Long time no blog...

Whew! So it's been a month, and what have I been up to?

First I started off the month with leaving Phibun....it was sad to leave the school, but I was excited for a new adventure = Teaching in the BIG CITY of Bangkok!!

After arriving in Bangkok and staying for a short day; dropping off luggage, meeting up with friends, etc. we set sail to Phuket (Southern Thailand).

We spent the first week of "vacation" WORKING!! AHH!! We went down to help train the new teachers coming into Thailand. We went to school with them and watched them "student teach" for a week. We did that in the mornings, and then in the afternoons we had plenty of time to relax and catch some sun. We spent a lot of time getting to know the new teachers - it was a group of single people! They described themselves as "a group of sorority girls from America" and they sure were! All were from different sororities, and they (along with the boys) LOVED to party. They were a wild bunch. Of course I loved it :)

Then we headed to Bangkok that weekend and got ready for some job interviews. Tim ended up getting an AWESOME job (same school a sorority sister - Paradee - when she lived in Bangkok) but I had no such luck. What luck I DID have though...getting sick! I ended up having to go to the hospital to get antibiotics. YUCK! Luckily my friend Claire was in Bangkok staying with a friend so she nursed me to health with movies and soup while Tim was running errands for his new school and getting his apartment booked.

Later that week we headed back down to Phuket to see a NEW group of teachers and watch them student teach. We had already met a few of them, so it was cool to see them again. This group was not as wild - but we got to know them better since we spent more time with them.

During that week, Shannon came in from the states to visit. That weekend we took her to the James Bond Island (from the movie the Man with the Golden Gun) with some of the new teachers. We spent the day (hungover) jumping off our tour boat into the water, swimming, exploring caves, taking pictures, and getting sun. It was an AWESOME day!

The next day we had planned to just veg out - but it turned out that I had an interview (ON A SUNDAY!) at a school about 4 hours away...in a town called Surat Thani. So we got up early on Sunday, took a bus over, interviewed, and then headed back. It was a long day...but good thing I went, since I got the job!!! When we got back to Phuket, Claire was there!!!! She had come over from a holiday in the islands and was going to stay with us for a few days.

We spent the beginning of that week observing the new teachers again, and in the afternoons we spent time on the beach, took Shannon elephant riding, visited the Big Buddha, and ate AWESOME dinners around the town. Claire ended up leaving during the week, but Shannon and her were able to spend some time together, so I am happy my girls from different worlds were able to get to know each other.

At the end of the week we headed over to Koh Phi Phi (with Nick) and the 4 of us stayed in a little bunglaow in between the 2 beaches. The first night we just wanted to take it easy and show Shannon the fire shows on the beach. The dinner conversation went "Man, we are so old. We all just want to go to bed. It's almost 10pm! Ok, well lets just go show Shannon the shows, and split a bucket so she can try one." Next thing you know, we are walking back from the bars and fire shows to our bungalow as the SUN WAS RISING!! Yes, 1 bucket (whiskey, soda, red bull) turned into multiple, and the night consisted of fire shows, group jump ropes, late night pool, etc. until the sun started coming up. Needless to say, we spent the next day in bed sleeping.

Once we left Koh Phi Phi we headed back to Bangkok (Nick stayed in the islands and we were going to meet up later) to get Tim settled in his apartment. Once he was settled we had dinner out, and the 3 of us had a drink at the restaurant/bar that was featured in the movie Hangover 2. The view was SPECTACULAR!!! The following day we headed to Khao San Road to meet up with some new teachers for lunch, and ran into Ashlee!! She was a teacher from OUR group, and we ended up watching the World Rugby Championship game...she's from New Zealand and we all know that her team (the All Blacks) WON!! WOOOO!! It was exciting to watch the game on such a western filled street - and to watch it with someone from the winning country!

Then it was time to head to my town to get ME all settled. We got to the train station at 7:30pm and was ready to go on time. We didn't start moving until 11:00pm. UGH!! 3.5 HOUR DELAY!!! Why? Well, if you haven't been watching the news - Bangkok is flooded. And Sunday night was the beginning. We finally got going, and after a million hours we arrived in my town.

We got a room for the night - and explored a little before hitting the hay early - I had to work in the morning!!!

And that was the end of my vacation....more about my job/school/town, etc. in the next blog.

Sawasdee Kha,
Apes

PS - once my pictures are on my computer I will add them to this entry.

Phuket in October...

NOT the most gorgeous time. It has rained almost everyday - Yes, I FINALLY believe it rains in Thailand!!! It is cool here - cool enough that I had to buy a little windbreaker from Tesco!!

BUT - I would rather be in rainy Phuket then rainy anywhere else!!!

We have been observing the new teaching group for 3 days now....we are answering TONS of questions, and tonight we are showing some of the teachers what ISAN food is. Tim and I had stumbled upon an Isan restaurant the other night, and then today a few teachers were asking us about the food in their location (ISAN) because they had seen so many travel shows. So to ease their stomachs (literally) we are taking them to the Isan restaurant and showing them some regular ISAN dishes (Som tom) and also some dishes that are popular around Thailand that you CAN get in Isan areas (Gai Pad Med Ma Muang and Gai-Je-Sai). And of course we are showing them sticky rice - my FAV part about Isan food!!!

Sawasdee Kha!
Apes :)

Goodbye, So Long...

Whelp...we left good ol' PhibunMungsahan. Man we had a sweet set-up there. Well, minus the 13 hour commute to Bangkok, or the 1.5 hour bus ride to get a burger. But it WAS an awesome little town. I will definitely miss our AMAZING teachers, and my favorite around-town restaurants and market women. I will NOT miss the hair salon.

But while I am busy missing the Isan area - I am living it up on the beaches of PHUKET!!!

After 2 days of overnight busses (a day stop in Bangkok to meet our FAB host Carter), we FINALLY made it to All Seasons Nai Harn at about 9am Sunday morning. We dropped our bags and grabbed some breakfast buffet! We ended up talking to a group of people by us - they were all getting ready to start the course on Monday, so we answered tons of questions, and told them we would be there to observe them in two weeks.

Then we spent the day getting re-acquainted with the town (thank you motorbike!!) and got our observation instructions for the week.

Then we hit the hay early because we were pooped from travelling and were excited to sleep in a bed (and not a bus) again!

.....and so observations have started. Everyone was nervous on their first day, but our groups did great. They only had 8 (yes, PAED) students to 'teach'. And man, were those little 7 year olds adorable!! Each day we will get a year older in students, so let's see how the wanna-be-teachers do!

For dinner Tim and I ended up at an Isan restaurant - and we were able to speak isan to the owner, and she loved it! It made me quite happy that I could use my sweet Isan skills :)

Ok, off to relax before bed - then another day of observing :)

Sawasdee Kha!
Apes :)