Teaching at TSEP

hello again..

I've just finished what felt like the longest week of my life: 6 days in a row at a new job and sick as a dog.

I started work on Monday but started feeling ill on Sunday. By Monday morning my throat felt as though a cheese grater had had a go at it, and from there it only got worse.. I developed a full blown cold with the sore throat, which then developed into a cough as well. Oh, and to add insult to injury, I lost my voice too so the students were treated to a huskier version of myself, except for when I tried to raise my voice: I'd just end up squeaking! Thankfully, I'm actually enjoying my work and having survived this week it can only get better!!!

I'm teaching at a very big private thai school (Thew Phaingnarm - I think the spelling's right!) but it has a smaller section call TSEP (Thew Phaingnarm School English Program) which has about 150 Thai kids who learn pretty much all their subjects in English. It has a kindergarten section, Prathom section (primary) and so far the first 3 grades of Mathiom (secondary). And now it has me too!!

Teacher Melissa, as I am called, teaches maths and science to primary 6 and social studies to primary 2. All my kids are a good bunch, but grade 2 are just adorable - the cutest 7 year olds ever. And all the kids have the best names; Thais do have official names but they all use nicknames, even as adults. So my kids are called things like Mild, Dew, King, Boss, Benz, Dow, (which means doll in Thai) and even Garfield!! I also have a little boy in grade 2 called Book, and he is the sweetest kid with a tiny round face and round glasses (a bit of a geek really!) and he's very shy! He has Asperger's Syndrome apparently, which makes me want to look after him even more!! Lol..

Grade 6 aren't quite as cute and can be a bit unruly (especially 6B) but nothing I can't handle yet. I think they quite like me actually (apparently they didn't like the last guy so not exactly a hard act to follow I guess). I've got a few photos of some of them as on Thursday grades 4-6 went on a field trip on Thursday and as homeroom teacher of 6B I went along too. The trip was to a place called the Ancient City and I was quite excited about it. Turns out it isn't actually ancient at all but slightly scaled down replicas of lots and lots Thai monuments and buildings set in 32 acres of land. But it was actually quite well done, not as tacky as it sounds, and the kids liked it.

Friday was back to school as usual (we start at 7:30!!!) but we got to leave an hour earlier than normal (at 3:30 instead of 4:30) which was especially good for me as I was croaking instead of talking by then.. But Saturday school was on too, nightmare!!! You see, Tuesday is the King's Birthday here so a day off. So admin kindly decided to give us Monday off too but make us work Saturday instead so the kids don't miss too many days or something! It was ok in the end as the kids wanted to work even less than I did (only half of them turned up!) so we just played games all day. And now I'm super happy about having 3 days off!!!

Talking about the King's birthday, instead of wearing yellow shirts just on Mondays to show our respect (which is the norm) we have to wear them every day from last Monday til the 15th of Dec!!!!!!

Matt started work on Friday but will be working tomorrow as he didn't have to work on Saturday.. He's working at a very prestigious all girl's Catholic school here, but I'll let him tell you all about it probably once he's been there a few days.

We also think we have found an ace apartment and, fingers crossed, will be moving in Tuesday. But we don't want to jinx it so we'll tell you about it once we're in it!!

Take care and keep in touch

xxx meli