First Impressions

Although you hear things about what traveling or going abroad is all about, you can never fully understand until you actually step on that plane and take off. Stepping out into the city of Bangkok, Thailand Stephanie and I were immediately hit by the intense humidity. It is crazy. It's at least 60% humidity every day here. We found ourselves at my apartment at around 1 am falling into our beds and never wanting to wake up. To our surprise and dismay, we both arose before we had ever intended. That's jet lag for you I suppose. The next day we sought out Stephanie's director of her school. After that, Ajarn Sumchote and I dropped Steph with Kim, the director of the SDA Thailand Language School. I was then taken and introduced to all the staff at my school. All of the new non-familiar Thai names threw me for a loop, but I'll eventually get used to it as my goal is to learn as much Thai as possible. Ajarn means Wise or Elder and Sawadee Ka means "hello" or used as a greeting. Our first impressions of the food was not a good one. For some reason, we both had BAD food the first day here, but ever since then have found Thai food amazing. Pad Thai and Tofu Vegetarian dishes are our 2 favorite items. We are enjoying all of the new cultural experiences so much. The other 3 SMs with us, Leah, Erin, and Mike are a joy to be around and are so welcoming! 

My First Day of teaching was nothing short of a nightmare. I mean, the first part of the day was wonderful, but the end of my day was teaching conversational english to 10th grade. This class was full with 40 students that had nothing else on their mind except for talking and NOT LISTENING to me. I struggled through 50 minutes trying to get them to at least attempt to do something like repeating after me. They tired me out, but now I am determined to come up with activities to keep them entertained and focused. On a better note, my classes with the elementary kids were wonderful. They were still talkative, but they were so much easier to teach. They seemed to know so much more English. 

We did have our first experience in a Thai taxi on Sunday. All of the SMs went shopping at Big C(equivalent to Wal-Mart) and got essentials. We walked there but needed a taxi on the way back for our stuff. 

Well, you'll have to keep checking to see what new adventures we may encounter in our new home - Bangkok, Thailand!