No bed?
We finally got our official school/housing assignments yesterday and I am in fact in an area of Bangkok (outskirts though, luckily) and will be teaching at a vocational college (ages 18-20). That doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll know english…Thai people know surprisingly few english words at all, they just make sure to have their signs and menus translated in tourist areas. There really isn’t a good grasp on our language at all here, which makes sense once you try to saw a few words in theirs!
Anyways, my housing was described as an “apartment” (we’ll see what that entails) with free internet, but no bed or hot water. Luckily the bed thing was a typo, but unfortunately the hot water thing was no! In any case, free internet will be nice, and three of my classmates will be living in the same place.
I’ve masted hello, thankyou, and sign language quite well by now, along with the art of removing your shoes before going inside a shop, the wai (bowing for greetings), the sign for “check please,” and am well aware that I should always use ‘rock paper scissors’ and not a coin toss to determine things in class (money has the king’s image on it, which is revered as the image of Jesus is…they view him as both a leader and the father of all fathers, you should never ever let a coin touch the ground!).
I’ve finally left my safe little running sidewalk and gone out exploring a bit more in the mornings, and have been well rewarded with new beaches, new food stands, more runners and a million more stray dogs.
This weekend (weather permitting…it rains every few hours) a group of us are going to head out to Phi Phi Island (where “the beach” was filmed), monkey beach (hundreds of monkeys running around) and a few other remote islands. Package tours aren’t usually my thing, but we’re getting a 12 hour day, food/drinks, several otherwise inaccessible islands and snorkeling gear for a great deal! Note to anyone who might come to Phuket for vacation…do NOT book things like this in advance or through a hotel! Go straight to the guy with the boat! This package sells online for 3500Baht ($120) and we are getting to go for 1300Baht (about $40)…it didn’t even take any bargaining!
I’ve got homework to get to, thanks to everyone for the comments!
Tags: Travel
allisonrae
May 8th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Dear A,
I love your most recent pictures. It gives me great peace of mind to be able to read your blog and see photos of where you are; you are amazing and I am so glad you are courageous enough to have these adventures.
Speaking of photos, I have a Mother’s Day request. I would love for you to send me photos with YOU in them. You probably hate to ask people to take your picture but if you tell them it’s for your Mom I bet they’d understand. Would love to see pics of the people you are hanging out with too.
Oh, and thank you for the Mother’s Day card you left on my nightstand. You told me to exercise some willpower but I must confess I didn’t. I have already opened the card – thank you!
I’ll talk to you soon; I love you very much –
Mom