I started teaching at my new school in Thailand.
The first thing I noticed was the school had no air-conditioning and it was July and I was overweight at the time. So yeah it was hot. And no elevator.
Lucky for me they gave me a book to teach and even luckier the kids had the books as well.
And guess what else? They gave me flash cards! Most schools in Thailand don’t give the teacher chalk to write with. So yeah I was happy. They gave me a desk on the top floor which was fine. In the morning there was a decent breeze. I shared the other office with two other Thai teachers they never said a word to me. They barely spoke a word to me which I could understand because I was always afraid to speak another language as well.
The classes were alright. A few classes got really loud after lunch because the kids were able to buy candy from the cafeteria. That’s right candy. None of the Thai teachers seemed very friendly and a few were just rude. Once during lunch I sat down near them and one teacher just gave me a look. That was it. I was done going to the cafeteria and started eating at a nearby restaurant. It wasn’t a happy moment.
The good thing is is we got off work around 3:00PM. I would stop at the fruit stand and get some watermelon. Then, I would arrive home to my air-conditioned apartment and immediately lay down on the bed. I was very tired from teaching. It was a combination of being overweight, teaching and the heat that made me so tired at the end of the day.
I used to go into Bangkok on the weekends. I had a date with a nice Thai girl named Lynn. I met her on the street and her English was good. Lynn worked as a translator and was fun. We met at a cafe and She didn’t try to be something she wasn’t and she had a decent career. I was kind of falling for her. Her friends were nice to me as well. Sometimes we would meet her friends and go get some beers. One night we went out to Ko San Road. It’s the area where all the Westerners come and party and stay. The whole place was Americans and Canadians and British folks. A lot were young and on holiday. We went to some bar and ordered fruity drinks. They served us these huge drinks that were like Kool-aid. I wasn’t a big drinker but it was fun. We went to some club afterwards and there was a DJ and the music was loud. We danced. Everyone was looking at me because I was with these three Thai girls. It was a good night. Ko San Road was alright.
Sometimes, I would go to her apartment which was always a mess. Books and magazines and stuff everywhere. It was in a decent area of BKK so it was more fun to hang out at her place. There was a shooting mall near her and many temples.
We would go to the temples together. In the 1950s the Thai Government moved a lot of Buddha statues to Bangkok for preservation. Sometimes the monks would be at the temple and they would bless you by putting a string around your wrist. The temples were the highlight of BKK. Most of the Buddha statues were beautiful but a few depicted the Buddha starving and emaciated. I was very interested in these buddhas for some reason they really interested me. Why were these created? And why were there so few of them?
Massive Spiders
One day at work I was in the bathroom and was using the toilet stall. After I used the bathroom I was zipping and a giant spider jumped down nearly on top of me. I jumped back about three feet. It was massive and very fast. I’ve never seen anything like it. I never went to the bathroom again without looking up at the ceiling first!
I was getting comfortable in BKK but I wasn’t making enough money. My girlfriend said I could live with her but I decided to take a job in the Middle East. It was sad and maybe I should have stayed but I left.