Teacher, I am zip my lip!

For a nice change of blogging pace, I figure I will run you through my typical day here in Thailand thus far.

I wake up around 6 or 6:30 in the morning and shower/get ready to go to school. I unwillingly walk myself down the five flights of stairs in my apartment building because there is no elevator (but hey, it beats walking up the stairs). I walk down my street to the main road, Sathorn, and cross the pedestrian bridge (more stairs). I walk through the gate at school into an ocean of boys…no lie, an ocean. There are around 5500-6000 boys that attend Bangkok Christian College and in the mornings (and all day) it’s a madhouse. I make my way to my office, after thumbing in, on the second floor of one of the buildings. I hang out in there until around 8:00am, and on my way out to teach my first class, I grab my folders that have my class roll and lesson plans in them. I teach five classes four times a week; three groups of third grade and two groups of second grade. I only teach four out of six periods a day, plus I teach an after school class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. My classroom is on the sixth floor of anohter building so I walk over to that building and go up the lift to my room. I have to go to the third floor of this building to pick up my third grade groups and to another building via a walkway to get my second graders. A typical class involves teaching a specific concept in English using books and games. Today I taught time to third grade and the impossibly difficult to grasp before/after concept to third grade. To the second grade classes, I am teaching action/-ing words and the concept of mine and yours, also hard to grasp. After an hour long class, I walk whatever group back to their homeroom teacher and if I have a break, I either go back to the office and grade or plan, or I make a caffiene run. Caffiene is my necessary evil with this job…the boys know how to push some of my buttons. Today was one of those days; they wouldn’t pay attention and speaking Thai was easier for them to do rather than pay attention in my class. I have one boy that I love and he is very good at English, but he talks nonstop and is easily disracted. He told me yesterday that he was “zip my lip” and he handed me the invisible key. It didn’t last long. I think I may have made him cry today when I made him sit out during a game because part of the rules are that you have to be quick to answer. He recovered and he’ll most likely be fine tomorrow, and back to his distracted/chatty self. Lunch time is spent in the teacher’s canteen eating whatever is being served there (I love Thursdays! Noodle day!) or at Pearl, the coffee shop down the street from school. I love hour lunch breaks!

After teaching all day, and after finishing after school class, I go and thumb out. If I have no after school class then we all hang out in the office and count down until it is 4:00. After school, Christin and I venture out to find something to do. Today we went to the mall and ate McDonald’s. I know, real cultural experience, right? Tomorrow I am going to a Bible study at the church and who knows what else I’ll do this week.

For now you know what I do most days here, so I am off. I think I’m finally going to cut my hair off today! It’s sooo heavy and thick, and with the heat, I really can’t handle it anymore. So ciao friends! Next update in the near future

What a week…

Hey everybody! Long time no update…school has kept me SO busy! I love teaching here soo much- the boys can be a bit much somedays (or a lot of days…haha) but they are fun and full of energy! Teaching here has been a whole new challenge for me. I am teaching English to first and third grade boys whose first language is clearly not the same as mine. First grade is a lot like home though- classroom management is a huge part of the class and there are no girls in the class, so there is no natural balance in the classroom. Can you imagine 15 or so 6-year old boys who don’t speak English well at all in your classroom? New challenges but I am growing SO much here as a teacher. My 3rd grade classes are great- the one group tends to be a bit opf a challenge but the other class is known as the “King’s Class” and that means they are the best of the best in their grade level. They are a lot of fun to teach and so smart! I am challenged in different ways in this grade and love being with them! I’ll tell you one major thing that has changed for me while I’ve been here- I TALK SLOWER! WOO HOO! I know you all are probably dropping your jaws in disbelief, but it’s so true! You will be pleasantly surprised when I come home

Well now on to the reason behind the title of this post…haha! This has been a very interesting week for me. Starting at the beginning of the week: I discovered something in my hair and quickly had Heidi check to see what it might be, and SURPRISE! We discovered that I had acquired lice. NOT what I wanted to hear but I guess you don’t always get good news…sigh. I ended up sending the week treating my hair and having Heidi help me pick through it to make sure I was rid of those pesky little nits. That experience in itself was both embarassing and humbling. But, it looks like I’m in the clear for now. Here’s praying that I am anyways . It was rough because the same week I was dealing with the worst sunburn of my life and a quajillion bugbites all over my legs. Needless to say, it was not a very pleasant week. This past Monday then, I caught a bit of food poisoning from some street food I had eaten the previous day. I missed school on Thursday to go to get my hair checked out and then again on Monday because of being sick. It’s good that I realize that this kind of stuff does happen in foreign countries and I guess it does make for some pretty good stories later . I got bit by a street dog in Chile for those who didn’t know so every country I’ve been going to ends up with a funny story…haha!

Well since I mentioned the sunburn…

We (Me, Heidi, Christin, and Allison) went to Hua Hin (a beach here in Thailand) which is about three hours away from us here in Bangkok, and spent the day jsut relaxing and swimming a bit. I guess we just didn’t realize how much more intense the sun is here and so I ended up with the worst burn of my life…and I’m still peeling over a week later…ugh haha. It was a good day though- we enjoyed it pre-burn…bought some sundresses and bummed around all day. That’s a good way to enjoy a weekend! Saturday was spent sightseeing. We saw lots of temples and Buddhas- The Gold Buddha, Emerald Buddha, and the ridiculously huge Reclining Buddha. We also saw the Grand Palace and China Town. It was a long day but we saw some really cool stuff.

This past Friday, we went and saw a Thai dance/play thing. Aside from being a little too long, it was very interesting and I enjoyed seeing it a lot. Saturday was spent at a really awesome Thai Craft Fair- full of fair trade stuff, which is something really close to my heart! I loved it and bought so much stuff for myself and people back home! We went and saw JJ Market as well, and let me tell you- that place is HUGE! And you can find practically anything your heart desires there….no exaggerating of course. Sunday we did the BCC walk-a-thon (which was wicked early) and then kinda just did our own thing for church. I.e. We listened to my Ethos Podcast and to worship music and journaled. It was really nice. We just hung out together Sunday night and enjoyed a free night.

I am so sad that we only have 2 more weeks left here. I know I need to go back and finish at Lee but I really just wish I could stay here for awhile. I don’t think God is closing this door yet so we’ll see where He takes me from here. There’s not a whole lot tying me down in the states right now so it would be a good time to travel and see the world. I know when I leave here, part of my heart will be staying behind.

Enough of the yammering for now- you’ve pretty much been caught up on what’s going on with me here in Bangkok. I’ll update again before we leave to travel but for now, peace out America!

Sah-parkle

We are now into week 2 of teaching at BCC! It’s crazy how fast time flies- we’re into our third week here, we’re done teaching around the fifth of February, we head to Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai the 10th and we’re back in the states on the 18th. I don’t want to think about it…too sad .

This last week was a whirlwind of teaching and getting used to the school. It was a fun week- I got to help individual students a lot and started teaching some stuff in my classes. It’s been hard to establish my “presence” in the classroom. A lot of the reason for that is because teaching is still new to me and it’s a different situation- the kids don’t speak English well and so understanding me is a challenge somedays (plus, I’m American and their normal teachers are from South Africa and New Zealand), plus, I’m not loud and demanding the attention of 15 boys can be hard. It’ll all come with time though. Teaching English is another challenge since I have no training in that but I’m very thankful for the experience. I love the kids, and I love being recognized by them at the school! “Teacher Alyse, hi!” THEY ARE SO CUTE!!! Oh, cutest thing ever: people here have a hard time with the “sp” sound so when the kids say things like Sparkle, it comes out Sah-parkle! AGH- SO CUTE!!!

Oh, and me and Christin had our first (well my first one anyways) Tuk-Tuk ride this last week! The picture is of us in the Tuk-Tuk So fun! Anyways, that’s a brief recap of last week- if I think of anything else, I’ll inform you all later.

This past weekend, me, Heidi, and Alicia ventured down to a small Karen (Kah-wren) village in Pala-u, Thailand. The Karen people are one of the ethnic groups being purged from Burma, by the Burmese military. Google it for more information- it’s a heartbreaking situation. Anyways, a bunch of the Karen people live in IDP camps along the border (internally displaced people) or in refugee camps. Some do live in villages, and that was who we went to see this weekend. Their village is in Pala-u and it is along the Southern Thailand-Burma border. These people are possibly the sweetest, most welcoming and generous people I have ever met! They opened their homes and hearts to us, and it’s amazing to see that even in their current situation they can still praise God and serve others! The lady we met there, Sharon, is around 70 years old and has been working with these people for 24 years now. She and others go to the IDP camps and the refugee camps and teach them about Jesus and the Bible. She’s a pretty cool lady! The weekend was definitely an awesome experience for sure! We left Saturday morning and got on the Skytrain to Victory Monument and got off there and got a ticket for a van to Hua Hin, in the south. 2 and a half hours later we hopped onto the van that Sharon came in to get us. From there we went an hour West to Pala-u. I have no idea how close to Burma we were, but pretty close I’m guessing. We got there around 10:30 and hung out with the teenage girls and the little kids. This village is pretty remote, has no running water (they carry water to the village), and I had my first squatty potty experince there. It makes me very thankful for what I have- even stupid things like air conditioning. We ate lunch, played with the kids (some intense games, let me tell you haha) and managed to bridge the language gap with many gestures, limited Thai and limited English. We got to have a little group time with them and sing and share our testimonies. Me and Heidi and Alicia sang for them and while humbling (my voice is not so great hahaha), it was also really touching to be able to share with each other. These people have been through so much and it’s amazing to see what God is doing in their lives. On Sunday we went to church and saw a church service and a baptism and communion, oh! and a wedding . It was interesting to see it all, and fun to figure out their eating habits. We had a “snack” which we thought was breakfast and then the actual breakfast, and then a lunch/snack type deal. The girls (older and younger girls) latched onto us and want us to come back “tomorrow” haha- I would love to go back and see them again! Needless to say, on Sunday it was very hard to say goodbye to our new friends. My eyes were opened to many things that I knew nothing about this weekend and now in turn, I can help raise awareness and pray for the people being pushed from their homes in Burma. They need a miracle and prayer can help!

Me and some of the girls from the village! SO PRECIOUS!

Anyways, check out facebook for more pictures and more of an idea of where I was at this weekend. I am in my second week of teaching now, so it’s off to prepare some lessons and get some sleep before Tuesday. GASP! I’m becoming an early to bed, early to rise person. Curses- I promised this would never happen to me! Guess I chose the wrong profession to go into haha! I go to bed around 9:30pm, no later than 10 and get up around 5:30am or 6. I’m becoming such an adult…scary! Well, goodnight all! More updates to come later this week! Love you all!!