Little things

so there are a bunch of interesting/funny things about my life that i don't know how to group together in a rational post, so here they are in list form.

1. only teachers wear shoes inside of school buildings. the kids all stop and take their shoes off before they go inside. however, it is also acceptable for me to take my shoes off in my office in the english resource room. in fact, it is more acceptable for me to be barefoot in my office than it is for me to wear flip flops.

2. almost everywhere else, i take my shoes off before i enter a building, even the copy shop where i make copies or the internet cafe.

3. thai people clap for a much, much shorter period of time than american people. if something really amazing happens, they clap maybe 10 times before stopping.

4. the ants here are insane. they are normal ants until you try to kill them, and then they freak out and run faster than i have ever seen any ant run. they are also very smart. i once dropped an m & m, and by the time i bent down to pick it up, they had swarmed it.

5. everyone here is very comfortable using a microphone. in fact, they tried to get me to use a microphone in class. i politely declined, which i did just by not using it. see #7 for more on declining.

6. nodding your head also means no. i am scared to think about all the things i have done after people have told me no by nodding their head at me.

7. thai culture is much more subtle. if you say you are going to the bus station that afternoon, that actually means you are asking the person you are talking to for a ride. if you say you like their necklace, that means that you actually want them to buy it for you. if we eat less at lunch than we normally do (we get served western versions of the thai food the teachers eat for lunch), the director of the school (basically the principal) notices, tells the kitchen staff to make us new food, and has an english teacher ask us if the food is alright. it is more acceptable to lie and make up an excuse than it is to tell someone the real reason why you can't or don't want to do something. my default answer for no is "next time."

8. it turns out that "kir" sounds like the thai word for eyebrow, and "sten" sounds like the thai word for dance. my 5/1 class has taken to teasing me good-naturedly by calling me "ajarn eyebrow dance."

9. i broke up my first fight. 2 sixth-grade boys started fighting by the bathrooms one day. at first, i thought they were horsing around but they got really angry and started fighting for real. they were punching and kicking each other and i wasn't really sure what to do because i didn't want to get punched or kicked. i just yelled "hey!" a bunch of times really loudly and stepped in between them, at which point (luckily) they stopped.

10. all of my students have nicknames because i can't pronounce their thai names. i think their parents pick their nicknames when they are little. their nicknames are words you would not normally think of as names. for example, some of my students are nut, poop-pup, bible, bonus, warm, dos, champ, oat, own, ice, etc. my favorite nickname: god. yes, god. i have a 6th grader whose nickname is god. last week in class, he volunteered to read something, and when he finished, i said "good, god!" i almost laughed out loud. next time he raised his hand, i made sure to call on him so i could say it again.