Into the thick of it

I have been maintaining radio silence lately for the simple reason that after a long day of teaching 4 year olds I just don't have the energy to do anything creative. It is really and truly exhausting.

The kids are mostly great - like most classrooms 90% are really cool. The other 10% take up most of the day. You've got your ADHD cases, your "not loved enough as a child" case, your overactive boy case, etc. But really...the good ones are so good.

I feel that if I can last it, it will be so good for my teaching. I'm already discovering (well, not really discovering...more just honing) skills that I didn't really need to use at the high school level. For example, each classroom is shared by 2 classes and with 2 teachers, 2 assistants, and 31 kids it can get really loud. Having a loud voice I would generally just yell over it all but boy-oh-boy that tires you out quickly. Instead I have learned to modulated my voice appropriately and in turn it quiets my kids down as well. I will tell you though, I don't know how Mrs. Duffy did it (my kindergarten teacher.) 30 kids to yourself, no assistant, no maid, forget it. I taught only 3 days last week and I had to go to bed at 8:00pm on Friday night!

This weekend we are going to a friend's restaurant opening on Friday night (Free Food!!!) and to another friend's house for dinner on Saturday night. Not to brag but our social calendar is full!

Dinner awaits...

Man those prostitutes can throw darts!

My posting schedule has slowed down significantly, I know. We have been really busy with school stuff since last Monday. Friday couldn't come quick enough.

Jess has a friend visiting from New Zealand, en route to England. On Friday night we were planning to take her to one of the sky bars (those really expensive bars at the top of tall buildings.) We left the building in a drizzle and arrived at the restaurant Cabbages and Condoms in a torrential downpour. We were soaked and Laura had torn her pants on a vendor's table. Yes, Cabbages and Condoms is the name - they give most of their proceeds to sex education in the provinces. Pictures to come. Needless to say, we didn't make it to the sky bar.

On Saturday night we went out again, first to Indus, a highly recommended Indian restaurant, with the intention of hitting a sky bar. But Jess and Laura's marathon day of shopping caught up with them and they went home early again. But not this boy. Oh no. First we went to a little sidewalk bar that some friend's knew about and polished off a bottle of Sang Som (80 proof Thai rum) amidst those poor, poor elephants and the prostitutes outside "The Hairy Pie Club" (I couldn't make this stuff up people.) From there we went to another pub, this time with a shuffle board table, dartboards, and a proper flushing toilet. After another bottle of Sang Som, and a couple games of darts with some ladies of the night, we retired quickly after learning that ringing "the bell" in Thai bars means you are buying the next round. I just thought it would be fun!? Really!

Sunday was a day of much needed rest.

We have one more day of in-service and then the kids arrive. Did I mention that I am teaching senior kindergarten? I have never been scared of a 4 year old. But I am rather frightened of 16 of them - running the gamut from little to no English (it's their 3rd or 4th language in some cases though) to developmental challenges. Rest assured that I will post again this week to let everyone know how it goes.

Whatever doesn't kill you...

I'm working for Dr. Claw

Well folks, I don't know if you ever watched Inspector Gadget but if you did, you will get the reference. I started work on Monday (a very sombre occasion) to find out that I will be teaching K2 (which is either like Canadian senior kindergarten or grade 1.) I wasn't expecting that at all - I am responsible for teaching kids to read for god's sake!?! I am warming to the fact and becoming less and less nervous about it all. I'm sure it will go swimmingly. Over the last few days at work I have learned the "ins and outs" of the school - what not to do, not to wear, not to put up, etc. A lot of nots really. The owner/director has a very firm idea of how her school should be run and everyone has been very helpful in acclimatizing me to the situation. However, I haven't actually seen the owner yet, only heard about her. It really does feel like I'm working for Dr. Claw - never actually seeing his face, just doing his bidding. Or "the management" from Carnivale. Here's hoping it all goes well when I do meet her...

On the weekend we went to a district called "Royal City Avenue." It's a strip of really trendy bars and restaurants, filled with the "Hi-So" (high society) of Bangkok. We went with some friends from school, one of which's girlfriend's friend owned a number of the bars. I have never been a V.I.P. before, and might never again, but let me tell you, it's kinda fun. At these bars you buy booze by the bottle - 2200 THB for two 26 oz bottles of Smirnoff and mix. But that was the last of the booze we bought all night.

Yesterday was Mother's Day - the Queen's birthday. We did some touristy stuff - saw the Democracy Monument, the October 14th Memorial, walked Khao San Road, took a water taxi to China Town, and wandered around China town for a few hours. It's so much work to do touristy stuff here! The heat, the congestion, the noise, etc. It makes me just want to sit in my air conditioned apartment and be a tourist at the pool and sauna once in a while. (Tempting anyone to visit yet?)

Gotta run, we're watching "The Kite Runner" tonight!

Photos!

Hey all, just added some photos from Bangkok on my Flickr page. Follow the link to the left.

The Dirty Post

It's been a busy few days since I have last written.

Firstly, we found a place to live through the good old internet. We came to see it on Monday and told the guy we would take it, then moved in by Tuesday. It's pretty awesome - 14^th floor in a brand new building, never lived in, spacious, close to everything necessary (restaurants, BTS, supermarket, Thai prostitutes...err, forget the last one.) But seriously, it is in the district called Nana which is the main prostitute district. Their cat calls are kind of cute actually. And, the best part is in comes complete with a very nice pull out couch for anyone who decides to make the trip over here! Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, know what I mean...

One downfall of the place though, last night we started doing a load of laundry and then went to the grocery store to do a bit of a stock up. When we came back the living room was a swimming pool and every drop of water that went into the machine seemed to come out the bottom. Once we finished furiously toweling up the water, and spinning the clothes dry, I reached into the machine to retrieve our mentionables and unmentionables (how come “mentionables never really made it as a description for clothes?) and got a shock by the now electrified drum. Needless to say, we aren't going to be doing any more laundry very soon.

In setting up our apartment we went to a local mall called MBK. This place is the palace of comsumerism folks. Imagine a place 7 floors high, each floor dedicated to a different article (housewares, electronics, clothes, etc.) and packed with stalls like street vendors. I don't think I'm getting across how massive and confusing this place is – each floor is about half a kilometer long and always (I've been there twice now) packed with people. It really is unbelievable.

Yesterday was especially busy because we went to the immigration bureau to get our visas changed to “non immigrant B” visas – which we need to work. The cab ride there and back took about an hour, but we were only in the immigration bureau for about 10 minutes. Of course we didn't understand anything going on because the secretary from the school, Pornthip, did all the talking and we just sat there smiling and trying to look presentable. (Seriously, her name is Pornthip. For some unknown reason a lot of people seem to have the name “porn” in their name.)

As I write this I'm sitting in front of our huge windows, looking out on the scene below, and I keep thinking about all the crazy/weird/amazing/sad things I have already seen and I have only been here a week. There are people right now, outside this very window, bathing themselves from 55 gallon drums on the street level below. The beggars here are hard up – I saw a guy yesterday selling lottery tickets with no arms and only 1 leg! Everything you can imagine you can buy from a street vendor – religious amulets, bits of metal, airport metal detectors (the hand held kind,) fruit, brooms, wicker baskets, and more. Sometimes I feel very overwhelmed but most of the time I'm just trying to hide my amazement.

We have a pretty busy social schedule in the upcoming week – we had a get together for new staff last night, there is a “going away party” on Friday night, a costume party on Saturday night, and next Tuesday is a holiday so we are going golfing. I need a pay cheque soon!

Off the Sidewalk, I'm a motorist!

So lastnight we met up with some colleagues from Canada at a local watering hole. They gave us the scoop on all sorts of stuff about Bangkok – where to live, where to shop, who to avoid, who to befriend, etc. All of this was done at “The Dubliner Pub” - an Irish pub. It was interesting walking into the place and ordering a pint – it felt like you were at some pub in Ireland or England, or at least a good pub in Canada. I mentioned to Jess that it was a nice “respite” from Bangkok, to which she agreed. I think places like that are going to become ever more important as the time wears on.

On the way to the pub we were walking down the “not really a sidewalk, but the closest Bangkok gets to one” and a motorcyclist came barreling straight at us and yelled something in Thai. I can only imagine that it was “Off the sidewalk! I'm a motorist!” Apparently pedestrians no longer have any rights here.

Speaking of traffic, Bangkok has lots of it. We have seen some pretty precarious situations on the road, motorcycles swerving in and out of cars stopped at stop lights, all sorts of vehicles traveling on the wrong side of the road, what look to be ridiculously unsafe loads on top of trucks and motorcycles (including people) and many more. I was thinking about getting a bicycle or a scooter but my sense of self-preservation kicked in and has made me think otherwise.

While at the pub, in the midst of conversation about our new city, our friends asked “Have you seen an elephant yet?” We replied no, as it was the most logical answer – this being a city of 14 million people (last time we checked elephants live in the forests of Northern Thailand and the plains of Africa, not in dense urban centres.) They mentioned that you see them all over the place, usually at night, around Bangkok. The funniest thing is, as they finished saying this they looked out the window to the street and said “I think that is an elephant right there!” We ran down to the street and sure enough, it was an elephant, dressed in what looked to be a cellophane tutu, and his handler, a mahout. Apparently for 40 Baht you can feed them sugar cane. (A little exploitive I feel.) You can only shake your head sometimes...

P.S.- It is currently 4:30am on Sunday August 3^rd. Still reeling from jet lag.

P.P.S.- A car just sped by the apartment blaring it's horn. I can only imagine that he was thinking “Everyone wake up! I am a motorist!” WTF...

Intermittent Internet

All good things come with a price. For example, this morning we took a Tuktuk to the Grand Palace. The tuktuk was so fun but we were black from exhaust fumes by the time we made it there. Another example, the Grand Palace is “knock your socks off amazing” but there are lots of scammers and pick pockets in the area.

After the Grand Palace, and losing 2lbs in sweat, we walked to Wat Pho to see the reclining Buddha. Holy heck, that was a large, gilt Buddha. Words can’t describe the ornateness of the building and the Buddha within. I’m thinking of taking up Buddhism because of it.

We went to “MBK” for lunch. MBK is actually an acronym for this huge shopping centre. It’s about 7 floors and each floor is for something else – housewares, clothes, electronics, etc. Very overwhelming. We found a voltage converter, which we bargained down to $7. When we got it home and plugged it in however, it started billowing smoke and now my next to new iPod speaker doesn’t work anymore. (Honestly, who knew such a little electrical appliance could smoke so much. WTF?)

The apartment has let me down slightly as well. Just after the converter debacle I noticed a cockroach on the wall. Furthermore, we have been stealing internet from an unsecured wireless network. Jess seems to always get on easily – she has even been able to Skype her family. However, whenever she hands it to me the internet goes down. And finally, this must be the noisiest apartment in the whole world - we leave the windows open for a cross breeze but the street traffic makes you think there are trucks coming through the front door

We continued the apartment hunt today. We can honestly say we have beat the pavement looking. We went to about 10 places in the area of the school asking if they had vacancies. Either they only had 3 bedrooms available, or none available, or they were just too expensive. (You can tell the kind of place you are going into by looking at the cars in the parking lot – don’t expect anything under 50000 Baht if there are Mercedes or Ferraris in the parking garage.)

Well, I should wrap this up because we are meeting some people at a pub in an hour. Hopefully dinner and drinks doesn’t come with any downfalls. I will be sure to let you know if it does though.

Exhaust Fumes and Incense

Well we made it to Bangkok Thursday night at 10pm. By the time we got to our apartment it was midnight – the perfect time for a quick stumble around the neighborhood. The school had booked an apartment for us, which is directly across a small lane from the school. It is massive (too big for little ole’ us really) and came complete with Kit Kats in the fridge (thanks to our vice principal.)

And just so everyone knows, jet lag is no fun. Jess and I woke up at the crisp hour of 6:15am this morning and surprised everyone at our school by showing up just after 7. What else are you going to do really? The school grounds are really neat – a bit of a sanctuary amidst the hussle and bussle of Bangkok. Some buildings are ultramodern, some are teak and 100 years old. Looking forward to working there.

After our visit to the school we began to acclimatize ourselves to the city. We walked to the BTS (skytrain) and set ourselves up with passes, we found some grocery stores, and Jess found a mall. The city isn’t really what I expected (most experiences never are really…) – you can find anything and everything here if you look hard enough. Chuck T’s, Oreo cookies, Irish pubs – you name it, this city has it.

We started “The Great Apartment Hunt” today as well. We contacted an agent who took us around to about 7 different places. We were pretty excited about the last few but they are a bit far from the school, which means more money spent on transit. We are seeing more on Sunday hopefully.

“The Great Apartment Hunt” took us until 6pm so we treated ourselves to dinner and a massage. (It was either eat out or have P.B and J sammies because we have no cookware.) Thai food in Thailand just tastes better. (That should be a tourism add eh?) And for the equivalent of $7 CAD, we had a Thai foot massage that ended up being more of a full body massage, lasting an hour. I barely made it home on my own jelly-like legs.

That’s all for now.

C&J