Happy Month-iversary

And what a month it has been folks. As I write this on the last teaching day of November, it is crazy to think it has been over a month since I started at Assumption. I really can't express fully how amazing but incredibly stressful and hectic teaching here has been. I am finally starting to get comfortable here, establish the level of my classes and be comfortable with the routine. But even more than that, it is so weird for me when I realise how accustomed I am becoming to living here. Like, I will just happily walk around alone at night to get groceries (in the sense that I don't feel unsafe), I'm starting to meet new people and even though I have yet to master a lot of Thai, I still manage to find my way around. And the weather...I really just can't get enough of it. Waking up on a Monday morning in late November in the UK (I can see it now...); grey, wet, depressing...not really a good way to get up ready for the working week. But here? Sunny, clear, warm...it really sets your mood for the week! And as we are approaching the halfway mark of the semester, I have just finished writing up my students' midterm exams ready for mid-December...yeah it is that time already! I'm not quite sure if all my students are ready (I mean half of them don't really want to learn) but the exam is like 80% multiple choice and they can't fail it...so I don't think they really care! Despite the ups and downs of teaching classes, there are lot of things to like (and dislike...) about this school. I'm gonna start of with the negative, because it really is only two (minor) things...one? The FOOD. Yep, I'm sorry chefs at Assumption but constantly eating rice every day accompanied by some weird, spicy meat (which is actually mostly bone) and veg (half of them being unrecognisable) concoction is not my idea of a school lunch...sometimes I think the kids get better meals than we do (terrible right?! haha :P). Apart from that though, the only issue (though I guess it's not particularly pertaining to the school) is communication. I feel like I am constantly out the loop and that the staff never know anything. I'm starting to realise why they call this school ASSUMPTION - because I'm certain the administration staff just ASSUME that we know everything that's going on. For the most part, I can kind of just take it on the chin and not worry, but there are times it is really stressful as I don't like being disorganised or not knowing what is going on. But hey, it's Thailand and everyone here seems so chill and nothing has necessarily gone wrong with this method of laid back-ness(?) so I guess I just got to go with it.

On a better note, despite the mishaps in comminication, I really do love the staff here. Everyone here is so nice and like I've said previously, there really is a sense of family and looking out for each other here. One way or another, we all seem to help each other out and work out things eventually. It's really nice to bond with teachers from all over the world. And with the mention of the staff, the thing I would say I love the most is the events they put on! The school hosts the coolest events that involves everyone one in the school and they really go full out! I guess because I'm not involved in the organising of them, I don't see the inevitable stressful side to it. But it is really cool to see everyone really be proud of Assumption and wants to make sure people know they are the best almost. Just last week, we had a few stalls around the school for a book festival and being the "token foreign teacher" of sorts, I was able to try my hand at pottery. Yeah, I was not the best at it but it did turn out somewhat like a pot so I was pretty chuffed with myself.

Only thing missing was "Unchained Melody" playing in the background.

The next event in the Assumption calendar was celebration of the Brother Directors birthday. We were invited to attend a mass (with it being a catholic school) and then attend a dinner which was outside accompanied with many many photos and laughs. (I really wish I could remember more in depth...memory is terrible). The dinner was mostly fish-based which is wasn't a massive fan of, but I gave (most of) it a try so I wouldn't be hungry - especially as we were eating outside...whoever came up with that idea...(but we got cute pics of it).

Just had to be the star of this picture...so unnatural. haha.

Finally saw Sports Day fever hit the school. And this was the event of the season. The entire school had been prepping for it the last month and it certainly paid off; what an event it was! Extravagant costumes, marching band, cheerleaders/dance troupes...it was awesome to watch. It was crazy to think that these kids would be running in 30+ degree heat (I couldn't imagine doing that as a kid) but everyone got in full spirit and it was a nice break from teaching classes. Half way through the event was a cheer/dance competition. Each team have their respective troupes and they performed in from of the assumption staff and group of brothers. I couldn't believe how much time and effort (and money) went into these performances. My favourite performance came from the Violet team. Their performance was Egyptian inspired and I felt like it was very "Madonna-at-the-SuperBowl". I was just in awe of the routine and wished I was able to something like that when I was there age. Seeing performances like that with both girls and boys in it made me have more admiration for the students - especially the guys. I have quite a few gay/ladyboys in my classes and I am so proud of them that they feel comfortable being themselves and doing performances like this - I would have LOVED to have done something like that or be in an environment where I had friends who were into the same things as me. I just know that this would be ridiculed in the UK...all out of ignorance...shame really. Anyways, back to Sports Day; a few of the foreign teachers signed up to participate in the teachers relay. This was held at the end of the day which saw 4 Foreign teachers and 4 Thai Teachers represent each team and run a 8x50m relay (maybe they thought we were all too 'unfit' to run a full 100m haha) and I was so looking forward to it. And luckily, I came out of it with a silver medal!! I was so chuffed and it marked a great end to the day. Just before we all left the event, we did the standard protocol of singing the national anthem but then we all joined hands and sang "Auld Lang Syne". The students, teachers, and brothers all came together and it was an overwhelming experience seeing 1-2000 kids look back at you. Even though the song we sang in Thailand is known as "Samakkhi Chumnum" which translates as "Together in Unity", I still saw it as Auld Lang Syne and as a sign of bidding farewell to an old year or marking the end of events but for me, I really saw it as marking the end of an old chapter of my life, and focusing on this new chapter; a new chapter of becoming a teacher in Thailand and really striving to work on myself and find myself again after feeling lost for quite some time. And in relation to the Thai version, I really do feel like I belong here; that I really feel part of a big family and that I have a purpose. Korat, you might be boring and Assumption, you might be stressful at times but hey, it could be worse and I'm really enjoying myself here thus far!

Off to Bangkok this weekend so will keep you posted on those adventures!

This Job is Thai-aring

As I'm writing this, I'm sitting in my office passing the time until my next lesson and struggling to stay awake. Okay, it is my own fault - because I really should learn to go to bed sooner than 11:30pm (which has been the earliest I've slept for a while) but this job is also incredibly tiring. Granted, this week hasn't necessarily been as hectic but the school week has still been filled with hard classes, big events, and last minute schedule changes we have to deal with. Honestly, you could be the most organised teacher in the world and still be unorganised in this environment! haha. This semester, the school is hosting a lot of events so the students and staff need to prepare for that. On this week's calendar, we have been having 'cheerleading' practice for Sports Day. This has seen us been split up in groups and essentially watch the students perform cheers and chants for their team in preparation for Sports Day on the 28th. Also yesterday, the school was on its best behaviour for an inspection as they are up for an award; there were displays all around the school showcasing Thai Culture and the talented students that Assumption has to offer. It almost didn't feel real yesterday - the school was too quiet and everyone seemed to be paranoid that they would be randomly inspected in their classes - I for sure was! Finally, to mark 'Brothers Day' this morning, another ceremony was held which meant another free period for the teachers and students! It is incredibly eye opening to see how respected the Brothers are here. They are treated like kings and students kneel to them when approaching. You would think they were kings.

I would say that the most tiring and stressful aspect of this job is the language barrier...I know, I know , "I'm in Thailand and can't speak a word of Thai so what do you expect?" right...which albeit is true but we were told that we didn't need to know any Thai and were advised not to speak it in class. However, I have come to learn that in a lot of my classes this is a great disadvantage. While most students can't be bothered to listen (can you blame them if they know they are going to pass..?), the ones that actually want to learn just look at me completely confused and lost. I have made many efforts to simplify things; I've slowed down my speed of speaking, I now speak very basic sentences if not just key words, and have even resorted to drawing on the board what I want them to do like I'm playing Pictionary or something. The struggle is real.
But it is all trail and error; I definitely did not come into this job expecting them to speak fluent English but it is all about working out what skills each student needs to work on more, whether it be listening, speaking, or writing. This is a difficult task though as although the year groups are in sets, like I said before, that does not necessarily indicate their level of English. Some of the other English teachers here have assistants to help them with the Thai and sometimes I just think how different it would be for me if I had one myself...hmmm...I guess we will just see how it goes.

Petrified Wood Museum.

Unfortunately, the tiredness has been spilling over into the weekends, so because I try to catch up on my sleep during that time, it does cut my weekend short of going out and exploring. However, this weekend was the first time since I've been here that I felt I did something rather productive. On Saturday, I went to a Petrified Wood Museum about 20km from the city (really not as boring as it sounds...) with my friend, Aloy. Apart from being small, it was actually a really cool exhibit; there were fossil displays that were discovered in the local region of Nakhon Ratchasima so it was really cool to see some local artefacts such as dinosaur bones, elephant tusks, and trees that had been crystalised/petrified over millions of years. I really want to check out more museums and exhibits like that around the area because it really interests me to learn the local history and culture of this region. It was nice just to walk around and relax after the week (but as always the weekends go by much quicker than the weekdays!). That evening, the 'farangs' all headed to the Check Inn bar to watch the rugby (Wales vs. Fiji) yet this time, no one seemed as interested but me to cheer on the home team (Cymru am byth!). Knowing that my whole family were there at the Millennium Stadium watching the match whilst I was in a tiny western in the middle of Thailand somewhere really put things into perspective. I really do miss my family but I am so blessed to have been giving this opportunity and do something I have wanted to do for a long, long time and right now, I really wouldn't have things any other way.

The next day yet again was filled with pointless lounging around and hanging out with my hungover colleagues after what seemed like an eventful time they had just the day before. Once again, I convinced my friend Aloy to take me exploring so we travel about a 45 minute drive north to Phimai (pronounced Pee-my) Historical park which I had seen on google when researching Nakhon Ratchasima before I arrived. Phimai Historical Park is a protected site of Khmer (or Angkor) temples and looks very much like a pocket-sized version of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. It was a beautiful site and luckily for us not too busy as it was nearing the end of the day. What is crazy (and the same in Malaysia) were that non-Thais (or non-Thai speakers) had to pay 100 baht whilst my friend went in for free. I can see the attraction to that, but I would have been nice to go in for free too. Regardless, I was able to take some great pictures and have another location ticked off my list.

Selfie at Phimai.

I've also been preliminary planning Christmas holiday plans. I wanted to do it now as I know that flights will get a lot more expensive and unfortunately due to the changing nature of our schedules at Assumption, time isn't on my side. So I've decided to go to Cambodia for 3 days and explore, then heading down to Kuala Lumpur once again and spend New Years Eve with some Keele friends (like I promised ;) haha) and go down to Singapore and explore some more sights that I didn't get to in June. As much as I'm going to be visiting friends, I want to use this time to go exploring by myself which I haven't had the opportunity to do previously. Might be an expensive trip...but so worth it!

Until next time.

Teaching Tales, Loy Krathong, and Immigration Issues

I'm finally getting into the swing of things at school (apart from the early mornings...that's going to take a while) and my classes are going well. This week, I have been focusing on "introducing yourself" and "describing yourself and your family" - I've been adopting different methods to see what works as every class is different but I'm not starting to get to grips as what classes you can do more advanced tasks with and what classes I need to maybe simplify things. In each year, the classes are subdivided by level (or as I've learnt that's not always the case) so I have 4 classes in secondary 2 (year 8) and 5 in secondary 3 (year 9). The 1st sets are the best but I've realised that the 5th set is better than the 2nd set so it really depends. The worst class of the week came from 3/2 who just did not listen at all to what I was saying, only 6 out of 44 students bought any paper to write with and they were just doing their own things for the entire lesson. I just shouted for 50 minutes (plus one kid put a condom on his hand...yes you read that right...) But, I've learnt not to get too downhearted by it and just deal with the fact that I'm going to have great classes, and I'm going to have crappy ones. But overall, I think my students like me and I am starting to be recognised on campus so that's quite a nice feeling; they still haven't mastered the name Matthew yet but like I said before Master Mattoo will do :). During the week, a few of us visited the expat bar we hung out at for Halloween. Apart from being a bar, they also serve western food and some of my colleagues had beans on toast and a bacon sarnie with brown sauce (what torture!) - I was trying to be good so I just stuck to Pad Thai but I definitely know where to go if I'm craving British food. It's barely been two weeks but I already get times with I could murder a cuppa or some bacon and sausage; my weak spot is visiting fast food outlets instead...I've been eating so much fried chicken it is beyond a joke. My kids even compared me to Peter Griffin because of my "belly" - the cheek! ;)

Thursday saw a massive celebration being held on campus. Loy Krathong (pronounced L-oi Kra-tong) roughly translates to "to float a basket" in Thai and it is where people make krathongs (one shown below) and float them out on a river. These krathongs are usually decorated with banana tree trunk and leaves and held together with pins and flowers (traditionally a spider lily plant) but some are made with bread too. There is also a candle and some incense on it and it is floated out on water and people will make a wish hoping it will come true (kind of like Dreamboats at camp if any of my friends from Sealth are reading this!). 

My very own Krathong.

The kids at school used a small swimming pool to do it but in the evening the English teachers went to Bunt ta lua lake where there were thousands of people floating their krathongs. In addition to that, the school held a pageant known as "Queen Krathong" and there were 25 girls in beautiful dresses and head pieces who stood on stage and were judged; kind of felt I was watching miss world or something haha. 

Top 5 Queen Krathongs and some of the English Teachers.

The trip to the lake was followed by visiting an Indian temple for dinner. It was the first time I'd had Indian food here and it was amazing. Despite all the dishes being non meat, it was delicious and was definitely a welcome change from eating chicken fried rice all the time. Walking back from the temple, we came to the gates of the city (Champion Gate I believe its called?) which were lit up and surrounded by crowds all still celebrating the Loy Krathong festivities. In the main square, I was mesmerised by a hip-hop troupe and break dancers just busting it out to a remix of tracks - it made me really miss dancing and I just wanted to join in with them! In addition, we were treated to the spectacle of many people praying and worshipping the statue of Thao Suranari ('The Brave Lady' - who helped regain control over Siam from Laotian vessels), a popular object of devotion here in Korat. Archna, Grace, Natalie, and myself each purchased a candle, a necklace of flowers, and a little piece of gold paper which you rub on a statue below Suranari to make the wish come true. We all knelt before the statue and made wishes and prayers for our loved one and people in our lives. I'm not a spiritual person but this was truly eye opening for me and I definitely felt how important this was to the local people who were praying around me - it was a really refreshing and meaningful experience. (Wish I had taken more pictures really...)

At the end of the week, a few of the teachers needed to go to immigration to get either our work permits re-validated or to apply for re-entry permits (mine was the latter). Because I'm going to Malaysia to see Syafiq and Fila next month, I needed to get a re-entry visa so my Thai one would still be valid upon re-entering the country. We were originally told this would only take a few hours...turned out to be more like 7 hours all together; it was such an incredible ball-ache to get sorted, one official said we didn't have the correct documents, the other one said it was fine, then we had to wait more to get a stamp in our passport...(you better appreciate all this effort I've gone to Fila and Syaf! haha). The major downside and only slight regret was applying for a multiple entry permit (setting me back ฿3800/73) which then turned out to be only valid until mid-January, whereas a single entry would only cost ฿1000/£19, so I've essentially got to leave the country 4 times in the next 3 months to get my money's worth...challenge accepted?
As we were waiting for our visas, we had a browse at some of the local stores near the immigration office, and all of them were selling beautiful pots and ornaments, even one of a giant sheep (which we all felt necessarily that I have a picture with being Welsh...yes, the stereotypes have even carried themselves all the way here...)

Like being home away from home...

Overall, a good second week at assumption. Visa finally sorted (Roll on Malaysia December 5) and my first real experience witness Thai celebrations and culture. Hopefully more like that to come!

My First Week at Assumption

(Sorry for the delay in posting, I haven't had internet for the majority of the weekend.)

So my first week at Assumption is complete. Most of the week was spent observing and settling in to the routine but next week is when the reality really hits. The beginning of the week started off well, I was able to observe a multitude of classes lead by other English teachers from the UK and the Philippines. It was really interesting to see my colleagues' different teaching styles and to get a feel for what works and what doesn't.

One thing I have been finding amusing this week is that whenever I go into any of the classes I observe, the teacher always tells me that this is the 'naughty' class. My heart always sinks when I hear that but you soon realise that in Thailand, their definition of naughty just means they don't listen; in comparison to the same age group in the UK, where you can potentially expect violence and backchat, the classes here are very tame. The biggest issue right now is being able to grab their attention and maintain it throughout the class, but also realise that some students are there to genuinely learn and improve their English and some are just there because they have to be. In Thailand, they adopt of policy of 'no student gets left behind' so you are not allowed to fail anyone - even the ones who literally don't do any work...this does make it hard to control the class because the threat of failure has no hold whatsoever. Also, some kids haven't quite got the hang of saying Matthew yet - the 'th' sounds doesn't exist in the Thai language so its more like Mat-t-ew right now. So cute.

Students gathering for morning assembly.

Like I said before, every morning we have to stand for morning assembly and throughout the week this can entail different activities. On Fridays, the school holds a meditation session where music is played and there is just complete silence. Also this week we witnessed some Buddhist monks come to campus to receive some offerings from the students; it is just incredible how much respect and honour they are given by the Thai people. Assemblies like that you'll find are so long that they actually run into lessons, as well as other activities the school has arranged. I've been told that it is not unusual for me to walk into class with no-one there because of an planned activity that no-one bothered to let me know about. Perhaps the greatest of these activities I have witnessed is a giant dance aerobic session that the teachers have to partake in every other Friday afternoon (I wish I had my phone on me to capture that moment because it was certainly a spectacle!) and it is just hilarious to watch; its so nice to see the teachers having a laugh and enjoying themselves in what can be a stressful environment.

By the end of the week, I was dying to teach my own classes so I was able to teach 2 of them on Friday morning. With halloween falling on that day, I decided to do something around that so I bought a bucket of candy to class with the hopes that if they understood the concept of 'trick or treat' (which they did!), then they could get a treat if they got the answer correct or if they were well behaved. I was absolutely bricking it going into my classes but I've learnt you've got to fake it until you make it so I went in with confidence and tried my best to let them know my boundaries whilst at the same time having fun with them. My first lessons centred around introducing yourself; name, age, where they are from, favourite things etc. and then having them write it about themselves whilst being able to form sentences aloud to tell other people. I had 46 students in both my classes so I was nervous that I wouldn't have enough time to ensure everyone had finished or understood the activity because everyone is at varying levels in all my classes. Despite my nerves though, I felt my classes went well even with the minor issues of attention and not listening. I could definitely tell some students were better than others so I hope in time I can create activites to keep them engaged as well instead of thinking it is too easy for them. Because of the number of students I'll be teaching (close to 500!), they are all given student numbers in their class, so I've now learnt to just call them by their numbers and in time, really make an effort to learn their names to show that I care and pay attention. The names they've adopted are so difficult though and not always what you would associate in the western world; each student here has a 'nickname' which they pretty much have with them for the rest of their life and what they are predominantly called around the school. At the end of each class, I have to fill in a log book which reports there students who were absent and how good my class were on a rating between 1-5. For my first class I gave them a 3 which other english teachers thought was harsh...I guess I should be a little nicer next time! My other class though (and perhaps my favourite and most memorable so far) I gave them a 5 because I honestly thought they worked well and did what I asked them to do.

Due to only teaching 3-4 classes a day, I am finding that I do have a lot of free time on my hands. I have been filling an hour in the afternoon going to the gym and will continue to do that during the week. Apart from that, it has been spent playing games, getting photos taken, and signing contracts for apartment hunting. We took a couple of trips to have a wonder around the apartment complex near the school and to try and find a room to rent. Luckily, there were enough rooms available where all of the new teachers could live in the complex without leaving anybody out. We viewed about 9 rooms and 1 jumped out for me and I just had to get it. It's located on the 9th floor and it feels incredibly 'homey', I have a little kitchen area, dining table, double bed, 32 inch TV, sofa bed and to top it all off, a pretty sweet view of the city. Monthly rent comes to ฿5000 (£96) a month plus utilities (ridiculously cheap right?!) and it is located about a 5 minute walk from the school grounds. We have yet to acquire any wifi so hopefully we should be getting that at the beginning of next week.

My new crib.

With Friday being Halloween, a few of the English Teachers went out to the expat bar to celebrate! It was really nice hanging out with colleagues, letting loose and getting to know them more. I've really come to realise that the english teachers at Assumption are really like a big family; they genuinely want to get to know you and look out for you and I find that so comforting. Drinks were flowing and we all got pretty merry (trust me, this heat lowers your alcohol tolerance for sure! haha) and despite the hangover in the morning, it was a great end to what has been an exciting first week at Assumption. First whole week of classes begin Monday...this is where the real work begins! Wish me luck!

Some Assumption Teachers out for Halloween.