Orientation

80. 80 individuals who all wanted to teach English in Thailand together under one roof no matter the reason blows my mind.

Participants arrived from all over the United States – North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, Tennessee, Massachusetts, NY, Wisconsin, Cleveland, Texas, and of course California. We got in at various times – the day before the 13^th, the day of the 13^th, or even wayyy after. We stayed at the Louis Tavern Hotel in the outer Bangkok area. We quite literally took over the area with all 80 participants. 

The hotel is located on Soi (Street) 64. There were tons of little stalls, an Internet playstation (5 Baht for 25 minutes), motorcycle taxis in the corner of the intersection, and tons of stray dogs all over. Because it was some distance from central Bangkok, and we were just beginning to learn the language and get accustomed, ordering food was more difficult. [Note: Fried Chicken or Gai is a staple in restaurants and on the streets. KFC is not needed here.  “Nidnoi Prick” or a little chili/spicy is a necessity for people who can’t tolerate the heat. Although I love spicy food: chili oil in the states, hot sauce, and Korean food to name a few, let’s just say that has become a key phrase for me.]

Then again the language barrier will always be a problem for us since so few people in Thailand speak English in general. A goal of mine is to be able to at least speak enough where the person can understand, and where I stop feeling so helpless (like when I attempted to order food). This situation in front of me is something I never had so much an issue of when I traveled. Europe and HK didn't present much of an issue.  It's strange because I came to Thailand to travel and explore their culture, but with this barrier, how will it work? I guess time will tell.  

Orientation was a madsqueeze of information for five days, which felt in actually like 2 weeks due to our daily itinerary of lessons: Thai Language and Culture with Thom, Teacher Training/Orientation with Paul Hinshaw and Mike Kearney, and things like informational sessions on Thai Education Systems & Standards and a panel with former participants. Although we did not do all this everyday, in some format we were able to do it all (of course not all was needed since there was overlap…). Each of these classes helped me in preparing for what I should expect when I teach Thai students English, yet I still felt nervous since I didn't know what grade I was teaching, I didn't know the level of my students, and I found out I along with 2 other Americans will be teaching over 3000 students English by ourselves.

Hopefully what is the "honeymoon stage" as our coordinators called it since everything was so exciting and new will not wear out in a rush but a gentle release to something else.  While I look forward to the challenges and the new situations I find myself in; hopefully it won't come back and bite me in the butt later when it all fades.