First Impressions

 After about 30 hours of traveling by plane and bus from Bangkok we finally made it to our hotel room in Phichit at 4 a.m Thursday (thai time) morning. We were staying in the hotel, as the teachers who taught this previous semester were still at the school.

Thursday and Friday we shadowed these teachers to see how teaching goes about and Friday evening we moved into our dorm which lies on  campus. The dorm is filled with 3 bunk beds a table and a sitting area. All in one room. It's a nice cozy place, but I immediately recognized how

hard it may become within the next four months, as all 6 of us have completely different personalities.

We begin teaching on Monday and I couldn't be more excited. I am a beginning reading teacher and will be sharing 12 students (roughly ages 5 and 6) with another girl in the program. The kids are darling, and I can't wait to see their improvement in English which is already relatively good. I'm also looking forward to test out ways to teach a foreign language by immersion. The ILP program has interesting ways  in which they go about teaching English some of which I don't find the most productive ways, so when I say I'm excited to figure out new ways, I really am.

I really only got to go into the city this morning (saturday) and lemme tell you, this is place is interesting. I will try to get more pictures of it, as I have not taken very many yet. They weren't kidding when I heard that Thailand is the land of smiles. Everyone smiles and waves to us and shout "helloooo" as we are the only white people in town and they know we teach at the "Imperial bilingual elementary school." The people don't seem to have a lot, but are very grateful for everything.

As seen on the left there are many stray dogs here. I have never seen so many dogs in my life.

the bottom photo is of a couple of my roommates sitting on the back of a truck getting a ride to the school. The ride did it for me- I smitten with this land. Which also reminds me, I always considered driving on the right side of the road a completely normal thing to do that is done in every country except England and their commonwealths. Turns out it is done in China, Japan, Thailand and who knows where else. A bit weird to get used to as we do have our own bikes to ride into town, which is also the experience as everyone drives they way they want to here.

I hope to post some more soon, especially when I start teaching and what not. I also hope to sound a little bit more intelligent.

Lots of Love und Ich habe euch Lieb.
McKenna

Departure: 12 Hours

I leave in 12 hours. This is unreal.

Anyhow, those who are interested in reading this blog, I really want to attempt to blog again. And to the readers warning- I have developed a mouth and hands (for typing sake) that use language that may seem vulgar to others. As some have already known. I also express a lot of my beliefs. Beliefs that may or may not be in sync with your own. I apologize if it offends you and if it does do so too much, then I advise you not to read it. I am sure you can make that decision on your own accord. Though, I will try to adjust some of my writings to my readers........

So... As I was saying, Thailand is tomorrow and I am sort of an emotionless being at the moment and can't fully wrap myself around the idea that I will be spending many days there. I am way excited to get to know many people, and especially my roommates!

I have a whole set of used books I got from the pioneer bookstore (great place, by the way. I definitely recommend it)! my sister and brother-in-law supplied me with many as well. I will also be bringing my ukulele. Seeing as I will be teaching no more than 20 hours a week, I figure I'll have plenty of time to explore, read, write, play ukulele and discover myself even more.

Goodbyes are hard, but hellos are the greatest :)

CIAO Utah, und los naaccchhh Thailand.

Packing and Shopping Malls

And while compiling all of the many clothes I want to take to Thailand I have only learned just how materialistic I am and how hard it is for me to part with certain clothing. I'm such a hypocrite to my own words. Also purchasing things for Thailand---- jeeez. Though, as I walked through the Orem mall today, I realized how harmful that place is for me. Whenever I enter a mall my mind begins to have irrational thoughts, such as: "I could be perceived by others so much better in that shirt, or shoes" "if only I looked like her..." "god, why don't i have more money" "when I have a load of money, it'll be spent on such things." This is shit-brained, I tell you. Such things go through my mind, followed by, "McKenna, get out of this place, you're better than that." So considering that I am having those following thoughts, it makes me believe my ego was the one speaking in the first place not my actual rational thoughts. Hmmmmmmmm. Which also makes me believe, it is the ego that is driving more than 50% of my waking life.

As stated in my about me info I am on the road to self discovery, so have patience.

and alas, for some odd reason blogger won't let me properly separate my paragraphs. Hmmmmmmmm

Stepping Stones

Almost a week ago, my iPad finally entered the opening arms of the concrete floor of my garage. Having spent $600 on the iPad from my own hard work 2 years previously, I was a bit distraught as the screen was entirely ruined as were many of the iPad functions. I soon looked into how much it would cost to get the screen replaced, to then realize that just getting the screen replaced would not give me the same iPad that I once had. I soon found out that apple will exchange my iPad for the same model for $250. Yes, I am still considering this offer... But, I thought about what the iPad would do for me. I use a sufficient laptop that provides me with much of the needs the iPad does. Of course I don't have my favorite apps on this laptop, but there is no need for a tablet. To wrap things up quicker- I am sick of materialism and consumerism. True- the reason I still do not have smartphone is because I don't want to pay for it and that still holds true today. I don't believe in paying some multi-million dollar business $$$ a month to be able to use snapchat, instagram, vine and god knows what else, because that's the appeal of smartphones to people my age. I will admit, having access to google, the new york times, der spiegel, music and a camera at all times can be nice but is it really necessary to have it anywhere?

 No matter what I do in this life, I will never fully be able to escape consumerism or the grasps of popular looks and ideas... but, I can try a little bit harder to allow myself to think for myself and not for gap, vicotria secret, ikea, bmw, starbucks, or even for the LDS church. if anyone really knows me (probably just myself) I have a strong hatred towards conforming. Hence why I took a year abroad, not necessarily why I left the LDS church but one of the factors in which i refused to be a part of the provo/lds culture, becasue i full-heartedly believe that one should create their own. Why I no longer praise celebrities and view them as if they were gods. Why I don't dress like the average girl around here. One of the reasons why i choose to leave the american high school mindset (leaving cross-country.) Why I don't believe one has to follow the get-out-of-highschool-go-to-college-get-a-degree-as-fast-as-you-can mindset.

 Yes, I still buy too much fast food. Yes, I still buy things at the mall that I don't necessarily need, but want. Yes, I use facebook too often. Yes, i've bought too many starbucks refreshers.... and similar wants will probably follow me until the day I die. I could care less if one purchases an item from any of these major brands, I just plead with you to ask yourself if you really need it. When you turn on your radio in the car, which not many people use anymore, turn it off when the ads come on. We need to realize that these materialistic things do not make one happier.