More Schoolage

So yet again I came in expecting to be teaching 4 50 minute classes today only to arrive at the first one to find it empty save for one student who was running in to drop her bag off. "Is anybody coming to study today?" She replied, "No class today ajarn, there is a ceremony for some lady who turned a 100." "Is it going to take all day and is everyone in your grade in it?" Alas, she didn't know. It seems I will still have the other 3 classes, but nothing is certain. I better get paid for all these hours I never taught.

School of Rock

This school that I am subbing at is just plain ridiculous. I arrived around 8:45 today as I have a 9:30 class. At 9:20, another teacher happened by and informed me that all M. 3 (14-15 yr olds) classes are cancelled as they will be taking tests all day. This might have been perfect as the normal schedule I picked up only has me teaching M. 3 today, but I picked up two M. 1 classes for a Malaysian guy who went home for the weekend so I gotta stick around all day. Oh well. At least I will supposedly still get paid for the hours that I would have worked had there been a class.

In other news, I think I actually did score the best job in Chiang Mai. I got a call last night from a guy I know that works there already who said that the boss wants to talk to me. So I called the guy and he said he'd give me a trial run at it. However, he said that the students prefer British teachers for some silly reason. Most people tend to think I'm from the UK anyways so I can talk to them like a chimney sweep if they so desire.

ARgh

Ann stayed over on Sunday night. I fell asleep pretty early and I got my usual midnight call from the gym girl. Ann made the worst move ever and answered it. The girl asked to speak to me, but of course Ann told her I was already asleep. Terrible. I was extremely pissed when I found this out in the morning and I might have overreacted in my yelling at Ann.

Ahh the guy whos job I was hoping for was fired yesterday. Ironically, the day before he was going to quit without any notice. The boss told him some people didn't like his teaching methods. I had to stifle a laugh when he told me this because he doesn't actually have any teaching skills whatsoever.

Teacher Brett

Today is my 3rd day of substitute teaching at Regina Girls College in Chiang Mai. I am teaching M. 2 and 3 which is the equivalent of middle school. 13-15 yr old girls. Today went rather well so far. We finished watching Pirates of the Carribbean 2 then after they refused to make an attempt at answering my questions I had them write down a few sentences on why they liked the movie. As hard as it is to teach in a classroom of 40-50 kids, its probably worse to learn in such an environment.

The fact that I speak Thai fluently spread like wildfire, but there were a bunch in each class who didn't know so they were still plenty of surprises. Today, for the first time, one girl asked if I spoke Northern Thai. I understand it pretty well, but I can't speak very much. Its the usual language monkey scenario, but I don't mind it so much when its kids because they treat me like a celeb rather than an oddity. In the class I just finished, I walked to the back of the room and noticed most of the back 2 rows hadn't taken out any paper to start the assignment. I asked them what was up and they said they didn't have any paper. I gave them some and they all went berserk. Seriously, girls that had paper put it away. Some of them were smelling and hugging the paper after they got it. Silliness.

I've been sick for almost 2 weeks now. Its the damn pollution. Its so thick lately, I have trouble breathing when I'm walking outside at certain points of the day. I wake up with a sore throat every day and have lots of unpleasantly thick goo coming up out of my lungs. Not really sure what to do about this. Do I start walking around with a gas mask on?

New Stuffisms

I applied for the best job in Chiang Mai today. The manager wasn't there so I didn't get an interview, but the staff seemed to dig me. I have asked both of the guys who have the job to reccomend me. One of them is leaving and won't be telling them until Wed in fear of not getting paid. I tried to convince him to just tell them and let them know I am happy to be the replacement, but no luck as of yet. It could very likely still work out in my favour. As they will only have 2 days to find a replacement for him they might as well just call me! Good stuff.

I start the substitute job tomorrow morning. I am feeling a tad of anxiety, but I expect it to be a good time. I think I will spend the first class with each group just introducing myself and trying to get a bearing on the level of their English ability. I am wearing a tie tomorrow, but dunno if I will do it everyday or not yet. I'll see how everyone else is dressed.