Siem Riep

My experience in Cambodia can probably be accurately summarized by the (in)famous  Thai phrase of butchered English “same same but different”. For whatever reason Thais have begun saying this to mean “similar” when they lacked the vocabulary, and it must have caught on like wildfire. Now it has turned into somewhat of a joke where you can purchase t-shirts with the motto at the market.

Anyway, my knowledge of Cambodia before arriving to Southeast Asia was limited to killing fields and the Khmer Rouge. This does not lead to a very optimistic view of the country.  However, thanks to some friends who are thankfully much more worldly than I am, I soon learned about the ancient temple of Angkor Wat, which I believed to be one of the 7 wonders of the world. I later found out that it was one of the 7 ANCIENT wonders of the world, and also discovered that many different types of lists exist for the wonders of the world (ie natural, underwater, etc) which was a bit of a disappointment (I wanted to eventually be able to say I saw all 7 wonders of the world! hmphh)

Crossing into Cambodia was quite the journey. This was actually the first border I have ever crossed so I was in for something new. We first took a bus to a border town on the Thai side where we spent the night. In the morning we took a tuk tuk to the border. Thankfully we had been warned of people trying to sell you a visa for more than its worth.  Our tuk tuk actually pulled up to a sketchy store (obviously had some arrangement with him beforehand) where the owner tried to convince us that his building was in fact the actual border and we must pay if we wanted to cross (ummm don’t think so buddy). A lot of sweating and waiting in line later, we crossed the border and then took an unmarked taxi (our only option) to the town of Siem Riep.

Since the border towns were quite poor, Siem Riep was a gem. You could tell this town was bustling with tourism: many Cambodians spoke English which unfortunately often meant they harassed you constantly for a ride. We got lucky enough to make friends with a tuk tuk driver who took us to a pool after our journey, and then we arranged for him to take us to the temples the next morning (never mind that when we picked us up from the pool he was in a few deep…Thank God its a small town). However he was very friendly, and it was sad to find out that his earnings of twenty-something dollars would support his family for that month. One very interesting thing about Cambodia is they actually accept (and prefer) transactions to be done in dollars. I was also very shocked when I handed a convenience store attendant a $20 bill and at first she struggled to find change but then I was given back not only dollars but also Cambodian Riel instead of coins. Apparently they don’t have US coins.

The next day we left before 5 to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat. Despite throngs  of other tourists, it was definitely worth the early rising. We spent that day temple hopping to see the sights of the ancient city. It definitely made me feel like I was in an Indian Jones movie. And actually many parts of Tomb Raider were filmed there. I watched the film when I returned from my travels, and despite the awful plot line, it was cool to recognize sites I’d seen. I think my favorite temple might have been Bayon, in which undistinguished faces were carved into the stone.

Angkor Wat at Sunrise

Bayon Temple

After a very hot and sweaty day of running around, our friend dropped us back off and we decided to go out for a night on the town. We discovered a great and cheap, if not a little overwhelming market (I was lost for quite some time), an amazing restaurant, and a bar where I ordered a “Lara Croft” cocktail and was actually received it for free since I was the 10th order (I think I was maybe a little more excited about this than I ought to have been…there might have been some shouting/fist pumping).

Overall Cambodia was a great experience. My friends and I kept returning to the same question, Thailand or Cambodia? I have to say Cambodians were very nice, smiled a lot, and tried very hard to speak English with the foreigners. There is also a certain charm I believe Cambodia has. However, just like in Thailand there are still people trying to get you to pay more than you should simply because you are white. I did really love Cambodia but I think Thailand will always be like home for me.

The Group - conquering Cambodia

After a few restless nights, quite a lot of persuasion from my coordinator, and changing my mind no less than 1000 times, I finally was able to make a decision about my future. I will be extending my contract to teach for another semester at Suksanaree Wittaya! AHHH! I still can’t really believe it, especially when I write it out. But its true. And there’s no turning back now. It was probably one of the harder decisions I’ve had to make. The main reason for this is my dear family and friends back home. I miss you all greatly, and its hard to think of how I’m going to survive another 6 months here without you. There were also several excuses I made to myself when pondering how comfortable and easy my life could be back home. I considered all the luxuries of a hot shower, clean Western toilets (not squatters), constant air conditioning, a decent gym/yoga studio/tennis club within a short distance, and availability of almost any kind of food. These might sound more trivial but they are probably what I miss the most about the States. Plus the whole laptop fiasco definitely complicated my decision even more.

However despite these annoyances, there are many advantages about staying here (well, one would hope so or else I probably made the wrong decision). Especially now that I made up my mind I figure I should concentrate my post on the positives that await me next semester. So here it goes:

1. The Students. After all that is the real reason I am here. This semester I have felt like I have been able to make a huge different especially with my math students in their English vocabulary. They now can understand such words as “parabola” and “vertex” and even more importantly instructions like “find the solution” and “graph the equation”. I have been a part of an important transition: this is the first year my school has taught math in English. Because of this, I have been able to assist a lot of teachers with their English instruction as well. Since this semester was sort of a “trial and error” I suspect that next semester everything will run much more smoothly. I also love my students. I love how important I feel when they “wai” me in the hallway, tell me “thank you” after I teach the lesson, bring me roses on Valentine’s day, and applaud me when I attempt to speak Thai. In short, they are truly amazing.

2. The Staff. The staff at my school could not be more helpful or nice. They always offer to share their delicious home made food and ask “Where you go this weekend?” when they want to know about my travels. The other day when I was sick, my coordinator bought me soup and medicine. One of my co-teachers hits my students with a bamboo stick when they don’t actively answer my questions (for the record I do not endorse this) but it is nice to know I have someone standing up for me. For Valentine’s day another teacher and her boyfriend took me out for a great Vietnamese dinner and even paid for it (no matter how many times I insisted it should be my treat). As a new teacher, I know how important it is to have a supportive and helpful staff, and I believe I have found that here at Suksanaree.

3. Travel. I have had amazing opportunities already to travel to so many parts of Thailand. This past weekend I went to Khao Yai or “Big Mountain” National Park. It was the first time I had really been in the jungle here.  When I first came to Thailand, all I knew was the islands of Phuket and Koh Phi Phi from the movie “The Beach”. This trip was truly beautiful and made me realize that there are so many more parts of Thailand that are worth exploring. On my jungle trek, I witnessed monkeys, a hornbill, a family of gibbons (a type of ape), a wild elephant (that was quite terrifying) and a baby King Cobra snake. When else will I get the opportunity to see all this? Plus I was able to experience it with a great group of girls who will also be spending another semester here which definitely makes me feel more comfortable about my decision. Since I will be on summer break during the months of March and April, I have even more travel plans to go up north to Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai and also sightsee all around Southeast Asia. Even though I am not exactly sure yet how I will finance all these trips, I do consider myself truly blessed.

Gibbon

Girls Practicing Yoga

Waterfall from “The Beach”

Ridiculous Jungle Tree

I want to give a quick “thanks” to all my family and friends that have supported me throughout this semester. I’m sure my positive attitude wouldn’t have been possible without your help. I will definitely be looking forward to seeing everyone in October! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

As I am pondering why the heck I am currently writing my blog from my iPhone, let me share with you my latest mini-crisis. I don’t mean to write this post as a pity party for yours truly but the fact is the past two weeks have been consumed with this situation. As my blog supposedly reflects my experiences in Thailand I believe it’s only fair that I am able to rant a little.

So here it goes… I broke my laptop. (Note: apparently coffee and electronic devices don’t mix well)

Not such big deal right? I wouldn’t normally think so either. Just hop on over to the local Apple Store. Oh wait, I’m in Thailand living a bus ride outside of civilization. Ok, don’t panic, there must be an Apple Store in Bangkok, right? Well there’s not and I definitely did panic. (As I’m sure my telephone calls back home at some ungodly hours will prove). Not only am I thinking about how I’m going to afford purchasing a new laptop and the possibility that all my pictures and music could be lost, but also what the heck am I going to do at night here?  Although in the Bangkok province, I would describe my town as “isolated” and “traditional” rather than  the “crowded” and “noisy” that you might associate with inside the city. My weekday nights usually consist of a workout DVD, some skyping, and maybe a movie. Yes and all these things require a laptop. Sigh.

Luckily I was able to forget about this for the weekend as a met up with an Jaqueline, a friend from high school tennis who is now teaching in China. Her semester just ended, and since Shangia is currently freezing she and another teacher friend decided to enjoy their vacation in some tropical weather. I was lucky enough to join them in Koh Lanta. I had one of the most relaxing weekends since I’ve been here. We stayed in a ridiculously nice resort.  Because it was more on the expensive side, it was filled with groups of families and couples looking for a quiet spot instead of the usual young backpackers I encounter. I actually am a little embarrassed to say that I got two massages while there.  I also flew for the first time since arriving in Thailand since I only had short weekend and the island is pretty far south…and I took two days off from school. (Ok, I’m definitely realizing I shouldn’t be complaining so much about my life). Overall it was a great vacation: I got to see a familiar face and forget about my worries for a while.

Girls in Koh Lanta

Sunset

The Pool

Storm Brewing

After I got back I was in for a rude awakening. As of right now, I have taken my computer to 4 different places to get it looked at/fixed/shipped off and everyone has told me either they will not fix it or I need to take it somewhere else. Never mind that most of these places are about an hour away from me. For internet I have been using a combination of our schools computers (which never seem to work), my iPhone, and this computer lab next to my apartment (which is usually filled with Thai guys playing Call of Duty). Let’s just say I have gotten very used to hearing the cries of “MEGAKILL” and “TRIPLE KILL” while I send out emails. I am so thankful to my parents who will be assisting me in my moment of crisis by sending me an old laptop. Now I can actually write my blog updates and Skype. So I should be hearing from many of you soon!

I guess my words of advice from my somewhat traumatizing experience would be if you must break something in a foreign country, make sure you go to the beach directly afterwards.

So a couple of weekends ago I visited Ayutthaya, the ancient capital of Thailand, with some fellow English teacher friends of mine. We visited a very unique floating market in the morning. And what I mean by unique was there were giant baby statues in the water. I was very excited though because this was my first official floating market. I have been to others but they were more like buildings on stilts and I was not that impressed. I wanted the picturesque scene of a a woman selling fruit on her wooden boat. I did in fact see this, and the first thing I did was purchase what I thought was mango. It definitely turned out to be pickled (yuck!) which is something they do here that I just don’t understand. However I did make an awesome beach hat purchase for my future travels.

After that, my friends left since they have a longer journey back to their hometowns. I decided to spend the afternoon exploring the ancient ruins by bike. Ayutthaua is well known for biking (and I mean the real kind, not motor). However I should have realized that a city in Thailand made for biking is still a city in Thailand. When I arrived at the bike rental store, they first handed me a bike that when I rode it my legs went up into my chest. “Ok?” He asked me. No, not ok. I’d rather not look like a clown thank you. The next bike was a little too tall. I should mention their seats didn’t adjust. However from my vast mountain biking experience (ahem) I know you want to keep the pedals as faraway from you to maximize the propulsion from your push. Keeping with this theory I went for the too tall bike. I did not think about how difficult this would make getting off and on.

As I drove around I must have appeared to be a complete moron as it was an ordeal every time I had to stop which was often for the traffic. A couple of times I even tried the jumping off approach. Looking back this was probably where all my bruises came from that day. At periods of time I felt like Julia Roberts in Bali in the film Eat Pray Love (at least from the preview I saw), but I was too scared to stop and explore any of the temples since my bike lock looked skimpy at best. The last thing I wanted was to pay some ridiculous fine for having the bike stolen. However, I did stop to snap a picture whenever I saw a sight that was worth the struggle of getting off my bike.

After I had my fill fighting traffic and errant driving mopeds I decided to head back. This is where things got tricky. I figured it wouldn’t be a problem heading back to the bike rental place since Ayutthaya is basically an island- it’s surrounded by a river. 30 minutes later I’m wondering where the hell I am after I was given the wrong directions from a German backpacker. I mean I figured if you’re wondering around the city with your belongings on your back you must have a decent idea of where things are.  I missed the 4 o’clock train home, but I knew there was a 6 o’clock one so I wasn’t too worried. Despite having to wait a little longer than I would have liked I enjoyed myself with a smoothie and some other Americans I met who were teaching at an adult language school in Bangkok. So interesting!  I knew this would be the last train to Bangkok but I had no idea how actually crowded it would be. I discovered from my new friends that this particular train is free for all Thais. Because of this I had to stand for two hours on my journey home while being surrounded by many travelers and a quite pungent smell. After reaching Bangkok, I was totally exhausted. Let’s just say I slept well that night.

Side note: I cannot take complete credit for these pictures, as my laptop crashed and along with it all photographs I took. But I swear I did in fact see everything on this page.

 So after my long list of new years resolutions made, I am proud to announce that I have started to accomplish many of them. It all startedwith asking my coordinator. It is truly amazing when you ask people for help what can happen. She found me a couple groups of girls to start tutoring. So far this has definitely accomplished its goals: keep me busy, make a larger contribution to the school, and make some more money for myself! Plus the girls are great, they are truly hilarious, and some of them are even outspoken. For the most part I have to work with them to talk out loud though. Tutoring has definitely proven to be more work than I thought. To prepare for a  session takes a lot more in depth preparation than a regular class lesson plan. But making these “friends” has proved more beneficial than I thought. When we discussed our hobbies and I mentioned that I like to work out, they asked me if I went to the gym? WHAT? There is a gym around here? After our tutoring session, a couple of them even walked me there. Who know it was right by our local market this whole time? The girls actually stayed with me and gossiped while I went on the elliptical (a luxury I haven’t experienced in quite some time). This was a little awkward but they insisted they would wait since it was too dangerous for me to walk home alone. Well thats good to know since I’ve been walking back from the market alone at night…Anyway the gym is decent. It actually has televisions which impressed me, the usual cardio/weight , a pool, and even a locker room. The best part about it is how close it is so you know I will actually go!

Of course after becoming more familiar with my area, I was then quite surprised the very next day.  I was told we would not have morning classes this last Thursday because of “projects”. Of course I do not have afternoon classes that day anyway but I still have to sign in to school. I definitely wanted to check out these “projects” that my students had mentioned in order to get out of their math homework. (This did not work  for them).  They turned out to be service projects and each grade had an assignment, or at least thats what it appeared to me. My M1 students (the youngins) made some sort of crafts and were selling them for donations. My older M4 students seemed to be assigned to make a type of paper which benefited the enviroment. In my pictures you can see this is given the name “fiber paper”. Each class made a booth which they decorated and many had food and games to attract teachers or students to their booth. I believe there was some sort of competition but I’m not completely sure. Of course the event had music: some students performed in a band for which the school even set up a big stage for. The students absolutely loved that and went crazy for the band.

Fiber Paper

the band

Ouch. Just one word needed to describe how I feel the day after my first (and possibly only?) tournament experience in Thailand. Yes, it was only a one day doubles event (I’ll get to it later), but to my body it makes no difference. Besides I think the soreness is due to the three day prior training regimen. Seeing as I hadn’t played all December but instead spent my time laying out on the best of Thailand’s beaches, I thought it would be smart to spend the three days before the event practicing my heart out. This included playing multiple sets of singles and doubles. Even though I have been playing somewhat consistently (once a week), I haven’t been serving. My entire abdominal area, especially the left side, was in pain every time I lifted my arm up to toss the ball during the tournament. I had no idea how much abs you use serving!

So enough about my whining, you probably want to hear what actually happened. So I have been playing weekly in women’s workout group at a club (Le Smash – ok, input jokes about the name here) in downtown Bangkok. That has been quite an experience in itself. I can tell that these women do..ummm…very well for themselves to say the least. They are mostly Thai women while our instructor is Spanish. It doesn’t matter though, because everyone speaks perfect English.

Na, one of the players, who pretty much lives at the club asked me to play in a charity doubles event (I just recently discovered she was the owner which makes a lot more sense). I wasn’t given much more information that it is some diplomatic event for the red cross and many ambassadors will be there. Oh well in that case, sure! She also has two daughters which play at the club. One of her daughters, Natacha, is 18 and is full of energy and life. She not only speaks English, but speaks it so fast I have to tell her to slow down. Natacha is very talented, hits the living tar out of the ball, but recently told me she stopped playing juniors to concentrate on her studies. She wants to go into the French system to become a doctor (oh yea, I should mention she is fluent in French too). Her younger sister, is also very talented, and plays ITF events to eventually get a college scholarship in the States.

They were 6 of us who formed the Le Smash Team. Me, Pierre (the head pro of Le Smash), Gabrielle (the women’s group instructor), Natacha, her sister (name escapes me), and their father. Natacha and I formed the women’s singles team, Pierre and the father formed men’s doubles, and Pierre and sister formed the mixed dubs. I didn’t really know much else when I showed up at 7 on that Sunday morning in our leather interior mini van with built in seat massagers – these people travel in style. Oh, I should also mention the fact we all received nice polos with the club name printed on the back. I really hope I’m not supposed to give mine back because that is just not happening.

I was soon told  there were 5 teams and it was going to be round robin format AND then quickly discovered that our first opponents were the Thai national team. Ohh no big deal! (Hey I thought this was supposed to be for charity!) Needless to say, Natacha and I quickly got our asses handed to us. Our mixed team fared much better, but we all still lost. After that we pretty much did work through everyone else (like I said it was a lot of ambassadors). We played off for second against another club team where I also hit at on weekends – this was a little awkward. We definitely should have won, but unfortunately things did not go our way. It turns out when you’re not training, you’re not as good as you used to be. Who would have thought? I was embarrassed in front of my partner to say the least.

However, it really was a great day in all. It was actually good tennis weather: I found myself wishing I brought my jacket in the morning which I can’t say has ever happened in Thailand yet. I  also got to raise money for charity without paying a cent (thank you Le Smash Club for paying the team fee) and make some good connections. I wish I could say I befriended more ambassadors but at least I had some players talk to me about their apparent international school connections. Too bad international schools are on the American school year and my semester ends in March. Everyone I talked to seemed very confused about why I was working at a Thai public school and live so far from Bangkok. (You travel all this way to play tennis? Why yes I do.) I got a little annoyed at explaining my situation, but I guess thats understandable. I hope to be able to play more tennis in the future  (Lord knows I need it). The other club allows me to play on weekends with their juniors for free which is definitely more in my price range. Maybe I can actually return to the states as a decent ex-collegiate tennis player. That would be nice.

repping Le Smash Club in style

our freakin good mixed team

pre match shot (this is all the rage in Thailand)

So this last Friday the staff of the Math Department was nice enough to take me out to a “welcome lunch” (never mind the fact that I’ve been here for two months already). Also never mind the fact that I had class that afternoon as the math teachers took care that I had someone to cover my class. Or that the lunch itself has been canceled two times before. I was glad it finally happened! My Thai friend Por got to come along as a translator even though she’s actually an English teacher.  It definitely made things a lot more comfortable to have her around. The teachers drove us there (which is quite an event in itself for me as I’m used to taking the bus whenever I want to go anywhere).

I knew I was in for a treat when the driver pulled over at a liquor store and purchased a bottle of whiskey. At the luncheon most of the male teachers proceeded to drink up despite the fact it was only a little after noon. I’ve also noticed that at the school parties I’ve attended the females don’t tend to drink for whatever reason. So I decided to follow this trend. And whiskey isn’t really my thing. When they kindly offered me a drink I gave as my excuse that if I imbibed I would probably sleep all afternoon (side note: I did in fact sleep all afternoon anyway from the mass amount of food).

The lunch turned out to be quite humorous with several of the male math teachers making jokes, mostly at my expense. The math coordinator is still very much a kid and cracked such jokes as “You can have vegetables with Thai dip or you can have vegetables dipped with Kak (his name)”. He also proceeded to stick his stomach out very far and call himself fat after he engorged on the meal. He found this to be hilarious. I also got a comment that I should start getting better at handling spicy foods so I can get a Thai boyfriend (this is after I continually choked up each time I tried to eat tom yum goong – spicy shrimp soup). That one was actually funny, and partly true – I HAVE been trying to build up my resistance to the spicy food here, with little success. From what I seen, I think in general Thai’s have a very different (dare I say immature?) sense of humor. The comedies here are all ubiquitous with slapstick. One movie preview I saw here was called “Attack of the Killer Hair Gel.” No Joke. So if that’s their humor, I guess I consider Pee Kak (I address him as such since he is older) a pretty funny guy. It kept the mood light anyway.

Overall, I can’t complain. The food was great (typical Thai family style). Also like typical Thai style, they pressed me to try everything. This is even after the first few courses which I mistakenly believed were all that were coming.  (I somehow always make this mistake with Thai meals.  Note to self: I must remember to eat only a little of everything). I actually stuck with my resolution and didn’t eat any of the nutrient lacking white rice.  I did, however, try two kinds of fish (complete with bones, head, eyes and everything because why would you eat it any other way?), shrimp salad, the previous mentioned spicy shrimp soup, and coconut ice cream (yum!) The best part of the meal…the 3,000 baht it cost in all was courtesy of the Math Department. Suhweet!

Swatdee Pee Mai! (or as its more commonly known in America, Happy New Year!) So apparently New Years is the Thai version of Christmas. I really wish someone would have told me this as all my fellow teachers showed up with gifts galore for everyone, and I was, well, empty handed. I guess its something I can again blame on being a dumb American. If that weren’t enough our school also had a New Years party where the big event was a raffle (from talking to other foregin teachers, this seems very common among schools). I actually won a towel so I would call it a pretty successful night. Right before they announced my name in the raffle, every teacher in the room turned, looked towards me, and started clapping. Later when I asked how they knew it was me, someone told me “they said the winner was a foregin teacher”…oh, DUH of course! The bigger prizes included a microwave, fan, a rice cooker, and even a television. Way to be practical! I almost feel like I shouldn’t even have to mention the karaoke that is present at EVERY Thai party. I can’t believe some of the usually more quiet teachers who were just busting it out! And their voices were pretty impressive. Unfortunately (or fortunately for everyone else in the room) they didn’t have any English songs so I couldn’t perform.

The morning after our school’s blowout, I headed down to Koh Chang to meet up with some other American teachers and ring in the New Years beach style. I have to say that I think Koh Chang is my favorite island so far. I loved the laid back vibe there, and get this, it wasn’t even THAT touristy. The island is huge, and so much of it is underdeveloped, in stark contrast to Phuket. I really wish I could have spent more time exploring it. Some of the people in our group rented motor bikes which is really the best way to see all of the island. However, there were a few of us that compromised Team Safety First (more like “Team I’m Uncoordinated and Know I Will Injure Myself), who decided to walk and “song tao” ourselves as far as we could get. Seeing as I have never rode a motor bike before, and how Thailand is pretty well known for its traffic and accident rates, I felt this was a pretty smart idea. I would love to eventually return to the area especially because there are two smaller islands a ferry ride away that are supposed to be even MORE remote. I want to live out my dream of watching the sunrise on a hammock while drinking out of coconut while there is no one else in sight. Although I how I would get this coconut and hammock if there is no one else around remains a mystery.

sunset at Koh Chang

Exploring Koh Chang via "Song Tao"

Sawatdee Pee Mai to all!

New Years Resolutions

Never before have I made New Years resolutions, but since this is the first time I have come into a new year while in a foreign country, I figured why not? Instead of resolutions though, I’d rather think of them as goals of what I’d like to accomplish during the rest of my time in Thailand. And I can check one one off my list since the first one was to start a blog! I wanted to document my adventures without constantly filling up the inbox of friends and family with my incoherent ramblings. (Your welcome!) Now you can actually CHOOSE if you want to see my thoughts. Some of my goals are very simple while others are broader (and so a little harder to accomplish). Please feel free to hold me accountable to the rest of them. Here they go:

1. Give in and start a blog (Check!). Also I want to actually put some of my pictures on facebook (sigh).

2. Get really good at popular Thai bar games (ie. pool, darts, and the more unusual but no less fun Connect 4) so I can give all the hot Thai women that work at the bars a run for their money.

3. Get better at Thai (ha, I feel like I am obligated to include this even though reality suggests otherwise)

4. Make use of my after school time by either tutoring or starting an after school sports program for girls (idea courtesy of Kathryn Myers). Also get more involved in some tennis programs I discovered in the city.

5. This goes along with more typical American resolutions, but realize that I actually DON’T have to eat every meal with rice and that I DON’T have to accept every Thai treat that a fellow teacher offers me.

6. Learn how to budget my baht. I will put it this way, the pay was not at all the reason I came to Thailand. I would like to learn some new ways to budget my money that would also help me back in the US. If you have any ideas, please let me know!

7. Learn how to travel on my own. This is a big one. I want to be comfortable spending a day by myself and meeting new people. I have learned that traveling with other people, although it can be a lot of fun and is certainty safer (sorry mom and dad), makes you compromise some of your time and plans for the group. Next time I go somewhere I want to figure out what I want to do and spend at least one day doing just that.

8. Get a better handle on my classroom management. This inherently goes back to number 3, I need to learn more Thai vocabulary for the classroom. Also I want to improve my lesson planning by coming up with more interesting and challenging games for my English students so that they actually enjoy the learning process. Math classes are a bit more difficult to make fun, but I do want to try to elicit at least one response from each student every class period.

WOW! I realize these goals are quite lofty but hopefully writing them down will be the first step in the process. I am definitely looking forward to learning more about myself  and enjoying life in Thailand in 2011. I wish everyone a Happy New Years and hope that you and your family are happy, healthy, and safe in 2011!