7.11.12

Although there are 7-11s in abundance in Thailand, it did not occur to me to have a Slurpee today. And since they write the date as 11-7-55, I don’t think it would have been free anyhow. Oh well.

The toilets worked all day. Small blessings.

My birthday is coming up in August. We happen to have a 4-day weekend the 2nd-5th. Which would encompass my birthday. However, I think it is just our school, so any other teacher-friends outside of HIC wouldn’t have that time off. BUT, the queen’s birthday is the following weekend, which in Thailand is referred to as Mother’s Day. And that is a 3-day weekend. Two long weekends in a row! Had been contemplating Phuket, but it is eight hours by mini bus and airlines don’t fly between Hat Yai airport and Phuket airport. I know, it doesn’t make sense to me either. Phuket is out of the question then. Had also thought of going to Krabi. Five hours by bus. Then Teacher Da told me about Koh Lipe. Two-and-a-half hours by bus and then one-and-a-half to two-and-a-half hours by boat (either speedboat or ferry). I looked it up. On the Adaman Sea. AH-mazingly beautiful. Found a gorgeous place called the Ricci House Resort for $40 a night. And one bungalow can sleep up to three people. Booking through Agoda.com for this room comes with no fees if canceled no less than a week before arrival. I booked it. Plan to head up there on the 11^th and come back on the 13^th. Patricia emailed me from Australia letting me know she would be there with bells on. Hopefully Liz will be able to make it down from BKK and Brian from Nakhon Pathom. Ellie will be joining as well and her birthday is on the 15^th. Joint birthday weekend, here I come!

Ugh. Every single student was at least 15 minutes late for second class today. I don’t get it. It’s so frustrating. I guess I should be happy they are at least showing up, but it’s hard to get them caught up with the other classes when they can’t even get to class on time. Now that I know what the attendance policy is, students are going to start dropping like flies. So many are on the verge of four absences and it is only the 6^th week of class! (sigh)

We were told today that we need to stay at school until 4:15pm each day (after being told before that we could leave at 4pm). Not sure why. There isn’t a whole lot of logic behind the rules in Thailand. They just ARE. School actually gets done officially at 4pm (last bell) and we are pretty sure there aren’t even any classes after 3pm. We sit in our office for quite a few hours before the end of the day. Somethings I guess I will just never understand. Like the absenteeism.

I have basically eaten nothing but pad see ew for dinner since Sunday (and I also had it for lunch that day). Noi is starting to chuckle at me when I bring my bowl down from the previous night and ask, “May I please have some more?” I think I need to branch out. But, it’s really difficult when you don’t know the names of any of the dishes, and you can’t read Thai, and there are no picture menus. I may be forced to live on pad see ew until I learn to read Thai. Don’t get me wrong, I love it. I am just getting food boredom. Think the Buzz Stop will be in my near future.

I re-read this just now and realized that it sounds chock-full of complaints. I mean, other than planning a rad trip to Koh Lipe. I’m really not complaining. More like being baffled ‘out loud’. It’s not always sunshine and rainbows, even when you live in an amazing and beautiful part of the world. Sometimes it’s just life.