Sunday, February 12, 2012
Pen pals
I had my genius 9th graders write letters to "pen pals" that I will send to my cousin's students in America. This one was my favorite =) Hope you can read it.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Rak maak: Lots of love!!
With Valentine’s Day quickly approaching, the last few weeks have been filled with lots and lots of love.
Starting with the Takraw coach confessing his love for me. I haven’t figured out if he was being serious or not. I think/am going to pretend he was kidding. Good thing Takraw season is over, and the coach doesn’t show up to football practice. If the boys win this football tournament, they can totally thank Be and I. We have fully taken the reigns on this one. My 9th grade boys love it too. Last week, they spent the majority of the class not doing the assignment that I asked them to do, but drawing a map of the school to show me where the other football field is to meet them for practice. I got there (late) and of course only one of my boys from that class was there. But there are plenty of my students on the team, so I can demand when they tell me when the next practice, to tell me in English.
I don’t get to spend as much time “coaching” them as I like, because Man and Sea have gotten really into this dance performance they are doing for Valentine’s Day. They have come after school every day, and work for at least an hour, and come to me every free period they have. If only they worked this hard on their English homework! It’s going to be really hard to give them B’s in my class. But Man’s confidence in my class has grown exponentially, and he doesn’t break out in sweat every time I call on him. Last practice, we went to a studio with a mirror. I was working with Sea, while Man was checking himself out in the mirror. I had been calling his name to come help Sea with a move, and he looked up distractedly, saying “sorry teacher, I’m just so handsome”. At least he said it in English.
Though Chinese New Year isn’t as big of a deal in Sukhothai as I thought it would be (we even had a full day of school!) it did mean my boyfriend who teaches in China had a week off from school, and could finally visit Thailand! He came up to Sawankhalok and got to surprise the students (a REAL farang!) Of course they were all angels for him, even the boys who have never spoken asked questions. Some classes were shy, and others asked “How long you love Korin?” “Will you marry Korin”.
(My incredibly tame 11th graders)
I had to prep my lowest level 9th graders the week before by almost directly giving them 10 questions to write down. Once they asked the only 10 questions they had, they had to combine forces to come up with another question in English. After lots of yelling across the room to each other in Thai, they came up with “What do you think about communism?” They can’t even ask what your favorite sport is, but they can ask about communism. I think they are all just faking- I know deep down they can really speak English.
(My out-of-control 9th graders)
We sat with some of my students one of the days for lunch in the canteen. I actually never eat in the canteen, but Dave wasn’t going to meet these girls from my Wednesday class, and so they asked if we would eat with them cause they wanted to talk to him. I was overwhelmed with love for these girls- they were so cute and happy to talk to him. I had started a diary exchange with this class (where they write a diary entry, and hand it in, I read and it and write a message back, then they respond, etc.) and after that day, this is what some of them wrote in their diaries:
“Today it very happy I was sitting at lunch and eat with the teacher
Korin and Boyfriend. Very excited because I do not think thai people
eat pretty and cool person. This meal feel very tasty. Enough to tell
mother that I had lunch with the teacher I’m very happy. I will
remember this day for life, A happy day. I love Korin Rue very very….
–Oil
"at monday; It was a very good day for me same :) :) It is very happy.
I eat lunch food full quick because I full heart. feel warm and
acquainted with you much. the first time in life for me.
I miss to you and your boyfriend. because you boyfriend. he must back
Chinese city :( for make work. I pray give you boyfriend. travel
convenient and not meet danger."
-Pop
My heart almost burst with love for these girls, even though I am pretty sure they were using google translate. It was still so cute. So much love!!
After Dave’s two day tour of my school and town, I had the rest of week off from teaching because all the junior high students were going camping, so I took Dave to see the north. We spent (a lot of time on a bus and) one night in Chiang Rai, mostly because I wanted to see the White Temple, a masterpiece in the making. It was probably a poor choice for Dave’s first temple, as this is the most un-Thai un-Buddhist temple ever. The entire temple is obnoxiously bright white, with an entrance over a moat of reaching hands, supposedly symbolizing desire, but feels more like they’re reaching up from hell. Then you walk into the temple, which is still only half way painted. The main wall is covered with modern scenes that represent rebirth. The collection of images is so odd: I spotted Spiderman, planes crashing into the twin towers, Avatar, and Neo from the Matrix.
So that was probably a waste of time (though I thoroughly enjoyed it) and becoming more and more Thai every day, I continually debated and asked for Dave’s opinion on how to commence our journey. I probably reassessed the next steps every couple of hours. Poor Dave. We decided to go for Chiang Mai, which ended up being the best decision I had made the whole trip. He loved Chiang Mai (who doesn’t really, Chiang Mai really is the bomb) and I have been there just enough times to be able to get around really easily. Though we only had 24 hours until we were going to fly to Bangkok, we certainly made the most of it: Dave got an abbreviated tour of all the best temples in the city, an accidental visit to the three brothers monument (which I made up the history to, but shh don't tell Dave), a taste of Kao Soi (my favorite noodle dish that is supposedly the most delicious in Chiang Mai, where it originated…though I still think it is more delicious in my town), a view of the city from the riverside bar, a visit to Pong and Charin’s restaurant, AND a visit to my favorite sister temples: Wat Doi Suthep and Wat Suan Dok. Whew. Oh and we went shopping.
So I think it’s safe to say Dave left happy, and got to see so much of Thailand in less than one week. When I dropped off Dave in Bangkok for his flight to China, it was conveniently the same day as a rugby touch tournament in Bangkok that the team I play with had organized. I got to play a fullllll day of rugby (after having not played in months) and though I was very rusty in the beginning, by the 6th game I was back in the swing of things, exhausted, but played well enough to impress my teammates. They invited me to break the rules and play in a tackle tournament in a couple weeks. But considering I would be the ONLY girl among all mens teams, I think I may just come to watch.
Back to Sawankhalok, and finally a full week of teaching. Now that I haven’t seen half of my 9th graders since New Years (no joke), it’s time to start thinking about finals. So what do I test my students on if I haven’t had class with them since midterms? It didn’t help that P’Sonya asked me to attend a conference on Wednesday about teaching English in Thailand. I told her I didn’t want to miss my classes, but she said it’s okay. Just give them a worksheet (which I did, and they didn’t do, haha). So I had to miss my favorite class with my 10th graders. I got a stack of diaries back on Thursday back from my girls, saying “I not happy because I miss teacher Korin” or “I hope Korin has good holiday. I miss study English with her”. This diary project was secretly started not to improve their English, but as an ego boost. Then there are my boys, who don’t really understand the diary thing. While Grace and Pop are drawing me pictures, or even better printing out photos from their weekend and pasting them in their diaries, my boys are standing outside in the rain, “waiting for girlfriends”. I don’t know if they were waiting to find girlfriends, or if they were waiting because their girlfriends were coming. I didn’t ask, I just took that as a sign I should walk away so teacher Korin doesn’t cramp their style.
After so much travel over the past few weekends, all I really wanted this weekend was to stay home and sleep. But I did the exact opposite. For some reason I was the only teacher P’Sonya deemed available to take Tide and one of my students, Pleng, to a spelling bee, in BANGKOK. Ugh. And it really would not have been bad at all, if Tide hadn’t been at soldier camp all week. So he hadn’t slept all week, didn’t have a cell phone, and didn’t know what time he would be getting back to Sawankhalok on Friday. He finally got back at 6 in the evening, leaving us to arrive in Bangkok at 2:30 in the morning. I felt so bad for Tide. Then with four hours of sleep, they had to compete in the morning. There were 200 hundred students at the competition, most from private or special English schools. We were the only school from Sukhothai province, so that was exciting. But they only took 50 students from the first round, and we didn’t make it. I thought Tide would have made it, I have definitely seen him spell some of the words they announced. But neither of them wanted to move on to the next round, and I didn’t really want to either. We all just wanted to go get ice cream. I told Tide, if we don’t make it past the first round, we’re getting ice cream. And he said, okay...let’s go now. So we were all secretly happy (or not so secretly actually) that they didn't make it past the first round, and we headed to the nearest Swensons for chocolate ice cream.
After two solid days of being in that van getting to Bangkok and back, I had to wake up early on Sunday to go a wedding. Kai-au’s sister, who I have met on several occasions was getting married. I think the wedding would have been a lot more exciting if I wasn’t so darn tired. I had used up all my excitement cheering on Tide and Pleng in Bangkok. But of course it is always so great to see Kai-au’s family. I got to the hotel early in the morning for the offerings to the monks. Mint (Kaiau’s sister) was dressed in traditional Sukhothai fabrics, and took part in the food offering ceremonies. After the monks ate and finished their portion of the ceremony, everyone formed a line to pour water onto the hands of the bride and groom.
Then there was a lot of picture taking before they changed into western style wedding attire. Then they continued the ceremony in a mix of western traditions mixed with a talk show style presentation. It was strange. But Mint looked fantastic, and I absolutely love her husband. And Kaiau dressed in a bright purple sequence dress.
Freakin love her. Though I was exhausted, it was still an exciting event.
Starting with the Takraw coach confessing his love for me. I haven’t figured out if he was being serious or not. I think/am going to pretend he was kidding. Good thing Takraw season is over, and the coach doesn’t show up to football practice. If the boys win this football tournament, they can totally thank Be and I. We have fully taken the reigns on this one. My 9th grade boys love it too. Last week, they spent the majority of the class not doing the assignment that I asked them to do, but drawing a map of the school to show me where the other football field is to meet them for practice. I got there (late) and of course only one of my boys from that class was there. But there are plenty of my students on the team, so I can demand when they tell me when the next practice, to tell me in English.
I don’t get to spend as much time “coaching” them as I like, because Man and Sea have gotten really into this dance performance they are doing for Valentine’s Day. They have come after school every day, and work for at least an hour, and come to me every free period they have. If only they worked this hard on their English homework! It’s going to be really hard to give them B’s in my class. But Man’s confidence in my class has grown exponentially, and he doesn’t break out in sweat every time I call on him. Last practice, we went to a studio with a mirror. I was working with Sea, while Man was checking himself out in the mirror. I had been calling his name to come help Sea with a move, and he looked up distractedly, saying “sorry teacher, I’m just so handsome”. At least he said it in English.
Though Chinese New Year isn’t as big of a deal in Sukhothai as I thought it would be (we even had a full day of school!) it did mean my boyfriend who teaches in China had a week off from school, and could finally visit Thailand! He came up to Sawankhalok and got to surprise the students (a REAL farang!) Of course they were all angels for him, even the boys who have never spoken asked questions. Some classes were shy, and others asked “How long you love Korin?” “Will you marry Korin”.
(My incredibly tame 11th graders)I had to prep my lowest level 9th graders the week before by almost directly giving them 10 questions to write down. Once they asked the only 10 questions they had, they had to combine forces to come up with another question in English. After lots of yelling across the room to each other in Thai, they came up with “What do you think about communism?” They can’t even ask what your favorite sport is, but they can ask about communism. I think they are all just faking- I know deep down they can really speak English.
(My out-of-control 9th graders)
We sat with some of my students one of the days for lunch in the canteen. I actually never eat in the canteen, but Dave wasn’t going to meet these girls from my Wednesday class, and so they asked if we would eat with them cause they wanted to talk to him. I was overwhelmed with love for these girls- they were so cute and happy to talk to him. I had started a diary exchange with this class (where they write a diary entry, and hand it in, I read and it and write a message back, then they respond, etc.) and after that day, this is what some of them wrote in their diaries:
“Today it very happy I was sitting at lunch and eat with the teacher
Korin and Boyfriend. Very excited because I do not think thai people
eat pretty and cool person. This meal feel very tasty. Enough to tell
mother that I had lunch with the teacher I’m very happy. I will
remember this day for life, A happy day. I love Korin Rue very very….
–Oil
"at monday; It was a very good day for me same :) :) It is very happy.
I eat lunch food full quick because I full heart. feel warm and
acquainted with you much. the first time in life for me.
I miss to you and your boyfriend. because you boyfriend. he must back
Chinese city :( for make work. I pray give you boyfriend. travel
convenient and not meet danger."
-Pop
My heart almost burst with love for these girls, even though I am pretty sure they were using google translate. It was still so cute. So much love!!
After Dave’s two day tour of my school and town, I had the rest of week off from teaching because all the junior high students were going camping, so I took Dave to see the north. We spent (a lot of time on a bus and) one night in Chiang Rai, mostly because I wanted to see the White Temple, a masterpiece in the making. It was probably a poor choice for Dave’s first temple, as this is the most un-Thai un-Buddhist temple ever. The entire temple is obnoxiously bright white, with an entrance over a moat of reaching hands, supposedly symbolizing desire, but feels more like they’re reaching up from hell. Then you walk into the temple, which is still only half way painted. The main wall is covered with modern scenes that represent rebirth. The collection of images is so odd: I spotted Spiderman, planes crashing into the twin towers, Avatar, and Neo from the Matrix.
So that was probably a waste of time (though I thoroughly enjoyed it) and becoming more and more Thai every day, I continually debated and asked for Dave’s opinion on how to commence our journey. I probably reassessed the next steps every couple of hours. Poor Dave. We decided to go for Chiang Mai, which ended up being the best decision I had made the whole trip. He loved Chiang Mai (who doesn’t really, Chiang Mai really is the bomb) and I have been there just enough times to be able to get around really easily. Though we only had 24 hours until we were going to fly to Bangkok, we certainly made the most of it: Dave got an abbreviated tour of all the best temples in the city, an accidental visit to the three brothers monument (which I made up the history to, but shh don't tell Dave), a taste of Kao Soi (my favorite noodle dish that is supposedly the most delicious in Chiang Mai, where it originated…though I still think it is more delicious in my town), a view of the city from the riverside bar, a visit to Pong and Charin’s restaurant, AND a visit to my favorite sister temples: Wat Doi Suthep and Wat Suan Dok. Whew. Oh and we went shopping.
So I think it’s safe to say Dave left happy, and got to see so much of Thailand in less than one week. When I dropped off Dave in Bangkok for his flight to China, it was conveniently the same day as a rugby touch tournament in Bangkok that the team I play with had organized. I got to play a fullllll day of rugby (after having not played in months) and though I was very rusty in the beginning, by the 6th game I was back in the swing of things, exhausted, but played well enough to impress my teammates. They invited me to break the rules and play in a tackle tournament in a couple weeks. But considering I would be the ONLY girl among all mens teams, I think I may just come to watch.
Back to Sawankhalok, and finally a full week of teaching. Now that I haven’t seen half of my 9th graders since New Years (no joke), it’s time to start thinking about finals. So what do I test my students on if I haven’t had class with them since midterms? It didn’t help that P’Sonya asked me to attend a conference on Wednesday about teaching English in Thailand. I told her I didn’t want to miss my classes, but she said it’s okay. Just give them a worksheet (which I did, and they didn’t do, haha). So I had to miss my favorite class with my 10th graders. I got a stack of diaries back on Thursday back from my girls, saying “I not happy because I miss teacher Korin” or “I hope Korin has good holiday. I miss study English with her”. This diary project was secretly started not to improve their English, but as an ego boost. Then there are my boys, who don’t really understand the diary thing. While Grace and Pop are drawing me pictures, or even better printing out photos from their weekend and pasting them in their diaries, my boys are standing outside in the rain, “waiting for girlfriends”. I don’t know if they were waiting to find girlfriends, or if they were waiting because their girlfriends were coming. I didn’t ask, I just took that as a sign I should walk away so teacher Korin doesn’t cramp their style.
After so much travel over the past few weekends, all I really wanted this weekend was to stay home and sleep. But I did the exact opposite. For some reason I was the only teacher P’Sonya deemed available to take Tide and one of my students, Pleng, to a spelling bee, in BANGKOK. Ugh. And it really would not have been bad at all, if Tide hadn’t been at soldier camp all week. So he hadn’t slept all week, didn’t have a cell phone, and didn’t know what time he would be getting back to Sawankhalok on Friday. He finally got back at 6 in the evening, leaving us to arrive in Bangkok at 2:30 in the morning. I felt so bad for Tide. Then with four hours of sleep, they had to compete in the morning. There were 200 hundred students at the competition, most from private or special English schools. We were the only school from Sukhothai province, so that was exciting. But they only took 50 students from the first round, and we didn’t make it. I thought Tide would have made it, I have definitely seen him spell some of the words they announced. But neither of them wanted to move on to the next round, and I didn’t really want to either. We all just wanted to go get ice cream. I told Tide, if we don’t make it past the first round, we’re getting ice cream. And he said, okay...let’s go now. So we were all secretly happy (or not so secretly actually) that they didn't make it past the first round, and we headed to the nearest Swensons for chocolate ice cream.
After two solid days of being in that van getting to Bangkok and back, I had to wake up early on Sunday to go a wedding. Kai-au’s sister, who I have met on several occasions was getting married. I think the wedding would have been a lot more exciting if I wasn’t so darn tired. I had used up all my excitement cheering on Tide and Pleng in Bangkok. But of course it is always so great to see Kai-au’s family. I got to the hotel early in the morning for the offerings to the monks. Mint (Kaiau’s sister) was dressed in traditional Sukhothai fabrics, and took part in the food offering ceremonies. After the monks ate and finished their portion of the ceremony, everyone formed a line to pour water onto the hands of the bride and groom.
Then there was a lot of picture taking before they changed into western style wedding attire. Then they continued the ceremony in a mix of western traditions mixed with a talk show style presentation. It was strange. But Mint looked fantastic, and I absolutely love her husband. And Kaiau dressed in a bright purple sequence dress.
Freakin love her. Though I was exhausted, it was still an exciting event.
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