Time flies here! I'm almost halfway through my volunteering stint at the school and I haven't even started the ping pong competition yet! Whilst I would like to stay longer, I don't particularly like following William especially when I get called William a dozen times a day by both students and teachers! And I have just booked my ticket to europe with a stopover in Cairo for a few days. Honestly I have become so accustomed to Asia that going to Cambodia or even Myanmar doesn't seem like much of an adventure anymore - its all "same same" at the moment. But climbing pyramids and dying in 40 degree heat should be a nice break. After two months of travelling with friends in europe i think asia will be a nice change back, especially with the cost of europe! The most I have paid for one day in asia will probably get me a dorm room in a london backpackers, not covering food, transport and beer!
As you can see I'm relatively excited of the prospect of talking english as opposed to teaching it, and am looking forward to travelling with high school buddies even if it will cost me my life savings!
The school is going fine, though I'm getting a little frustrated with "thai time" and when noone tells me whats going on. Like last night, when I was told by Chan that we would be going into Lamplaimat at 5:30 for dinner. Come 6:45 I wasn't too hopeful for anything to eventuate, so I started to walk up the highway to nearby Cabbages and Condoms restaurant. Only I was stopped halfway by Yim and Pawn who were coming to pick me up for dinner at the same restaurant. I can't say I was in the greatest mood after being stood up, so it was very hard to do the Thai custom of smiling and laughing over mistakes. When we got to the restaurant, it turned out that about 15 members of the PDA were having dinner with all the teachers and Mechai himself was there! I regretted having changed into boardshorts and a t-shirt but was thankful that I had shaved. I wasn't in the mood to be there but I did get to talk to Mechai for a little bit, and when he asked me what I thought about the school Yim said that I gave a good answer. Thank christ, it's hard to be witty when you;ve had to speak slow and simple english for 5 months. From the amount of people there I finally realised why the Cabbages and Condoms restaurant was so big yet so far from the town - when the PDA comes to visit its very convenient! Apparently the restaurant is losing a lot of money, but that should change when they build the high school next door. Plus the restaurant in Bangkok makes about a million bucks thanks to it's rather pricey (in thai terms) food and cheap employment. I'm not joking, I think it actually makes about a million bucks.
At Lamplaimat Pattana school I teach mainly by just being there to help the teachers, play a few games and suggest/pronounce things. Essentially I'm a co-teacher. So when I went to a local government school with the advice to "play a few games and just talk" i found it a little difficult when the English teacher with 8 years of experience couldn't actually speak english and just sat down as though I was a fully qualified teacher who spoke Thai. Plus I had been told that I would teach P4, 5 and 6 in the morning - I didn't know that they combined into one class and so all the games and activities I had in mind couldn't be reused for each grade! I think William had killed hangman from overuse here, as they were too good at it. So for 2 and a half hours I stretched my memory back to my lightning ridge primary experiences to think of games that would be fun, yet somehow incorporate english. I even made a few up! I was down to my last idea when lunchtime finally came, and had little hope for teaching 1,2 and 3 that afternoon. But the principal offered to take me to a ceremony (i mistook it to mean after school) so when I said yes we drove off straight away. I was relieved but embarrassed as maybe I should have stayed! We met some other guys at a restaurant where they were munching on raw beef soaked in cooked blood. It smelt gross. The others couldn't speak english much, but the principal told me that these guys were all principals as well. Then at 1pm on a thursday during school the principals started to down a bottle of whisky. Hmm some ceremony! We were there for a couple of hours and I couldn't do much apart from make a few jokes about the food or "beer o'clock", a legacy that william left behind for the alcoholic teachers! It was stinking hot too. So when we got up to go, I thought you beauty, I can have a shower when i get back to school! But no, we were going to a temple for the ceremony. which was another principals funeral. oh damn it, what the hell am i doing here? The heat and beer (I had refused but they seemed intent on me drinking after the beer oclock jokes) got to me pretty quick and I couldnt shake the feeling that I smelt sweaty. There were hundreds of people here, all wondering what the stupid farang (foreigner) was doing there! Still despite the awkwardness it was interesting to see, especially when we went up to the coffin to place incense on a tray - the monks started to throw candy and 1 baht coins into the crowd! And then we were each given a small bottle of eucalyptus oil to sniff. ok... i want my funeral to be like that!
When we left I though finally i can go have a shower, but no the principal wanted to take me to his floating hut in a canal to meet more friends and drink more beer. Ok, what the hell. Not like I had much choice. Plus the hut was very cool and I started to think of plans to build one at home before realising that we dont have a canal, or bamboo trees at home! Though the small fish farm would be cool. Maybe I can dig my own and fill it with coy... At about 9:30pm he finally said that he'll drop me off at school so we all got into a car. But of course we had to make a few detours - one to get more beer and the other to a high school, so I could meet an english teacher that one of the principals was pretty keen on. Damn it, I wanna go home! It was fun but I was tired. It was really entertaining to watch the teachers try and do the finger tricks but, especially when i told them the students can do it! Finally, at about 11pm we went back to Lamplaimat Pattana school and I crashed in bed - very thankful taht my first class in the morning wasn't till 11am!
Stay tuned for the next ramble (whenever I have the time) as now I've got to go to buriram to buy some supplies for a school market on monday - I'm trying my hand at baking Damper and Anzac cookies, though I will have the foolproof backup plan of sausage sandwiches and free vegemite sandwiches - they're free as noone will pay for them! Except maybe wichian, he eats anything...
