You have to REGISTER for the Globe now!!?? This sucks.

A couple of days ago a grade 5 class was going crazy. The baseline for behaviour here is that it's totally fine for kids to talk and to run around the room and sit at each others desks. With 20 minutes to go I was like Fuck it. Let's play a game. So I tried to communicate the rules to Simon Says.

One girl took her Thai dictionary and pointed to the english translation of a word which was "to be dazzled, to be puzzled". No kidding.

I was able to get 3 kids to understand it. Changed the name to Natalie Says. Then hoisted them onto a chair to explain it to the rest of the class. It was actually a big success.

Since I'm only working 18 hours a week, they're tacking on another 2 to teach the TEACHERS english. In a big auditorium. Oh dear.

The weekend in Bangkok with Jackie and Lara was a lot of fun. AND I think Jackie's going to visit me here in Ban Bung before she leaves next week. This coming weekend is a 3-day and Brad and I and his friends are planning on going to Koh Chang (island). I'm not a part of any of the planning but it's either going to work out just fine or is going to be a huge disaster.

Yesterday I was really tired because I'd stayed up really late to talk to Cendant about my move to Seattle. (Still have no idea when that is going to happen). I had a nap yesterday after teaching and when I woke up I felt pretty sick. No specific illness sick, just really achy all over. I still went to the market for dinner but had to sit on the curb with my head between my knees. Then this dog starting barking at me which brought over 5 other dogs so I left the gutter, ate some soup (with ginger) and felt a little better. This morning I didn't really feel that bad but then during the national anthem I had to sit down. So I didn't teach at all today and lay in bed. The director of the school gave me a pile of english books (it seems like there's a big theme of computer-spy-nsa type stuff) so all day I've been sleeping and reading a Grisham novel (King of Torts) which isn't very good. I still feel a little achy but that's about all.

Just now I was startled because a collarless Chihauhau started licking my leg.

Thai people are CRAZY about Ice. You get a glass of crushed ice with a little coke. You add ice cubes to beer. The dessert at the market involves a scoop of ice covered in butterscotch over fruit (or corn, potato and gummies).

I feel like I'm not making the most of my time here. I'm going to try to change that. I already made dinner plans with the fun, young teachers at the school, although only one of them speaks a little english...

I'm back in Bangkok. I would post more but the dial-up internet in Ban Bung is like nails on a chalk board.

Hmmm... what did I do this week We did end up going to I, Robot which wasn't a great movie but the whole experience was pretty fun. Before the movie we all stood for a photo-montage of the King. This was made more bizarre because the theatre was state of the art and almost empty.

Wednesday night I went to dinner with Brad's friends without him.

Thursday Brad and I went to dinner with the director of my school, her husband and the Japanese couple. I mentioned that I really don't like Thai breakfasts. Breakfast is just like any other meal, rice and curry or rice and meat. BLEH!! First thing in the morning! So this morning I went to her apartment and she made toasted bagels with peanut butter which was sublime. Also, her apartment is very swank, all white and minimalist with white stools like Ma tts and multi-storied. She mentioned more than once that if I had any friends who wanted to come and teach to hook them up. So email me if you're interested...

I taught 18 classes this week. In all of the classes we worked on out Ls and our Xs (this class has been brought to you by the letter L and the letter X) . Some of the english teachers are so awful. Basically my job is to teach correct pronunciation. This one english teacher has been driving me up the wall. I say the word correctly and then she "translates" it into Thai-english for me. And the kids have better pronunciation that she does! Everything I'm doing is a hands-on application of everything I learned in my linguistics course (minimal pairs and all that). I'll write a post on the Thai language soon. I feel like what these kids actually need is a speech pathologist to tell them what should be going on in their mouths. Anyway, more later. I'm meeting Jackie tonight which will hopefully work out.

Hardly anyone uses chopsticks here. Instead everyone uses a spoon and a fork. But the fork is only used to push things into the spoon. Even noodles in soup.
 
Anyway last night we were going to go to I Robot but that's happening tonight. Instead we went to Ban Saen beach around 9:30 and drank beers bought from 7-11 in cups with ice. It was me and all of Brad's male Thai friends. The only one who really speaks english is Brad's best friend Tam and he's the greatest. 
 
Funny Tam comment:  "I think Thai people are funnier than Americans. I watched America's Funniest Home Videos on tv and I didn't laugh once."
 
I work 18 hours a week. Mon-Wed 4 hours between 8:30 and 2:30 and Thurs and Friday 3 hours between 8:30 and 12:30. Pretty slack. I teach all of the grades 5 - 8 students one hour a week.
 
So far my typical workday:

• Get up for 7:30 breakfast. I have this at the school with the Japanese couple.
• Teach english
• Have lunch in the school cafeteria at 12:30
• Teach another hour of class
• At 2:30 I'm done. Read, have a nap and/or find some internet
• At 4 or 5 I swim. I started actually doing training swim swims. Adam or someone should email me suggestions.
• Then shower
• The around 7:30 go to the basketball court
• Eat with Brad and his friends in the market, which actually seems like an open air food court. The food is fantastic and never costs more than a dollar (for meal and drink). No one really speaks english so the conversation goes between me, Brad and Tam talking english and everyone except me talking in Thai. I expect that Brad will one day be fluent in Thai...

 

Bangkok is crazy. First, it is soooo hot. And it often smells of sewage. Brad and I arrived on Friday night. It costs 8 baht to get from Ban Bung to Chonburi and then 40 baht on an air-conditioned bus to get into Bangkok ($1 CDN = 30 baht).
 
Yesterday we got a late start which made it a very hot day. We went to the Royal Palace and then went to the "weekend market". The weekend market is FANTASTIC. It goes on forever and there is absolutely everything for sale. I went again this morning and bought 2 skirts that I'll wear to the school. The palace has this "emerald buddha" and you go and sit in a room in front of the buddha and you aren't allowed to point your toes at the buddha (since pointing your toes at someone is an insult).
 
We're staying just off of Koh Sahn road which is the big backpackers district. A bunch of the restaurants along the road play bootlegs of new movies. Last night we caught the tail end of Spiderman 2.
 
Does anyone have any ideas about what I should do with a class of forty 13 year old Thais that can't understand me? On Friday when I was entertaining the younger students I tried to get them to sing Old MacDonald. It didn't really work with the first class. But then with the last class I replaced the "with a moo moo here and a moo moo there..." part with just a bunch of funny moos (or meows etc.). It was much more successful. The only goal for my actual classes is that I get them to speak english more. Brad teaches 1200 teenagers a week. Think about that!

Today I hopped through a bunch of primary school classes since I'm going to be teaching grades 6,7,8. I feel like a celebrity. These little kids were practically wetting their pants they were so enthralled to see me. First they would all do a screaming "GOOD MORNING TEACHER. HOW ARE YOU TODAY?" routine. Then I would slowly say, "My name is Nat-a-lie. My nickname is Nat. I am from Canada." When I said Canada they would all shriek. I don't know what they actually think of Canada just that it's very far away. I haven't really talked to anyone here that has travelled further than Laos or Northern Thailand. Although very few (like the principal) have been to Japan or Hong Kong.

Last night I went to a soccer final. It was in the town square, 4 on 4, really small court, really fast game. The mayor was there. Brad and I and his friends went. It was pretty fun. Then we went to "pork grill". It was this outdoor place where you take plates of raw meat and cook it yourself on this grill that was surrounded by soup. Then the soup would get all the fat from the meat and you'd put tofu and vegetables in it. And then you'd pick out the meat and the veggies.

I've been swimming everyday so far. The pool is beautiful and since it's so hot it's great. So now I'm going for a swim and then Brad and I are going to Bangkok to do touristy things.

I arrived at midnight in Bangkok on Tuesday. Brad and "Apple" were at the gate to meet me which felt great. I have my own apartment which is really very nice. It has a king-sized bed and AC (which I feel too guilty to turn on, so I just turn it on for the 10 minutes before I go to sleep) and a fridge and a bathroom (with hot shower).

The school has 1900 students age 4-14. It's a private school. It has a really nice swimming pool. Since this whole thing was really spur of the moment it never sunk in that I'd be spending my days teaching english to Thai children. I'm teaching conversational english. I asked about what I should be concentrating on and I was told, "Ask your brother, he's been doing this for a while". I guess I really start on Monday. Today I followed around one of the english teachers and it was totally exhausting.

When someone would answer a question in front of the class everyone claps. I walked around the room while the kids were doing work and talked to each of them. Eventually it would turn into all of the kids surrounding me and asking me the only english questions they know, "How old are you?" "Do you like Thailand?". If I said anything complimentary to Thailand then everyone would whoop and scream.

In the morning we do exercises. After the national anthem, all 2000 of us do some bizarre dance routine that includes a lot of arm lifts and jumping from side to side.

A couple of the english teachers are really bad at speaking english. At the school there are 2 conversational japanese teachers who live next to me. They're married.

Send me emails!! I'm feeling kind of isolated and lonely.

I arrived home from Mexico on June 16. Now, this coming Thursday I'm leaving to teach english in Thailand. My brother is teaching english in Ban Bung which is an hour and a half south-east of Bangkok. I'm stopping in Seattle for the weekend and arrive Tuesday at midnight. I don't know what to expect. I decided to go a week ago. I bought a one-way ticket and moved all my shit into my mom's living room. I just managed to find my passport after the move. I'll have more to tell once I'm in Thailand...