shake it like a polaroid picture

yes, these are little bunnies wearing outfits. this is at jj mart, a ginormous flea market where they sell everything from bunnies to jewelry to living room furniture to cute bags.

see a wee bit more pics, including pattaya...http://www.flickr.com/photos/55907373@N00/

Life does exist outside Bangkok!

FLEEING THE CITY

i have been pondering, do people live outside of the bustling city of bangkok? is there really more to thailand?

i discovered on monday there is! yeah, it's pretty amazing. i had the day off and of course i wanted to travel somewhere. especially since next week i start my thai language course! im so excited because elite, the place where im working, want the new teachers to go so we can adjust better to thailand. i cant wait cuz maybe after the course i will know when thai people are talking about me, so i can say something smart to them! oh, and it will also be nice, so i can show them how i want to learn their language too..

but i will be taking the course mon-fri in the morning before work, which means i dont really have any days off completely for a month. so if i wanted to see something...i had to do it now!

of course it is hard to find people to travel on mondays and tuesdays since most people are working. but my friend mariha, who is from england, said she would love to go somewhere with me! she arrived in bangkok a week ago to try to find a teaching job. then we met randomly at my friend's hostel. she just got a job, and hadnt started yet, so i got a travel buddy for the day!

i wanted to go to the beach so badly just to chill out. so we took the bus to pattaya, the closest beach...it was suppose to be a two hour journey, but it turned into four hours since the man with a lazy eye who worked for the driver kept leaping off the bus every 5 km to get more people to come on or he would buy food or chat with someone. it reminded me of kenya bus transport, at least there werent any chickens on it.

but we left early, so we still had time to relax on the beach. but first we got mangos with sticky rice and coconut milk!! it is a famous thai dessert, but i hadnt really seen it at many places yet. but they had perfect yellow mangos everywhere on the streets. so we stopped and had some for lunch..instead of dessert, but when you are on holiday anything goes. it was such a great combination-- the sticky, slightly salty rice with the sweet, soft, juicy mango and the smooth coconut milk to top it off. wow, i was in heaven for a little while.

then we chilled out on the beach for like five hours. so pattaya is more on the myrtle beach type of town since it is rather touristy and the tourists like to leave their trash behind on the shore. but i didnt mind, it was a beach and it was warm and i had a book. it was perfect, just what i needed. the only annoying thing was as we sat in our rented beach chairs, vendors would wander up to us trying to sell ice cream, perfume, fake coach bags, and fried spring rolls. i would look at my book and try to ignore them, but they were like flies that buzz around and even when you flick them away they just keep coming back.

ahhh...then we reached the point where we thought our arms were about to burn off, so it was time to go home. it only took two hours to go home. wow, but im so burnt. i couldnt sleep last night because i felt like my body was on fire. ahh...and i even wore sunblock. but it wasnt a bad price to pay for my first venture outside the city of life.

WORKING GIRL

so i completed my first week of a full-time job...and i enjoyed it! no way!

wed-fri i worked 11-7, which is perfect for a morning person like me..i can just make the most of my time. so nice..

since my first week was mainly observing, wed-fri i piddled around the office, asking my director if she needed any help. i did random stuff like define 190 words for one of the books i will be teaching at a book club. but even stuff like that i enjoy cuz i love words.

so i guess i should give the basics of what i will be up to. wed-fri is when we prep for the weekend when we teach. on saturday im going to be teaching a book club in the afternoon for three hours to 9-10th graders. the book club is suppose to help prepare them for the SAT without them knowing it sort of thing because its fun.

i thought i was going to teach two book club classes on two different books, so i read both of them intensely this past week. then my director walks in today, sits down to tell me that one thing she has learned while living in bangkok is how to be flexible..so im not going to actually teach those two classes, but teach another one and teach on a different book.

i was down with that because this morning i had attained a state of "oh my goodness..how am i going to prepare to teach two different three hour classes on the same day?! ahhhh!" so after she told me the change in plans, i felt more peace. yet, it was too bad i read those other books and im not doing them. i really liked one of them. "the unwanted" by kien nguyen. it's quite a graphic memoir of the life of a vietnamese american boy and his escape from vietnam after the war. so good, it really makes you appreciate freedom.

now i get to read and do a book club on "lives of a cell", which is just about as exciting as the title sounds. but it's ok, it might appeal to some of the kids, and that is all that matters. i can make it fun! at least that is what i tell myself..

then on THIS sunday i get to teach two one and a half hour classes on SAT writing. i love writing, but explaining all the grammar rules and such is going to be tough. especially to these crazy smart kids. when i was observing this one class this one girl just kept asking why why why...and i was like, wow, im glad im not up there trying to answer. but then i remembered i will be there this week. wow, at least when im weak, God is strong. =)

ok, im tired and not really going to read over the blog before i post it so please excuse the grammar mistakes and if my thoughts dont connect well. im going running tomorrow with a girl i work with at the park with the weird lizard so i have to get my rest in case i have to defend myself. thanks for reading..it makes me happy!

i will post pics soon...

im CELTAFIED

DIVINE VACUUM CLEANERS

so i taught my last observed class on tuesday. i was worried about it because i wanted to end on a good note. i wanted to feel like i came into the course knowing nothing about teaching at all, and now feel like i had learned a thing or two.

amazingly, my lesson went better than i thought it would, there were only a few mess ups…the reading i chose for the students was about buddhists monks in malaysia and how they couldn’t kill fire ants that were harming them during meditation because monks cant harm a living creature.

i wanted them to read the article to find out the method the monks used to try to get rid of the ants. it was with a vacuum cleaner. yet, i didn’t realize that in thailand, not many people use vacuum cleaners, since everyone usually uses brooms. so the students didn’t understand the question since I didn’t pre-teach vacuum cleaner…the things you learn when teaching in this land..

then one of my true/false questions was, if someone did kill the ants the monks would say it was the will of God. it was false, because the monks said it was the will of the universe, not God. yet, every student had it as true. this is because for most of them, since they are Buddhist, the universe and God are the same thing. yet, to me, they are totally different concepts. the students looked at me like i was a freak, when i tried to explain that it was false...go sherri, way to confuse innocent students yet again.

but it turns out, even though i had some lacking-in-awareness-of-the-culture-of-your-students-problems, i still got an above standard for my last lesson!! i was so excited and so relieved! i learned something!

WORTH IT?!

so all in all the course definitely was a GOOD thing, and i learned soooooo much through the intense, crazy four weeks. many of my classmates have been teachers for awhile, so the class radically changed a lot of the ways they look at teaching and helped them get rid of bad habits. yet, i now have this foundation of new methods of teaching, and not too many bad habits to get rid of yet...so it was even a plus, in some ways, to not have much experience. now i feel more confident to teach here in bangkok, and now i can go anywhere in the world and use my CELTA to teach...im glad i held out and struggled through. but soooooo glad it's over!!

i really loved my students!! our last day was sweet. we played review games, then we had pizza hut and dunkin donut holes. we had a huge picture taking fest, and the delightful pics can be found here...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55907373@N00/

im going to miss my students, but we all have emails. and it's sweet cuz i have already hung out with some of the students because yesterday they wanted to go to church with us. i learn so much from them, i feel so blessed!

HIGH LIGHT

after i finished my course i decided it was necessary to do something celebratory...which has included watching harry potter 5 at an i-max, getting good coffee, eating at an amazing salad buffet, pizza, and getting ice cream shakes.

but then yesterday i finished off my celebrations-of-surviving-celta-sessions by getting my hair cut and highlighted!

ahh! i was a lil freaked out, cuz i didnt know which hairdresser would know how to cut non-asian people's hair, and if they would speak English well enough to know what i wanted. but two of my classmates got their haircut at a place, and thought they did a good job. so i got a 50% off card from one of them, was given a name of who to ask for, and went for it!

i just walked in, said changa, and then he came right over to help me out. i told him i wanted layers but my hair to not be much shorter, and highlights. he comprehended what i was saying...at least i hoped by his clear english response that he did. then he directed me over to a row of computers sitting behind swivel chairs. he told me to sit while they highlighted my hair. so i got to email for an hour or so while my he and another worker spoke in thai the whole time while putting tinfoil all over my head. i wondered the whole time what they must have been saying about this weirdo american girl...

then for the next hour he cut my hair and kept up his convo with his other worker. he is definitely an artist, and even told me he sees cutting hair as art. which i think is what a good hairdresser should believe. anyways, i came out with an asian look to my golden brown locks. he straightened it, and i put that pic online, but i dont think its going to look straight again for a year because i didnt bring a straightner with me. i like curly better i have decided..anyways, im still trying to get used to the layers, but i think im going to like it.

my doorman was the first person to notice! he said, "oh, your hair is different color! i like!" this was after he said, "hello teacher"...

=)

so this week, on wednesday, i get to start my job! im excited! i hope that i can catch on to teaching at elite and how to get my head around the SAT and how to explain it to these super smart kids..im excited for the next adventure!

by the way..thanks for all your words of encouragement while i was doing the course! it really pulled me through. i love you all so.

oh another day in the life of sherri...

SPILLAGE

so all i wanted to do was to break my 1000 baht bill. it is hard to get change for large bills at street vendors, so i was like, this is the perfect opporotunity for me to go to an american place, au bon pain, and get my favorite breakfast treat--muesli and yogurt.

i order it, and sit down with my delight and smile. ahh... i try to mix the layers of pink strawberry yogurt in with the layers of museli, so i can get the full effect in every bite. but then i suppose i got a little too excited because my spoon went in the air, and about one-fourth of the strawberry goo-ness flies out of the container to land on my black skirt.

i quickly glanced around to see if anyone noticed, thankfully all the thai businessmen were still focused on their newspapers and coffee. i used the two measley napkins i was given to try to wipe it up, then i tried to use my spoon, to scoop it off. yet i was still left with a prominent stain on the front of my lovely skirt.

so i went up to the counter and asked the server for a napkin. she pointed me over to the side counter. i looked and all i saw was a water pitcher. i got some water, to help the whole removing stain process--but still had no napkin. i asked her again, napkin? thinking maybe i didnt see the napkins. she nodded not understanding, and got the other lady. and i told her, napkin? she said, napkin!!

yes! i felt so excited that someone understood. she then took my cup of water out of my hand, put some ice in it, and handed it to me, smiling merrily. alas, napkin and ice must sound the same in thai or something. at least i helped her feel pleased with herself for thinking she understood me. i just had to sit down and laugh for a lil while after that...

then i got to ECC and was working away in the teacher room. as i reached over to get my page from the printer, i knocked over a water bottle, and it spilled on the floor. ahhhh! no way! and of course there are no readily available paper towels to clean it up.

so then i had to go and find one of the sweet thai office girls to tell her i spilled water. then she and i went to find the sweet thai cook lady, who wouldn't allow me to take the rag and clean it up, but went all the way to the room, and got down and cleaned up my mess.

wow, one of my classmates, after telling him my mornings happenings said my life sounds like a john cleese movie. hahaha..dont you wish you lived my life?? no, he said, not really.

nothing new

YOU TEACH?

yeah, so the other morning i was walking out my apartment building, and as usual the friendly thai doorman was trying to make conversation with me. he said, "where are you going? to school?" i said, "yeah, im a teacher." he stared at me for a second, then he burst out laughing!!

i was miffed and frowned at him (probably with my hand on my hip) and said, "why is that so funny??" he said, "you're a teacher! you are so young! you should be a student!" thanks a lot buddy.

then the other day when i came home he opened the door and said, "hello teacher!" with a slight giggle.

i will show him!

ONE MORE WEEK!

one of my classmates, a fun irish man, was describing how CELTA had taken over his life this month, but...he said, "there are three things CELTA cant deny me, food, sleep and alcohol."

ha! well, CELTA has taken over my life too, to the extent that it has denied me anything worthy to blog about.

CHECK MY BLOG FRIDAY

i will let you know if i survived.

until then--pray...

Far far away

WISH I WAS THERE

so i think when you travel to other countries something happens to time. it warps in such odd ways. i know i have only been here three weeks, but all that i have experienced in the last three weeks is enough to fill a few lifetimes it seems. well maybe not that much, maybe only one and a half, but you know what i mean.

a little over a week ago my dad emailed me to tell me my aunt beth was in a major car accident. my aunt beth is an amazing woman..she is the care-giver for my grandmother and my aunt rachel, she also has a full-time job. i have always been in awe of her faith in God, and how she is constantly serving and helping others. i have always wanted to be like her in that way.

so it turns out she drifted into the other lane when she was driving to work, and her car was hit. and then her car was hit again. she was stuck in it for 40 minutes. then she almost died as she was airlifted to the hospital.

she is still in a coma right now, and the doctors arent sure why. if i was there i would be at my grandmother's helping her and my aunt as much as i could, but obviously i cant be there. i dont like to think about it much because i feel so helpless and like i cant do anything. but i know im suppose to be here for some reason, even though im not sure why...so if you pray, please pray for my aunt and family. they need it, more than they need me to be there to help..

GO CELTA GO!

on a lighter note..

so my classmates have decided that i must have been a cheerleader in a former life. whenever i teach enthusiasm gushes out of me. the first week i would jump up and down and do a sort of dance whenever i would drill the student on different words, i didnt really notice this. then i would also swing my arms around to make them shout the words louder. one day we were doing a game, and it was one team against the other. i kept yelling, go team A!! whenever my team got a point. i guess most people dont get that into such things. heehee..now my classmates tease me all the time about my "like-you-can-do-it" spirit.

one of the things my tutor told me i needed to work on, which must come from my former cheerleading life i never knew existed, is grading my praise. he says it is lovely how im always praising the students. but apparently i tell the students GREAT JOB!! WOW!! at everything they do. the example he gave is once i was showing the students a picture of a car, and asked them what it was. they said, car. i was like YEAH!!! YOU GOT IT! WOW!

but these students are pretty smart, it isnt that hard for them to point out what a car is. so apparently if they had told me that the sentence i wrote on the board was in past perfect progressive, that would be the perfect time for such an elicitation of excitment. so i have tried to work on that..its hard though! i like to be excited about everything i suppose.

on monday i did a lesson, which i didnt think went that great. i was like, oh well, hopefully i will get to standard. you can either get not to standard, standard (which is what everyone usually gets) or above standard. it turns out my tutor thought my lesson was good! no way! i got an above standard on it! mainly cuz i just used all the ideas he told me to do. so that made me oh so glad...it also resulted in my other classmates high-fiving me, and then one of them even bought me my new favorite delight. an irish creme blizzard with kit kat from dairy queen! they are quite amazing, and just the right size. the large ones here are the size of the small ones in america. ahhh...it was an amazing day.

but then my other two lessons were at standard. but they both went better than i thought they would..i just hope i survive these next two weeks. im learning so much though! that is what i keep telling myself...


MOTHERS DAY PIGGY

my friend ja invited me to have dinner with her family on mother's day! which was the day after the queen's birthday this past sunday. we went to this amazing chinese restaurant. i had never been to such a place. they had this lazy susan sort of thing in the center and kept bringing plates and plates and plates of food. one plate consisted of a pig which still looked exactly like a pig. they were bringing it to the table and i was like, what is that? and then when they placed it down they were like, pig..and as they placed it on the table, i saw the lil snout, eyes and ears, and was like, yup, it sure is. so we picked off the pig skin and dipped it in some sauce. i actually didnt mind it! you can look at the pics of the friendly pig feast here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55907373@N00/

MOTO BIKE BABE

this weekend i got to tour the new place where i will be working--elite prep. my director called to give me directions, and said i had to take the sky train, then the motorbike taxi. i was like what? no way! i have seen these motorbikes zipping around pedestrians, whizzing in and out of stopped traffic and squeezing between huge buses, and i would get to ride on one! i was excited, cuz it seemed so life-threatening.

once i got the right station, i found a man sitting on a motorbike wearing an orange vest and assumed that he might be a taxi man. i told him asoke tower, he nodded and i got on. i didnt know what to hold on to so i just touched his back the whole time. it was such a rush, i felt like i was in the chase scene of some action movie. then when i got to my stop he was smiling so big at me, i gave him some baht and smiled back, wondering why he seemed so pleased.

i told someone about my adventure, and it turns out you arent really suppose to hold on to the motor man, but the handle behind the seat...oopps! so i guess he thought i enjoyed the ride a lot..haha!

anyways! i love the people i met at my new work. they are all very welcoming. i will be working with thais and americans, most of them are in their 20's. then today i went to observe a class i will eventually be teaching-- SAT writing-- and wow, it is intense! the material is so in-depth, and there is so much to cover in an 1 hour and 30 minute class. the kids are super smart though, and seem to catch on quick. they ask hard questions, like about grammar rules and such.. so i will prepare my best, but i think i might be employing the, "im not sure of the answer, but i will get back to you" line a bunch. oh well! im eager to see what it will be like...

HELLO GOODBYE

my new roomie from germany was here. for a week, with her boyfriend from australia. he was searching for a place to stay while he is here until decemeber, and didnt find one until yesterday. so he was staying at our place the past few nights. yeah, interesting times! but my roomie is super sweet. she is 26 and just finished an internship in bangkok, and will now be studying at the university.

but last night i came home to an empty room and a note that said she moved to her boyfriend's place and will stay here sometimes but not often. but she will still pay for her part of the rent. ok with me! i have my own room now. how fun...

so i have to teach two lessons this week, one of them will be 55 minutes, and then one more next week. i also have two assignments due, and i will go to my new work twice this week to get trained. ahhh! i need some strength.. step by step. =)

1/4 of the way through! woo!

DROPPING LIKE FLIES

it turns out the CELTA course really is a reality show. im not sure what station it's on, they are rather secretive about it.

one day we wander into class, and one of the 12 isn't there. he was a newbie like me, he had never taught before. we all ponder what could have happened, my tutor says he hopes he isnt lying under a car somewhere. this was said in his british accent, so it sounded even more dreadful. or could it be...the pressure was too intense? could he not handle it?

the day goes on..he was incessantly emailed..and called, still no reply. we all imagine him under the car, or someone else thinks he could have fallen in a man hole. hmm...

but then after much anticipation, and a day later, he responds. the course was too much for him, he just couldnt handle it. wow, who will be next...

then two days later one of the 11 comes in the morning, and then leaves early because he was ""sick". is he really? he left his locker key on his shelf, insinuating he won't be coming back. wow...will i be next? ahhhhhh

OH DEAR ME

ok, so i went to UNC, so i should be able to handle any intense hardcore schoolage after that pressure-filled land right? right..

that is what i keep trying to remind myself in my daily you-can-do-it-sherri pep talks. as well as this course is only four weeks of my life and there is another world that exists outside of CELTA, and i will somehow find that world again when august ends. at least i hope so.

i have taught three days so far, and each time i leave feeling like i ruined these innocent people. they seem so happy and merry when i teach them, some even say, you good teacher. yet, they dont know the truth. they dont hear what my tutor says after they walk out the door, and how they will forever never know the english language properly because of me. it's not the greatest feeling ever.

well, it's not really that bad of course. my tutor is quite encouraging, regardless of the fact that i did call him fat and old. plus, his criticism is needed to make us better teachers. (yeah yeah..) but we all get praise and then dished out, it isnt just me thankfully. and it could be so much worse.

so after this week of feeling like i didnt do that great, my tutor says, oh, and dont forget i was easy on you all this week. most of the lessons that passed this week would likely not pass if you had done them on week two. but dont worry, you will do great. yeah, thanks..

but it has been really fun to get to know the other people. we are all struggling together and hang out all the time. it is nice to have people to support you and let you know it's going to be ok. i just hope more people dont drop out.

CULTS MAKE YOU PRETTY

one of our assignments was we had to interview one of our students and assess them to learn about their English language background and how it affects them now, and then find out activities to help them.

so i chose to do this sweet Chinese lady. she doesnt speak English very well at all. it took me forever to get anything out of her. i forever was trying to get her to answer the question, why do you want to learn English. finally after twisting and turning it into another form she smiled so big and was so eager to tell me. "world people dont know falun gong, i must tell them. 80 nationalities know. i must tell them."

i had no idea what his falun gong thing was so i asked her to tell me about it, plus it would help me to see what her other speaking problems might be. she goes on to tell me, "falun gong will make you beautiful." i said, "oh so i need that to make me beautiful?" "Yes."

so it turns out, after asking my classmates, that falun gong is a cult in China. the woman in our class escaped from China because she was a member, but wasnt allowed to practice it. so now she is here, trying her best to learn English so she can get some world people to join. the next day she brought fliers for us all, and little paper roses with falun gong bookmarks tailing off the end of it.

but talk about blow to the self esteem, i have to join a cult to become beautiful. thats just great.

THAILAND WANTS TO KNOW IF IM ALIVE

so i had to get my medical permit for my work visa today. i was all concerned cuz i didnt know how to find the hospital, and yeah, lets not discuss again sherri's sense of direction problem. so i was standing on the street near the hospital with my map, looking quite helpless i assume, and a sweet british man comes over and says are you lost? he helped me find my way, and i didnt get lost. i was proud.

i was a little nervous about what the thais would do to me at the hospital. i mean, i dont speak thai, so they could really just take me and do what they want since i wouldnt understand. but once i told the nurse, "medical permit for work visa," i was directed past the hello kitty merchandise booth (in a hospital? only in asia..) to a physical exam room. the nurses were wearing all pastels--blue pants, purple coats, and pink and green shirts--i decided they looked like Easter bunnies. they weighed me, i waited. they took my blood pressure. i waited. they took me into the room with the doctor. she took my blood pressure again, and checked my heart beat. then she signed a paper, i paid 140 baht, which is like 5 dollars and was done. so i guess as long as you know someone has blood going through their veins and a heart beat, they can work in thailand. good to know.

ROOMIES?!

finally one of my roomies has arrived. i came home tonight and the power was already on. its weird, in thailand they are all about saving power, so you have to drop your keycard in this slot on the wall everytime you come in to turn on the power. it is really cool, cuz you are saving so much energy and also you never forget where your key is. those brillant thais.

so the key was already in when i got back. then i peeked in the other room and saw bags on the floor and a body under the covers sleeping.

wow, she just wandered out! she is from portland, oregon. so far she seems outgoing with a strong, open personality. i think she will be fun to live with. the other girls, one from germany and one from canada should be arriving tomorrow. im excited to meet them..i just hope we all get along and it is drama free ya know.

ok, so tomorrow i have to work on my assignment about my chinese cult friend, and finish my lesson plan for monday. so i suppose i should sleep now. sorry this entry isnt terribly exciting. CELTA has drained me of any creative-ness. thanks for reading, it makes me happy to know peeps care.. =)