My Thailand Experience

There were parts of this experience when I thought that my final days would go by with little emotion from me. I thought that the only emotion I would have was going home and seeing my friends and family. I honestly could not have been more wrong. This week has gone by so quickly and now it is Thursday; my final day of teaching and I honestly have a constant sad feeling and lump in my throat. I am going to miss these children so much. I am going to miss this country so much. The last couple of days have just been so so lovely. My last lessons with P6 (which will always be a little bit special to me because they were only my classes) were surprisingly very sad. I played games with all three classes all lesson and they obviously loved it. All the children, once realising I was leaving were really sad and rushed to hug me and ask for my Facebook and Line ( a Thai app a bit like Whatsapp) . I was most shocked by my P6/6 class! After thinking they hated me I came to the end of lessons and was showered by cards and even some flowers. It was very sweet. I will miss them and I do feel bad that each week they will now have one less lesson with a native English speaker because of course we will not be getting replaced. Hopefully I did help them though! Below are some final pictures with them.

Another surprise that I got was when the Philippines teacher Kevin presented me with an envelope. Inside he had drawn a beautiful picture and I honestly was so tocuhed at the time he had spent on the present. It was so nice of him.

Last night (Wednesday) some of the teachers took myself, Becca and the competition winners for ice-cream. WOW. Such good ice cream that I honestly am so glad I did not try before hand! I would be rolling back to England otherwise! It was so nice to spend time outside of school with them! The children asked us not to leave and trying to explain to them that we had to was actually really difficult!

It is crazy that I have only four days left in Thailand and even fewer days left teaching. I keep repeating myself but I do not know where the last nine weeks have gone. The children definitely realise now that we are leaving and I keep getting so many hugs! I keep getting emotional at the oddest times! For example on the walk to school yesterday I nearly cried! I had no idea why! Different teacher keep approaching me telling me that they do not want me to go and that they are sorry to tell me that my flight has been cancelled! One of our mentors told me she was refusing to take us back to Bangkok! It is very sweet that they want us to stay but I know it's going to make it harder to say goodbye!

Last night I participated in the "ALS ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE". Two of the South Africans and Becca had the joy of helping me and it was so funny and definitely a memorable moment. Also don't forget to donate! Yesterday I was given a whole afternoon of P6 lessons as the teacher was given a days holiday. Although I had to do the same lesson 3 times in a row I quite enjoyed the afternoon, The lesson I planned was on the subject my favourite famous person. The answers I received were hilarious. I will tell you that Thai singers have the weirdest names all varying from "Big Ass" to "Banana". A cute piece of work was handed to me from one of the girls. She wrote her favourite famous person was "Teacher Jo". I didn't have the heart to tell her that she may have got a little confused! She was just too happy! Plus it was a very sweet gesture! The only sad part of the day is that because of my extra P6 classes I actually missed my last ever P3 lesson! Will definitely sneak into their class to get a few photos!

The title may seem long and dull but the first part was mentioned many times throughout the weekend! In order to make the last weekend even more emotional than it already was, many of us decided to head to the very first place we travelled to; Koh Samet. I'm not sure who had the idea of doing this but it was brilliant. Becca and I, after a lot of sweet talk and cheeky smiles were able to leave school a little early and even was given a lift to the bus station! This meant that we were able to reach Ban Phae in a record time and reach our destination sooner. A quick tip for anyone that visits Koh Samet.... take a speedboat for no more than 300 baht each. The ferry may seem cheaper but you have to pay a 200 baht national park fee and you only drive through it for literally 30 seconds! The speed boat is so much quicker and you arrive on the beach, how can you expect a better welcome than that! After arriving and meeting our fellow ETA's we decided to grab some food and then head to the 7/11 to buy some drinks so that we could chill on the beach and catch up on the last couple of weeks as unfortunately we hadn't been able to meet up. After a while, unsurprisingly as I am every Friday I was so tired! Due to it being the last weekend I refused to be beaten and quickly drank another drink and then as they say "the rest was history". The next thing I knew Tori and I were sharing a Sangsom bucket (lethal) and we all had a really fun night. Again thank you Tori for the beautiful drunken speech you made!

The next day I actually woke up late! 10am! This may not seem much of an achievement but my body clock is so use to the 7am starts and early nights that I always wake up so early! The sun could have been a little brighter but the day was lovely with a lot of competitive spirit during piggy in the middle in the sea! Saturday night was so strange! Our very first night we went to a UV bar and we visited the same place for our last night! Becca and I were too excited that our names were still there and had not been painted over! Alice and I shared an amazing strawberry daquiri and that for sure made us beat Chris (after a long time) at a game of pool! An absolutely amazing weekend with the best people. It's so strange how the first time I went to Koh Samet these people were strangers who I did not know and now I class them as really good friends that have helped me through the process!

Today is Thursday which means that I have only one day remaining of the week and then not even a full week of school left!!! I keep saying how shocked I am that it has gone quickly but it really has! For some reason I assumed that this week would go rather slowly because I am excited for both Koh Samet and seeing my family and friends! However, this week could actually have been the quickest one (aside from the 3 day week one!) I have been so busy and this week I have had many P6 extra classes as Teacher Wan has gone to Beijing. All the classes have been surprisingly painless and the children have seemed to want to learn more! (This was aside from one class who I had to literally scream at for them to listen to me, I was pretty impressed my voice could be so loud!) My P2 class found out that I was leaving next week and the girls were very upset! It was a small victory when me and one of the other foreign teachers (who is leaving the same time as Becca and I) decided to have a competition to see who was given the best reaction when we announced we were leaving and I won! On a serious note though, like i mentioned in my previous class I will miss them so much. The funniest thing also happened yesterday in my P1 class. One boy Jelle had been talking too much in the previous lesson so the Thai teacher made him wear a bow in his hair for the whole hour of my lesson.

Today the whole school had to have vaccinations. I myself am terrified of needles so therefore ha full sympathy for all the students worried and upset by them. I was shocked at how laid back the whole procedure was, there was no curtain or cubicles for the students to go to and it was literally a line of children getting jabs one by one outside the classroom! Even my P6's were quite cute asking to hold my hand and hug me whilst the injection was given. On a final note a couple of days ago a few of the teachers found that we have a gym literally a two minute walk from the school and my guest house. I was so annoyed I hadn't found it sooner especially as it is only 10 baht (20p) each day! Last night I borrowed some trainers from one of the foreign teachers and three of us went! To my surprise it was very advanced and it was so nice to do some exercise!

Cannot believe today I have been in Thailand for eight whole weeks! I have not been away from home this long before ever! I have one and a half weeks left and I'm determined to make the most of it! I'm excited for our last weekend in Koh Samet and it's nice that we're revisiting the first place we travelled to and where I met all the lovely people that have made my experience even better!

I have only tomorrow, Friday and next week remaining at school. I have grown to absolutely love some of these children and the teachers. It seems like normal routine to wake up, come to school and stand in assembly before lessons take place. I've begun telling my classes that I am leaving and they do genuinely seem upset which makes me sad! I'm going to miss the Thai teachers in my classes and have become very close with them. I have become very close to Yam, my P2 teaching assistant. Every day we make silly jokes with each other and tell each other the Director has asked to see us as we're in trouble (the first time she told me this I was terrified and she thought it was hilarious!) Yesterday her and two of the other teachers summoned Becca and I to one of the classrooms and gave us some presents to say thank you. We have a week and a bit left but they must have wanted to give it to us now. I got a really nice pink necklace and it was sweet she asked my favourite colour! Yam also asked if we could Skype when I go back to England which of course I will try to do! My school has many foreign teachers arriving and departing often and 9 weeks isn't actually a very long time for a teacher to stay so I'm so happy that I have left some impression and made a small difference. I have also become SO close to the other foreign teachers. All of them are now South African but their sense of humour is so funny and I always enjoy spending time with them, whether that is in class or over soup for dinner. We have a lot of fun together and I will miss them and our stories over the differences between Essex and Cape Town/Johannesburg! I hope in the future to have a little reunion in South Africa!

Had a perfect weekend. Myself and two other Trat girls decided to stay in our province because we had the beautiful island of Koh Chang on our doorstep which meant that we didn't have to travel far! I'm so glad we decided to do this because I enjoyed the weekend so much. We had amazing food where one time in the restaurant we were able to hang our feet down towards the sea while eating Greek salad and cheese (not halloumi but I will try to move on from this!) One of the girls was so excited that beneath us she could see a turtle...until we looked and realised it was just a plastic bag! At first we were sceptical about the location of our hotel because it was in between lonely beach and kwai bae which meant calling a taxi if we wanted to go to a 7/11, bar or restaurant but this actually made the stay better. The hotel was literally on the beach and we didn't have to share it with many others! The hotel overlooked the sea and had the best, most beautiful view. We also were able to rent kayaks and paddle to Koh Mang a neaby secluded island. Apart from two other kayakers we were the only people on it at the time we went!

The Saturday had been perfect and to top it off two of us walked along the beach to a massage hut and had an aloe vera massage (I'm ashamed to say it was needed after I got a little burnt) while the sun set. I had never felt so relaxed before!

This weekend a few ETA's and I decided to go to Kanchanaburi after we found that travelling to the islands down South would take too long and cost a lot of money! I'm so glad we did decide to visit this place as it was absolutely beautiful! We travelled to Bangkok on the Friday night and then woke up sooo early (6.30am) in order to get the train to Kanchanaburi. After arriving at the train station we made it with 5 minutes to spare! However it would not be a Thai journey if everything was on time! An hour and a bit later we finally began the journey!! The journey was very scenic and beautiful but I accidentally fell asleep! We arrived at Sam's Guest House (a place I would 100% recommend) and moved out luggage to our rooms. Soon after we decided to rent bicycles and cycle to the River Kwai bridge. I felt pretty uneasy about the cycling situation and soon my lack of balance failed me and I fell off of the bike twisting my hip! Continued (terrified) cycling and the bridge had lovely views.

As it was getting quite late we decided that we would have to miss the hot springs which was out original plan and visit a Buddhist cave. Once again I injured myself at the cave when I was too busy looking at my feet and walked into a hanging boulder, I'm literally the clumsiest person alive. Kanchanaburi at night was lively but not too busy so that meant we could have a relaxed evening which was really nice! The following day we visited Hell Fire Pass. I found the day so moving but so interesting. It linked in with the Bridge over the River Kwai and was all to do with the prisoners of war in World War Two. There were some lovely tributes and I wish I had known it was possible to have left a British flag or some flowers myself.

On our last day before we had to travel home the next day we wanted to see Erawan waterfall. There are 7 tiers we had to climb in order to reach the top and it was one of the hottest days I have had in Thailand! Being the long weekend it was packed full of people and busy which made it harder to climb. It was the most exercise I have done since being here!! Each tier was different and beautiful in its own way, there were fish that nibbled at you in the water so I didn't swim for long (at all really)!

Today is the Queen's birthday in Thailand and therefore this is why I have been given until the Tuesday off as it is a national holiday. The Queen's birthday also represents Thai Mother's Day. Around Thailand there are huge displays dedicated to her. Each school celebrates in a different way whether it is a parade or class lessons assigned to learn about the day. My school are going to celebrate Mother's Day the same time as the school's birthday which unfortunately will be just after I leave! However, in English Club last week we did make English Mothers Day Cards. Here are some pictures of the Queen.

One of my doubts before I came to Thailand was my lack of experience in teaching. How was I going to teach a classroom of students let alone ones that will find it difficult to understand me?! After being told in orientation I was only an assistant and would only be helping with the children's pronunciation it was a shock that on my first day of school I literally was thrown into the deep end when I was asked to teach a lesson as I entered the room. The lesson honestly did not go to well but by the next day I had already improved! So although some may find it difficult to begin with, the rate at which your confidence grows and your teaching improves definitely is reassuring! The support provided by the British Council helped me when planning lessons. I also search for resources on the internet (typing ESL is the easiest way)! It's difficult to predict timings in class because an activity one P6 class completes may take 5 minutes and the other class takes 30 minutes so I always had a backup plan in my head to use! This would usually be a game of some kind! Examples include; - Bingo - Hangman (a favourite with my older P6's) - Matching pairs game -Anagrams - Crosswords -Wordsearches -Lots of songs -Putting "Just Dance" on youtube (SO funny and cute) -Competitions in general between boys and girls! -What's the time Mr Wolf -Simon says (or teacher ___ says)

When I was deciding whether to join the TET programme I read many of the blogs from the previous year. On nearly all of them they mentioned how quickly the second half of the programme went but I just assumed that it was a slight exaggeration! I can honestly say now that I was wrong! Since week four each week has been passing by faster and faster! It's exciting that time going by quickly means that it's sooner that I will see my friends and family but I also am enjoying this experience so much and I feel that I still have so much I want to do! This week has been one of my favourites for teaching. I have become a lot closer with all the other foreign teachers and the Thai teachers and therefore I have felt so much more relaxed assisting and teaching. My P6's have actually become better behaved (who knew that was possible) and we also had a new South African teacher Kaila who is absolutely lovely. Teacher Wan who is the English teacher for all P6's has also given us more lessons alone with P6 over the final weeks because she has seminars to attend and therefore would not be in school. It's so nice to be told in advance for once so that I can plan the lessons! With Mothers Day approaching the school are preparing cards and gifts which is really sweet but I have been told that the parade for Mothers Day is going to be linked with the schools birthday which will be a few days after I leave. I am quite gutted about this but I'm sure I will see pictures. I also decided to help out with Kindergarten again this week where we taught the children the Thailand flag. My heart melts every time I enter the classroom because they are just so cute.

During the evenings Becca and I usually get some food and then relax in our apartment. This week however we have for sure been pampering ourselves! Monday night myself and Neil (One of the South African teachers) decided we wanted to get our hair done. I only wanted to have a small trim and Neil wanted his chemically straightened (the funniest procedure on hair I have ever witnessed). I have never felt more relaxed at a hair dressers. They washed my hair for fifteen minutes with around five different products! It was heavenly. I then had a small trim and then my whole hair was blow-dried straight. I was the happiest girl alive to have soft,clean, straight hair and all for only 190 baht (about one pound eighty!) It may seem like I am overreacting but in Thailand it's a luxury!

Finally we have seen everything we planned!! After a long five hour trip to Bangkok in a rather cramped van we arrived at the bus station. We then had our first experience on the BTS! The train was so clean and surprisingly easy to use even as a ferang. We had a rather chilled evening including mexican food and a chang or two in order to be ready early the next day. If you are ever planning on using the BTS often in one day I would definitely buy a day pass as it worked out so much cheaper for us. We visited Chatuchok weekend market which was absolutely huge! We definitely didn't even cover a quarter of the grounds but I was in shopping heaven. Everything that could be bought was sold here! I really was quite angry with one of the ladies because she kept around 6 or 7 puppies in a tiny cage. Although i shouted at her she really did not care and I had to remind myself that this is the Thai culture and they do not have the same values here. Below however is the cutest puppy on a different stall that had a lot more room!

After, Becca and I couldn't hold in our excitement while travelling to Siam Paragon shopping centre (there was a H&M) and spent a few hours browing and spending a lot of money! (we didnt bring enough clothes for the weekends!) We met Brad (The American teacher) afterwards and headed to Wat Arun which is something I have wanted to do since I came here. We travelled by BTS and River taxi which was a nice experience. It was absolutely beautiful and covered in patterned china plates. You were able to climb up it which was so difficult because it was so steep! However such an accomplishment when you reach the top! I would have loved to see it during the night time because it lights up and looks really pretty but maybe in the future I will be able to do this.

We headed out for food in the evening and then to Ko San Road for a few drinks and it was a very enjoyable evening. As if we hadn't participated in enough retail therapy Becca and I decided to head to MBK on the Sunday morning to have a look around and again spend more money (oops). We then met Brad and headed to Wat Pho which is the temple that has the reclining Buddha. The Buddha is huge and nothing like what you assume it would be. I was told that it was large but it exceeded my expectations.

This week has absolutely flown by! Each day I have been so busy with different things to do each day/night. My P6 class on a Wednesday were once again so frustrating. The only time I have to assert any serious discipline is in this one class. They literally turn their backs to me and just chat and ignore anything I am saying to them! When I tell them off, they pretend to not understand anything I am saying so that they can continue being naughty! It can be so challenging but the few students who are capable and willing to learn make it worthwhile. It's tempting to take those students out alone because the P6 classes I do are in my free periods and something I choose to do without it being included in my pay. Becca and I are fortunate to have other ETAs so nearby. So this week we have met with them twice. One day at their Thai families house to make brownies and another on pay day to have a nice meal and some drinks! It's so nice to hear about the different experiences. I would say that our school is slightly more Western than their school with more technology and of course more English speaking teachers but both are challenging and rewarding in their own ways.

Brownies

Today was Thai Day at Anubantrat. It was all about how the Thai language begun. Walking into school we soon were to find that all our morning lessons were cancelled and there would be an assembly for P1-3 in the morning and P4-6 in the afternoon. With my main class being P2 it was my turn to watch in the morning. The assembly included a lot of Thai dancing and well as short acting scenes and some singing. Unfortunately for me everything was in Thai so it was difficult to understand! I wish I had had a translator to understand more! The outfits and makeup were stunning though so it was still worth watching and a few of my P2's were performing so I felt really proud! What I did find strange was that once we reached about the halfway point slowly many of the teachers left! I don't think this would happen in England but no one seemed to comment! The children seemed a bit agitated at times but overall were quite well behaved! Afterwards there were stalls in the outdoor space with many displays and opportunities to buy traditional Thai fruit and sweets. Plus there were many chances to take lots of photos which I of course loved!