation.

P.S. I got a cell phone, and if for any reason you'd like it: 0852172612