Yesterday marked my second day teaching at Bangkhonthii School.  The students were excited for my return and the door outside my classroom has been decorated with my name.  One student made a good luck charm, a small wooden ball with a face drawn on it, for me.

With the older class (grades 4-6) we started working on first, second and third person statements.  (“I have a blue ball.  You have a red ball.  She has a green ball.”)  We also reviewed vocabularly, practised standing to introduce ourselves and say our age, and then played animal bingo.

With the younger class (gardes 1-3) we reviewed our fruits, spelling from last week’s homework, and colours.  We also briefly introduced first person statements.  Then we went outside for an elaborate game:

Each student carried an articifical fruit that I had brought with me – some of which (the grapes) are a bit worse for wear… but they’re so fun to squeeze!  Then, one by one, we named the fruit and then wrote the name in big letters on the court.  After each student had their fruit’s name written, we reviewed them then played a memory game:

Forming two teams, each team would nominate one person to play.  I picked a fruit then they had to run and find the name.  The first person to reach it would earn a point.  It was a close fought contest, but the girls eeked ahead and won, 7-5.  Another teach helped with the score keeping.

So next week I will return with more fun and games and more lessons to learn.  I’m hoping to get the grade 4-6 group to a point where, near the end of their school year, they can do some sort of exchange with their counterparts at the primary school where my sister teaches.  We’ll see about that as we get a little further along.

This afternoon at 2:30 my six-year old IBM laptop passed into eternal slumber.  Her declining health had started to worsen significantly in the past two months: first a crash once every two weeks, then more frequently, until yesterday there were three consecutive crashes while trying to create a PDF file.

I was able to briefly revive her after those crashes, but it was touch and go all morning, a disturbingly human rattle coming from somewhere inside as if she was literally falling to pieces.

My laptop is survived by her primary user (me) and frequently-backed up data in an external hard drive.  A few recently added fonts and programs may have been lost, as was the document that was left uncompleted by her demise.

My employer is making arrangements for another laptop to be sent from the United States.  In the meantime, I will be working from Tawn’s computer.

In lieu of flowers, do a kind deed for your computer and back up your data today.

Sunday morning, Markus and I woke up really early (while Tawn and Tam both remained fast asleep under their respective covers!) and headed to the old city, Ko Ratanakosin (Ratanakosin Island) to do some bike riding.

This is where the Grand Palace and Wat Pho are located, usually quite congested with traffic and narrow, winding streets.  So we figured a Sunday morning about 7:00 would be a good time to see the sights without risking our lives.

We should have looked at the social calendar, though!  Right after finding parking and getting on the bikes, we encountered a parade of middle school students.  Tawn provided some much-needed context after I returned home, but it seems that this Middle School is under royal patronage and the parade was their particular way to celebrate the King’s 60th anniversary on the throne.

The parade was quite long – maybe the length of five or six city blocks – and was broken into units by each class of students.  Markus and I rode back along the parade to see the whole thing.  Passing one class, one of the boys called out to me, waving something in his hand.  So I rode over to see what he was handing out.  Condoms!  This must be the safer sex club, as opposed to the badminton club or drama club?!  Very strange.

Here’s a short video of the parade:

Afterwards, as we kept riding, we encountered a graduation ceremony at Thammasat University and the finish line of a marathon!  So traffic was a mess and we were definitely a bit unsure in the midst of well-trafficked city streets.

Reflecting on the experience after the fact, it would probably be a good idea to try again another morning.  That many activities surely contributed to higher-than-normal levels of Sunday morning traffic.  Next ride, though, will be in the countryside!

Also, from last week at Bangkhonthii School, here’s a short video of their music practice in the afternoon:

On Friday morning Brad and Silvia returned from Koh Samui, nearing the end of their three weeks in Thailand.  After spending the morning and early afternoon shopping, I took them over to Tawn’s parents’ house so Tawn’s mother could spend some time speaking Italian with Silvia.

It was a lot of fun.  English, Thai, Italian all mixed together.  Tawn’s mother went through her vacation photos with them, explaining it all in Italian.

Afterwards, I took Brad and Svilia out for barbeque at Great American Rib Company on Sukhumvit Soi 36.  BBQ is something that Brad misses from the United States and can’t get in Italy.  They had a good time with it.

To cap the night, we went to Vertigo, the bar atop the Banyan Tree hotel and had lychee martinis while taking in the view of a rain-cleaned Bangkok skyline.  The weather was absolutely perfect: a cool breeze was blowing.

As a side note, Tawn has seven dogs at his parents’ house.  They are small and loud.  Thought I’d share a brief clip with you:

Today was my first day teaching at Bang Khonthii Primary School, a 60-student facility in the Bang Khonthii Amphoe (roughly, “county”) of Samut Songkhram province about 80 km southwest of Khrungthep.

About three weeks ago I visited the school while on a Spiceroads bicycle tour and started speaking with the Ajarn Yai (literally, “big teacher” – the principle) and she asked if I’d like to volunteer and teach her children English. 

It sounded like a good opportunity, so last week I headed back to the school to sign up.

This morning I left home at 6:30 to ensure I’d be there before class started at 8:30.  Nervousness and anticipation were rampant as I didn’t know exactly what to expect.  Ajarn Yai was very happy to see me and she and her staff were quite accommodating.  After some discussion about where the students are in their English studies, I went ahead and started teaching the first class.

Perhaps I thought one of the teachers would remain in the classroom with me, but I was pretty much just thrown right in!  The first group was the combined grades 4-6.  Originally, I thought these were the students from grades 1-3 but it wasn’t until I walked into that classroom after lunch that I realized my mistake!

Each class is about 20 students with the remaining 20 in a combined preschool/ kindergarten.  The older children were pretty knowledgeable with their English as I started with very basic things, colours, numbers, etc. and worked to more complicated things.  Now that I know where they are, I think I’ll try some more challenging activities in weeks ahead.  We enjoyed a fun round of “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” in which I threw them off by pointing to body parts in a different order.  We also started to learn “The Itsty-Bitsy Spider,” which they already know in Thai.

Perhaps you can see now how I thought these were the younger children.  Had I known their grade, maybe I wouldn’t have done the singing.  But they had fun.

After lunch, which the school provided (gread pad thai and chicken with rice) and I ate with Ajarn Yai in the office/teacher’s area, I taught the younger children.  We spent about an hour learning and spelling different fruits.  Their writing is very good, quite neat.  We then did our own round of “Head, Shoulders…” and then decided it was time for some recess and went out to play “Red Rover, Red Rover.”  There’s a slightly different version in Thai so I had to teach them the new way. 

They added a uniquely Thai twist to it, nonetheless: When one time dwindled down to a single remaining student (in other words, the game was over by a traditional definition) several students from the other side ran over to join him so the game would continue.

Every Thursday is music lesson day.  In following weeks I’ll go there on Wednesday instead so as not to disrupt the schedule.  However, since I was here, after lunch I sat in for a while as grades 4-6 practiced playing music using traditional southern Thai-style instruments that are made out of bamboo.  The name escapes me at the moment, but they sound a lot like a xylophone, but a xylophone with a note being struck repeatedly in quick succession.

All in all, it was tremendously fun.  I have a lot of work to do to prepare for next week: each class is 2.5 hours long so there’s a lot of time to fill and like all young people, attention spans are short.  If you know any ESL teachers or early primary school teachers in the US please let me know – I could use some lesson plan ideas!

As a positive aside, my Thai is going to improve really rapidly by doing this, since none of the teachers speaks any significant amount of English and Ajarn Yai, while speaking some English, pushes me to speak in Thai most of the time.  On top of it, especially with the younger grades, I have to use Thai for the instructions because they don’t know the words yet in English!

Thank you for your patience:

Part 3: Main passenger building, observation deck, international departure and connections level
Time: 4:54

Part 4: Domestic departures level, outside on the tarmac (shocking!), and flight back to Don Muang
Time: 7:59

Well, I shot more than 260 minutes of video footage on Saturday.  All of it on a Sony DVD Handycam. 

As I’ve been thinking about getting a video camera, I was glad to have the opportunity to try a DVD camera.  Now I know that I’d never buy one!  The theory they operate on is that you’re going to do all your editing in the camera, not on your computer.  Because in order to use the DVD in your computer, you have to first “finalise” it.  Which means that the information is encoded in such a way that you can’t just easily pull the files off and edit them on your PC.

Thankfully, I found a nifty and inexpensive bit of software called Xilisoft DVD Ripper that allows you to extract the files from the DVD and convert them into AVI files (and other file types) that you can edit on your computer.

What a slow, painful process.  I added at least six hours to my overal editing processes because of this problem.

Anyhow, after getting over that obstacle I was able to edit two of the four segments that I’ll make.  The first two are here:

Part 1 – Orient Thai flight from Don Muang to Suvarnabhumi Airport

Run time: 7:21

Part 2 – Domestic arrivals at Suvarnabhumi + Exterior terminal footage

Run time: 3:47

Yesterday was the series of test flights at the new Bangkok airport, Suvarnabhumi (silent “i” at the end).  It was a lot of fun and I’ve compiled an extensive trip report on airliners.net.

The highlights, though:

The trip over was like a big party.  Everyone was decked out in their yellow shirts in honor of the King.  Goodie bags were handed out with souvenirs.  People clapped and sang on the flight.  As the Thais like to say, it was sanuk maak maak!*

Architecturally, the airport is modern, efficient, and utterly soulless.  It is lacking any design flourishes that would identify it as being in Thailand.  You could be in Seoul, Hong Kong, or Charles DeGaulle and not know it.  That said, given the well-worn state of affairs at the existing airport, a modernisation is long overdue.

The building itself is gracefully designed and near the main terminal there are expansive gardens that add a nice visual effect.  You can stroll in them, which is pleasant, but you have to work your way down the equivalent of about seven stories.

Security was interesting.  I entered and exited the building at various levels (arrival, departures, car park, etc.).  At some entrances there was a contingent of guards checking all bags and scanning everyone with a metal detector.  At other entrances there was a sole rent-a-cop on a folding chair, napping.

Even more intertest is that I was able to work my way to the tarmac through a emergency fire exit stairwell that had been propped open.  Then I went walking around the tarmac for about ten minutes, taking pictures, without anyone stopping me or challenging me.  Along the way, I passed one person in a security uniform, and stopped another person who was wearing an Airports of Thailand PLC shirt to ask him to take my picture.

There has been much speculation whther the September 28 opening day can be met.  From my observations, it is evident that the airport is ready to handle airplanes.  Jetways work, moving sidewalks work, etc.  The systems themselves – well, this wasn’t a full-scale test so it is hard to say.  But come September 28, it is safe to say that there will be many, many unfinished things in the building.  Shops, eateries, airlines’ offices – they will all be in a state of chaotic disarray.  Note to self: don’t fly anywhere until at least the second week of October!

Thursday was another fourth day in a long week.  I had been doing a lot of document creation and while a lot was being accomplished, by Thursday afternoon I was mentally exhausted.  Tawn’s week had been similarly long.  So when he called to say he was wrapping up and ready to head home, I answered his typical query of “what should we do for dinner?” with a simple answer: “I have a surprise for you.”

Tawn hates/loves surprises.

The surprise was a trip to the Great American Rib Company on Sukhumvit Soi 36, near Thong Lor Skytrain station.  After an overpriced and under-flavored trip to Tony Roma’s a few months ago for a barbeque fix, I vowed to just suffer along without any barbeque.  But then a couple we know from Texas, Ron and Kari, were in town from Ayutthaya over July 4th and ate at the Great American Rib Company and were very positive about it.  And this from a pair of Texans!

Sure enough, when we pulled up there was a large outdoor seating area under large trees, long tables with benches just like the Salt Lick outside of Austin. 

The menu was loaded with lots of choices and so we settled for the 1/2 Platter Great American Feast: 1/2 BBQ chicken, 1/2 rack of ribs, large mound of pulled pork shoulder, slices of pastramied pork tenderloin, BBQ beans, slaw, potato salad, and curly fries.  It was way too much to eat and we took a large portion of food back home.

What can I say about it?  Well, the smokey flavor is authentic so you know it isn’t just being thrown on the fire, and the dry rub marinade for the ribs adds a nice depth to them.  There is too much sauce slathered on everything and I’ll have to remember to ask for the sauce on the side next time.  This is perhaps an accommodation of Thai tastes, which go for heavy sauce. 

The chicken was moist and flavorful, the pulled shoulder had a nice tangy vinegar sauce but it had a tomato base so I think it can be classified as authentic Carolina pig.  The pastramied tenderloin was sliced thin and served with a horseradish sauce.  Although an odd choice, not falling into the usual canon of BBQ meats, it was flavorful but very dry. 

For dessert, they offer an authentic deep dish apple pie.  It was deep, the crust was good, and the apples were sliced thick and still had a tender crunch.  However, the filling had so much flour, sugar, cinnamon and other spices that it was overly sweet and a bit pasty.  I’m of the school that all you need is apples, just a little sugar and a little Chinese 5-spice and you have yourself a pie.

Still, it was a nice treat.  They also have pecan pie which looked like what I expect except they don’t go to the expense of using whole pecan halves, settling instead for broken pieces.  Also there is a lemon meringue pie which I’ll have to try one of these days.

I’m going to ask Brad and Silvia if they would like to go here on one of their final nights in Bangkok, since Brad misses KC barbque and I think they don’t find it in Italy.

Rongrian Bangkhonthiinai

Two weeks ago while on a Spiceroads cycling trip with Brad and Silvia, we came across a small, 4-room primary school in the midst of the banana plantations in Samut Songkhram province, 60km or so southwest of Khrungthep.  Chatting with the principal, she asked if I’d be interested in volunteering to help teach English to her sixty students.

I left with her email address and a promise to contact her.  Unfortunately, the emails I sent did not seem to make it.  Feeling that this was an opportunity not to be passed up, I made plans with Tod to drive down to Samut Songkhram today to find the school.

Armed with a general road atlas and a sense of direction, or perhaps a road atlas and a general sense of direction, we set off on the journey.  Both proved useful and we took a side road that indicated the way to a wat (temple) that seemed to be roughly in the right location.  In Thailand, nearly every side road leads to a wat and nearly every wat has a school next door.

The hunch was right and we found the school.  Pulling up into the parking lot, a grass field where we were the only car, there were several children who looked out and waved hello.  We made our way around the side of the building and found one of the teachers whom I had met when I first went to the school.  He seemed happy to see us, but there didn’t seem to be a lot of shock and surprise.  They must have farang driving out of the jungle to volunteer all the time!

We spent nearly ninety minute there, Tod doing most of the translating as the English-speaking principal was away at another school attending meetings.  What we established was that we’ll come back to teach next Thursday and work out a specific schedule from there.  We also spent some time looking through the English language curriculum as well as the test that sixth grade students must pass at the end of their studies relative to English proficiency.

Not sure yet exactly what we’ll do, but since we’ll be there just once a week I think the emphasis will be on speaking skills rather than writing or grammar.  I do have some ideas in mind for how we can make this work, but a lot of logistical questions will be answered once we actually get in there and start volunteering.

Most importantly, though, I think this is a very valuable way to contribute back to the country.

More details as we move forward with this adventure.

Short Flight Tomorrow

Tomorrow is my test flight from Bangkok’s old Don Meuang International Airport to the brand new and not yet open Suvarnabhumi International Airport. 

I’ll write and post a trip report to Airliners.net as quickly thereafter as I can.

Sadly, I cannot give credit for this picture.  It was attached to an email my father sent me and tracing the email chain back, there is no indication of the source of the photo.  Suffice it to say that it was professionally done and that the photographer deserves a round of applause. 

The picture was taken at the Jones Beach Air Show in May and there were many amazing photos in the series of acrobatic and military planes flying over the New York City skyline.  Of course, the sight of military jets flying over the Big Apple has an ominous feeling since 11 September 2001, but the photos themselves were fantastic.

Third day back at work after my week off to play tour guide.  Brad and Silvia are in the south on Koh Pha-Ngan, an island near Koh Samui.  Sounds like they are having fun after going through some memorable but not entirely pleasant experiences while trekking up in the north.  Their description of it sounded more like a death march on the Thailand-Burma Railway!

Yesterday I had my first regularly-scheduled meeting with my tutor.  We spent three hours working together, reviewing the sentence structures and grammar I learned (or, more accurately, was exposed to) two modules ago.  Instead of reviewing them in the phoenetic language that was used at that time, I’m using written Thai this time.  It improves my reading and writing skills and I can more readily associate what I read with the written materials I see in my life, such as newspapers and books.

I think that in the long run, I’ll get just as much out of these sessions with much less time than I spent at Union Language School.