The Last Week of School

I can't believe that things are winding down and that my first year in Bangkok is nearly over. It seems like I arrived so recently. I was looking back at some of my posts over the past few months; some of the early ones made me laugh. Things like eating noodles and ordering food seemed so exciting and worthy of a post when I was new here. Now I feel like I really live in Bangkok.

พูดและอ่านภาษาไทยน้อย

I can now read and write a little Thai, although I'm very slow. I can order food, get directions, and make small conversations in Thai. I haven't really studied much, but it's amazing how much of a language you can pick up in one year by semi-immersion alone.

Friday was the last day of school for my students. They took the last of their final exams, and now they are on their term holiday until May. I have mostly finished all of my grading, and next week I'll be writing student comments and lesson plan marks. On the last day of class some of my students really surprised me. My M1 class (7th grade) gave me some notes they had written me and made a banner for our classroom that said "We are very happy when you study with us!". I'm glad I've made a good impression on them. On the last day of school all of the students wanted to take pictures with me. I feel like a celebrity!

On Thursday I got to go with two of the other American teachers to shop for textbooks for the students for next year, and I've already created my new class schedule. I requested to move up with my students, so next year instead of teaching M1, M2, M3, and M4, I will be teaching M2, M3, M4, M5, and M6 Writing. I'm actually really happy that they asked me to teach the writing class. Right now it's taught by a Thai professor who works part-time, but next year they want farang to teach the class.

It's now just a little over a month before I visit Texas. We still have to come in to work for a little while, but there's really not much to do. I'll probably work on my language studies. I know it's been a long time since I've updated on here, but there really hasn't been much going on except for school. I hope to do some traveling before I head back to the States, but for now I'm just resting in Bangkok. Even though we had a three-day weekend in February, everyone just stayed in. We're tired!

EDIT Feb 2016: added photos