I just had an absolutely wonderful weekend!

We had last Friday off school because it was a Buddhist Holiday (the anniversary of the days that Buddha was born, achieved enlightenment, and died). So with a three day weekend ahead of us, I left with three other friends after work on Thursday to head south to the ocean, the beach, and the islands. We went to Koh Samet (the nicest, close-ish island, I believe) and the journey there was a bit of an adventure, but somehow every part of it worked out. We took a taxi to the bus station in Bangkok. The ride that should have taken about 45 minutes took over two hours so we missed the bus we'd been hoping for, but instead were approached by a man with a van and a plan to take us down to Ban Phi in less time than the bus and for only a little more money. The van was quick and easy and air-conditioned and he took us right to the pier where we chartered a speedboat to take the four of us across (we made it long after the last ferry, so again, the speeboat was faster, more expensive, and our only option). We got a little lost upon reaching the island a bit after midnight, but miraculously made it to the guesthouse we'd rented. All in all, it seemed incredible that every little bit of transportation logistics fell into place so I could wake up friday morning, walk out the door and have a cup of coffee on the beach.

Friday morning was glorious and I had my feet in the ocean with minutes of being out of bed. The afternoon was actually a little dreary, It rained but we made the best of it. After all, there was ocean and there was sand and there we were, not in Bangkok anymore. We learned that we could replace pina coladas and margaritas with irish coffee, and that makes a perfect beach cocktail on a rainy day. More friends made it down as the day went by, so by the mid-afternoon we had a whole crowd of holidayers. The weather cleared up in the evening so we went swimming and had dinner on the beach. We ate and drank sitting on beanbag chairs with the water lapping up at our toes. People shot off fireworks and we watched some immensely talented Thai guys juggle fire and jump through a flaming hoop. As the evening went on we were roped into a (flaming) limbo and a (flaming) tug-of-war and then an epic Thai and tourist dance party that stretched from club to club and all across the beach. We danced for hours that night. The sky let loose again at the end of the night, meaning my walk back home got me utterly drenched. But still, it was an almost perfect day.

On Saturday the weather was pretty much glorious the entire day. I woke up early and had my breakfast and my banana pancakes on the beach by our guesthouse and went for a walk while I waited for my traveling companions to rouse themselves. I then went with the girls to a more secluded beach than the party beach we'd been on the night before to spend the day swimming, tanning, eating, drinking, and getting the ride of our lives on a massive inflatable banana boat. It was basically another perfect day. The sky was bright blue. The water was shimmering turquoise. There were people who walked past selling snacks and fresh fruit out of baskets, we happily obliged. After many hours of sand, I walked home, showered, napped and then went out again for a quieter but still entirely lovely evening on the beach.

The next day was sadly our last. It was probably the prettiest day we'd had yet, so of course it was sad to know we would be heading back home and back toward work in another couple hours. But I again got to have a solo walk on the beach, a lovely breakfast and tasty lunch (so many fresh fruit smoothies!!) and an afternoon rest in a hammock before we had to catch the ferry to make the van to get a taxi back home to our apartments.

Altogether it was a splendid weekend. It came at the end of a long and semi-stressful first month of work, so it really felt like a well-deserved, relaxing holiday. I had the chance to meet some new people, see a new place, eat a lot of good food, and simply relax. It felt awesome to be out of Bangkok, away from the highway that is my home, to see some trees, to breathe some fresh air. And right now, I'm back at work, halfway through Monday, and it is going ok. The break helped. A lot. And knowing that there will be more breaks, more adventures, and that there are simply so many more places to go, is what will help me get through the tedium of the letter D.

I've made it into week three now (the letter C for those of you keeping score at home) and I suppose teaching is starting to feel a bit more routine. The first lesson of the week always follows a simple pattern of songs and games and then the introduction of the new letter and new vocab and then a worksheet and then more songs and games (or at least, that is how its supposed to go, sometimes things like vomit get in the way) And the second lesson of includes some review and new information (like body parts or numbers). I've learned that "5 Little Monkeys" and "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" are total crowd pleasers, but for some reason "Little Green Frog" absolutely fails to make a splash (ba dum!).

I love the moments when I can make the students laugh. Their happiness energizes me to keep going. But a lot of the time, they're distracted and not paying attention, and in those moments, it is really hard for me to care about what I'm saying too. How well the class goes seems to depend a lot on the time of day. I think the morning is easier. In the afternoon they've either just woken up from a nap, so they're still sleepy and disoriented, or they are ready to leave for the day so they are extra hyper and distracted. I count a lot on the help of the Thai homeroom teachers to make the lesson go at all smoothly. Pure chaos would rule without them in the room.

Right now, one of my life challenges is to figure out exciting ways to spend my time when I'm not at school. The nice thing about this job is that there is nothing to take home with me at the end of the day. When I leave, I'm done. So what to do with my evenings and weekends? Last weekend I spent with other friends in Bangkok, essentially just be silly and lazy together. This coming weekend is a holiday so I've got a long weekend and am hopefully going to travel somewhere fun and take a break from the highway and the malls that surround my life in Bangkok. A break would be much appreciated. I'd like to see a tree. And breathe some fresh air. That doesn't seem like too much to ask right?

After work, some nights I'm really lame and I just take a nap and hunt down dinner and then maybe write in my journal. But I am trying to do better than that, so tonight we are having a scrabble and movie night with the friends who are my neighbors. And I'm hoping for more company tomorrow night and maybe a nicer dinner out? By nice I mean sitting down and eating off a plate, not takeout back to my room in a plastic bag that I then eat out of a cup. (I am remarkably and tragically lacking in household goods right now. Though actually, I'm really not that bothered by it.)

So, that is pretty much how my life goes right now. I'm amused by the mundane moments of my "big adventure." And I'm hoping for more legitimately adventure-y moments. But it is all new and fascinating and I am quite sure I'm learning things that I won't recognize as learning and changing for many months. I'm hoping to take some pictures soon, of my apartment and the environment I'm living in. I'll post them when I have them.

I have now made it through my first week of official teaching. Looking back on it, it possibly went ok, and it went by faster than it felt like at the time (but isn't that always how time works?)

I said "A" a lot. Many many times, and I did some math to figure out that I flapped my arms about a hundred times a day and probably jumped up and down the same amount. If nothing else, being a kindergarten teacher may turn out to be an excellent form of exercise. Except that, to recover from the week, I ate a lot of ice cream and then went out and had quite the night on the town..... so.... maybe not as healthy a life as it could be. I am hoping that this coming week will be better, I'll be introducing the letter B and the words balloon, bird, and banana and I think I've learned at least a couple things not to do in the past week. This coming week, I've got fun worksheets prepared that wil give my students some writing/drawing practice and allow teacher Emily to conserve her voice for a couple more minutes every lesson, and I am very much looking forward to using them.

The weekend has been pretty nice. I met up with friends from my training program both nights and we ventured out to the super backpacker touristy part of the city where we could eat non-thai food. It is a good road to be on, because I got to eat non-thai food (mmmm hummus) and I got to judge all the super-touristy looking folks for being more touristy than I am, as I am actually employed in this country! haha!

It is an interesting little part of Bangkok, this super touristy street (Khao san Road) where all sorts of things exist that I don't see in my everyday life of home and school. There are things like: lots of white people, signage in English, Indian food, overpriced everything, and all the hippy-dippy clothes that I love but am working hard at not buying - at least not until payday!

As far as the political situation goes, it does maybe seem to be escalating (a red shirt general was shot the other day while being interveiwed by a new york times reporter and the red shirts continue to demonstrate in the section of town they've taken over), but my daily life is happening out in the burbs, way far away from the actual action. So don't worry, I feel perfectly safe where I am right now.

The job actually started yesterday. There I was, dressed in all my boring and professional glory, epic amounts of sweat dripping down my back, standing in front of 36 miniature people with teeny tiny hands and no sense of personal boundaries with two cards in my hand, one of the letter A, and one a picture of an apple. These were my tools. With them and a whole lot of loudly and poorly sung songs I made it through the day. I taught four classes for an hour each. The first three pretty much went by as a blur, it was incredible how long an hour could be when I only have the letter A to fill it with, and, lets be honest, the letter A is really not that thrillling but that is what the Thai curriculum wants from me (my ability to say "A. A. A. AAAAA. A.")

But at least Day 1 is over. And none of the other days will be as bad, because I won't ever be that nervous again, and hopefully, I'll learn some of how to do this as I do it.

The students were good, really. I feel rather bad for them that they have to try and listen to me teach them things for a straight hour (though, they have figured out, that really, they don't have to listen to me and at any given time at least 2/3 of them are totally off in their own little worlds). An hour is a really long time for me to concentrate on things! So it must be harder for them. They do get chocolate milk. And nap time. That would help. But they play along. They like to clap and jump and yell. Some of them do try to repeat after me like they're supposed to.

This teaching gig is going to be exhausting. I already find myself tired all the time and I don't know if that is because of the heat, or because life in another culture can be overwhelming, or because my main form of sustenance is white rice, but add to that needing to stay high energy all day long to clap and jump and run around. Wow. I will be tired. I wish they had real coffee here.

Would you like the chance to become one of my favorite people ever?

It's easy! Send me mail!

Emily Prengaman
Bangyai Square 137/135
Talingehan-Suphanburi Road
Bangrakpattana, Bangbuathong
Nonthaburi 11110
Thailand

and hopefully such lovely things as you are sure to send me will speedily make their way to this side of the word and bring me immense amounts of joy!

Today was my first day of work. I went to my school, met some of my fellow teachers, ate lunch in the cafeteria, etc. Best of all, I did not yet have to teach any children! This is a good thing, because I was feeling entirely unprepared to just jump in to the wonderful world of teaching without the time or direction to plan out a lesson. As it turns out, the students don't start school until next week, so I do actually have some time to steel myself for the challenge that lies ahead.

The challenge being..... that I will be teaching students who are 3 years old. THREE. Seriously, three? In what world do you send your 3 year old child off to school for the entire day and entrust their care to an utterly unqualified farang? Oh. Oh ok, right. That world is Thailand.

So here it is that I, Emily Prengaman, the newest English teacher at Kasintorn St. Peter School in Bangkok will be teaching English to multiple classes of (of maybe about 30 per class) 3 year old Thai children everyday. This could be insanity.

Here is a question for all you early childhood education folks out there, all you education-in-general folks out there, and hell, any of you that have had a kid... what on earth can I teach a 3 year old? Especially when I will have 30 of their fellow students running crazily throughout my classroom?! The next six months of my life are going to be filled with tears and snot and naptimes and songs and art and maybe the alphabet if we get around to it. Today's news has simply left me feeling utterly overwhelmed.

I suppose I'm still looking forward to it. It shall still be a grand adventure! Just one with more diapers than I was expecting.

In other news, I do now have my own little apartment. (so if you have any interest in sending me exciting mail, I can email you my address!) It is a tiny little efficiency place that as of right now does not have any electricity, but does have a very shiny new television that I dream of turning on. It is on the side of a freeway, but also next to 3 giant malls, a million vendors lining the streets, and the handy little internet cafe that I am sitting in RIGHT NOW. It is certainly not the prettiest location, but looks aren't everything and the price is right and I'm quite close to school.

Basically, in the past 3 days, my life has gone through immense changes. I have a job and an apartment on the other side of the world. I have a couple friends here, I'm hoping to make some new ones. I'd forgotten how intense a city Bangkok is, it is so hot, so humid, so smelly, so busy, so chaotic. The traffic is terrifying. The number of people that live and work here is massive. I forgot what it feels like to be surrounded by a language I do not speak.

The past couple days have not been easy. I don't quite feel like I'm living my actual life yet, it is all quite surreal. I feel exhilerated one moment, exhausted another, and exasperated the next. I think what I am coming to realize is that teaching (or glorified babysitting?) is simply going to be so much more work than I was expecting.