Life does exist outside Bangkok!

FLEEING THE CITY

i have been pondering, do people live outside of the bustling city of bangkok? is there really more to thailand?

i discovered on monday there is! yeah, it's pretty amazing. i had the day off and of course i wanted to travel somewhere. especially since next week i start my thai language course! im so excited because elite, the place where im working, want the new teachers to go so we can adjust better to thailand. i cant wait cuz maybe after the course i will know when thai people are talking about me, so i can say something smart to them! oh, and it will also be nice, so i can show them how i want to learn their language too..

but i will be taking the course mon-fri in the morning before work, which means i dont really have any days off completely for a month. so if i wanted to see something...i had to do it now!

of course it is hard to find people to travel on mondays and tuesdays since most people are working. but my friend mariha, who is from england, said she would love to go somewhere with me! she arrived in bangkok a week ago to try to find a teaching job. then we met randomly at my friend's hostel. she just got a job, and hadnt started yet, so i got a travel buddy for the day!

i wanted to go to the beach so badly just to chill out. so we took the bus to pattaya, the closest beach...it was suppose to be a two hour journey, but it turned into four hours since the man with a lazy eye who worked for the driver kept leaping off the bus every 5 km to get more people to come on or he would buy food or chat with someone. it reminded me of kenya bus transport, at least there werent any chickens on it.

but we left early, so we still had time to relax on the beach. but first we got mangos with sticky rice and coconut milk!! it is a famous thai dessert, but i hadnt really seen it at many places yet. but they had perfect yellow mangos everywhere on the streets. so we stopped and had some for lunch..instead of dessert, but when you are on holiday anything goes. it was such a great combination-- the sticky, slightly salty rice with the sweet, soft, juicy mango and the smooth coconut milk to top it off. wow, i was in heaven for a little while.

then we chilled out on the beach for like five hours. so pattaya is more on the myrtle beach type of town since it is rather touristy and the tourists like to leave their trash behind on the shore. but i didnt mind, it was a beach and it was warm and i had a book. it was perfect, just what i needed. the only annoying thing was as we sat in our rented beach chairs, vendors would wander up to us trying to sell ice cream, perfume, fake coach bags, and fried spring rolls. i would look at my book and try to ignore them, but they were like flies that buzz around and even when you flick them away they just keep coming back.

ahhh...then we reached the point where we thought our arms were about to burn off, so it was time to go home. it only took two hours to go home. wow, but im so burnt. i couldnt sleep last night because i felt like my body was on fire. ahh...and i even wore sunblock. but it wasnt a bad price to pay for my first venture outside the city of life.

WORKING GIRL

so i completed my first week of a full-time job...and i enjoyed it! no way!

wed-fri i worked 11-7, which is perfect for a morning person like me..i can just make the most of my time. so nice..

since my first week was mainly observing, wed-fri i piddled around the office, asking my director if she needed any help. i did random stuff like define 190 words for one of the books i will be teaching at a book club. but even stuff like that i enjoy cuz i love words.

so i guess i should give the basics of what i will be up to. wed-fri is when we prep for the weekend when we teach. on saturday im going to be teaching a book club in the afternoon for three hours to 9-10th graders. the book club is suppose to help prepare them for the SAT without them knowing it sort of thing because its fun.

i thought i was going to teach two book club classes on two different books, so i read both of them intensely this past week. then my director walks in today, sits down to tell me that one thing she has learned while living in bangkok is how to be flexible..so im not going to actually teach those two classes, but teach another one and teach on a different book.

i was down with that because this morning i had attained a state of "oh my goodness..how am i going to prepare to teach two different three hour classes on the same day?! ahhhh!" so after she told me the change in plans, i felt more peace. yet, it was too bad i read those other books and im not doing them. i really liked one of them. "the unwanted" by kien nguyen. it's quite a graphic memoir of the life of a vietnamese american boy and his escape from vietnam after the war. so good, it really makes you appreciate freedom.

now i get to read and do a book club on "lives of a cell", which is just about as exciting as the title sounds. but it's ok, it might appeal to some of the kids, and that is all that matters. i can make it fun! at least that is what i tell myself..

then on THIS sunday i get to teach two one and a half hour classes on SAT writing. i love writing, but explaining all the grammar rules and such is going to be tough. especially to these crazy smart kids. when i was observing this one class this one girl just kept asking why why why...and i was like, wow, im glad im not up there trying to answer. but then i remembered i will be there this week. wow, at least when im weak, God is strong. =)

ok, im tired and not really going to read over the blog before i post it so please excuse the grammar mistakes and if my thoughts dont connect well. im going running tomorrow with a girl i work with at the park with the weird lizard so i have to get my rest in case i have to defend myself. thanks for reading..it makes me happy!

i will post pics soon...