Changing of the Guard, or Who’s in Charge here anyway?

So, my travel woes…that story will have to wait until it’s closer to resolved, especially as it’s gotten hairy enough to be beyond what you should blog. I really hope it doesn’t come to small claims court, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility right now.
Whatever, I’m back. So let’s get back to our narrative and I’ll worry about that mess.

The Dutch, British, and two Canadian teachers have left the school, some as previously mentioned.
Our office now consists of: The High Strung American (hey, I’m working on it), The Filipino, The German, The South African, two (soon to be three) Thai teachers, The Boss Lady, an Irishman and an Aussie.
The new guys ask me all sorts of questions. As if I have some sort of authority or clue around here. I think it’s cute they think I might have any answers for them. My best advice for the Aussie, at a loss for teaching a computer program he doesn’t know, was “just don’t bang your head into the wall too much.” I’m thankful I don’t have to teach computers, for lots of reasons, enough that we can skip that drama.
Believe it or not I’ve learned to roll with it a little bit (when it doesn’t involve my credit card), when it comes to teaching or ‘working’ around here; though it is so much easier when all I have to worry about is the chalkboard and not the technology. I can adapt a class that isn’t reliant on technology that is lacking.

Our schedules have been rearranged a lot this semester, as per an intraschool political battle and the fact that one too many foreign English teachers has been hired. As such, to appease the ‘Thai side,’ (non-English immersion) side of the school, a couple of us have classes on the Thai side now. And in order for us all to have a full teaching load, in student contact hours as per our contract, we have white teachers assisting white teachers. Oh sorry, should I say foreigner? It’s same same really. Well...I’m not getting started on that one right now.
This is, apparently, all the more ironic because a few years back there was a big stink and all assistant teachers were kicked out of English Program.
I’d say a good summary here is reverse, reverse!
As such, with dual teachers it’s sometimes difficult to tell who’s in charge of a class. This is slowly getting ironed out, but in the meantime, too many cooks in the kitchen. When things are settled, having an assistant teacher can be a blessing; so far here it’s almost been more of a hindrance everything is so up in the air. The classrooms are small enough the ‘assistant’ has to work just to stay out of the way. And as is common to all human interaction, some teacher pairs work better than others. That’s as far as I’m going with that.

The new computer lab has materialized. My desk is still here! We have teacher’s computers (this is really quite fancy), we even have internet that is mostly functional! Though not enough jacks for every teacher to be online at once. Oh, foresight. The water hasn’t even stopped working yet this semester! The ‘library’ even has some books in it now. As my colleague said “well it’s a room with books in it, let’s not get carried away here,” when I got excited about the books, they are mostly text books in boxes. It does, to its credit, have computers (that are set up and work!). I wonder how long before they go viral.

Some other happenings: food poisoning again, beat it back with a stick this time. Now it’s official, now I am back in Thailand. Getting charged double at the hospital. We’ll call this the white person tax. But really? The hospital? I didn’t even realize it until I discussed it with a colleague who nearly spewed his beverage across the table, (and it was still a bargain compared to even stateside minute clinic prices), but come on. Christian hospital. Of course. I know I make four times the average Thai worker. But we pay double and triple when things like this occur.
I have a Thai Social Card! Therefore, I now have Thai health insurance. Almost. Is that sorted yet? No of course not. Though they will likely, eventually, reimburse me for half of my latest hospital bill, the amount it should have cost. And with the Thai Social Card, this overcharge situation shouldn’t happen in the future.

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. Why? Is the most pointless question you’ll ever ask in Thailand. A much more suitable question is Ok, so now what? And be prepared for at least three changes. And the answer is probably not actually the answer. Just go with it, well, most of the time. Pick your battles wisely.

Things I enjoy: the restaurant where I’ve gotten breakfast a couple of times before work, called Jenny restaurant. Not because of my patronage.
Thinking to myself, “How many of my friends rode to work on a motorbike taxi today? In a skirt? Not side saddle? In the RAIN???” Probably not many even among my friends here. Admittedly sometimes I do ride side saddle now. If I were Catholic I’d cross myself before doing this.

Having decent headphones and making youtube, twitter, facebook and blog writing look like work. Well at least until I get 20 tabs open and realize what a waste of time THAT is. How to be as unproductive as possible: log in to twitter and start reading all of the links your friends have shared. Great for looking busy though. Learned some cool stuff. Skype has been blocked again, and the office is much more populated now any way. Haven’t bothered attempting to install messenger. GoogleChat works :-).
More than ever I worry I’m going to be too lazy for a non-Thai workload after all this, though I’m starting my first round of distance graduate work in two weeks and I’m certainly not lacking for outside projects.

I would beat myself over the head trying to lesson plan, but, it would appear the basic lesson plan is ‘plow through as much of the grammar book/writing book/reading book as possible.’ And while that seems like pretty low level teaching, as long as the schedule is still all loosey goosey and I’m just now back to solid food, I’m just rolling with it. Some of the book lessons aren’t too bad. Some of them might as well be in Greek. Meh. I have fall backs. I can’t really call them plans, like I said, or I suppose quote, “I’m making this up as I go.” I still don’t have a talking dragon side kick, OR a robot. Lame.

Holidays, Internet, Papers

Things have been quite busy, and I think I probably have enough material to write approximately 5 blog entries.  I'll try to keep this update a bit more brief for now though.
This coming week there is no class.  December 5th is the King's birthday, celebrated as Father's Day and a day off from work and school.  Since The King's birthday falls on a Sunday, we have Monday off from school, work etc.
Tuesday December 7th and Wednesday December 8th are 'Sports Days,' for our school.  I know that schools across the country hold sports days, but I'm not sure if every school holds them on these days.  I'm technically not required to come to school at all on these days, and there are no classes, but I am attending at least one of the two days to see what it is about and support our schools football team (soccer).  Apparently on the 8th there is a parade with a float competition between various schools, dancing and cheer competitions.  My boss would like to take me to this day as well, I have said maybe.  I want to be sure and rest and see other parts of Bangkok during my break.  From what I hear, most farang teachers attend one sports day to see what it is about - and do not attend sports days thereafter.  We'll see, I at least want to see what it is about.  And I'm grateful to know that jean pants and t-shirt are acceptable apparel to attend sports day.  I'm a little tired of wearing a skirt or dress M-F, as female students and teachers are required to wear.
We also have Thursday off, I think the school threw that in as an extra day off since we have the other four days of the week off from class.  December 10th is Constitution Day, so Friday schools and businesses will be closed for its observance.

I have had a lot of internet trouble lately.  Since our portion of the school moved into another building, we have not had wireless internet set up.  I did not have wired internet set up in the teacher's office until earlier this week.  I still teach my computer class in the other building.  In the computer lab I cannot use the teacher's computer (which is also the server for the computer lab) at the same time as using the projector to show the students examples and directions for what we are doing.  There is a cable to send what is on the computer monitor to the projector, and a cable to connect the computer to the monitor.  There is only one port for both cables, so you can only connect to one or the other at any given time.  I have to crane my neck around to see what I am doing to load the powerpoint slides or show the students how to find a certain setting in Microsoft Word - whatever we are doing it is very awkward to see what I'm doing.  Sometimes I try and use one of the extra student computers to work on something briefly (yes, thankfully we at least have more than enough computers for every student, even the class of 35). However the web browser on the student computers is not up to date enough for me to view gmail properly - which is quite a pain since I've set it up so my students email me their projects at a gmail address I set up just for computer class.  I tried to install firefox browsers on all of the student computers - before I discovered that the student computers are 'ghosted,' or wiped clean at every boot.  I would like to talk to the Thai IT guy about installing certain things on the computers, but I also don't want to offend anyone or come off as a know-it-all condescending farang.  So I'll just deal for now.
I can sometimes get wireless internet to work in that building, but it is very fickle.  At this point I've just gotten a lot more flexible about due dates and explained to the students the situation with the teacher's internet access.  They understand.  The teachers still don't have our desks in the new office, so the concept that the internet is not as accessible as it should be is not a difficult leap from there.  I've also had some difficulty with the internet at my apartment - there are definitely bottlenecks when too many people are trying to use the internet.  I think I'm going to invest in an internet dongle for accessing internet via the phone networks.  They are available in the states, but at quite a premium through the phone companies.  Supposedly they are much more affordable and reliable here in Bangkok.  We shall see.

I've discovered a lot more things about getting along in Thailand, and getting along at my particular school.  For example, the reason I had so much difficulty obtaining my documents to come to Thailand was that my boss was not aware that I needed them.  The other foreign teachers at my school were in Thailand already - so they had visas to teach or visit already, and from there renewing their visas and permits was no problem for them and the school.  My boss had not previously had to do the primary application for a visa or work permit for any of her staff.  Thank goodness the other farang teachers mentioned this to her.  Receiving the paperwork I needed to complete my application directly coincided with them reminding her that I needed paperwork from the school in order to get my necessary documents.  One of the office secretaries handled all of the e-communication with me, including the communication that was addressed as from my boss.  My boss cannot use email - but everyone in the office has her password so she can delegate tasks for them to do in her stead.  This is also why I could not get information about the computers I would be working with to teach - she has no idea about them.  Ah well whatever.  Also, I still don't officially have my work permit.  Apparently I will receive it in January.  I've been told this is no big deal.  I've also been told that means I'm working illegally, but not to worry because it won't be for too long and they are somewhat lax about this matter for short spans of time, and since I am in the process of application.  Plenty of farangs have gotten away with working sans work permits for periods of years, and most of the farang teachers have worked illegally for a least a month or three months.  Awesome!

A few other quick tidbits before this entry gets too long:
There is such a thing as a Double Big Mac.  It is exactly what it sounds like.  I'm a little scared of that idea, but curious at the sheer ridiculousness of it.  There is 'ketchup' and 'American ketchup,' I haven't figured out what the difference is yet.  Perhaps I've mentioned, or perhaps not: remember the Krispy Kreme Doughnut craze back in the 90s?  Yeah, that's just now hitting Thailand.  I find it amusing.
There is some new store opening in one of the malls at Siam (intersection with four shopping malls connected to each other by sky bridge walk way, including MBK where I had my cell phone adventures and Siam Discovery where the Mac Repair place is).  There is a multi-story ad banner featuring photos of various celebrities for said store opening - Thai celebrities and other Asian celebrities I don't recognize, Angelina Jolie, Princess Diana, Michael Jackson and Mr. and Mrs. Barack Obama.  I wonder if they know (well, the ones living) there are multi-story images of them in downtown Bangkok.  Hopefully I can get a photo of this sometime during the coming week off, I plan on having a bit more time to sight see, take photos and update things.  I will still produce an update about Thanksgiving, and some other things that have fallen by the wayside this week at a later time.  In the meantime - I have a class to teach now.  Presuming they are in attendance and not practicing for something for sports day, or just skipping my class.

Day One Observations

Alright, so Day one done.  Here at the beginning of day two.  Day two should be a little more relaxed, I actually only teach one class on Tuesdays.  Mondays I assist in a block class and teach three classes.  Nothing like jumping right in.  Wednesday I teach a block and two regular periods, and I haven't quite figured out what club time is about yet.  I'm assigned to Public Speaking Club, however Gen, the South African English teacher, may have recruited me to help her with Spanish Club.  I would love to help in Spanish club!  We'll see what transpires.  Gen and I believe we're going to confuse our students into thinking all female western teachers are called some variation of Gen or Jenny.  Oh well, not much to be done about that.  We are addressed by our first names here.  Thursday is going to be my long day, I assist in one block, teach two regular classes and then another block.  Phew.  Friday is just three regular class periods.  There is a lot of prep/planning time here.  Tuesday and Friday morning I don't teach any classes.  There are some prep times in the afternoon as well, but most of my classes meet in the afternoons.  Teachers move from room to room, not students, except for specials like art, computers and PE.  But there is no passing period, so starting and stopping class on time depends on how long the previous class takes to dismiss - especially when you have to lock up the computer lab.

This morning on the way in to school I saw students walking to their college graduation.  They were wearing light white (with the faintest hint of purple) suits and had red, gold and black robes to put over them.  It was really neat watching them walk, bus, taxi and congregate.  Reminded me of everyone congregating around Elliot and walking through the crowds of graduates myself to play in the ceremony.

Yesterday, as it was the first day for the new semester, male students here at the middle school whose hair was deemed too long were lined up and had their hair buzzed shorter.  After they were done they walked to class brushing the stray hairs off their head and shoulders.  It seemed kind of like something from a fraternity rush week, except administered by school personnel.

So I have met the previous computer teacher, the German.  He's given a lot of helpful insights and showed me around a bit.  He's more than happy to pass along the computer classes to me, in fact I think elated might be the proper term.  According to him they covered power point and presentation skills last semester, and it was like pulling teeth.  So I'm thinking we won't do a lot with power point.  However I've discovered that the student's computers have adobe dreamweaver and flash.  I'm going to look into what version, and see what I can come up with for those programs.  I'm sure the students would be a lot more receptive to something new.
The school has a set of computer curriculum guidelines, but it's kind of cryptic, basic and below their level - or plain unrealistic for middle school.  Then there are the textbooks/workbooks - I think they are written for someone who has never seen anything that runs on electricity, but speaks fluent English.
I mean honestly, looking at these computer books - learn the difference between hardware and software.  Save files.  Print documents.  Students this age can do that in their sleep!  My host admitted computers are not her forte.  She cannot tell the difference between PC and Mac, for example, which is why she did not tell me.  So mostly I'm nodding and smiling about following the "curriculum" (there really isn't one for computer class, just the objectives labeled as curriculum).  Quite honestly, all of the worthwhile components of the "curriculum" the students already know.  A few other tidbits - like the difference between a LAN and a WAN?  Um, sorry - I don't really think that's middle school level, or particularly relevant.  And the books are a workbook only-you need the accompanying text book.  We don't have it.  At least computers is an 'elective,' so I can tweak it.  Hopefully I can get things rolling in the adobe programs.
As for the English grammar classes I teach, there is a curriculum and a worthwhile book - in a lot of ways I think I will be doing more teaching straight from the text book than innovation.  I'll work some things in there though.

Other tidbits before we rush off somewhere else: glad I packed skirts.  Teachers dress code is pretty relaxed, except women must wear skirts.  The toilets at school are Eastern style, manual flushing.  By manual flushing I mean there is a basin of water and a bucket, and you fill the toilet with clean water after you finish until it clears.  It is a kind of water pressure/displacement system.  There are waste baskets to throw out toilet paper, but you have to bring in your own to use.  Luckily packets of tissue are in great abundance around here.

As I said about rushing off elsewhere...this post is probably very haphazard because I have been whisked off to several places during its completion.  I do have a Thai bank account now.  Many thanks to my host for helping with that.  Apparently I require a local account in order to be paid - through direct deposit.  We are paid monthly, and we are paid quite a bit more than my initial estimates - somewhere the numbers or my calculations were off.  I certainly don't mind making more than twice what I thought I was going to make.

I feel as though I have missed recording some other details from the past 24 hours, but I have been rushed around everywhere.  It is difficult to get it down.  Though I suppose I don't need to record all of my observations at once.  I will get some posts covering the food soon.  Also to follow will be posts on my students' knick names, a few gems from their get to know you writing and perhaps some politics.