Benchama Rat Rungsarit-- say that 5 times fast!

One of my M-4 classes

I’ve officially a whole week of teaching at my school Benchama Rat Rungsarit (or Benchama for short), with 19 classes a week. I teach 5 Mattium-2 classes (8^th grade) that meet twice a week and 9 Mattium-4 classes (10^th grade) that meet once a week. Overall, I am pretty impressed with the basic level of comprehension that most of my classes have. I of course am lucky and have four advanced classes (which means only 36 students and air conditioning in the classroom!). Otherwise, I have an average of 46 students in my classes and generally no air conditioning (I make sure to bring many tissues to wipe off the forever streaming sweat from my neck). My office is great though, I get my own desk, wireless internet and air conditioning. The office is like my sweet air conditioned haven when I have a break from classes.

There are 7 buildings on the whole campus, and I finally figured out where all my classes are and in what buildings. After attending Maryland with the huge campus, Benchama didn’t seem like a hard feat to make my way around campus (except that no one speaks English). Every morning the students (all 3500 +) line up for the national anthem, a prayer and announcements. We usually have to stand on the sides as well. The second day we were there (the first day it was pouring rain!—which is good luck) during the morning assembly the Foreign Language Department welcomed us all in front of the whole school with flowers and we had to introduce ourselves in the microphone in front of everyone—in Thai! It’s a good thing I know how to say “Sawadee kha. Chan Cheu Danielle Kha.”

There is an awesome market right across the street from the school, and during our free time all the other Thai teachers are eager to take us out shopping and show us around. This market has about anything and everything, and you can always bargain your way down!

Teaching here is completely different from what I have experienced as a teacher or a student. However, some things stay the same. For instance, I think in every single one of my classes there are always a group of studious girls in the front and noisy, rowdy boys in the back. Overall, the rowdiness can easily be harnessed into a positive energy, and I do love the energy that the students have. Every time I take roll and say their names, they just crack up and think the way I pronounce their names is absolutely hilarious (which I’m sure it is), and I too get a kick out of them. There are some classes that are more difficult than others, but I like to stay positive and when I’m in the energetic, fun classes I realize that I really do love teaching.

Other than that, I went to Koh Samed this past weekend, which is an island that is relatively close to Bangkok. The island was beautiful, the water warm and crystal clear, and the sand pure white. The hotel we stayed at was pretty much right on the beach so it was a beautiful spot, except that the speed boat that dropped us off pretty much made us jump out of the boat into the water, there was no actual port- oh well, mai pen rai.

On the beach at sunset

Fire show on the beach!

Koh Samed..Hat Sai Kaeo beach

On the ferry back to Bon Phe from Koh Samed
It was awesome to see one of Thailand’s Kohs (islands), and I am just more excited to see some in the future!

I made it to Chachoengsao!

I made it to Chachoengsao!

It’s funny how one week of orientation in Bangkok flew by so quickly, yet I feel like I’ve been in Thailand for quite a while. I was quite impressed with how orientation ran and some of the cool activities that they planned for us.

I met a ton of new people. It was definitely weird being surrounded by completely new faces, coming from a place where I was constantly surrounded by good friends. By the time orientation was over I was surprisingly sad to say goodbye to the friends that I had made in such a short time, and wished them good luck as we all spread out over the country into our respective cities.

Me right in front of the
entrance to the temple

Just a quick recap of some cool trips over orientation:

1- The Grand Palace/ The Temple of the Emerald Buddha

This place is just absolutely magnificent. I was blown away by all the buildings and structures surrounding the temple and the palace and the intricate details on every single piece of the structure. I mean the columns alone had the most detailed designs.

Inside the gates of the Grand Palace/
Temple of the Emerald Buddha

Such intricate architechture!

2- Traditional Thai puppet show

When you think puppet show, you may not be so impressed, but this was one of the coolest theatrical performances I have ever scene. There were three dancers/performers to every puppet- that’s how complex these puppets. The choreography, scenery and music were all great.

The Bride over the River Kwaai

3- The bridge over the River Kwaai (Kwaii means water buffalo in Thai)

Yes, this is the same bridge that was in the movie. This famous bridge, with train tracks along it, is still in use and we had to jump out on the platforms as to not get run over by the oncoming train.

The bridge..again

Me on the bridge

4- Elephant trekking and bamboo rafting! (In Konchonoburi)

This was by far my favorite! We paired up on started on a bench on the back of an elephant, while a guide was on the neck. Our guide even stopped to get some leaves and flowers and made us some interesting jungle hats to wear! He then hopped off and gave us a turn to ride on the neck. I eagerly jumped on the neck only to realize that our elephant started to wade in the water and thought it would be funny to take his trunk and splash us! Afterwards we floated down a nearby stream on these rafts made completely out of bamboo.

Elephant!

After hours of teacher training, basic Thai language classes, heading to Konchonoburi and back, we finally met our school coordinators and took the van and headed south to Chachoengsao, where I currently am typing away in my new residence.

I’ll post soon some more details about my town and school, but I’m off to bed now, because we don’t start teaching until Wednesday. So tomorrow, off to the Chonburi beach!

My attempt at a blog

Too many e-mail addresses to remember is what I was thinking before I left. With promises to friends, family, neighbors and who knows who else to keep in touch about all my travels, I knew I wouldn't be able to hold up my end..... so this is the result, my travel blog. So, thanks for all those who are visiting this, and I hope that you continue to do so!
This post is mainly an attempt to see how this works, and if anyone even follows it at all. But I will give a quick update of my first 30 hours since arriving in Bangkok.

It is hot. I think the second I got my bags and walked outside to grab a cab I already started sweating. I don't mean, "oh its hot lets sit by the pool," I mean tropics hot.. humid.. sweaty (although it seems to be that everyone native here doesn't sweat and it's just me with a red face and dripping everywhere). My cab driver tried to find the chabad house for me, and ultimately failed. He dropped me off on a street near where the street I was supposed to go and I had to walk in the million degree heat with too many bags for about two blocks (seemed more like a mile) but finally arrived.

My tuk-tuk!

After settling in and a MUCH needed shower, I decided to do some exploring. The place where the chabad is located is right off Khao San Road.. or most known as a backpacker's paradise. The streets surrounding the areas are loaded with restaurants, coffee shops, internet cafes, guest houses and tons and tons of vendors (selling really cool clothing too!). Truth is though, this area is so different from what most of Thailand is really like. It's more like an aggregate of backpackers from all over the world. Just walking through the streets I was able to hear numerous different languages spoken. There are so many people that its hard for it to really be an intimate experience and really meet people on a personal level.

Some houses on the canal

After sleeping almost the rest of the day and night (I hate jet lag!) I woke up this morning excited to see Bangkok outside of Khao San area. I took a tuk-tuk ( a little motorized taxi) to take a water boat taxi. Of course I got a little mixed up and ended up on this private boat that took me on an hour long tour of the canals. It was really cool to see the ins and outs of homes and the floating markets (it's really true what they say- it really is the Venice of the East!). After being dropped of and walking around some more I decided I needed some air conditioning and headed back to home base.

Lady selling bananas on the river

While Khao San is a very cool place, I am definitely excited to get to orientation and eventually settle into Chachoengsao where I can really live and learn about the culture- being that Khao San has a very different culture of its own.