Day 3 of my holiday whipsaw didn’t end like I had planned. I took a short nap during the taxi ride home from Ayutthaya and awakened with a sense of purpose. I dove into my next adventure with added vigor leading me to the conviction that I needed a night of food and fun. The …
Continue reading "Holiday (Day 3 Nightlife) — Saxophone Jazz Pub"Still reeling from the prior day’s adventures, I decided to see if I could push the boundaries even more. I rode the BTS/MRT to Hua Lamphong station and hopped on a Tuk Tuk to Wat Pho (Temple of the Reclining Buddha). I walked through the temple absorbing the history and overwhelming presence of the reclining …
Continue reading "Holiday (Day 2) — Temples, Khao San Road & Free Muay Thai Fights!!"A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to visit a teacher’s home. The backstory is he lives in a small farming town of approximately 400 people in the province of Phetchaburi, Thailand. He had been living in this village with his Thai wife for the past 12 years and was one of the only …
Continue reading "Thank You Tha Yang for Culture Shock 101"I decided to spice up my lesson plans and challenge my students to expand their English horizons by introducing a daily mantra, quote of the day, and rarely used English word of the day. The curriculum I use through BFITS consists of a teaching book, power point presentation along with a student workbook that reinforces …
Continue reading "Komfaek Highs balance the Traffic Blues"I think everyone has a reason or reasons why they travel abroad. Some may be escaping tough situations in their home country, others may want to explore their spirituality whereby taking the time to work on themselves, and there are a select few that take from the country they are in thus leaving it a …
Continue reading "Sak Yant Tattoo"Two days in Thailand goes by in the blink of an eye. There is so much to do, explore, feel, and experience. On Thursday (06-27-2019) morning, I gave in to the motor scooter ride again and learned the hard way that no two motor scooter drivers are the same. As chance or the universe or …
Continue reading "Bullet Dog, Bookstores, & Bars"In the morning, Jonathan and I took a taxi from our hotel to SSP1 Tower in Bangkok and met with our BFITS agent (Angel Ha). She was kind, spoke fluent English, and provided three of us with our contracts for the duration of our teaching experience (35,000Baht per month plus 2,000Baht in travel money). I …
Continue reading "Getting Hired"Had breakfast at “Breakfast Story” in Bangkok and ordered a stack of pancakes. It was a restaurant designed to serve American breakfasts to English speaking persons. Afterwards, a group of us figured out how to use the overhead and underground railway systems (BTS and MRT) which cut the transportation costs to an unbelievably low amount …
Continue reading "Bangkok Public Transportation"Had to wake up today at around 7:00am because we had checked out of Glory Place in anticipation of going to Bangkok. All of my group is being split up and heading to different regions in Thailand to teach. After checking out of the hotel, I was placed in a van with six other group …
Continue reading "Making the Move"Started the morning with TESOL training and picked up a lot of new tricks that I can use in the classroom when teaching English. After that, I had an interview with my agent (Angel Ha-BFITS) and it went really well. She confirmed I would be teaching intensive English to 7thand 8thgraders in Pathum Thani at …
Continue reading "Spiritual Touch"