Settling In

One week down, one and a half more weeks to go -- that it, until fall break. My teaching job is both my source of joy and my source of frustration. I immensely enjoy teaching the younger grades, i.e. grades one and two. They are sweet, innocent, and polite. In addition, they seem to love me just because I am a young, female teacher who smiles. Teaching English to them is a challenge, however. They understand little and find pronunciation of English words difficult. On the other hand, grades four and seven understand more but have lost the sweet innocence I cherish. Perhaps my dislike of the higher grades is partly due to the subject matter: I have been substituting for a sick math teacher. At this point, I need more experience to determine where I truly belong in the teaching world.

My apartment is….for the lack of a better word, a crap hole. All surfaces are stained and old, complete with peeling wall paper and scuffed linoleum floors. Yet, after hours of scrubbing (which had no effect on the appearance but made me feel better about the cleanliness) it has become homey. I am hoping that I will actually grow to love the pathetic little place.

I finally have Internet in my apartment after hours of scouting out a “dongle”. A dongle is a device that connects a computer to the internet via satellite signal. I do not know which language dongle comes from; I have never heard the term and neither had the Thais’. My Dutch and Polish colleagues essentially sent me on a wild goose chase. Oh to live and work amongst foreigners!