This Friday, June 24, marked my first official month of teaching. This month has not been easy by a long shot. In fact, I would say this has been the most difficult thing I have ever done. The language barrier is huge, I have a hard time disciplining my students because I won't hit them, and being in the middle of no where is frustrating to say the least - and those are just a few of the problems we have encountered. But we are slowly learning how to deal with these issues as they arise. The other TTC teachers stationed here and I have been keeping ourselves busy on the weekends. After the weekend we went to the Tat Ton waterfalls, we took a bus to a city named Korat. It is the third biggest city in Thailand, and has a pretty big mall. The mall has a Pizza Hut (thats right, the real deal) and we each got our own personal pizzas to celebrate finally finding real pizza. There is also a bookstore there with English books, so of course I bought myself a new book. The next weekend we decided to stick close by and explore where we are going to be living for the next 9 or so months. So we borrowed bikes from the mine we are staying at, and started the trek into the town that is down the highway a bit. We had been into the town multiple times before to go to the Big C (the nearest "grocery" store) and the distance didn't seem too far. I died. It was WAY farther than we thought it was. By the time we reached the edge of town my legs were shaking, and I'm fairly certain I had sweated out all of the water I have ever drank. (You would think we had learned our lesson but we've biked in multiple times after that during the week.) Last weekend I was chosen to be a judge for the district's English Camp competition in Chaiyaphum City. I was honestly kind of dreading it. I thought it was going to be just like another day at school, but I was wrong. I found myself enjoying it as I listened to students from around the district act stories they had memorized for the camp. I heard at least 10 different versions of Little Red Riding Hood I swear. One student at a time came on stage and acted out all of the parts of their story, and I gotta give them props because some of them really got into it. After English Camp was over my co-teacher took me to visit the temple dedicated to "The Hero of Chaiyaphum". I participated in a ritual supposed to honor the past hero, while a man played a song on a Thai instrument (don't ask me the name, even if I knew I would never be able to spell it correctly). Next to the temple was a shrine dedicated to turtles because the Thai believe turtles represent longevity. Me and the students from my high school that participated in the English competition. Today we decided to go into town to find a restaurant we were told had hamburgers (the cravings for American food get too real), so we hitched a ride into town. When we made it to the restaurant I legit almost cried. The man who owns the restaurant is from New Orleans and has been in Thailand about 10 years now. His restaurant, named Mama's, has ribs, hamburgers, spaghetti with meatballs, and more. We all ordered hamburgers, but when it came time to bring mine out they said they had run out of buns (since they make their own buns from scratch every day, and its worth it). It was awful. They offered to make me something else, but all I really wanted was that burger, so instead I had the best mashed potatoes with gravy ever. I said I would come back in an hour when the buns were done and get it to go, and that was when the game changed.
THEY DELIVER. Angels sang. So we left after getting the owners number, with the promise that he would be hearing from us a lot from here on after. After that we continued to explore the town. I got a real cup of coffee. Bought some storage containers. Found a Thai massage and learned the meaning of "hurts so good" (seriously. I'm bruised but my body has never felt better). So yea. That was my first month. There are highs, and there are lows, but hey, thats life right? Now all I have to do is survive my next 9 months....
3 Comments
Mary Franks
6/28/2016 06:30:14 am
And you will survive! I am so proud of you and can't wait to hear your next adventure. Stay strong and know you have people over here who love you and who are praying for you.
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Tabetha
6/28/2016 12:51:08 pm
Each week your adventures get better and better, your courage and determination will carry you through! You can do it!
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Joy Saxon
6/28/2016 06:47:30 pm
Carley, so very proud of you! You are so awesome! You go girl!!
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