A New School Year

Now that a new school year has started my days are filled up with lesson planning, teaching and tutoring. My evenings are spent working on graduate school, eating dinner with new friends, but mostly just recovering from the day. Teaching is exhausting, but so rewarding. I am lucky because I work at a really nice school. My biggest problem with behavior, is girls chatting to much....haha I've heard horror stories from other teachers, so I am very thankful. The past two weeks have been extremely busy. One of my coworkers broke his knee cap. I was able to stand in and help him with some of this classes. He mostly teaches 3rd grade. I was so impressed by how advanced his kids were. I had to explain the word “culture” during one of his lessons. I went around the world map and explained where Thailand was. Then I showed pictures of Thai culture. Then I moved on to Great Britain, and South Africa. I picked those two locations because we have British and South African teachers. Once the class found out I was from America one little girl asked me “if I knew Donald Trump”.

Teaching English in Hat Yai is much more than just holding up a flash card with a “cat” on it and saying “cat” 20 times. I am really glad I am working with more advanced students. I have even been able to break down the parts of speech. I am giving a test tomorrow where the kids have to identify pronouns, verbs, and contractions. The 1st graders are by far my favorite. They are so adorable and they love crafts. The entire rooms goes silent when we work on an art project. They are also very smart. Earlier this week we played a game. This is probably my new favorite game to play with the class and it is super easy. I basically call out an addition problem and then the kids have to race to the board and write the word from and then do the addition. It helps with spelling numbers as well as addition. It’s also a competition so the kids are really into it. One little girl ran to the board and wrote “one+ten=elephant”. It was so adorable. Even the Thai teacher laughed.

So in other news.... I got a motor bike. It’s an old girl, already has 20,000 km or miles (not really such which). It’s used but I got it for cheap and it has been SO beneficial to have my own wheels again. Driving here is insane and I have noticed my wrists ache because I am so tense driving. In the past two weeks, I have gotten a lot more comfortable driving the scooter. I was really fortunate to have an awesome group of other English teachers that work at my agency. I made a new friend Neca and he showed me how to ride the motor bike and even helped me buy one at the local shop where he purchased his. He taught my same 1st grade class last year in K3! Serbians are some of the nicest people ever. The first couple of days driving were tense. I felt like a 16 year old that just got her license. Thailand drives on the opposite side of the road from the USA. I figured out that what freaks me out is the intense amount of other motor bikes on the road. They swerve in and out of cars and are always driving around everyone. I just stopped trying to weave in and out of the cars I am just not that skilled at driving and I think thats why there are so many accidents in Thailand. Don't worry, I haven't gone of 30 and I have a bright pink helmet.

Other then that, I am working on an ocean mural on the second floor of my building for a weekend Kindergarten class I will begin this Saturday. I also have another weekend gig doing interviews for High School students to see if they would be good candidates for a study abroad program in the USA or Canada. Ya’ll Porntip is a common last name in Thai, isn't that strange.. lol.

I visited Penang, Malaysia a few weeks ago to renew my non immigrant B visa. The experience was stressful but I got to see a really cool part of Malaysia. I will be adding more photos to the snap section. While in Malaysia I saw an awesome quote sprayed across the wall of a local bar. It said “If you can’t love yourself, how the hell you gonna love someone else” - Rupaul.

And I'll leave you with that.

With Love,

Felicia

Weekend adventure on the bike!