Some observations from work

It is definitely interesting being a high school teacher for the summer. Had you told me that I'd be teaching English to high school girls in Thailand the summer after I graduate college, I would never have believed it and yet here I am. Experiencing things from the other side of the equation.

Class begins:

Class leader: Stand up, please!
The class stands up.
Class: Good morning teacher! (or: Good mor - giggle,giggle, giggle - afternoon teacher!
Teacher (me - usually into the microphone): Good morning! You may sit down.
Class sits down.
Teacher: How are you?
Class: I'm fine, thank you! And you?
Teacher: I'm good too.

The teachers:
They are all very nice, judging only from my limited (by the language barrier) encounters with most them. An encounter is usually confined to a friendly wai (bow) with an accompanying sawat-di-kaa (which means both hello or good-bye).

The girls:
They're all smiley and happy (seeing an unhappy face is unusual). They run around laughing and joking, occasionally playfully hitting and racing through the halls. They respect the teachers, which is useful. Many wai or say hello to me. When I first got here, many girls would stop me and ask me my name. They're very friendly! And some actually like to practice their English.
Since there are so many of them, I have found that the best way to make it through the hallway between classes is to walk against traffic. That way, they are more likely to see you and get out of your way. They do so also if they notice you walking behind them. This is true even if they're not walking any faster than you are. Likewise, I get to budge in the lunch line!

The cafeteria:
The food is mostly Thai. There are many little stands that serve different dishes, not unlike the couple we had at IHS. And each stand serves several different foods. Various kinds of meat, fried and hard boiled eggs, rice, noodles, bamboo shoots, soup, some cooked veggies, fresh fruit juice, little pieces of cake, and ice cream among others. The food is good and very cheap.

The customs:
When coming into the teacher's room the girls take of their shoes and line them up neatly by the door. If there are no chairs for them to sit on, they kneel or sit Indian style. The normal uniform is a blue skirt down to the knees, a white blouse, white socks and black shoes, and the gym uniform is a yellow collar shirt, blue sport pants, white socks and white keds. Moreover, all the younger girls have the same hair cut - hair length to the earlobe and cut straight across. The older ones can grow out their hair and usually tie it with a blue or brown ribbon (all ribbons alike of course).

The chores :
The younger girls are required to do a certain amount of little tasks to help the teachers for which the teachers sign in their little green or blue books. This means I never have to bring my dirty dishes to the cafeteria, fill our empty water bottles or wash my glass. Two girls actually just came in as I'm writing this and did the latter two. Though many of the girls are very nice and helpful outside of having to get a set number of signatures. They wipe the board or help carry my CD player back to my room.

The punishments:
I have seen two types of punishment. Entering the school gate one morning some girls, whose hair was too long, were getting it cut right there in front of everyone. A couple were crying. And walking by a classroom today, I saw that half the class was standing facing the back wall. Apparently, they were real bad!

Class ends:

Class leader: Stand up, please!
The class stands up.
Class: Thank you teacher! See you again next time!
Teacher: See you next time! Have a good day. Bye!
Class: Bye-bye!