Sick Days and Normal Days

I haven't posted anything for more then a week now. On Sunday I was going to write about a meal out and a afternoon/evening/night out at Jatujak market. But when Sunday rolled around I was sick, a bad stomach bug. I spent the day in bed and went into school for the morning on Monday, but ended up going home after teaching one lesson. I took the next day off, and went back to school on Wednesday. I'm feeling better, but still a little iffy.

Officer at Jatujak market, someone's got to police these mean streets

So for this post, I wanted to talk about my weekday routine (when not sick).

At 5:30am my alarm goes off, and by 5:45 I've crawled out of bed for a shower. I'm out of the door by 6:30 and get the little Mazda bus to school. For the first couple of weeks I'd been getting it outside my appartment. The problem was most of them are full, and I could wait twenty minutes for a bus with just a single space. I've since been walking up to the next stop, where fresh, empty buses arrive. There is a massive push to get on, and not many people are happy to sit on the edge. This doesn't bother me, and I kinda like it. You get a real breeze because it's already between 30 and 33 degrees by that time, and I'm wearing trousers and a shirt. The bus takes about 20 minutes and costs 6 Baht (12p).

Before I get into school, I'll grab something (normally something small) for breakfast. I get this from either the market next to the school or some of the food stalls that line the streets surrounding the school. Breakfast will set me back between 10 and 20 Baht (20-40p). I sign in at school around 7:00am. I was asked to stand outside and greet people from 7:15 but this has come to an end, a few days I was told I didn't have to, so instead I went up to the top floors to talk with the 6's. It was decided that this was a far better use of my time in the morning so now that's what I do for about 45 minutes every morning. Just talk with the 6's, they practice some English and they really enjoy teaching me Thai.

At 7:45 the bell goes and everyone lines up for assembly in the playground. The flag is raised and the national anthem (I'm assuming it's the national anthem) is sung. Prayers are made and depending on the day, various talks are given, or monks come and more prayers are given, or I'm handed the microphone and I do a little dance like the hokey cokey, heads shoulders knees and toes or something kinda similar. Sadly the playground is too small to give each student enough space to teach them all Thriller.

Raising the flag in the rain

The first lesson starts at 8:30. The number of lessons I teach each day varies between 2 and 5 (out of 6 slots). When I'm not teaching, I'm in the 'staff room', an air conditioned room with computers and internet. Here I print out lesson resources and make plans.

Lunch time starts at 11:30 and lasts one hour. I'll always eat at least some of the food on offer. Sometimes I head out to get an real fruit slush-puppy from the market and then head upstairs where both 6's and both 5's are generally in one room watching a film or doing something and just talk with some of them.

At 13:30 lessons begin again until 15:30. At 15:30 I will generally spend time with all the kids around the playground for about half an hour or so. Some days I chat with one of the other teachers who speaks really good English. The time I leave really varies day to day, sometimes around 16:00 and sometimes as late as 17:00, just depending on what's going on.

Play time

After school I head into the market to get grub. A drink and dinner, depending on what it is (western or Thai, with western being more expensive) costs between 50 and 100 baht (1 and 2 quid). I'll normally spend about 50-20 minutes in the market before heading to the Mazda bus stop and heading home. I never wait for the mazda bus back. There are lines and lines of them, and they wait until they are full (they hold between 9 and 12 people (the possible extra three depend on how many people sit in the front and how many people are willing to sit on the edge and outside)) and set off.

I'm normally home no later then 18:00. Whatever time I get home, I almost straight away get changed into my swimming stuff and head up to the 19th. I swim every evening for about an hour. There is very rarely other people there. In two weeks of swimming every night, only twice was someone else there and both times they left before me.

What I do on an evening varies. Sometime I head out, to look around the various malls and mall-markets or just go downstairs to the shop, there are a fair few people there and some of them speak good English. It's a nice place to relax and have a beer. I don't go to bed late, a 5:30 alarm insures that! I'm normally asleep well before 23:00, normally more like 22:00.

So that's my average day. I'll try and keep on top of this blog more often, but i definitely don't have the time I did last time I was here to post something new every two or three days! But when I do, I'll try and make sure it will be worth checking out! Hope you enjoyed, and don't forget to check out the vlogs! A new batch is on the way soon.