In medias res

 As I expected, a lot of impulses and stimuli have come to my life after I had finally broken free from the hotel. I must admit, I miss the predictable schedule of that. I feel that I'm surrounded now with so many more things here in my real life, that I can't take all of them at once. 

In the second morning what I spent in the dorm, I woke up to this beautiful sunrise. 

But let's start from the beginning. The school van - as promised - came and picked me up on time, and from the first moment, I felt so much humbleness and gratefulness both from the school's part and from the hotel's part as well. Like I got flooded with presents (which if you already carry two full bags) is not the best idea, but I was really really grateful for that, as well! :-) I got folk purse, and also an apron that I can (and should) wear when I visit a Buddhist temple (to which I'm looking forward to!). 

When we arrived to the dorm, everything was very strange for me at once, I felt so overwhelmed so that my friend offered it to me that I could stay with her and her family for the night. It was really lovely and I felt secure again to talk in my mother tongue so that was a really nice gesture. I also got to know her family (fell in love with her son at the first sight! Such a cutie pie!!!), and it was nice to relax and sleep for a long time. 

Yes, because before I forget, I have to say that Monday was a day-off for us for Song Krav (do I spell it correctly?), for some kind of national holiday! Therefore, all the Hungarians of Saraburi gathered to eat some nice goulash! =))) Yay! 

If we are at food, did you know that Thailand is the place to be for bubble tea???? *.*

According to my friend's husband, Fire Bear is the best because they burn the sugar on the top of the foam! *.* (Hence the name?)

Yummy! Well, as Hókuszpókusz (sorry, no idea of the English name) in the Smurf's says: life is not only entertainment and games.... :-) I must work really hard here, as well! It's definitely a challenge for me as I'm teaching Grammar and literature to kids who are already fluent in English. So it's not only simple grammar that I'm teaching for exams, but I'll be teaching reading analysis, short stories, poetry, drama (Shakespeare! *.*) and such... as for the grammar part, I'm going to teach it deeper and with more professionalism and I'll be teaching punctuation and phonetics on a higher level, as well! (Or at least, that's the idea.)

I'm going to teach 9th and 10th Grades. 

The school building is amazing! (Okay, in the mornings, I always manage to get lost -.-, but still :-D ). You know, when you are an undergraduate at the university for teaching, you learn how spacious and what a school building should look like, well, this school completes all the expectations for that, so it's really cool! Spacious garden, look: 

and there is even a swimming pool that I need yet to discover! Also lots of frangepani trees: 

The environment is nice and the school buffet is huge! It offers bruncher (breakfast, lunch and dinner) for a real low price, so I can't complain! :-) In the school there is a card system. This means, I got the card the first day. I need to enter with this one, and also exit with this one (magnetic) but I also need to wave it to the school guard if I want to enter or exit out of the opening hours of the school. Plus, I can top up some money on it and when I eat in the school cantine, I'll pay with this one! :-) It's really cool! I have put all my keys on it too, as I have a homeroom (graduates are my babies) and thus I have my own room, as well which I can lock, plus my room in the dorm. :-) 

Homeroom teacher means that I'm responsible for one class. They are really nice and kind. They were so patient with me when I couldn't remember their names for the first time and also when I called them, I mispronounced their names so many times! :-/ But they are great! I'm looking forward to this new experience too as I have never been a head teacher before! :-) All I need to do is that I tick them off the list at the beginning of the day (at flagline) and every Wednesday, there is a class called "7 habits". To my understanding, it's more or less like a drama class, where we can play situations and also I can teach them a bit more successful learning strategies, a bit about life long learning and such. :-) (During my quarantine time, the school told me several times that my class was very excited to meet me. :-) It felt also very nice!) 

But oh gosh, I must tell you that it's so difficult to understand each other with masks on! :-( It's not only the accent but also the pronunciation is not so sharp (mine, as well), with these masks. Of course, I understand that it's a necessity, but still. That's another reason why my class is so great: they are patient and they don't mind repeating their sentences over and over again! :-) 

All in all: I'm content but very happy. Whereas on the first day, on Tuesday, we did only administration, the second day I had some chance to observe some classes, as well. I already learnt new things, really nice and cooperative warm-ups from colleagues with social distancing included! What's more, it felt so nice today that my room neighbours have checked upon me how I am doing! :-) They even asked me how my first classes were. (Today I taught 4 classes already, plus, we had  Wai Kru day as well.) My students explained to me that Kru means teacher and Wai Kru day means that students ask their teachers to accept them as students. It's a kind of promise too, very formal in the thai culture, that students are actually willing to learn and be hard-working. The ceremony was really touching for me, with all the incents burning in front of Buddha and the Thai King, as well. That was the first time when I really started feeling: wow, I'm really in Asia! 

(Oh, and in the big hall there is obviously no aircon, which I don't really mind... but uhh, honest, standing there for the flagline, I even sweat from cavities and pits of my body, whose existence I was unaware of until now. And the constant change between 35 and 25 degrees makes me tired, too!) 

An absolutely organic bouquet of flowers was given to all teachers and administrators working at the school today. 

Some parts of the decoration

I'm really overwhelmed with all the care and also tasks that the school provides to me. It's nice but I am adjusting still. As a wrapping up, I'd like to share two more pictures with you today:

School-food: typical Thai soup. 

School cat who was attending one of the flaglines the other day! :-D

+1: 

My first friend and loyal visitor, Liz, the lizzard. She's a great companion, eats all the mosquitos around, always comes at the same time and relatively silent. I love watching her (never thought in my entire life that I'll feel towards a reptile so much, but seems like Thailand will shift some paradigms in me too.)

(On a sidenote: can you imagine a school when in a discussion, sexual orientation comes up, and students can talk about it really open-mindedly, without picking up on each other, or whispering? It was such a wonderful experience. Honestly, can't wait to teach them about Oscar Wilde!) :-)))))