Fred & Ethel's new digs: the babboons next door are real animals & very loud!

A follow up for Ann and something for Alice

Well, the school year is coming to an end here. In the teacher workroom everyone is alternately working on final exams and writing plans for summer school. Seems odd to say that in February but the morning program (every morning out on the terrace the student body lines up by grades and we sing the national anthem, recite the morning prayers and the school credo, then have announcements) I thought it felt warmer than usual for 8am. Then I noticed a couple of the high school boys were dripping in sweat just from standing there. And summer doesn't begin until next month!

So, with all the work week stress I decided to go out sightseeing in Bangkok this weekend. On Saturday I went to the zoo. Yes, the zoo. And rather than take a taxi, bus, or tuktuk, I walked the mile down a wide, tree-lined boulevard to the zoo. My walk took me past Chitralada Palace where the current king lives which happens to be across the boulevard from the zoo. The "moat" that runs between the boulevard and the palace property is filled with huge fish, turtles, and monitor lizards. In fact, I had to keep an eye out for the lizards as they tend to come up to the edge of the sidewalk to lay in the shade. Nothing more startling than tripping over one of those guys! At either end of the moat I was treated to a wonderful water show put on by huge water fountains. They look fabulous at night as I've seen them when driving by to go somewhere. Oh, and the armed guards walking on the other side of the moat and wondering about the crazy farang walking in the heat were a little unnerving. I've seen lots of armed guards since I came to Asia, but I'm still not used to it.

Despite the distractions I did finally make it to the zoo. Dusit Zoo (this area of the city is called Dusit) is world class. I happen to love the Asian elephants and always make time to see them. In the African exhibit the zebras, giraffes, and ostriches all graze together. I noticed that one of the informational signs had an excellent explanation of zebra stripes and breeds, so I took a picture and will post it to my blog for Ann. I know you wanted to know, but it makes me wonder if you have to look at them from the same angle as the picture was made to determine the breed. Hope not!

Alice, I hope you haven't been worried about Fred and Ethel. As you know, they tagged along on this trip with me. They were pretty upset about my leaving Phuket and all the seashores for the city. But I think they have found themselves a very happy home here in Dusit. Lots of girls for Fred to flirt with and feedings twice a day. And you know how they love to have their pictures taken. I'm posting pix to my blog on them too. But I hope something can be done about their noisy neighbors. They are real party animals - worse than 1007 Drummond!

On Sunday I did the tourist thing. Went to the river and got an all day pass to visit all the sights along the river banks. Temple of Dawn is the symbol that most people relate to Bangkok. I climbed to the top, which seemed like work until I looked down to see those steps. Going down is definitely harder. Where was OSHA and all their rules about steps 200 years ago? As I gingerly made my way down to terra firma I wondered if anyone had actually fallen on the way down. It was steep! Toured the Grand Palace and Temple of the Emerald Buhdha (which is really made of jade) and shopped the street vendors for lunch. By the way Alice, I passed 3 different vendors selling false teeth - full and partial sets! Now there's a souvenir you don't see everyday.

Whew! I was beat when I got back to my room and my feet were very tired. Going back to the classroom on Monday morning seemed like a rest after that weekend. But I'll have a week to rest up and by Friday I'll be ready to get out again. Besides, I feel sure that the students here are a lot like the ones back home. With 3 weeks of school left they'll be hard to keep on task and by the end of the week I'll need some time away from the school to wind down.

This One's For Ann

I had decided before I came to Thailand that any free time I had should be spent learning about the history and culture of the country and seeing famous and historical sights. Most weekends I do just that and I'm planning to do some more soon. But nothing was planned for this weekend since we had a training session that lasted most of Saturday. A large part of the session turned into a "air your beef" session where teachers were allowed to air their complaints about policies and problems so that management had an idea of any difficulties. I know I closed my eyes once and just listening to the problems made me think I was back in my stateside school. Topics like cell phones and proper clothing/wearing uniform correctly, etc. Seems teachers the world over have the same problems. Still, it was a good chance for everyone to work together and even though we lost a day of free time, we did some group work and this is a teaching team that works together well. It was nice.

Afterwards I decided to take a bus to the mall to look for new shoes. Since my feet aren't made like Asian feet, this could take some time. No luck, so I left the mall and went out to the bus stop. Somehow I got on the wrong bus but found out from a passenger who spoke some English that it would take me almost to where I wanted so I just sat back to relax and enjoy new scenery. As I was looking out the window my eyes landed on a wondrous sight - a herd (is that the right word?) of zebras. I thought of Ann and quickly jumped up and hit the signal button to get off at the next stop. As I walked back to the tree where they were resting I thought of how surprised my good friend Ann would be to receive a zebra from Thailand. I took out my camera (it's always in my purse) and started snapping pix. I was really enjoying this until I realized that they were made from concrete and even the smallest of the litter would cost a fortune to ship to America. Sorry, Ann. I love ya like a sister, but I have to draw the line somewhere. I'll keep my eyes peeled for "lighter" zebras.

And lest you think I only see concrete animals in the city, I'm posting a picture of a real, live elephant that I encountered on the sidewalk of the busiest street in Bangkok last Friday night. I was so amazed, and then sorry for the poor baby. He was small - as elephants go - but still he shouldn't have to walk around in all that noise and smog on hot city sidewalks and streets. Still, I guess it's better than manual labor on construction sites which I have seen the elephants used for. Also saw some elephants in Ayuttaya 2 weeks ago. They were letting people have elephant rides around the park, but I passed. Looked like a really rough ride to me. I really feel bad about Ann's zebra though. And that I had to walk a long ways to get another bus. But you'd do the same for me, right Ann?

Happy Hearts Day

Well, it seems that Valentine's Day is universal. I think that here, at least at this school, it is less commercial. Also it seems there is less emphasis on boyfriend/girlfriend (although that's still there, especially in the upper grades) and more on just expressing love of friends. Since today is Thursday it was also scouts day so all the students were in their uniforms. But that didn't stop them from proudly wearing all the heart stickers their friends pressed upon them. All day long boys and girls were putting stickers on each other. They especially liked the shiny ones, the ones with messages, and the puffy/3d ones. I feel sorry for the people who have to clean up all the stickers on the floors. I didn't see a single store-bought valentine. All the cards were handmade and many of them must have taken hours. There are some fine artists in this school. How ironic that my lesson plan for today's P6 Health class was sexual abuse! But we got through it fine and I left the class with lots of stickers. A fine day for all.

Pains of the Day After

Finally the end has come to a very long Monday. I must have walked too far and too long at Ayuttaya yesterday because all day long my knees and ankles have been hurting. Tonight I will take it easy and go to bed early too. But if I stay up too late with the lights on my roommate screams at me. He also doesn't like for me to have the air conditioner on and he screams about that too. Sometimes I think he just screams to be noticed. My roommate is a house gecko and as roommates go, I guess he's pretty easy to get along with (I guess he's a he, but I'm not checking). I got some pretty good pictures of him in the bathroom last week and added them to the blog. Usually he scurries off before I can get the camera ready. This time I was lucky. So, I will call it a day and get to bed early tonight. Don't want to be screamed at again!

Ever Been on a Milk Run?

Well, had I been looking for something exciting in the way of celebrating Chinese New Year here at school, I would have been disappointed. The Chinese teachers were off for 2 days, of course, but I was surprised to see how many "Chinese" students we have at the school. In one of my classes on Thursday I only had 4 students. Granted, quite a few of our students are either Chinese or descendents of Chinese, so I did expect to have some students out, just not 2/3 of the whole school. Well, so we played some Present Continuous Charades in English class that day. The school walkway was gayly decorated with Chinese laterns and paper decorations that the students made in Chinese class so I've added a couple of pix of that. But there weren't any parties, or special foods, or even fireworks. What a bummer.

So I decided to make my weekend more memorable. Sunday morning I took the train from Bangkok to Ayuttaya, the early capital of Thailand and home to ancient ruins that are just mind-boggling. Also mind-boggling is the fact that the train takes 2 hours to travel the 42 mile trip. I think it was what they used to call a milk run - stopping at every little station along the way. And then there were the wooden bench seats - for 2 hours - which I decided was better than standing which is is what I had to do on the return trip. At least the return trip only stopped at half the little stations along the way and lasted one and a half hours. Treated my feet to a massage at the train station. Got back to school after dark and sat in the quad to watch the stars for a while but it's a bit cloudy tonight. Still, nice to be back in my temporary home, put my feet up, and look over lesson plans for tomorrow.

Observation - Evaluation - Immigration

Wow! It's been a busy week already and it's only Tuesday night.

Came in Monday morning to learn that I was being evaluated by a director of an English program at a school in Bangkok as well as my department head. I won't lie and say I didn't notice they were in the room, but there was certainly no time to come up with some spectacular lesson to wow them. All the better for an honest evaluation. And mine was very good. I got some good tips as well from someone who's been in EFL for a while and a brief discussion of how very different this is from ESL. So, a big surprise, but it ended well. At the end of the day I learned that I would be leaving the school on Tuesday after my morning class to go to immigration in Bangkok to update/change my visa. Whoopee!

Luckily I was able to ride to Bangkok in a school van which probably cut one to two hours off the trip. Plus, there was no parking problem. I was also lucky to have my Thai friend from the office (who speaks very good English) going along with me.

Lots of lines. Lots of forms. Pasting those horrid camera shop photos to the forms. More lines, take a number, etc., etc. But 3 hours later we emerged victorious. Still, I will admit that without my friend along it would have been a daunting task. Even with her along, it felt a bit overwhelming. Glad that's behind. Next big deal this week? Happy Chinese New Year!

A Healthy Discussion

While back home in Tennessee kids, and teachers, are making plans for spring break, here we’re trying to end the school year. It feels awkward to say this, but I’m writing final exams on Feb. 1 and they are due in the office by Monday. The 07/08 year will officially end on March 14th with summer break from then till we begin again on May 15th. Of course, the summer heat is here so it feels like it should be summer break. I have a hard time believing it’s February. At home they’re looking at snow flurries and cold, cold temps. But one way I can tell it’s almost the end of the year is that all the students have a bad case of summeritis – difficulty concentrating on classes, focusing on vacation plans instead of homework, etc. Same disease strikes at home around April, right after prom. Nice to know that some things are the same the world over.

Another thing that I think is the same is health, as in health class. I somehow managed to get 4 health classes on my schedule. Twice a week I go to the P1 classrooms and discuss things like washing your hands after using the toilets with 6 year olds. That’s not bad although my singing voice was not really made for the scrub those germs away jingle. Twice a week I also teach health issues to P6 and M1 classes. Those classes don’t involve jingles, thank goodness, but the subjects probably don’t lend themselves well to songwriting: I Got the Puberty Blues or Sexually Transmitted Diseases Rag. Still, even without the singing I do manage to get some interesting reactions. Nothing like telling a room full of 12 year olds that boys will soon grow hair on their chins, chests, underarms, and other less public (hopefully) places. And while they act very blasé about the topic, I’m sure that many of the 14 year olds in M1 know where to buy X or other drugs within a mile or two or the school. Once again, half a world away from home and some things are just the same.