An average day in my second teaching job in Thailand starts with my little students following me two by two, holding hands, across the school to the flag-raising ceremony. Everyone stands still and quiet for the national anthem whilst the school's giant flag is raised by students on a podium; the school band plays before prayers and chants are recited in unison by the thousands of children and teachers who are spread across the school's playing field. After about twenty five minutes, once the daily routine has finished, all the older kids leave to start class leaving only the kindergarten students; us foreign teachers all take turns getting up onto the stage to dance and sing English songs into a microphone whilst the students copy our actions. This is followed by fifteen minutes of dancing to Thai songs and by this point we are all drenched in sweat and desperate to retire to our arctic air-con in our classrooms because the humidity, even at 8am in the morning, makes it difficult to be outside. After I've handed out milk, distributed baby powder for their little faces and brushed their hair I begin my lesson. At 11.30am the train of students reappears as I lead the way to the cafeteria whilst they fight to hold my hand and after handing out their lunch trays I sit with them to eat; one of the best perks of the jobs is the free school lunches! Forget soggy carrots and chicken nuggets, no, no, no...every day is like going to a Thai restaurant. Some of my favourite dishes are deep-fried eggplant, papaya salad, glass-noodle salad, egg soup and grilled mackerel all served without fail, every single day, with plain white rice (yes, the Asian/rice stereotype is true - I eat it twice a day!). I then read to them whilst they wriggle around on their sleeping mats before walking home for two hours whilst they have their nap. The afternoon is filled with more stories, time with their workbooks, them using me as a human climbing frame at every opportunity and then and 3pm we have yet another break where we go to the cafeteria to eat hot rice soup with pork- how the Thais are so slim I will never know because they are always eating!
I was asked by the Grandma of one of my students, four-year-old Zoe, if I would tutor her and her two three-year-old twin brothers after school; the Grandma, or Khun Yai in Thai, is very rich and pushes me to tutor her grandchildren every day whilst speaking to me solely in Thai which is a challenge since I'm still learning. I'm concentrating so hard when she speaks that I must look almost constipated! The extra money is great but the children are a handful, so much so that they each have their own nanny amongst the vast team of domestic servants that the Grandma employs. I can't blame three and four year olds for not wanting to learn a second language after a long day at school but I sometimes feel like I'm battling with them to pay attention and it doesn't help that on more than one occasion the little ones have weed on my leg or poked my eye out with a pencil!
Posing with the director of the school at the New Year party where they raffled off a mixture of prizes such as fans, bikes and gold(!!) before making us dance on stage - Thais LOVE making the foreigners dance...
...daily dancing after the flag raising ceremony...
...dancing around the school with a tambourine with trees made out of money to show off how much my students' parents had donated towards the new building!
Here are my little rascals eating lunch and mucking around - no wonder I'm always finding rice in their hair!
Sports day in Thailand - where the students are plastered with make up, hair pieces and frilly, sparkly outfits then paraded through the town!
The name of this sport in Thai translates to 'monkeys carrying watermelons'.
I was asked by the Grandma of one of my students, four-year-old Zoe, if I would tutor her and her two three-year-old twin brothers after school; the Grandma, or Khun Yai in Thai, is very rich and pushes me to tutor her grandchildren every day whilst speaking to me solely in Thai which is a challenge since I'm still learning. I'm concentrating so hard when she speaks that I must look almost constipated! The extra money is great but the children are a handful, so much so that they each have their own nanny amongst the vast team of domestic servants that the Grandma employs. I can't blame three and four year olds for not wanting to learn a second language after a long day at school but I sometimes feel like I'm battling with them to pay attention and it doesn't help that on more than one occasion the little ones have weed on my leg or poked my eye out with a pencil!
This is Huns, one of the little boys I tutor for and although they can be hard work they are extremely cute as you can see!
We went on a school field trip to a beautiful temple which had these giant statues outside.
The school trip ended at a rather sad zoo where the animals were kept in tiny cages.
Aoei and Yok showing us that Thailand really is the land of smiles! My students are so happy and it really makes going to work every day a pleasure!
On the weekends we have room parties and sometimes visit the local Thai clubs.
I will never get tired of the fruit here! This is juicy dragon fruit.
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