Tonight's Tv has made me feel a bit useless! haha. Have watched a programme about a performance of The Rite of Spring done using differing styles of dance and a programme about Scrabble full of ridiculously intense Scrabble geeks. Oh well, I'm very good at giving out Skates! I do quite like working at the rink, it's very Christmasy afterall and most people are cheerful. Bloody cold though.
Was working today with a bit of a twat though. He kept going on about how his parents used to work in South Africa but "the Mandela government and the blacks stole all their money" and then they tried to smuggle money out of the country using "crooked lawyers" and how the blacks had fucked up the coutry and didn't know what they were doing. Eugh. Came so close to telling him to STFU but managed to restrict myself to withering looks. Hopefully won't see him again.
Christmas Eve tomorrow! Done nearly all my wrapping and not in work so looking forward to a chilled out day. Mary and Dave arrived at Grandma's tonight so will hopefully get the chance to catch up with them. Mary sounded really run down and fedup on the phone the other day. I think Ben's had a really tough term, he's falling behind with his coursework and she's worrying about him. They're such a close family and Mary always feels everything that Ben feels so intensely, I hope she can relax a bit while she's down here.
These Scrabble people are insane. They're memorising dictionary lists of words. How would you ever hold that many words in your head? And how sad is it that they don't even know what half of them mean, they only know them to use tactically. That makes me sad! I'm clearly a literature romantic at heart, but what can you expect from the daughter of two English Teachers? (And the grand-daughter of an Eng Lit lecturer, a librarian and two other teachers!!) Shame none of their influence has blessed me in the spelling deptartment!
- Word Play
-
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
angel_of_beth- December 24th, 0:06
- Christmas Adventures
-
- angel_of_beth
- December 21st, 20:45
Had a really nice afternoon with Nat, Rach A, Leahy and Bev down at the Winter Wonderland. Wasn't sure about it because I don't really know the Rach's all that well but I wanted to see Nat before she has to go back to Bristol for her operation. It's so rubbish that she's going to be in hospital over Christmas! But I needn't have worried, it was really fun. We went on the big wheel and on some of the fairground rides and pretended to be seven years old again. And then we went ice skating and I didn't fall over once! haha well chuffed. Working two evening shifts this week so I'm glad I went before working there spoilt the fun too much! After skating we were starving and had massive baguettes and chips in the pub.
Had a really good night out with the same group last week for Nat's birthday. Did the traditional drinking at Nat's, Varsity then Oceana but it was really nice because we were such a small group that we just sat being silly and chatting for ages and then when everyone went home me and Nat stayed and danced for ages. Follow it up with a massive breakfast in the Chattery on Thursday and you've got a good night!
I think Nat and Mon will always be my closet friends from home but it is nice to have a group to go out with. I do really look forward to coming home because I love Swansea and it's nice to have people to share it with.
Really should do some present wrapping if I'm working the next two evenings. Only four more sleeps until Christmas after all!
- More interesting than a hypothetical risk assessment.
-
- angel_of_beth
- December 1st, 10:29
I'm sitting in the Production Office doing coursework. It's such a funny place to sit! You'd think that a room where stage managers live would be super organised but in tha last hour - Spargo turned up for a van pack without steelies, Lewis and Kev came to print CV letters for a lecture this morning and had no idea how to print on an envelop, or spell the name of the man they were writing to, or manage to write in a straight line on the envelope, and Ange is "the most pissed off she's ever been" after discovering that someone has been playing with her kimble gun. Hahaha.
Feeling very organised, in early to do work as a pay off for letting myself go to a party last night. It was Grace's next door neighbours xmas/beginning of December party. I don't know them very well, apart from Grace who is lovely, so quite prouyd of myself. Mostly spoke to Rach and Grace, but did meet a few people. It was fun and I went home early and was in bed by 12. Go me! Rach went to the union after and was sick in the night. I just rolled over and went back to sleep, lol.
Still freaking out over how much work I have on. Really cannot wait until this time next week when it will all be over!! Most worried about lecture demo cos I just know it's going to be shit. Hopefully I'll be able to blag sound. Eeek! Have tutorial later about next placement choices. Really hope they tell me to go for DSM.
Didn't do nearly enough work over the weekend, but it still had some good bits. Did a little same sex handholding event witrh Rach for her LGBT campaign on Saturday which was good. Shame there weren't a few more people there, one of those things when people say they're going to come but don't. But we had our picture taken for GR and then went for hot chocolate with a really cute couple from Spain, only one of the girls spoke English, but she was really sweet. Then Rach made EPICALLY LUSH curry and I watched Wales lose the rugby.
What was good though was that me and Rach had a proper chat in bed. She's obviously been having a bit of a tough term and she asked me how I was and whether I felt like I wasn't coping. It was really nice, because even though I feel like I am coping, I do worry about her and it was nice just to check in with each other. It makes me feel more assured that she'd tell me if she needed anything, and also reassures me that I'm still supported by her. Did get a bit weepy but I blaming that on hormones!
Church was cool. Bit full on and the fact that I wasn't familiar with how the services worked meant I couldn't really relax. It was good to see what goes on though, and it was good to chat to Sarah, the 1st year designer that goes regularly. The carol concert was beautiful, we all had candles and it was really full. Didn't know many of the carols cos they were all advent ones and thought that though the choir was good, if it had been a concert rather than a service then they should have varied the style and arrangements a little more. But I guess that's not the point! Don't think I'll go again for a while, it didn't feel 100% right me being there, so I guess faith hasn't found me yet! Might go to a talk they've got next term about religion in theatre though.
Right, must finish bloody risk assessment before budget class. I do some fascinating things with my life!
- (no subject)
-
- angel_of_beth
- April 15th, 2008
Well hello there everyone! long time no update! And I guess as that's almost entirely my fault I can hardly blame anyone else... but I will attempt to do the last month or so some sort of justice.
So, we left CM with much weeping and wailing and went back up to Pai for a last visit. We ended up staying nearly a week, because Steve got bit by a dog and needed rabies shots, and Sarah lost her bag. But we still managed to have fun, highlights included renting bikes and going exploring for caves. We found a really cool isolated one that we climbed all over and got very dusty and probably disturbed at least three thousand spiders that scampered ALL OVER us as we climbed down the otherside. Then we went on to a massive one that was more touristy. By this time it was sunset so we got to see the thousands of bats that live in the cave during the day swap places with the thousands of swifts that sleep in the cave during the night. It was incredible, you could see them joining this massive spiral from miles away. Really cool. :)
We actually had to go back to CM for one night because of bus routes but other than a brief adventure buying cheap purple contact lenses with Sarah (epic adventure, we were horribly hungover! haha) there's nothing much to report. We mangaged to get ourselves on the bus to Chiang Khong, the town on the border with about 2 minutes to spare, I swear we don't do it on purpose! There was minor drama at the border when about five minutes before we were going to cross the river (which is the border) Meg realised she's left her card in the atm. And of course, it was Sunday, so there was no way of getting it back until the next morning. So poor Meg had to wait in Thailand while we crossed and sorted out slow boat tickets for the next morning. Meg just about managed to make it across in time to catch the boatthe next morning, although we were the last people on the boat... :)
The slow boat was really fun. It takes two days, you stop over in a village overnight. The boats aren't the fanciest of things, but the scenary is ridiculously gorgeous and after lots of bus journeys it was nice to be able to move around and play cards etc.
So... then we were in Luang Prabang. I really lied it here. It's still a pretty small town, much smaller than CM. It's really pretty, lots of french/lao buildings and millions of baguettes! We weren't expecting those! Laos is still communist and the town has a midnight curfew, all the bars close at 11.30 to allow for the staff to get home on time. The only place that stays open is... the bowling ally! seriously! After much experimentation, it can be officially said that I am a much better bowler when I'm drunk :) But I'm still not very good...
We went to a massive waterfall and climbed up the side of it and then chilled in the pools underneath it. Watched adorable french kids play with some lao teenage girls. There's also a rescue centre for bears there- bears are really cool. They were all rescued from illegal farms where they do hideous stuff to get bile from them that they then use in "natural" medicines.
We rented bikes and explored the town, found a really cool bookshop and a temple with stunning views over the town and where the Mekong and the-other-river-the-name-of-which-escapes-me-right-now meet. Across this river what I can't remember the name of, there is a really rickety bamboo bridge where all the local kids go to swim and occasionally wash. So, being the mature and sensible young people what we are, we joined them. :) The river was crazy fast and crazy strong, you had to hold on to the bridge otherwise you'd be swept away but it was only waist deep at the most and the river curved round and slowed right down 500 yards away so it was much safer than it looked. On a very simialr level of madness and excellent fun, the next day we went back to the waterfalls and started a massive mud fight with a gang of local boys. We got absolutely filthy more times than I can remember and then washed ourselves off in the water before starting all over again. Not that it mattered because it tipped it down on the way back in the tuk tuk so we would have been washed clean anyway! It's rainy season folks, be prepared for lots of thunder and random monsoons!
Okay, even I'm getting bored now, so that probably means you stopped reading a while ago! I shall save more of my adventures for a later update.
Lots of love to you all!
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Off on my travels!
-
- angel_of_beth
- March 21st, 2008
Well, this is it! I'm half way through packing and the house is such a state from our goodbye party last night so this is only going to be a quick one. The last week has been crazy, lots of partying and cramming as much as we can in. We're all going to be so sad to leave Chiang Mai and our placements. We've had a fantastic time and I can't believe it's all over! But I'm still excited about travelling and I'm sure I'm going to have many more abventures before I come home. Speaking of which, for those of you that I haven't told, I'm coming home on the 1st of June. It sounds so far away and so close all at the same time!
I'll try and keep you all updated as to where I am and what mischief I'm getting into. Hope you are all well, missing you all!
Teecha Betty :)
xxxxx
- Doi Inthanon Weekend
-
- angel_of_beth
- March 10th, 2008
Hello all :)
There is so mucj I should have updated about but here is the tale of this weekend because I can't be bothered to go back to a month ago and write about that!
We actually got round to hiring a jeep, something we've been meaning to do since we did it down south, and the six of us, plus Abe, the boy we know that's in the uni here, drove to Doi Inthanon, the national park with the highest peak in Thailand. We had a little three man tent too so we had three in there, two in the front seats of the car and two in the back of the jeep with the mossie net over them XD The campsite was gorgeous, in the middle of a pine wood, the sun looked so good between all these really tall, straigh trees. It was really good for firewood, we had proper cooking fires both nights and on sat morning! On the first night we cooked sweet and sour veggies and jacket potatoes and sat around drinking beers until we were falling asleep. On Saturday we drove the rest of the way up and took lots of funny photos of us at the top, random thai tourists took photos of us too! lol. There was also a huge "neutron management plant" that looked very exciting but we didn't fancy our chances against the security guards. Then we went and explored a village market and made friends with some of the kids. They took us around their village and found us berries that were like thai!blackberries, proper lush. They didn't all speak thai because they are a hilltribe so their dialect is very different. One of them asked us whether it was "cold downstairs" meaning at the bottom of the mountain because she's never left the mountain. Abe can read Thai and he found the ten commandments written on the side of a house, very weird!
Then we went for a drive around in search of food and found fried rice and ommlette XD On the way down the mountain we turned off the engine to save on petrol. hehe. I drove back up to the campsite and no one died! lol. We found some more local kids when we were hunting for firewood and invited them back to our campfire. We sang some songs for them and they sang a song from their tribe and also happy birthday! lol. Then we taught them kumbyah (i know that's not how you spell it but i can't be bothered to find out!) We made noodles and more potatoes and sang lots of disney songs. We only had a wok with us so we boiled water in glass bottles for hot chocolate. We went to bed early because we got up at 5am to drive back up and see the sunrise!! Very pretty but very very cold! lol.
We drove back to CM before breakfast and then ate MASSIVE amounts of food in a guest house. Then we went to the orphanage for the last time :( It was fun, we took a cake and played some games. Can't believe how many 'lasts' we're doing. I'm excited to travel and meet up with everyone but it's still sad. I've had such a fantastic time here and got close to people, as well as the six of us, people like Nao the woman that works in the orphanage, and I'm probably never going to see her again. I know that that's the essence of travelling in many ways but it's still hard to get your head round.
We've still got lots planned for this week though so I won't get too upset yet! Going back home now to cook curry :)
Love to you all, hope you're all well,
xxx
- Photos!
-
- angel_of_beth
- March 2nd, 2008
Argh have so much that I should write about but I'm not going to do any of it because I'm lazy and I want to go home to my nap after working at the orphanage this afternoon. :) But to keep you occupied, for those of you that don't have facebook, I have managed to put some more photos up!
This one is old photos from the first couple of months that I never got around to uploading.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=14133&l=9a9d4&id=508904830
This one is newer stuff, so you can admire my hair and see where we went on our holiday!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=14086&l=90d0e&id=508904830
Hopefully those work! I'll try and write something more interesting this week! Hope you are all well, love to you all :)
xxxxx
- Holiday fun continued...
-
- angel_of_beth
- February 15th, 2008
Hello again!
One of my favoute bits about Hat Rin Nok was the night when Steve, Jess, Anna and I stayed up all night and watched the sunrise in the morning. It was a really long one, about 45 minutes and it was so gorgeous watching it break through the clouds and seeing everything get brighter. We walked round to a smaller beach and went swimming in our underwear to wake ourselves up and then went for a massive breakfast, watching the partiers stumble back to their guest houses after a big dance party that had happened inland that we hadn't gone to.
We were planning on going up to Ko Tao for the rest of the week, a smaller island north of Ko Pha Ngan, much more rural and isolated and known as one of the best spots to learn scuba! But we decided that we didn't really have enough time to do it properly and we want to try and get down there again at the end of our placements. Instead we went to a quieter beach on the North West side of Ko Pha Ngan. We stayed in some cute little huts right on the beach. We rented a jeep and drove up to see a waterfall, which wasn't very impressive as it's not the rainy season, but it was fun to scramble around on the rocks, and we also drove up to the most North West corner where there is a small island you can reach by walking along a sand bank and we rented snorkling stuff. It was soooooo cool! There's a huge soft coral reef, loads of huge arches of it under the water and there were some really funky bots, like the green bits that looked exactly like asparagus and the luminous purple bits that kind of pulsed. The fish were really funky, loads of different kids that I'm not even going to pretend I know anything about but some of my favourites were the tiny brightbrightbright blue ones that darted all over the place, the ones that looked like fishy versions of parrots and the ones with a pattern on their side that looked like a massive eye but when you looked closer, their eyes were tiny and in a totally different place. The sea cumcumbers were not particularily pretty, but they were hilarious! XD I liked swimming right over a big school of little fish and then diving down so they totally surounded me and everywhere I looked there were fish. I wasn't sure what to expect but it was loads of fun! :)
I didn't drive the jeep much, only once on the last morning. It was fun though, the roads were pretty quiet and I had an advantage over Steve and Scott becuase the Thais drive on the left! It made me miss driving at home, but it was enouraging that I haven't forgotten how!
On our last night we made a big fire on the beach and huddled round it nearly falling asleep. Needless to say, a week of incredibly varied sleeping patterns and too much drink and sun was starting to take it's toll! On our last morning we were all sitting around in a daze until the woman from the guesthouse booked us tickets to get back to Bangkok and then told us the ferry left in 15 min. She found us a pick up truck and a driver and we moved like lightning! Somehow we managed it and began the hellish journey back home to Hang Dong again. Doing it on not enough sleep to begin with is not as much fun as doing it with a weeks worth of holiday ahead of you!! But we survived, and got back into CM at 6am Monday morning... I even managed to teach my afternoon class that day, but somehow managed to miss my morning classes!
- Holiday Part One
-
- angel_of_beth
- February 5th, 2008
Okay people, hold on to your hats! Let's see how much I can remember...
We got the same night train down to Bangkok as we did at New Year and so we had the totally surreal experience of eating breakfast on Ko San Rd as the sun came up, watching the last of the revelers and backpackers from the night before stumble home. Ko San is the backpacker central, a road full of bars and clothes stalls. It's a crazy place, pretty much every traveller in Thailand ends up there. We had a whole twelve hours to kill in Bangkok before we could catch our connecting bus to Surat Thani. After wandering around for a bit waiting for everything to open we went back to Siam Square, a flashy area with about four big shopping centres and the Sky Train overhead. We explored the shopping centre for a bit, found a grand piano shop but, to our great suprise! we couldn't afford any of them. Gutted. Me and the boys looked in the outdoory-camping shops while Meg and Sarah shopped and then we went to the cinema. OMG don't ever watch 'The Flock.' It's awful!!! Although, to be fair, I only lasted about half and hour before I put my MP3 player on and had a bit of a nap! :) It did kill some time though, so after stocking up on falafal for the bus we were off again. Bus was a unexciting eleven hours, the film was Terminator 2, streets better than The Flock!
We all napped in one big tangle of GAPpers on the ferry pver to Ko Samui and a Thai family took photos of us, we must have looked that cute! hehe. So we arrived on Samui at about 11am, about 44 hours after leaving Chaing Mai. We met up with the GAPpers from Nan, (in the N.E) and those from the south. Had a really nice evening all together, we sat round in a big circle on the beach catching up in everyone's gossip and then we went to a big club and danced alot and kept losing and finding each other. There were 15 of us! We found a dude with a massive iguana. We only ended up staying one night on Samui, it was too fancy and full of big resorts and the beach we were on wasn't very big or chilled.
So we moved on North to Ko Pha Ngan. This is the island with the infamour Full Moon Parties on Hat Rin (Sunrise) beach. On the full moon, (sometimes the day before or the day after to show respect to the buddhists that mark the full moon) thousands of people party on this beach. We weren't there for a full moon but the night life there is still pretty good! It was similar to the beach we spent New YEar on but bigger and busier. Lots of bars opening right onto the beach, dancing on the sand gives you quite a workout! The surf was also really good on this beach, we spent hours throwing ourselves around in the waves. There was also a serious tunnel and labyrinth making afternoon with me and some of the others. We decided it was going to be a home for all of the homeless roaches in Thailand. The ones in our bathroom can go for a start!
Right, I need to be at English club in five minutes so... To Be Continued!!
- Mega late update!
-
- angel_of_beth
- February 4th, 2008
Hey everyone. Totally meant to write this before I went away on hols so as not to have massive amounts to update when I got back but, as I'm sure you could have all guessed, I never got around to it! So, ladies and gentlemen, cast your minds back to the second to last weekend in Jan... :)
First off, I have dreadlocks now! hahahaha Wish I could see some of your faces! I really like them, they're more settled now and are starting to curl, my hair is unstoppable! I chose to have the ends loose rather than folded over so I have a baby ringlet on the end of each one! XD It's so awesome not to have to brush my hair because, in this climate, it just meant INSTANT FRIZZ! It took about four and a half hours, everyone went to have dinner and showers while I was having them done, but they did bring me an awesome salad pitta to keep me sustained! The guy that ran the place was called Bastard! lol. Cool Thai's often have names like that because their names are so long they chose their own nicknames. We phoned him to ask if he could do it and he was shopping with his mother! hehe.
On the Sunday all six of us went to a local orphanage.It has about 30 kids, all orphans due to AIDS and currently all the kids are HIV positive too. They're aged between 3 and 16 and after they turn 16 there is the chance to stay on and get a job with the guest house or the clothes making shop thingy they have that makes the whole thing self sustainable. It's run by a Japenese woman and they sell these handmade clothes and bags and stuff in a shop in Japan. It's a gorgeous place, really beautiful and peaceful, until we started playing games with the kids of course!
We just did games and songs with them and then ate lunch with them all but we have plans to go back a couple more times and do more teaching. They go to a school in the city, the place is out of the city by about 40min but the local school won't take them because of the stigma of being +ive. That was really hard to hear. It was a really sobering experience because the guesthouse looked so swish and fancy and for a second you thought that the place had loads of money and then you remembered how much they have to spend on medication for the kids and how little is left over after. It was fun working in smaller groups, and working with all six of us together rather than solo. We did some games that I do with Brownies and some songs that me and Steve know. It's funny the ones we know that overlap and the "classics" that we've never heard of and vice versa. (He's worked at summer camps the past two summers, I'm soooo jeaous! lol)
Meg and I cycled to the boys house one wednesday. It's about a 40min ride along a quieter road and we did it in an hour with a couple of rests. It was hot! lol but at least we were going east and so didn't have the sun in our eyes! There were lots of typical Thailand views, I should do it again and take some pictures. Lots of paddy fields and banana trees and weird motorbike/food stall hybrids. The area the boys are in is lovely, quieter and less urban than me and Meg, and they have HUGE rubber trees along the road. We had a tour of their school and their teachers think we are their girlfriends! hahaha!! Well... with regard to Steve and Meg that might as well be true but I have to confess to not finding Scott attractive. hahaha
We cooked a massive amount of food and then proceeded to eat it all, albeit over the course of a long evening of random conversation and making fun of welsh accents! We did mean to get a taxi home but they are so expensive and we were having fun just sitting around and drinking and chatting so we left it too late. We were totally intending to get up early and get the bus home but then it was 4am and we knew we wouldn't be up to two bus rides with a 15min walk between the two bus stops! So we got up at the more civillsed time of 8am and had a proper breakfast and helped out with the boys kindergarden. They go to two other just nursery schools and I went with Scott. We did the names of some fruits and some dancing and jumping around. The place was gorgeous, out in the country and really quiet. And then we had lunch there with Steve and Meg and when we were leaving it was nap time and they were all asleep on little mattresses in their classrooms. ADORABLE. Knackering though, I'm never going to want to properly work with kids that age!
The Friday before we left for the south was also our sports day, the one they have been preparing for since before christmas. Now I know why it needed so much preperation! There were five teams, red, green, pink, yellow and blue, and they all had their own coloured tshirts and different cheerleader outfits. Both me and Meg were honary Green team members, I am so chuffed with my tshirt! The day started with a parade through Hang Dong and all the parents and people on their way to work were on the pavements taking photos of the kids all dressed up. We had both our band and the band from the secondary school along the road. (They were hilariously scary because all of them that weren't playing wind/brass instruments had their bandana scarf things pulled up over their mouths coyboy style!) Their was even a handglider with a parachute of the thai flag dropping glitter on us! No one seemed very sure where he had come from! Then there was the opening ceremony with lots of adorable dancing and marching in formation and cheerleading. Part of the green team's uniform was a sombrero with a green paper flower on the side! Needless to say, no explanation could be found for why, but they looked awesome! :)
The races were cute but a bit monotonuos. We did get to award medals though, and we joined in with some of the cheerleading, much to the amusement of the music teacher and the watching parents. (It's harder than it looks!) Meg somehow got volunteered to run a part of the teachers' relay race. Team green came second and she even got a medal! It was a really fun day, full of totally random costumes and happy kids. I wonder what excuse they'll find to skip lessons now that they can't practise marching anymore? That goes for both the teachers and the kids!
Right, think that's all the interesting stuff that happened before we went away. Not sure whether I can be bothered to update on holiday just now... should manage it by the end of the week though!!
muchos love to you all :)
- Shout outs!
-
- angel_of_beth
- January 7th, 2008
This should have been before the last entry! But I wanted to say thankyou to everyone who sent me Christmas cards, texts, emails and messages on here! I know I'm a bit useless at direct communication but they all meant a lot to me. :) I'll pretend to be on a chessy radio show and give you some shout outs!
Hi Gran!! I'm so glad you are getting to read this, I hope you can convince them in the library to let you loose on the computers there but if not, I'm sure I can count on Shelli and Ali to keep you updated. Big hugs to all the cousins, on both sides of course! I wish I could fly you all out here but I don't think the country's ready for that yet!
Hi SYGnet!! I keep meaning to email you, but yeah... again, I'm useless :) But happy new year, hope you all celebrated in style! Hopefully you are using meetings to comfort each other, I know you must be missing me like ceeeerrraaaazzy! ;) Keep yourselves out of (too much) trouble! We are SO having a Thai food night when I get home!
Hey hey auntie Han! When are you getting on that plane to come dancing with me??? You would have loved new year, I missed you! If you don't get yourself down here sharpish then you owe me /at least/ one night out when I get back!
Hello to the Kerfeet :) How's the thumb? My fuzzy patch where they shaved my head keeps me amused on long bus journeys... it's all, well, fuzzy! hehehe. Have you seen your relative I posted on facebook? The likeness is uncanny.
Mega hugs to Mon, Nat and Rose. I don't half miss you girls!! Don't know if you manage to get your lazy arses on here, what with all that uni work you must be busy with, hahaha. But whatevz, I love you all and can't wait to sit you down and bore you to death with all my stories in person. I vote we get ourselves to Sketty cafe and get some real food down us, none of this delicious thai cusine they keep shoving down my throat!
HUGE hello (there are a lot of you) to all the Brownies and Em, Alison, Bethan and Jean. :) I'll email you, Em, about sending those letters once I've checked with me teacher about the best way to do it. What have you all got planned for this term? Stay out of mischief now, that includes you, Em! :)
I should also send out a hello to Ruth, Rob and Owen, my international reader! haha. In answer to your question of a while ago (blush!) four out of the six of us up in Chiang Mai are Canadian! Scott is from Toronto, Steve's from Winnipeg and Meg (my housemate) and Sarah are from Antigonish in Nova Scotia. I'm defo picking up their accents! Their welsh accents aren't great yet, but they're working on it!
'Sup the parents? And gaz of course! hehe I'm running out of greetings! have you recovered from using msn yet? :P glad you saw the photos, no you can have no doubt that I'm just as gorgeous as ever :) OOO am totally thinking about getting dreadlocks by the by! (you would too if you had to deal with my hair in this humidity!!) So i'm going to look EVEN more incredible, if you can imagine it! But I have to clear it with the school first and I have yet to learn the thai for dreadlocks so stay tuned!! (Mum, get off the floor and have a cup of tea)
There are probably more people I should be mentioning... hello to you all anyways, (family, friends, guiding peeps, and anyone who's just lost and doesn't really know why they're reading this!) and blame the fact that it's way past dinner time for my forgetfulness! I guess I should say hi to Rach... hi rach. :P <3
xxxx
- New Year Thai Style!
-
- angel_of_beth
- January 7th, 2008
Happy happy happy new year everyone!!
I think it's safe to say that you'll all have recovered by now, hope you all had fun in your own little ways :) I had an absolutely amazing holiday (because I am working out here afterall! hahaha) with Meg, Sarah and Steve. (Cleo met up with friends and Scott's parents came to visit him). We went down to Ko Chang, one of the islands in the south. It's one of the "quieter" ones, still touristy but not known for it's partying. We wanted something chilled out to prepare for the whole GAP trip down south at the end of the month, when I'm sure we'll get up to all sorts of shenanigans! :)
The trip down was an event in itself, it lasted 26 hours! We got the night train from CM to Bangkok, that's about 16 hours. It sounds horrific but it was actually really fun. The beds were really comfy, way better than the ones at home! haha. And the windows were really big so in the afternoon you got some beautiful views through the mountains and of random thai places. We played lots of cards and ate lush, if overpriced food. We got into Bangkok for just after dawn and ate breakfast at the bus station before a six hour bus ride to Trat, which wasn't as much fun but could have been worse I guess. Then there was the bus to the pier and then the ferry and then the bus across the other side of the island! By the time we dumped our stuff down on our beds in the awesome little huts we rented at about 4pm we needed a holiday!!
The beach was gorgeous, as you can see by my photos on facebook. (Yes, I finally got around to it!) It was pretty narrow but it was one of the quieter beaches on the island so it didn't get unbearably full. You need people to people-watch anyway! :) The huts were really basic, we were saving our money for food and booze haha, but had all we needed. We had a double bed, a mossie net, a fan and a chair, but there was a little balcony bit outside which was really nice. I spent lots of time reading on the beach, (I read both my book and meg's book in the five days we were there hehe) and swimming in the sea OF COURSE because it was so warm and clear and lushlushlush. Haha Steve kept saying how salty it was because he is used to the lakes in Canada (he's from Winnipeg)
The nights out were really good too, in small bars where we started the dancing every night. You dance bare feet because you don't wear shoes inside, that was really cool. We met a couple that have just graduated from Swansea uni and spent a lot of time talking to them. They were really nice and it was fun to not be so outnumbered and be able to laugh about nights out on wind street! There were fire shows on the beach, with fireworks, juggling and baton twirling and a huge skipping rope on fire that I didn't try but Steve was pretty good at.
At midnight on the 31st we were all on the beach and Meg ran in the sea (just for kicks, you know?) and then there was lots of hugging and kissing between the four of us. :) Also during the holiday; Meg, Steve and I skinny dipped at five in the morning; we watched diehard number somethingoranother and 'ten items or less' in this really chilled out bar/restaurant with big double beds to lie on (if you're going to watch one, watch 'ten items or less,' it's weird but really good); me and steve had drunken but verging on genuis-like conversations about the importance of the narrative voice; sarah fell off the bar she was dancing on; steve got shown a python in the back of this random thai guy's motorbike and we ate (incredible) food ALL THE TIME. LOADS. :)
So, yeah, hope you all had a good New Year :P You can take comfort in the fact that our plane home from Bangkok was delayed by two hours. Oh the hardship! We had to fly because we wanted as many days on the island as poss and we didn't want to be going home on new year's day, we wanted some time to recover! haha. Still, let's just say that teaching on Thursday was... fun. :)
As already mentioned, I've put photos up on facebook, so get yourselves over there and check them out! :) According to the website, if you don't have facebook, you should click on this link and it should work. Let me know, cos I know not all of you waste your lives on social networking sites! :)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10961&l=e8466&id=508904830
Lots of love to you all, and the very best of wishes for 2008!
xxxx
- Happy Christmas and OMG I rode an elephant!!
-
- angel_of_beth
- December 25th, 2007
Merry Chirstmas everyone! : )
I guess it goes without saying that this is probably the weirdest christmas day I've ever had! At least it was cold this morning, not that it is any more but waking up hot on christmas morning may have just been too much to handle! My classes this morning were absolutely crazy, I got given two red roses by some of the girls in one of my P5 classes and also a bunch of adorable handmade christmas cards, including one from this really cute buy that's covered in hearts and has "love from ?" written in it, as well as his name!! I think I might have an admirer XD They'd all brough food, because I incorporated our lesson on recipies with parties because there was no way I was going to be teaching grammar this morning! It was as crazy as you'd expect, one group was making sushi, lots were making really spicy salads that they kept wanting me to taste and in the last class the boys that hadn't been organised enough to bring stuff in "snuck out" to the tuck shop and bought sandwiches and then took them apart and put them back together a lot. In other words, lot of english learnt by all! XD
As a Christmas treat, and also because we're going away for new year and we have lots to do, me and Meg just took our washing to the laundry place for the first time instead of boiling the kettle and doing it in the bucket! Real luxury or what? I'm excited for proper clean clothes! We also really needed to do it because what we were up to this weekend meant that we had some seriously dirty clothes!!
This weekend was one of the best ones since I've been here. We went on one of the organsied treks, there are loadsa of them around, especially now when it isn't too hot. We chose the two day, one night one and we packed so much into those two days when we got home yesterday, (because we also spent a night in Chiang Mai and went swimming) it felt like we'd been gone a week!
There were ten of us in our group, the six of us, a guy from Manchester and three Koreans. The first thing we did after they drove us out into the middle of nowhere was to ride elephants! It was so much fun! We went in pairs, I was with Cleo and ours was huge. Megan and Sarah were on a smaller one and there's a funny photo of them where the angle makes them look like giants : ) They look amazing close up, their eyes are even smaller than you think they are going to be and their skin is so tough and covered in really coarse hairs. We sat on the seat thing strapped to their backs and later I straddled it's neck, which was awesome because you could feel every muscle move under you as they walked. When you were on the seat it felt like you were on a boat, the motion was really similar. Our elephant was totally in a world of it's own, once it had figured out that we hadn't brought it any bananas, (they hold their trunks above their heads and wait for you to feed them one!) it did whatever it wanted. Sometimes it would forge ahead and be in front and not let anyone overtake and then every now and again he'd just stop and chill in the middle of the track and get in everyone's way XD
After riding the elephants we treked for about three hours in total, although that's including lots of breaks becasue we were walking up a mountain in the hottest part of the day! The jungle was gorgeous and about as lush and green as you can expect a jungle to be. Especially towards the end, everynow and again you'd climb over the crest of hill and there would be this huge green valley stretching out below you, with no roads or breaks in it, and on the mountain oposite you'd just be able to make out the shapes of the wooden huts of the hill tribe villages.
We stayed in one of these overnight. Ours was right at the top of the mountain we'd been climbing up and the view of the sunset was breath taking. There wasn't much point even trying to take photographs of it, but it was beautuiful. Then we had lush yellow potato curry in our hut. It was two rooms, one big one with mats on the floor to sleep on and bug nets hanging everywhere and one with a place for a fire in the middle and bigger gaps in the walls. We were so tired we were thinking of gpimg straight to bed but we ended up sitting by the fire in our hut and singing and playing games with matchsticks and word games and stuff. It was so much fun and really chilled out. The only light was the candles and the full moon outside which was incredibly bright, the brightest I think I've ever seen the moon. Then we all played a game together with was hilarious. All you had to do was count in a circle to 21, but if you said three numbers in a row then you skipped the next person. Everytime you got to 21 a number was replaced by an action. Sounds easy enough but you do have to concentrate! If you made a mistake, or if you ended up saying 21 then you had to nominate another person to draw on your face with charcoal from the bottom of the kettle! It occupied us for about an hour!! haha. Our tour guide was an absolute legend. His English was really good and he'd obviously learnt alot of it from films and music because his slang and popular culture references were really good too! He was the first Thai person we've heard use the F word. He had a catchphrase for everything and nearly made us die laughing when he made his phone ring and pretended that it was George Bush on the phone and started berating him for "all this bombing." He also swears blind that last year he took Michael Jackson on the very same trek. XD
On Sunday, after being woken up by the roosters and half four and then manging another couple of hours sleep, we treked back down to meet the river and messed around by one of the big waterfalls for a bit. Very very cold but the perfect way to wake up! We followed the river down and scrambled over lots of rocks before we got back down to the road where the river gets wider and you can raft! We went whitewater rafting first, although because it isn't the rainy season the river obviously isn't as high as it can be. It was still really good though, I definitely want to go again, and in the inbetween bits we jumped out and swam alongside the boat in our helmets and lifejackets! : ) Then once we'd got past all the rocks we went on a long, thin bamboo raft, which was nice and relaxing after all the walking down 170 degree slopes we'd done in the morning!!
Becuase it was the election, most of the bars were shut because of their law that says you can't sell alcohol when there's an election, (crazy or what! haha) but we found a really touristy one that didn't care and played umpteen games of pool with some swedish guys. I am getting better mind! Well, okay, only very slowly but I did win a couple!
It's 3 o'clock now and when I've finished this the other girls are coming round to watch Home Alone 2 before we go into the city for dinner. : ) Not the most conventional Christmas I've ever had, but I'm sure I'll appreciate it all so much next year! It'd been refreshing to get away from the commercial aspect of it all, it's only been in the last week that there have been decorations around in the touristy bars, we've noticed a definite increase of tourists around too, lots more families. It's funny that we count ourselves as totally apart from them and to the thais we're not really any different!
I am missing you all though, it's strange to think of you all celebrating without me! I'm looking forward to talking to some of you later tonight though!!
Lots and lots and lots of love to you all, hope you're having the wonderful Christmas/holiday I know you all deserve!!!
xxxxxxxxxx
- Any excuse for a parade...
-
- angel_of_beth
- December 18th, 2007
I know all the travel books tell you not to get involved with political demonstrations, but I don't think they mean the type that I went on this afternoon! It's the general election next Sunday, a big deal obviously as it's the first one since the coup last year. There was advance voting last weekend and the number of people that voted was waaaaay more than was expected, there are posters everywhere and vans with tanoys on the top playing political speech thingies.
The cutest part of election fever by far though has to be the parade that I went on with my pratom 5's this afternoon! They had all made banners and placards with the date of the election and encouraging people to vote. By law, they weren't allowed to favour one specific party, all their banners basically said "voting is cool" in lots of different ways, as far as I could work out! We marched around town in the middle of the afternoon, it was mega hot! There are three P.5 classes, about 100 students in all, plus we had the band with us. They looked amazing in their uniforms: red polo shirts, white 3/4 trousers and straw hat things with fed ribbons around them. Their uniforms are new as well so they were all shiny. They have drums and xylophone things and sort of piano acordian things. They play about three songs, two thai marches and The Final Countdown, which let me tell you, is a good tune to march to!
We brought the traffic to a standstill, even on the main road which is also the main highway out of Chiang Mai in our direction! We had policemen on motorbikes and everything. It was so cool and such a good idea, the kids were loving it and they'd obviously put a lot of effort into their banners. There was also one boy dressed as a robot in yellow cardboard boxes, just for the fun of it. We were led by a girl with a baton and she had a huge red feather in her strawhat. I was jealous!
They jump on any excuse for a parade out here. Our sports day is in Jan and they spend the last hour of everyday practising for it. It takes so much preparation because they are all learning cheerleading dances and chants and "practising marching." It is totally normal to turn up to a class and find only half of them are there because the others are practising their marching. I'm on the green team. There are five teams and every time the teams have a big meeting or practise their marching skills they cart a huge flag in their teams\'s colur around with them. I am really looking forward to sports day, I bet it will be so much fun. Me and Meg want to learn the dances!
In other news, I have had my stitches (see, I can spell it now!) out and my brain still seems to be staying inside my head. All good : ) I can even wash my hair now! It was getting to the point where I wouldn't take off my bandana in public! hehe
Ooo and we have gone all out and booked a Christmas dinner in a random place that was advertising it. Who knows waht it will be like but I couldn't bring myself to eat Thai on Christmas day! lol Hope all your preparations are going okay! Huge hugs and thankyou's to those that have sent me Christmas cards, they are all up in pride of place in my room! : )
hugs 'n' kisses
- Chiang Rai, Chaing Saen and only mild concussion!
-
- angel_of_beth
- December 11th, 2007
Hey all,
Well, what an eventful weekend! As always, it will be impossible to get it all down, but you should be able to get the gist of it all. : )
We decided to make the most of our long weekend (we had Monday off because of the King's birthday. Whoot!) and head up North. We bused up to Chiang Rai on Friday afternoon, (just under four hours) and had actually booked aguest house in advance for once! The buses/taxis in Chiang Rai were adorable and when you get out the driver gives you his phone number so you can call him again to get picked up! About halfway through the night ours phoned us just to "see when we want go home" LOL. That's service that is! So we wandered around the night market and and found some food and went to this really deserted bar, we could habe gone to the 'Sperm Pub' (no, we never did find out why!) but it was really loud and we wanted to chat and not spend all our money on Thai whiskey!
The guest house had a really nice little pool that we used to wake ourselves up with on Saturday morning. We were going to explore Chiang Rai a bit more but then this really dodgy guy came over to talk to us at breakfast and tried to sell us dope and we got a bit freaked out so, because tbh, not much to do in Chiang Rai, we went back to the bus station and caught a bus up to Chiang Saem, another hour and a half north. So we were pretty much on the border and in the Golden Triangle area. We went up the river to Sop Ruak on a sort of big canoe with an outboard motor. That was really fun! Sop Ruak is really small and touristy but you can climb these impressive steps and walk up a hill to get some good views of the river and you can see into Laos and Burma. There was some pretty old temples and some impressive newer stuff too. We got the boat back in the dark which was amazing! The river is really wide and really fast flowing. It was proper dark and you could only see the outlines of the mountains in the west, where the sky was streaked with purple and orange. Then you could see the outlines of the trees on each bank, and some lights off in the distance. It takes about 20min and you go pretty quick! There was an impressive amount of swell too, which me and Sarah got the most of in the front. We were a little damp by the end! Then we ate from the street vendors on the river side and had amazing spicy mango salad (nothern thai speciality) and chicken cooked in bamboo on a bbq. Lush : ) We went to pretty much the only bar in the town and played pool and drank lots of whiskey and made friends with the locals. The owner took lots of pictures of us enjoying ourselves and holding up a menu with the bar's name on it! Haha.
Sunday was a long day with lots of bus because we had to get the bus to Chiang Rai and then wait around for the cheap bus to home to Chiang Mai. Because we were getting back quite late, it works out cheaper to get rooms in a hostel than it is to pay to get out of town in taxis so we went out in Chiang Mai, to the roof top bar. It's really nice and chilled there any we met up with some people the girls had met out last week.
On Monday, once we'd eaten the obligratory HUGE breakfast in the hostel, we got a taxi to the pool owned by our GAP representative. It's really lush and posh up there, and he lets us use it for free! :) It is becoming the place we got to recover from our nights out! haha. I was having a great time and doing lots of energetic swimming when... disaster struck!
It was hilarious really, I slipped on the wet floor and landed on my bum and the back of my head on the (really hard!) tiles. I just got straight back up, said "ow, that hurt" and wandered off into the toilets. Then I put my hand to my head and it was bleeding so I came back out and was all "Steeeeeve, could you have a look at my head?" (because, like two seconds before, we had been talking about how he has to do first aid because he's a lifeguard and he goes on canoe trips in Canada) I was just laughing for about half an hour, apart from one bit when cleo accidentally knocked me and it REALLY HURT. And then the pool owner, Phillip, our GAP representitive, came over and was all, "You should go to hostpital." So I did. Apparently it's a cut just under an inch long, it's right on the back of my head. I have three stiches. Go me!
I was given antibiotics and painkillers at the hospital. This was at one of the big hospitals in Chiang Mai. Then today I went to the little, local Hang Dong hospital so they could change my dressing. I have to go back every day this week and then they take out my stiches on Monday. It still hurts, I had such a headache all last night and this morning but it is getting better now. My hair is gross because it bled quite a lot in the hosputal when then did the local anesthetic for the stiches but I can't wash it properly. :(
Megan and Steve came with me to the hospital and Meg stayed with me all the way through and held my hand and told me what was going on. Meg wants to be a nurse, she is good at distracting people, I'll give her that!
There's nothing to worry about, (just incase any of you are!). I am already on the mend and it's just going to be an annoying headache for the next week! *Sob sob*
Right, bored of typing now, think I'm going to go home and have a well deserved nap! : )
Love and hugs
xxxx
- My new nickname!
-
- angel_of_beth
- November 29th, 2007
Can't belive I haven't said this yet! But I have aged about fourty years out here! haha
The thai teachers in my school can't say Bethan properly because they don't have the "TH" sound in thai, and they also all have nicknames, no one is called by their full first name, so they were all badgering me for by nickname. As Beth didn't really solve the problem, they have christened me Betty! XD So I'm either sixty years old or Betty Boop! :) hehe
Needless to say, the other girls have pounced on it! So we are now Betty, Ceeoo, Salah and Meck. Taking thailand by storm! :)
- Loy Krathong
-
- angel_of_beth
- November 26th, 2007
Well, I wasn't blownup by a firecracker... just about! Has a really good weekend with hardly any sleep and lots of fireworks and craziness and I don't know how on earth I'm going to get it all down but I'll give it a go.
The celebrations on Friday WERE really cuteand involved me and Megan being dragged up with the girls in their costumes to dance the opening dance thing! It was basically just waving your hands around to the loy krathong song and walking gracefully (Oi! I can be graceful when I try!) Everyone was laughing in their good natured, crazy thai wayt, weobviously didn't have a clue what was going on! It was the same song that they played at the Thai festival in August I went to, it was playing pretty much continuously all weekend. There was a sort of beauty pageant thing which was a bit weird but apparently tradition and lotd of dancing and even more food, every class had a stall, and lots ofboys with fire crackers on sports field.
In the evening we went to San Pantong with Cleo and Sarah and went to the local festival with their teacher. We sent our krathong's down the river, proper hardcore ones made of banana tree leaves and gorgeous flowers. They are like little boats and they have candles and flowers and incense on them as gifts to the river/river goddess and they look really pretty all floating down the river in dark. Then we sent up some lantern balloons, which I think have been my favourite part of the festival. They are tissue paper balloons with a wooden hoop for a base and a torch made out of (i think) wood and wax suspended in the middle. You light the torch and everyone stands in a circle holding the hoop while the balloon fills up with hot air and then you let go and it floats up, suposedly taking all the bad feelings and worries away with it and leavin gwith good luck, the same as with the river krathongs but in the sky. Because it is so dark here the sky looked absolutely incredible, with this huge full moon and the whole sky dotted with these golden laterns, it was like a giant swarm of fire flies and replaced the stars, especially on Saturday night when we were at the main celebration on Saturday. We saw a bit of Thai dancing, (pretty costumes, bit dull on the dancing front as it's all about grace and poise and whatnot) and then we went in tothe city and found some bars and drank too much and me and cleo played astoundingly bad pool.
Then on Saturday we cured hangovers with pancakes from this amazing breakfast place we've found and explored a bit more. Everywhere was really busy and once it got dark the whole place went crazy! There were people letting fireworks off everywhere, especially down by the PIng river and on the bridge over it. There was a parade and boats lit up on the water.Everyone was sending up those lanterns. The fireworks were a bit scary because people were just letting them off all over the shop and they kept wizzing past your legs! Cleo doesn't like the bangs so me and her wandered around the streets and watched from a distance while the others let some off down on the bank... crazy people! haha. The princess drove past with a big entorage of cars which was fun because everyone suddenly went quiet and stepped back onto the pavements and then as soon as she's gone, madness broke out again. Me and Cleo were abit confused!
Then once we'd started to get a bit bored of the continuous bangs and crashes we went to a drum and bass club for some slightly different bangs and we all danced a lot and Megan fell in love with the DJ but h e already had a posse of Thai groupies. :( On Sunday we were alll f eelin g abit worse for wear so we went swimming in the pool that our co-ordinator with GAP owns. IT's awesome! He said he'd always wanted a house with a pool so when he had enough money to build one he thought he mighjt as well build a complex with bungalows and a restaurant so he could charge people! It's really nice and a lot posher than everywhere else we've been going, a nice change! We met up with one of the previousvolunteers from the program too and he's here at uni now so we'll hopefully make good use of his thai skills!
And then Rachelle phoned me late on Sunday night, which was really good, even if I was so tired I'm suprised I made any sense at all! I will have to try to be more awake the next time she can call! It was really lovely to talk to you though Rach, I will work on my canadian and thai accents for you! :P <3you
All in all, an excellent weekend, even if getting up at half seven was hell this morning. Really can't be bothered to cook tonight so going to explore the market now.
- Crazy couple of days!
-
- angel_of_beth
- November 22nd, 2007
Both yesterday and today were crazy and tomorrow will only get worse because it's the start of loy krathong weekend, one of the biggest festivals in the thai calender.
So, Wednesday, I was running late (shocking I know!) and was dashing around like a mad thing when Sangchang turned up and said that I wasn't teaching today because they'd decided TUESDAY AFTERNOON to take the 120 p.5's on a school trip to the huge botanical gardens place, like the equivilent of the national botanical gardens of wales. We went mainly because there was this big exhibition about the king that was free (I don't suppose i've mentioned it being his birthday coming up have I ? XD) it was very high tech and pretty but all in thai so I was a bit wtf but it was fun. And then we wandered round the big market (seriously, any excuse to sell things and the thais are THERE) and the food court and ate lots of chicken and sticky rice and chilli sauce, i am getting better at chilli... very slowly! We walked around for a bit and looked at some of the exibits but it was so big that we couldn't really look at anything in particular, just generally look around. It was still fun though because it gave me a good opportunity to people watch, which I like but it was hot and I was just with the teachers (because meg didn't go) and they'd just let the 120 (!!) kids wander (I swear, the brownie leader in me was having a heart attack all day!).
So i was getting a bit bored and then we went back to the market because the female teachers wanted to shop some more and the male teacher with us must have seen my face so he took me to the massage stall, there's at least one at every market thing, and we had foot massages and iced tea while the women shopped!!! it was awesome! I pretty much just fell asleep! haha. Then there was the bus ride home, the buses here are awesome, they are basically converted pickup trucks and i was the only "teacher" in mine, along with 20 girls, all squished in together. have some really cute photos but again, the brown owl in me was not relaxed!! lol
So today was always going to be a nightmare, sandwiched between a school trip and the festival concert day but perhaps I wasn't quite prepared for how crazy! It was pretty much akin to teaching the day before christmas eve. Yeah, I know... really stupid idea! Add to the fact that around festivals, thai's consider a five minutes without a firework or a banger of some kind a wasted five minutes, even in the middle of the afternoon, and you don't get a very restful day! haha. But I'm excited for this weekend, we're going into town for the celebrations. And also tomorrow so I can see all the kids doing their thing at the concert. I am prepared for more cutness! : )
Have to go and help Megan cook dinner for the girls, I'll update on the weekend's festivities soon!
Lots of love xxx
- rushed again!!
-
- angel_of_beth
- November 13th, 2007
i am so bad at time management, this was supposed to be a long update with all the last of the bagkok craziness and all the gossip on my house and school but megan's just reminded me we're meeting the other girls for dinner and we have to dress posh! lol. hope i remember all my thai manners we were taught!
as you can imagine,getting settled in here has been pretty hetic! But I am fine, the house is pretty basic but now me and Megan have attacked it, it is clean. Yesterday we explored chiangmai with the two other girls near us, cleo and sarah. They are really close, about 5km away, so we will be seeing alot of them. I like chiangmai more than bangkok so far,although being in such a crazy city was fun. The school is busy and disorganised and friendly. The english teacher that is my mentor is really lovely though, and very enthusiastic and involved. The deptuty head, the highest up dude we've met so far, is crazy. really bonkers. But fun :) Today was our first day of teaching. I am so tired!! haha. I am teaching pratong 3 and 5 (same as year 3 and 5 pretty much) and I have about 12 hours per week. This is pretty good because it means that me and megan can take on extra hours as each others helpers if we need.
so... yeah the dude is crazy! he is about 50 and wears those 70's looking sun glasses. He smiles his huge smile all the time, it is really unsettling! haha but lots of people here are like that,i'm getting used to it! last night he came to check on us and we were burning some candles we'd bought to cheer the place up,moreonthehouselater, and he started singing ''candle in the wind'' and repeating ''diana pretty diana'' i waslaughing so much, it was really hard to stop and keep talking to him! what else... oh yeah, he gave us a papaya and ever since had keep saying papaya papaya at us with this huge grin and we keep having to nod and smile and say we haven't had a chance to eat it yet, which is true! i have a feeling he will provide us with many moments of lol!
shopping yesterday was really fun, megan and cleo are great, cleo is the scottish one. sarah is a bit standoffish and ''cool'' but she is megan's best friend and meg says that she is not herself so maybe she'll be friendlier when she has settled in. we bought loads of cleaning stuff and candles and a couple of cushions. the house is right in the school grounds, it is pretty big, there is a big living room, with a couple of chairs, the sofa and the fridge (who knows why) and also an old table with loads of teaching stuff that we haven't had a chance to sort out yet. then there is a small kitchen and a bathroom, there is a shower but it is cold and useless. even worse than the one in bangkok! then there are stairs up to the veranda thing, and our bedroom are off that, it is really nice up there, there are hamocks!! our rooms are pretty nice, the mattresses are really hard but there is a decent wardrobe and a desk and i have already bought some of those plasic stacking trays/shelf things for all my junk.
we found a cockroach on our first night!! in an old rubbish bin. it was a bit minging...ok, very minging, but we slayed it with a lot of mosquito repellent and we haven't found anymore yet. we are hardened explorers! lol there are lots of little lizards around though, but they are cute :) at night it is really noisy, the crickets are crazy loud and there are a load of dogs that run round barking all the time loads. not cool! but i guess we'll get used to them!
the kids are as cute as predicted, they run up and hug us and shake our hands at every opportunity. not that that means they do what they are told... worse luck! i reckon it won't be long before i am resortiong to exchanging hugs for completed worksheets!
the school must have around 800 max kids, there were 40 in each of the p3 classes i was in today. it's hard work. it's pretty old-school too, (haha i'm hilarious) ~ blackboards and chalk, only one computer room and not much money for photocopying, not sure what ''not much money'' means. hopefully there is some!!!! there is a really cheap ice cream stand though!!! i am going to use it as a reward for eating the school dinners! it was pork curry and also some thai vegatable fried with egg today, not as nice as the food from the little restaurants we've been finding! there was also deepfried (i'm guessing) shrimp all stuck together to make a sort of biscuit... you could see their eyes!! i only ate half of that!!
i really like reading all your comments, i will hopefully have more time to respond to them soon but very briefly- mary- hahaha right now all i can think of is blutack! i will do my best to think of something more exciting!
Chloe - well thank goodness for the lackof flooding! glad to hear that just because i've left the wholecountry hasn't fallen apart and submitted to the elements. funnily enough, no rain here at all yet XD there are lots of massage places around here, i'llhave to let you know how they help with my stress! haha
this keyboard is uber sticky, i can't be bothered to fight it anymore!
love to you all, speak soon!! x x x x x x x
- Surviving Bangkok
-
- angel_of_beth
- November 7th, 2007
Sawaadee ka!
I'm in a really crazy little coin operated internet cafe! It's funky, but I being eaten alive by bugs :( Hope you appreciate what I have discovered about Bangkok so far...
1. Don't use pictures of the king as landmarks... they are EVERYWHERE and they all look the same!
2. When in a taxi, don't start singing along to nd goggling at, the Shane Ward on the radio. The driver will thik you like it and will turn it up. Even more tortuous than Bangkok rush hour traffic is Bangkok rush hour traffic to Shane Ward.
3. If in doubt, find a 7eleven, the equivilent of spar. They have everything you need, alot you don't and charge ridiculous amounts for mars bars, but nothing for very werid thai crisps! (they come with sachets of tomato ketchup!)
4. Don't wear hot pants and a very low top to the bar in the posh hotel you are staying at unless you want strange looks and giggleing waitresses. (haha cleo!) Also, don't play cards, they will think you are the mafia XD
5. On Ko Sarn road, don't look at the pretty stuff... it is hypnotic and sooooo tempting! But if you have to look, let someone else guard your purse so you don't spend anything!
6. The breakfasts in the Asia Hotel are incredible. I'm averaging four courses at the moment, it saves on lunch later.
So far, only found one cockoach and two rats and niether in the hotel! Gutted. But we are in a pretty posh place, hopefully there will be more soon!
Right, I'm late to meet everyone, as usual, so I must go. Hope to update agin soon, hope you are all well and missing me!
Muchos love and kisses.
