Mo In Thailand: teachhhhhing.

I have to preface this by saying this whole thing is quite possibly the strangest experience ever, but even after a day it's starting to feel natural and normal (uh oh).

I got into Chiang Rai on Saturday night at 10pm and was met by Tom, Matthew, and two Thai teachers. We were put up into these amazing guest houses at the university, with a living room, bathroom, bedroom w/ AC, and a kitchen (with nothing but a sink, of course). It's all great, until we realized warm + wet = BUGS. Cockroaches, ants, these weird slivering things, and the worst are these quarter sized bugs that have a hard shell and fly like they're drunk. Cats are really popular around here because they eat your bugs.

Sunday, we have "orientation" with a Thai teacher at the university, Pia. I think she's some kind of coordinator. Orientation consists of (TFA people -- this is how a teaching orientation should be done):

a drive around campus (which is BEAUTIFUL -- reminds me of the Stanford campus, but set in the hills, complete with a golden temple at the top, with clouds) in her truck.
lunch at a noodle stand.
a 2 hour meeting in which we are given our class schedule. I was told to teach three classes, one of which I had the syllabus, and for another class (Intensive English 2) I was given a 10 minute warning. Apparently this class is cotaught between Westerners and Thai teachers, has a lot of office politics, normally has half of the students fail -- because of this, I was told to just wing it. Okay.
we are also told that MFLU has the highest proportion of cross-dressing/transgender students of universities in Thailand.

Things aren't very organized at MFLU. I hope no one here finds this blog.

The first day of class, I start teaching for 20 minutes then a Thai teacher comes in and tells me this is her class, and that I should be in another section. So I go.
Each class has a different coordinator. I get 200 copies of the syllabus for one class (I only need like 30), but none for the others.
Class sizes are mostly around 55.
Sometimes students don't show up for class because the school has organized activities. Megan and Linan both had classes with no students.
The students act like high school students. It's really like teaching high school. The girls stick together and the boys stick together, the boys sag their pants, the girls find ways to make their skirts shorter, and maturity is kind of low. But they're great.

But at the same time, some things are way beyond what I'd expect.

The classrooms have amazing equipment. Projectors (the ones with cameras, so no overheads are needed), computers (decently fast), video projectors, huge plasma TVs, A/C. Apparently the school receives a lot from the government.
The offices are pretty great. I have a cubicle with a desk and computer, and there is a nice photocopier.
Some things are extraordinarily efficient. If you ask someone for help, they won't forget (even if you ask in passing), and you'll get a response.
Office culture is amazing. People are way nicer (foreigners and Thai) than any office I've worked in at home. If you need something, there are five different people that have already offered, even teachers that are in the same position as you.
Classroom management is not a problem. This may be the best thing with Asian students. You just raise your voice and you have all 55 students' attention. When I asked students to introduce themselves and a fact about themselves, one person said "I'm __ and I want to be Mr. Brian's good student."
Everyone has a nickname, mostly one syllable. Some are stranger, like Golf, Oil, and I heard of one named Google. But it'll make learning names (Thai full names are incredibly long) easier.
You get wai'd when you're walking around campus because you're a teacher. Teachers are respected, and it's a great feeling to walk around and have people wai you (you put your hands together in front of your head).
I teach 16-18 hours a week, which is nice. I also don't teach on Wednesdays, which is why I'm blogging so much at work. They're trying to find me more class though.
It's tiring.