Happy Thursday

A photo from the Grand Palace.

Hope everyone has lovely Halloween plans ahead of them!

Love,
Paige

The King at the Movies

So before every film shown at a movie theater here in Thailand there is a two-minute video about the King. Everybody puts down their popcorn, stands-up, focuses on King Bhumibol and listens to the Royal Thai Anthem.

The people of Thailand LOVE their King, and there are pictures of him everywhere in the city: on billboards, on the sides of huge buildings, in 8.5x11 photos in most small businesses.. all over the place

Disrespecting the King in any way is considered hugely unacceptable, and punishable with a jail sentence. He's done a lot to earn such respect, and it's interesting to see the different ways Thai people make efforts to honor him and show their appreciation.

So with that intro, I give you the new pre-movie tribute to the King. [..and in keeping with a totally different Thai movie tradition - this is a bootleg version.]



Delightful, no?

As far as I go, the second day of school was a little rockier than the first - my voice was even worse, and so there was a lot of miming, smiling, and a good bit of confusion. Just giving myself ample room for improvement, ha.

Love to you all!
-Paige

Day One as Ajarn Paige

Day one as a teacher.. pretty funny.

Today I taught 4 one-hour classes with a Thai co-teacher (all of the English teachers get this basic set-up - so that's great), and I effectively got the girls to talk/ write about their vacations and didn't have too many blank/ disgusted stares. Lovely.

The other 4 hours in the work-day are to be used for prep/ grading etc - which is also really nice, and today allowed me to shadow some of the other teachers. Different days of the week it's not exactly half and half - but it balances out so I'll have some harder days and some easier days.

Off the bat it seems like I'm really going to enjoy teaching. (phew.)

I also learned the beginning of class ritual today, which goes like this:

At the beginning of the class I ask the girl who is the current "class leader" to ask the class to stand up. Once everyone is standing I say "Good morning class" and they say "Gooooood Mooorning Ajaaaarn Paaaaige." [My name when said by 30-some Thai 1st graders sounds kind of like Paaaaysh. Ajarn = teacher.] And then I say "Please sit down," and they reply "Thaaaank youuuu teeeeacher" and sit.

I don't know if this sounds adorable/ hilarious - but live and in person I guarantee that it is.

I also had a delightful experience yesterday tutoring for an 11 year-old girl who is going to England in a couple of months to study, and wants to go to boarding school in the US. The family is just so pleasant and very sweetly understated given the fact that they live in this beautiful mansion in the middle of Bangkok with classic Mercedes and Lexi cramping up their driveway. Her father also studied in the US ("oh cool, where?" "err, umm in Cambridge" oh. right. didn't we all?).

The girl loves reading English books - and so we spent most of the time talking about a few of our favorites since her parents mostly just want her to practice conversation.

So today's pic is celebrating nerdy book-loving girls of all ages:



oh! also! Forgot to mention that I sounded like a scary heavy-smoking baritone all day/ have basically lost my voice because of this cold I can't seem to get rid of. Typical. Hopefully it will find its way back to me by tomorrow am.

Much love!
-Paige

Back to School, Back to School

Tomorrow is my first day at W.Academy -- very excited to start the semester, and have a better way to structure my time, etc.

Went in today and did some lesson-planning, and those sorts of good things. I feel weird about posting anything job-relevant on a public site, so.. I won't be, ha - but I'll send some e-mail updates about how things are going in the classroom in a little bit.

And here's a pretty flower:



Hope everyone's weeks are starting out well!

Love,
Paige

Suggestions?

I've decided to go to the next meeting of the Bangkok Women's Writing Group, so before I go... I need to write something to take with me.

With this decision made - and having not done any writing writing since it was assigned to me in college - I am now soliciting writing assignments from you guys. Just e-mail me, and if I write on your topic, then I'll send you back the final work. If I don't write on your topic, then I'll at least write you a haiku about how awesome you are.

My only parameters are that it not be a personal essay - I'll just be meeting these people.. no need for public self-reflection with strangers.

The meeting is either this Wednesday or next Wednesday, so the sooner the better as far as suggestions go!

Today's photo is of a spirit house in a rare (but celebrated) green corner:



Much love,
Paige

Holy Basil, Batman!

Opened the fridge today to find - of all things - a bit of sanctified herb:



..who knew? Hope everyone's having a great weekend!

Love,
Paige

New favorite place to eat.

I have a new favorite place to eat that's pretty close to where I'm living. It's called Rice at 33, and (appropriately) serves rice dishes on Soi 33. It's inexpensive, and they cook the food out in the open so you see how clean/ fresh everything is. I like that.

This past week I've also tutored for a 4 year-old Japanese boy a couple of times, and that's been fun. He's pretty cute, has mini-glasses and loves dinosaurs, whales, and dolphins. I thought that private tutoring at someone's home might be a little awkward - but this has been fine. Next week I'm going to start tutoring a 7th grader also.

I don't have any new pics today, and so I'm posting a couple of Gramp's (hope that's ok Gramp) -

Here's from the boat ferry that I was talking about earlier this week:



And here's another one of the cove in Wolfeboro:



Thanks for the pics Gramp, and love to you all!
-Paige