I think I'm turning 25. I really think so.

For the one and only time in my life I turned 25 on the 25th of February. In Thailand it's also the year 2555 which made my birthday the 25/2/2555. It was a good enough reason for me to celebrate therefore I invited many of my friends to dinner at a local restaurant.
More than 30 people joined me for dinner at Nong Pu restaurant which the foreigners have nicknamed the Cock and Crab as there are large statues of a Cock and Crab at the entrance.
I enjoyed the night eating and drinking with my friends and following dinner we continued onto the usual hangout Sun.Moon bar.

I am not sure how I feel to be 25 but in Thailand it is either a very lucky or unlucky age. Hopefully for me it will be a lucky year.

Hello. My name is Dylan and I need a job.

Teaching in Thailand is a great job. I am really enjoying it and I feel I am suited for the job. Therefore when I was told I did not have a job at the school I am currently teaching at next semester I started on the search for a new school.
Life in Chachoengsao is also good so my first preference is to stay in the city. It is difficult though to know how to get a job. The first attempt to get a job was to visit the schools and personnally deliver my resume. My friend Tim is also looking for a job next semester so the two of us with my girlfriend Prang visited the schools of Chachoengsao to try and get a job.
If it was the students hiring teachers Tim and I would have been giving a job at the first school we visited. One of the students spoke in Thai and Prang translated for us. The student said '"I am in secondary six although if you are teaching next semester I repeat the year."
The second school we visited told Tim and I they only employ British and American staff. Although the teacher said maybe next semester they will only employ British, American and Australian staff. I am still a little confused as to why some schools do not employ Australian staff.
At the end of the day I did not have a job but at least I felt I was getting somewhere and hopefully something comes up soon. Neither Tim or I got offered a job on the day although Prang who already has a secured job was offered a job.

Teaching 800 students

I have just finished teaching for the week and have taught more than 800 students. One of the English teachers left so I am now teaching one lesson a week to 18 different classes in Primary 4, 5 and 6. Before this week I was teaching nine classes twice a week I am now teaching 18 classes once a week and will continue to do so for the next month until the exams.
I have been teaching Primary 5 and 6 therefore it was easy to teach the three Primary 5 classes I had not previously taught. Although teaching Primary 4 is a new experience. There seems to be a large gap between Primary 4 and 5 and its difficult to know how to structure the class.
In every class there is about 45 students therefore I am now teaching more than 800 students a week. I already struggled to remember five students names. I have no hope of remembering any of the students names.
Teaching the three year levels also means I have to write three exams. It could be interesting to write an exam for the Primary 4's having only taught them one lesson.

Jatujak Market

Since arriving in Thailand I wanted to visit the Jatajuk Market in Bangkok so on Sunday Prang and I took a van into Bangkok to visit the Market. I was quite suprised at how clean and organised the market was. I had heard many stories about how crowded and hot the market is although I actually found it quite ok.
I spent the day buying gifts and some new clothes and Prang's help haggling for a better price made everything much cheaper than the set price.
The stall holders have a price for foreigners and a price for Thais. As I was shopping with Prang everything was at Thai prices for me. To get back to Chachoengsao Prang and I caught the train which is a much more pleasent ride than the vans with drivers who seem to compete against each other as to who can drive the quickest. Driving 160 kilometres an hour weaving in and out of trucks on the freeway is not the most comfortable ride.

Teaching teachers

Every Monday after school I teach English to a class of 20 Science teachers. Although I know very little about Science I have been able to keep the teachers amused doing basic Science experiments and teaching Science vocabulary. The level of English among the teachers is quite varied and therefore they work together to try and explain the English words and translate to each other in Thai when necessary.

Valentine's Day

The most significant change in my life in the last month is that I know have a girlfriend. My girlfriend Prang is a Maths teacher in Secondary at St Louis School, the same school I teach at. For the last few months I had spoken to her a few times although I had never had the courage to ask her out for dinner.
One Friday night in January I decided it was time to ask her to dinner and I felt good about it. A few weeks later Prang was my girlfriend. The first big test though was Valentine's Day and it wasn't a great success.
I had no idea how much of a big deal Valentine's Day was in Thailand therefore I had not got Prang anything not even a rose. I turned up to school in the morning and on my desk was a large rose and teddy bear. A little embarrassing but many of the other teachers had also received gifts so it was not too bad.
My Valentine's gift to Prang was going to be a dinner out together at a restaurant. Easy enough only I do not know a lot of good spots to eat in the city so I asked Prang to decide. We ate at a nice restaurant which had only recently opened on the edge of the river.
I am guessing Valentine's Day was also the restaurants first big test as the staff did not seem to be able to cater for all the guests. We waited well over two hours for our meal and forgot to bring our food then still tried to charge us for food we had never been served. Also because of the wait I was quite hungry and not a very pleasant dinner partner.
All in all the day was not a great success. Luckily Prang is still my girlfriend and we went out again the following night to a different restaurant for a dinner together.

Academic Camp in Chantaburi

The opportunity to spend time with students outside the classroom I find is a great experience. Therefore when I heard the school were organising a camp to Chantaburi I offered to go with them.
One the morning of the camp everybody met and school and turns out there were only 42 students going with 27 teachers. I was one of only three foreign teachers so I thought I would have a lot to do teaching the students English. Throughout the whole weekend though only one five minute activity was dedicated to English and for those five minutes what I did was dance around like crazy wearing all sorts of clothes. The students worked in groups to list as many of the clothes as they could.
For the rest of the weekend the students learnt in Thai as we visited a Temple, a Church, a Market some wetlands and went swimming at the beach.
We were told we would be staying at the Paradise Resort in Chantaburi. I expected something quite nice and reports from teachers were the hotels they stayed in previous years were really comfortable rooms. Paradise Resort though was a school camp and I slept on thin mat on the floor in a room with twenty or so of the boys and a half a dozen teachers.
A couple of highlights of the weekend was the Aquarium we visited which had an impressive tunnel tank were we walked underneath the large stingrays, manta rays and small sharks. The other highlight was Oasis Sea World were we all watched a dolphin show. The dolphins looked very unhealthy though and I think they may be mistreated.

I am not sure the students learnt a lot on the camp but I enjoyed the experience and it was a good way to explore Chantaburi a part of Thailand I had not previously been.

Oh yeah you're not teaching here next semester.

Life in Thailand was going really well everything was just a little too good. I was enjoying the teaching and the school and outside of school I had a really good social life. I was looking forward to finishing the end of the semester returning to Australia for a few weeks before coming back to Thailand to continue teaching at the school.
All was good until I was told, "You cannot work at this school next semester. We have already employed new teachers." The news came as quite a shock to me as I had constantly been told if I wanted to stay it would be very possible. It's often difficult in Thailand to work out what is really going on.
Having no job next semester at the school next semester was quite disappointing as I had done a lot at the school in the hope I would get re-employed. All the teachers I work with where also quite shocked and disappointed I would not be working at the school next semester.
The decision not to re-employ me may have had more to do with the agency I work for rather than the school itself. As I said it's difficult to know. What I do know is I have to try get another job in Chachoengsao as I enjoy my life in this city.

St Louis Family Night

The school I am teaching in hosted a couple of family nights were students performed dances while their parents and friends sat and ate at tables on the school oval.
Many classes prior to the night were cancelled as the students learnt their dances.
On the night my job was to stand at one of the main entrance gates and wai the guests as they entered onto the oval. To wai someone means to put your palms together in a prayer like gesture and bow slightly. It was very hot in the afternoon sun as we stood greeting the guests. After a couple of hours the majority of the guests had arrived and we were allowed to go enjoy the show.
Friday night was the younger year levels all of Kindergarten until primary 3 then on Saturday night was the older year levels.
The highlight for the Friday night was the performance by 'The Olives' one of the current most popular bands in Thailand. Their hit song is heard everywhere and the students all know every word.

On the Saturday night the students seemed to forget it was family night and did some very non PG rated dance routines. It was all quite funny though and a part of Thailand life I enjoy experiencing.