Sunday, November 14

My first week teaching ended much better than it began. Looking back, I feel like I have a little more clarity about why the first few days were so hard. I went into the classroom with little idea of what I was supposed to be doing during each period, and I didn't get much instruction from the Thai teachers, who were busy trying to get everything in order during their first days. I didn't realize I had to have a little more of a plan, and since I'm not great at improvising in front of a group of kids (at least, not yet), I felt very flummoxed and out of place.

But, more than anything, I now realize just how shy and quiet the kids were those first couple days (which is no surprise!). A lot of my job involves doing one-on-one work with them while they do their Montessori tasks, and at first, when I sat with them and asked them questions, they were so shy and reluctant that I just felt incredibly awkward and weird. 

But that changed quickly. Now I realize I'm gonna have to create some guidelines around doing on-on-one work, since the kids have started flocking around me, trying to get my attention when I'm with each student. It definitely makes my job a lot easier.

And I know new challenging will arise (like, when the novelty of me wears off for the kids!), but I ended the week feeling a lot less adrift, which was a relief.

On Friday evening, I met up with one of my new friends, Mariana, to head to a rooftop bar on Soi 24 to meet some of her friends. I didn't take any pictures, but the woman hosting the event posted some to Instagram, and I snagged a couple.

Rooftop bars are a big thing in Bangkok, but I haven't sought them out, since I don't drink, and since they seem to kind of be a magnet for Influencers and Instagram babes, who I find a little intimidating. I was afraid the group we were meeting up with might be like that—incredibly polished and aloof—but they weren't. They were all farangs (from the US, Australia, Brazil, France, etc), in their 20s and 30s, mostly women, and all very friendly and open.

With Mar

And the place was nice—the views were amazing, though of course I paid about ten USD for a virgin mango mule. Several of the people at the table ordered the “free flow,” which means you can get unlimited bottles of Heineken for about $21. They give you a wristband, and can drink as much as you want for a certain period of time—but if you use the restroom, they remove the wristband. So you can drink as much Heineken as you can fit without peeing! Kind of ingenious.

I had a good time—I really like Mar, and we had an easy but deep conversation. But as the table got drunker and I got hungrier, I kind of hit a wall. We met up at 6pm, and I thought it would be a dinner hangout, but it wasn't, and by 8:30pm I was having trouble making intelligent conversation, while the conversation around me was getting louder and rowdier. It was time to make my exit.

On Saturday, Roman and I met up at Terminal 21 for lunch. They were having a kind of food fair on the lower level, and we picked up pork and shrimp shu mai as well as sticky rice—served wrapped in banana leaves and grilled, and packed into bamboo rods, which were also darkly charred. We headed up to the food court to eat.

Showing off the shu mai

With the bamboo stalks

Sticky rice close up

There are already Christmas decorations outside the mall (which is weird to see in 90 degree weather), and I saw a woman posing her dog in front of the displays, first trying to get it to sit still with a Santa hat on its head, and then putting a little silver bow between its ears. It was both cute and ridiculous.

The Bangkok Theatre Festival is going on now, and on Saturday evening, I went to check out a performance at the BACC. A fried of Darren's who I met on Halloween had told me about the festival, and sent me a link to their foreigner-recommended shows (all the pieces were in Thai, but some were mostly movement-based). I decided to go to one called The Two Monsters, in part because it was one of the only foreigner-friendly options that wasn't a one-person show (seems I'm a little prejudiced against those).

I was a little worried I'd hate it—that it would be super earnest and embarrassing, but it wasn't at all. The choreography felt very focused and tight, and wasn't signally overtly to what it all meant. But, maybe because I don't know anything about dance, I also couldn't really parse what it was getting at, and watching it didn't really make me feel much. It was cool to be in a theatre watching a show for the first time since the pandemic began (albeit in seats set up at a distance from each other), but I probably would've been happier watching a musical.

On Sunday, Roman and I went to Emquartier so I could buy some pants for work. They had even more Christmas decorations on display than they do at T21:

We stopped for lunch at a cheap Northern Thai restaurant near the BTS, where I got a very spicy Lao papaya salad with grilled chicken and sticky rice, and Roman got stir-fried crispy pork with basil:

After that, we strolled around Benjasiri Park, watching the turtles in the water, and watching the little kids watching the turtles, while a fearless pigeon watched us with eternal hope. 

And then we headed back to the neighborhood to get massages and swim in the pool—after a long first week of teaching, it was nice to relax.

Just for kicks, here's a video of Roman teaching one of his classes: