An Atypical Day, Part 2.

Surprisingly enough, my Thai speaking skills are getting better after I thought I'd hit a plateau. Maybe it just takes a little while for your brain to become fully acclimated to a different language, but I feel like I'm more attune to understanding (and speaking!) Thai with the natives here. Also, it helps that I try to translate English vocabulary that I teach to my students into Thai, which I didn't realize was actually self-serving as well. After about 7 classes of teaching things over and over again, I have learned my fair share of Thai.

Which means, that I'm able to communicate more to my students! It's so great. Apparently at one of my schools, Thai Samakee, they've nicknamed me, Ms. Mi kuam sook, which means, Miss Happy. Hahah, I had to qualify that. Mai tukwan, I said. Not everyday. When students aren't giving me sass, I am happy. I've been able to joke around more, and even teased one of my teachers for having ten husbands, in Isan. Kru mi sip puan!! And the students just roared with laughter.

Today, turned out to be one of those atypical days again. I've been practicing simple prepositions with my 5th graders, and to reinforce the lesson, I decided to play a game where they have to stand in front, beside, behind, sit under, and sit on top of their partners. However, when I asked my students to stand up, one of the girls suddenly projectile vomits all over her hands, and I was like a deer caught in the headlights. It was one of the situations where I knew I had to do something, but I didn't know what, like the time when Trisha was making dinner and the pipe from the gas stove loosens and suddenly we had 4 foot flames in the kitchen, and we just stared dumbly at it for a while.

But I digress. I quickly got my act together, fortunately, and took care of the poor girl. But being queasy as I was, at the sight of vomit in the classroom (and secretly worrying that I also ingested something nasty during lunch and was seconds away from suffering the same fate) I bleakly pantomimed for a mop. A tiny 5th grade boy came to my rescue, after I insisted we resume classes, and cheerfully, and deftly, mopped up the mess. I was pretty upset at myself for not having enough balls to do it, so in order to compensate the awesome superhero for his efforts, I gave him 20 baht and told him to get himself some sweets after school. This sort of thing definitely makes the job interesting, to say the last.

I am pretty excited for the next unit--which is parts of the body, and parts of the face. For next week, I asked them to bring mirrors (nam ma kra chok lek!) because we are going to do some serious self-portraits! I love integrating visual arts and songs in my classes, so naturally, because I am the sole autocrat in the classroom, the students will have to subject to my whims...

Hopefully I will bring my camera to school soon, so I can take photos of the every day and post them here. I admire the school kids for being so incredibly involved into how the school runs. Every morning, I watch them prepare food for the day's lunch, and then they wash all the dishes, and even look after the younger kids when the teachers are absent for an inordinate number of reasons. It is really admirable, compared to how school kids live in the states...