Irish Guy!

After a few days in Thailand i am starting to get the hang of living in this strange country. Im picking up words here and there and can get by at buying food and greeting people kind of. Not much but if you heard the language and saw the script they use then you might give me some credit. I've now had a few days of orientation and im starting to get a little more confident about teaching. The classes we are getting to train us are fantastic and have given us all a confidence boost in our own ways. We have also had classes in thai language and culture so we understand a little bit better the ways and customs of these people. As far as tourism is concerned we were brought to the Grand Palace the other day which is pretty impressive. At the end of orientation we will be going on a 2 day trip to Kanchanburi where we will see the famous bridge over the river Kwai. While there we will get to go elephant trekking and bamboo rafting so we are all looking forward to that.

I am a little nervous about the town im going to as i havent met my coordinator yet and i dont know anything about the place. Everyone else had their coordinator arrive in Bangkok to meet them bar a small few so its a tad disappointing but something to ignore and just get on with. I had questions i wanted to ask and having spoken to a few people after they met theirs it would have been nice to get some answers. All i know is i am going to be the only farang (westerner) in the town and there are only 2 in the province i think. These being the two girls from the programme staying in a town called Lamphun. I might also be teaching Maths and Science as well as Englsih which sounds a bit weird. I dont know what level i have to teach either so all in all im being thrown in at the deep end a little i feel. The coordinator from the school in Lamphun is going to bring me along with the other teachers in her school on a little road trip on route to the town of Li. She plans to show us Bang Saen beach as well as Ayyutayah and Chiang Mai. It is a nice if a little strange offer as i dont know the woman but that's Thailand for you!

On the teaching programme there are 91 of us which is 4 times the size of the last group so everything a bit messy. Of that 91 there are 6 fo us not from the US. 3 irish including myself, 2 english and one canadian. Its all a bit crazy but we all get along and have had a fun few nights here in Bangkok so far. Im fast becoming known as "the irish guy". With my bright red hair i stand out in a crowd of white people so imagine what its like in a crowd of Thais! Anyway its strange to think that in a few days time we will all be going our separate ways across the country and might not see each other again. So we are all making the most of the week we have.

The weather here is one of the other major talking points. I mentioned before about the humidity but we are getting a fair bit of rain as well as we are at the end of the rainy season. This means that a random thunderstorm might suddenly blow in and blow out again in the space of an hour or two. And when it rains here it absolutely hammers down. Last night i was sitting in a shelterd beer garden looking out at at a crazy storm, watching the lightning flash across the sky. On that note beer is relatively cheap over here, you can usually get a 660ml bottle for under 100 baht in a bar which is about two euros. Obviously in shops its cheaper again. I havent gone too crazy yet though as i've been getting tired quite easily due to a mixture of long days and the heat. Hopefully in Li it will be less humid and more bearable but i'll also be working there so might not be a good idea to go out and get smashed during the week.....