I have never been so tired in my entire life. As I explained in a previous post, I sleep about 20 feet from a very busy market. By 4am, when the sun is starting to rise, not only is the market loud and busy (which I can handle in my sleep), but music BLARES through these intercoms (which I cannot handle in my sleep). I swear to crap, last night was one of the worst nights ever for sleep. There was ZERO wind and I thought I was going to suffocate in a puddle of my own sweat. I was just saying prayers "God, I will do ANYTHING for ANYONE at ANYTIME if you will just let me fall asleep tonight!". About 3 hours later, the loud music starting playing. It's the loud music that you would hear on Borat, like the "Ahhyyyy, ayyye, ooo, kayyyyy" stuff. (I asked P'Ke what the song was about and she said it was about a wife who was dying and she wanted her husband to feed her something. He bought her all the fruit in the land but she wasn't satisfied. So then he had sex with her and she died happy. ---- my fault for asking.)
Teaching here in Thailand is very hard. I teach all different levels of high school students at various ranges of english skillz. Some of the classes, I walk away and think "Wow - that was fun. I don't know if the students learned anything, but they sure were happy." And other classes I walk away thinking "Wow - I suck as a teacher.... why the hell were there children climbing on chairs and desks?? No one listened to a word I said!" And it's not like you can yell at them, cuz I would just look like a big gorilla shouting nonsense words at them! But honestly and seriously - I don't think I can ever complain about my school again. For example: there is a paper shortage here. That does not mean the paper is rationed out equally, it means there is NONE. So we cannot make any copies right now. How the hell am I supposed to teach a lesson without the students having any handouts AND not understanding what I say? It is very difficult. But *most* of the children are all sweet hearts. Thai Culture Fact - they bow (I think it is called Wai) to everyone. Children do it to the teacher's, but the teacher's dont have to do it back because they would be Wai-ing forever all day. But it is so interesting the resepect you feel from students after you give them a piece of paper, or sticker, or pencil - and they "wai" you. Also - (and I thought this was only for the king or buddha) but if I am sitting down and students are walking by, they lower their head lower than mine until they pass me as a sign of respect. It really makes me feel weird - but I can understand the respect it gives to the teachers and elders. Sometimes kids are 15 minutes late to class.... as in, the WHOLE class is 15 minutes late. No one is phased by this, it's just the way of life.
There are a lot of, what they say in English, "Lady Boys" here at this school (and in Thailand in general). Very very very feminine culture, apparently. They wear makeup. MAKEUP!! Now, I could care less that these lady boy's wear makeup.... what I care about is HOW THE CRAP can they keep makeup on all day without it melting off in 3 minutes flat?!?! I need to know their secrets!
So let me explain how DIFFERENT Thai teachers are than American teachers! Yesterday, they worked all day. Now after work, I would maybe go to the bathroom, talk for a few minutes, then be back in my classroom working for a few hours before I felt like I needed to go home. Well, yesterday after school, the teachers walked downstairs and we sat around for awhile and watched the mosquitos buzz (at least I did... I swear, for every one mosquito you see, there are 300 hiding within a four foot radius... I did the math!!). Then they opened up brand new packages of sports t-shirts for their competition today...... They taught me how to play this game where you throw a tiny ball into the dirt, and then see who can get closest to the little ball by throwing big huge metal balls..... So we did that for awhile. Then we sat around and ate the most delicious fresh fruit. Then I wandered over to the volleyball court and played volleyball with some other teachers - all the while, some other teachers were playing basketball or soccer. MAN - what a life!! I really want to adopt this where I work! "Work stops at 3:30.... then we go out and play all afternoon!" I felt like a kid in a school yard again!!
Well - I had better wrap this puppy up.... I need to book a hotel for my fabulous vacation this weekend! Adieu!
Tomorrow I am flying from Ubon (a close town) to Bangkok, and then Bangkok to Phuket for a beach holiday for 4 days. Wednesday to Sunday. So once again I will be on my own for a few days and depend on the kindness of the people to show pity to a stupid tourist!
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