Emily Takes On Thailand

Here are reasons why today was EXTREMELY good: 1. Today I taught my first lesson to a third and fourth grade class. I was super nervous. I have taught kids before, but never from my own lessons. I woke up feeling slightly doubtful: what if they had no idea what I was doing? What if they badmouth me in Thai and I'll have no idea what they're talking about? I biked to school, got into my work clothes, and looked in the mirror: Woah, I look exactly like my mother, I thought. My mom, the teacher. Come to think of it, my other mom is a teacher, too. And so is my sister. And my half sister. Then, it hit me: Jeez! What am I so worried about?! Teaching is in my blood! I have the most incredible teacher role models in the world, and I know each and every one of them are in my heart and want me to succeed. I wasn't so nervous after that. I taught the students animal vocabulary. I made them laugh when I told them that "frogs" say "ribbit," and I ...

Excuse the Instagram screen shot, but this is the only picture I have that captures the essential moment of the week: MEETING MY HOST FAMILY! The morning we were leaving the hotel, everyone was excited. We were finally going to be able to put our Thai to use. I rehearsed my lines over and over (in Thai) “My name is Emily, I am from America, I have three sisters, my dog’s name is Tilly, I like spicy food...” my teacher (aajan) told me I was ready. I felt ready, too. We ate our last meal at the hotel (which was the hotel’s attempt at mashed potatoes special for us), loaded our stuff on the bus, and headed to meet our families at the Don Chedi hub. When the busses pulled in, my heart skipped a beat. Alright Em, phase 2 of training, here we go. We got out, sat down across the aisle from the host families, and endured an excruciatingly long opening ceremony. No one was paying attention to the speakers because we were just too excited to see who got who. When it was finally over, nam...

In the past week, Group 131 has been working diligently under the theme “you can do hard things.” It seems like an obvious statement at first, but once you repeat it in your head when you’ve been put to the test, it energizes you. I want to explain how it helped me today. Most people know that I’ve never been a strong biker. I start off alright, but if I hit an obstacle or an unexpected bump I get what some refer to as “muppet arms,” flail about, and crash to the ground. So today, when we were expected to bike 10 kilometers in Don Chedi, our new home in 3 days, I was nervous. The morning started out alright, I got my bike (which is beautiful!), adjusted the seat, and did some practice loops in the driveway with my team. I was starting to relax when I saw the person in front of me had stopped, and I plowed into them, causing me to fall off my bike. I was horrified, but got up and made jokes so people wouldn’t worry. My hands were all cut up. I thought “God if I can’t do this how ...

Well, gang, we made it! And what an incredible journey it has already been! From unloading tons of suitcases off a bus into LAX, to our 13 hour flight to Seoul where you can literally shower and use the “nap room” for free, to touching the ground in Bangkok, every moment has been surreal! We’re currently staying in Songphanburi, which is roughly 2 hours north of Bangkok. We will be here for ten days getting the basic-basic training before moving in with our host families! Today was more of a logistics day, and were only in meeting until noon, so we got to explore the town a bit. I keep wanting to use the word “surreal,” but to describe what I mean by that word is probably best done with this story of the monk in the picture above. We were in a group of 15 or so, saying “sa wat dti ka” to everyone we passed, who usually said it in return. We saw stray dogs napping under cars to avoid the hot sun, restaurants cooking their food in their kitchen which is usually outside of the r...