The day was August 12th, and Thai calendar marked that day as Mother's Day, which means "holiday". Thai citizens celebrate Mother's Day on the same day as the Queen's birthday. It was first introduced to Thailand on 15th April, 1950. In 1976, Mother’s Day has been changed to 12th August to commemorate the birthday of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit ,the Mother of all Thai people. Queen Sirikit is regarded as mother to all Thai people, thus her birthday is also celebrated as Mother’s Day and observed as a Thai national holiday.

I was so excited, because it happened on Monday, meaning that I had three-day weekend as the schools in Thailand would be closed due to national holiday. I was happy because I finally got time to hangout with other SeaTeacher students from Indonesia. My friend and I were planning to go to Warorot Market, and so we gathered in the lobby of International House.

We were divided into two groups since we would go to reach the market by Grab Taxi. Five people left first with their Grab Taxi, meanwhile I and three other students were still waiting for our ride. The trip to the market took about 20 minutes, and when we got there we waited for Miss Ina, Yupparaj's international teacher from Indonesia. She knows better about Chiang Mai and Warorot Market.

We went around through the market and bought many things, and we ended our adventure on a halal restaurant near Warorot.


My 9th day in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It was August 11th, my second Sunday since my arrival. I started the day at 5 am, my usual move. I checked my clothes that I had left hanging on the balcony since the day before. Some fell on the floor, it reminded me that it was not just rainy season, but also a bit windy. I went back inside, and I turned on the TV but everything was still in Thai. I switched channel by channel until I found music-streaming channel that plays English songs, "finally!" I sighed.

I made myself a cup of coffee and I started to wonder what I was going to eat for breakfast that morning. I opened the fridge, and voila, I had nothing. I opened the Google Maps App on my phone to look for the nearest restaurants, but everything was either in Thai or still closed. I was reaching a dead end. Then I remembered that I could order something through Grab App. I opened the app and I scrolled down to check the available vendors, but still, everything came up in Thai, or something that was insanely expensive.

That morning, I realized that something was missing. It took me a week to draw conclusion that I was missing the freedom. It was freedom that I longed. Freedom to be able to go wherever I wanted riding my bike, as well as freedom to communicate with other people freely, without language barrier. For the whole week, I have traveled and communicated with limitation due to distance and language constraint. I started to miss having that small talk with the seller of the grocery store in my hometown. I started to miss that conversation that I used to have with food seller near my home university.

I started to miss all those small things that I used to take for granted.

Saturday, August 10th. The weekend that I had waited for so long finally arrived. I was not whining, but my body was just not ready with the new school routine that I had to adjust. Back in Indonesia, I used to have class at 8.40 and I only had classes usually for 4 hours per day. Meanwhile, in Thailand, I had to be ready at 7.20 and I had to stay at school until 16.30. Not to mention that I had to walk and wait for the Yellow Truck to take me to CMRU.
Now you understand why I expected weekend so much, don't you?

Within the whole weekdays, I imagined what kind of activities that I might do to recharge my energy. When the weekend came, it turned out that I had a basket full of laundry that needed to wash. Long story short, I was lucky enough because CMRU's International House has washing machines on the 6th floor. They are automated washing machines that would operate automatically after I inserted two 10-baht coins. The whole process took about 45 minutes to finish, but usually I would just leave my laundry for the whole hour just to be sure.

I should dry all my clothes by hanging them to the clothesline on the rooftop. However, I honestly thought that hanging my clothes on rooftop was very risky, considering that Thailand was having the rainy season. If the rain suddenly fell, I would have to run to the 6th floor from the 2nd floor, and by the time I got to the top, all my clothes would have been wet, therefore I hung  my clothes on my balcony. Actually, I was not supposed to do that, because there are rules that drying clothes must only be done on rooftop, but then I questioned why did they provide clothesline on my balcony, though?



And that was it, the Saturday that I had waited so long was spent on my laundry.

Friday, August 9th. I woke up at 5 after my alarm went off. I made a cup of coffee and prepare for the things that I was going to take to the school. Then I took bath and I got myself ready. At 7.20, I went to the pick up point for the university's van as usual. When I got to the pick up point, the van was already there and it was almost full of people. Most of them were the lecturers of CMRU, I guess. I waited for my friend but she was not showing up until 7.30, so the van left without her. I texted her and asked whether she was going to school or she wanted to skip for one more day because the van already left. Five minutes later she replied that she woke up late, thus she would take the yellow truck to get to the school.

Everything went well as usual, people were talking to each other, some other were talking on their phone, and I was scrolling through the Instagram app. Nothing strange happened that morning, until the van was getting closer to my drop off point, but instead of stopping, the driver went faster. "Holy cow!" I screamed internally, "What am I supposed to do?" I questioned myself. "Should I tell the driver? But it will be very awkward. Or should I just accepted the fact that I am getting farther away from the school?" I could not stop myself from asking myself about these questions.

I took a deep breath, then I thought of the solutions for my problem. I was thinking that the driver might forgot that he should drop me at school, or he might just want to drop the lecturers first, then took me to school afterward. Either way, I should think of the alternatives.

After 40 minutes, the van went to a small road, and I saw "Agriculture Faculty, Chiang Mai Rajabhat University". I was relieved, at least my guessing about dropping off the lecturers first might be correct. Might be. The van reached the faculty and the driver opened the side door. Everyone was getting off, except me. I did not know what to do, until the driver said that he would take me to school by then. Problem was solved.

I arrived at the school and my friend was already there. It usually took me 30 minutes to get to the school, but that morning, it took me more than an hour to get to the school. What a journey.

Distance from CMRU to CMRU (Mae Rim), and Suksasongkhro Chiang Mai School

On the previous day, Wednesday the 7th of August, I have observed at least two classes taught by Ms. Seelakun. The first class, mattayom 3/2, was conducted at 8.30 up to 9.20, and the second class, mattayom 3/3, was conducted at 13.40 up to 14.30.


After conducting observation on Ms. Seelakun's classes and gathering some information from her, here are some pedagogical contents that I managed to collect:

 1.1 Teaching Methods 
Ms. Seelakun used student-centered learning method as it had to be used by all teachers, considering that this method is mentioned in the current curriculum provided by the Ministry of Education of Thailand. She provided information to the students and engaged the students to be active during the learning process.

 1.2 Learning Materials and Innovation 
The learning materials that she taught on that day was based on the "New World - Student Book" unit 5 about Past Tense. Then she developed and adjusted the materials by considering her students' competence. She decorated the presentation slide show with cartoon characters, Doraemon, to attract the students' attention, and she provided examples based on real life condition to make the learning process become authentic.
Teaching Plan - Unit 5 Did You Have Good Time?


 1.3 Sources of Learning and Technology Used 
Sources of Learning: Student Book "New World" for grade 9, and pictures from the internet
Technology Used: Power Point Slide Show (Laptop and Projector)
New World - Student Book, for Grade 9 (Mattayom 3)

 1.4 Authentic Assessment 
Ms. Seelakun gave worksheet to students and she observed the students, while they were doing the worksheet, in order to assess each student's ability and comprehension. The worksheets were given after she explained the materials about Past Tense to students.