Kindergarten Monday

Monday began with 3-5 year olds.  To the left is the kindergarten school that I was observing as a part  of my training.  The kids were a little crazy since it was Monday, getting back in the swing of things.  Two girls I am training with teach these 32 kids.  Yes, several of them are still in diapers.  There are teacher assistants (TAs) in the room that take care of the bodily fluids and strict discipline.  These TAs carry rulers with them.  They don't always use the rulers, they are more of a threat than anything. But I did see a kid get a firm tap while I was there.  The kids all wear uniforms.  Girls in plaid dresses and boys in plaid shorts with pale blue button-down shirts.

Shoes at the door, I sat barefooted on the tile flooring within the small school house and observed the kids, learning fruit and color associations.  The kids started out well enjoying some songs they learned last week; a hello song and a name song.  The new song was, Peel Bananas. Some kids were into the songs, others were more interested in straying off.  I found it interesting to watch the different behaviors with such a large group of young kids.  Overall, typical behavior for the given age group. There was a little boy that kept smiling at me, he was turned away from the activity circle.  Pretty cute.  Two little girls would watch me and would randomly come sit by me individually.  They would each take turns.  One would sit by me and smile and say nothing. The other, in the picture to the right is showing me her stickers that she just got in class.  Adorable!  She talked very softly and would point out the colorful fruit stickers and smile at me.  As I continued to observe the rest of the class, I watched kids tearing each other's stickers, some eating the stickers, and others calmly involved in the activity.  At the end of class the head teacher gave me and the two teachers lunch, rice and a vegetable tofu soup.  The soup had glass noodles, carrots, tofu, and leafy green in it. It was simple but good.

After class I went to my dorm, had lunch and FaceTimed.  I was a bit tired for Thai class, but was ready to make the most of it. Ten minutes in, all the power went out.  The power outage took out the half the street for about 45 minutes.  The classroom was rather dark so we had a break.  I went to work on some projects.  The lights resumed and we returned to our classes.  I rather enjoyed the blackout. The picture to the left is a typical electrical situation in Thailand.  This one isn't bad, as it's actually more than 6 feet off the ground.  If you look at most of the power lines here, they look like clumps of tangled wires.

In the evening I grabbed supper with the girls, we wanted to eat outside.  When we got to the eating place, the menu had pictures with all of the food. Turns out the pictures are nothing like the actual food you get.  My friend ordered garlic stuffed pork.  When the plate came, it looked like she got fried, sliced bird necks.  The looked like tubes of meat that were cut in 1" pieces.  She was a trooper and tried them, but couldn't chew them.  We were certain she did not get pork.  We still have no idea what it was, the waiter assured us that it was garlic stuffed pork.  There was nothing garlic or stuffed in these fried meat chunks.  I ordered cashew chicken with stir-fried vegetables, but they were out. So, I asked for something similar.  I ordered the stir-fried vegetables with spicy Thai chicken.  I was surprised and confused when I saw my plate.  I was so hungry, I thought I would eat anything...wrong.  The first bite was a very fibrous vegetables that was a combination of bitter fiery horseradish stewed tree trunk.  I couldn't quite swallow it all, some of it was not chewable.  I think to myself, well the chicken should still be good.  I chopstick through my plate and realize that all the chicken is in the form of chicken bones/joints.  The joints/bones were mostly gristle and fat, I didn't see any meat.  I would say that broth was 'ok,' but I wasn't sure what to do with the rest of the plate.  But all in all, this is probably one of the only not-so-great meals I have had.  It was inexpensive, but I felt bad wasting it.

Today, Tuesday morning, class went well.  I had 4 students today.  I taught them about seasons, seasonal clothing and language articles (a, an, the). For snack, one of the ladies brought bananas and fresh sticky rice.

And in case you are like Nick, wondering if there is sauerkraut in Thailand... the answer is 'yes.'