6.21.12

Teacher’s Day wasn’t what I was expecting. I never should have read other teachers’ posts. Basically, they took us upstairs and put us in the back row on the side of the room. We sat for 45 minutes while they got all the students to form straight lines. All of HIC’s teachers were wearing custom made gold silk suits or their own nice clothes. Would have been nice to have been told we could dress nicely today instead of looking like we were going to play a round of golf. Sweaty, ugly golf.

They played the anthem. Had their prayers. The director gave a VERY long speech that we, of course, couldn’t understand a word of. Gave some awards to students. Gave the favorite teacher award to Da (one of the Thai English teachers. Yay!). Then they had some of the girls come out and perform a traditional Thai dance with the gorgeous, ornate costumes and everything. It was beautiful. I got it on video. By holding my camera way above my head. My arm got very tired.

Then they had the students present their floral arrangements. They presented to the director and to Khun Tippawan and then to the teachers whom they had sitting on the stage. We still haven’t gotten an answer as to what the role of the teachers on the stage was. Let me tell you, these arrangements were amazing. I don’t have any good pictures because of where we were sitting. But, wow. Two of them were Angry Birds (a red one and a yellow one). Two of them were chickens. One of them had a mountain and a boat and all kinds of things. I’m telling you, these kids would put the florists in the States to shame. One of the displays was a carved watermelon. Fruit carving is a skill here. It was gorgeous.

Then they told us we could leave. Before the end of the assembly. Um, ok. I felt less included in this assembly than if we hadn’t been invited at all. I actually feel more honored by the students in the hallway when they smile and wave and say “Good morning, Teacher!” even when they aren’t students in my classes. They honor me when they laugh and have a good time in class. They honor me when they come to my office and sit on the floor next to my desk and practice their English with me. They honor me when they ask me to have lunch with them. Every day is Teacher’s Day for me.

During our lunch, we decided to go and look at one last place down the road. Had to make our decision today. Pippa was still living there but would be moving out in July to a house on Koh Yo. When we talked to her about it, she said it was nice but the landlady was up in your business all the time and would show your room to people and go in while you were out. Also, it is where a lot of farang stay. Farang who like to party. And come home late and make a racket. Since we didn’t want to feel like we had left any stone unturned, we checked it out. By tuk-tuk, with no traffic, it still took us 15 minutes to get there. I imagine during morning rush hour, it would take at least double.

We got dropped off at the end of the soi. It was a rather dodgy road and there didn’t seem to be much in the area, from what we could see on the drive. We found number 43 (the only thing that looked like an apartment building in the area). Koi met us at the gate and took us upstairs. She showed us one room (that appeared to still be lived in). Pippa was actually coming downstairs with her laundry when we got there and also showed us her room. Which was much nicer (as it was a corner room with two private balconies). We told Koi that we would need to confer and make a decision today.

When we were finally able to engage a tuk-tuk to take us back to school, we decided that Songkhla was the place for us. Shook on it and had a ‘hooray!’ and that was it. Took us longer than it should have to get back to the school (which was, by the way, just a straight shot down the road) because our driver kept stopping to ask directions. Even though we had given him a map. And we kept telling him “dtrong-pai, dtrong-pai!” (straight, straight!). And that is what the people giving him directions told him also. And you could see the school at the end of the road. We each gave him 20 baht.

I grabbed us each a soda (which had gone up 5 baht apiece) and headed back to the office. Had found these lovely mini banana muffins at 7-11 that morning. They were delicious! And that’s what I had for lunch. I think I have finally gotten my appetite back, because small amounts of food aren’t holding me over like they used to. I was looking forward to dinner at the Buzz Stop later.

Spent the rest of the day working on lesson plans and writing quizzes. I basically have to write a different one for each of my 12 classes because they are all at different places. I will get them caught up to each other eventually. Was lagging a bit because I had gotten a sinus infection (stupid a/c…I didn’t mean that. I love you.). It was just leaving me feeling a little heavy in the head.

Took us quite a walk to catch the tuk-tuk to the clock tower. Ten baht each. It was one of the trucks with a set route. Fortunately, the route took us where we wanted to go. Perfect. Got on a yellow and green striper. Thirty baht instead of the 28. We took it all the way to Thanon Si Suda, where the Buzz Stop is. When we got there, it was all greetings and fun. Also found out that George does a full Christmas dinner there for free. I think this will be my new haunt. There was a funny Scotsman named Martin there who spent the evening heckling George and all the rest of his staff. Pretty sure he was a regular We ordered ciders (lovely, tall, Irish ciders). They weren’t Bulmers but they were nearly as good. Had a ‘Slainté!’ to living in Songkhla.

Patricia had herself an Angus steak and I had a BLT (Yes, Spencer. An actual BLT. Not bacon, lettuce and peanut butter.). With crinkle-cut fries. On real, thick, soft bread. With thick-cut bacon. You really do pay for the luxury of eating ex-pat food. Two hundred and seventy for my meal and cider. But it was worth it.

We were ready to go and planned to stop at the deli. I hadn’t finished my cider (if you know me, you know how I drink) and was trying to down it. George told me I could take it with me, but I had already finished it. I forgot that you can just walk around with alcohol. But I would have felt weird doing it.

Pat got the first motorcycle taxi. I waited for the next one. Whom I am pretty sure wasn’t actually a taxi driver. But he spoke great English and knew George. His name was Kimi. Opted not to go to the deli tonight. I would go another time. Just wanted to get to an ATM and get home and have Tun call our ride for the morning and be done for the day. Kimi knew exactly where I needed to go and even knew what ATM I wanted to stop at. I wish I could hire him for every trip. He waited for me at the ATM as I withdrew 10,000 (Yikes!) for my rent and deposit. That’s actually only $314.35.

Back at the mansion, Patricia was telling them that I would be staying after all. She was already set up with a monthly. She was asking how much my driver had charged me for the ride. I told her I paid him 50 (he didn’t tell me a price, that’s just what I paid him). She had paid 60 and thought she was overcharged. I keep telling her that she needs to stop asking ‘how much?’.

Tun had Noi come over from the restaurant and write out a receipt for the 4,500 in rent (they took off 500 a month since my room is smaller than Pat’s) and the 6,000 deposit. I had misunderstood when they offered me the room originally. I thought they had said 5,000 a month and a 12,000 deposit. Twelve thousand is how much it would have been total with the deposit at the original price. Hey, I don’t mind. It’s the first time since I have been in Thailand that information changed and it was actually in my favor!

I was already paid up at the nightly rate for the room I was currently staying in. Tun would move my stuff to my new room while I was working on Friday. I just had to have everything packed up for him. That’s service for you. With a smile.