(hiphop music)
(speaking in foreign language) from Krabi, Thailand.
I'm Kristina, and I'm so excited to be here with you guys.
So I'm just getting ready for work,
or actually I'm pretty much ready for work.
I need to head over there.
So I currently live in Kwong Wong,
which is a beach city in Krabi Province,
and I work in Krabi Town.
I used to live a little bit closer,
but now I'm roughly about 20 minutes away from work
because I decided I wanna be closer to
this beach specifically.
(laughs)
So I'm so excited to share with you guys my day.
I have so much to share with you.
So yeah, let's get started.
So I wanna share a little bit about me
before I head to work.
So I'm from California, I'm 26 years old,
and I've been in Thailand for a little over a year now.
I decided on Thailand specifically
because I came on vacation last May,
and as soon as I got home, I knew I wanted to move here.
And I contacted TEFL Academy
and I made it happen within two months.
So it was a really ...
It's been a really awesome experience so far.
I was a teacher in California,
which is why it was so easy for me
to make a decision to be a teacher here.
So I do have my bachelor's and my master's in education,
but that is not necessarily to teach in Thailand.
You do have to have a bachelor's in any degree.
And then having at TEFL of course is an added bonus.
Okay, so I'm ready to drive to work.
You know, safety first.
I do drive a motorbike. This is my baby right here.
I bought this one.
So when I first came, I bought a second hand bike.
And then when I was a little more established,
I ended up buying this one for only about $2,000.
I'll break down the expenses later on.
But it's so worth having a newer bike.
I absolutely love riding my motorbike.
It's like the funniest thing.
So yeah, I'm about to head to work.
So I'm gonna go ahead and leave this question box here.
So if you have any questions, please go ahead and ask them
and I will be answering them throughout the day.
Okay. So I am at my school.
So I teach at a very small private school,
and I mean small.
Right now I only have five students,
three upper, two lower.
Motorbikes are really so loud here. (laughs)
(motorbike engine revving)
And it used to be more,
but because a lot of this is like a touristy town,
I would say.
A lot of the parents do rely on tourism,
and because we haven't had any tourists,
a lot of them had to withdraw their students
from the school, unfortunately.
But it does mean that I only teach five students,
so it makes it really easy.
So once they get here,
I'll share a little bit more with you guys.
Okay, so I'm with my first kiddos.
So I've got two really small ones. They're both four.
And then I have a seven-year-old.
So I split up the class, I spend 30 minutes with them,
30 minutes with her while someone watches them.
She's pretty independent, so she can do things on her own
while I teach them.
So now we are with the upper primary.
And so I'm gonna introduce the other three students.
So I teach six, not five.
But let me go ahead and introduce them.
What's your name?
- My name is (mumbles)
I'm seven years old. I mean eight.
(both laughs)
And ...
- [Kristina] And?
- And I (mumbles)
and yeah.
- [Kristina] And yeah, okay.
- Hello, my name is Angel.
I was born in (mumbles) hospital and (mumbles)
(Kristina laughs)
- How old are you?
- I'm nine.
- [Kristina] You're nine. All right.
- Hello, my name is Mohan.
I'm 14 years old. I was born in (mumbles)
- [Kristina] All right. Very cool.
Okay. So it is 11:20.
I finish work at 11:20, so I'm done.
I only teach three classes because I teach part time.
I used to teach full time but then I decided
I needed a little extra time to do other things
because I was working way too much.
So now I only teach three classes.
I'm here at 7.30 and I'm out by 11:15,
and honestly, it's perfect
'cause it gives me the whole day to do different things.
Okay, so this was quick and easy
because I just came to pick up my work permit.
I already had applied for it a couple of days ago last week,
and I just had to pay for it basically right now.
So my school handles all of the paperwork and everything,
but I'm responsible for any fees that I have right now.
When I finish my contract, then my school will pay me back
for everything that I paid for.
If your school is not willing to do
any of the paperwork for you,
then I would honestly say run away from that school.
Your school should always be in charge
of handling all that paperwork
'cause it's a lot and it has to usually be in Thai.
So for us foreigners, it's not that easy to get done.
I will explain the visa process as soon as I get home. I am.
It is gonna start raining soon
and I wanna get out of here before then.
And I'm also gonna stop at the new school
that's being built right now to show you guys that.
Okay, so we are in the process of expanding.
We do want to have more students, of course.
So we started building this new school here.
Obviously, it's not done yet
and I don't know quite when it will be done,
but when it is, this is where we'll be
and I'll be much closer to where I live now.
Okay, I'm home now.
So it may be rainy season,
but it's still always freaking hot out here. (laughs)
So I've changed and everything.
So now I'm gonna go ahead and give you a tour of my house.
First things first, this is beautiful baby, Lola.
And this is little Marley over here.
So they are both Thai dogs.
I did get them as little puppies
and they were rescued basically.
So yes, this is my living room.
Most of the stuff I was provided,
like the big furniture and stuff,
but like this I bought the TV and everything
'cause I need a big TV. (chuckles)
So here's my kitchen.
It's like all connected to each other. So I do have a stove.
What I don't like is that ...
You can like see everything, but whatever, it's fine.
So I do have a stove.
I don't have an oven so I have to use a toaster oven.
And then when we head over here,
this is my office space
where I basically do all my teaching.
It's a huge mess 'cause we just moved.
So and then this is a single toilet.
Here is my restroom.
You do have to go through the restroom
in order to get to my room.
But it's really big. Again, excuse the clutter.
I don't know what to put in this area.
So I'll figure that out.
And then here you have the closets, the bed
and are very simple.
But the best part about this house is our pool,
which needs a cleaning.
I haven't come to clean it yet.
But so the pool and the backyard area
is my absolute favorite.
It's just big yard for the dogs.
We are currently building a bamboo gate.
Coming over here is the garage space
where we have a little gym set up
and this is my boyfriend, Clieng.
Baby, say hi.
- Hi.
(Kristina chuckles)
- [Kristina] And yeah, so this is kind of it basically.
For this house, I spend 13,000 Baht
which is roughly around $430.
The only reason I have this place is because of COVID.
Since there's no tourists coming,
this used to be a place where
they would rent out like daily.
But I got a really good rate since there's nobody coming in
and I'm here for at least a year and a half, so that's nice.
Okay, so I got this question a lot.
So as far as the job goes, a long story short,
there was a Facebook posting.
I emailed them, went in to talk to them.
Then that was kind of it, and I got the job.
It was a little too easy, honestly.
So honestly, I kind of just picked
the first school that I saw. I texted.
I could have applied for an international school
and been given a much higher paycheck.
And at first, I didn't really like the school that I was at.
I was working long hours,
like literally from like eight up until six,
and it was a lot of work.
But then now I feel like I lucked out
because I only have to work three hours.
I'm done by 11:15.
I have the rest of my day to do what I need to do.
So my advice for as far as jobs go,
they do have a site called Ajarn.com
that you can look for different job postings.
Krabi, it's kind of hard to find them.
I also just really recommend going into
the different schools, emailing them,
talking to them in person.
And do your research on the schools, guys.
Honestly, that's a big thing.
I didn't do that, but I got lucky, honestly.
Okay, so as far as visas go, I came on a tourist visa.
I applied for it ahead of time,
that way I was able to get the full 90 days if I needed it.
And I was able to find my job pretty quickly.
I had to leave on to Penang, which is in Malaysia,
to go get my non B visa after I found my job.
So your job should be able to do all the paperwork for you
and then you kind of have to go
and apply for out of country.
Right now, obviously, you can't really leave the country,
so they are charging ridiculous fees to do visas right now.
The whole visa process is the most annoying thing ever.
I just had to go get mine renewed actually
a couple of weeks ago, and it's just a pain in the butt
to deal with all the paperwork and all the requirements
'cause each province is different
so you never know exactly until you go talk to immigration.
And then from getting your visa, then you can go ahead
and apply for your work permit.
Once you're kind of in that stage,
then it's okay for you to start working.
I really don't recommend to start working
before you get your visa
'cause you could get in a lot of trouble.
Some schools will have you do that,
but just be careful if that's the case.
Always try to have your work permit with you at all times
because a lot of consequences could happen.
This is a good question.
But my experience might be
a little bit different from the norm.
One of the reasons I did choose ITA was because
they happen to have a TEFL program
happening in person in Krabi,
and I wanted to be by the beach so it was perfect for me.
So I spent my first month in Thailand with the group
that I did my TEFL with, and that honestly made it
so much easier to kind of adjust to everything.
And then as they kind of went their separate ways,
moved on to Bangkok, Chiangmai and so on,
I was the only one left
and it was a little lonely, I'm not gonna lie.
But I met my boyfriend at a Reggae Bar
that I used to go to every day.
I slowly started making friends with other experts,
and now I have a whole little community
to kind of out hang out with.
I've got my friends, I've got my boyfriend, my dogs,
I call my mom every couple days, every weekend
and we talk for like an hour. (laughs)
So I definitely don't feel lonely.
It definitely feels like home.
I would say just going out there and not staying in,
going out to go meet people,
to talk to people is probably the best way to combat that.
The short answer is no,
because I already had a teaching credential.
But if you don't have any teaching experience,
any teaching certificates or anything like that,
eventually you will have to get one.
Okay, so this is one of my favorite beach bars.
You can do massages right here.
I don't think they have them available right now.
And then it's super cute inside.
There's so many options to sit.
I absolutely love this place.
So this is how cute this place.
We're gonna go sit up here.
So one thing about Thailand is,
especially during rainy season,
the weather is so unexpected.
Like right now it's crazy windy.
There's some storm clouds coming,
but I'm still gonna go show you another spot.
Hopefully, two more spots depending on whether
it starts pouring on us or not.
Okay, so it raining on us.
This is my boyfriend's hat
to prevent the rain from getting in my eyes.
Yeah, this is what it's like driving
on a motor bike in the rain. (laughs)
Okay, so we super caught in the rain.
It is pouring outside.
You see that? That's crazy.
(laughs)
For the lunch, I'm having (mumbles) with like
a ginger sauce and the best sea food sauce here, rice,
and my boyfriend is having pecker brown,
which is fried basil and delicious.
Okay, so because of the rain,
I couldn't quite take you to see
the view of where we were eating. It's beautiful.
But I do go there often,
so if you guys are following me @heykristinamichelle,
then you can go ahead
and see all the really beautiful places that I head to.
So now I am going to teach. I teach in a couple minutes.
So I teach with VIPKID,
and I absolutely love working with them.
I've been teaching with them for over a year now
and it's just simple, easy,
and it's the reason why I can teach only part time
and not have to work full time at the school
because the rest of my income comes from VIPKID.
I had a few of you guys ask this.
So with VIPKID, I'm on a little break right now.
I teach again at six and then I'm done today at 7:30.
So I do teach every single day,
whether it's only one class or six classes.
On the weekends, it's usually when I teach the most.
I teach like anywhere from only five,
if it's a slow weekend, up to 20 classes.
So I leave my schedule really open.
If I know I'm gonna be gone somewhere,
then of course I close it.
So honestly, I can't give you an exact estimate
of how many hours I teach
because it changes all the time.
So this will be the last set of questions
that I ask before sending off tonight.
So yes, things are slow
and I wish we could have people coming in,
but unfortunately the way they have shut down the borders,
it's pretty much impossible right now.
So as far as the borders opening up again,
I honestly don't know.
I'm hoping by the end of this year,
because I have plans to visit home in February, so hoping.
Because as of right now, the borders are closed to anyone
who doesn't have a work permit, a Thai spouse.
And even if you do have a work visa and everything,
you have to quarantine for a mandatory two weeks,
like there's no buts or ifs about it,
you have to do it at a government facility.
And I think it's like a hotel, but a government-run hotel.
And I think it's anywhere from a 1,000 to $2,000.
I'm not exactly sure how much that price is.
And then you have to have COVID insurance.
So right now, no, don't come to Thailand.
It's impossible right now.
Even if you do get a job, it would be really hard
and you'd be paying a lot of money to get over here.
So this was a lot of fun showing you guys around
on what it's like to live and work in Krabi, Thailand.
I absolutely love it here.
I honestly plan on staying longterm.
So if you're thinking about moving to Thailand, to Vietnam,
to wherever it is, honestly just do it.
I promise you you won't regret it.
It's been one of the best experiences of my life.
And if this whole thing is confusing to you,
'cause I know exactly what it's like to move abroad
to teach online, I'm super happy to help.
Go ahead and check out my personal account,
@heychristinamichelle, to figure out how exactly
I can help you guys out
because I've been learning about this for a long time
to perfectly be able to help you guys move and teach abroad
and teach online.
All right guys, have a good night. It was so fun.
Message me if you have any more questions
on my personal accounts.
Good night and goodbye.
(hiphop music)