Student!

Well today started with a 4 mile run uphill to a Buddhist shrine, and up the tallest hill in Phuket...they call it a mountain. It was absolutely beautiful! I ran past the shrine with the song, Our God is Greater stuck in my head, then started singing it and running at the same time. I definitely feel God is with me every step of the way.
I have started reading through Proverbs again in my quiet time, and am taking a different stance than usual. It says in the bible to put your Lord God to the test, so every Proverb I read today I tried to apply, and God has opened my mind, and world to things I didn't think were possible.
After my run I came back and took a shower, and got ready for class. There are about 30 students attending the school right now, all from different parts of the world. So far I am acquainted with 6 girls from Australia, 4 people from New Zealand, 5 people from the USA, and other students live in the Philippines, England, Germany, Hong Kong, and even here in Thailand. Everyone is super outgoing, and so easy to talk with which made the first day of class rather enjoyable.

So what was today like?! Well, today was like orientation. We basically all met in a classroom at 9:30 am, and were informed on the credentials for passing the course and getting our TESOL certification. Everyone in the class speaks different forms of English, much different than to what I am used to hearing in the States. We are required to attend 100% of all our classes, and teaching sessions.
After orientation, we had a break for lunch and I went to a nearby Thai shop for some local Thai food. I wanted to try something new, and got salted fish with kale and rice. It looked good on the menu but when I smelt it cooking in the kitchen, by stomach started to churn. It smelt like hot dog intestines. After eating a couple bites, a fellow student tried my food and agreed on the most unpleasant taste. However, the rice was good, and I still had pineapple in the fridge from the trip to the market yesterday. I find it hard to not start speaking in a British accent with so many British speaking people around me....fun fact.
Over lunch, we had to prepare a 2 minute speech on any subject of our choice. I was going to talk about running, but people get tired of hearing they need to work out, so I choose mountain climbing instead.
Thank God for speech class! That's all I have to say. I felt very prepared and mentally organized when going up to speak.
After everyone spoke, we had free time before our observational teaching time. Some people came up to me and wanted to know more about my climbing experiences. One of the students is actually from Boulder, Colorado and is on a journey to travel the world. Everyone is so cool here! I met another girl who brought her own climbing gear and is going climbing in Rawai this weekend.

Because I only brought a backpack and 2 changes of clothes, I needed to go to the store and get some clothes. The closest and cheapest store is called Tesco Lotus, and it's a 9 mile walk from the school. I had 2 hours and was feeling ambitious so I started the long trek..getting lost along the way. I spent longer than I had planned shopping for proper teaching attire and had to get back to the school for my 7:15pm observation. Basically this is where we watch an instructor teach Thai students an English lesson. So I had to get back to the school, and started walking back at a crazy pace.
Thankfully I found a motorbike taxi along the way which the driver took me directly to the school. I ran up stairs to my room, put on some jeans and a long sleeve (can't show much skin in the classroom), and came down to the classroom where I sat in a 45 minute teaching session.

Okay, I don't think I can tell you how excited I am to start teaching!! Our first teaching session is either Thursday or Friday to a class of around 12 students. It's going to be challenging, and super unpredictable, but that's the fun of it all!

After the teaching session I ran back up stairs, changed into dinner clothes, and walked to a nearby restaurant called the Dairy Hut. The school provided a welcoming dinner free to the students. We enjoyed as much food as we wanted: spring rolls, pad Thai, green chicken curry, chicken cashew curry, squid, vegetable shrimp, rice, and beer. I find I am not too keen on beer, but when you can't drink the water, that is the only available beverage. It tastes somewhat like lemon juice and water with a little ginger. Thai beer is not very strong, and it is a tradition to put ice in the beer, so it's watered down. I'm not sure. I don't think beer is anything special. I would much rather prefer a glass of ginger ale.
At dinner there was a guy playing guitar and singing. One of the instructors went up and sang a song in Thai which was super impressive. And a couple of the students went up to sing as well. One girl is a music theatre major the the University of London, and she sang My Heart Will Go On from the Titanic. All together it was a very fun evening, and a great start to the course.

Oh ya! And how could I forget the best part of my day?! Before going to Tesco Lotus, I was on my way to the store and saw an old soccer ball on the side of the street. There were around 6 village children playing around with a basketball, all under the age of 10. So cute! I brought the soccer ball over to the court and started playing with them! They were laughing with me and having a blast! 3 of the girls even gave me high fives! I was so happy to get to play with the kids. It was almost a time of God reminding me of the passion I have for teaching children, and where my heart is.

I'm pretty tired, and it's already 12:15am in the morning here and I have class at 9: 30am. Getting some rest, and praising God for an incredible day.