Everything I know about Thailand - in one page

“Two words you’ll never hear- Wayne quit” – Lil’ Wayne

With my departure in less than a week, I thought I’d talk a little bit about what I’ll be doing in Thailand. Also, take note that I’ve written two posts and Davis hasn’t written any. You might say, “Well Mark, hasn’t David just landed in a foreign country where he’s experiencing severe jetlag, culture shock, and desperately trying to get his bearings?” Yeah, you might say that. I think Vince Vaughn said it best in Wedding Crashers with “Rule #76: no excuses! Play like a champion!” Step up your blog game, bro.

In early April, I was accepted into a program called CIEE (Council on International Educational Exchange). CIEE provides a lot of teach/study abroad opportunities. Thailand looked awesome, so why not?

I’ll be teaching at Wat Raikhing Wittaya School in Nakhon Pathom. Nakhon Pathom is about an hour west of Bangkok and is known as the birthplace of Buddhism in Thailand. About 170,000 people live there, so it’s not a tiny town.

I’m officially a “Communicative English” teacher, which means my class focuses on the speaking/listening aspects of English. I’ll be teaching eighth graders and sophomores and have 22 sections between those groups. Each section has at least 40 students and I see each section once a week. That means I have about 700 students.

That wasn’t a joke. 700 students. Some schools are structured so that the students only go to a certain class once a week. From what I know, my assignments will be all multiple choice because it’s impossible to grade anything else with a scale that huge. It’s a little daunting but I’m pretty excited to see what it’s like.

So I leave on Oct 9 at 3:30 PM. I’ve got a 16 hour flight to Hong Kong, where I have a 13 hour layover. Not bad right? Only half a day. I’m more excited for all the sick movies they show on international flights- the domestic ones always suck. I got stuck watching The Lucky One the last time I flew domestic. 

 My connecting flight gets me in to Bangkok around 10 AM and I’ll have two days to explore the city before my orientation starts. There are about 200 people in this program, with most of them being recent graduates or a year out of college. There’s a facebook group that allows people to meet each other and ask questions.

I have no idea how CIEE answered people’s questions before the internet. I probably get at least 20 notifications a day with people’s questions. That being said, I'm glad other people have posted these questions so I don't have to. It’s neat that I’ll know young people throughout the country and have a support network when I arrive.

What’s really cool is that I already know a couple people who will be there with me.

-        Andy is a friend from Dayton. He’s got a Fullbright Fellowship and will be teaching in Khon Kaen, a couple hours northwest of Bangkok. He’s got a month in Bangkok for orientation.

-        Claire graduated a year ahead of me at ETHS. We got in touch recently because, well, it’s not every day that someone from your hometown is in the exact same program going to an Asian country. She’ll be in Kanchanaburi, about an hour west of where I’ll be.

-        Meg and Kyle (sorry I’m lumping you two together) worked with me on ASP and are in the CIEE program. Meg was actually my boss on ASP in 2012.  They’ll be in Chiang Rai, which is very far north. They’re also a really cute couple. I’m surprised Hallmark hasn’t tried to get the rights to their Instagram photos yet.

-        Maggie is another friend from ASP and she’s studying abroad in Khon Kaen. Chill.

I’ll have a week-long orientation when I arrive. This will consist of teaching training, language learning, information about Thai culture, and some traveling. We head to Kanchanaburi near the end to sight-see for a bit. After that, I’ve got two weeks in Nakhon Pathom before I start teaching.

Well, that’s all I know so far. Until then I’ll be watching The Hangover Part II on repeat trying to get some cultural knowledge. Countdown is 6 days- can’t wait!

Deuces,

Mark