The First Day of School

Monday was the big day: the first day of school. The van arrived to pick us up at 6:30 in the morning, just as it will every weekday for the rest of the school year. It gets light very early here, since we're pretty close to the equator, and it's already bright by 6.

It takes about half an hour to get to school in the morning. The morning assembly takes place at 8:00, so there's about an hour to get settled in before the day starts. The bus drops us off between the Prathom and Mathayom sides of campus at a small school store. The store sells school supplies for the students, but also stocks some snacks, and has a little bakery attached where we can eat breakfast. I wasn't very hungry that morning, so I picked up a small juicebox-looking carton of "choco-drink" before heading up to the Mathayom English office.

Since it was the first day of school, the assembly was much longer than it usually will be. All the students sat on the floor, and we teachers sat in chairs in the back of the room. The assembly hall is a large room with floor to ceiling windows that open to allow a breeze to blow through. It was a hot day, but sitting still with the fans going, it's not so bad.

The students stood to sing the national anthem and recite their prayers while the head teacher bowed at the alter on the stage. Then the head teacher spoke to the students in Thai. I couldn't understand, but I'm sure she was welcoming them to a new year. After the welcome, they had the new teachers come up on stage and address the students. There are three new American teachers in the Mathayom English office. We each introduced ourselves and said how happy we were to be in Thailand and at the school, then we returned to our seats to watch a video message from Princess Sirindhorn, the Princess Royal and sister to the Crown Prince encouraging the students to study hard this year.

After a while Tip (the head English teacher) whispered to us that we could go since we didn't understand anything, and the three of us plus Geoffrey went back to hang out in the air-conditioned English office with a pot of coffee. There were no morning classes on Monday because of orientation and homeroom meetings and things like that, so I didn't have my first class until after lunch.

There are essentially two "schools", Prathom (elementary) and Mathayom (high school). M1 is equivalent to our 7th grade, and M6 is like our senior year. This semester I'm teaching M1-M4. The students go to each of their 50 minute classes once per week, but I'll see them more often than that. Every year the students take a "main" English class and two "extra" English classes, speaking/listening and reading. Every student attends English at least three times every week, and more often in the upper levels.

My first class was M4 Reading, although I haven't done much teaching yet. For the first week of class we are meeting the students in their homeroom where the teacher will divide them into three smaller groups. The main English classes meet as a home room of about 30, but the extra classes are around 9 or 10. Every class this week has been mostly the same; we've been splitting the class, distributing books, and introducing ourselves. That's about all we have time for in one period. Everything is really crazy and hectic, and the Thai teachers have asked us to just "go with the flow". I'm ok with that. Everything here just ends up working out. Mai pen rai as they say!

The Thai teachers made sure that the Americans get the best students in their class. Not only is this good for us as we have little or no teaching experience, it's also good for the kids. These are the students who are the most motivated and have the most to gain learning from a native speaker. Unfortunately my first class just felt awkward. I think the students could tell I had no idea what was going on. The Thai teachers kept coming in and switching students in and out of my room as I tried to introduce myself. The M4 students are sophomores, and know English very well. They are a little shy though, and don't want to speak up in class. I haven't had much time with them yet though.

The most important thing to do on the first day though is to pass around a roll sheet and have students write down their nickname. Names in Thailand are very long, and at birth everyone's parents give them a nickname. Almost everyone goes by their nickname. Sometimes it's a shortened version of their name, sometimes it's a Thai word with some significance or meaning to the parents, sometimes it's just a name that sounds nice. Sometimes however, the parents choose an English word for the nickname. My American co-teachers and I have had fun sharing the best ones with each other. I have Dollar, Bank, Captain, Boat, Icy, and Pizza among others. My co-teacher Ryan has a Cake and a Jam, and my co-teacher Rachel has a Penguin. One of the Prathom teachers has students named Party and Sprite. I'm not making this up! The parents sometimes chose these names to convey a certain status, but to us they just sound funny. Luckily in Thailand, nicknames are very informal, and it's ok if they're funny.


I did this twice more for two listening/speaking classes. By the end of the day I was already exhausted. The van driver was really nice and drove us all the way back to our apartment. Unlike before, we were all very quiet on the way back. It was a good day, but very tiring.

The next day was even better.

Bagel Day

Before we left Baylor, Professor Kay organized an informal Q&A orientation with two former English teachers, Jessica and Katie. Jessica taught in Thailand two years ago and now works in admissions at Baylor. Katie taught here last year, and extended her contract to stay on a second year. After meeting her, we were all very happy to have someone living and working with us who already knew how things worked at the school and in the city.

Katie was supposed to arrive back in Bangkok after a six week visit back to Texas (when we met her) on the 15th, several days before we were to arrive. She and Grant planned the "Welcome to Bangkok" party together. Unfortunately, due to passport issues, she kept getting delayed. She finally arrived yesterday (Sunday) morning.

She had invited us all out for bagels downtown the week before, but we weren't sure she would make it to Thailand in time. Lucky for us she did! Breakfast in Thailand is very different from breakfast back home. In general, restaurants will serve things like barbecue duck over rice or fried chicken for breakfast. The food stalls on the streets will serve some sort of gruel made up of yesterday's leftovers. There's a small bakery on campus, but it only really serves small pastries, not a full breakfast. I've been told that there are only two or three restaurants in Bangkok that serve a decent western style breakfast, and they're all very expensive. This is unfortunate because as you may know, I'm a guy who loves his breakfast food.

Erawan Shrine, downtown Bangkok

BKK Bagel is located in the nicer part of downtown Bangkok. It's in an area that really feels like New York. At BKK Bagel you can actually get a pretty awesome breakfast! It's expensive (by Bangkok standards), but I think we want to try to go downtown for bagels at least once a month when we really start craving bacon and eggs.

Just outside BKK Bagel is the Erawan Shrine. We saw it from a bridge at the Skytrain station on our way to the restaurant, and watched for a while. The shrine has musicians and traditional Thai dancers. Worshipers can make an offering, and the dancers will perform some sort of prayer-dance. Officially Erawan is a Hindu shrine, but the Hindu gods are revered in Buddhism as well, especially here in Thailand where Theravada Buddhism is mainly practiced. Theravada Buddhism is one of the oldest and more Orthodox forms of Buddhism, and is much closer to its Hindu roots than Mahayana or Zen. The deity worshiped at the shrine is Phra Phrom, a Thai incarnation of the Hindu god Brahma. The statue has four faces, each one pointing a different direction. Devout locals visit the shrine to pray for safe travels, and it has become popular with tourists and backpackers as well.

Chatuchak

On Saturday our little group decided to get out of our area and see more of the city. What better way to do that than to go to the most overwhelming place in all of Bangkok?

We went to the Chatuchak Weekend Market, just two MRT stops away from our home in Lat Prao. All the Thai teachers really recommended the Weekend Market for us to see this weekend. Chatuchak Market is the largest market in the world! It's unorganized and illogical, like everything in Thailand, but people have been doing it that way for so long it just makes sense to them. Grant described Chatuchak to us as a "free-for-all where you can get anything from Buddha statues to fake Ray Ban's to illegal exotic animals". It was warm Saturday, but not as hot as it's been, and upon arriving I bought some cold mango from a street vendor.

I don't know how to emphasize how chaotic the market was. There were people everywhere, Thai and farang alike, all shouting and bartering with the vendors. My guidebook says that the market covers 36 acres and has more than 5000 vendors! I don't know how anyone can find their way around the market. Supposedly it's divided into numbered areas, but I couldn't find any order to it. I saw area 2 next to area 26, and when we were looking for area 16 (animals), we saw the numbers jump from 12 to 15 to 18. We never found the animals, but I'm sure I'll be back again.

At the Weekend Market

In Thailand, colors are very important. In Thai culture, every day of the week has a specific color associated with it; Monday is yellow, Tuesday is pink, Wednesday is green, Thursday is orange, and Friday is blue. The weekend has specific colors too. Saturday is purple and Sunday is red, although we were instructed never to wear red. Red is associated with a certain anti-monarchist political faction that we want to avoid. Every teacher at my school is encouraged (expected) to wear the color of the day for each day we are at work. It's quite a traditional school. My goal for the Weekend Market was to find five ties, one in each color.

35 acres, 5000+ vendors!

We stayed out at the market for several hours, and even had dinner at a small open-air restaurant there. The girls did a lot of shopping, but I just got my ties. They were so cheap, but you have to barter at Chatuchak. I'm not good at it yet, but I bought all five for around $15 US! I really have to learn numbers in Thai soon. I only know 46 (see sip hoak!), my address. Two of my ties came in small boxes, each with a tie clip, pocket square, and cuff links. They say 100% silk on the back. I don't know what quality they are, but for that price, I'll take it. Two of the ties even have little elephants on them. Elephants are lucky in Thailand. I'll need all the luck I can get on Monday; I still have no idea how to be a teacher!

Chatuchak Park

After dinner we walked through Chatuchak Park on the way back to the MRT station. Every morning and evening all throughout the city everyone stops what they're doing and stands at attention while the national anthem is piped in over loudspeakers. I knew about it, but that evening in the market was the first time I had seen it. After the crazy chaos of the Weekend Market, the park was a breath of fresh air. The park was in complete contrast to the market. It was green, well organized, and quiet. They were playing relaxing Thai music from speakers all around the park. We sat down for a while at a small pond in the center of the park and listened to the music. Being at the market all afternoon wore me out. We wanted to see a movie, but after showering we all decided we were too exhausted to get out again. I don't know if it's the weather, being on my feet all day, or just how crazy this city is, but I have been super tired every day. I'm not complaining though! Even though our beds are really hard, I've slept better than I think I ever have.

Evening at Chatuchak

Welcome to Bangkok

Friday was Visakha Bucha Day, and a national holiday. We slept in. The twelve hour time difference was really rough, and we have all had trouble adjusting. Every morning I keep waking up at 6:00. Today was no different. I laid in bed for a while, and finally decided to get up. Visakha Bucha Day is celebrated in Thailand as Buddha's birthday, the day he achieved enlightenment, and the day he attained nirvana. It's a big deal! There is a small Buddhist shrine in Jitthamas' gardens. Someone had left a fruit offering out in celebration.

I walked across the street to the Family Mart to buy something to drink. The old man working at the counter talked to me for a while. He asked me where I was from. "Texas", I said. "Ah, you are from Baylor!" The neighborhood we live in is not a tourist spot. We are the only farangs around here. He took a small photo album out from behind the counter and began showing me pictures of his family. His daughter is studying at the University of Chicago right now, and his son is at NYU. He showed me pictures of his recent family trip to New York City to visit his son. As I left he waved to me and said "Welcome to Bangkok! Enjoy your life here!"

In the afternoon we ate at Toni's again and then went back to the MBK mall to pick up SIM cards for those of us who weren't able to get phones unlocked the day before. We arrived downtown a little early and decided to check out Siam Center, another nearby mall while we waited (Bangkok has over 100 malls). It was way too fancy and expensive to buy anything. Everything was in English, which in Bangkok means that you will be paying western prices for everything.

That evening, Grant hosted a Welcome to Bangkok party for the new Baylor grads. He lives B60 away by cab, and we were able to find his apartment pretty easily. He works for US State Department now and will be in Bangkok for another month. Besides some British friends and two German couchsurfers, Grant had invited some of his Thai friends to come meet us. They brought all sorts of Thai snacks to try including fried fish skin, and something that I can only describe as a cotton candy burrito.

I spoke with Fa, a young doctor. She asked me about American politics, and we spoke about politics in Thailand. She told me about how beloved the king is in Thailand. It's true; his picture is everywhere. You won't enter a building or shop at a food stall without seeing a portrait of the king. King Bhumibol Adulydaj (commonly known as Rama IX) is the longest-reigning monarch in the world. He ascended the throne in 1946. Fa told me that she feels like King Bhumibol is a father figure to her and to the country, and that the Thai people don't want to do anything bad because they don't want to disappoint him or cause him to worry. They love the king in Thailand.

I've only been in Bangkok for a few days, but I'm beginning to feel more comfortable getting around. That night we were able to get a taxi much easier than before. Grant shook my hand as we left. "Welcome to Bangkok."

Settling in

Thursday morning we went back to the office to meet the other teachers and begin going over our lesson plans. Most of the American teachers are teaching in Prathom (roughly elementary school), but three of us are in Mathayom (middle/high school). We are on the same campus but in different offices. The Mathayom English office is very nice. It's air conditioned, and I already have my own desk. The other teachers are great too. Besides Geoffrey, I have already met Tip, Cherry, Oi, and Mo. Those are nicknames. Most Thai names are so long and difficult to pronounce that nearly everyone goes by some sort of nickname.

Right after we arrived on Thursday, Mo took the three new American teachers to an assembly for the incoming M1 students and their parents. The assembly room was packed with people, but Mo led us up to the front of the stage to sit with the other teachers. All of the students were seated on one side of the hall, their parents on the other. We were sitting in three rows on front of the stage. Behind us was an ornate shrine. The school is officially Buddhist. On rather side of the shrine was a large portrait of the King and Queen, and a Thai flag and yellow royal standard respectively.

The head teacher was introduced, and she went to the podium to address the new students. I will have some of these students in one of my classes; I'm teaching M1-M4, 7-10th grade in the US. After a minute, we realized that the head teacher was introducing new teachers. Mo leaned over and whispered to us to stand and wai to the parents when our names were read. A wai is a sort of bow. The hands are placed in a prayer-like way on front of your chest, and you bow your head down to your hands. The Thais do it really gracefully. Us, not so much.

I didn't recognize my name at first, but I realized everyone had turned to look at me, and I quickly stood and bowed. Everyone laughed, which intake as a good sign; at least they're not too serious. After we had all been introduced, the students were each recognized. One of the teachers read each of their names, and they came to the stage in small groups to lay flowers at the alter, light incense and candles, and bow down for a prayer for the year. By the end of the assembly, the hall smelled really good. The air was heavy with perfume, flowers, and incense, and I was getting sleepy even though it was early.

Luckily though, it was just about time for lunch. At the dining room we met back up with Geoffrey, who always sits at the same spot. We joined him at his table. 

The thing about lunch is that none of us actually know how to prepare it. On Friday they served a rice dish and soup. We thought that all these toppings went on the rice, and the soup was the side. It turns out that everything was supposed to go in the soup! Nobody cared though. Geoffrey warned us not to listen to the recommendations of the Thai teachers; they will recommend really weird combinations. I noticed many of them putting spoonful after spoonful of sugar into their soup! I've noticed that the Thais really love sugar. I have no idea how they all stay so skinny!

After lunch we had a department meeting where the other teachers went over our schedules with us and gave each of us a copy of our textbooks, workbooks, and teacher manual. The books are British, and some of the wording is funny. Grant warned us to listen to the dialogue CD's before we play them in class, otherwise we might start laughing because the dialogue is so ridiculous. There doesn't seem to be much structure in how we teach our class. I have no idea what to do, and neither it seems do my other American colleagues. I guess we'll just figure it out.

That afternoon we met someone new in the English office. Suzy Person came from Baylor in 1990, and was one of the first BU teachers in Thailand She and her family still have a house in Texas, but she works part time at Mathayom now. It turns out that she grew up in Ft Worth and went to Southwest High School! It's good to have another Texan in the office.

In the afternoon, the teachers had organized an English department reception tea so we could all get to know one another before classes start. The head teacher spoke first. She said that the English department is like a family. Then Geoffrey introduced us one by one. Again, we stood and gave a wai. Then we ate. I think we will be doing a lot of eating in Thailand. 

The woman who founded the school back in the 50's was there. She is an English teacher as well, and her daughter in law made brownies. Someone else brought melon balls on sticky rice. I had so many! They just kept bringing us food, and I didn't want to be rude. No complaints though, everything was delicious. They even made sure that there was English style black tea, although Geoffrey may have had a hand in that. There was also a weird purple drink. It was made from flowers, they told us, and it looked refreshing. It was very sweet with a weird salty/bitter aftertaste. I don't know how I feel about it.

The head teacher came to speak with me. She asked me about the tornados last week. She seems very nice. Her son is in the MBA program at Baylor. Oi, a coworker in my office also went to Baylor for her MA. She told me how she used to live in the apartments on 5th street and how she always went to the HEB there. I walked to that store all the time!

Geoffrey gave the Mathayom teachers each a map of the city, and during the reception all the teachers wanted to recommend places for us to go. They circled a few of the main sites in the city and wrote down what metro stops to take to get there. They highly recommended the Chatuchak Market for this weekend.

Grant met us at the school to take us to get our phones set up at the mall. We are finally starting to see some of the city. To get to the mall we had to walk to the nearest BTS station. Bangkok has an elevated "Skytrain" and a subway called the MRT. To get to the mall we had to take both. Grant helped us buy metro cards and load them up with Baht. The Skytrain and metro are both air-conditioned!

My carrier, Sprint, was really nice and unlocked the phone and suspended my account so that I could get a Thai SIM card, but not everyone was able to do that, and had to pay to get their phones unlocked here. I got a Thai SIM card and a good monthly plan, so I'm finally all set up! Grant left us at his subway stop, but told us how to get home. He even texted the directions and what to tell the cab driver phonetically in case we had any trouble. Everything was going well, we got off at the right station, Lat Prao (our street), but it suddenly started to rain. In Thailand we are getting close to monsoon season. So far it had been sunny, but that night it poured on us for about an hour, and we couldn't get any taxis to stop for us for a long time. Finally we just ran up to a taxi stopped at a light and jumped in before he could say no. We told him "Lat Prao see sip hoak" (our address - Lat Prao 46) and he took us back home. It's super cheap, split between three or four of us getting home only costs B20 or so - less than a dollar!

At School

The van arrived to pick us up at 11. It takes about half an hour to drive from Jitthamas Residence (our apartment building) to school. Surrounded by the city, it is like one huge garden. It's really beautiful there; there are all sorts of tropical plants and fountains and things like that. There are also a lot of soldiers in that area. You can't miss the charcoal uniformed guards armed with automatic weapons guarding the perimeter and patrolling the grounds. You can't help but feel safe.

The van took us to the school and dropped us off. That's where Geoffrey met up with us again. He gave us a quick tour around campus. There is a swimming pool and a gym that we can use after work. The pool looked amazing; it was already really hot and humid at 11:30, and we were walking all over campus.

After that, Geoffrey took us to the teachers cafeteria for lunch. I had only had my sprite and a bag of chips since landing, and I was starving! Lunch is served as a buffet, and you can just grab whatever you want. They had bowl of all these different types of fruit set out for us too. I didn't recognize anything except the bananas. Even they were different though; they are about one and a half inch long, and the fruit is a much darker gold then the ones we get in the States. Geoffrey gave me a little green fruit. At first I thought it was a lime, but it turned out to be a small, sweet orange!

For dessert they served rice pudding. The Thais eat it over ice and covered with coconut milk. "It's dangerous", Geoffrey informed us, patting his belly. "You'll end up looking like me!" It was really good, but there were pieces of salty corn mixed in; it was a little weird.

After lunch, we left the air-conditioned dining room, and Geoffrey marched us across the muggy school grounds to the bank. The school is built over an old golf course, and the Siam Commercial Bank is located inside the old clubhouse.

Like the airport, the SCB was very purple. While we waited in the purple bank lobby to be taken care of, purple clad bank employees brought us a tray of drinks. It was a weird iced green beverage served in small glasses. Nobody knows what it was. It was really refreshing, but it tasted like bubblegum and NyQuil. Geoffrey had three, and when I asked if he knew what it was, he just shrugged.

The school will pay us directly into our Thai account. The bank set each of us up with a purple debit card and purple bank book. We just take the bank book to any ATM and it will stamp the book with our balance. It's handy, and you can always see how much you have.

It took some time for everyone to get set up, and while we waited, I chatted with Geoffrey. I had heard that he was hard to get along with, but so far I really like him. He's just a stereotypical old Englishman. He asked me about my major, and when I told him about my International Studies coursework, he asked if I knew anything about politics. It turns out that he was one of the speechwriters who worked for PM Margaret Thatcher and Sir Edward Heath! He and Baroness Thatcher were very close, and even though he has been living in Thailand since the 90's, she mailed him a Christmas card every year. He was invited the the funeral, but unfortunately couldn't make it. 

By then it was nearly 4, and the van came by to take us back home to Jitthamas. We had only been out for a few hours, but taking a shower that evening felt great; It's so humid here, and I have to wear a shirt and tie every day.

Next door to our apartment is a small restaurant. We call it Toni's, since she is the owner. I don't know if that's the actual name. It has air conditioning and free wifi, so we were able to get in touch with our families for the first time since arriving in the city earlier that morning. Food in Bangkok is very cheap. Toni's is a very small restaurant; there are only three tables. They get so excited to see us, they know we are from Baylor and call us "teacher". For years its been te go-to place for Baylor grads at Jitthamas. I ordered chicken with green pepper over rice and a bottle if water. It cost about $1.50!

That evening, fellow Baylor alum Grant came by to meet us. He came to Bangkok from Baylor last year to teach, and works for State Department now. I had already been in contact with him, but we finally got to meet him in person. He's been here a year now and knows the city. Grant taught us how to catch a cab to take us to BigC, Thailand's version of Walmart, where we stocked up on essentials. Metered taxis are also very cheap. We split the fare; I think we each payed about $0.80 to get there.

Everything here is a weird version of what we have back home. I found a package of Thai fake Oreos for B8 (about a quarter)! I also bought a tube of toothpaste since my travel-sized one is running out. "Herbal twin lotus" it said on the package. It's brown and tastes like leaves.

Infamous Bangkok traffic outside Big C

The Longest Night

I'm in Bangkok! 

Wow... what a night. Our delayed flight landed in Tokyo just as our connection to Bangkok was leaving. There were American Airlines ticket agents waiting for us at the gate when as we departed, and they gave us tickets for a rescheduled flight... on Delta, no less!  It ended up being a good thing, we had three hours in the Tokyo airport, long enough to get a short break between two long flights. Guys, the bathrooms in Japan are really weird!

We ended up taking a 747 out of Tokyo. It was nice, and Delta's service was great, but after so much traveling, the six hours to Bangkok felt like forever. I hadn't really been able to sleep on any of the flights; I just dozed a little bit. At this point, it still hadn't really hit me that I was on my way to Thailand for a year. It just started to hit home as we were about half an hour out of Bangkok. I wan't worried though. I don't know, I guess it is just reassuring being with a group of people in the same situation.

The 747 was like an ocean-liner, big but slow. It took six hours to get to Bangkok, instead of the five that it was supposed to take on our other flight. We landed just before one in the morning on Wednesday the 22nd. It feels like it was so long ago, but it was just earlier today!

By the time we cleared customs and passport control and had claimed our luggage (not a single lost bag despite the airline change. Way to go American and Delta!) it was nearly 1:30.

Although we hadn't been able to get in touch with anyone about our change in plans, we had sent out a desperate post to our Facebook group from Tokyo about our situation. We had phone numbers, but our phones didn't work in Tokyo, and there wasn't much time to figure out phone cards before we had to board our next flight. Fortunately when we arrived, sleep deprived and exhausted we found Mr. Geoffrey waiting for us at the airport. He had gotten the message third hand or so, but he got it. Geoffrey is an Englishman who retired to Bangkok to teach English. He's either the head of the Mathayom (high school) English department, or at least high enough up that it's all the same to us. In any case, he's our manager.

Stepping out of the airport I noticed two things almost immediately. The first was that it was a very purple airport. The building had purple ads on it, and the parking garage across the street was entirely purple as well. I knew that Thailand was supposed to be a very colorful country. That's an understatement! The second thing I noticed was the humidity. It wasn't hot by Texas standards, probably only in the 80's, but the humidity was horrible. Even at 2am we were all sweating badly by the time a van came for us only a minute or two later.

Geoffrey helped us load everything into two big vans to take us to our apartments. Along the way he pointed out to us that in Thailand, the driver sits on the right side of the vehicle, not the "wrong side like in America." He also pointed out the three types of taxis you could take around the city:

Metered taxis are the safest. The fare starts at B35 and you generally shouldn't have to pay more than B200 to get anywhere in Bangkok. That's less than $10US! Tuk-tuks are one of the most iconic sights to see in cities like Bangkok. They are more expensive than taxis, and are generally really only for tourists, although you will see locals riding them too. Then there are motorcycle taxis. People don't really seem to care about traffic laws in Bangkok, and the motorcycle taxis least of all. They dart around cars stopped at lights, and weave through traffic. They even ride along the sidewalks, so you always have to be alert. Even worse, women have to ride sidesaddle, which seems really dangerous. For now though we are taking the van. It will pick us up from our apartments and take us directly to the school every morning. 

Even at 2am, the traffic in the city was congested. I have no idea how fast our driver was going, but we caught some air every time we went over any sizable bump in the road. By the time we had arrived at our apartment and gotten settled in it was nearly 3am. Geoffrey told us that the van would be back for us at 11 and left. In my apartment I found a water bottle, a sprite, a pepsi, and two packs of Thai Lays potato chips. One of the Thai teachers at the school had brought them for us! I took a wonderful cold shower - it was probably the nicest shower I had ever had - drank the water, ate a package of potato chips, and fell fast asleep. Unfortunately I was wide awake around 8 this morning. I drank the sprite for breakfast (don't judge, it was all I had since I had no idea where to get food yet, ok?) and took a walk around the apartment and the grounds. I then walked down the street to a convenience store to buy a case of water. The good news is that I'm adjusted to the time change already; the bad news is that I've only had four and a half hours of sleep since leaving Dallas on Monday morning. It's 9pm now, I'll probably go to bed soon!

We went to the school today. I'll probably write a whole post about my first visit to the school later. Right now, I'm going to sleep; it's been a long day.

Tokyo Layover

I'm in Asia now! I've actually only made it as far as Japan. Because of a weird delay and last minute plane change, we arrived in Tokyo too late to connect with our original flight. Instead, AA rescheduled us on a later Delta flight.

Honestly, I don't care what airline I take as long as I eventually just end up in Thailand at some point. The flight to Tokyo was rough- 12 hours, and we crossed the date line, which was weird. I tried to get some sleep, but we were flying with the sun. It's evening now here in Japan.

At least I'm not by myself. I'm here with four of my colleagues. It's much better that way. We don't have any way to contact the man who is supposed to pick us up at the airport though. I emailed Professor Kay, the Baylor professor who arranged all this. I let her know the situation, but it's around 4 am in Texas right now, so we aren't really sure what will happen. At least we have a flight, and it should be boarding soon.

Also, I saw George RR Martin at the LA airport. I'm 100% sure it was him. He's a very distinctive individual.

More to follow!

May 19, 2013: getting ready to go

I graduated yesterday! I received my BA in International Studies from Baylor, presented by Judge Ken Starr, and now I'm back in Arlington for the day. It will be less than 48 hours from the time I walked the stage and the time I board my first flight to LAX, so I've been rushing around to make sure I have everything together.

My visa came in earlier this week, not a day too soon either! We had some trouble getting the right visa from the consulate in Houston because it was a Thai holiday or something, but we have them now. I feel much better now that my passport is back in my possession!

I picked up my EFL certification last week too. Some people take four years and an education degree to become a teacher. I did it in four hours, aw yeah! The only thing I can teach is English as a foreign language though, and I'm not 100% sure I know how to do that! I'm sure I'll pick it up quickly enough, and the other English teachers are in the same situation as me too. My comparative government professor from college recommended to me a book, Teaching Like a Champion. I downloaded it onto my kindle, and I'll be reading it on the plane. From what I've read so far it's pretty helpful. Dr. Hamerly said it's a book she wished she had read before she began teaching. Since I have no formal education training, I can use all the helpful advice I can get! My assignment arrived from Bangkok this week. I will be teaching Mathayom (roughly equal to 7-12th grade). That's exactly what I wanted.

Tomorrow morning I fly out of DFW at 6:55am for LAX (4 hour flight) to Tokyo-Narita (12 hour flight) and then on to Bangkok (5 more hours). I'll be landing in Bangkok at 10:35pm local time on the 21st. Once we arrive we must report to the school the next morning to get our bank accounts and paperwork sorted out. The next day is a training day, but that Friday is a Thai holiday; we will get a long weekend before school starts on the 27th.

The thing is, everything has been moving so quickly, I haven't really had time to think about the fact that I'm moving to Asia tomorrow. I guess that's a good thing; if I had too long to think about it I would probably start freaking out. It doesn't even seem real yet. I guess it'll hit me sometime tomorrow, on the flight maybe.

Anyway, I'm super excited. I have two guide books: Lonely Planet's famous Thailand and Southeast Asia on a Shoestring. I hope I can see as much of southeast Asia as I can in the time I have over there. The next time I post on here, I will be in Thailand (or maybe Japan depending on how bored I get in the Tokyo airport)!

I'm going to Thailand!

Hey everybody!

I'm graduating on May 18th with a degree in International Relations from Baylor University, and I'll be starting my new job just two days later in Bangkok, Thailand.

I have accepted a position teaching English as a Foreign Language at Chitralada School in Bangkok Thailand.

I will be living and working there for one year with seven other new Baylor graduates. I don't really know what to expect, but I'm sure it will be a great experience. I'm very excited and also overwhelmed.

I will try to keep this blog updated with posts and photos of what I've been doing so I can stay connected with my family and friends back home.