it's just me and you ♥

Saturday, June 27, 2009 @ 3:17 PM

when starlight falls, my love will guide you home.

I'm back from THAILAND!

It's good to be back in 852, past 5 days have been quite eventful for me. It was painful, being in a different country with a bunch of people from a different social group than myself. I found that I was the one being left out quite a lot, but the activities there were great. The teaching was definitely an eye-opener for me, as I never really understood how much energy is needed to teach primary kids, and also I never understood how flexible teachers had to make their teaching plans for a completely random class. Maybe that's why first lessons at school every year are so utterly useless.

DAY ONE - Hello, Chiang Rai/Chiang Mai!
First day away from HK. Woke up at around 5 to get my butt to the airport at 6. Missed my BFFs like mad as I saw everyone else huddle in and chat excitedly. For me, it didn't feel like the beginning, but rather...the end. Ironically, I also had to sit next to the teachers only during the flight, finished a whole book (1/3 that I brought - How to Be Good by Nick Hornby) from HK to Bangkok. Started reading Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult, but it was really quite depressing so I decided to stop. Spent around 3 hours at Bangkok Airport, which was pretty tiresome. Ragini and Minky were learning the Hoedown Throwdown, and I pretty much knew half of the dance moves by then. We then arrived at Maekok River Resort (the place where we stayed) in the evening, and after getting our luggages up to our dorms (I shared a room with the Yr12s - Juli and Hilary. Yes, the Yr11s completely abandoned me), we played a round or two of volleyball. Thumb got bruised really badly (thank god it's okay now, swollen thumbs look really weird...). Dinner was okay, not the best Thai food I've ever had, but decent. Games were not so bad.

DAY TWO - Does anyone know how to teach?
The timetable at the resort required us to wake up at 7 each morning, breakfast at 7:30, teaching starts at 9. First day of teaching, and we had to start with primary 1 kids, who unfortunately didn't understand a single word of english. "Hello, my name is Anna. What is your name?" only recieved blank stares. Our teaching group - me, Kamil and Anaita, were in a panic. First time we teach, and it seemed to start with failure. Kam was intent on following our original teaching plan of teaching "family", but how could we do so when the kids didn't even understand a single word we were saying? Instead we played games with them (like freeze jog, islands), and the kids seemed to enjoy themselves. Maybe we couldn't teach them much, but the least we could do was the make them start to look forwards to english lessons, right? The next two classes were much better, slightly older too, and we taught basically colours and simpler stuff than family. In the afternoon, we went biking near the resort, which was pretty nice. Reminded me loads of biketastic, although the food and the hotels during that trip were amazing. Managed to not fall, although I did get off my bike to walk up a hill...but shh, you didn't hear that from me. We had field games at night, which was pretty fun, and I enjoyed it quite a lot...although it would've been tons better if Fran,Bor or Nik were there to share it with me.

DAY THREE - Hey! I'm starting to get the hang of this!
Teaching was a lot easier on this day, as the kids were older (P4, P5?), and understood a lot of the basic English. We actually felt that we were teaching them something, although we played loads of games with them too. They absolutely loved "What's the time, Mr.Wolf?" and Freeze-jog. Teaching became a lot easier, and we were a lot less clueless than the previous day. We had tons of free time though, and rather than play uno or whatever with them, I found a nice comfy spot outside our dorm. Okay, maybe it wasn't exactly comfortable, but it was quiet, nice and cool. Managed to finish A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon. It was quite amusing, especially how the guy was turning insane. Reminded myself of me in a way. But who needs friends when you have books? Although Dai Sijie is a total overrated writer, especially with "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress" being a "World Literature Book", the point of escaping from reality through books was a valid one I guess. We went to the Golden Buddha, and a temple in the afternoon after team games (which was fun - our group completed a lot of tasks really quickly, and we managed to get the most time, although we didn't win...). I roamed around the temple myself, and by this time, I pretty much was getting used to being alone. We did the confidence course afterwards, and I slipped quite easily. But I was glad that I didn't do that much. Later on dunked into the swimming pool, and played a mutated version of volleyball in water. Afterwards, managed to talk to Fran and Bor (borrowed Hilary's laptop for 5 mins - I was that desperate to talk to them), and felt like crap afterwards. Wrote a note to self, reminding myself to bring a laptop for November.

DAY FOUR - The art of bargaining.
Day four was undoubtedly the best teaching day. Our 2nd class were so hyper, and danced a lot, and the three of us were really happy teaching (although dead tired by the end of the teaching day). Afternoon, we learnt lessons that other groups prepared for us: e.g. Our group taught basic language skills, Group 2 taught Chinese and Group 3 taught the Hoedown Throwdown dance. By this time, I knew all the moves and all the lyrics to Miley Cyrus' Hoedown Throwdown. I was crying/dying inside. Afterwards we went tubing, which was basically floating on the river on a rubber ring. It was fun, and Q (one of the leaders) dunked me in. T'was hilarious. I also managed to finish Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult in the afternoon. Night we went to the Chiang Rai Night Bazaar, and amazingly, I didn't buy much, although I was really tempted. A lot of the things that I saw were really similar to Chinese things, so I didn't bother. It also opened my eyes to how similar Asian cultures are - a lot of Thai things were similar to Chinese and Indian things. Got back to the resort quite late - after a shower, I just slept (while the other people were making a racket. Thank god I shared a room with Hilary and Juli).

DAY FIVE - Home sweet home.
I was surprised to find that I was sad to leave, but I guess the part that misses home overturned my will to stay in Thailand. We taught one big class in a huge group of 9 (Me, Kam, Lauren, Nina, Nicole, Juli, Matt, Anaita, Hilary) and just basically played games with them. Afterwards we went to the school that WIS helped out a lot with, both with teaching and building. It was pretty amazing to see how students have built a whole nursery or stage before. Can't wait until it's our turn to make our mark. Afterwards it was just driving to Chiang Rai airport to get back to Hong Kong. Pretty dull, and I somehow ended up next to teachers again. But all was well as I just read the whole way - bought Swimsuit by James Patterson.It was really good, and I managed to finish it in one airplane ride (around 2 hours?). I hate myself for reading fast sometimes. And I found this really nice fragrance - Love from New York by DKNY, which I really want now, but apparently it's not sold. So annoyed! Must check Sasa tomorrow, and if there isn't any there, I'll see if it's possible for Nik to buy it for me, and i'll pay him back :P

Good to be back, and a lot of catching up to do with people.
Missed y'all loads.

loves.

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Saturday, June 27, 2009 @ 3:17 PM

when starlight falls, my love will guide you home.

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