The past month truly flew by. Since Koh Samet from January 16 to 18, I've been bombarded with grading constant presentations, explored ancient ruins on my own, was introduced to rice planting with my students in Kanchanaburi, discovered and explored a little island called Koh Kret, experienced my first movie in Bangkok, climbed up the infamous Ghost Tower, and attended a magnificent festival in Lopburi. However, I've been so caught up with remaking schedules, grading endless amounts of quizzes and presentations, and creating/grading finals that for a couple of days I forgot why I was here for a while. I allowed the stress and exhaustion kind of overwhelm me, and for a while I didn't want to be here. But that feeling has come and gone, and now the sand is rapidly slipping through the hourglass.
I'm going to miss my students. Hands down. Sure, they can get unruly, I can get upset with them, and they can give off the vibe that they don't care. But what matters to me is at the end of the day, I still get the biggest smiles when they say "Goodbye, teacha." They're starting to realize that I won't be here next semester. One student came up to me asking when I was going back to the States. When I answered with "Early May," her smile immediately turned upside down. She continued to tell me that they learn so much with me as their Social Studies teacher, and that they want me there for longer. She had small pools in her eyes, which then almost made me cry. More of the students began to ask me not to leave, and I almost lost it. My students this year have helped me grow as a teacher in so many ways. I'll never know how much they truly learned from me, but now I can leave Thailand knowing that they'll truly always and forever have a place in my heart.
I'm going to miss my students. Hands down. Sure, they can get unruly, I can get upset with them, and they can give off the vibe that they don't care. But what matters to me is at the end of the day, I still get the biggest smiles when they say "Goodbye, teacha." They're starting to realize that I won't be here next semester. One student came up to me asking when I was going back to the States. When I answered with "Early May," her smile immediately turned upside down. She continued to tell me that they learn so much with me as their Social Studies teacher, and that they want me there for longer. She had small pools in her eyes, which then almost made me cry. More of the students began to ask me not to leave, and I almost lost it. My students this year have helped me grow as a teacher in so many ways. I'll never know how much they truly learned from me, but now I can leave Thailand knowing that they'll truly always and forever have a place in my heart.
From January 19 to January 24, Sa-Nguan Ying (the school that I teach at) had a week full of events!
This basically meant that I only had to teach Tuesday since Wednesdays I don't have any classes. That week was full of crazy food, fun music, so much education, and just a chance for us to cut loose and have fun with our students. | Fun activities with my crazy students! Some GoPro action! |
Since then, I've had a fun weekend in Kanchanaburi, climbed up an abandoned building in Bangkok, enjoyed some wonderful craft beers at the Mikeller Brewing Company, had my first movie theater experience, explored the ancient ruins of Ayutthaya on my own (first time in rained in quite some time!), attended a historical festival in Lopburi (aka Monkey City), and put my stress and anxiety behind me. I am saving my GoPro videos of these events for a "end of the semester" video. But for now, here are some photos!
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