Hello all,
It's been a considerable time since the last world update - something like 9 years?
So what's happened since I arrived in Thailand? It's been only two weeks but a plethora of things have happened. TEFL course first I suppose.
TEFL Course
The course had 9 participants (up from 3 previous and 16 on the course prior to that):
Natalia - Russia
Erin - US
Sasha - US
Louise - Eng
Carly - Eng
Cieran - Ire
Alan - US
Graeme - S Africa
Mark - NZ
I say 'had' because Natalia pulled out early.
It's a fantastic bunch of people aging between 22 and 45? Mainly mid-20s to early 30s. We tend to hang out together for eating and drinking which is great - in smaller or larger groups depending on what people want to do or where they want to go. After eating solely Thai food for the first week I've lapsed into the occassional chips and burger or packet of crisps from 7-Eleven. I've developed the habit of picking up this nice lycee drink from there too which costs a whole NZD 0.60. Oh and there's this wicked wasabe covered peanuts you can get. Awesome,.
I initially spent quite a bit on food and have learnt to be selective to keep the costs down. The whole first week there was heaps of beer drinking including me which meant that I'd consumed more alcohol in that week than in the last few years. Since then I've slowed down dramatically. Most nights I'm trying to not have any at all and did pretty well on that front.
My doctor won't be impressed with me as I'm having eggs every day which I'm sure isn't doing my lipids any good. Before leaving NZ I got a 'Predict' done which I had never heard of before. It's a test that came out with the "prediction" that in the next 5 years there is a 15% chance I'm going to have a serious problem. Oh and if you are like me and didn't know what lipids are they are a collection of tests that measure your cholesterol levels.
In terms of the course itself we've got a seriously experienced teacher called Peter (US/Colombia) and assistant Emily (Aus) who is kindly letting me type this on her laptop. Access to the internet isn't great in Ban Phe where we are staying. Now that the first two weeks are over we've learnt all the core material which was really helpful for me. The last two weeks are all about practical experience. In fact the first lesson I'll take will be Monday morning. No idea how many kids will be in the class but the last one we observed was 25. Today is a preparation day whereby we've got to pull together the following: cheat sheet (a linear list of what we go through in the class as a reminder), tape recording for the listening and writing section, pictorial cards x 9 for learning which is a challenge for me in terms of drawing (the Thai children are amazing artists), our dialogue scripts and finally a worksheet which has text with gaps in it for the children to fill in. Together with this we need to prepare a lesson plan which takes ages to prepare. In all I completed 4/5 items on Friday and it took me 7 hours to complete (with a few food breaks in between). We'll need to do this 8 times over the next two weeks and it'll get easier and easier.
Ban Phe/Koh Samet
Ban Phe is a nice sleepy township on the beach. It's the connecting point to get to Koh Samet island so there can be an influx of tourists occassionally. All the team on the course have been to the island at one point or another. It is surrounded by lovely white sandy beaches.
There are a number of businesses in our street. Hard to picture but if you imagine a 3/4 story building with the frontage being no wider than a single car garage you'll get some idea. In fact the front doors are usually a garage roller door so good analogy. The outside tends to be 'the shop' with the inside part being their home. We have 3+ food places, 2+ laundries, 1 massage place, and 1 'massage place' if you get my drift. The latter is used almost entirely by local men which is an accepted practice in some relationships.
My regular breakfast haunt is owned by Sa and often she leaves the running of it to Pi. Pi is 23 and has a cheeky personality. As usual when there is little or no language communication you make do. They have a lovely little pup called Bong. He's a terror and has just got to the stage whereby his biting is starting to hurt - he has really sharp teeth! There are at least 20 pups littered around if you're in need.
Then there is Louis and his Thai wife who have no price list and sometimes give you their leftovers. Woon is a local who makes the best green curry you're ever gonna eat. He's also very generous when it comes to pricing. The team says it's great marketing as we tend to spend most evenings there drinking but I'm not so sure he's making much money. Cieran and I had a long chat with him and it came out that he's very relaxed about this as he has a great lifestyle and ripping people off isn't his style. Like most Thai's he's Buddhist and they treat us very well.
There's also the local 'village idiot' who is called Fanny. Not sure if that's a name we've given him or a real one. He's got a limp arm and tends to help out all over our street doing odd jobs for people which can range sweeping a cafe to scrubbing down the underside of a boat. Either way he gets a warm welcome from us and the odd free beer. Woon looks after him too.
In terms of incidents that have happened to me the sea isn't my best friend. So far I've been spiked twice by what is either a sea urchin or just very long sharp plants down below. The problem is they bury themselves quite deep into your feet and I've now had one on top and one underneath my foot. I've also banged my head on rocks at the bottom when trying to be clever and do a hand-stand in the water. At the time I was out swimming with Sasha and she freaked when she saw me with blood pouring down my face. Looked worse than it was.
About 5kms down the road we've found better beaches than Ban Phe (not really used as beaches) and even better a superb Italian restaurant. I'm talking real Italian food here and the owner is Italian. A little more expensive but oh so divine.
This weekend just gone by I headed off to Bangkok to farewell Joe (US friend who has helped me heaps) and meet up with Joy who has just returned from a trip to China. Got to meet her parents and brother too which was cool.
Bangkok was heaving with people. It was sale weekend and the malls were thick with bargain hunters. I also took in the Mo Chit Weekend Market which is reported to have over 5000 stalls. You could literally get lost in there.
I stayed up late Sat night too watch the antics on the street outside my hotel. It's a known spot for furang (whiteys/tourists) and prostitutes. I switched between doing homework and watching events take place which was often hilarious. This included a group of 4 little girls who were asking for money. They couldn't have been more than 4/5 but they sure knew how to work the crowd.
Ah well... homework beckons.
