A Thai pantry

Things you won't find in a Thai pantry:
   - cheese
   - peanut butter
   - chocolate
   - a good hearty bread

Which means all of the above tend to be pretty pricey.  It also means the typical Thai doesn't have a lot of experience with those ingredients.  So my favorite place to get stir-fried vegetables with chicken and cashews, is NOT the place to order pizza.  We're talking a sauce that tastes like the sweet Thai version of ketchup, a creamy processed cheese, and pieces of some sort of seafood, all on what almost tasted like pita bread.  Not exactly Pizza Hut.

On the other hand, actual Thai food can be super cheap and quite good.  A large plate of the above-mentioned stir-fry is only 45 baht ($1.50).  A few blocks from my work there's a place called The Salad Concept, where huge salads are only 50 baht.  Five kinds of lettuce and five different toppings (bell pepper, tomatoes, pumpkin, carrots, olives, etc, etc) fill a bowl the size of a bowling ball cut in half.  I think the petite little side-salads at McDonalds cost about the same in the states.

Laura Hall

We've been watching old episodes of "Whose Line is it Anyway" and each time they'd introduce Laura Hall on the piano I'd have this sense of deja vu. What was it about those 3-5 seconds of holding a smile for the camera? It took me a few episodes, but it finally clicked - it's the exact same expression one of my students has when she doesn't know the answer.

K is an adorable 7 year-old little girl from Japan, who I work with for 2 hours each morning during the week. In what I'm sure is an effort to be polite and positive, when she doesn't know what to say she will look at me and just smile. She doesn't look away, she doesn't start to fidget, she puts on a smile and waits. And she has the same curved eyes and toothy smile as Laura Hall.  Which would be adorable if it weren't for the fact that it means I won't be getting an answer...

Working with kids

When I came to Thailand I figured I'd find a job teaching English to help pay for day-to-day things like going to see a movie, eating out, and gas for the motorcycle.  I wasn't sure how it would work though - how I'd go about finding people who were interested and where we would meet and how the learning would actually take place.  Making random conversation?  Having them read something to me?  Asking them to write about something?  Thankfully I was directed to The Language Corner by a friend of my moms.

The Language Corner is a medium-sized one-on-one English tutoring place.  I don't have to worry about finding my own students or scheduling times with them or arranging a place to meet.  There are nine classrooms and about 20 teachers who work there off and on.  I usually work 9-12, but they are open as late as 8pm on weekdays and 5pm on Saturday.  Class sessions are an hour each, with many students coming for two hours at a time.  With a fifth-grader, this works fine; with a 7 year-old, it can feel like an eternity!

Now, I've put in my time doing babysitting and working in the church nursery.  I've had to entertain and redirect and be patient with kids.  But there was never the expectation that they'd have learned something by the end of our time together.  With some kids, that expectation makes things easier - they know they're there to learn English and they pull out their workbooks and do what they're told.  With other kids, I feel like just keeping them in the room with out breaking anything or hurting themselves is asking a lot!  I had one little girl who couldn't seem to sit still.  At one point she was actually dancing on a coffee table while watching her reflection in the window. 

There's a definite battle of wills that goes on.  I ask them to write three sentences about what they're going to do this weekend.  And whether they're in first grade or fifth, I always hold my breath the first time.  Are they the type of student who will diligently put pencil to paper and scribble something down?  Or will they sit and stare at me?  And if they stare, is it because they can't think of the words or because they don't want to be stuck in this classroom doing work?  It's almost worse when they carefully write the sentences, using some great vocabulary and detail, and I have to figure out how to explain why the grammar isn't quite right.  That we don't say "some fever" we say "a fever" and it's not "on the bed" it's "in bed."  But great job!  Don't get discouraged!

I have nothing but respect for those brave souls who teach a full classroom of students everyday.  Every teacher deserves the $100,000 salary I hear the international schools in Dubai offer.  No, really.  That's the salary I heard from a teacher who's currently working at an international school in Shanghai.  Would almost make living in the desert worth it!