Bike for Mom and Teach for Money

A few weeks ago I was asked to be one of the 5 teachers taking part in a CEFR (the Common European Framework of Reference for languages) Weekend seminar for the school. As much as I was honoured to be asked to do this, I was a little nervous with the challenge of changing my mindset from teaching 6 year olds to adults; the last thing I wanted to do was sound condescending and start high-fiving people if they got the answer right. However, perhaps the thing I was most stressed about was the preparation. I was asked to prepare a 90 minute lesson about Main Idea/Supporting and Idioms (with visual aids and worksheets) as well as a 90 minute group activity involving listening exercises. As the seminar was expected to attract around 150-200 teachers, it seemed like quite the daunting task. Not to mention from experience, nothing EVER goes to plan in Thailand so I needed to prepare myself for the inevitable changes and switches. But despite all the stress and pressure I was (unnecessarily) putting on myself, the way I saw it was that this seminar was a chance to gain even more teaching experience and a way to strengthen my application for future jobs. The bonus was of course getting paid to do it! The seminar was to take place over two weekends, August 8th/9th and 29th/30th. Both my lesson and group activity was scheduled for the first weekend so I was a little rushed for time to prepare, not to mention I still had 9 exams to mark!

Looking all professional and stuff...

I decided to base my main idea lesson on recent newspaper articles and getting the group of teachers to analyse each article and in groups, present their ideas on what the main idea of the article was and the supporting details they could use to back it. As my lesson was in full swing, the Brother Director of the school decided to show up and observe my lesson from the back of the class...it was terrifying! I was nearing the end of my speech but didn't want to stop whilst the brother was there so I just kept on talking...and talking, whilst making sure I was speaking as slowly and clearly as possible; not an easy task when you're a naturally fast talker like myself in addition to being nervous. The group activity I had planned focused on songs and lyrics. The teachers had to listen to two songs (which eventually only ended up being one -- Bruno Mars' 'When I Was Your Man') and correctly identify the lyrics. Also, due to time constraints with my lesson, we also did an Idioms game that I had planned where they had to match up 24 idioms with their definitions. As fun as it was, I did also get extremely stressed as I had put hours and hours of work into preparing for the seminar and things just didn't seem to pan out or pay off like I thought they would. There really was no need to get so stressed but it was really important to me that I did well and got good feedback because I was asked to do this and didn't volunteer. I felt like I had to prove to them that they made the right choice in choosing me. But in hindsight, I felt I did do a good job and like I said, the first weekend of the seminar was good fun. My initial worry of being the youngest teacher and not being respected as much soon faded away. I felt I had made good rapport with the teachers and tried my best to maintain a balance of being serious in the class but being a bit more comedic and light-hearted in the group activities.

Teacher Mode. (Excuse the unflattering face).

The following weekend, I only had to teach Cambridge ESOL with 5 students which is a way less stressful. And, with my first (and only) free weekend of August, I just wanted to chill and relax. Upon waking up on Sunday morning, the last thing I really wanted to do was cycle 29km. Why are you even thinking about cycling 29km you ask? Well, there was an event happening on the weekend called 'Bike for Mom'. The event I'm speaking of was being held in honour of the Queen of Thailand. With this year being its first year, Bike for Mom had events all across Thailand to raise awareness for the growing number of cyclists in Thailand as well as getting more Thai people to exercise and to do so on behalf of the queen who, now 83, cannot ride like she used to! The Queen is worshipped as the mother of Thailand and in addition to the cycle, we celebrated her birthday on Wednesday with a ceremony celebrating the mother's of Thailand (it's also Mother's Day on the same day here in Thailand) and a day off school...SCORE!

Last minute decision, but so glad I did it! 

Initially, I was pretty excited about the ride. I had purchased a pushbike a few months before and have been able to explore Korat a lot more because of it. However, with the pattern of weather over the past few weeks, around mid-afternoon to early-evening is when the heavens open, and heavy rain/thunderstorms hit the city; I didn't really want to ride 29km in that. Plus, 29km seemed like a LONG journey...I hadn't even prepped for it, could my legs take it? haha. Nevertheless, the day of the ride I was unsure until I went for lunch at a cafe near my condo, where I bumped into some colleagues. And, thanks to some pressure talking from Natalie, I was becoming more and more convinced to do it. The decision-swaying moment was when the girl working in the cafe I was at (knowing that I cycle) asked me if I was doing it. In a not very confident manner, I said no to which I was once again persuaded to do it as I had nothing to lose. Which I guess I didn't right? So, at 2:40 (with the race starting at 3...) I sprint-cycled back to my room, changed, headed to the nearest supermarket to purchase a blue t-shirt (blue is the Queen's favourite colour -- everyone was wearing one who was cycling) and then headed to the race.

Met some awesome guys on the journey! Thanks for letting me ride with you.

The race was supposed to start at 3, but in true Thai style, we didn't set off until nearer to 4. So, despite waiting over 45 minutes, I'm glad I didn't get there super early beforehand. Before the start of the race, I was trying to look out for Grace who was also doing it, but despite every effort to try and locate her I had no luck. But, I did happen to stumble upon some other Assumption Teachers instead (including one of the brothers!) and decided to join in the queue with them. At around 4pm, we finally headed off. The atmosphere was great, despite cycling at a snail's pace for the first 2km or so due to the sheer amount of people that were participating. It was amazing to cycle in the centre of the city and just see a stream of blue around you and as far as the eye could see. The track started off at Thao Suranaree Monument (YaMo), went past the mall, turned onto Mukmontri which headed towards the Zoo/University, down to the Stadium, back around to the Naval Base, and then crossing over the train tracks to head back to YaMo. About 10-12km in, my legs started to hurt a little and due to the heat, my water bottle had become warm so in my best effort to be as quick as possible and not lose the crowd of people I was following, I stopped at the nearest 7/11 by crossroads and grabbed some water. After I came out, the stream of cyclists were continuing to cycle forward so I just cycled on a followed them. However, about 5 minutes after I left the petrol station, I realised that I had missed an entire section of the track! Instead of cycling straight on like I thought the cyclists were doing, I should have turned right at the junction and made my way to the stadium. That meant I actually missed out around 3-4km of the course...oops. But, if it wasn't for that mishap, I wouldn't have got talking to 2 Thai gents who decided to ride with me until the end of the course as at this point I was cycling alone. Like me, they were both English teachers and spoke impeccable English considering the standard of English I've encountered with the majority of Thais. Before we knew it, we had made it back to YaMo and to my surprise, it really didn't feel like I had just rode 29km. Overall, I'm glad I completed it and it was really cool to be part of something so special.

Made it to the finish! What a great ride!