Teaching English in Thailand: Day 29, Crazy Teacher Olivia

Day 29: Wednesday 22^nd July

Wing Wing with her "diet food"

I was in a bit of shock today, due to many things. First: because I had time to have a coffee and a sweet brioche bun before school. Second: because Rowena announced that she is on a diet. Third: because the diet requires her to eat two slices of bread and peanut butter for breakfast. Wait... What? When I’m on a diet I have to fight with all my soul to not eat peanut butter sandwiches… I think I need to join her on whatever diet this is, because it looks like a damn lot of fun. So there we were, spreading Filipino peanut butter on to teeny slices of bread with a fork at my desk, at about 8:30 in the morning.

Amazing peanut butter

I had three lessons today; in 2 of them I taught about clothing. I did the same as yesterday, in that each student read out an item of clothing from the book, they wrote some sentences using the new vocab, then we played a game of SPLAT. The kids enjoyed the game, but they are all so shy in getting involved. I either have to give them a little (big) push to stand at the front, or their fellow students do! So when I had to drag the tallest boy in the class to the front and no girls requested to play, I was in the position to partake in the dual and stand back-to-back with him, even though the boy towered over me! We raised our imaginary guns and a student became teacher. Each time an item of clothing was called, we would take a step away from each other. When the magic word ‘PANTS’ was called, we would “shoot” at each other. I got a little bit excited and absolutely, (hypothetically) shot him to bits with a “BANG BANG BANNGGBANGGBANNGGGGGGGGG!!!” Everyone laughed so much, and the boy was pretty shocked to have been killed so amazingly by the little blonde teacher in a stupid skirt.

In the other class, I taught what the teacher requested me to teach, which was about using the phrases “Can you tell me…” and “Do you know…” The students in this class were about 15 so they had a better ability to deal with this kind of thing. It was another funny class, and ended up with me flinging my shoes around asking, “Can you tell me where my shoes are?!” and other crazy stuff that just does not happen in Thai schools. I just think, even though the subject is a little mundane, I can do as much as I can to make the kids enjoy the lesson still, and lift the spirits as much as possible!

Pad Thai for lunch

We managed to leave school early because neither Rowena, Kanang nor I had lessons in the afternoon. This just gave me more time to nap once we got home! Every day in the car I am on the verge of falling asleep- I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet. In the evening, Kanang and I just stayed home, cooked some stir fry veg (no sugar in mine, but naughty Kanang added some to hers) and I also got extremely stressed out about making plans for the upcoming long weekend, or long-9 days-off, in my case! I managed to decide that I would at least book something for the few days that everyone else could match up with me on. This meant I had booked to go to Hua Hin (beach place) from Wednesday 29th-3rd, but still had no plans from the 25th-29th. I certainly don't want to waste 4 days sitting at home on my own- I think I'd rather be at school invigilating the exams! (Pfft, invigilators? In Thailand? Hmm..)

 I have options for those first few days, which are: to go Hua Hin with different friends for a couple more days; stay at home; or leave the country all together and visit nearby Singapore. I have been trying to decide on these options for weeks, and tonight it just all became so stressful because I have approximately 2 days before I leave to go to the designated place! And buses/ flights get booked up so fast around the long weekend bank holiday! Tomorrow's job is to sort out my life and nip my indecisiveness in the ass!

Peace, 

Olivia