Happy Halloween!

To everyone celebrating in the US that is. Oddly enough, Thais don't find a need to celebrate a day where you dress up in scary and/or slutty costumes and knock on strangers' doors asking for candy.  Needless to say, I did not celebrate Halloween today, but did teach some of my students about it!

Teaching. This was our third day of classes and it hits me every once in a while that I am a teacher.  Theoretically I knew I was coming to Thailand to teach english, but I don't think I really thought of teaching as my profession. It my not be my lifelong profession, but when I stand up in front of these high schoolers, they think that I am actually a teacher. I have been thinking of my high school and junior high teachers a lot this week wondering if they ever felt like they were just faking it too.  Probably not since they actually had to have credentials to teach.

Most days I teach four 50 minute classes, except tomorrow when I only have one class! The school campus is very beautiful and it looks like a small university surrounded by rice patties. There are over 2,000 students and between Eric, Anna, and me we see all of them once a week. Each class is at a somewhat different level in terms of speaking, understanding, and behavior.   So far, most of mine are really fun to teach with a few exceptions where I am probably counting down the hour more than they are.  I am very fortunate that I get to teach M6 (seniors) because they can at least understand my directions when I am speaking slow enough and some classes are really smart.  My M3's (freshman) can also be really smart and I really enjoy teaching some of those classes.  Most classes are pretty noisy, but it is very cute that at the beginning of each class they stand and say, "Good morning/Good afternoon teacher" and stand at the end of class to say, "Thank you teacher." They also bow their heads or wai (pronounced why) me every time they walk by.  I'm totally into this respect your elders/betters thing.

The classrooms are very interesting.  All of them that I have seen have a smart board, which is super high tech, but the room Eric has been teaching in isn't air conditioned and has termites that chew through the desks leaving saw dust on the floor.  Others don't have A/C, but are in a little better condition.

The other teachers are super nice, friendly, and helpful so it makes teaching and working in the foreign language office very enjoyable.  It's pretty awesome that you go teach a class or two (which I kind of think of as "going into character") and then come back to your office and maybe work on a lesson plan for next week or read or hang out and talk until your next class.  I call it "going into character" since a big part of our job is simply keeping students entertained while also speaking english.  I think I am doing a pretty good job as a teacher and it is really helpful working with Eric and Anna so we can share lesson plan ideas and strategies for keeping kids quiet.

Overall I am enjoying being a teacher, shopping after work, and going out to eat near our apartment (tonight Eric and I had the best fried rice in our lives for $1 each).  Suphanburi is a city full of really nice people and it is beginning to feel like home.  Yay for Thailand!