End of an Era

Today was my last day teaching at the language center I've been working at for the last few months. I have been regularly teaching 3 classes every weekend, kids ranging from 8 to 13, only like 4 to 6 kids per class. The teaching is easy and the money was fine, but working full time, it wasn't nearly good enough to make me give up my weekends and teach 7 days a week. So when I got the job at Varee, I told my boss that she needed to start looking for another teacher. My boss is a grandmotherly Muslim Thai who runs this small language school all by herself. She might be the sweetest lady in Thailand, and I felt bad leaving, but these kids wear me out during the week, I need a break. She can be a bit, shall we say, choosy, when it comes to teachers, so I knew if I stayed on until she found someone she liked, I could be there another two months. So I followed the American custom and told her I would give her two weeks. And today was my last day.

I have to say, I'm kind of going to miss that place. The kids were good natured, the teaching was easy, and it was nice leaving with cash in my pocket every weekend. Like I said, my boss, Suda, was incredibly sweet. Her English was pretty good, and she loved to sit down and talk about her life and ask me questions about mine, sometimes to the detriment of me starting my classes on time. She let me use a bicycle that used to belong to her maid, and even though it was small and pink and had fairies on the seat and my knees couldn't take it for more than a week, it was still a very nice gesture, and one I'm finding is typical of people in this country. She was always pushing drinks upon me, including one memorable time where I went with her family to the store to look at class books, and I ended up with 4 different juice boxes. I was riding in the front seat of her daughter's car, with her and her grandson in the backseat, trying to hold 4 different juice boxes, all of which for some reason I stupidly put the straws in at the same time. So I had to suck down two types of juice and two types of tea in order not to spill all over the car. But regardless of my perilous beverage tales, I will miss seeing her and my students twice weekly. Though the lazy days at the pool I have been missing because of it will help ease the pain I think.

TPWWLT - Billy Joel - 'Scenes From An Italian ResTAUrant.'

PS The kids I have been teaching, hard at work. The little girl, Hanwa, was my favorite. Only 8, she was probably the second smartest student I had. I tried to tell them today was last day, but I don't think they got it. That must have been the reason there were no tearful goodbyes and depressed wails as they filed out of the classroom. Had to be.

PPS They just look ecstatic to be in school taking English classes over the weekend, don't they? :)

Burma...Check

Today, I took a little trip up to Burma (aka the Union of Myanmar - not to be confused with Miramar, or where Maverick and Goose get to go because Cougar looses it and turns in his wings.) With my trip to Laos back in March, I got a double entry visa, and today was the 2nd of those two entries. (The first of course being when I reentered Thailand from Laos the day I got the visa.) Basically what I needed to do was leave the country, get stamped into another, and turn around and come right back in for three more months in Thailand.

The easiest way to do this from Chiang Mai is a trip up to Mae Sai, a town to the northwest of me on the Thailand/Burma border. By bus it takes about 4.5 hours, so after leaving Chaing Mai at 8, I found myself there shortly after lunchtime. I had read in a few travel blogs to buy your return bus ticket right when you got in, but after heading to the window, was told the only bus that had seats was the next one, leaving at 2pm. So I had a little over an hour and half to go through the Thai exit/Burma entrance and then return through the Burma exit/Thai entry. (Leaving a country is not like crossing a state line. Governments like to keep track of the people coming and going, and this usually leads to lines and frustration.) Further complicating my task was the fact that the Burma immigration officers supposedly take a very dim view of people who walk into their country, get their passport stamped, and turn around and try and leave right away. As in, they don't let you do it.

The reason they don't let you do that is because they want you to spend money. Immediately inside the border is a huge market. Walking down the steps off the bridge, I was immediately besieged by Burmese (Burmian?) men trying to sell me things. Cartons of cigarettes, booze, packs of Viagra, and porn ('sex movie - Asian') were the most prolific offerings, but I'm sure there were many more that my virgin eyes missed. Pushing (literally) through these men with baskets of vices hanging around their necks, I made my way into the market. Tent after tent of knockoff clothes, purses, watches, jewelry, DVD's...pretty much anything you could ask for. Since one of the reasons the Myanmar border people won't give you your passport right away is that they want you to spend money in this market, I figured if I bought something, even if they gave me crap about trying to leave too soon, I could show them my purchases and have a better chance of getting my passport (and thus a better chance of making it to my return bus on time). And even though I have a need for a watch, some work shoes and a few other things, my dislike of shopping, aversion to spending any real amount of money and time crunch meant that I was mainly focused on the DVD's. Brand new movies for 60 cents, seasons of television for as low as $2. After loading my arms with about a dozen seasons of TV spanning about 4 different shows, I realized that it was silly of me to spend all this money when A) I haven't even watched the first season of Mad Men I have with me, B) its not like I have a lot of time to sit around and watch seasons of television, I am gone from 7-6 every day, and C) the quality with stuff like this is pretty hit or miss, so it was silly to spend like $30 on shows that might be kind of blurry or not even work in my computer/a US DVD player. I finally settled on just the 4th season of Dexter, which cost me $3.30. (On sale for $31.99 at Amazon.) And even that, I splurged for the 'originals' - I could have bought the 'copies' for only about 2 bucks.

My purchase and reentry into Thailand went smoothly. They had my passport waiting for me and didn't say a word. (So I guess about 45 min is enough time in the country.) And I hopped on my bus with 3 minutes to spare. It was a cheaper, lower class bus, so while the trip up had made me glad I brought my hoodie and a pair of socks to combat the AC (such an experienced SE Asian bus traveler by now), the trip back left me sweating and trying not to stick to the vinyl of the seat. Got back around dinner time, grabbed some garlic pork at my favorite stand and have just been laying around trying to fully recover from the throat infection I've been dealing with.

Overall, it was an interesting day. Not many people can say they've been to Burma/Myanmar, so I've got that going for me, which is nice. (Even if it was only 45 minutes.) Just interesting to see the whole set up they have in Mae Sai. I found out you can't actually get a real visa for Burma there, just a one day pass. So Thai people will basically travel up for the day, do all their shopping and come back. Pretty much the whole economy of the town, on both sides of the border, is set up for this. Why things are so much cheaper over there, I have no idea. (All that stuff I mentioned I saw there is definitely available in the markets here, but its not nearly as cheap. My season of Dexter prob would have cost me about $12 here. So a pretty big savings.) But it might not be a bad idea to take another trip up there before I come home, throw down $30 or $40 and stock up on some shows I've wanted to see. And on unrelated note, even though the trips were alternately freezing cold and sweltering hot, driving through the forested, jungled mountains of northern Thailand is still pretty breathtaking, and hopefully something I don't ever become too accustomed to to appreciate. (Too many 'to's' in that sentence, its 12:30, couldn't figure out how else to say it.) Hope everyone is doing well back home and enjoying the weather getting nice. Though I don't want to hear any complaints about the heat. High of 100 today, and I thought it was cool out. And go hawks!

TPWWLT - Lil Wayne - 'Every Girl' Worst song ever to have stuck in your head? Not because its annoying, but because of the awkwardness of singing the chorus out loud. Luckily I don't think anyone on the bus understood when I caught myself absentmindedly singing it under my breath today.

PS - The quality on Dexter is great. Hope all the discs/episodes work!

School Pics

My desk is in the classroom so yesterday after lunch I was on my computer, and this kid was watching me, so I figured I would snap a quick pic to amuse him. Well, it was quickly discovered and I only managed 3 pics before I was swarmed by 6 year olds and had to call them off. Figured I would post them so you can see who I'm hanging with all day!

Mike

PS The guy in the first picture is named Pet. He is from a village and speaks no English and a dialect of Thai that my fellow Thai homeroom teacher has trouble understanding. He is pretty cute though. :)

Guess What?

I got a job! Ok, let me rephrase that, I got a full time job. I have had a part time job for quite a while, teaching some classes at a language center on the weekends. However, since I haven't written in forever, you wonderful people don't know about it. I have a few stories to tell, and I will get to those someday, but just know that I was doing part time work teaching 3 different classes to students anywhere from 9-13. With only about 4-6 kids to a class. BUT, this new job...

My friend Lex works at a large school called Varee Chiang Mai School. She works in the kindergarten (which is separate from the rest of the school), and has been teaching summer school all summer, or since about March. Last week she was getting ready for the year (she is teaching math to the kindergarten levels, and school started on Monday), and she told me that one of the kindergarten teachers they were expecting back had not got in contact with anyone all summer or in the weeks leading up to the school. Her boss was starting to get nervous, and when he finally made the decision to look somewhere else last Thursday, she passed along my name as someone she thought would be good to look at. So Thursday night, I dropped off my resume, cover letter, et all to her to bring to him the next day. Friday, he set up an interview with me through her. Monday, I went in for the interview, Tuesday I went in to practice teach, and Wednesday I went in to meet the headmistress (a requirement for every teacher) and to accept a job as a kindergarten teacher, to start the next day.

So its shortly after I'm hired, and I am sitting in the teachers room, talking to the other kindergarten teachers trying to figure out what the heck I'm supposed to teach all these little 3-5 year olds the next day, when Simon (the man who had hired me and who had been my contact through all this) came in, and told me to follow him. Remember how I said the kindergarten was a little separate from the rest of the school? Well, turns out they had another vacancy in the English Program, which is for the more advanced older kids. (Very quickly, all KG students are taught in English, when they hit first grade, they can be put in regular First Grade, or in the English Program (EP) First Grade. This means that not only do they have English Class, but about 70% of their curriculum is taught in English, ie. Science, Health, Math, Social Studies. It also means their parents paid more.) Well, apparently, the EP is more prestigious and more important to the school than the kindergarten, and they had a vacancy for a first grade English/homeroom teacher in the EP. So when I met this headmistress, and she found me reasonably suitable (my suit helped a lot, everyone was really impressed that I was wearing one - thanks dad!), she decided that I would be better served there as opposed to kindergarten. So basically, I was a KG teacher for about 2 hours, and yesterday afternoon, got the call from upstairs to move up to English Program 1 - First Grade!

So, the EP is set up more like a high school, with different teachers teaching different subjects. The only difference is that the teachers switch classes as opposed to the students. So what I am teaching everyday is English to both of the EP1 classes (there are only 2) and to one of the regular first grade classes (so I am the only English they hear all day). I was also given a few other classes which I'll talk about at a later date b/c this is getting confusing, and I am the homeroom teacher for one of the two EP 1 classes, ie I'm a first grade teacher, as opposed to just teaching first graders, if that makes any sense. Now, its not as crazy as it sounds, I do have a Thai teacher in their with me, who realistically does a lot of the work, but my desk is in the classroom as opposed to with the other teachers, I'm supposed to go hang in the classroom when I'm not teaching, and try and help Khru Mai (that's my Thai counterpart) control 32 six year olds.

So today was Day 1. I had no syllabus or any notion of what these kids knew, or really any ideas...and frankly no idea what I was doing. My first class was a train wreck, but they progressively got better as the day went on, and by the time I had my last class during the 2nd to last period of the day, I think I actually taught them something. I got thrown into teaching 2 other subjects, both to 2nd graders. I had one of those classes today, and I think it went ok, though my second grade students nicknamed me Teacher Michael Jackson and refused to call me anything else all period. (All teachers go by their first names, so I am either Mr. Mike or Teacher Mike to all the students. Hence when I introduced myself as Teacher Mike, I became Teacher Michael Jackson. A far cry from the Michael Jordan I was back in Phnom Penh.) Overall, I would say the day was a success. I'm working full time and shaping young minds. So what if I got milk spilled on me, nicknamed after a famous (alleged) child molester, and had a student sneeze in my face? I'm a teacher!

TPWWLT - 'Don't Stop Me Now' - Queen

PS. Went to the grocery store after work and was biking home...got stuck behind an elephant on a bridge. True story.

Happy Mother's Day!

Miss you mom! Hope you have a great day!

Love Bub

PS Thanks to JP, Wes and some of my freshman year college buddies for help with the pic.