Safari World Zoo

Arise and Shine! 5:20AM!  It was finally the day to go to the big zoo in Bangkok! I was excited to get some time with the kids outside of the classroom. There were also about 12-15 parents that came along. At 6:30AM we took off for the 2-3 hour journey. The best part...is that we didn't get to sleep on the trip up, we had to play games and sing songs with the kids! They were so peaceful for a minute!

We had planned some activities for them to do beforehand. We also made excel spreadsheets where they could fill in the different types of animals they encountered, checked which animal group it belonged to (reptile, mammal, bird, etc), where it came from, what environment it lived in, they could draw a picture, and then put 1-5 hearts for how much they liked the animal! (The next day when we went over these sheets together, we realized they were too hard for 1st graders. Cailin and I basically had 15 students nipping at our heals yelling "teacher, teacher," and it was a big mess! We felt that it wasn't explained well enough to them in Thai so they had no idea what to do. It was the first day since I have been here that I snapped a bit from frustration. Later that day we had to help Nan, our Thai teacher, with lesson plans for the next day and next week, instead of spending time working on all the lesson plans we had to do for the upcoming school year. I feels it's very impractical. How are you supposed to plan for a whole year when you have no idea what the capabilities of your students are or how quickly they will get through the material? Yet again I was extremely frustrated because I didn't understand how she didn't have a lesson for the next day, but they expected us to get a whole year of lesson plans made! I now feel like they think of us as miracle workers. They expect great things out of us....which feels good, but sometimes I think it's irrational. They also don't want Nan to help us or translate in Thai when we are trying to explain things to the class. They think it is hindering the students. I don't understand how they expect the kids to just instantly understand what I'm saying in English. I think initially it should be translated. I realize and firmly uphold the importance of being a role model and being an example and demonstrating what you are trying to explain, but I feel strongly that there are some things you absolutely have to translate initially).

Wow, that was a long detour away from my initial story! Sorry! Okay.....where was I! The zoo...it was nice to have AC on the trip there for I knew that it was going to be a sweaty day of walking around the zoo! We first drove through the safari park. You have to drive because the animals are out in the open. There were zebras, giraffes, camels, lions, tigers, and bears, etc.

I thought the color of these birds was amazing.

It was then time to get out into the sweltering heat! We headed to the orangutan show. It was almost unreal. These creatures seemed so human-like; performing human acts. It was amazing, yet saddening to think about what these animals had to go through to be able to perform this show to "entertain" us.

An orangutan on a zip line?

These "ladies" were shaking their stuff to the music!

The "boxing match" champion.

You've got to love this big guy!

Next was the sea lion show and on to the elephant show. Nan told me that she feels so bad for the elephants because they have to endure and tolerate alot of pain to get to the point of being controlled and "entertainers," where they listen to their masters.

This elephant has more artistic ability in his trunk than I do in my whole body!

I guess the elephants also play basketball and soccer!

I was trying to get up close and personal with these giants!

As you can see I am perspiring a bit in this next picture! First off if you are wondering about the bright blue shirts...the school gave them to us! Lovely aren't they! Second, yes, I did design and draw my own nametag! Thank you! We split the kids up into the 6 animal groups but because I am the teacher I could draw all the animal groups on my name tag!  I'm with Wern and Ninee here.

Cailin and I with Wern and Tong.

This picture is with one of the parents. Another example of how kind the people are here is that we were watching one of the shows at the zoo and one of the moms must have noticed how warm I was and without asking she brought me popcorn and a pepsi!

Last was the dolphin show. Again it was amazing to see the things these creatures could do!

We finally got back to the school a little after 5.  I was exhausted, but very glad to be able to spend some quality time with my students!