Update from Thailand

(Yes, I know it's looooong, but hey, it's been 3 weeks....)

Well what can I say...where to start. It has been an amazing 3 weeks that have felt like months. I've been super busy with everything and doing so much. I finally got myself situated on Monday night and have my own apartment. I'm staying in the southern part of Thailand in the 3rd largest city, Hat Yai.
Let's start with my flight. I left LA on Friday afternoon at around 12:30. It was only supposed to be one stop in Taipei, but it ended up stopping in Osaka and then Taipei. The flight from LA to Osaka was about 12 hours, which was nice because I had my own bench and I was able to catch up on my sleep since I hadn't had a wink of sleep the night before finishing getting ready for my trip. So after a one and a half hour layover in Osaka, and a 3 hour layover in Taipei, I finally got to Bangkok at about 1:30am on Sunday. The organization was supposed to pick me up at 1pm, so I just decided to hang out in the airport for a few hours. I slept a little, and had breakfast, then read, and took a couple of naps here and there.

We got picked up and ended up leaving the airport around 2:30. There was about 12 of us, from pretty much all over the world, that met up at the airport. We took a minivan to Ban Phe which is a small coastal town about 2 and a half hours Southeast of Bangkok. We checked in to the program and got sent to our room. Our hotel (CondoChain) was literally across the street from the beach, so needless to say we were all enjoying the nice weather and the nice ocean for the first week. (Picture of the view from our hotel)
I had a roommate, Patrick who is from Northern Cali. He quit his job after 19 years or something and decided to travel the world, and apparently teaching English in Thailand was his next stop...pretty cool. We had a quick orientation and then went on our way.

Monday was the first day of class, and we started learning about the basics of teaching English to speakers of Foreign languages. Our school was at a local Buddhist temple. The classes pretty much became kind of repetitive, but there was a lot of useful information. We didn't have to dress up until the second week, so I took advantage and went to class in my swim trunks every day. We got almost an hour and a half for lunch, so I would eat and jump in the water for a while, then get out and dry off in like 5 minutes because the weather was so hot.
(Picture of our daily lunch spot right on the beach)
This pretty much went on every day. A typical day during the first week was: class from 9am-12:15, then lunch until 1:30, then class until 4:45. Sometimes we would get out early, but that was only if one of the trainers wasn't there or wasn't in a bitter mood. Monday night we had our welcoming dinner in Ban Phe where we got to really meet and get to know everyone. We had some good food and a good time. There was a festival going on in Ban Phe, so it was really packed around the town. Tuesday night we took a trip into Rayong which is a little bit bigger city than Ban Phe. Our hotel was actually a few kilometers from Ban Phe, so if we wanted anything from town, we had to get on a songthaew (which is the main method of transportation here - a pick up truck with two rows in the back for people to sit on).
(Picture of our daily songthaew ride)
Wednesday, I actually met some locals on the beach and started playing football (soccer) with them. It was interesting since they spoke no English, and I spoke no Thai, so we just spoke football and had a good time.
(Picture of me playing soccer on the beach - Courtesy of Sara)
Later, we hung out at our local "internet spot" which was a restaurant 100 meters or so from our hotel where they had wi-fi available. We had dinner there, and then a few of us happened to wander off to the beach with a bottle of Thai rum and enjoy the bright lights of the shrimp boats off of the coast until about 2am. Needless to say, Thursday was a bit of a struggle during class. Thursday night we actually had to focus and do homework, and study for our grammar and phonology test on Friday. All of the procrastinating throughout the week caught up to me and I was up until about 1am finishing studying.

After class on Friday, the majority of the group (13 of us) took a ferry to Ko Samet which is an island about 30 minutes on ferry from Ban Phe. It was labor day weekend, so the island was pretty booked, but luckily a friend in the group had a tent so me and another girl pitched the tent right on the beach and had a camping weekend.
(Picture of the 3 campers with our tent in the background)
The other 10 in the group had to endure a drunk night passed out on some tables of one of their friend's bar. In the morning they had all been pretty much eaten alive by the mosquitoes. It was quite a looooong, extremely fun weekend that involved maybe one or two cocktails. We met some cool Thais from Bangkok that were there on vacation and played volleyball, football and had dinner with them on Saturday night. I was also able to watch "el clasico" on Saturday night at 1am at the bar next to the club we were partying at. It was the culmination of a great evening seeing Barcelona beat the crap out of Real Madrid in Madrid. Best game of the year. On Sunday, about 5 of us rented some scooters and rode along the island for about an hour and a half and then headed back to Ban Phe. (Picture of me at the south end of the island)
All in all, the weekend consisted of a lot of sun, swimming, napping on the beach (or passing out; however you want to call it), and getting sunburned.....and maybe a cocktail here and there.

The second week, we began our practice teaching to the young monks that live at the temple. Monday, we just observed, and then Tuesday through Friday we taught our own classes. It was an awesome experience because the young monks were always in a good mood and enjoying what we taught them. (Picture of me teaching the monks - Courtesy of Matt)
The toughest part was preparing our lesson plans every night, but after the first night, we all pretty much got the hang of it and finished it within an hour or two at the most. The first night, it took a long time, because I don't think any of us really knew what we were supposed to be doing. I didn't get to bed until about 1:30 on Monday night, but the other nights, I was out before 12. I was able to watch the second half of the Champions league semifinal match between Barcelona and Chelsea on Thursday morning at about 3am. Once again, I was lagging a little on Thursday, but it was nice to be able to take a nap on the beach during lunch to catch up on my sleep. Lunch was another thing that was amazing throughout those 2 weeks. You could get a big piece of grilled chicken breast and a bag of rice for about 45 Baht, which is roughly about $1.25. I ate that pretty much all of the first week, with a few papaya salads (or Som Tam) mixed throughout. The second week, I went for the shaded restaurants on the sand and ate fried rice with seafood for about 40 Baht.
(Picture of our daily lunch meetings on the beach)
You really can't beat the price for the food out here. I think out of everything, that is the part I have enjoyed the most. Great food for really, really cheap.

Thursday night, we had our going away dinner that most of the group attended. The course was supposed to be 3 weeks, but since many of the schools in Southern Thailand started school this week, everybody that was posted in Southern schools, only did 2 weeks of training, so about 11 or 12 of the 19 students left after 2 weeks. So we had a going away dinner on Thursday at a beautiful restaurant with a live band, a lagoon and some small waterfalls. Most of the food was great, and we had a great time going through a couple of bottles of rum.
(Picture at our Good bye dinner)
We all still had to go back and finish our lesson plans for Friday, so we continued with another bottle back at the hotel while we finished our lesson plans. That might have affected our drawings and ideas slightly, but everything still went well on Friday. After packing most of my stuff (since we were leaving to Bangkok right after class), I got to bed at about 2:30am.

On Friday, we had our teaching practice, and then we had a celebration to donate a water tank to the temple. It was quite an impressive ceremony, and you could tell that the monks were extremely grateful. (Picture with the water tank that we donated)
After class, we finished packing, had a couple of drinks on the beach with Ji, our awesome instructor/trainer, and took off to Bangkok at around 7:30, which makes sense in Thai time since we were scheduled to leave by 6 at the latest.
(Picture with Ji on the last day)
We ended up getting to Bangkok about 10:30pm, and checked into our room at about 11:30. I took a shower and we headed to a local nightclub. We got on a tuk-tuk (a motorcycle multi-passenger taxi) and it was a really fun ride. We even stopped before we got to the club to buy some drinks because they were really, really expensive at the club; I mean ridiculously expensive...$9.00 for a beer!!! It was quite an interesting and loooooong night, since we stayed there until 6am. Took a tuk-tuk back to the hotel and knocked out.
(Picture of me driving the tuk-tuk)
On Saturday, we got checked out and bought our bus ticket to Hat Yai (the 3rd largest city in Thailand, in the southwest part of the country)because the train was all sold out. We toured the city for a little bit and then got on the bus at 7pm. We got to Hat Yai at 11:30am on Sunday and got picked up and taken to a nice hotel. Like I've said, Thailand is really cheap: It was a 3-3½ star hotel for 380 Baht (12 bucks a night). We spent the night there and then on Monday went searching for an apartment. I looked at about 6 apartments that were either really nice but full (2), or really old, nasty, and dirty (4). They call them apartments here, but they're actually just basic studios with a room and a bathroom. No kitchen. Finally about 7pm, we found this place on the West side of Hat Yai for about 3200 Baht a month (plus 300 for internet and 300 for a fridge). (Picture of my apartment)
Since the program covers 1500 Baht per month, I only end up paying 2300 Baht, which is less than $70; plus electricity and water. It takes me about 25 minutes to walk to downtown, so it's pretty close. It also takes me about 35 minutes on a Songthaew to get to my school, so it's not too bad.

On Tuesday I wanted to check out the city and get to know my surroundings all day, but I had to wait around because they were supposed to install the internet on my computer, and bring me my fridge. I waited around, and my fridge got here around 4:30pm, and at about 6pm, they told me that the internet guy couldn't come until the next day. So I wasted a day, but oh well...that's Thailand. I then went out and bought some basic necessities for my place and got everything I needed to get settled in. It was quite an experience getting back seeing as the Songthaew driver had no idea where I wanted to go. I showed him the picture of a school on the corner of my street, and he said he knew where it was. We ended up going to 2 different schools, until finally one of the guards at the University we stopped at showed him how to get here. It took me 20 minutes to get to the store, and about 50 minutes to get back. It was definitely an interesting experience to say the least. Wednesday, my internet finally came, and so I was able to walk around a little more and get to know my town a bit. I found the street where all of the restaurants are at (about 5 blocks from my place) and had a great, cheap dinner: stir fry noodles with veggies and chicken with a soup for all of 30 Baht....95 cents. I love it!

On Thursday, I woke up at 3am to watch the Barcelona vs. Atletic Bilbao - Copa del Rey Final. Watched Barça win 4-1 for the first of their 3 upcoming total championships. I went back to sleep around 5, and woke up at 6:15 because they were supposed to pick me up at 7 to get to the school for my first day. They ended up picking me up at 8, so I could have got an extra hour of sleep, but oh well. It's about a 30-35 minute drive to the small town of Rattaphun, where my school is located. (Picture of one of my classrooms)
It's a pretty rural area and only one of the rooms has working fans, so that is going to make it quite difficult to keep dry. haha. It was supposed to be just an "introduction day" where I meet all of the students and the other teachers. I had to get up in front of the entire school and introduce myself and tell them a little about me. I had nothing prepared, I showed up with a pen and a small notepad, and of course I had to jump right in and teach 4 classes. The schools here operate very differently to say the least. I have a total of 23 classes a week, and I only see each class once a week. I have anywhere from 8 to 43 students in each class, so all in all, I have 608 students a week (yes, I counted). I also have a different schedule every day. The school goes from 8am - 4pm. There's an morning outdoor assembly from 8-8:30 (yes, outdoor; and yes, yesterday I was a huge ball of sweat by 8:30am) and then a total of 9 periods 50 minutes long. So on Mondays I teach 6 classes; Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays I teach 4 classes; and on Fridays I teach 5. I had been told that I might be able to leave on days when I finished classes early, but that's not the case at this school. We have to stay until 4 no matter what. At first I was a little bummed that I have so many students and I only see them once a week, but then I figured that it makes my job a little easier. Since I only have each class once a week, then I only have to prepare 4 lesson plans per week (I'm teaching 4 different levels). It kind of sucks that I won't get to know the students as well as I could if I saw them more regularly and didn't have so many, but then again it takes pressure off of me because you can't really expect me to work miracles when I'm only seeing each student for 50 minutes a week. I mean, as long as I show up and speak to them in English and get them engaged and speaking in English, then I'm doing my job. The English department at the school is definitely quite different. There are 9 teachers, 1 student teacher and 2 foreign teachers. All of the Thai teachers focus on teaching grammar, reading and writing (since not many of them can speak very well), and it is our job to just basically get them to listen and speak correctly. The other foreign teacher is a guy from South Africa who used to be a chef. He's been out here for about a month, and was teaching for 2 weeks at another school with "better resources", so he didn't seem to happy about being placed out here in this rural community. He was also pretty upset that we had to stay until 4 every day, no matter what. Personally, I just go with the flow. It's pretty pointless to get upset about things that you can't really control. It's also frowned upon in this culture when you show emotions in a negative fashion.

So on Friday I was a little better prepared with somewhat of a lesson plan for each of my classes. I had some fun in my last 2 classes playing tic-tac-toe with English words. The kids seemed to have a good time and enjoy it. I had a few students throughout the day that did not want to participate, but I didn't really pay them much attention because the other 98% of the students were participating and doing well. Craig (the other foreign teacher) and I left at 4 and took the songthaew back home. We get off at the same spot since he lives across the major street from where I do. He was complaining the whole ride home about the students. It was quite amusing actually. He said that one of the classes just "really pissed him off" because they did not want to participate. Personally, I thought to myself that if the students aren't participating, they're either bored, don't know how, or don't know exactly what you want them to do. I had some trouble with one of the classes getting them to move from desk to desk during practicing, but I just told myself that I have to model it better for them next time. But, whatever...people operate differently and some people have trouble just going with the flow. On the way home, it was pouring rain with thunder and lightning all over the place. I had to go to the bank to exchange my last few dollars, so I ended up getting soaked. I got home, took a nap, took a shower and went out to meet up with some of the other Western teachers that are staying in Hat Yai for a couple of drinks. Had a cool time, and actually met some guy from Long Beach who's been out here for 2 years, so that was interesting meeting someone from so close to home. Walked home and got to bed at around 3:30am.

Well that pretty much sums up my first 3 weeks. There's been a lot going on, and I'm truly having a great time. Sure, I do miss a few things and people from back home a lot, but I'm enjoying the moment for what it is, knowing that it's a special time in my life. The people here are truly kind and genuine and always seem to be happy. I can really see why they call Thailand the Land of Smiles. The last few weeks have helped me get back to my old me, and begin to enjoy life to the fullest once again. I have been able to regain my happiness and optimism towards life, and also happened to come across that little, fun thing called sarcasm that I had lost along the way recently. :D

So I'll try to keep up on the updates so that they don't end up being so long, and send out some more pictures when I can. Til' next time. Hope you all are doing well. Cheers.