2 Weeks In

Hanging with the elephant

Elephants working the crowd

I arrived 2 weeks ago yesterday.  Hard to believe.  All of my orientation and staff development finished yesterday.  One day we ended with a thai massage-just the new teachers who wanted it got it free.  Yesterday we ended with a welcome back BBQ.  The elephant Maesa Elephant Village that we visited this week was really cool.  No elephant ride this time because the rain showed up in buckets.  But the show was neat.  The elephants have a lot of character.  They also can play soccer, throw darts and paint.

Nail Dance

The end of orientation concluded with a traditional Khantoke dinner.  We ate dinner on the floor and it was very good.  It consisted of sticky rice in a small wooden container.  We each had our own.  We rolled the rice into a ball and dipped it in a couple of different sauces.  They were only mildly spicy.  We also ate sweet potato fries, fried pork skin, fried chicken, veggies, and pork curry.  This was all served on these round little tables that sat on the floor.  There were 4 of us sharing the food on each table.  For dessert there was coffee/tea and a rice like cookie. 
We were entertained with traditional music and dancing.  I love watching and experiencing all of this.

Khantoke dinner on the floor with the group

There is just this huge sense of family that has been both talked about and demonstrated in the CMIS school community.  Its going to be a great year.  The students will be returning monday.  I met one yesterday during new student orientation.  I met another one a few days earlier.  I have been told that I have 2 weeks to get my schedule up and running.  This is good actually because it means that I can spend time familiarizing myself with my students through observation and reading their files.

Most of my students have a learning support plan.  This means that they are having difficulties in the classroom but do not have an identified learning disability.  I've been told that I only have 2 students with IEPs.  Very Nice!  I have lots of freedom to use different strategies to help the students which is also very nice.  My dept has been very helpful.

 So very soon life here will kind of become a routine.  It will be nice not being in college class fulltime for once.  It makes it easier to be social.  Like running around town and doing lunch with Lizzie and Yara. 
I am planning on doing independent study though through my grad school in CA.  I decided to maintain my status as a Master's student a little longer.  I don't yet know how to complete the final 2 classes yet from abroad but at least I can work on my thesis plan with an international twist.