Sweet successes

My very own panang curry, made from scratch! (Including the curry paste!)

The Chiang Mai British Council, where
we observed experienced teachers in Week 3

I'm two days away from finishing my CELTA course, and at this point I am quite confident I've made my way successfully! The results of whether we pass or not won't be coming for another few weeks, but I taught my final lesson tonight and finally received an above standard grade! I was very pleased with the lesson: it was a speaking-centered lesson, in which I had students play wedding guests who had varying interests and dislikes and had to sit in an acceptable arrangement. It was an amazing feeling to realize I've come this far in teaching, and the classroom management issues that might have stymied me four weeks ago were an absolute breeze tonight.

N and L making fun of me for something, as usual

In week three, we visited the British Council in groups to observe experienced teachers at work. We sat in unfortunate silence for a few hours to rack up the required observation hours needed for our certificates. This difficult evening was mitigated a bit by the chocolate shop across the street, where we assembled gift boxes for ourselves as a treat.

There has been a fair amount of drama among the cohort, as I expected. I am disappointed by how much some people's behavior has resembled high school exclusion, and I wish everyone could get on with each other equally. I think we would, except for one or two negative Nancies. I feel very accepted and liked by the rest of the group, which I think results from my own openness, which I've tried hard to keep up in spite of the drama.

Adorable toothpicks in our lunch. That skimpy
serving of fries caused a huge "scandal" between
the CELTA cohort and the restaurant staff. Spoiled, we are!

In any case, I was finally able to successfully meet up with my local friends-of-a-friend in Chiang Mai, after Sunday's delightful half-day cooking class. My classmates and I were stuffed full of soup, "drunken noodles" and, in my case, an amazing panang curry, so we took a manicure break and then wandered around the unbelievable night market. I bought a ton of things for myself and others, including my dream skirt, a silk sleeping bag to keep away bed bugs (finally!!), and a pretty folding lamp.

It was a breath of fresh Californian air to talk with these two lovely ladies after a day of cooking and shopping, and they mentioned that their jobs will be open and available to some of my classmates who want to stay in Chiang Mai and teach. I'm not sure how things will work out in that regard, but in any case it's nice to know there's a connection to home somewhere so far from California.

Teaching!

I stayed up super late on Sunday trying to plan my next steps after CELTA. I'm hoping that I can head to Cambodia for a few days so I can take advantage of the Vietnamese consulate there (instead of suffering the scum that is Bangkok) before moving on to a volunteering opportunity in Vietnam for March to April. I really want to feel useful while I travel, and I'm lucky that I have a few friends who have done similar things in Southeast Asia and gave me tips. It's scary to realize I don't know exactly what will happen between Chiang Mai and Japan, but it also feels like this is adulthood! I did hear that I will probably not be sent to Japan until June or July. I suppose this means I'll have my birthday in Japan! But I hope I can have an advance celebration back home first. :) 

Learning about the many types of eggplants & veggies at the market! 

Enthusiastically pounding the curry paste,
to make sure I look like "wife material"

CELTA classmates and our cooking guru

Getting a hobby

A comment I received on my assessment from one of our instructors about last night's lesson was, "A nice end to the week, you met your aims and students got a lot out of an engaging piece of authentic material. Give yourself a break at the weekend so you're refreshed for Monday [when you teach again]."

It's true I haven't given myself much of a break while on this course. Strange too, as it's such an undesirable feeling for me to have one main pursuit in my life and not many ideas on how to supplement it. That's how I felt when I was unhappiest at my past jobs - I needed a hobby, as they say. And here I am again, entirely consumed (by choice) by my teaching coursework and lesson planning, which I think everyone else here is as well. The trouble is, we're in a bit of a "Real World"-esque reality show house, where our main thing in common is this course... So hobbies generally don't come up.

In any case, my teacher's comment was a good wake-up call to "get a hobby" this weekend. I've planned a trip to Chiang Mai city to do a cooking course on Sunday, and I plan to socialize a bit tonight and perhaps convince the others to go do karaoke... Saturday I do have some work to do, but perhaps I can go for a bike ride if it doesn't absolutely monsoon the way it did yesterday.

Halfway Through

These bowls of noodles cost us about $1 each

You know who you are... (natural extracts)

Today is the first day of our third week on the CELTA course. By this point, we've all taught 4 lessons of 45 minutes, as well as handed in two lengthy assignments, and been assessed continuously every day. My friend L keeps saying she's heard that the third week is the toughest, and that people cry during this one, even though we have the most free time. It's likely because now we're expected to be more autonomous in our lesson planning, which can be very daunting.

The cabin fever I expected really has been setting in; in the computer lab this week I mused aloud that I feel I've become very boring. My entire personality now seems to revolve around this course, and I can't quite remember what I used to do before I entered this world of training and lesson plan-tailoring! Over the weekend, I did not end up going out drinking, but I did go for an aromatherapy massage! I saw a weird looking roach (?) in the shower as I got ready for my massage, and I wish I had taken a photo of the bathroom... not because it was dirty, but because this bathroom, like others here, was Asian-style, with the toilet, sink and showerhead all in the same space. This was a bit jarring for me at first when I arrived, but interestingly, our resort has a separate shower in the bathrooms.

A night market... but not the night market!

Besides my massage, I also had some interesting food experiences this weekend, such as the $1 noodles in the photo up top. I hear there is a nearby food shop that sells frogs' legs, and my classmates and I are keen to try them. Perhaps the upcoming weekend! I'd really like to get away from the Western food, because, rightly, it's not always the best here. By request, here are some items we've had on our fixed menu at the resort:

• Chicken in coconut milk and galangal
• Roast chicken with herbs, chicken green curry
• Indian-style curry, hot & spicy chicken with green apple (surprisingly, not my favorite)
• Deep fried tofu, chicken breast with mushroom sauce
• Fried fish with sweet chili sauce, omelette soup

Delicious banana rotee with chocolate was only $1!

This weekend, I tried to meet up with some friends of friends in Chiang Mai city for the Sunday night market, but despite (or because of??) how dolled up we girls got, the driver misunderstood us and took us to, well, a market... but it wasn't the night market we expected. I was unable to contact these nice people, so I did a bit of browsing, and then got some delicious banana "rotee" (apparently the correct spelling is roti, and here's what I found that I think approximates the idea) to ease my guilt. We're going to try again next weekend.

We grabbed a tuk-tuk back to the resort, and got caught in a slight rainstorm; the four of us (our male companion who isn't in the pictures was directing us) got pretty soaked, and we thought we were lost for a second! But we managed to get back safe and sound, if not dry.

Beautiful girls from all over the world, in a song thaew

Bars and birthdays

Car-cessories in the parking lot of Big C (the hypermarket)

Fruit and veggies alongside meal food at the market

Some of today's photos were taken at the local market — not to be confused with supermarket or hypermarket — and some of them were taken at our classmate's birthday celebration, which I proudly organized and secret-ized, to great success on Sunday.

But let's rewind to Friday night... a night of very little true debauchery, but one of fine memories and general good spirits. We were all exhausted and relieved to be at the end of our first week, and had been looking forward to a night out, so we gathered ourselves (11 of the 13) and made our way to the local Western bar advertised by one of our teachers (!). The patrons of the place were about 100% Western, unless I missed a stray Thai customer here or there, but the owners and operators were all Thai. The lot of us CELTA nerds got drinks and promptly took over one of the larger seating areas. I'll try to get photos, as I think we plan to go back again this week!

Sunday's lunch outdoors at a local shop

I was so pleased to have such a good crowd around me, and one of our teachers even joined us at the pub. He told us that it's not always the rule for classmates to get along, and he's even had a few groups where only two people would talk to each other! We all balked at that and expressed gratitude for each other. I had some really nice conversations, and as the night wore on, I also had a really nice time of chaotically demonstrating my best English accent, to mixed reviews. Some of those reviews were gleaming, for the record. Then again, Brits are pretty good at sarcasm. Who knows!

The nail salon

We stayed out till about 3, which really tells you something about the company. I had an awesome time with everyone, and can't wait to do it again. The next day, Saturday, I cobbled together a handmade card for our classmate whose birthday was Sunday, and went around to have people sign it. I then did my poolside lounging and started on our beast of a first assignment. I won't get into details, but suffice to say that the teachers' estimate of our workload time was 8 hours — for just one assignment! And by the end, some of us have spent more than 10 hours. Saturday night, I slipped the birthday card under E's door after she'd gone to bed and studied the night away.

Making a wish (I love her earnest expression here)

Sunday, I was "knackered" from the workload, so I went with my UK friend L for an afternoon break. We decided to check out the local market for lunch and get some due relaxation in the form of pedicures and massage. By this point my toes and toenails were truly a sight, so this was non-negotiable. As well, I picked up a cake at the local bakery for E, and smuggled it into the resort's restaurant fridge with help from the kitchen staff. I had been drilling everyone on our course since Friday to make sure they were around at 8 p.m. for cake.

My persistence paid off, and I even managed to get E in place for the big moment; the staff brought out the cake in all its glory, they played a birthday fanfare over the speakers, and we all sang to her. It was a really wonderful moment and I felt so happy it had all worked out right.

PSA

Wow, CELTA is no joke! I've been extremely busy the past few days, and perhaps unwisely took a long morning of poolside lounging today to ease my stress, before diving back in headlong to a very weighty and time-consuming assignment. I know I haven't Skyped with a fair number of you in a while, and I miss you. Let's just say, I'll do my best to be online between 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. CA time, if nothing else, starting Sunday night! Email me for my Skype name. :)

To come:

• The classmates' first night out (survey says: "social O," i.e. fantastic, in many more words than that)
• My second lesson. And when I say "my lesson" I mean ones I teach; we do participate actively in our own training classes for about 5 hours a day.
• Weekend plans

British slang of the day:

• Take the mick/the piss out of someone: to make fun of someone. Yes, this was in Harry Potter, and yes, British people really use it! Apparently, this is used often, while my pet favorite from The Inbetweeners, "to be on the blob" for "lady times," is used less. Example: "Why did you make that hand motion?" "Oh, I'm just taking the piss out of her."
• Moreish: yummy, something you want "more" of. For example, "These chips are really moreish!" An American equivalent is simply the word "addictive," which incidentally, we really overuse.

Teaching is tough

This pool gets hardly any use from us CELTA nerds.

The smokers are the majority, but hold your prejudices; they're a nice bunch.

I quite like the idea of showing pictures without necessarily going on for ages about them. So, the picture theme of this post will be our beautiful countryside resort, and you can enjoy the photos through the captions. The text theme of this post will be a recap of this very difficult and interesting week.

First off, a general feeling to share: this course is hard for me. I remember hearing in anecdotes and the initial CELTA interview that sometimes the people who have it the hardest are the ones who have taught before, because their methods get turned upside-down. I figured I wouldn't have any trouble there, since I don't have an official credential or anything like that. But what I lack in certificates I make up for in experience classroom time and lesson planning, which nonetheless appears to have been child's play compared to the real science of teaching EFL (English as a foreign language).

Our amazing administrative wizard and a peek at the library/computer lab.

I was confident in my first lesson on Tuesday night; I taught an extensively planned 45 minute lesson first, and then two of my classmates followed suit. I didn't really have a framework of what to look out for, besides two days' worth of learning about teaching, but the course trainers went relatively easy on us. My lesson execution was deemed "to standard" on a scale of not to standard/below standard/to standard/above standard. We've been getting tons of feedback and new techniques, as well as a slew of papers and terminology, which so far has really been one of my downfalls. My memory isn't the best, so I have to rely on pitch perfect organization to remember what I need to do — thus my Googling "weekly planner print cute" to tidy up my to-do lists. (The "cute" was made fun of a bit by classmates, but I say, what's the point in having a boring planner when you could have a cute one?)

My room has two beds, but not every room does.
I'm quite unsure what to do with the second one,
and I don't think I should move it. Suggestions?

I yearn for organization to a fault, though; it makes me feel bogged down in details so I lose sight of the underlying goals for teaching. For instance, we're supposed to improve each week on classroom management, our probing teacherly question formation, and various other teaching techniques. Tonight, many of my students had a hard time with my instructions, and that led me to feel very discouraged. My teammates told me the lesson went well, but I still felt very disappointed and thus generalized to myself that the lesson didn't go well. For homework I'm supposed to do a self-evaluation, and hopefully sleeping on it will remind me of a few positive things I did.

I do really feel like everyone around me is a good-natured person at heart, and they're always there for a laugh or a kind word when I need it. The Brits especially have such a unique sense of humor that I love. I look forward to every meal and break time, because all of us manage to talk about such roaringly random things, sometimes funny but often serious and deep as well. It's a testament to these folks' natures that we all get along. I'll have to remember to revisit these sentiments when I start taking them for granted, as I expect will happen...

The poolside eating area, where we're served four times a day.

The latest in my non-course adventures was a trip to the doctor this morning. Our lovely admin helped me tremendously by calling the office yesterday when I asked her, and we set an appointment for 9:30, since breakfast is from 8:30-9:30 and then class doesn't start till 11:30. The office is about a ten minute ride away in a song thaew or red multipassenger cab, which is our resort's proffered contract vehicle. I rode with our fearless driver and his adorable baby boy, who dryly refused to acknowledge my English baby talk, in favor of a fascinating Hamtaro clip on the vehicle's DVD player. The driver was kind enough to wait for me and return at the end of my appointment, while I discovered that I'll be just fine but need to drink 4 bottles of water per day and purchase some papaya, pineapple and other safe fruits to improve my internal... systems.

Looking a little scrubby in the posh bathroom
(look at those fancy double doors!).

I was so grateful to have a doctor who spoke perfect English and had a bedside manner to rival that of any doctor I've had in the States. She explained everything perfectly and sent me on my way, meds in hand, to ride back with driver and baby. Before I remembered to drink my daily dose of perspective, I felt a little miffed to spent 750 baht on the medicine and 250 more on the cab ride, which amounts to about $40. Lord knows that's better than I'd get in the US without insurance. The CELTA folks and I chatted about how absurd it is that, until the healthcare reforms kick in, Americans have been forced to live with illness because they can't afford care. What an unnecessarily vicious cycle.

 Today I leave you with a linguistic riddle, much debated between the "posh English crowd" (Brits and Aussies) and... well, me. The other American was demure enough not to argue. Here is the riddle: You are inside for some time, working or whatever it is that you might do indoors, and other people are inside with you. You glance out the window after a while and are surprised to see puddles on the ground, but sunshiny skies. You look at someone in the room with surprise, not realizing the change in weather. What single sentence might you say about the weather to your friend/neighbor/coworker? Give a few examples! Think of your first natural reaction; don't overanalyze it! I really do want to know your thoughts, so leave a comment! ;)

The view from the shower really underlines the remoteness of the place.

Second day snippets

• We received lengthy instructions on how to behave around the resort. Some make perfect sense, culturally: don't dip just your foot in the pool without swimming, because Thai people are sensitive about feet and might be put off by your weird foot gestures. However, some advice simply struck us as darkly hilarious: when you leave the resort, be sure to bring a stick, "because the dogs are annoying."
• I've received two offers from English schools in Japan, and I'm very excited to start the process for my preferred option. I feel lucky to have such a choice!
• A fellow wavy-haired friend on the course has a hair straightener, so I've been saved the sad fate of four weeks' worth of updos.
• Every day I'm remembering why teachers are my favorite kind of people: we're sensitive, organized, sharp as tacks, funny and obsessed with learning. No wonder we get along! I have a bit of dread building up for the moment when cabin fever sets in and we start irritating each other, though.
• Brit/Aussi slang of the day: a braid is a plait (rhymes with "flat"), and paper napkins are serviettes (sometimes).
• There exists a Thai superstar called Pancake. Our students do, in fact, know what "pancake" means, and they are unfazed by the absurdity of someone calling herself one while also holding the informal title of "Thai superstar."

Chiang Mai beginnings

At the risk of sounding cliché, I can't believe I've only had one day on my CELTA course, because my cohort and I have learned so much already. Today was an incredibly intensive day, and although it was broken up with plenty of breaks, not to mention included meal service and an unbelievably posh resort locale, my brain and body are quite exhausted.

Thank goodness for experienced traveler friends who alerted me of the dress code!

As I take you on the journey that was today's exciting start, please enjoy this speckling of temple photos I took while wandering around the Old City of Chiang Mai prior to arriving at the course. They mostly consist of temple snapshots, plus a cat that looks remarkably like a skinny little carp.

One of the major highlights of my trip so far are the ladies and gentlemen on my CELTA cohort. I was surprised to be only one of two Americans in a group of 12; the others are mostly Brits with a few Aussies and one each from South Africa and Canada to round out the rest. When asked why he made the move out of England, one of our course trainers answered simply, "Because I'm from England."

Another standout takeaway is the nature of our class schedule: always interactive, intensely practical and super fun for me. I love a good meta moment, so you can imagine my glee when we were given a Thai lesson to demonstrate a few techniques we'll be using on our Thai learners when we start teaching them English. Foreign language lesson + lesson about teaching = Alex's dream come true. Give me a well done language course every day for the rest of my life and I'm absolutely set.

On a similar linguistic note, I'm supremely entertained by all the mannerisms from my British classmates, and I'm so curious as to what strange turns of phrase I'm going to come away with. Will I end up sounding condescending or simply odd?

Can you believe this was essentially down the block from my hostel?

The food has been amazing. We're provided three meals a day, plus afternoon tea (!). Naturally, we've paid for it in the course, but I'm very grateful, because I can't imagine having to think about preparing food amid all this learning and planning! We have about a million papers to keep track of, and I'm shocked to think that some people do the CELTA with a daily commute on public transit and all. We get a nice Western breakfast plus Thai options, and so far have had mostly Thai food for our other meals. It's fantastic!

Last night when about half of us arrived at the resort, we took a little trip to the "hypermarket" (think Carrefour, or a shopping mall that has a grocery store in it) for school supplies. There were a few other things I'd wanted to track down too, having forgotten them - notably, I didn't bring my hair straightener because in the past that hasn't worked well with the foreign voltages. However, the Thai employees at this "Big C" store simply shook their heads when I mimed flat-ironing my hair, and I realized, Of course! ...Everyone's hair in Thailand is already straight. Hilarious... Braids and waves for me I suppose.

Finally, I've been super homesick in the days leading up to today, surely due to a combination of jetlag, too much downtime, and a very emotional few days prior to my departure. I miss my friends more than I expected (yes, I was heartless in the past). I guess it just goes to show that, somewhere between the age of 22 and 24, I learned to miss people properly. What a relief to know I'm not made of stone, since my lack of homesickness in moves past has been rather unsettling.

It has been very soothing and enjoyable to read The Kindness of Strangers, a gift book given to me by my wonderful principal at work back home. It's brought me back to reality when I needed it most over the past few days, as well as rekindled the spirit for traveling I seemed to have lost in the flurry of homesickness and 32-hour flights.

A carp if you ever saw one, am I right?

Night Thunderstorms

I've never actually seen a firefly. In the United States, they are native to the East Coast, but generally their existence remains for me an enigma seen only in stories of the upper middle class and summer garden parties à la Great Gatsby.

In any case, the term luciole in French has a strong hold of number two in the list of my favorite words. Number one is, of course, rêverie. That is why my previous blog was an ode to "luciolita." And now we have "A Firefly in Thailand." All this is simply to explain the origin of this blog title (luciole is a firefly), not to really have it make sense...!

It is a little after 9 p.m. here in Chiang Mai and I've woken up to a thunderstorm. I thought I might be productive this evening and do a cooking course of some kind, but there that went, didn't it? I Skyped with my friends around seven hours ago and immediately felt so homesick that I had to go to sleep. What a boring afternoon...

Other than that, of course, I did a fair amount of exploring: a long walk for breakfast in the morning, which included my first Thai convenience store run; a couple hours of logistical planning (I've been offered a very complicated job in Japan for next month); and then again a nice long afternoon walk for books, lunch, bank and market time.

The highlight of my day was, I think, stumbling upon a comparatively inconspicuous temple down the street. More peaceful and understated than I expected, it still awed me as I explored the various gardens and shrines. Posting pictures has been a little challenging, but I hope I can fix that soon.

My lowlight has certainly been the homesickness. Who knew it worked like karma? The less of it I had in New York and France, the more it is compounded here; it doesn't help that I wake up at times when everyone at home is asleep. Hmph.