6.6.12

Finally! A taxi to our very door to take us directly to school! It’s the simple things in life…

It was very fortunate, too. The rainy season started last night. At some point, I awoke and thought I heard lots of running water. When I looked out the window, I couldn’t see that it was raining, so I thought it must be our cistern running over, as it does most of the time. I found out differently in the morning. It wasn’t still raining, but I could tell that it had. And possibly would again. Continue reading →

6.5.12

Well, we were supposed to be “picked up” in front of our house and taken to the school. I think something gets lost in translation when they say “I will pick you up at the end of your street”. What it really means is “I will meet you at the end of the street and take you across the road to the bus stop. Then we will get in a mini van with 12 other people and ride in to Hat Yai. The van will drop us off in front of the hospital where we will wait for a tuk-tuk to pick us up. The tuk-tuk will then drop us off a quarter mile from the school and we will walk the rest of the way from there.”

This was our experience the day before when we came to the school for some more training. Continue reading →

6.3.12

I really don’t want to complain about anything while I am here. I chose to come to this part of the world with the understanding that it would be difficult. Cultural differences, language barriers, not a first-world country. I just didn’t realize how emotionally difficult it would be. Continue reading →

6.2.12

I was right. Today was a better day. Much.

Woke up early and finally finished watching Quantum of Solace. Knew that Ying was planning to pick us up at around ten to go to the zoo and the beach. None of us were too keen on going. They seem to feel the need to escort and entertain us constantly. I think we all just wanted a day to be able to relax and explore and do our own thing. Continue reading →

6.1.12

Patricia finally returned from Malaysia around 6pm on Thursday. Fortunately her trip was not in vain and she was able to secure a tourist visa. Phew! I caught her up on the happenings since she left the day before. If you know how I tell a story, you know that it took a while but was thorough… Continue reading →

5.31.12

I was going to begin this post by saying “I don’t even know where to start.” Then I realized that was simply not the truth. I will just start out in the morning…where I always do.

We did end up going to the student orientation after all. And by “we” I mean myself, the two reps from Andrew Biggs Academy (Phil and Tong) and the two Thai English teachers. Patricia was still in Malaysia working out the visa fiasco and Tom was suddenly “ill”. Only we didn’t know he was sick until we called his room after knocking on his door two separate times. Fifteen minutes after we were supposed to have left. Yeah… Continue reading →

5.30.12

Decided to have a lost day on Tuesday.

Monday night after getting back from our lovely dinner, we found out that we may not have jobs after all. Continue reading →

5.27.12/5.28.12

I think it’s Monday.

However, this entry starts on Sunday.

After packing everything up and getting my suitcases downstairs, I headed to the Coconut for one last breakfast. Didn’t even have to order. I walked in and sat down and Tum, the lady boy who works there, said to me, “Muesli yogurt, yes?”. I had two bowls.

I expected the rain the night before to create an even more muggy day. Not the case. It was so nice and mild that I wasn’t even sweating while I sat and ate my breakfast.  They were kind enough to let me use their laptop at the Coconut to check my email. For some reason, their network wasn’t showing up on my computer or my tablet. Nothing new on the interwebs.

I headed back to my hotel to wait for my ride to the school. We were to have a quick meeting before starting our long, long journey to Bangkok and then Hat Yai from there. We were looking at about 18 hours of auto travel. yay. Continue reading →

5.26.12

Before moving to Thailand, I might have wanted to consider the fact that I get heat exhaustion so easily. It’s making it difficult to get on a normal sleep schedule. By 4pm, all I want is a cold shower and a nap. Tried to sleep as long as possible last night, but I woke up at 4am (seven hours of sleep, which is an hour more than I usually would get) and there was no going back to bed. Instead, I have been watching a lot of movies on my Nook and laptop and staring out the window until the shops open. Wish I had my camera out this morning when a truck dropped the monks off outside my hotel at 6am to start their day of begging for alms (which is what I assume the baskets were for, but I could be completely wrong). They walked right under my window, single-file. Would have been a great shot. Oh well, again, you can’t get a picture of everything.

Continue reading →

5.25.12

Ok, so, I spent most of the afternoon recovering from that stupid Ambien. Ugh. Drank lots of water, laid down for a long time and watched movies.

Around 4pm or so, I was finally feeling human and decided that I would find some food before I became overly hungry again. One thing I will say, it shouldn’t be too difficult to lose weight in this climate. Half I will sweat off and the other half will drop off because heat makes me lose my appetite. Yay for diets of circumstance!

This time I left my camera in the room. I wanted a walk, unencumbered by a purse or suitcase or backpack. As a good friend once told me, “You have to realize that sometimes you can’t take a picture of everything.” Continue reading →