Christmas Lessons with Year 1-2

Coming towards the end of term the lessons for the students were very fun and spending lots of time on my favourite subject, Christmas! This was a great chance for me to get the kids involved with preparing for the festive season especially when the Primary syllabus was called "Let's Celebrate"

We spent a bit of time making Snowman Advent Calendars and ended the term with some Christmas Stockings. 

The Snowman Advent Calendar to start off with was a little hectic as I had to keep an eye on all of the students and ensuring that they had all 24 dates painted and dried correctly. As you can imagine I had bits of card with painted numbers every where around the classroom. Thankfully I have teaching assistant Miss Pat ready to help with anything which I am very grateful for. Some students got on with this swimmingly and some not so well. This then had made it easier for me to split the class in two groups the following week when they were finishing them. This was a great lesson for the students where they were able to think creatively and involved a bit of simple maths which kept them very focused. This was a time consuming task for me to gather their numbers in sets of 24 with their names but the results were worth it in the end and I know that they are using them now, tearing a number away each day till Christmas day.

This is a time lapse video of the second double lesson of completing the Snowman Advent Calendars. 

The Christmas Stockings was just as fun and it involved the students to learn new skills such as sewing the card together with string and to decorate them. This was a great fun and was completed in one double period lesson. 

Below is another time lapse video of my lesson.

Christmas School Play "Verve" and Backdrop

For St Stephen's International School's annual school production called Verve, the Art Department i.e me, was assigned to paint the backdrop for the schools play "There is no such thing". The overall theme for this play was Christmas and we wanted to paint something simple in order for the students to have their own input on the design.

During the design process it was decided that the scene should be similar to Santa's grotto and to give an illusion of a big place. The doors gives the audience an idea that they lead you to different departments. 

As you can see from these photos this is no small task and the canvas is 14 metres by 5 metres squared. So it required a lot of planning for the smooth running of this very large painting job which involved a lot of the students. 

The process to paint a base layer, grid the canvas, draw the design, paint, tape and add detail took about 4 weeks with the help of the students and other members of the teaching staff. 

Once we got into the full swing of things more teachers got involved and we ended up having a dedicated team who were willing to work into the night after a long day of teaching. It ended being very much like a giant paint by numbers.

A lot of the work came from the Art club and the students of Year 10 when the deadline was drawing closer and I had to bribe other members of staff and students with Pizza to get this completed. 

The scale of the backdrop as you can see from the pictures below was quite sizeable and I was surprised to see how affective the whole piece looked.

I will have to say that this was one of the most challenging task I've ever done. Bearing in mind that it was my first term where I was a teaching my own primary art classes myself and planning and preparing became more difficult with this big canvas job looming over me. However it was a great learning experience for me and the results came out on top and I pulled it of. The students were amazing and coordinating them was a very fun process. Would I do it again next year?....No Did I have fun? Yes! :)

Science Trip at Pa Khao Phu Leung Nature Reserve and Conservation Centre

Pa Khao Phu Leung Nature Reserve and Conservation Centre was the perfect place for an overnight stay for a Science Trip with the Year 10 and 11. For a two day trip I can definitely say that the students did a lot as the itinerary was jam packed with all kinds of activities and science was applied to everything that we did during this trip. Even the stop at the petrol station, Cafe Amazon and 7/11 involved the students experimenting the viscosity of petrol and other fuels.

On the first day was an early start and we went to the Animal Nutrition Research Centre in Pak Chong and a visit to the Lam Pra Pleung Dam. There were some more activities once we arrived at Pa Khao Phu Leung Nature Reserve and Conservation Centre where we stayed the night. The students all worked together cooking, collecting wood for the fire and ended the night with some fireworks which they kinda worked.

The second day was a busier day. We found out that Sugavia Co.Ltd uses sweet grass (Stevia Rebaudiana) and extract the sweetness called Stevioside which has the sweetness 300 times more than granulated sugar. I thought this was quite interesting and having tasted this grass it was surprising how sweet it was in its natural form.

Following that we went to the Lam Ta Khong Research Station, the Milatary Dog Training Centre, a local Thai radio station Mittraphap Pak Chong FM 99.25 MHz and a Police Training Centre shooting range. 

I made a video which you can view above of what we've been up to and so that the students can enjoy once they get back from their Christmas break. As you can hopefully see that we thoroughly enjoyed it and everyone was so tired as we accomplished so much in a short period of time. 

Big Mountain Music Festival 2014

We only decided to go to The Big Mountain Music Festival the week before leading to the the Kings Birthday weekend so it was pretty much last minute as we were at first reluctant to go with all of the talk of chaos and traffic that surrounds the festival. It sounded like if a festival was ever based in Alton Towers in the UK but expecting 50,000 people and travelling there by any means and you are going to be stuck there getting there and back. It was expected to be very busy but as it was only 8km away from the school so why not? 

We had a great time at the festival and why would you not when they offer beer and Sang Som (Thai Whiskey) by the bucket load and have stages for every type of music...yes it was mainly Thai music but with the right company and a open mind you'd be sure to have an amazing time. 

The main acts included bands call Big Ass (Why would you all yourself this name?), Mild (Probably the most boring name for a band), Thaitanium (Great pun for a Hip Hop Thai group) and Boom Boom Cash. Some great entertainers and some sooo cheesy you would rather cringe amongst the crowd who absolutely love it. 

We mainly stayed at the Thai rock stage called the Ferris Wheel stage and stayed away from all kinds of Thai Pop stages which is the cheese I mentioned earlier. As the night went on into the morning we stayed at the dance, drum and bass stage and danced the night away. 

A two day festival for £40 included hay bales as picnic benches, beer and buckets, pee hill (don't fall in the mud), 6am guaranteed fun, food stalls including a burger van (for average burgers), an education of Thai music, lights and fireworks is one festival I would go again next year. 

Trip to Khorat Fossil Museum and Phimai Historical Park

Today I was lucky enough to accompany the Year 7-8 History Field Trip to the Khorat Fossil Museum and the Phimai Historical Park with form teachers of Year 7 Miss Annie and Year 8 Mr Peter.

We first went to the Khorat Fossil Museum where the students looked at Petrified Wood, Ancient Elephants and Dinosaurs. Whilst they went round the museums the students were tasked to complete the provided History Field trip worksheets to note the key points during the guided tours. 
This picture on the right shows the students looking at one of the largest pieces of Petrified wood in the museum.

Secondly we went to the Phimai Historical Park after lunch which holds one of the most important Buddhist temples in Thailand dating from 11th-12th Century about 60km from Nakhon Ratchasima Province (That's where we live). Some of the structure were made out of sandstone and red stone which was carefully restored during the 1960's. Even though  restorations was carried out on a ancient city dating more than 1000 years old, you could still see a lot the structure was still intact and some of the original craving and lintels were still visible.

The students spent quite a bit of time to observe and draw some of the features of this ancient city after their guided tour, which is more preferable for them than to spend another day in the classroom. 

I was just happy to get out of the office/classroom to spend the day with the students and enjoying the views. It was a lovely trip and I was lucky enough to be asked to join them. 

Elephants loves Bananas!

Over the weekend we went to a place called Palio which is unfortunately only 7km away from where we live as this is apparently the place which is more popular than the National Park and the Elephant Conservation Centre which is directly next door. When you arrive you see coach loads of people going round what seems to be like a fake Disney like little Italy village with shops that sell nothing useful or anything that has any taste. The Thai's would just arrive and to take some outrageously posy selfies of themselves and then leave. We sat in the main square with some ice cream to people watch like we normally do and it proved to be very entertaining. What does not make sense is that they are extending this place when half of the shops are currently empty. It is a shame to see that developments are being made on something like this rather than money spent on improving the National Forest and the Elephant Conservation Centre. We only went to go for ice cream and we saw the elephants again. 

We bought some bananas to feed them and we were surprised to see two more elephants. I wish I could spend more time with these magnificent creatures, we would of stayed longer but it threatened to rain as we heard a storm coming in from a distance. This was Olly's first visit to see them and I have a feeling that this will not be the last time we come to visit. 

Haew Suwat Waterfall

I took a trip to Khao Yai National Park accompanying a tour with Tony showing a teacher (Jeff) from BIS Phukhet for a future visiting group to go on a course in January. I thought I should use this opportunity to be familiar with the park myself and its always good to get out of the office. The aim of the this trip was to see some of the sites, and to know where we would do certain activities and to view for potential activities that the students could take part in.

We went for a small hike in the forest wearing some anti leech socks because it is currently rainy season and apparently there are a lot of them this time of year. As this years rainy season has not been too bad, we did not come across any leeches which was good. 

We lost our sense of direction pretty quickly so it is always a good idea to have a GPS navigational device on you. The trails are small as they are often made by the animals in the forest. As we walked deeper into the forest (or so we thought we were) we ended up making a loop back to the car without realising. 

Further into the National Park we stopped at the Haew Suwat Waterfall, which you can view from the top and the bottom. You might think that this is just a waterfall and there is nothing that special about it. Well seeing a waterfall is quite nice as I don't really get to see them in the UK. We were also told that Haew Suwat Waterfall was featured in the film The Beach starring Leonardo Dicaprio, where the characters had to jump off the top of the waterfall in order to get to the other side of the island (Obviously not an island and now you can see why we were surprised to see this was the waterfall they used in the film). Famously the characters Richard (Dicaprio) and Etienne were having a fight about if they should or should not jump but Franciose just showed them how its done and ran through their argument and jumped off the ledge as shown in the photograph. Whether they actually did the jump in real life or not I don't really know because they could have used a stunt double. Having been there and looked down....I was not so sure myself.

My new role in Thailand

The biggest change in my life is not only that we have moved to Thailand but also my entire lifestyle due to my surroundings and what is available to me. Back in the day we would hang out at bars and clubs, shop and go to the cinema and eat at restaurants. Now our life is consumed by the school. We would now spend our free time taking part in sport events, swim as we have access to a 25 metre pool, play to touch rugby, badminton, football and of course ultimate frisbee. Our typical day in the week starts with leaving our hut at 7:35/40 and arrive at school 07:45. With 7 periods including lunch and breaks would end at 15:35. Then the students are assigned to clubs which each teacher runs once a week from 16:00 til 17:00 after snack time. Usually my Primary Art club runs on Mondays so I would go for a 40 length swim afterwards and then I would get home around 18:30 (only because I take my time doing my lengths and spend the other time chatting in the pool). 

I have not been asked to do this yet but each teacher is assigned to do study hall once a week. This would mean that dinner would be provided for from 17:45. Study hall would only be an hour from 18:30 till 19:30. When you have study hall duty you would not be home until about 20:00. The students have very long days here and this can be tiring for the teachers too. Not everyday is like this but when we don't have duties we would normally fill our free time with sport. So our days are already quite long and then when we get home, we just collapse from work and from sport.

Not that I am making excuses but this has been the reason why I have not been posting that frequently as I thought I would especially wi my photos as I have so many already to go through. The biggest change is not only to adapt to a new country but also to adapt to my job. For quite some time I've been working part time so I had to get use to full time again. Which is a big jump because this is not a typical 9-5 job.

When it comes to teaching I have been thrown into the deep end and I am often out of my comfort zone, at times I feel like I am the student as I am continuously learning about teaching. I had never taught before or even entertained the idea of teaching until this amazing opportunity presented itself to me to do just that. What is so great about the school are the students, they are very well behaved and they want to learn. They are such a far cry away from the typical students that we get at home in the UK. I definitely would not have it easy if the same happened there. What is also great about this school is the number of students in each class. The classes would have between 14-16 students, even though it is a small it is also considered a large class in this school, making it a manageable number for me to teach, anymore would probably be overwhelming especially at an age between 5-8 years old.

Now that this is my 5th week in teaching I am starting to find my feet. I am starting to get to know the students and also the secondary students, even though I do jot teach them I often would end up playing sport with them. I normally join Olly's Ultimate Frisbee club on Thursdays and a lot more of the students are joining each week. At the beginning of term the club started with 6 members now the majority of Year 10 and 11's have joined so we are able to have 7 in each team. They all need to work on towing and catching but have a good grip of the game. 

What is so great about my job is that I get to teach what I love doing the most which is Art. Art was always my favourite lesson and one that I looked forward to when I was in school. Now that I get to teach it I get to inspire the students and have fun whilst in class. I think the most challenging aspect of my job is to ensure that the students task that I set them is engaging enough and to manage the classroom behaviour. Striking the balance of having fun and to control the classroom is a fine line, I don't want to be too firm but I also want them to have lots of fun. (That is of course what art is all about especially in primary school which is something I should not forget). 

Another aspect of my job is to work for the Big Mountain Outdoor Education Activity Centre with Tony the Outdoor Activity Coordinator. Tony works with other schools to organise courses of outdoor activities, my role is to assist him with the programs, costings and to assist the trips. This role was first assigned to me as my main role but my teaching role has taken the majority of my week. So I work with Tony on Thursdays and Fridays. So far it has been fun as I've been kayaking and I went to the Elephant sanctuary. Nothing much has happened as it is the rainy season and not many schools have booked for the time being. However we should enjoy this quiet period because it will get very busy soon enough. This has given me the chance to focus on my teaching with this quiet period then when it all picks up I will be ready. 

This role is also very exciting as I get to work with the children and do the activities with them. Not exactly a normal day at the office. 

A Bus full of Monks

Today I went on a trip with Mike the Secondary Art Teacher to the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre with the Year 10 and 11's. I was asked to go because it is ideal for a male and a female teacher to go on any school trip so I was asked to join them.

The journey is very long as it takes round about 2 hours to get to Bangkok but what they don't tell you that as soon as you get there, it will take you about an hour to get through what I would call a parking lot traffic. We were stationary for about half an hour at Central World and I managed to draw this in that space of time. I only draw if he bus is stationary. 

Bangkok is crazy when it comes to traffic, you have buses, coaches (some are double decker coaches), trucks (some have trailers), vans, mini buses, cars (they call it a car but they are more like 4 wheel gas guzzling people carriers), taxis, taxi mopeds, mopeds, songthaew and Tuk tuks. And when you see all these vehicles together in one one chaotic mess you will not be surprised to see an entire family on one moped, typically the dad drives with a baby in between mum and their teenage kid. And of course no helmets and that is without a sidecar. So when the traffic is at a standstill and the family of four on a moped weaves their way through and don't be surprised to see that the dad is smoking or the mum texting on the phone at the back or even an iPad. 

You will see fully grown adult sized trees on the back of a lorries or just vans, eight cows squashed on a van not a truck or lorry. Hay bales stacked higher than a typical lorry on just a van, so high you would not believe it is a van because from behind as you are over taking it looks like a lorry. 

Whilst trying to get over that you will see workers on the back of trucks amongst supplies or stock travelling to and from work, some just sitting and some would take the trouble of making it a comfortable ride by lying there if it's hay bales or planks of wood or even sacks of rices, but some even have hammocks just tottering along. 

What I cannot get use to are the U-turns on major motorways with three lanes on both sides, there are some U-turns bridges dotted here and there but a lot of the time you will find trucks making a U-turn not only trying to get onto the fastest lane on the other side but to go directly across taking up all three lanes including the hard shoulder. That is just crazy and when you are in a car trying to make the same manoeuvre it is terrifying. In the UK if someone flashes you that means they will give way but in Thailand if they flash it means "I will not give way and don't even think about pulling out because I am not slowing down", so you are just waiting there trying to pull out on a major motorway in the fast lane what is essential like the M25 where it would be unlikely to see a break In the traffic. That's why trucks just pull out and go across all the lanes and you are forced to stop. 

The "Do whatever you want lane", that is the hard shoulder and you will find them on any type of road where mostly mopeds will be. We call it the "Do whatever you want lane" because it would appear to not have many rules, they may have rules but they are not enforced. We have seen parked cars and trucks, stalls selling vegetables, roadwork signs placed, cyclists, cars driving down them and also driving down them the wrong way.

What I found amusing was stopping at a Seven Eleven (the place to be) on the way back from Bangkok and I witnessed a bus full of Monks. That's Thailand.

                          

St Stephen's Ice Bucket Challenge in aid for ALS

Yesterday the students in Year 9 took it upon themselves to organise a mass Ice Bucket Challenge following the trends on social media and to challenge St Stephen's in Bangkok to do the same. 

Each participant were asked to donate 50 THB (£1) and this included some of the teachers. This was a success as the girls who organised this event managed to raise quite a lot of money and also raised awareness of ALS throughout the school whilst having fun. 

I know that this is no longer trending online but it just took a bit of time to organise this through the school. As you might find in the video below that it was all worth the wait. Teachers and students both used this opportunity to drench each other in cold icy water. 

Morning Runs

As I am trying to settle into my new life and job routine, I am also going for 6am runs with another keen runner and friend Nicole who is the Primary Teacher for Year 1-2. We run for 3km down a track that follows from behind the school towards a T junction and run back towards the Staff village. 
I do enjoy these runs and I do find that they wake me up ready for the day. The views in the morning are stunning as shown in these photos with sunsets and dramatic landscapes. (Taken on my iPhone).
We get up this early to run in the morning as this is coolest part of the day and you would not want to find yourself to run in 30 degree plus heat in the afternoon after school. The afternoons are also a normal time of day when the heavens just open and pours for an hour or so. The company is great too and we run and talk at the same time (This just makes our runs harder I guess), which makes the time goes by. 

As much as I am enjoying the runs I am so tired at the end of the day and I am wiped during the evenings, almost next to useless. Our days here at school are so long and you find at times not finishing till 5pm if you have clubs and if there is a sporting event you will not stop till 6pm. So unfortunately I am having to limit my runs in the mornings especially if I had a bad nights sleep.
Another factor are the dogs that are in the area that can be very territorial. I can never run around here on my own as the dogs are likely to attack you. I am taking myself away from the equation and to only run twice a week with Nicole which would make it more manageable and therefore I can focus on swimming more lengths. It is a shame really as the views are so beautiful and I enjoy the challenge of running in the heat. 

Tour of the St Stephen's International School, Khao Yai

Thought I'd put together a small video of the school and where we are staying. The house that is filmed is our temporary accommodation and we have now moved to a bigger house with a rat, a small Tokey gecko and some ants to welcome us home. We've managed to get rid of most of the these pests and rodents and now learnt to keep all of our dry food including rice and bread in sealed plastic boxes. This was also the same for all of our plates and bowls as we've been finding Gecko poo all over them. Not very sanitary and of course why would we expect the cupboard doors to actually close properly? We found a way round everything and have every pest repellent and rodent removal facilities at out disposal, this is now including gaffa tape to seal up small holes in the walls. 

We like our new home and its very clean its just not entirely sealed off to all elements and to all critters. It is hardly surprising that we've decided to book into a 4 star hotel called Chillax near Khao San Road in Bangkok over the weekend for a little bit of luxury. 

The school is a huge building and it was originally designed for a lot more students that we currently have enrolled, so it takes a while to get from one place to the other. All of the facilities are used by both students and staff as the school is very active and come together at least once a week to play a sport. For example we are playing some Touch Rugby with the other staff with some students this afternoon. There are many sports facilities available such as a football pitch, tennis courts, a pool, an indoor gym, some table tennis tables and a 9 hole golf course. 

Olly and I are swimming a lot as and practicing to get in as many lengths as we can in one sessions. The pool is around 25 metres and I can comfortably swim 20 there and back lengths (40 lengths in total). I am not very fast but like my running I find that I am able to swim for longer. 

The school has club everyday for the students to attend between 4-5pm. Olly is runs an Ultimate Frisbee club on Thursdays and I run a Primary Art Club on Mondays. I thought  it was cool that the Ultimate Frisbee runs on a Thursday like Red Ultimate back in Leicester so I like to join Olly in that club too, however we don't have the right frisbees to play with so we practice with the discs we do have (they are ok-ish) between students and play with the ones we bought from British Thumber Time. So if you find that you have some discs lying around going spare we would be grateful if you can send them over to us or give them to someone who is heading our way. 

Thai Elephants Conservation Centre Khao Yai

The last activity for Amnuay Silpa School Bangkok was to make paper out of Elephant dung at the Thai Elephants Conservation Centre Khao Yai which is not far from the school and on the way towards Khao Yai National Park. Elephant dung paper was previously made by the conservation centre to sell to the visitors and locals to raise money toward conserving the elephants. Tony thought it would be an idea for the centre to address this product and use it for the students to learn the process. This also gave the students a chance to learn about the elephants and the conservation project. The process is not that much different from other handmade paper making techniques. As the elephant dung is not as digested as some other animals poo, the fibres are used to make the paper. 

The students were separated into groups to do various stages of making the paper as this can be a lengthly process. A group were selected to collect the elephant dung and to break them down into smaller pieces to be be washed. Another group at the same time were asked to collect wood to boil the dung for several hours. (Tony had done a batch earlier for the another group to start the paper making stage). Another group had then had to squeeze the fibres into balls of any moisture and to be put into a bath for the paper to be made on wooden frames with some metal mesh. A couple of students were selected to make extra frames for more paper to be made. As this was still a learning curve for both Tony and the student we were not able to see the final product as we have been told that it would take several days for the paper to dry. Once they are dried they would be sent to Bangkok to the students. 
This paper would not be suitable for writing on but having done this as a trial we thought that it would be an idea to find some other way to break the fibres down to a finer state and to have some rollers for the paper to be even when it was made. Hopefully the whole process can be improved however the students learnt a lot from working together 
through all of the processes. 


We also received a presentation from the Thai Elephant Conservation representatives covering their work as whole to protect the Thai elephants and of all elephants in South East Asia from the critical situation of their fast decline of their population. Fortunately there are still some elephants left out in the wild in the National Park however if the elephants are rescued from tourist keepers that train elephants for tourism which you find that they are over worked, they are rescued to be domesticated so they can never be released back into the wild again. However they are used for the conservation breeding programme but sadly they are too running out of families to breed without running into breeding with the same families. This is why the work at the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre and at any conservation programme in any part of the work is so important. As funny as it is that the visiting groups that come to St Stephens International School end up making paper out of elephant the importance behind this work is also affective to raise awareness of keeping these beautiful majestic animals from going into extinction. I found out through many discussions of the project that many locals in Thailand are still not aware how critical it has become through the ridiculous reason of ivory and medicine. I was standing before the two elephants at the conservation centre and I could not understand why anyone would want to kill such an amazing animal. There are not enough reasons in the world for me to understand why this intolerable act is an acceptable choice for some people.

I put a little video together of the students from Amnuay Silpa School Bangkok working together through the processes of making paper out of elephant dung. 

Kayaking at Lam Takhong Dam

On Tuesday a visiting group of 30 students from Amnuay Silpa School, Bangkok came for 4 days and I was fortunate to join them to go kayaking for the afternoon at Lam Takhong dam. 

Tony runs the activities and he organises for the students and the kayaks to get there by the school mini buses. Instructions were given to the students by Tony for the basic skills to kayak. We built a raft using all the kayaks join them together. The students learnt a range of skills in order to navigate the themselves which was a good team building exercise as the students had to work in pairs to one kayak. It was a lot of fun and the students enjoyed it. 

Unfortunately our course had to be cut short as there were thunder and lightning in the distance. The students were then instructed to go back to shore. However the storm never materialised so the students went for a swim in the reservoir. You might think it  would be cold but it was just like swimming in a warm bath.   

I was not able to get more photos of us whilst we were on the kayaks however I am now looking to get a Go Pro camera for activities like this in future. I have brought a waterproof bag so I could risk taking my camera next time. 

Tony asked me to get involved with the Big Mountain Outdoor Education Centre Facebook page so I made a short video for the school to enjoy alongside some pictures. I think everyone here is starting to learn that I love using my camera and to record everything. 

First Week of Work

The first week of work was hard work but so much fun at the same time and now finally have some time to reflect on whats happened. This is also following the week of preparation before the students arrived which was on Sunday of which a Parents meeting was held. With everything that has been going on at work we have played so much sports including Chairball and Touch Rugby with staff and students, so it is very much like a small friendly community and it is very easy to be involved with everything thats been going on. Of course this is including some cheeky beers on porches which is all very nice too. I am not pretending to lead an all round active and healthy lifestyle but we do have some solid session on the Leo beers here too. 

There is also something that I have not fully revealed yet because it has been so busy as I have been trying to adjust to a working in a new environment, a new role as well as a new life. When I first heard that I was moving to Thailand I knew I would be working with the Outdoors Coordinator Tony with The Big Mountain Outdoor Education Centre as a part time assistant to help with the activities as a part time role. This would normally involve rock climbing, kayaking, arts and crafts, conservation work and so on.

Now I have a new opportunity to be the next Primary Art teacher replacing Mr Luciano who will be leaving in October of which I will need to learn how to teach his 3 lessons a week to the Kindergartens, Year 1-2's and Year 3-4's. So far I have been helping Mr Luciano with planning, observing and helping him in his classes which has gone well so far and the children seem to like all the projects we set for them involving the subjects following the curriculum. 

Everyone in the Primary team are all helping me including the Secondary school teachers. I am using every chance I get to observe everyones lessons so I know how I can apply this to the primary art classes. As it is a small school I am starting to know some of the students and their abilities. 

This week I have been going out for a 6am runs with Nicole the Primary teacher for Year 1-2, she is a keen runner and very motivated to run pretty much every morning. I have managed Tues, Weds and Thurs. Not only a lovely new friend she is also trying to help me to adjust with Thailand in general and with the school. Everyone's advice on teaching has all been very valuable and I just trying to do too many new things all at once. Not only teaching I am also trying to learn the language and to cook Thai food with all thats available to us. All very overwhelming but great fun at the same time. 

Tokey Gecko hut invasion

After coming home from dinner with some friends we turned the lights on in our hut and heard a very loud scuttle across the walls. I thought at first it was a bat or a bird but it turns out that this was a Tokey Gecko. Normally in the UK we would find daddy long legs or the house spider, so we did not know what we were dealing with. So both of us decided to phone our Australian friend Robert (who lives a few huts down so we should have shouted) to come to our rescue. 

Luckily we found out that the Tokey Gecko's are not dangerous and they are only active at night. Amusingly he forgot to tell us about these creatures. However they do make a great noise which is a there loud mating call during the night. At first we did hear them and only thought this was a bird.....outside our hut, we were too jet lagged to investigate. Unfortunately Olly is a little sleep deprived and he is determined to get them out and they can get in through the vents in the kitchen. Just for the record we did not turn the oven on and we just left them to it. So far no mating call tonight.

Squirrel!

Whilst sitting on my porch with my Singa beer I spotted this little white squirrel making a great racket clambering from one roof of a hut to another. Just been enjoying their company and they seem to be quite tame. They are very cute and they are loads of them around so I was happy to sit there watching them. So if you hear a rustle in the trees you know its one of them, especially if they drop seed pods that might just knock you out. Trust me they are not small. 

Rambutan Fruit

The Rambutan fruit is a well known Southeast Asian fruit very much like a lychee/grape. It's deliciously sweet and enjoyable. Don't be too intimidated by its prickly red shell. 

Due to the lack of confidence in buying anything from a busy night market in Pak Chong and of course with the language barrier, we ended up buying a kilo of this fruit which costed us 25 baht (50p). 

A video demonstrated by Olly of how you would eat a Rambutan fruit. All pretty straight forward really but this is us just messing about. 

Need to Learn Thai fast!!!

Our flight to Thailand including our small stop in New Delhi was pretty straight forward and a journey with no problems. The highlight for Olly was to buy a Chicken Maharaja Mac from McDonalds in New Delhi which was the last thing I wanted. We were surprised by how many times our boarding cards were checked by the many members of airport staff. I think 5-6 times was excessive when dealing with very jet lagged and tired passengers. Slow start but we got there in the end and I just slept through everything with the exceptions of food. Flying with Jet Airways was very comfortable and given how nervous I was with flying I felt very comfortable even when there was some turbulence. But I was on medication so it all helped me throughout my journey. 

At our arrival at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport we struggled to find our driver, which was arranged by St Stephen's International School, thankfully we found him as we didn't really want to face having to find our own way to Khao Yai.

Our journey was very confusing as our driver did not speak any english but through the translation on the phone to someone (Paeng) from the school, it was understood that we would get some food from a 7Eleven and eventually get to the school.

It was a long journey but we were thankful that we got to Khao Yai at 11:30pm (local time) greeted by David (Campus Manager), who showed us to our bungalow which we found out that it was only temporary accommodation as our house was not ready yet. 

What I've learnt is that we need to lower our expectations to avoid any disappointment and to go with the flow. Following a 13 hour sleep one of the security members came to our hut and told us that the driver (Mr Anusorn) would take us to Pak Chong. But what they meant was the driver would take us to Tesco Lotus. What Olly and I never understood that this might be a good opportunity to get food or stuff generally for the house. We were hesitant to get anything as both of us did not know what to get while our house was not ready and if we got too much we need to move it all. So we just purchased the most random things like a towel, an iron and some pans?! Shopping when jet lagged is quite amusing but not fun when denied by the supermarket to sell us beer. Apparently there is a certain time of day that we cannot buy alcohol and that is why I am typing this on a Friday night without one. We need to look up when we can buy beer. 

We've not met anyone official from the school yet but thankfully a Maths teacher (Robert) from Australia saved us by offering to take us out for some food and to go to the night market with his family in Pak Chong. We were both happy by his offer otherwise we would still be sitting on our porch. Saw quite a lot and we were both overwhelmed by what was available at the market....some of it was very questionable. 

Hopefully we should meet someone from the school in the next few days but like I said, just go with the flow.