First Week(ish)

Ok so I 'll probably get bored of this in about 2 days but I have a couple of spare hours and this is more appealing than lying in a swety heap on the floor!

June
Sunday 12th
So after the 15 hour journey of death, which consisted of missing passengers, delayed flights and a lot of turbulence, I arrived in Bangkok airport tired and pretty much a nervous wreck. Needn't have worried though, got picked up and taken to Dennis and Suvanna - the co-ordinators' - house in a blissfully air-conditioned taxi.

Monday 13th
Next morning began with an orientation with Benita and Rosie, my fellow volunteers. This consisted mainly of being made to very loud and. very. very. slowly. Afterwards we had a two-hour journey, cramped up in a minibus with all our luggage, to our house in Wiset Chai Chan (read arse end of nowhere). The house is ok...apart from the fact that the fridge and the upstairs shower don't work. Once we'd had a couple of hours to settle in we were picked up and taken out to tea with Mr Kitty, the school's english teacher.

Tuesday 14th
First day of school! Left the house at 8 to cycle the 2 miles to school. We were told by Suvanna that the first day would just be for having a look round the school to see what was what...so of course we were given a full day of classes to teach! It was predictably hectic but fairly successful, the kids seemed really nice and eager to learn, if not a bit easily distracted. After classes finished we were taken up to the temple for a rehearsal of the "teachers' day" assembly which was to take place on Thursday.

Wednesday 15th
Was much the same as the day before: 3 hours of classes and another afternoon of assembly practice...joy! Spent the afternoon sunbathing and reading before heading up to the 7/11 to buy copious amounts of water and junk food.

Thursday 16th
Thursday was "teachers' day" which was essentially a big assembly which lasted all morning. Parents were also invited. And monks...lots of monks! Between the fact that it was all in Thai so I understood about 3 words, and having to introduce ourselves in front of the whole school, teachers, monks and other assorted guests it wasn't my favourite activity so far! Still, we had a nice lunch with the teachers and had the afternoon off...for some more sunbathing and another 7/11 run.

Friday 17th
Back to normal classes. Teaching the older kids "I can", "I have" etc and doing "My name is" with the younger ones. Pretty sure they understand most of it but it can be fairly difficult to tell as they're very good at repeating but reluctant to say if they're struggling. Spent most of the evening planning a weekend trip to Bangkok.