Good Morning Class

After the previous blog, I figured you are in dyer need for some wholesome-ness! And don't you fear, even if my writing is horrible the pictures should make up for it all! 

Just to catch you up on our journey so far, the certification course I am taking is a month long process. It started in Phnom Phenn Cambodia for 2 weeks, then we came to Pattaya Beach (Thailand) Where we completed 2 weeks of classroom training, Thai language training, and Culture awareness course. Needless to say the past 2 weeks were jam packed with lesson planning, tests, and tedious paper work necessary to receive our certification. (http://www.languagecorps.com/) They take it very seriously which I appreciate, our certification actually goes through  a University in England so its really legit and highly respected around the world! 

So teaching started a little something like this. 

I was placed to teach at a school about an hour out of town, 3 Kindergarten classes ranging from 3- 5 year olds every day from 9-12. Nick got placed at a school 15 min. away with 3 of our other classmates. He had a range of classes, they changed each day. By the end he had observed/ taught 8th, 5th, 2nd, and 1 kindergarten class.  This is my "classroom, with out the kids in it of course" Very colorful and out doors, which wasent as hot as I thought it would be! 

The first day was for observations, or so we were told. So going in Monday morning I prepared a semi lesson/game just in case they asked me to teach, but was told I should only be observing. Well was I surprised when I walked in to 30 Kindergartners (3yr olds) and a Thai teacher who basically said, "Okay, you teach". 

My first thought? Holy Sh*t! 

What am going to do! Haha, the last time I was in a Kindergarten class room.. I was in Kindergarten! And most of our training was for adults! But being thrown to the wolves I had no other choice but to roll with it and make the best of it! So I went with my little lesson plan, and basically tried to evaluate where they were academically.  They were actually pretty smart. They could count to 20, knew most of their colors, all of their ABC's and true to form messed up the part when it came to "L-M-N-O-P".  The day was finally over and some how I survived my first day as a "teacher"! I made my hour long trek home, and tried not to fall asleep on the driver who spoke 0 English! That night I went home and made a detailed lesson plan so there would be no dull moment the next day. 

The next couple of days went by well, half way through the week my principal informed me that we had a big sports day coming up the following Friday, and tomorrow we would be going to the outdoor gym to start practicing and get a leg up on the 6 other schools we would be competing against! I thought, Hell yeah, a day off from teaching. But JUST IN CASE, ill try to have a few games  planned. The next day we got to the gym and the teacher once again said okay , "You Teach". This time I was prepared, I somewhat put together a little work out routine and taught them new words in English as we acted them out. IE: Jump High, Jump Low, Kick, Ball, Jumping Jacks, Hula Hoop... went pretty well! Especially considering the fact that I had all 3 classes at once! Except when i tried to teach them "Duck Duck Goose" Which i had to change to 1,2,3, Go! Because in Asia the head is the most holy part of the body and touching heads is a big no no! But Duck Duck Goose, basically turned into, chase teacher around in a big circle... Fail! hahah At least they had fun!? 

Here I am with all my little ones in preparation of sports day

This is Bum. He has autism, and is By Far the best hula hooper ever. He could hula hoop for hours, on one leg, with two hoops, probably even eating a sandwich! (The following day I had him show off his skills in front of the entire class as a review of the new words we had learned, he loved it, and at the end of the week he even told my principal that "teacher was beautiful". )

These are some of the older girls! 

I mean could you just eat him!?!?!?!?!? The boy on the left is "Tartar" He was the most adorable little boy ever! And very smart! 

Hahah Picking your nose is socially acceptable in Thailand, and here's proof! 

This  boys name is Nine, with some of the other girls... He came in very handy when I was reviewing counting 1-10! hahah

This is one of the cutest things ive encountered here. To get the children to be quiet they tell them to "Swallow a lemon" So they puff up their cheeks like the have a lemon in their mouth and put their fingers over their lips! These are my two favorite boys... the one on the right is Earth, pronounced (Eart) 

This is my K-2 Class Ages 3-4, making silly faces and completely being hams for the camera! 

K-3 Ages 4-5

After the first week, I was finally getting the hang of things! Lesson planning was getting a bit easier, and the kids and I had a good rapport going... and half way through the week my assistant principal informed me that she was going to teach me how to cook a Thai dish, and I wouldnt have to teach for the day. SCORE!!!  

I got to school on Wednesday, and hopped on her moto bike, and we drove to the market! Picked up the necessary ingredients. 

Chicken

Tomatoes

Limes

Green Onions

Galanga root (which is similar to ginger)

Garlic

Mushrooms

Fresh Coconut Milk

Lemon Grass (my favorite new herb)

a few chilies 

and green onions. 

Made our way back to the school where we with no hesitation started preparing the meal at one of the picnic tables. Here we threw all sanitation rules that I have grown accustom in the state out the window. IE: Washing your hands, Using a separate cutting board for chicken and veggies, WASHING YOUR HANDS!  The minute she turned her back I decided it would be in my best interest to pop an Imodium, Just in case! So we started hacking at the chicken (bones and all) chopped it up in small pieces and put it in a plate. Oh yeah, she washed the chicken off first, In this little sink that all the kids wash their hands in. (eek)  Chicken cutting, was followed by veggie cutting. On the same board. With the same knife. 

With out even as much as a quick run under the water. Although the min. she left the room for some more plates I took the cutting board, and knife and scraped it in the sink as much as possible! 

We then mixed all the ingredients together added some water and brought it all to a boil. (Which made me feel a little bit better about the contamination) 

It was actually a very tasty dish, and now when I go to a restaurant I can order "Tom Kai Gui" with pride knowing what I will get!  

That Friday was sports day, which unknown to me was a really big event because it fell on the Chinese New year! The kids practiced a parade the day before which i had no idea was for sports day, I just thought they were doing some sort of ritual! lol 

This is C, he loves getting his pic taken... with the Flag of Thailand! 

The following day I showed up for the parade, they had so kindly given me a uniform that said on the back "Kindergarten Teacher, and Long Live the King!" It was basically a Green polo, and sports pants. I looked like a lesbian soft ball coach. But they did not fool around, the kids were dressed to the nines! Carrying pictures of the King, full blown make up and dresses... Here, See for yourself! 

Carrying The King

All suited up leading the group. 

I don't really know what this is, but had to take a pic!  Of course when I got there I was the only Farong (what the Asians call Foreigners) And my Principal so nicely informed me that I would be leading the parade. Basically to show off that they had a Foreign teacher at their school. I was like a walking billboard! But hey, if me walking around with a smile on my face can help get students at the school, I didn't mind playing that roll. 

Here are some more pictures from through out the day: 

Having fun, and being kids <3 

Me with some of my kiddies! :)

I told you they were Hams!  ;) 

This little girl was amazing, and really reminded myself of me in a way. (And I mean this in the least conceded way possible) She was the smallest girl in the class, and quiet. Until it came time for me to teach them cheers, and for her to lead the group in the dances.. She never stopped smiling, was nice and loud, sometimes bossy, but looked adorable doing it. She was tiny, but it didn't stop her from kicking butt! 

All in all my time teaching at Attidan, was an experience I wont forget. I was dreading teaching such little kids, but figured out a way to do it. I was very sad when my time with them was over, and took away memories for a life time! 

So now on to the more stressful part of the trip. The move to Bangkok, where we will be on our own. Time to find a job, and a place to live, which has already been a task in itself. We don't want to get an apartment until we figure out where we will be teaching so we can be close, but we don't know where we will be teaching so for the next couple of days we shall be hanging out in Backpackers district known as Kao San road. It is full of Westerners which is a bummer but has some really great trendy restaurants with great music! If you ever make your way to Thailand it is definitely a place I will take you to. 

Hope this hold you over Till Next time.... 

Miss You.

Cheers!

Welcome to Walking Street! This Blog is rated XXX

Where do I begin? To tell the truth or not to tell the truth, that is the question. Well I feel I would be cheating myself and my readers if I sugar coated the evening I had. So before I begin, I must give a warning, this blog will be filled with some interesting, vulgar stories. These stories are not correlated with my life style, please take it with a grain of salt, and don't judge me. This is real life, and learning a new culture is what I came here for. 

Now that thats over with.

Thailand, The land of Smiles, I think I finally realized why this is their motto. Walking Street, is an area of Pattaya Beach that basically turns into a strip of bars filled with naked women, doing crazy things.(I use the term 'crazy' very loosely, but more on that later) It is called walking street, (I assume) because there are no cars on the roads, just people, walking. After being heavily warned about what we were getting ourselves into we decided to dive in head first with a lovely bar creatively named  "The Stairway to Heaven".

Taking pictures inside was not something I was willing to attempt, and was highly prohibited. So I will just have to paint you a very good picture. We were greeted at the door by this sweet little girl, she wanted me to take this, Thai's love seeing themselves in pictures, they get a kick out of it! 

Any way, back to the painting. So we walk up the stairs, open the door and sit down in front of a stage filled with stripper poles, and topless asian women with numbers on their panties. The crowd this place brings in? Fat old men from all over the world. [SICK] So you could imagine the girl's excitement when they saw 4 cute girls walk in. They came over to us like we were the main attraction, sat down, talked to us, some top less some in lingerie. Talked to us like nothing abnormal was going on..."Where are you from?" "Americaaa? Ohhh You Prettty girls" Somewhere between getting aquatinted and ordering my second drink we found ourselves being dragged on stage and dancing (normal club dancing, not stripper dancing) with 8 other naked women. It was so odd. They would giggle and have fun like it was nothing; like there weren't men, watching their every move wondering which one to "order" for the evening. It was almost like a girls night out, everyone was just dancing to the music and having a good time. Showing us some of their moves, which really weren't that sexy... half of them didn't even know how to dance on a stripper pole. I think it was there more for decoration. When one of the girls in our group did a minor spin on it they were so excited, and tried it themselves... hahah ( grain of salt, grain of salt) We were actually having a really good time at this bar, and about 20 minutes in the fact that the women were naked all around us was becoming no big deal. After a couple of drinks we decided it was time to kick it up a notch and head to our next bar. I must inform you that "The Stairway to Heaven" is a mom and pop run bar, everyone was truly friendly. And not in the I want to have all your money friendly, because I only had 2 drinks and it only cost me 4 bucks in American dollars. They were sad to see us go, and said please come back tomorrow. I think it was a nice break from the mundane. All the girls in all of the places we went to had one thing in common, a bored look on their face, like what was going down didn't phase them in the slightest bit. It was just another work day for them.

 On to the next bar, 

I must give another warning, the night progressively gets more X rated.

I can't remember the name of this next bar, but for descriptions sake, I shall call it "The Bathtub Bar". Rings hanging from the ceiling like a circus act was about to be preformed, with girls hanging all over them. Giant tubs filled with flowing water, bubbles and lots of loofas. It was really hard for Nick and I to sit at this place. In the previous bar there wasn't much touching going on other than the occasional butt grabbing. Which compared to this place was like shaking hands. A lot of gross things going on, men (and women) had the freedom to touch these girls where ever, and however they pleased. This bar didn't sit well with most of us, so after politely ordering 1 drink, we decided it was time to go. I gave the girls 20 Baht (about 75 Cents) smiled, and we left. Let your imagination go wild, because if you could think it, it was happening. Lucky for me, Nick was also grossed out, turned off and ready to leave. Unlike some of the gentlemen in our group who were like kids in a candy store. {Men} 

The next couple of bars were all pretty much the same, and by the time we went to the next one we were bored and unimpressed. Boy, was that about to change. 

We had heard stories about what goes down on these streets... and in all honesty our interests were peaked. Stories that involved, goldfish, ping pong balls, and darts....

Well, like I said we dove right in, and after talking the bouncers down from a 10$ cover charge to $5, and 1 free drink.. we were about to witness what all these stories were really about. So true to form, we walk in, sit front row and center, and see 1 female on stage playing with ping pong balls. When I say playing, I basically mean inserting them in her Hooha* and blowing them out into a cup. WTF!? 

The acts progressively got more impressive. The next girl came out with cigarettes, shoved them where the sun don't shine, lit them, and I guess you could say ... smoked them? 

Tough act to follow? Not really, one by one the bartenders started blowing up, and passing out about 5 balloons. What were these for I wondered, and before I knew it, I had one in my hand. [uh oh] 

The next girl waked out with a tube and some darts. I think you know where I am going with this one... With amazing accuracy the girl laid on stage, and literally blew darts across the room and popped each balloon... when it came to my turn, I held the balloon up high, ducked, and before you knew it, it popped! 

The next couple of girls followed suit. Once the bananas came out, we once again decided we had enough. Nick especially, he was actually very bored with all of it. I on the other hand was rather impressed, and taking it for what it was, an experience. One that I will never need to witness again.

The thing about it is, this is a way of life for these women. It isn't frowned upon, quite the contrary, it's respected. I've never been to a strip club in The States. (I love referring to America this way haha) But I assume the women are way more into what they are doing, and in our culture it's more degrading. I tried to sit there and be pissed off at what I was watching, but the girls were smiling and happy to be making the kind of money they were making. It was the creepy men that I couldn't handle; who thought they were badasses when they would throw their money around, when in all reality they probably just spent 9 dollars. Thailand isn't a third world country, but it's not very far from it. For these girls, it truly is just another day of work, and in the midst of it all were the street vendors, restaurants, and a temple literally up the road from all of this. 

It was an experience I wont forget, filled with crazy stories I can share at dinner parties for years to come. 

Sorry Mom and Dad.