Do you know Lady Gaga in America??

A week of teaching down! It has definitely gotten easier since that first day. I am getting my evil eye down and moving the bad kids to the front of the class.  Since I see every class once a week I have been trying to learn all of their nicknames this week by having them make name tags.  These kids are AMAZING artists! Every single one of them! It is pretty funny, most of the boys will draw flowers, hearts, and butterflies, while the girls will draw characters like angry birds or anime.


 There have been some more interesting nicknames, including Pepsi, Spicy, Mild, 2 Donuts in one class(!?), a girl named Piggy :-( Baseball, Bambi, State, Yo-yo, Modem, Benz, Chang, (which means elephant in Thai) and Stamp. Melissa even had a Sim card in one of her classes!

Every morning the whole school gathers for an assembly of sorts where they sing the Thai National Anthem, raise the flag, and make announcements.  It starts around 7:30 and goes until around 8 and classes start at 8:30.  This assembly is where we had to introduce ourselves, say where we were from and what we would be teaching. There are 1,555 students here! It was a little intimidating on our first day...

On Wednesday and Thursday mornings, Mel and I went to this little coffee place right by our apartments to get energized.  By midday both days I was feeling a little dizzy, and on Thursday Nong Lak sent me home in the middle of my second class.  I had almost passed out and had "tossed my cookies." :-( I was super dehydrated and missed the rest of the day. No more coffee for Teacha Chelsea! Lesson learned!  When I got to school the next day all of the teachers were asking if I had diarrhea and that's why I was sick...No, but thanks for asking.

Our landlords, Nish and Noy, are SO nice! They have a little shop on the bottom floor of the complex and a nice deck area.  We have been sitting down there in the evenings, when it has cooled down some, teaching them some English and they have been helping us with our Thai!  It is pretty fun! English is a lot harder than Thai...

All Thais ask us the same questions, "Where do you live?" Have you eaten?" "How much money do you make?" "Do you have boyfriend?" "How old are you?" Rapid fire, too!
They also ask some pretty funny ones too, "Are my sky blue eyes fake?" "Do you know Lady Gaga in America?" (This student, who was a boy, then proceeded to dance and sing Ra Ra Ah Ah Ah AAH at the top of his lungs!)
They also all assume that Melissa and I are sisters, because we both have blonde hair, and ask us questions about "our family."  They are very shocked to find out that we aren't even related and just met last week! Then there are the students who can't tell us apart! If you're white with blonde hair, you must be twins!
Thank god for the Chelsea Football Team because when I tell them my name their face goes blank until someone says "Oooohhh Chelsea Football" and then they can suddenly pronounce it!

First full weekend in Phrae! We are hoping to explore it more and find our way around! Miss you all!