First Day of Classes

Tonight was the first night of official English classes for the term (4 weeks.) We didn't do any teaching today but simply observed the staff. WOW it was seriously awesome watching how excited the Thai students get to learn English. There were about 6 in our class (small but will increase tomorrow supposedly) and they were just having the best time learning words and phrases like "How are you?" "Where are you from?" "Good morning", etc. We have to do a lot of drilling which is where they have to repeat the word or phrase over and over again and while they were repeating it this one woman was so excited she was literally out of her seat and kept screaming the phrase after everyone had been asked to stop. I thought it'd be weird teaching young adults but I think it's more rewarding just because they are at these classes to really learn the language to possibly get them better jobs or be able to talk with tourists. Ok yeah make fun of me, I got a little teary eyed watching them learn or attempt to learn English--just because it really hit me that I'm in this random ass town/village/i'd call it a shanti town/Thailand and making a huge impact on these peoples lives by teaching them a gateway language that can lead to so many different positive things. Really makes everything worth while! (Including the living situation...!)

Tomorrow is my first day of teaching! For the next four weeks (training period) I am in a group with three others and we trade off teaching. Tomorrow I only teach for 20 minutes, then the next day 45 minutes then finally next week I teach for the whole class period--90 minutes. I'm a little nervous but after seeing the students tonight I really can't wait. I'm in charge of teaching them every day objects like apple, house, phone, motorbike (that's ALL they drive here), ant, elephant (highly revered here), etc. So hopefully that won't go over so bad!

We had our first Thai lesson today and holy shiza, the Thai language is a very hard language. Tiger, Shirt, and Mat are all spelled Ma but they all have a different tone so you could be saying watch out for that tiger but accidentally say shirt. Also, the number eight is quite possibly the HARDEST word to say. It's spelled bpat or something but pronounced like BAAAH (like a damn sheep!) Our teaching was crying he was laughing so hard when we tried to say that word. But it's pretty cool we have free Thai lessons and I'm gonna try and use the words as much as I can even though my accent is not so bueno.

I was on cooking duty this morning along with 3 others so I was up at 7 making breakfast for 20 people. Luckily I like cooking so they put me in charge of the scrambled eggs and I must say, they were a hit. For lunch we made curry pork burgers and veggie burgers. I was in charge of the veggie burgers (even though I could eat pork on the reggggg all day every day ha) so I had to mash potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, and snow peas together with some eggs and fry them up. Actually turned out pretty shweeeeeeeet! Next week starts our Thai cooking classes by a pro so I'll definitely have to make some dinner for all you when I get home!

Also next week is the kayaking trip through these mangroves and caves--can't wait for that! Thats on saturday and on sunday a few of us are gonna venture out to Ao Nang for some beach action. Google image that shit. Unreal. Also, they have a McDonalds and a Starbucks so that's a major incentive to head out there, obviously.

Other than that nothing new here. Oh I fixed my bed that was literally a half pipe. Henry, it was probably 10 times worse than your LA bed, seriously no joke. Had to play musical chairs with the mattresses that are left and was able to get a decent mattress on my bed buuuut if anyone is SENDING OUT A CARE PACKAGE try and finagle a way to send a mattress k? Don't worry about the cost of shipping, just send it! haha seriously it's sorta pathetic, I'm so tired at the end of every day (waking up around 630am) that I head to bed by 11. But definitely not when the weekend comes, can't wait to check out the night life around here! Alright that's it for now. Will write more after I teach my first class!!!!!!!! Goodnight everyone!

PS trying to post pictures takes forever so I'll try and do it sometime where I have enough time!