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Sawasdee Kah!!! As the immigration officer stamped my passport, I am officially in Bangkok, Thailand.
My journey begins when I was so burned out from work as a nurse that I decided to see what else was available. I wanted a job wherein I could have proper sleep, bigger pay-check, where I can travel, talk to people , and be surrounded by people from different backgrounds.
I think the gods must have been listening because after I took the exam in IELTS, my instructors commended me in my command of the English language. I googled "English teaching" and I discovered Teach English as a Foreign Language or TEFL for short.
Again, the gods must have a sense of humor that I ultimately decided to take it in Bangkok, Thailand ------the second country that I ever visited but swore was on the bottom list of my places to come back to for numerous reasons.
The first day of class, I was nervous as hell. I remember thatI was getting dressed, the zipper of my jeans ripped. My aunt was laughing so hard but luckily she had an extra pair of jeans for the day.
My teacher ended up to be a man named Albert. He's South African and his voice was soothing, deep, and it had a distinct accent that it kinda reminded me of a character from the Lion King. My classmates ended up to be very interesting characters -----We have an ex-cop, an ex-hollywood worker, a tall but very shy giant, a sweet angelic lady, a rock-star vibed guy, a cool chilled out dude, a serious looking but fun guy , a brit who I just wanted to punch the hell out of for always bugging me (but he's funny tho), a Mr. Marlboro , and a little miss nurse who sounds American, talks sh*t like an, American only with a seemingly better grammatical sense yet has never been to America. My classmates looked at me with some sort of wonder like Winnie the Pooh discovering some sort of alien-exotic honey pot.
As the weeks go by, I have learned that Thai culture is very interesting and unique and so are the students. A lot of them would look at me and say in high tones "YOU LOOK THAI, BUT YOU NO SPEAK THAI WHAT ARE YOU?"
( What am I? Well assuming the person was a native speaker and I was my smart-ass, often feisty self with a hint of sarcasm and vanity, I would definitely say something like,...I'm a creature with a desirable amount of proportionate ASSets. )
I politely told them where I was from and why I became a teacher. I can tell you 8 pages of how my experiences are but one of the best during my TEFL teacher-training skills was the time when the Thai staff that could speak English told me that the students approached them at the end of the class and told them to tell me "that they loved me as a teacher, whenever I teach...they are always attentive and it is very easy to understand the lesson." (KLEENEX please sob***)
The feeling that your students will say that and the effort they showed to reach out to you and to communicate those words gave me great joy as much as some patients are appreciative of your interventions as a nurse.
End of January, I graduated with a final grade of "A" and here is a pic of that special day....Second graduation for me (Hint, I'm the one looking tall in high heels....oh damn!!! Fine yes I am small but I did emphasize that I wore heels so I seem taller than I normally am especially with my classmates who are mostly male and 5"10" up lol!!!)
What happens to the rest of my adventure?
It gets better than this so keep reading on til the next blog!!!
Graduation day. The 2 gentlemen are Mr. James Parmelee, (Director) and Albert Venter (Instructor)
