Time runs so quickly if we enjoy it. That’s what I feel during my staying in Thailand. In the first week, I was living in the university dormitory because the school dormitory was not ready yet to occupy. The distance between the university and the school is about 15 kilometers away. On the first day, one of university mentors took me there and the following days I had to commute with Jinn (my roommate).
At 5 am, I always wake up because I need to pray. After that, I take a shower and dress up. At 6.30, I have to be ready to go to the school because I don’t want to be late. I have to get there by 7.30. I walk from the dormitory to the gate of the university about 10 minutes. Then, I take the public transportation (Songthaew) to Back Pa-In City. The fare is quite cheap. It’s only 10 Baht. I get off of the car just before the Bang Pa-In Palace and take motorcycle to continue the trip to the school. It’s so unique that the motorcycle can bring two people (3 with the rider) and the fare is the same.
Once I arrive at school, I go to the school field to see the flag ceremony. At 7.45, the ceremony starts. Every student has lined up neatly based on their grade. Grade 1 is on the left side and up to the grade 6 on the right side. There are some students in front of rows and under the flag. The director or the vice director usually speak in the ceremony for few minutes but I don’t know what he says because he speaks in Thai. The students listen carefully to him. No body speaks. Then, they sing the national anthem together while the students in charge were pulling up the flag. In addition, one of the students in front brings a small white board wherein an English vocabulary is written. She tells the vocabulary to all students and spells it out. They do this every day from Monday to Friday. I think this is a good way to enlarge the students’ English vocabularies. At 8.00, the ceremony ends. Every student goes to their classroom and waits for teachers to come.
At 8.20, the bell rings to notify that the time for the first lesson starts. I and my coordinating teacher go to the classroom. Because this is the first week, I just do observation. I enter every class that my coordinating teacher teaches until the last class which ends at 3.30 pm. Even if the class ends at 3.30 pm, all teachers are supposed to leave the school at 4.30 pm. Thus, in the meantime, I stay in the foreign teacher’s office to help my coordinating teacher check the students’ assignments and worksheets.
After everything is done, I go back with Jinn to the university dormitory. I take the same transportation, motorcycle and Songthaew. I arrive in university at around 5.30 pm and go directly to my dormitory. I take a rest for a while and then take a shower. In the evening, I go to the night market with my buddies (Pokie and Miew) and my friend Cicha. The market is located not really far from the university, so we just walk on foot to go there. It’s open every day from 4.00 pm up to 9.30 pm. There are so many people selling food, drinks, clothes, and other goods and stuff. The price is almost the same as in my hometown, just a bit more expensive. I buy some foods, drinks and fruits. I usually buy fried chicken for my dish. It’s only 10 Baht each and it tastes so yummy.
These are my routine activities almost every day during the first week in receiving university and school. Besides those, I also go to some other places with my buddies. On Wednesday (9th January), we went to Future Park. It’s a very nice place. It’s like a big mall. We had dinner together in KFC because I like fried chicken. I bought a SIM card, small bag, slippery and drinking bottle. I also converted my money into Baht there because there was no Baht in my town when I wanted to convert it.
On Sunday, I went to the family mart to buy some food and spent the day in my room. I did my laundry. Luckily, I didn’t need to do it by myself. There are some washing machines that can be used beside my dormitory. I just need to put my clothes and 20 Baht (two coins) into the machine and push the start bottom. Then, the machine will work automatically and I just need to wait for about 1 hour and 10 minutes. After doing the laundry, I start writing these stories. In the afternoon, around 4 pm, I and Cicha rode a bicycle to go around the campus to enjoy the view as well as exercise.