First Week on my Own!

Once I got myself all settled and unpacked in my apartment, I had a couple days to relax before starting at school. Dao told me to come in on Thursday to help set up decorations for the Halloween party on Friday! I love Halloween so this made me very excited! The days leading up to the Halloween party were mostly spent in my apartment. I had enough food from my market run with Dao to last me a couple days and honestly I was scared. I have never lived in a busy city before, especially where they don't speak English and I was nervous about getting lost, not being able to communicate with people and I was nervous about doing something offensive or wearing something that was too revealing. When the day came that I decided to explore my new home I wore a skirt to the ground and a high necked t-shirt. I don't think I have ever sweat more in my life. I was glad I did dress like this though and did not wear shorts. My city is just outside of Bangkok and known as a residential location, but the roads are just as busy as Toronto. I did not see any other foreigners and everyone was wearing longer pants or skirts and shirts that were more reserved. I guess I will keep my shorts for travelling, the beach and my apartment. At orientation we were told that teachers are well respected here and we should always be dressed appropriately. I don't mind covering up, I'm just glad I played it safe and observed what everyone else was wearing first. My first outing alone wasn't as scary as I thought... people were smiling at me, the smells of street food filled the air, however I still did manage to get lost. After passing my street a couple times (all the street names are the same with just different numbers) I finally noticed something that looked familiar and ran home :) Thursday came and I was ready to go help set up some decorations. I googled the school address and thought it was on my street because it had the same name... but again that was not the case and I checked the number and thought I knew the area it was in from my brief visit when Dao drove me there on Monday. Of course I went down the wrong street got lost again.... so I called Dao and asked her how to get there with her response being oh sorry I got caught up with some new parents wanting to register their kid into the kindergarten program. We were also told at orientation that people in Thailand do not communicate well. The school might be having a holiday and you won't find out until that day when you get to school. Again their life motto, "Mai pen rai" (no worries). So I shrugged it off and went back to my apartment. The next day was the Halloween party and I was told to wear all black! I got a witch hate when I arrived at the school which made me excited because I had not found anything to wear. The decorations looked amazing and I could not have helped make it look as good as it did! When the kids began to arrive I got butterflies because I have never worked with kids so young before. They are exactly what I expected... full of energy running around screaming, some tears and obviously fighting over the best toys. It was a nice first day to have and adjust to my new school. I have never been more worn out though!!! Kindergarten is going to be tough, but I can already tell very rewarding. At the end of the day I was ready for bed and possibly sleeping throughout the whole weekend, but then Dao invited me on a weekend getaway they had set up for the teachers because they had an extra spot. My body ached, my head was pounding but that was an opportunity I could not pass up on!!! We planned to meet at 7 the next morning, so home to bed I went.