Bugs, More Fruit, and Interviews

The past few days have been very interesting.

My class is absolutely wonderful. They are the most eager group of learners I have ever seen and they are very thankful for everything they learn. I usually see a few of them walking to class and they run to walk with me. They say "Teacher! You so beautiful! Hi, how are you?!" haha Some of them come to class bringing me things. These things are either fruit or juice boxes. haha For example, today I lugged home a bag of dragon fruit, a bag of bananas, a bag of mangoes, and 2 kiwi juice boxes. haha During the lesson we play lots and lots of games. We always play O X's (tic-tac-toe). They LOVE it! Sometimes we play memory, a lot of times we make up new sentences, a lot of times we play "interview", and today we sang "head, shoulders, knees, and toes". At the end of each class, they pray for me in Thai and we talk about what we did yesterday and what we are doing today. Then they usually sneak off to the fruit cart that rolls by our classroom and buy me more fruit... I have a lot of fruit in my room. hahahaha

Then I go to Thai class. I am loving Thai class. I have taken my fair share of foreign languages (German, ASL, Spanish...), but Thai has def been one of the better experiences. I think it's because I actually get to use it. I try to use it anyway. haha I think the Thai people appreciate it. I don't know. They smile a lot when I try to use, maybe they are just laughing at me. hahahaha Oh well! So far I can what is your name, my name is Katherine, How much is that shirt?, How much are these pants?, How much is this movie?, pineapple, orange, banana, coconut, watermelon, numbers, how are you?, thank you, where are you from?, I am from America...

Obviously, I've been shopping and eating fruit and randomly talking to strangers on the street. hahahaha

Last night I sat around with some of the ladies who work here and with Rick's wife. I was really excited that they asked me join them because I really thought that they didn't like me. Raht, she picked me up at the airport, doesn't exactly like everybody. So I was REALLY excited. haha It was really interesting. A lot of the time I had no idea what was going on because they were all speaking in Thai, but it was kinda nice being around girls for a change, even if they were all older than me. I feel like I've been around a lot of men lately. Anyways, Rick has told me that Thai girls constantly eat. It is true. They never stopped. haha We ate pumpkin seeds. We ran out. They went across the street to the convenience store to buy watermelon seeds. Then the bug cart came by. They bought bags and bags and bags of bugs. Cockroaches, maggots, crickets... plus frogs. All deep fried. They loved them. Apparently they are quite good. I politely declined and watched them eat. The cockroaches were huge. I had never seen a bigger bug. I was very happy that they were dead. They ate the whole thing

Today I had to give a one-to-one teaching lesson. I met with a girl who works at a restaurant a couple doors down from the school. Her name was Furn. She couldn't speak English at all. It was fun though. I taught her the English alphabet. While I was teaching, a lady named Eed asked me how I charged to teach English. I told her I'd get back to her. haha I couldn't believe somebody was already asking me for private lessons.

This is a very long post.

I am also interviewing for jobs. I had an interview today in Pattaya for a Kindergarten 2 class, 4 year olds. Going to the interview was quite an experience for me, seeing as how I suck at directions. I had to hop on the back of a motorbike and give Mr. Thai Man a map and some how make him understand where to go. I got the job and I have to decide by tomorrow. I also had a phone interview for a 10th and 11th grade class in Songklah, which is South of here. I got that job, but I told them that I wanted to come visit before I committed to anything. In order to go visit I would have to fly there. So, basically... I have to decide between the two places and if I want to go to Songklah I have to fly there and back by Tuesday. I am a HORRIBLE decision maker. On one hand, I love the little kids and teaching kindergarten, being near the languagecorps staff would be good, but being in Pattaya wasn't exactly the ideal for me. On the other hand, I've never taught 11th graders, especially 50 of them at one time, but Songklah is supposed to be much much calmer and quieter than Pattaya and prettier. It's rough.

I have about 12 hours to decide. Awesome. To contemplate this decision, I bought a coconut off the street. The lady cut it up for me. I took it to the beach and sat down to eat it with a toothpick. I cannot believe that this is my life.