Chiang Mai & Phuket:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2162313&l=44e3f&id=22003081
Thanksgiving day weekend & xmas decorations in BKK:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2162153&l=48fae&id=22003081
Hua Mak, BKK & Wat Pho:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2151808&l=aeab9&id=22003081
Koh Samet:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2151809&l=4470f&id=22003081
Hua Hin:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2151799&l=63820&id=22003081
Halloween, Jungle Tour & Loy Krathong:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2151781&l=3012c&id=22003081
First week in Thailand:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2148333&l=05717&id=22003081
Tokyo:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2147255&l=42ecc&id=22003081
And I think that'll do for now.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
new 773 digits and class update
Jay Steubich is awesome. Being the techno savvy guy that he is, he spent the past week messing around with voice over IP, and in his words, he “decided to put it to good use” by setting up a VOIP line to me here in Bangkok. Leslee called me yesterday morning to verify my number, then Jay called about an hour later to say that he’d successfully given me a 773 phone line. This means that any time you feel like hearing the lilt of my voice, you can just dial 773.915.2358 and have it ring right to my cell phone here, while you’re only charged for a regular call to any other Chicago phone number. Sweet. So now start dialing. =) Thank you, Jay!!!
In other news, I’m still in love with my senior class. Yesterday afternoon we went on a fieldtrip to a coffee shop and had class there for two hours. Then we played a modified version of Circle of Death (Kings), one of our go-to drinking games back home. I had a list assigning each card to some kind of English challenge, for example, drawing a 6 card meant that all the guys had to repeat a tongue twister chosen by the girls; drawing an Ace meant that the each student in turn would say a sentence beginning with the last letter of the previous sentence (EFL-style waterfall); a Jack meant they had to describe the personality of the person to their right. They had fun and so did I, so it was a very nice class. Afterward a few of my students (plus two of my former students who were transferred to Rob’s class during my brief absence to go to the US) happened to walk by Dream while I was there with Jenn having dinner and a beer, so they sat and joined us for awhile. One tried teaching me how to order my fav green curry soup in Thai, but those new language skills already escape me. They’re all really good kids and I’m happy to be working with them.
Today we’re in for a more serious class, though. I’m going to try to recreate the serious interview environment that my boss will put them through in about 2 weeks. That’s the test they must pass to graduate, so I need to stop babying them with practice questions in class, where I’ve typically been correcting and prompting them mid-sentence. Now it’s time to just let them speak solo for a few minutes at a time without any direction or indication from me of how well they’re doing.
My freshman OPE (Oral Proficiency in English) classes are nowhere near as cool as the senior-level Conversation Course, but I’m trying to work through them successfully. In talking to some of the other teachers about this yesterday, we decided that OPE students are moody. They choose whether to participate or to sit there with their arms folded and refuse to speak English, depending on how they feel that day (and how many students show up). So no matter how prepared I am with activities, it’s always a gamble to see what will work. But this just means lots of thinking on my feet and winging it… I usually manage to get them going somehow, so I guess that’s all I can do. We only have about 4 weeks left of classes before semester finals, and we have tons of info to cover before then, so it’s my job to keep it interesting.
This weekend I'm staying in BKK, hoping to go to Chatuchak one day and maybe rock climbing on the other. Hopefully that will work out.
In other news, I’m still in love with my senior class. Yesterday afternoon we went on a fieldtrip to a coffee shop and had class there for two hours. Then we played a modified version of Circle of Death (Kings), one of our go-to drinking games back home. I had a list assigning each card to some kind of English challenge, for example, drawing a 6 card meant that all the guys had to repeat a tongue twister chosen by the girls; drawing an Ace meant that the each student in turn would say a sentence beginning with the last letter of the previous sentence (EFL-style waterfall); a Jack meant they had to describe the personality of the person to their right. They had fun and so did I, so it was a very nice class. Afterward a few of my students (plus two of my former students who were transferred to Rob’s class during my brief absence to go to the US) happened to walk by Dream while I was there with Jenn having dinner and a beer, so they sat and joined us for awhile. One tried teaching me how to order my fav green curry soup in Thai, but those new language skills already escape me. They’re all really good kids and I’m happy to be working with them.
Today we’re in for a more serious class, though. I’m going to try to recreate the serious interview environment that my boss will put them through in about 2 weeks. That’s the test they must pass to graduate, so I need to stop babying them with practice questions in class, where I’ve typically been correcting and prompting them mid-sentence. Now it’s time to just let them speak solo for a few minutes at a time without any direction or indication from me of how well they’re doing.
My freshman OPE (Oral Proficiency in English) classes are nowhere near as cool as the senior-level Conversation Course, but I’m trying to work through them successfully. In talking to some of the other teachers about this yesterday, we decided that OPE students are moody. They choose whether to participate or to sit there with their arms folded and refuse to speak English, depending on how they feel that day (and how many students show up). So no matter how prepared I am with activities, it’s always a gamble to see what will work. But this just means lots of thinking on my feet and winging it… I usually manage to get them going somehow, so I guess that’s all I can do. We only have about 4 weeks left of classes before semester finals, and we have tons of info to cover before then, so it’s my job to keep it interesting.
This weekend I'm staying in BKK, hoping to go to Chatuchak one day and maybe rock climbing on the other. Hopefully that will work out.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Holidays
Happy (belated) New Year 2552! It may be 2009 back at home, but here the Thai calendar tells us that it’s 2552, and who am I to question the Thai calendar? So I’m wishing you all a fantastic, fun and love-filled new year, whether it’s 2009 or 2552 or something in between.
For Christmas, I went camping, hiking, elephant-riding and bamboo rafting in the northern part of the country (Chiang Mai & around there). It was probably one of the best weekend trips I’ll have this year. Lauren and I loved Chiang Mai right away – it didn’t take too long before we started wondering how we could get jobs there instead of BKK. Then Lauren, Sarah, Mel and I had a nice Christmas dinner at an Italian restaurant before Lauren and I started our 3 day trek through small villages in the countryside. Our group included 6 Australians, 2 South Africans and 2 Frenchies, and most of us were ridiculously cold the whole time (except when sweating our asses off while hiking a small mountain). My nose nearly froze off my unsuspecting little face at night. On the second afternoon we found out it was a whopping 18⁰C – which is around 65⁰F. We all felt pretty silly for feeling so cold at that totally average temperature, but there it is. We froze. So apparently we’ve adjusted to the heat here. But other than that we had a fantastic 5 days of trekking around the region. If you plan on spending any time in northern Thailand, I definitely recommend a trek with Mr. P (who, by the way, claims he invented “same same, but different.”)
baby elephant
young boy from the village that hosted us on our first night
Mr. P
After Chiang Mai, Lauren & I got on a bus back to Bangkok (another 12 hours) for 2 days of teaching before our new year holiday. Then we (plus Heidi this time) traveled again for 20+ hours like this: taxi-minivan-coach bus- songtaew (basically a pickup truck) -minibus-songtaew. Every 3-5 hours we arrived at a shady little stop in the middle of nowhere and were told either to put on a sticker or pay 200 baht for the privilege of shuffling to a new mode of transportation (though we’d paid everything in advance through a travel agent… whatever). It’s hard to explain, but basically traveling within this country is a serious pain in the ass. I’ve resolved to fly anywhere more than a couple hours away. Anyway though, Lauren, Heidi and I got to Phuket and spent 4 days scuba diving, snorkeling, laying on the beach, and the now standard activity of avoiding bars filled with prostitutes. On New Year’s Eve, we hit up a few bars before landing at the beach just before midnight. We were treated to a beautiful impromptu firework show going off all around us. It was another lovely holiday away from BKK. But, FYI, Phuket is nowhere near all it’s cracked up to be. I’ve seen far better islands in my few short months here, so I recommend that all future travelers skip that tourist hot spot in favor of some nicer ones.
Happy New Year from Koh Similan #8
Then I spent a surprise week in Chicago celebrating the life of my Nana. Though due to unfortunate, sad circumstances, it was good to be with my family and catch up with some friends while I was home. I thank everyone for their letters, emails, fb messages and visits. And I especially thank some of my truly special friends who put together a very unexpected and generous gift for me. Everyone’s kindness will be remembered forever.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Conversation Class
I started teaching a new class today - a conversation class (CC) for students who have already failed their English proficiency test at least once. I have one student who's already failed 3 times. And they can't graduate without passing either the FEOT or COT, so it's obviously a big deal. CC is an intensive 6-week course in which I'm supposed to cram these kids (some older than me) with as much English as possible and fill in the gaps of their 10+ years of English language education. That's a big project! But the first class went really well and I'm looking forward to the rest of it. Tomorrow they're interviewing me with what they promise will be "exciting" questions. That should be fun. My only goal for this week is to get them talking as much as possible and get them comfortable with me and each other.
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