A good day.

Often times we bitch about the crappy days we have but rarely discuss the good days! Today was a good day for me. Why? I am not exactly sure...it was the same ole same ole, run of the mill, average kind of day. Actually, Thursdays are typically my WORST day of the week...I teach from 9:30am until 12:30pm then have a half hour lunch break then tutor a girl from 1:00pm to 2:00pm then teach again from 2:00pm-6:00pm. Long exhausting day, I tell you. But today my students were chippery little things which lighten my mood. In my OPE level one class we were all sitting in a circle and pretty much just chit chatted girl talk all class (it's a class of 8 girls). And they all spoke English majority of the time, which is a rarity. At one point we were talking about Thai dancing and one girl said she could dance. She got up and starting dancing and the rest of the girls starting singing a Thai song as she was gracefully dancing. Beautiful. Unexpected. Priceless.
Then in one of my basic level classes I have been teaching students how to say 'r' sounding words- rock, right, rate, red, rice (the 'r' and the 'l' sounds are extremely difficult for Thai students, along with the 'sh' and 'ch' sounds, and the 'th' sound too) and one of my lower level students said rock perfectly. I was so happy. When I said 'yes, you got it' she started jumping up and down and hugged me. She was so happy. I was so proud of her. She said she had been practicing. I told her I could tell. It was a great feeling.
Then there is my conversational class of seniors...you know the class I was sooo not happy to teach...oh wow how things have changed. I adore my group of seniors. Some still dont give a shit but then I got a great couple of kids that make up for the slackers. I teach this class four nights a week, 2 hours a night...tonight was the end of week four...I only have two more weeks with them. This week we just had the bomb of classes...from playing psychiatrist on Monday, telling ghost stories on Tuesday, listening to music on Wednesday and today storytelling all class. Those two hours a night have been flying by. I am starting to get nervous at the fact that I have to rank my students from 1 (the best) to 8 (the worst)...I am not looking forward to that part of the job. The grading for the conversational students suck. Its not the regular pass/fail or even A, B, C kind of grading. I have to rate my students from best to worst. More on that later.

Overall today was a good day. I like these kind of days!

Weekend getaway!

The usual suspects (Jenn, Lauren M., Shannon) and I headed to Koh Samet for the weekend. We just wanted to escape the city and chill out on the beach. We left early morning Friday and arrived at the beach by 1pm. Lovely. What can beat a 3 hour van ride for $6.00 that gets you to this...

We didn't do anything out of the ordinary, with the exception of Jenn getting her eyebrow pierced. We just lounged on the beach and read. I should have been lesson planning but you know just as well as I do that that was never going to happen. That was the last thing on my mind. I did start and finish a book that weekend. Ah now this is the life!

Floating Market

Early (6am) Saturday morning Jenn, Lauren M., Shannon and I headed to one of the infamous Thailand Floating Markets. We chose Damnoensaduak Floating Market (about 2 hours southwest of Bangkok). After our long ride to the Market, we unload off the bus and are told in order to get to the market we need to take a boat. Okay okay okay. Fine. We ride the boat in the throngs of the floating market. Cool Cool Cool. Snap some pics, get out of the boat, eat, walk around, buy some AMAZING art. Then head back to Bangkok. Yay another 2 hour bus ride back. We then headed to Khao San Road for some dinner and back home. Long day. I was exhausted.

You know all the books say the floating markets are something not to be missed when visiting Thailand but I felt I could have done without it. Not sure if that is because it was purely "for show" for all the tourists...there were no Thai people there except for the workers. I guess you could say I had higher expectations for the floating market.

Besides that I have been busy with all my lesson planning, teaching, awaiting for Emmett and Liz's arrival, and vacation planning. Actually right at this moment...Shannon is trying to purchase our tickets to the Philippines. YAHOO! In about 5 weeks time, I will have 8 weeks of uninterrupted VACATION TIME! (Yes, now this is the real reason I came to Thailand!!!) The rough plan is head to northern Thailand, then over to Laos, Vietnam, Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and then finally up from the south of Thailand. (All subject to change) Fun fun! Now hmmmf how does one pay for all these trips on this scrawny teaching salary??? Thank goodness for CREDIT CARDS!!! HA.

Are you serious?

I have been here for three months, right? Yes. And now...NOW you want to tell me that YOU f*cked up my VISA. ARE YOU SERIOUS??? Ha. Yes. OOOOH and it expires next week....ooooooh shit. So apparently all 15 of us teachers were only given 3 month visa's instead of a one year visa? How is that possible? All of us went at different times and to different Thai Consulates in the States...ooooh they don't offer one year visa's oooooh...you liar! Now what? Pay again..WHAT? PAY AGAIN???? I paid $175 for my multiple entry visa and it is now invalid. A waste of money. Are you serious?
Anyways, end result is that today me, several of the other teachers, and a human resources representative spent our entire morning and better part of the afternoon at immigration dealing with this mess. So I had to fork over more money than I would like to even mention. I was Fuming. Mad. Annoyed. Upset. Aggravated. Pissed off. Infuriated. Whatever...there is absolutely nothing I can do about it. Its fixed and done, hopefully there will be no more surprises.

New subject please!

Last week I started teaching the Conversational English course for seniors (you remember the one I was soooo not happy about having to teach). Still not happy about it, shocking! At any rate, it is a six week intensive English course focused on helping students pass their proficieny test. Mind you, all my students have already failed this test once before. So in essence I am cramming a whole lot of English down their throats. Now do you think since all these kids failed once they have any motivation to be there now? NOOOOOO. I swear its like beating a dead horse. TALK PEOPLE TALK!!!

What am I doing here?

Scuba Pictures

Here are the underwater pictures from Scuba Diving at Phi Phi Island.

Swadaee Bee Mai

Happy New Year! 2009 - Wow! I was so lucky to have celebrated this new year at Phuket Island (the largest island in Thailand). Shannon, Lauren M. and I took a 16 plus hour overnight bus ride down to Phuket. Our original plan was to camp at the Similan Islands but once we arrived and started talking with Nong (the dive shop rep) we quickly realized that dream was vanishing. So since we couldn't camp we planned a few day trips. But first today is New Years Eve. What to do? We hopped around to this bar and that one and they were all kind of lame. So we decided 20 minutes to midnight to grab a couple "roadies" and head out to the beach. I am so happy we did. The sky was illuminated with Katongs and fireworks galore at midnight. A beautiful sight!
So the next day (Jan 1st) we took a speedboat tour to the Similan Islands to go snorkeling (what a way to start of the new year). Gorgeous. The water was a this shade of aqua that I can not even explain. Simply stunning. We had lunch on island number 4 and once again I tried fish- okay seriously when am I going to start liking this stuff? Then Shannon and I went for a swim. The waves were huge (they reminded me of some memories from clearwater beach where my brother, sister and I would try to jump over the waves or swim through them). I quickly reverted to my childhood and started to try to jump over the waves, I tried to keep my back to the waves and try to stand still (there were a few times I was knocked down and swept to shore). So fun. I had a huge grin on my face the whole time, well minus the times I had a mouthful of saltwater and sand.
On the 2nd of January we chilled at Karon Beach in Phuket. It was a relaxing day of book reading, wave jumping, snoozing, and laughing.
The next day we were off to Phi Phi Islands (there are six islands in total). One of the islands was the backdrop set for the movie "The Beach". Many of the islands are not more than large limestone rocks jutting out of the sea. The Phi Phi islands were also one of the worst hit in the 2004 Tsunami. Here we went Scuba Diving! My first time! I went on two dives. (Scuba underwater pictures coming soon...)
It took 3 hours via ferry to get to the islands so I had a lot of time to freak out about what I was doing. Once I read all the directions, talked with the dive instructor, and had Shannon telling me it will be fine...we suited up and jumped in. Um....okay...descent...um what am I doing? AAAAHHH I am completely breathing out of a tank on my back underwater. Ok relax Heidi you will be fine! And I was. The first dive was fun. I got this breathing thing down, I can actually enjoy the marine life around me. Alright I am looking forward to the second dive. We had lunch and relaxed a few moments and then time for dive number two. This one didn't go so well. There was a point I wanted to come up but I stuck it out. 20 minutes later I was back at the surface and thankful I stayed down (we saw a turtle and we went as far as 14 meters). I don't know if this is something I will do again but I am glad I did it.
And finally, the next day it was time to head home. Another 16 hour plus uncomfortable bus ride and we safely arrived in Bangkok.