So I'm a teacher by the way...

I realize I haven't written all that much about teaching in this blog. After all, teaching is the official reason why I am here and it does take up most of my time!

Today, my roommate and I had to be go to Maesai, the border down between Thailand and Burma to get our work permits sorted out and our visas extended. Please do not ask me the details of this process, I get a headache trying to understand this myself.

Jen and I were excited to have the day off. Although it was not about to be one of the most exciting of days, a day off of teaching is always welcome. However, we returned to school just in time for my last two periods. As I walked to my class, the Thai teacher didn't realize I was back and had just begun her lesson. When she and the kids saw me, we had an awkward exchange about how I was going to take over my class since I had returned. The teacher told my students I would teach, and they all cheered. At that moment, I realized how much the teaching really is affecting my experience here. I had been viewing the teaching more as a means to being here than the reason. Ultimately, I am not here simply to teach , but mostly to experience and travel. But teaching is playing a huge role in my daily life.

At times, I find it extremely trying. The children can be very noisy, the classes are huge (nearly 50 a class), and the English level is often times desperately low. At times, I wonder if I am having any impact on them at all? But then, they cheer and all is well... Seriously though, I'm not sure how much they will have officially learned from me. All I can hope is that I have encouraged some of them to be want to learn more and to open their minds to the world outside Thailand. I hope that their weekly interactions with me will have led some to be less shy with the "farang," and better yet, I hope that some are inspired to travel.

These are all aspirations, but I can't tell you how heart-warming it feels when I walk from one class to the other, perhaps slightly down about something else, and an excited student of mine squeals, "Hello Julieeess!!" They have a very hard time pronouncing Ts :)

Yellow is symbolic of the King who is revered here in Thailand. He was born on a Monday, thus every Monday I wear these yellow King's shirts to show my respect. On Tuesdays, I wear pink ones (the other royal color) !

Some of my students cheesing.

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