We had a pretty eventful week, last week. Since the last installment of Away We Go, we bought a bunch of new furniture, our friend Myla came to visit, I started summer camp, we bought a motorbike and we visited Krabi province. As you can see there’s a lot to share.
We met Myla during CELTA. She was taking the course as well. She was actually the first person we met, as she was at the pickup area the same time as us. Even though our first conversation was short, I could tell instantly that I was going to like her. Myla has been traveling since CELTA. She spent some time in Australia where she used to live and visited Japan. She was on her way home to England when the volcano in Iceland erupted effectively canceling all flights into or out of Europe. While this was bad news for most European bound travelers, it was great news for us! Rather than be stuck at the airport in Tokyo for an undetermined amount of time Myla decided to take this opportunity to come visit us. It was lovely to have her here. She’s a ton of fun, one of those people who you feel like you’ve known forever and a very good house guest. Plus, it’s just nice to have someone around that you already know and who speaks English. It just makes the interactions so much easier! Thanks for visiting Myla. We love you!
For some time Neils and I had been scoping out furniture for our house. We had found the remainder of what we wanted, however getting it from the store to our house was a little problematic considering we didn’t even have a means of transportation for ourselves, let alone something big enough to haul furniture. Luckily, the school has several forms of transportation teachers are allowed to use for free. So the day that Myla arrived we were able to run around town and pick up everything we had planned to buy. We got back here just before Myla got here, so it wasn’t even all put away. We are trying hard to balance being sensible about furniture we may possibly only have for one year and making our house a comfortable place to be. I think we may just about have it!
For the majority of the week we were immobile. We had planned to buy a motorbike from some other teachers before we left for Chiang Rai. However, while we were gone they changed their plans and left early and they must have sold the motorbike to someone else, because we still aren’t sure where it is. Being immobile is a hassle in and of itself, but it’s particularly annoying when you live 12 km from town. It’s a little difficult to get groceries and other such things. Luckily, the university has a canteen on campus and there are plenty of street vendors just outside the university gates, so we didn’t starve. Being immobile is also a little annoying when you have guests. Since we were not able to get around very easily, we didn’t really do much. We hung out at the house a lot and when necessary took a song tau (shared taxi in the back of a covered pick up bed) into town. Still though, we seemed to make the most of it. Sometimes, it’s just nice to have down time with your guests so you can get all caught up. We did get into town to have a pedicure. :)
On Thursday, after being immobile for WAY too long, we finally bought a motorbike. We bought it from some teachers who were on their way back to the States. This meant that we could finally escape the oppressive afternoon heat and hit up the waterfall. We spent all of Thursday afternoon playing in the water.
Friday afternoon Neils and I had to go to town with people from our school to get our work permits settled. We became legal Thailand non-immigrants with permission to stay one year. Woot!
After our work visas were sorted, the three of us packed up and headed out to Krabi province to spend some time on the beach. We took a minivan to Krabi town and then a song tau to Ao Nang. We stayed in Ao Nang the whole weekend. Since it’s low season, we were able to get this really nice ‘family’ room for a very reasonable price. So the three of us split it (there were two rooms within it).Ao Nang is on the mainland and is the jumping off point for several islands. Saturday we took the Koh Phi Phi tour, which was on a speed boat. We went to several islands, did a bunch of really amazing snorkeling, saw some pretty cool marine life and some absolutely beautiful coral and did a lot of swimming. This area is gorgeous. There are lime stone cliffs lined with all sorts of green vegetation, white sand beaches as far as the eye can see and crystal clear ocean that turns from aqua green in the shallows to deep blue where it’s deep. We literally spent the whole weekend saying stuff like “Wow! It’s so beautiful!” It’s hands down my favorite place so far. Saturday night we went out on the town. We had a great time and met some new friends. Then on Sunday, before Neils and I had to head home, we spent the day on Railay, which is one of the islands off Ao Nang. Railay is a worldwide destination for rock climbers and it wasn’t hard to see why. There are several very impressive lime stone cliffs and I can only imagine how amazing the view must be from the top of one. We had a really great weekend and will definitely be heading back to Ao Nang!
On top of all that, I also worked all week. The Kindergarten 2 class started a two week summer camp/orientation. The goal of the summer camp is start getting kids used to school, being away from parents and the scary white person who’s saying crazy stuff to them. The first day, I definitely felt like I had no idea what I was doing. Additionally, at the beginning we had several students who would spend thewhole time crying. I think for some this summer camp marks the first time they have been away from their parents for any length of time. Each day gets a little better though, for me as well as for the students. Currently, we have a few students who still cry right away when their parents leave, but it doesn’t take them long before they are playing, singing and dancing with the other students. So far, teaching has been pretty fun. We sing a lot, play a lot of games and are just working on the basics. Obviously, we don’t really expect that the kids will have much memorized in two weeks, but we are just laying the ground work for what we will be covering at the beginning of the school year. As an additional bonus, I get a student teacher who spent several years in America and is fluent in English! I feel like she will make things a lot easier. She has also agreed to give us Thai lessons! Woot!
Even though last week was hotter than any other week so far, we were really able to make the best of it.
Hope all is well with you!
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