I left Richland in the afternoon on March 21t, as my friend Neil was kind enough to give me a ride to Seattle to a) help me pass the time before my flight, and b) take me to the airport at 11:30 that night. We had dinner at Jolly Rogers with our friends Nick and April, and my coworker Shawna and her friend Lily were able to join us as well. I stocked up on French fries and microbrew during the meal, as I knew these would be hard to find in the random side streets of Bangkok.
At 11:30PM I was saying goodbye to my friends and embarking on my series of long flights toward Bangkok. Check-in for my first flight through EVA Airways proved simple enough, and the flight took off at 2:00AM. A couple Dramamine paired with a long day helped me konk out quickly, and I was able to recline my seat and fall asleep before the flight ever took off. Not sure how much of the 13-hr flight I was asleep for, but I do know it seemed to go by quickly. When I awoke, I watched Black Swan on the small TV screen in front of me (decently disturbing), and was treated to a breakfast of scrambled egg-whites and sausage with tater-tots (a “special” meal given as I checked the “low-calorie” box on the Meal Requests when reserving my flight – nice.), yogurt, coffee, and tea. Before I knew it, we were landing in Taiwan. While deplaning, I ran into an American couple that were also heading back “home” to Bangkok. They helped me find the proper gate to transfer to and spent the 2+ hour-long layover sharing their tips and suggestions on places to go, things to see, etc. I was able to chit-chat with them all the way through to the Immigration line at the BKK airport.
The second flight was less eventful. I still received a meal (Thank you EVA Airways!) of fish and rice with some kind of indistinguishable “jelly” for dessert that I didn’t quite touch. More coffee to keep me going, and within a few hours we were landing in Bangkok. Immigrations was the longest line yet, about a 45 minute wait, but once I was through that Customs was a breeze and I was able to find my Foreign Staff Director, Mr. Al with ease.
As he led me out to the “company” car, I could already feel the sweat build up underneath the far too many layers I had on. Already the heat made it hard to breathe! Something I will need to acclimate to, of course.
Mr. Al drove us the 40-minute drive from the airport to my apartment complex, located just 15 minutes or so from the heart of the city. He pointed out the large mall and shopping areas, of course, but as we drove closer and closer to the apartment, things looked more and more “third world.”
At 11:30PM I was saying goodbye to my friends and embarking on my series of long flights toward Bangkok. Check-in for my first flight through EVA Airways proved simple enough, and the flight took off at 2:00AM. A couple Dramamine paired with a long day helped me konk out quickly, and I was able to recline my seat and fall asleep before the flight ever took off. Not sure how much of the 13-hr flight I was asleep for, but I do know it seemed to go by quickly. When I awoke, I watched Black Swan on the small TV screen in front of me (decently disturbing), and was treated to a breakfast of scrambled egg-whites and sausage with tater-tots (a “special” meal given as I checked the “low-calorie” box on the Meal Requests when reserving my flight – nice.), yogurt, coffee, and tea. Before I knew it, we were landing in Taiwan. While deplaning, I ran into an American couple that were also heading back “home” to Bangkok. They helped me find the proper gate to transfer to and spent the 2+ hour-long layover sharing their tips and suggestions on places to go, things to see, etc. I was able to chit-chat with them all the way through to the Immigration line at the BKK airport.
The second flight was less eventful. I still received a meal (Thank you EVA Airways!) of fish and rice with some kind of indistinguishable “jelly” for dessert that I didn’t quite touch. More coffee to keep me going, and within a few hours we were landing in Bangkok. Immigrations was the longest line yet, about a 45 minute wait, but once I was through that Customs was a breeze and I was able to find my Foreign Staff Director, Mr. Al with ease.
As he led me out to the “company” car, I could already feel the sweat build up underneath the far too many layers I had on. Already the heat made it hard to breathe! Something I will need to acclimate to, of course.
Mr. Al drove us the 40-minute drive from the airport to my apartment complex, located just 15 minutes or so from the heart of the city. He pointed out the large mall and shopping areas, of course, but as we drove closer and closer to the apartment, things looked more and more “third world.”
My Accommodations
The apartment complex I live in is called LumpiniVille Mary-Sathorn. The area I live in is technically a pretty nice area by city standards. The thanon, or road, I live off of is a main street called Chan. Coming off of Chan are many soi, or sidestreets that are numerically numbered. The road I live off of is Chan and my apartment is on sidestreet #27. Thus, my address is Soi 27, Tanon Chan. Ooh lala!
The apartment building itself is quite new and very nice! The rooms have hardwood floor and TONS of compartmentalized storage space and shelves. There is a small gym with a couple treadmills, a bike, an elliptical machine, weights, etc., as well as a 15m outdoor pool that I have to test out.
The kitchen and bathroom are both very westernized, and I’m fortunate to have a good-sized refrigerator and freezer. The A/C in my unit also works VERY well, though I don’t turn it on very often as I’m responsible for the electricity bill and I figure as long as I’m not sweating out my eyeballs, I can stand some heat in the name of frugality.
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| The Bedroom/Living room |
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| My first "grocery" run in Bangkok |
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| Looking into the kitchen from the balcony |
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| The view from my Balcony |
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| Drying out some things on my balcony after a run |
My Neighborhood
It can be easy to feel like I’m in any western nation in the world when hanging out in my apartment… aside fro the Thai-covered groceries; everything feels a lot like home. But that façade easily falls away when I walk down my Soi. Street vendors selling everything from fresh fruits (it’s currently mango season), whole chickens, raw meats and fishes, bags of homemade soups, to shoes and other clothing, instant coffee, miscellaneous toys and candies, to clothing and other items made especially for monks, can all be found along my street.
On my 15-minute walk from my apartment to the school, I pass a massage parlor, two (delicious) bakeries, a wedding-dress shop, a Soy Sauce factory (seriously), at least three barber shops/salons, two Buddhist temples, several mutt-style dogs and a few feral, roaming cats, dozens of barefoot children, a tattoo parlor, a couple espresso stands, two 7/11’s, and the occasional homeless man, taking a moment to “fertilize” the sidewalk in his own special way. Pretty fantastic.
The strange and eclectic mix of third-world oddities and westernized ways of life makes for a neighborhood that is, at least, anything from boring.
The strange and eclectic mix of third-world oddities and westernized ways of life makes for a neighborhood that is, at least, anything from boring.
My Job
I work for a chain of schools called Sarasas Ektra. They are well-known throughout Asia and have several campuses within Bangkok alone. I work at the primary school in town and teach Grade 2 for the summer “Breakthrough” session. Come May, I’ll be teaching Grade 1 for the remainder of the year. The company has been very good to me so far, setting up my apartment with the little necessities to make sure it’s comfortable for me and making sure to be prompt on paperwork and payment issues.
In other ways, however, the school is far from organized. For example, they expect you to have flash cards to teach the children vocabulary, but if you ask for resources or the office supplies to make these cards, the staff will kind of just smile at you and say “not have now, later, later.” Such is the answer with pretty much any superficial glitch you run into, but I understand this as the way of the Asian culture. While in America, the school would either be expected to either provide the necessary resources for you or tell you straight-up that “you have to get those things on your own,” many questions and concerns go a bit unanswered in the non-confrontational Asian-influenced culture of the campus. But learning when a smile and nod combination means “no way, go out and buy it yourself” isn’t that hard to do and a sense of humor makes it not hard to deal with.
For the summer session, my teaching load is pretty downright easy. I only teach about 15 hours during the week, though the rest of my day is spent on campus helping out the staff and working on my lesson plans. We are given booklets to pass out to the children that provide a rough outline of what they want the students to learn (vocabulary, reading comprehension, small science experiments, simple math, and English phrases concerning time, travel, occupation, etc.) and how many weeks they should spend on each subject. The rest, as far as lesson plans and activities, is under our discretion as teachers.
I’ve had fun on my downtime creating flashcards and vocabulary games, drawing out cartoon examples and coming up with fun outdoor activities and Scavenger Hunts for the kids to do during class. My students are young enough that they have great respect and admiration for me (they are taught to wai or bow slightly to me every morning with a chorus of “Good Morning teacher, how are you today?”), yet young enough that the topics I teach them are fun and simple to go over.
I start my walk to campus at 7:15 every morning, teach anywhere from 2-5 hours through-out the day (a free lunch is provided on campus everyday as well, a nice bonus.), and our class day is finished my 2:00 in the afternoon. Once my regular semester begins, the classday will be longer (8AM-4PM), and I will be responsible for a more rigorous and in-depth curriculum. But for now, I am enjoying the short workdays and joy and ease of working with second-graders.
In other ways, however, the school is far from organized. For example, they expect you to have flash cards to teach the children vocabulary, but if you ask for resources or the office supplies to make these cards, the staff will kind of just smile at you and say “not have now, later, later.” Such is the answer with pretty much any superficial glitch you run into, but I understand this as the way of the Asian culture. While in America, the school would either be expected to either provide the necessary resources for you or tell you straight-up that “you have to get those things on your own,” many questions and concerns go a bit unanswered in the non-confrontational Asian-influenced culture of the campus. But learning when a smile and nod combination means “no way, go out and buy it yourself” isn’t that hard to do and a sense of humor makes it not hard to deal with.
For the summer session, my teaching load is pretty downright easy. I only teach about 15 hours during the week, though the rest of my day is spent on campus helping out the staff and working on my lesson plans. We are given booklets to pass out to the children that provide a rough outline of what they want the students to learn (vocabulary, reading comprehension, small science experiments, simple math, and English phrases concerning time, travel, occupation, etc.) and how many weeks they should spend on each subject. The rest, as far as lesson plans and activities, is under our discretion as teachers.
I’ve had fun on my downtime creating flashcards and vocabulary games, drawing out cartoon examples and coming up with fun outdoor activities and Scavenger Hunts for the kids to do during class. My students are young enough that they have great respect and admiration for me (they are taught to wai or bow slightly to me every morning with a chorus of “Good Morning teacher, how are you today?”), yet young enough that the topics I teach them are fun and simple to go over.
I start my walk to campus at 7:15 every morning, teach anywhere from 2-5 hours through-out the day (a free lunch is provided on campus everyday as well, a nice bonus.), and our class day is finished my 2:00 in the afternoon. Once my regular semester begins, the classday will be longer (8AM-4PM), and I will be responsible for a more rigorous and in-depth curriculum. But for now, I am enjoying the short workdays and joy and ease of working with second-graders.
New Friendships
There are only two new teachers on Foreign Staff this semester; myself and Thomas, a 43-yr old from Illinois who lives here with his Chinese wife, Grace. Since I met the couple, we hit it off quite well and have been on several little side trips together. Thomas and I walk to school every morning and sip on iced coffees before school starts. He is a riot, someone I know both my father and my boyfriend would get along great with. He is ex-military with a passion for books and travel, a good beer and South Park. He and Grace have lived all over the world, teaching and traveling – in fact, this is their second time living in Bangkok. The two of them are incredibly knowledgeable and better yet – very willing to share their wealth of knowledge with me, for which I’ve been incredibly grateful.
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| Thomas and Grace |
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| Typical street-vendor affair |
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| DELICIOUS marinated pork with rice and spices, mandarin orange juice to drink |
Their company definitely made it easy for me to take my first couple steps out into the city without being completely ignorant. Grace is lovely, and studies Tai Chi in the apartment while Thomas is at the school (he teaches Grade 5). I have a feeling they’ll be a staple of my stay here in Bangkok… I can already picture Nathan and Thomas swapping stories of life as a Combat Engineer over beers on the Khao San Road while Grace and I shop for the “perfect” cotton dress (not as easy as it sounds). Hahaha, we shall see!
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Not sure if any of this information is the least bit useful or interesting to any of you, so please feel free to write to me of what you’d REALLY like to hear about.
It’s only my first week here, so I haven’t gotten to “sightsee” like I would if I were here on part of my Semester at Sea voyage. In all honesty, that’s been my favorite part of what few places I have seen… Khao San Road, the Chao Praya River, the temple down my street with its huge, fantastic Friday-night market, the Central Rama III and the convenient Tescoe-Lotus market downtown…. All of these things remarkable in their own way but for once I don’t feel that intense, frantic pressure to see AS much as possible as SOON as possible.
After all, I live here.
So the things I see and experience here will be at a much more leisurely pace, something I am definitely looking forward to as I explore and get to know my new home.
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| Standing at the entrance of the hectic Khao San Road |
Love and miss you all more than you can imagine,
-- S
