I have no idea what is with my kids kissing my elbows. The only thing I can think of is that they only come up to my elbow so that is as high as they can get. Another thing, I feel like a proper school marm because I am constantly covered chalk of various colors. Oh, and if you write above your head without standing away from the board you get it all in your hair. My little amusement today was my companion calling an eraser a rubber. Sorry, could barely suppress my snicker and she just kept saying it in three classes. I recognize that in England they call an eraser a rubber, but when someone asks you to pass or hand them a rubber...well. And see, I want to tell her the alternate meaning of rubber but I realize it will probably lead to another information session. I mean it was super amusing to explain to an entire office of women about tampons but I really do not want to have it repeated with rubbers.
Today, I also found a nearby coffee shop that is run by three very convincing lady boys. And my favorite drink in Thailand is their Iced Cocoa (believe me, it is nothing like anything American). But sometimes they call it Chocolate instead of Cocoa so I just have to guess at which name each place calls it and hope they understand. This time I got an iced coffee drink instead. I do not like coffee, but it was cold and after soccer practice so it was decent. Bitter but it gets better the more you drink it. I am not sure which kind of coffee drink it was because I never bothered to learn all the coffee drinks because I don't like coffee. So either the taste of coffee isn't as bad as it once was or Thailand has it to where most foods and drinks are more tolerable.
So soccer practice.....oh my. I was not even sure I was even going to have it at first because of the rain but then the sun came all in all its sweltering glory. We played in a painted cement courtyard. I had them line up and dribble, just to see where they were at. I immediately got my answer and it sincerely saddened me. They are at zero. They have had no training and in all their hours of watching soccer they obviously never picked up on footwork. They can't even dribble properly. They dribbled with their toes. Every last one of them. So we started with basics. How to dribble. Two different ways to stop the ball. After many repetitions I then had them split and just play a free for all soccer game. Oh my word. Chaos. Think 5 year olds playing in a tight cluster all just kicking wildly and following the ball. They same ones that would all stop and stare up at the sky every time a plane flew by. That is how these 9-15 year olds played. Well I am now confident that I will never run out of things to teach them. And half of my class is made up of females. That's what you get by having a female teacher. It was almost too, no, it was RIDICULOUSLY too easy to gain their respect. Poor things don't know anything :-( Oh and there is more. When I changed into soccer clothes (which was regular green cargo shorts, not even my sports yoga shorts, and a fully covering nice top), everyone was like, "Wooooow someone is very sporty!" -.- Yep every time you wear shorts you have to be exercising if you are female. And I have seen them in skirts shorter than my shorts. And some of the girls today played in long skirts. Siiiiggggghhhhhh. Then two of my children hit their heads against each other and had to go to the nurse. With how tiny and skinny these girls are I do not know if I should tell them to suck it up or if a good knock will actually break them. And girls.....stop being afraid of the boys. The girls have better footwork but no confidence. Well yes, that was my soccer practice. If anything they now know the words dribble and stop in English.
One other thing, when I was leaving soccer practice there were plenty of parents around picking up students and I have never been looked out with such solid hatred in my life. I know without a doubt it was because of my dress. Others nodded their heads in a bow of respect but there was hardened hate on some of the mothers' faces. Well they can be as unhappy as they please. I am not getting paid and I will not play soccer in a dress with sandals.
Yep, still more. Tomorrow will be a happy, happy day. My fellow Americans will be here in under 24 hours and then starts the awesome celebration weekend. And I am meeting up with Thaireland boy (no, I did not coin that one myself but I loved it so much that I adopted it) right after school before my friends all come in. Oh what will we end up doing this weekend? Staying up late talking, singing and dancing? Of course! Paddleboats, feeding fishies, swimming, soccer, waterfalls and exploring? Quite possibly. No fireworks unfortunately, but I think I managed to find burgers and Pringles. And grapes. And waffles. And ice cream. And grilled meatball/dumpling things on a stick. Oh so much fun to be had!
Oh and small side note. My new Cameroonian friends are protective of me. One of them calls every day or every other day. It is always a short conversation and I know they are just checking up on me. It is sweet. I have a posse of protective men. Flashback to the old days lol! Must be the baby face (which half the time is one of the first things out of someone's mouth when they first meet me, proceeding excuse me and then a personally invasive question).
Yes, still more. Sorry, when I do not speak much during the day, I have a lot to put down in my blog. I have learned to hate the words "Sorry Teacher" because they are immediately followed by an interruption. It means in class that they will take the microphone from me and rattle off in Thai. When I am at my desk it is less frustrating because they usually want me to read something, explain something or check something. I especially am aggravated when they take the microphone and change my assignment. I craft my lessons to have them practice certain skills or test specific areas. When you change my lesson, you alter what the students get out of the lesson. I purposefully do not give them examples of everything because they need to be able to think and create sentences in English and not just copying. No, I wanted a paragraph, not 5 separate sentences using the words I indicated. And with the collective Thai culture, they copy off each others paper for every assignment. Everything is group work. So once one person has all the answers, the assignment might as well be over. Or my personal favorite, do not give them that work, it will be okay. Even if they do not do it, it is okay. Even if they do not do their homework, it will be okay. I can be flexible and adjust my teaching style to the students but not when I have someone constantly changing things telling me it will be okay. Especially stop taking away my microphone to pronounce things I just pronounced but you are pronouncing them wrong! I am here to fix their speech problems and it is from their Thai teachers that they learned things incorrectly the first time. Do not undo my work! Sorry for the rant. I have been a little more tired lately so I realize that is why these things are getting to me so much this week. Next week will be better. If anything, because I will make it so.
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