Week One PART 1: Start of School

Firstly I apologise for not updating this blog sooner, the plan to blog every week still stands, it's just been an incredibly busy first fortnight. Yes, I've been so busy I've taught a grand total of 5 classes...tehe.

Let's rewind back to Tuesday 16th July a.k.a. Orientation Day 2 a.k.a. MOVE TO SCHOOL DAY. The day was run similarly to the day before, with teaching activities in the morning followed by lunch. However today at 2pm we were all due to be whisked off to our respective locations around the country. 'Citin. After a particularly heavy night before on the Khao San road (refer to previous entry for details) my roommate Nick and I subsequently managed to sleep through our alarms and woke up at the ripe old hour of 11.15am, when activities were due to have started at 9am. Oops. After a hurried shower and literally stumbling into my clothes and shoes I arrived at my training room where I found out quite a few other people had missed the first few sessions too which made me feel a liiiittle less guilty. Teacher training followed until about 1pm when we had a final lunch, and then at 2pm it was time to say goodbye to all our new friends and really start the adventure. 

My destination, Chonburi, isn't too far from Bangkok (about 50 miles or so), but the notorious Bangkok traffic made the journey time to destination about 2 hours or so. I was travelling with my mentor, Jeab, the Education Officer for Chonburi Area 1, Prapasri (who I also live with Friday-Sunday), and two other assistants, Tom and Giuliana (who will henceforth be known as G) and their mentors. True to form, I quickly fell asleep during the van ride, but not before organising a trip to Chiang Mai at the weekend with Prapasri (who conveniently has a house there) and Tom and G. 

We arrived to our destination, the Education Office for Chonburi Area 1, where we were immediately ushered in to a room where we met some important education-type people. We also met Kyle, an American volunteer living and working in Chonburi but through a different program. This welcome ceremony was very surreal and confusing as I was still jet-lagged/drunk, but I decided to just smile and accept everything that came my way.

Not really sure what's going on but ^_^

After the ceremony we got back into the van and went to Prapasri's house, where we will all be living together at the weekends. After lugging my ridiculous suitcase up the steepest stairs of life, we all went out for dinner at the local mall (ew at the Americanism but this is what they call them so ya) and ate the good ol' traditional Thai dish...PIZZA. 

The next morning we awoke bright and early to be taken to our new schools, where we would be living Monday-Thursday. I, of course, am living and working furthest from the city (some things never change oh Alcalá) and it took a good 50 minutes in the car to get to school, but not before stopping off for a nice breakfast of FLAMING HOT CURRY AND NOODLES with my director at 7.30am. Anyone who knows me knows I'm not *really* a major fan of spice, but being the passive lil yes-man I can be, I said "Yeah I don't mind spice really". Spice means something else in Thai CLEARLY, as my lips were genuinely on fire till about 2pm. 

Anyway, I arrived at school and was shown to my "house". THIS IS MY CRIB: 

This is where the magic happens

I HAVE A BALCONY AT LAST LIFE IS COMPLETE

So my accomodation is pretty basic but I have a proper toilet and shower (which, although cold, is VERY refreshing and gets me where I need to be at 6.30am) so I'm happy. 

After seeing my accomodation, meeting the other teachers and having my first school lunch (spicy -what else- chicken soup), I went to the local market after school with some of the other teachers who live at the school. It was good fun to go and see a real, genuine, non-touristy Thai market at work, although sometimes I felt like I was one of the things on sale (stares aplenty). Later that evening I ate dinner with the teachers and learnt a little bit of Thai, and also tried to teach them a bit of English. Though there is a clear language barrier we all really get on and there was many a laugh shared. 

On Thursday I had my first proper classes, M3 (15 year olds aaaah) and K2 (5 year olds). Both classes were great as I introduced myself and got to know the kids a little bit. I was a bit apprehensive about working with older children as my experience lies with the younger years (4-9 is ma forte), but the kids in M3 were really good and very polite. K2 were obviously ridonkulously cute and remind me a bit of Spanish kids in their temperament i.e. a bit wild. 

On Friday we didn't actually have classes as we were celebrating the candle festival, which signifies the beginning of Buddhist Lent. The kids performed dances throughout the village (which is literally one street) before offering candles to the monks at the local temple:

SO CUTE.

 This was a great cultural experience, though the most eye-opening moment for me was at the temple. I was quite nervous about being in the temple as I know how revered monks are etc, and I know how I tend to embarrass myself in these kind of situations. So I was doing my best to be very respectful and knelt properly, when all of a sudden one of the monks (who were all sitting in a line facing us, looking very monk-ish) pulled out his iPhone, checked a message, laughed to himself, then put it away. Oh. THAILAND <3

After this, I hopped into my mentor's car who drove me back to Chonburi, and i prepared to hit BANGKOK for the night. More on that and my long weekend in Chiang Mai in the next entry.

I really need to find a way to make these entries more succint....