"Teachaaaa" in Ubon

Hello, hello, hello! Sorry, friends and fam, for the lack of blog posts lately. I’m sure you’ll be happy to know that I’m alive and well! It’s been a pretty crazy 3 weeks getting settled into my new city and school. But as I am in my 3rd week of teaching, I’m started to develop a routine and am almost comfortable calling Ubon my home. Almost.

So much has happened in these past 3 weeks. There’s no way I could talk about it all without my fingers falling off from typing, so I’ll just give you the highlights, though this is a pretty looooong post. If you want to check my day-to-day adventures, check out my instagram atinstagram.com/erinsthaitravels (also located at the bottom right of my blog). :)

1. Life in Ubon Ratchathani (Pronounced Oooh-bon Rah-chuh-tah-knee)

Though I was initially bummed to be placed in a city and terrified to learn that Ubon is one of Thailand’s largest cities, I am so happy that I live here. It took a while for me to drop my American expectations and mindset, but now that I have, life is much easier and much more enjoyable. When I initially heard the word “city,” I pictured a massive, congested city like New York or Boston. I love both of those cities, but chaos and anonymity were not things I was looking forward to in Thailand. Fortunately, I quickly realized how different cities are in Thailand. Ubon has everything I need and more, and I don’t feel like just another face in the crowd. I see the same people often, and I’m starting to make friends.

For fun, there is a lot to do here. Not quite as much as Hua Hin, but there is a karaoke bar, a dance club, a park, lots of temples, and other awesome things that are just a short scooter ride away. Last weekend, my friends and I decided to venture off to karaoke. To say that we had the time of our lives would be an understatement. Karaoke in Thailand is much different than what I’m accustomed to in America. Rather than singing in front of the entire bar, you rent a private room with your friends, get multiple microphones, and a big screen TV. It was strange, but amazing. We danced and belted out shamelessly to the few English songs that were available. The obvious favorite was “My Heart Will Go On” (I’ll never let go). In fact, we got so into that song, that when we looked out the window of our room, we could see a Thai man trying to hold back his laughter to no avail. He burst out laughing, but we smiled, waved, and kept going. Other than that, on the weekends we head to a local club and dance. This weekend, we met some awesome people there :) There was quite a language gap, but we were able to communicate by using Google Translate. In the middle of the nightclub. When the translations failed to communicate what we were trying to say, we just exchanged puzzled looks, lots of laughs, and lots of smiles. It was really funny and awesome.

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2. My ride.

Attention all, I am the proud new renter of a scooter!! It’s a cute little hot pink Filano, and I love it! I’ve had it for very little time, but I’m already getting comfortable riding it. I’ve driven it a few times, and had zero near death experiences. Yay!! Don’t worry, I have a helmet, and I wear it. I have to admit, my first blog post in which I wrote about my fear of scooters seems a little hypocritical now. Especially about the women riding side saddle, because I’ve done that multiple times (I wear skirts for teaching, you know?). I won’t be trying anything fancy with it, but it is nice to finally be able to explore the city that is now my home. The weirdest part about driving here is adjusting to driving on the left side of the road. It feels so foreign. Also, you have to look the other way when crossing the road and making turns. Turning left is like turning right in America, only one way to check. Turning right is like a left turn where you yield to traffic. Super strange. Anyway, I like to name my vehicles. My first car was Martha Maxima. Any suggestions for my scooter? Comment or let me know. I was thinking Betty.

3. Education in Thailand.

By far, my hardest adjustment to living in Thailand has been the difference in public education. It is a completely different ballgame here. Though my only real teaching experience came from student teaching last year, the extreme differences are evident. The school I’m at is the complete opposite of my student teaching placements. It’s called Benchama Maharat School. It’s a secondary school (grades 7-12 as an American comparison) and there are over 5,000 students at the school. Yikes, that’s bigger than Siena. I like it because I love the teachers I work with—both westerners and Thai teachers. Everyone is super friendly and helpful, and they make me feel very welcome. The students are amazing, too. Not necessarily academically, but they are really sweet. I will be walking around campus and hear little voices yelling, “teachhaaaaa!!” and wave excitedly. It’s so cute, and they make me feel like a local celeb. Some of my classes applaud at the end of my lesson, making me feel like I just put on a concert of something. There’s even one girl who squeals when I wave back at her, almost like she’s “fangirling”. It’s definitely a strange, awesome thing.

In Thailand, I was warned that things will be thrown at you at the last minute at school. Which is why I should have seen this coming… I was asked to be a judge for the Halloween Pageant that the English program puts on every year. No problem. Easy peasy, I just had to judge the “screaming” contest (though I had no idea what the criteria for a good scream would be). When I arrived, the director of Foreign Languages motioned for me to follow her, handed me a microphone, and asked me to give a speech right then and there about Halloween. I was wide-eyed, thinking she was kidding, but when I realized she wasn’t, I quickly rambled off anything I could think of about Halloween. My speech was “okay” at best. I definitely could have said more in hindsight, but for my first surprise speech, I think I did just fine. After I did that, another teacher approached me and asked me to be the co-MC of the event. Again, I thought he was kidding, but nope. That part went pretty well, other than the fact that the whole event was a disorganized mess to my standards. However, to Thai standards, it was a great success. I was so happy, though, to be able to do those things and meet some other Thai teachers, and see the performances of the English Program students. They were super impressive!

I teach 3 different grades—M4 (10th), M5 (11th), and M6 (12th), for a total of 18 different classes each week, each only once per week for 50 minutes. Almost every class has a roster of about 50 students. Yes, I said 50. I have over 700 students. As a teacher, I’m pretty adamant about getting to know my students and their names. However, it’s a major task to remember that many names, especially when they’re names that are very unfamiliar to me. All Thais are given a nickname at birth, and most are just random English words. Some of my favorite student nicknames include Pupae, Mean, Arm, Ball, Punch, Bamboo, PingPong, Window, Bonus, Safe, Earth, Donut, Golf, Apple, Party, and Nut. Each student has a number, and that’s what is generally used. Something about this really bothers me. I feel that calling a student a number takes away their individuality. They are all wearing uniforms and are called numbers. It’s a strange, terrible feeling to call a person by a number. I really have been trying to get to know their nicknames, though, and so far, it’s been going pretty well.

Having this massive number of students has been quite the challenge, especially since I only see them once a week. It’s hard to try to make a meaningful impact when I see them so infrequently. The other major issue that I’ve been having is that SOOO MANY students don’t come to class at all. Because of the rosters, I prepare lessons for a class of 50 kids, but most of the time, not even half show up. On Mondays and Tuesdays, I have a handful of classes where 0 students come. More often than not, however, at least a handful of students do come for each class. But many come 20 minutes late, meaning I only have 30 minutes to cover my material and get through to them. It’s frustrating because I put a lot of time and energy into planning. However, in Thailand, it is illegal to fail a student– even if they don’t come at all. For that reason, all motivation to come to class goes out the window. Can you blame them? The lack of structure and support is definitely something I’ve needed to adjust to. After two and a half weeks, I’m finally getting used to the inconsistent attendance and have learned to stop being frustrated about it, because there’s not too much I can do about it other than be the best teacher I can be, and hope that the ones who do come will think I’m so awesome that they’ll tell their friends to come. Maybe this strategy will work, maybe it won’t. But it’s worth a shot!

4. Where I live

Another adjustment is the Thai standard of living. In coming to Thailand, I kind of expected a full apartment with a couch and kitchen. I have neither. What I do have is a room with walls, a door that locks, a bathroom with a western toilet, a bed, air conditioner, Wi-Fi, mini fridge, makeup desk, and a wardrobe. At first, I was a bit disappointed in my apartment. I really was hoping for something a bit nicer, especially after seeing some of the accommodations that my friends in other cities are living in. However, I’ve made the best of it. With a couple hundred dollars, I was able to furnish the apartment a bit more to make it feel more at home. I still don’t have a couch or kitchen, but I do have a table, chair, and a water boiler. What else could you need!? My apartment is also super affordable. I pay about $114 per month, and it’s only a 5 minute walk to my school. Also a plus, my great friend/fellow Benchama teacher, Rob, lives only 5 doors down, so I always have someone to do stuff with. I’m trying to learn how to be a big girl and manage my own place. I sweep the floor almost every day, I don’t use the A/C in order to save money (don’t worry, I bought a fan), I clean my own toilet, do my own laundry, and today I plan on mopping the whole floor. I’ve also become much less afraid of/ bothered by bugs. Having bugs is certainly not ideal, but they are everywhere in Thailand and I’ve learned to just sweep them up and bring them back outside. Mai bpen rai (no worries).

5. Lizards (chin-choh)

Anyone who has me on Snapchat will know that I have quite the population of lizards in my apartment. I’ve lost track of how many I have, because they are strong, independent lizards, and they come and go as they please, but there are at least 7. At first, I was terrified of them. I know they won’t hurt me, but they’re fast, and to see them running on my wall out of the corner of my eye freaks me out. However, I’ve found comfort by reminding myself that they eat bugs. And spiders. Lizards > spiders. I also have started to like them more by naming them. There’s Humphrey. He lives behind the wall in the bathroom. He also has become pretty daring and ballsy. Not the shy and skiddish Humphrey I used to know and love. I say that because I, one day, was going in to pee, and decided to look back. When I did, I saw that Humphrey was in the toilet. That could have been disastrous. So I did the only thing a logical person would do, and screamed my head off, swore a few times, and scared him out by using a broom. Safe to say as I get more comfortable in my new home, so do the lizards. This exact scenario repeated itself a few days later with an unnamed lizard. I’ve learned my lesson and now keep the seat down. The other lizards are named Nelson, Gus, Jimmy, Winnie, Wallace, and Henry. Gus is my favorite. He’s cute and little. Wallace is also cute and little, but he was on my bed yesterday, and I’m not about that kind of life (personal space, please!). Wow, I sound crazy going on and on about my lizards as if they’re my friends. I swear I have friends. Human friends. Okay, next topic.

6. When I miss home

I’m not really one for homesickness. Honestly, I’ve barely felt it at all since I’ve been here. Obviously, I do miss my friends, family, pets, and other aspects of home, but I really am happy here. When I do miss home, however, there are many things I can do here to get rid of that homesick feeling. First, there are my friends (see, told you I have friends!). There are lots of other expats here who teach English and we see each other on the weekends. It’s nice to just have people to speak English to and go out with. Next, there is so much western food available in this city. Having western food every now and then keeps me sane and gives me hope that I will not turn into a piece of rice. For western food in the city, there’s The Outside Inn, which is where I celebrated Halloween. This place rules. It’s owned by my friend Brent, who is an expat and also the guy I rent the bike from. The Outside Inn serves delicious Mexican food and has brunch on weekends. Last Sunday, I had eggs, bacon, and potatoes. It was what dreams are made of. There’s also an Italian restaurant called Spago. I went there last Friday and had a salad and Bolognese. It was also what dreams are made of. Soooo good, and I had cheese that didn’t make me feel like I was going to die. Super nice. There’s also Peppers—an Italian restaurant that also does breakfast. I went there last Saturday and had a strawberry milkshake and chocolate chip pancakes with fried banana. It was weird because this meal made me a little bit sentimental. It reminded me so much of Little George’s, which is my favorite place to eat breakfast with my dad. Whenever I miss home, I’ll probably go there and eat that same meal. The next obvious thing to do is talk to my friends and family. I have Skype credit, so I can talk to anyone on the phone. If you want a call, just let me know :) Finally, my last missing home fix is Netflix. In Thailand, you are technically unable to access Netflix, but there’s an awesome unblocker that has made it possible, and it’s soooo nice to be able to watch TV/movies in English. I just finished Jane the Virgin and I’m now hooked. I’ve been told to start watching Scandal next. Any other suggestions? I’m definitely not trying to watch Netflix every day, because there’s a whole city to explore, but sometimes it’s nice :)