When we arrived at the school we were first given a tour. The campus is large (and beautiful) and has a pool, a Mac computer lab and a Windows computer lab. I love the math room that has a large clock on the wall and all kinds of other cool manipulatives. The science room looks pretty exciting too! The gym is in the same building as the mini theatre and the cafeteria, all of the primary students are in one building and the middle school students are in another building. The students here are expected to have homework every night - all of them including the K1's (Kindergarten 1 are 3 year olds, K2's are 4, and K3's are 5) and they are all expected to write exams too.
After the tour of the campus, we spent a few hours learning about Thai culture and a few phrases in Thai. We learned about the King and the Royal Family, and about the monks and the hierarchy. It's very interesting to learn about.
In the afternoon we met our cooperating teachers. I was under the impression that I would be teaching grade 1 but when I arrived they had a different position available for me - I am helping to design a phonics program for grades 1-3 (which includes 15 classes of approximately 30 students). It's a new program and there will be no assessments. The course is activity based and just to get the students talking in English. It's pretty exciting! And the amount of prep time that we have is incredible!
Monday night after school, Matt took us to Tesco Lotus to pick up some cell phones and some supplies. He then took us to the 7-11 near our apartments to show us how to reload our air time for our phones. I went wandering around to find some things to eat for supper and then I went home and cleaned up my space a little.
Tuesday night after school, I came right home and had a nap. The others decided to go to a big mall for the evening so they left and I was on my own to go wandering. I just wandered down the street and found a place to eat. I could see a plate of food that looked amazing and because I didn't know what it was called I just pointed to it. They then pointed me to a table where 3 Thai's were sitting. To my good fortune, the one lady sitting across from me knew a few words in English and helped me to order my food, and got me all set up for my supper. The supper was great, and the people here are so incredibly friendly.
Wednesday night I decided I wanted to go check out the mall. So we went to a mall called Bang Kapi or something like that. We went for supper at the coolest place I have ever been! It was a restaurant called Sukishi. They sat you at a booth and in the middle of the table there is a digital element. They bring a big bowl around that had soup in it and set it to boil. Right next to the booth is a conveyor belt where all sorts of different things go by including: pork slices, clams, octopus, fish, tofu, eggs, noodles, pumpkin, and much much more! There was also a sushi bar, and a dessert bar. It was all you can eat for an hour, and it all cost $10. After supper we went for a half hour Thai massage that cost roughly $8 and I bought a cute little purse before going home.
Thursday we had a lot of meetings during the day. We met with Gary who discussed more about Thai culture with us and with Chris Brown who came to ease our concerns about our practicums. It is great to have him here and it is too bad that he can't stay the entire time. We had to stay at the school after work to meet our vans to come to Hua Hin for our super long 5 day weekend (which never happens! We just got lucky and get this fabulously long weekend!). It was a 3 hour drive from Lertlah Kaset-Nawamin and I was exhausted when we got here. I went and checked my emails and then went to bed.
Friday morning I was up in good time. I went downstairs for breakfast and had a nice visit with Chris and a few others before heading out to explore Hua Hin. We went wandering around the city and I found a dress and a fan, an umbrella and a pair of sandals. We also found a lovely little place that did all kinds of tours including elephant rides, snorkeling, and kayaking. We signed up for the elephant tours and the kayaking. Then we went to Starbucks for a quick bite to eat before going back to the hotel and getting ready for supper. The restaurant we went to was called Bam Bam's and it was very small - especially for 60 of us. It was hot and a long wait, but the food was good. I had chicken with Indian curry. Then we went to the night market on the way home. It is chaos in the markets - so many people and they just seem to push through wherever they can fit. The deals were great though, I bought a dress for about 5 dollars, and a pair of shorts for 10, I got plenty of other things as well before coming back to the apartment. However, I was not feeling well when I got back.
Unfortunately after the market on Friday night I didn't feel very well, I had a fever and was throwing up and my ankles were quite swollen (although that's more from the heat and a need to rehydrate). I missed the elephant rides on Saturday and the kayaking tour today. I went to see a doctor and he told me that I have food poisoning so I've got some medications to take for that. Hopefully they solve the problem and make me feel better soon!
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