A Day in the Life of an English Teacher

6:45-8:00
I wake up around 6:50am and get ready for school.  Eat breakfast, my only 'western' meal of the day, usually consisting of peanut butter toast, yogurt or fruit.  I pack up my backpack and meet Lauren in the hall around 7:25.  We walk downstairs, grab our bikes and cycle the 5 minutes through town to school.  This is one of my favorite parts of the whole day.  I love peacefully rolling through town, over the train tracks past the park and rice patties; kids crowded on to motorbikes rushing by, making their way to school.  We arrive at school at 7:30, drop off our things off in the Foreign Language office, work on a few last minute things and then go back outside to sign in and wait for the morning assembly.

8:00-8:20
The whole school is outside in the center of the campus, shaded by tents and trees.  The students sit on the ground by class while teachers mingle around the perimeter.  A few announcements are read, the flag is raised while the national anthem is played by the school band and morning prayers are said.  Students are dismissed around 8:20 and they slowly make their way to class.

8:20-10:00
I teach for the first two periods today.  Students are slow to get to class, so by the time all of the students have arrived its 8:40 and there is only 30 minutes left of the 50 minute period.  This is obviously nothing like the 6-minute hustle I experienced in high school, were sometimes all you had time to do was go to your locker and sprint to the next class to make it on time.  It's just another symptom of the laid back attitude of the Thai people and something we playfully refer to as "Thai time", as in 'I'm-taking-my-time-and can't-be-bothered-to-hurry' time.  (This all could very possibly be due to the fact that most of the time it's too darn hot to move fast)  It's taking some getting used to, especially since I have been known to be just a tad impatient, but I'm reminding myself that things move a little slower here and I need to adjust to how they operate, and not the other way around.  I teach period one from 8:40 to 9:10 and period two from 9:30ish to 10:00.  Since I have come in to the semester so late, I am mostly working on review with the kids.  It's hard to teach new material to 24 different classes (4-5 classes a day and never the same class in a week) without knowing their skill level or what exactly they have worked on so far, all with little to no time to prepare.  The first 3 days I taught an introduction lesson.  Most of the kids seemed interested to learn about where I come from, my hobbies, favorite food, etc.  They really got a kick out of the fact that I came from a place where it was -8 degrees Celsius and snowing.  After introducing myself, to get a better feel of skill level I have the students write down a few things about themselves and if there was any extra time we played a vocab game. (yes, already on the first day)  Lauren was nice enough to give me some of her leftover worksheets so this week I am teaching a lesson on articles of clothing.  I start with an activity on the board to get students to group articles of clothing into different categories like summer, winter and footwear.  Then for the last 10 minutes I pass out a fill-in-the-blank worksheet.  I adjust the lesson for each class's skill level as I need to and taking out parts that didn't work and by the third or fourth lesson I usually have it down.

10-1:20pm
Today I have the next two periods off, which I spend in the office working on lesson plans or catching up on e-mails.  Around 12:30, Lauren and I walk to the Canteen across campus to get lunch.  It's always white rice with a choice of stir-fry topping.  I usually go for a chicken curry or something with lots of vegetable that's not too spicy.  It costs 18 Baht ($.58) and honestly it's pretty good for a school lunch.  We eat in the air-conditioned office, escaping from the heat and the kids, and relax until its time for class again.

1:20-3:50
Most afternoons I teach the last three periods of the day back to back, and an after-lunch slump combined with the heat and humidity often makes for a long afternoon.  Luckily, most afternoons I am in my favorite classroom, 443 on the top floor of building four.  It is my favorite classroom because it has the best views of the surrounding area.  To the left side of the classroom are two steep hills covered in lush forest and to the right- its rice patties and palm trees as far as you can see, red and golden roofs of temples sprinkled onto the landscape.  The city of Bangkok was loud, confusing and sometimes just plain suffocating.  With all the congestion, noise and a seemingly endless supply of skyscrapers, it often felt I could be in any major city in the world, but seeing the Thai countryside again is a breathtaking reminder of where I am and how lucky I am to be here.  Needless to say, I am loving being back in 'real' Thailand again.  Just as London isn't really 'English' nor is New York City authentically 'American,'  Bangkok isn't 'Thai'.  It's not that I don't love Bangkok; it's a great city, packed with action, history and tons of entertainment, but I don't feel like the city does Thailand justice.  That's also not to say that I even know what the real Thailand is or what would do it justice, a more accurate way to say it might be Bangkok isn't my Thailand, the Thailand that I fell in love with the second I arrived.  I teach my last three classes with the fan fixed on my face to keep cool and dismiss my students at 3:50. 

3:50-5:30
I go back to the office, gather all of my things and cycle back home.  As soon as I get to my apartment I turn on the air conditioning for a much needed blast of cold air and spend the next couple hours relaxing.  I usually read, watch a TV show on my laptop or like today, do some laundry.

5:30-6:30
Dinner time.  Since my kitchen only consists of a fridge, toaster and hot water kettle, I almost always eat out for dinner.  Some nights Lauren and I might cycle to a restaurant to enjoy some pork fried rice or red curry soup, other nights dinner is as simple as instant noodles from the 7-eleven downstairs, but today is Monday  and around here Monday means night market.  So around 5:30 we hightail it across the street to grab a plate of Pad Thai (me) and Sushi (her).  Wondering how were affording all this eating out business on a teachers pay?  Well true to it's reputation, Thailand is quite cheap.  A bite to eat from the night market will run you about 30 Baht ($1) and dinner at a restaurant costs about 100 Baht ($3.30) depending on what you eat of course.  I am quite spoiled here yes, but if my 100 Baht means more to the local restaurant owner or shopkeeper than it does to me, then I'm happy to spend it. 

6:30-10:00
I spend most nights relaxing, writing, editing pictures or watching a movie or show on my computer.  I do have a television in my room but I've only turned it on once to confirm that all the channels are indeed, in Thai, so my computer and books have been my largest source of entertainment thus far.  I shower and get ready for bed, which comes pretty early around here.  Most of the time I fall asleep before ten.  It's not the most dazzling or thrilling life but it's both rewarding and humbling.