Last day in Bangkok, kinda.

So a quick entry on my last day in Bangkok, kinda -

(Pictures here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/wigramroad/sets/72157594233815336)

My class is over. It feels weird. I handed in my portfolio with a billion pages of lesson plans, materials, reflections, observations, a case study and a fake lesson plan. Intense stuff.

On Thursday we were supposed to go to the orphanage that every group goes to at the end of their course. In true Thai style, they decided to have a Sports Day and we couldn't go. No worries! Chichester is totally hooked up and we went to a new school, 2 hours north of Bangkok that they've never been to before. It was ridiculously awesome.

Ninety two kids, grades 1-6 who have never had a native speaking English teacher. We walked into the room and they were sitting there, perfect posture, notebooks open, pencils in their hands. There were 6 classrooms and 7 people so Lisa and I shared the first grade class. OH GOD, THEY WERE SO CUTE. They knew "My name is..." So we did that first. Then we played a jumping game where they got to yell out "Jumping, jumping, jumping, jumping, hop hop hop, run aroung in circles, run around in circles, then we stop" (to the tune of "Frere Jacques" I don't think I spelled that right." They are totally into repeating, so it was fun. Then we went to "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes!" We skipped the eyes and ears part. These kids were 6.

Then we got to "our lessson" on animals. We taught them cow, fish, cat, dog, turtle, pig, snake, and elephant. It was fun! Then we moved all the desks and chairs and put all the pictures them on the floor. Lisa and I stood at opposite ends of the room and said, "Bring me an elephant!" Then they'd go through all the pictures on the floor and try to find the elephant. Lisa and I both had sets so there were two each time. The kids dug it but were most of them had no clue what was going on. They just lined up with whatever picture they had. That was ok, we would just say, "Nooooo. That's a turtle. I want an elephant!" and they'd go back and do it again. Some of them got it and would actually get the right ones. So that was cool. Then we took the pictures and put them up all over the room and said, "Run to the... turtle!" and everyone ran. After a while of that we all got tired and so we gave them the pictures and some markers and colored pencils and they colored. Then we walked around and got each kid to say the name of the animal they were coloring. There was one superstar who knew them all and loved talking, there was one girl who was confused most of the time, but always knew fish, some that were still answering in Thai. Which was ok with me. They're 6. Even knowing a cow is a cow in one language is hard enough. But by the end of coloring time they definitely knew the animal they were drawing.

Then was lunch which was a feast. Man, foreigners have such a weird status. Loved, hated, it's both ends. I guess we're kind of hated because we're loved. The same reason that they make a shit ton of food and then the regular teachers get our leftovers (weird weird weird) is why cab drivers take you to gem stores and tailors and force you to buy stuff. (Hasn't happened to me yet though!)

After lunch we went back and played games with the alphabet. They all knew the alphabet but only in the order of the song. I had cool flashcards (thank you Cross-Cultural Solutions!) and so we went through it and they knew all the letters. But as soon as you go from J back to E they get totally thrown off. It was cute. So we did a little bit more drilling. And then we did the pictures on the floor game. It was fun again and much harder because 1) half of the English alphabet sounds pretty similar (B, C, D, E, G, P, T, V, Z (not for them though, cause they call it Zed); I, Y; A, J, K; M, N). Each letter in the Thai alphabet has a word that goes with so it's alot easier. The character that makes the /g/ sound is called "gau gai" which is very distinguishable from the /s/ sound, called "sau sua" etc, etc. Like if a was called "ay apple" it would be easier than just "ay." So we did that for a while, it was pretty hard. The kids would sing the song and look at the poster to figure out which letter was which. We turned it into a boys vs. girl thing for who could find them faster. Again, there were at least two of each letter so sometimes there were ties, which was nice.

Then we played the slapping the board game. Girls lined up on one side, boys on the other. We wrote letters on the chalkboard and then yelled out a letter and the person in front of the line has to race to the board and hit the letter. It was fun! They didn't always know them, but their team would help them out and this way everyone got a chance. Most of the time they would just race to the board and hit whatever letter was closest then look at us or their group, we'd say, "Noooo, find the M! M like MOUSE" and then they'd actually look for the letter. Girls totally won. And W was by far their favorite letter in case anyone was wondering.

Then we gave them the sheets (we had photocopies too) and they colored happily again.

The day was awesome. The kids were so cool. They just repeated everything we said. I would say, "What is this?" while pointing to an elephant and they'd say, "What is this?" And if I said, "oops" they'd say, "oops!" All of the instructions were body language. To explain that only one person was supposed to run to the board at a time I was crouching on the floor holding my arms like a gate, so that they could only get passed one at a time. But they got it! Not surprisingly, it really made me want to teach little kids in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately, schools in the middle of nowhere usually don't have foreign teachers and where they do, the kids that young usually have a Thai teacher. Most schools only for foreign teachers for middle school and higher.

The hill tribe school might be like this but I might be too much of a wimp to be the only foreigner. Ahhh, we'll see.

So - 13th to 24th - Cambodia, the 26th to 2nd - chillin with Gregg, after that - don't know!

AUA Chiang Mai isn't hiring this term, and I'm not sure if I want to work there anyway. I think I need a little of time to just think about stuff. Language school? Middle of nowhere? City high school? Volunteering? Cambodia? Laos? Chiang Mai?

I have no idea! I got to see some elephants. That's for damn sure. I have a feeling they hold the answers to all of my questions.

I put more pictures up - the school, Chichester and 1/3 of my Yellow Shirt Day pictures. Today is Mother Day. It's like Mother's Day but it's celebrated on the Queens Birthday so first and foremost is Queen Mother but the rest of the mother's get recognition too. I guess the Queen got jealous of the whole shirt thing, so she has light blue shirts that say "Love Mother" so this weekend is Light Blue Shirt Weekend.

P.S. It's in the high 90's right now. This isn't a hot day, this is average. But no worries, it'll cools off at night. Last night was 88 and tonight should be about 86. I haven't stopped sweating for 4 weeks. Except for when I'm in an air conditioned place when I'm scared of dying of hypothermia becuase it's 10 below.

Ok Cambodia here I come?!