First Week of School: If I Haven't Choked a Kid Out Yet, We're Probably Going to be Just Fine...

Alright, so I believe the last time I left off I was apartment hunting? No....I was drowning...yeah that's right Jacqueline and I nearly drowned on our way to my new apartment. Thanks again to you Jacqueline for sticking it out with me. So it's official I'm living in Thailand! No more hostel stays for this guy! At least for now, anyway. By the way, I'm pumped about my choice of apartments! It doesn't have a pool but Chiang Mai University does. And while I'm not sure if I can even use it, I plan on doing it anyway. Yep. Also, this apartment has an awesome view, great cross breeze, and this amazing little restaurant quite literally built into the SIDE of the building. I went there twice now. Amazing food and kind faces. I went there for lunch today and studied Thai for a bit. When I was comfortable enough for introductory small-talk I introduced myself and said thank you for the food. The women were so excited that I was trying to speak Thai that they introduced me to essentially everyone that worked there. Then they attempted to teach me multiple different foods in Thai so I could order more than my usual fried noodles with veggies and meat. I plan on going back there every day for lunch. You can't beat food with people who have friendly smiles. Maybe they'll even help me work on my Thai. Anyway, back to the apartment. It's about 15 minutes to the building we teach in from my apartment. Any further and I don't know if I could do it. I'm already pretty sweaty by the time I get to my first class. By pretty sweaty, I mean my entire body is a gleaming surface of lubricant. Soap and water wouldn't even be necessary for a slip in slide. Oh man...I wonder if I can incorporate a slip and slide into one of my English lessons...meh.

Anywho, so the first few days of classes were interesting. We more or less just played cashier while students gave us piles of money for their textbook coupons. Yes, I said coupons. They purchase a coupon from us, then take it to a store or a distributor on campus who exchanges the coupon for a book. I feel like it's incredibly ineffective, why not just have the students purchase the book instead of exchange a coupon for it. They still have to go there and exchange a coupon for it, right? But, I suppose it really doesn't matter. Most teachers don't ACTUALLY teach on the first day of class so I guess it helps cut back on the lines in the book stores. It also helped me get the feel for talking to the students, learning what type of students they were, what I could get away with, whether or not I needed to be strict, or if I could be fun. Better to have learned all that during a coupon sale than during your first actual lesson. Turns out, my English 101 classes are all pretty awesome. My English 201 classes are going to be rough...very very rough. the English 101 students are pretty much all first-year students. They're so cute! They all wei at you every time you do ANYTHING. Seriously, fly out here, pretend to be a teacher, and sneeze in one of their faces; they'll probably smile and wei. ADORABLE! They're also a lot of fun. They enjoy participating, at least to some extent from what I've noticed. I even covered another PiA'ers classes while she was still in the states and her 101 kids were absolutely amazing. I'm planning on visiting them from time to time just to say hi. Another one of my 101 classes is great as well. They seemed a little stand-offish when I first came in. But during the first actual lesson they opened up quite a bit. I even walked out with one of my students who speaks English incredibly well. Turns out, he had been to the US for a few months on an exchange program. I found out when he asked me if I was in Washington at all...ever. I suppose he thought he saw me. Hilarious. Anyway, so turns out he's a law student. Is it acceptable to pick favorites and show a little nepotism? I'm going to go ahead and assume yes, because that's always ok. Free A's for my student, Sun!

 -First Day Excitement!-

Even my 101 night class kids are pretty awesome. Apparently, at CMU you have to take an entrance exam. If you fail it you may still attend the university if you pay double the tuition. At which point, you take night classes. So these kids, from what I've been told, are less intelligent, less motivated, and apparently well-off. But, that's all hearsay (I think). My class is entirely engineering students and males. I started off my first class with them trying to joke around and be light-hearted. However, it was a night class and no one really wanted to be there. So of course there began chatter in the back corner of a group of four boys. I had tried the "friendly, don't embarrass your students as discipline" approach in the last class and it blew up in my face when they stopped listening to me entirely. That was not about to happen again. So I made the instigator sit up with me, and the others sit on other corners of the room. They glared. Hard. It was unfortunate but it had to be done. I think I'm in a unique position because I look so young. I feel like I look like I'm about 15 or 16. It's hard to gain respect from people who are only a few years younger than you. However, playing the strict jerkoff teacher wasn't what my intentions were either. I interacted with those four students more than any of the others, got their names memorized immediately, and joked around with them. I told them to sit wherever they liked the following class but if they continued to disrupt the class they would sit in those seats for the remainder of the semester. After about 10 minutes into the class they, as well as everyone else, was joking around and laughing with me. I think they understood afterwards that it was nothing personal; or at least I hope that. Later in the class I noticed a bunch of loud noises coming from outside. After looking out the window you could see first-year students being lined up in a militant formation, then yelled at, and then forced to jog down the street. I assumed it was a club and kept teaching. A bit later a group of senior engineering students were hovering outside of the classroom door and staring into it. So, I did the logical thing and approached them:

Me-"What's up guys, did you want to join my class? We have extra seats."
Student- "Oh no, sorry teacher, we're waiting for someone."
Me- "Who?"
Student- "All of them..."
Me- "I'm sorry...why?"
Student- "We have an activity for them."
Me- "Ok, well this class ends in thirty minutes. Come back when it's done, please. Don't sit outside of the classroom either, it's distracting for my students."

Weird interaction right? I finished up our talk and decided to let them out 15 minutes early. They refused. So I asked them why and they said they didn't want to do the activities. Laughing, I said why it can't be that bad what is it? They explained to me the activities. They're gathered by the older engineering students, lined up, forced to chant, then they run. They run for at least two hours around the engineering department while they sing songs from that department and then run up the mountain behind the school. First year students get hazed and apparently it happens in many of the departments. It's also incredibly dangerous, apparently. I imagine so considering they're running up a mountain in the dark for hours on end. When I learned about this I told them they didn't HAVE to do it. I don't see any reason why one person should put another through suffering to make them part of their group. But, that's my opinion on rights of entrance and ceremonies of brotherhood. I voiced it, but had no intention of pushing what I believe in on anyone else. That's there decision to make.And sociologically I get those rituals, they hold a place in history. To disregard them is to excommunicate and alienate yourself from the rest of the group. So yes, they had to do it. At the very least I wanted to make sure they would be ok. I walked them out, from a distance of course. I'm sure if the older students saw them being babysat it would have been worse. Of course, being the rainy season, it started to pour. They were forced to run anyway. As I walked away from the group I ran into one of the shepherding seniors who had sat outside of my classroom. I asked him if the students were ever hurt. He laughed and said no no it's fun! I told him if they came into my class on Monday with bruises, there would be serious issues. Would there actually be issues? No. Would he be able to kick the crap out of me? Hell yes. Regardless, they're good kids and I felt the need to at least stand up for them when the rest of their friends are as helpless as they are. I took solace in their safety a minute later when I asked another group of senior engineers how to get back to the humanities building. They laughed and said I was far away and offered to drive me because it was raining so hard. They assured me on the drive that students do get hurt during the run sometimes but they're not hit by the seniors. Let's hope that's true. So I thanked them for their generosity and kindness and left the school for the night. It was still pouring by the time I arrived at my apartment 30 minutes later. (I stopped for barbeque chicken and sticky rice!)

 -My Class During Hazing-

My 201 kids, though...oh man they're going to be rough. I can tell they're good kids, at least some of them are anyway. But they're sophomores and apparently in the course of one year you just simply stop giving a crap about school or respect. The comparison is hilarious. 101 students- Full uniform, tucked in shirt, straight ties, dress shoes, smiles, polite in class. 201 students- talkative, miscellaneous clothing (if they're in uniform it's tragically torn asunder/unkempt). It's a good thing I've got a savior complex. I will reach these kids! Or at least I'll try really hard until they make me cry in class. That's inevitable, too.

It's going to be a crazy semester but I've got some great kids and some kids that I can't wait to help bring out of their shells. I'm going to learn a lot more from them and they don't even know it. More fun stories later!