What was it? Is it?
To feed my addiction to adventure (i.e. perpetual insatiation).
To discover a new culture (again, the concept of satisfaction foreign).
To escape the winter (ok this one is deifnitely justifiable--and I can say I've pretty certainly checked this one off the list).
But the point?
To TEACH. To begin my career. And I'm learning: it isn't just the kids who receive an education in the classroom.
After having spent weeks training, planning lessons, researching approaches, orienting with the school, meeting with colleagues...the moment of truth finally arrived last Monday...
And I was nervous. I really was.
But teaching is like everything else: it requires a calm mind, an impulsion to adapt, a stronghold of confidence and a flicker of improvisation...and there you have it. Smiling learning kids.
It wasn't as hard as I thought. It was (is) relatively easeful. Fun even. I spend my time writing days of the week and animals songs--not bad. It is useful (and a necessity re: peace of mind) having the guitar here.
And the thing is--I am finding myself paying attention to myself in the classroom. What I mean is: it isn't about executing a lesson plan. It is about finding what works. Not everything I try works. So I note it. I adapt.
And I am in "teaching kindergarten." There is an utter wealth of information previously untapped by this guy right here--and guess what? I get to learn it. PAID to learn it. Oh what a world of discovery I have before me!
Another thing: these kids are fuckin' smart. Too smart for my bonus word on hangman today, that's for sure (it was rhinoceros. I thought it was hard).
In other news: I am making a home in Surat Thani. Adapting quicker than I thought. I have a house and a job. Friends. A routine. I am in a real city, yet very conveniently stationed at the sternum of splendiferous sights sultaning over succulently sublime scents and subtle sounds...fuck! Like:
--tropical beaches
--jungles
--islands
--rock-climbing meccas
--dive-reefs
--limestone monoliths
--other interesting and exotic things
Where should I go this weekend...?
There were 2 dead rats at the bottom of my street today, and I didn't mind. As I was running this morning, a coconut from a towering palm overhead fell directly in front of me with a crack. I looked up and saw a sniggering youth and his friend. I looped back around so I could smile back. I ate a fish drenched in saucy ambrosia for lunch today. I like my motorbike but I like walking more. I get bad vibes when I go to Makro, the Costco equivalent. The daily floods soothe the swollen air and cool the earth--and fill my poorly designed half-covered bathtubesque balcony. So I bail it every morning with a tupperware container after I meditate. I'm reading Rumi, the Bible, the Buddha, and Hunter S. Thompson. I am obsessed with watermelon slushies. I am singing and playing a lot of Bob Dylan. The political unrest in Thailand and mounting tensions between SE Asia and China are non-existent in my world. I am adapting to the heat so much so that I get cold with the fan on at night. I miss home sometimes--pizza, rock concerts, autumn, the Sox, all of you that I LOVE--and I know that right now, I am home, too. I am a hybrid papyrus reed--floating down life's Nile, from the Appalachian Trail to Thailand and God knows where next...and it's all the same: beautifully empty in qualification, all simply existing, awake, pulsating, transient, suffering, joyful, and self-less enough to be calm.
Fill 'er up there, God. We do need education.
ทั้งหมดเป็นความสุข, all is bliss...
No comments:
Post a Comment