You know you’re a foreign teacher in Thailand when your alarm goes off at 6:00 a.m. and the first thing you think is: How spicy will lunch be today? Not what’s for lunch - just how spicy. You’ve learned to live with the mystery.

You know you’re a foreign teacher when your name has officially changed to “Teachaaa!” - drawn out, enthusiastic, and used about 300 times a day, whether you're walking to class, in the canteen, or trying to discreetly buy a Coke Zero from the vending machine.

You know you’re a foreign teacher when lesson plans are optional but your smile is not. And somehow, you’ve mastered the art of stretching a five-minute activity into a 45-minute class with nothing but a whiteboard and your ability to act things out like you're auditioning for drama school.

You know you’re a foreign teacher when students give you nicknames like “Harry Potter,” “Teacher Handsome,” or “Teacher Monkey,” and you’re just happy they remember your name at all. Bonus points if they draw it on the board - along with a suspiciously unflattering cartoon of you.

You’ve stopped asking why there’s a Buddhist ceremony, a sports day, or a dancing competition during your English period - and started keeping a spare shirt in your office just in case someone throws talcum powder at you again.

You know you’re a foreign teacher in Thailand when your marker pens are always dry, your PowerPoint won’t load, and the projector bulb blew last semester — but you somehow teach an entire lesson with a single picture flashcard and pure enthusiasm.

You now instinctively wai the school caretaker, your Grab driver, and possibly your own reflection in a glass door. You carry a whistle. You use it. You once used it to separate two kids fighting with rulers... over who gets to erase the board. You now understand: Thai kids take their board duties very seriously.

You know you're a foreign teacher when you've given up trying to understand the timetable and just follow the sound of the bell - or the vice-principal's megaphone, which is often louder and less predictable.

Your wardrobe has slowly shifted from business casual to "anything that won’t melt before 10 a.m." You've taught in socks, you've taught in sandals, and once, in a pair of borrowed Crocs after a surprise rainstorm flooded the footpath to your office.

You know you're a foreign teacher in Thailand when the question "How much you make?" no longer shocks you. In fact, you've answered it so many times you've started replying with a mysterious smile and, "Enough to buy sticky rice and mango every other day."

You've stopped trying to explain sarcasm to your students. Instead, you've learned to appreciate their brutally honest comments like, "Teacher, you look tired today," or "Teacher, you very old, yes?"

And through all the heat, confusion, and random interruptions (was that a dog in the hallway?), you’ve found a rhythm. You smile more. You stress less. You stop needing everything to make sense.

Because you know you're a foreign teacher in Thailand when you realise this: the job may be unpredictable, but the laughs are real, the students are unforgettable, and every day is definitely not boring.