Half-marathon

Going to a city in the northeast part of Thailand called Isaan next week to run a half marathon. It's my first in about a year and a half. I feel like I'm ready except for the fact that I've been sick lately, just like I was for the last half I ran, but I think I'll be ok by next Sunday. I'm pretty excited. It's a good way to see other parts of the country. I plan on doing a full marathon this July. Interesting facts: Isaan is known for their green papaya salad, one of my favorite dishes here, as well as grilled chicken. I'll report back. Also, because, news flash: Thailand's hot, they have to start these races at 5:30 in the morning.  

Broken resolutions and breast shimmies

Before starting this post, I would like to say that, yes, I realize that I've already broken my resolution by not posting anything for the past two Fridays. However, in my defense, (why I need to defend myself on my own blog, I don't know, but here it is...) I had written down my blogs in a journal I keep already, but my painfully slow Internet has kept me from posting it until now. So, just pretend you're reading this two weeks ago.

I think I'm finally getting over my homesickness. Going back to work was a big help since it got me back into a routine and a return to normalcy.

Teaching with my co-teacher at my big school, P'Bom, went pretty smoothly. I was really dreading it actually. We taught the students about trees: branch, trunk, fruit, leaf, root. The students knew the words by the end of the class. The problem with studying subjects like that is that they have very little use in real practice. They hardly ever come up in conversation. I only know three of the five of those words in Thai, but I consider myself conversational.

The principal at that school has asked me to teach grades 1-3, and I've been doing so for the past couple of months. In those classes, I have no book to follow, and I create the lessons at my own discretion. The freedom has allowed me to focus on teaching words that students will really use, either in the classroom or in an interaction with an English speaker. The results have been great. As to be expected, there is less retention in the younger grades, but 3^rd grade has been awesome. Beyond awesome, in fact. They make me really enjoy teaching.

I'm good friends with one of the 3^rd grade teachers, May, who's also my Thai tutor, and she says the students can't read Thai or do math, but they can speak English. Along with making me a little sad about the state of the teaching being done in those other subjects, it's good affirmation for me that I am able to effectively teach 90 students simultaneously, something that I honestly thought was impossible only a few weeks ago.

It's crazy to think that they're all able to pay such close attention to me and actually enjoy it but such is the case. Mostly, I think it's because I teach in a way that is so completely different from the way that they are used to learning. The education system in Thailand is one that is very heavily focused on rote memorization versus critical thinking. Many Asian countries follow this same method. It leads to learners that can effectively regurgitate facts that are already known but doesn't lead to a lot of innovation or new ideas. One of my fellow Peace Corps volunteers put it best when he said that Thai schools don't focus so much on teaching the subjects like math or English but on teaching students how to be Thai. There is a great deal of emphasis on showing respect to elders, taking care of others, learning the Buddhist precepts, etc., but at the expense of the other subjects. So, when students get to university (if they go), there's a lot of catching up to do, which automatically puts them behind the rest of the world.

In any case, I have the luxury of not having to worry about anything other than teaching my subject, which may be why we get more done in that class than in other subjects. Another bonus of me teaching the younger classes is May wanted to pick back up on us doing more of a language exchange, where she teaches me Thai half the time we're together, and I teach her English the other half, so that she can learn more phrases to use in the classroom. She's also downloaded some English videos from YouTube to turn on when she needs to grade papers. To be honest, this is all I really wanted: to find a teacher who might be able to continue doing what I'm doing after I'm gone. I'm only here one more year, so in the grand scheme of things, I'm probably of little to no use to the students studying now, but if I can help a teacher, the potential for future students' learning increases quite a bit.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of that week was Sports Week for all the area schools. All of them except my big school, Anuban Lansak. The principal there never wants to take part in big extracurricular activities like these. I don't know if he really thinks academics are that important. I think he does it to serve his pride, as if to send the message to other schools: “Our school is better than yours because we don't waste time with trivial things like sports.” Teachers at my school don't like him, and neither do other principals in the area. He's too proud and confident, two traits that Thais don't find very appealing.

However, my other smaller school went, so I got to experience cheering in Thailand. The students sat on bleachers with a few students playing the drums off to the side. The students in the bleachers had some coordinated cheers with wooden sticks, pom poms and different colored fans that looked really visually cool. In front of the bleachers, there were about 15 students dancing. I don't know if it's just because I'm an outsider, but “dancing” in Thailand seems to be little more than simulating sex. I know this happens in the States. I mean, just turn on any music video, and the big surprise would be if there weren't barely-covered breast shimmies and crotch-grinding. However, I'm not used to seeing 10-15-year-olds doing it. Or, have things just changed that much since I was that age? That, coupled with the insane amount of makeup these girls were wearing, made me incredibly uncomfortable.

Sports Day was pretty fun, other than that. The students played a lot of the same sports I talked about here.  

I returned to Thailand from the States about three days ago, and so far, it's been...weird. Just like I knew it would. Before I left, I had to give myself a pep talk because I knew that once I came back I'd be in a funk. Just the nature of the beast, I suppose, after having a great time with my family and friends, eating good food, watching American TV and being able to drive a car. So, instead of getting out of my room and interacting with people like I probably should, I've holed myself up here and have been watching Jersey Shore. Not exactly a great solution, but I just can't get myself to snap out of it quite yet. And really, I should just be patient with myself. It's hard to go from one extreme to another and back again without some hiccup. I know I'll be fine; I just have to give it a little time.

Coming back in 2012, though, is kind of cool because, as I was telling my friend, Christine, we have this entire year ahead of us, which, I guess, is true for everyone, but maybe it's just a little more dramatic for both of us because we both returned to the US for the holidays and came back to Thailand at the beginning of a fresh new year.

And, because it's a brand new year, it's time to roll out the New Year's Resolutions: lose 10 pounds, get more organized, start my dream career. No. I'm taking baby steps this year because we all know that grandiose goals never work out for me.

1. Write something, ANYTHING, on my blog once a week. I have to live my somewhat boring life out here, so you should all have to suffer through my writing about it. Also, this way, I don't have to give an entire back story every time I want to tell you “This one time in Thailand...” story.
2. Work my through my LSAT book by the end of the year. It's a hefty book, but I figure that if I take a little bit of time out of each Friday, I can finish it by the end of this year.
3. Do a better job of taking care of my sanity since no one else will. Another volunteer brought something up a few months ago that I thought was interesting. He said that when he came to Thailand, he thought he would have so much more free time to relax and be kind of lazy, but in reality, he's turned out to be even busier than ever. I have felt the same way here. Because, really, it's not as if my hard-working personality changed when I came here; it's just that I have a different set of things to keep myself busy. I never say no to anyone here. I want to seem like the good little volunteer that has her community's best interests at heart. But, in doing so, I often am not very kind to myself. Last year, I didn't leave my site one time in three months. I think I just kept agreeing to do things to make people happy, but in the end, I felt like I started to resent people for not letting me leave. Really, it was me that I have to blame for that. This time around, I'm leaving site at least once a month. I mean, I haven't even been to the beach yet for crying out loud.

I'm tempted to write “Call at least one of my friends one time a week,” but we all know how that one will turn out. I just ask all of you to not forget your friend out here. Send me an email detailing every boring detail of your day every once and a while, including what food you've eaten. (I especially want details on the food. I should be able to taste your turkey sandwich through your words.)

Read my blog and keep me accountable! Have an awesome 2012!