First day of school!

Yesterday was my first day of school. I'm teaching 10th & 11th graders at a public high school in Lampang called Lampangkanlayanee. There are 3 other farang (western) teachers at my school that teach english and then there are the thai teachers that teach english. I have 21 classes and see each one once a week for 50 minutes. Its such a short time and so infrequent that they will pretty much forget what they learned by the next week.
The students are so cute. They stand up at the beginning of class and say "Good morning Teacher" in unison and then "Thank you teacher. See you Teacher" at the end of class. All Thai people have short nicknames. Some are just vowel sounds like "Oh" or "Aeh" but I have quite a few students whose nicknames are "Beer" (pronounced "Be-ah." There are several students with the nickname "May," "Bee," and
"Pam." A common nickname is "Porn," although its pronounced "Pawn." I won't be able to remember everyones name because I have something like 800 students in total.
The funniest thing happened in one of my 10th grade classes (they call it M-4 here). I went over the months of the year. Then I split them into 4 teams and they had to get in age order. I had to explain it several times, but they got it eventually. When they were all in order, each team got a point and I told them they could sit down. They all sat down exactly where they were standing, not in their seats, so they were all sitting on the floor, which was hilarious. When they realized that I meant their seats they all started laughing and I needed a minute to compose myself because I was laughing so hard. It was funny to see 40 students just sit on the floor.
I was also supposed to teach 5 classes yesterday, but because they are on a 10 period schedule this week instead of the usual 9 and I didn't hear the bell, I overtaught about 10 minutes and no one said anything until finally one kid said "Teacher you teach long." That was my only 11th grade class yesterday. I ran out of things to do with them because I didn't hear the bell. This made me late for my next class, and a teacher had already told them that they could leave. The way the schedule works is that both teachers and students change class rooms for each class. Once in a while the students may be in the classroom already, but for the most part they come in at least a little late because the bell that dismisses the first class is also the bell that starts the next one. I have to hustle to get to classes on time if they are in different buildings.
I'm living in an apartment that is right next to the school. Almost a roll out of bed and get to school, except that they close the gate that is right next to my apartment building by 7:50, so I can't ever be later than that. Its quite a convienient commute. I have one room with a bed, tv, fridge, ac, and a bathroom (with hot water!) The other teachers that I met at training that are in Lampang are also in the apartment building so there are some friendly faces.
Todays the second day of classes for me...then, its the weekend!
Monday, Margo & I went to Chiang Mai, which is easily my favorite city so far in Thailand. Compared to Bangkok, it is amazing and one of the biggest differences is that most stuff within the city is walkable. Some of the touristy type things are a tuk-tuk (a type of taxi) ride away, but we haven't done any of the touristy things yet. Lampang is only about an hour and a half away from Chiang Mai, so I know I'll be there again soon. On the way there, we took a really cheap bus- about 40 baht (or $1.50). I got on and saw that there was only one double-seat left on the bus (perfect for me & Margo), but when I got to the back I realized why it was open- there was a very noticiable leak and the seat was already wet. So I sat in a wet seat with water continually dripping on me and new leaks kept springing up on the way. It was actually quite funny when I got off and the back of my leg was soaked and my extra t-shirt that I draped over my shoulder was soaked as well. At least it was only $1.50, so I can't complain about that!