Greetings from Chiang Rai

This morning I woke up around 7:00am. One hour later I was introducing myself to the 800 students here at Princess Chulabhorn's College (PCC) in Chiang Rai. The morning ceremony included the National Anthem, some prayers, a message from the Director (temp) and introductions from the three new American teachers (this of course includes me). I had been practicing my introduction in Thai for a couple days, so I believe it went really well. This morning I even called P'Tip at the last minute and she gave me another useful phrase to use. At the end of the ceremony they presented us each with a gorgeous bouquet of flowers and then we took photos.

My introduction sounded something like this:

Sawatdii ka khun kruu la nak re-an. De-chan cheu Paige, nam sagoon Battcher. Mah jahk America, rat Kentucky ka. Dii jai tee mah bpen kruu pasa ung-grit tee nee ka. Touk kon na-rak. Rusik dtuun dten maak ka. Kawp khun ka.

Translation:

Hello teachers and students. My name is Paige, last name Battcher. I am from America, from the state of Kentucky. It is a pleasure to be a teacher of english here. Everyone is lovely (this statement provided for a lot of smiles and laughter). I am feeling very excited. Thank you.

Today was my first full day of teaching. It went really well. I had three lessons today, each fifty minutes in duration. For the first lesson with these new students, I repeated many lesson plan ideas I had used at Mahatputtaram Girls School in Bangkok, and simply spent the full class period introducing myself. For what seems like a selfish topic, to spend nearly all of one class period talking about myself, I believe the students are genuinely interested in learning about me.

PCC is a co-ed boarding school with more than 800 students. The school provides education for students grades M1 through M6. This is secondary school and is equivalent to 7th grade through 12th grade in the U.S. I have the pleasure of teaching M1 (7th grade) and M4 (10th grade) students. The campus at PCC is beautiful. There is a library, the main school building, plenty of sports facilities and fields, a cafeteria, dorms for the students, and houses for the faculty including the house I am living in. The walk to dinner every night, which is provided for the students and offered to me, is a quick two or three minute walk. Along the way, beyond the rice fields and gardens, is the most beautiful skyline of mountains I have seen in a long time.

The last period each day finishes at 3:20pm. After that, students hangout in and around the school and dorms. Around 4:30pm most students participate in a sport of their choice. I have been told I can participate in any of the many sports (yay!). Tomorrow, a group of M3 students has invited me to go running in the afternoon. As for today, I am headed to Yoga with some of the female students in the girl's dorm. It will be led by my mentor teacher, P' Taw, here at the school!

Until next time. Remember to smile.