Teaching

I will be able to start teaching on Monday!! :) And I am sooo excited!! 

We thought we were going to start teaching last week Monday (October 4), but the schedule wasn't figured out and such... so now we will start this week! I will be in the Faculty (Department) of Education, which means I will be teaching the future English teachers of Laos. Two other teachers from my organization are also in this faculty. We have a nice office that the university just fixed up for us! And the other Lao teachers in our faculty are great!

On Wednesday we ate lunch with them. We thought they ate at 11:30 or so, so Steph and I went to a market and bought some grilled chicken, papaya salad and sticky rice to contribute to the meal. We were just sitting around their office chatting and then they decided it was time to eat, around 11:30. It seemed like there wasn't much food and people weren't eating much, but we don't know how it usually works. When we finished eating, we were still just sitting and chatting in their office to get to know them and such, and then 4 other teachers came in with bags of food! They pulled out the plates and spoons again and everybody was ready to eat!

Steph and I had just decided that we should leave soon and do some work, so when we were walking past the table to exit the room, one of the teachers asked why we were leaving without eating! We said we were full from the little meal we ate earlier and we would eat with them next time! Each person we passed stopped and tried to make us stay and eat with them! We finally got out after politely declining 4 times, but they were sooo sweet!

We're also pretty sure they only ate at 11:30 because we were there and ready with our food because everyone else seemed to know to come at 12:30ish... but again, how sweet of them to eat two meals so Steph and I wouldn't feel stupid. So, we still have some figuring out to do of when they eat, where, what.... But it will be lots of fun to get to know them over the year! :)

On Friday we also had a little birthday party for Linda, the other teacher in our faculty. She is turning 50! Steph and I made a chocolate cake for the party and the Lao teachers loved it!!


So far, I only have one class. Which sounds really slack! But I teach the class 2 hours a day four days a week, which equals 8 hours. We can only have 12 hours (says our organization) so I will be adding another class when they finish figuring out the schedule. I'm so happy that I will get to see my students four days a week! :)

I think I'm just really ready to start teaching because we have been in transition for so long! And I want to meet my students! Monday is the first day! Hopefully it will go well, since I still feel like I don't really know how to teach English that well.... :)