After a very memorable month off school travelling around Indonesia I landed in Bangkok and made my way to my new home town, Sisaket, in the north-east of Thailand. I was still unable to walk properly, due to my bunk bed fiasco in Bali weeks earlier, so I hobbled on and off planes and buses with my overflowing backpack (moving house at the same time as travelling...I don't recommend it) until I reached Sisaket. When I arrived in my previous town, Lampang, six months earlier I didn't know anyone, I had no idea where I was going to live or even where to start looking, there were no other foreigners, nobody spoke English and I didn't know any Thai and so the feeling I got was a weird mixture of fear, excitement, adrenaline and anxiety however my arrival in Sisaket couldn't have been more different; waiting for me at the bus station were my friends (who I'd met during my teacher training course in Bangkok last April), there's a small community of foreign teachers, I had an apartment waiting for me and friends to show me around. Sisaket is similar to Lampang in the sense that it is very much, at the risk of sounding clichéd, the 'real Thailand' - tourists just do not come here - so forget the paradisiacal images of palm tree-fringed beaches and bars crawling with bucket-wielding backpackers - those destinations are firmly reserved for school holidays! My new home town is like most (non-touristic) towns in Thailand; the obstacle courses they call pavements are crowded with bins, drains, giant wobbly chunks of concrete, the odd sleeping person, motorcycles and Thai barbecue stalls, everywhere you go you are incessantly stared at and talked about (p.s. dear strangers: I can speak a bit of Thai now so I can understand what you're saying!!!), there are stray dogs chilling on every corner, there's a market that comes alive after dark, you can't swing a Siamese cat without hitting a 7/11 convenience store and (now this next one is the best part) everywhere you look there is a plethora of street food stands each selling its own specialty dish or snack from crispy deep-fried bananas, Thai pancakes, coconut ice cream topped with peanuts and fresh tropical fruit to squids on wooden sticks, mango and papaya salads, noodle soup, sticky rice, chicken feet and cups full of sweetcorn covered in sugar! That being said Sisaket does have a few features that make it special, namely the giant lake that plays host to regular outdoor festivals and events, has running and cycling tracks around its 2.3 mile circumference and an unrivaled view of the sunset.
We launched our handmade 'krathongs' - made out of banana tree trunks and leaves, flowers, incense and candles - into the water to symbolise good luck.
After a few days of settling in to my new home it was time to start my new job; instead of teaching a whole high school full of lovely, sometimes shy, giggly teenagers obsessed with their phones I am now responsible for imparting knowledge to twenty-eight curious, impossibly-adorable and for the most part snotty five-year-old students who are obsessed with...me! Rather than teaching twelve different classes once or twice a week I am now a kindergarten English Program homeroom teacher which means I am with the same class all day and able to build special relationships with the children whose parents pay extra for them to have a farang (foreigner) with them all day; I teach them in the mornings using flashcards, games and songs and and the rest of the day is spent reading them stories, guiding them through their English and maths workbooks, playing with them, cuddling them and sitting in on their music, computer, swimming and Chinese lessons (yes, they are five years old and they are learning English AND Chinese!). All this is done with the help of three, yes THREE, Thai teachers who are with me all day: T.Grace is the head teacher who is in charge of organising the class, teaching them Thai and attending meetings, T.Rainy helps control the class and we also have a nanny, T.May, who cleans the kids up. This allows us farangs to be the 'fun' teachers and therefore we're pretty popular with the children and sometimes I can't quite believe I'm getting paid to sing, dance, act like a clown and have so much fun! A lot of my kids are better at expressing themselves in English than my eighteen-year-old students at my last school however they are still learning how to speak Thai and form words; they pronounce my name 'Teacher Jellyfart', partly thanks to the 'J is for Jellyfish' poster that's on the wall and as for the 'fart' part, well...I can't explain that one. I've noticed a big difference in Thai nicknames here compared to what I'm used to - probably a geographical and generational thing - but instead of having the odd 'Poo' in my class I've now got children with names like Boss, Bambam, Tamtam, Ninja, Fighter and Progress (who has a brother called Program). I tell a lie, I did have a poo in my new class but it was not the 'nickname that means crab in Thai' variety, more the 'freshly laid by a five-year-old next to the classroom door' kind.
My absolute favourite Thai snack - crunchy fried bananas with sesame seeds and massive potential for addiction!!!
The Tree House Hotel in Sisaket is home to the swimming pool we visit most weekends.
Sunset at the lake.
The Thailand sky never fails to please.
A shrine at a temple in neighbouring town Surin.
Loi Krathong festival at the lake was a colourful frenzy of flowers, lights, fireworks and Thai dancing.
Thai street food (complete with child under table).
My second Christmas in Asia was spent in a restaurant run by an English man who cooked us a traditional festive lunch with a side of fancy dress.
We didn't get any time off over the festive period apart from a long weekend at New Year which was a blur of beaches and bars on Koh Samet island - a great example of the aforementioned Thai paradise.
After a few days of settling in to my new home it was time to start my new job; instead of teaching a whole high school full of lovely, sometimes shy, giggly teenagers obsessed with their phones I am now responsible for imparting knowledge to twenty-eight curious, impossibly-adorable and for the most part snotty five-year-old students who are obsessed with...me! Rather than teaching twelve different classes once or twice a week I am now a kindergarten English Program homeroom teacher which means I am with the same class all day and able to build special relationships with the children whose parents pay extra for them to have a farang (foreigner) with them all day; I teach them in the mornings using flashcards, games and songs and and the rest of the day is spent reading them stories, guiding them through their English and maths workbooks, playing with them, cuddling them and sitting in on their music, computer, swimming and Chinese lessons (yes, they are five years old and they are learning English AND Chinese!). All this is done with the help of three, yes THREE, Thai teachers who are with me all day: T.Grace is the head teacher who is in charge of organising the class, teaching them Thai and attending meetings, T.Rainy helps control the class and we also have a nanny, T.May, who cleans the kids up. This allows us farangs to be the 'fun' teachers and therefore we're pretty popular with the children and sometimes I can't quite believe I'm getting paid to sing, dance, act like a clown and have so much fun! A lot of my kids are better at expressing themselves in English than my eighteen-year-old students at my last school however they are still learning how to speak Thai and form words; they pronounce my name 'Teacher Jellyfart', partly thanks to the 'J is for Jellyfish' poster that's on the wall and as for the 'fart' part, well...I can't explain that one. I've noticed a big difference in Thai nicknames here compared to what I'm used to - probably a geographical and generational thing - but instead of having the odd 'Poo' in my class I've now got children with names like Boss, Bambam, Tamtam, Ninja, Fighter and Progress (who has a brother called Program). I tell a lie, I did have a poo in my new class but it was not the 'nickname that means crab in Thai' variety, more the 'freshly laid by a five-year-old next to the classroom door' kind.
Every couple of weeks we celebrate a student's birthday by throwing a party for them in the afternoon complete with cake and pizza. For some reason the cake is always eaten first and the pizza is always seafood flavour which is the kids' favourite.
Getting some serious colouring work done.
I was asked to choreograph a dance for the Christmas show to 'Jingle Bells' as well as design their costumes - my students are the little snowmen and reindeer.
There are four other foreign teachers working for the Kindergarten English Program and here we are with some of our Thai co-teachers.
Thai dance show at school.
The students gave food to one hundred monks that came to school in order to 'make merit'.
Each week I am given a topic to teach - this particular week was the King's Birthday which has been designated as Father's Day in Thailand.
I incorporate craft into my lessons - here are my students with their hand-made krathongs for Loi Krathong Festival (the white on their faces is baby powder which we distribute to them four times a day).
Never a dull moment!
Swimming lessons!
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