(upbeat music)
- (speaks in foreign language) everyone.
My name is Krista.
I am living in Pattaya, Thailand,
and I'm going to take you on a day in my life today.
I'm gonna go get ready for school and then I'll be back.
All right so now that I'm ready for school,
let me tell you a bit about myself.
I am 28 years old from the United States from New Jersey.
I have been living in Thailand for now two years
going on my third year.
Back in the U.S. I was a teacher for three years.
I taught special education and pre-school,
and I also have my bachelor's in early childhood education
and special education.
So if you ever have any questions
throughout this entire takeover,
feel free to ask it right there
or just message me on my private Instagram right there.
I'm going to head to school now
and then I'll give you a tour.
Here's a sneak peek of where I live.
I'll show you.
So I apologize in advance if you can't hear me,
but everyone has to wear a mask on campus cause of COVID.
But I've been teaching at this international school
for now three years.
I teach preschool and I'm going to show you my room.
All right, so this is my classroom.
This year all of the preschool classrooms
our theme is Disney.
Can you guess what mine is?
So currently in my class, I have sixteen students
but I can have up to 25 in my room.
Right now we have to socially distance the tables,
which is unfortunate because I like working
with students in small groups,
but this is my room.
So I did just hear that they opened up Phuket for tourist.
American tourists or any foreigners,
but there are a lot of restrictions in place as to
where you can go, what you can do.
So no, I don't know when.
So that's a really good question.
I do not speak any Thai,
but I am lucky enough to have two Thai assistants
in my classroom.
Every classroom in the school has assistants
whether they are Thai or Filipino.
So that's how it is.
Also since this is an international school
we are only allowed to speak English
in the classrooms to help the students learn more English
and develop their language better.
So living in Thailand is very inexpensive
and you can make a very good living as teacher.
Beautiful country, nice people,
what more could you ask for?
Yes and no to this question.
I think without my degree I still could work in Thailand
but just not at an international school.
So a continuation of that question,
to work at an international school in Thailand
you have to have some type of education degree.
If you do not,
within I think five years of working at that school
or in Thailand
you have to get a degree of some education field.
So I found this job on something called
https://www.ajarn.com.
It's for different teaching jobs in Thailand only.
The application process was not very difficult.
I just applied, had a Skype interview and got the job.
So my students are about to come in
and then I will get back to all of the other questions
that people have been asking.
Some are repeated,
but don't forget you can also ask me
on my personal Instagram
or you can keep asking them right there.
I'll see you in a little bit.
So my kids are in Thai class right now
so I figured I'd go back and answer
some of your questions.
So I'm fortunate enough to work at a school where there are
a lot of Western teachers,
so it was very easy to find people
that I got along with easily
and everyone's just so nice
so it's so easy to make friends here.
That's so exciting,
let me know and maybe we can meet up.
Overall the vibe,
everyone is still able to go to restaurants,
go to the mall.
There's not many tourists here
but, you're still able to have a good time and go out.
So I did have some people asking about
if there's any fun things to do in the area.
There are so many fun things to do in the area.
We have a walking street which has a bunch of bars
and clubs and different restaurants.
There's an elephant sanctuary here.
There are many different temples you can go to.
Also tonight I'm going to a pole and aerial fitness class,
which I usually go to two times a week.
So you'll see that tonight and can ask any other questions.
Yes all of our buildings do have air con
because it is hot as anything in Thailand.
So I haven't had any problems teaching with a nose ring,
but that's just at my school.
I don't know if other schools really care.
I also have tattoos and it's fine
as long as the majority of them are covered
and none of them are inappropriate.
I don't really have a timeline
of how long I wanna stay out here,
but our holidays are amazing.
We get at least one week off every month
so I can travel except for COVID is
kind of messing that up right now.
So to kind of piggyback the expenses that I just posted,
it really depends where you teach and what you teach,
and what your qualifications are.
I'm able to live comfortably and travel
and still live my life but also live in a great house
with two of my friends which I will show you later,
and I'm still able to have a good time, go out.
It just depends what your budget is and
how you are with money.
I think Thailand is very safe.
I have never once felt unsafe walking around by myself
at night or traveling alone.
It is not dirty.
It's the same as any other city.
People come and pick up the garbage.
So this is the building that I work in.
Like I said I teach preschool.
So we have our own playground,
an area in the school for the kids.
It gives off a very jungly vibe which I like.
I mean how can you beat this?
It's so beautiful here.
So I'm not sure if you're aware but the main mode
of transportation in Thailand is motorbike.
They have taxis, everything.
I don't know why the U.S. has not adopted this yet.
But I'm gonna ride mine home
and then I'll give you a tour of my house.
Okay I am back home,
out of my work clothes and ready to show you my house.
So like I said,
actually I don't know if I said it.
I am living with two other teachers that I work with,
both early years, both from North America.
And we just started renting this pool villa house
which we are obsessed with.
So let me show you.
Well first, this is my room.
My room is not necessarily attached to the main house.
You'll see what I mean.
So we have our pool,
which I mean how beautiful is this?
And then we come to the main part of the house,
and we have our kitchen
and living room.
And we have a washing machine
and a full kitchen, obsessed.
And we have a stove top.
Good question, so we found our house on a Facebook group.
There are a lot of buy-sell rent groups in the Pattaya area
so we found one,
post of what we were looking for
and we looked at a lot of houses.
So our school actually helped us with all of our visa
and every other document that we need to come over.
So it was really helpful to have it pretty much done for us
we just had to go and sign everything.
So I know at least for my school,
we don't have any age restrictions.
We have some teachers who just graduated college
and some who are collecting their pension.
You're never too old to follow your dreams.
Okay so now I'm off to my aerial hoop
and pole fitness classes.
I go to these two times a week.
It's in the same studio, same teacher, she's amazing.
I will give you a glimpse as to what that's like.
It takes me about twenty minutes to get down there.
So I'll see you soon.
♪ I've been having dreams ♪
♪ Jumping on trampoline ♪
♪ Flipping in the air ♪
♪ I never land, just float there ♪
♪ Wait if I'm on fire ♪
♪ How am I so deep in love ♪
So I'm taking a break before my pole fitness class.
I teach every day Monday to Friday from 8:30 until 2:30
when my kids leave
and then my contract time is until 3:30 so.
♪ Everybody gangbangin' ♪
♪ know they ain't real, right ♪
♪ Since I came in the game ♪
♪ Been a real one, real one ♪
♪ And ain't shit changed bitch I'm still one ♪
♪ Uh all facts no cap no cap ♪
♪ Daddy how you like that like that ♪
♪ Ain't got no time for no subliminals ♪
♪ After a while ♪
Well, I'm exhausted,
but it is very easy to travel from Pattaya
to different countries.
Bangkok is about an hour and a half bus ride,
so it's easy to go there and then fly out anywhere you want.
So I kind of answered this question a little bit.
The visa process was very easy for me.
I came to Thailand on a non-B,
which means I came into the country already having a job.
So the school really handled everything for me.
But I know that is not the case for everyone
because some people come into Thailand
and just look around and try to find a job once they arrive.
In that case, then you have to get a work permit
and then leave the country every so many days.
So that I really don't know too much more information
about that because I had a different process.
So everyone's is different,
you just have to check with the school
and see what they require.
All right so this is where I'm going to end the takeover.
I'm going to do some grocery shopping.
Once again, thank you ITA for letting me do this.
If you have any other questions still,
please feel free to add me, follow me, message me,
whatever you want on my private one,
I would be happy to help.
And I hope to talk to you all soon, bye.
Just kidding. One last thing.
For anyone who has any hesitations
about teaching or making that jump abroad, just do it.
You will not regret it.
I have not regretted it one moment.
And Thailand is not the last on my teaching abroad journey
so, follow me and see where I'm going to end up next.
Bye.
(upbeat music)