far from home, making a home
i'm due for a new post to my blog, i'm told. it is true- after months of talking about, planning for, dreaming of bangkok, we have arrived. it's our sixth day in this country so so many miles from chicago, and this time we're not here for a visit. or a holiday. or a honeymoon. or a glimpse. we're here for a year, and all that that entails.
our flat is spacious and sweet- two bedrooms, a large bathroom, a kitchen, a living room, and many tiny ants. chicago this is not! but the ants we will deal with, just as the other surprises we will deal with. in the meantime, we are settling in, decorating. buying amazing ceramic dishes, covering the couch with gorgeous rich material. drinking bottles and bottles of water. complaining of the heat. meeting our fellow teachers. beginning, in some minute but significant way, to fit.
after only a few days here, i am unable to fathom that we have 12 months ahead of us. i am excited, i am wearied, i am hopeful, i am thrilled, i am anxious. but above all i am confident that we are about to have the best year yet. today at school we found out what classes we'll be teaching- i found that i will have a homeroom class (5B), that i will be heading the Great Books committee, that i am expected to revamp the current yearbook. in one day, i have been given many responsibilities- why? i am certainly capable to using my imagination and being stirred to passion about literature and inspiring my students. but i think i am valuable in another way to this school. i am american- besides taher, the only one here. the other teachers? asians, all of them. i will bring something fresh to the way it works here- i will not revolutionize the curriculum- god, no. nobody wants that. but i will certainly let my ideas carry me away, and the impression i get is that nobody has done that here for a little while.
this will be a teaching experience unlike my last one. here, i am not only a foreigner out in the streets of bangkok, but also within the school walls. in cairo, i was one of an all-western faculty. this is not the case here. i am being given license to stir the pond a bit- this is a pond that needs some stirring. the principal has great plans for this coming year and i am proud to say he is excited to watch what i can do.
monday will be a fun day. please stay tuned!
i'm due for a new post to my blog, i'm told. it is true- after months of talking about, planning for, dreaming of bangkok, we have arrived. it's our sixth day in this country so so many miles from chicago, and this time we're not here for a visit. or a holiday. or a honeymoon. or a glimpse. we're here for a year, and all that that entails.
our flat is spacious and sweet- two bedrooms, a large bathroom, a kitchen, a living room, and many tiny ants. chicago this is not! but the ants we will deal with, just as the other surprises we will deal with. in the meantime, we are settling in, decorating. buying amazing ceramic dishes, covering the couch with gorgeous rich material. drinking bottles and bottles of water. complaining of the heat. meeting our fellow teachers. beginning, in some minute but significant way, to fit.
after only a few days here, i am unable to fathom that we have 12 months ahead of us. i am excited, i am wearied, i am hopeful, i am thrilled, i am anxious. but above all i am confident that we are about to have the best year yet. today at school we found out what classes we'll be teaching- i found that i will have a homeroom class (5B), that i will be heading the Great Books committee, that i am expected to revamp the current yearbook. in one day, i have been given many responsibilities- why? i am certainly capable to using my imagination and being stirred to passion about literature and inspiring my students. but i think i am valuable in another way to this school. i am american- besides taher, the only one here. the other teachers? asians, all of them. i will bring something fresh to the way it works here- i will not revolutionize the curriculum- god, no. nobody wants that. but i will certainly let my ideas carry me away, and the impression i get is that nobody has done that here for a little while.
this will be a teaching experience unlike my last one. here, i am not only a foreigner out in the streets of bangkok, but also within the school walls. in cairo, i was one of an all-western faculty. this is not the case here. i am being given license to stir the pond a bit- this is a pond that needs some stirring. the principal has great plans for this coming year and i am proud to say he is excited to watch what i can do.
monday will be a fun day. please stay tuned!
...Natural is the static
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