Moving on...

Hey everybody,

I'm all packed and ready to move out of the school, where I've been staying for the past month. I'm headed over to a place called Phuket Backpackers with Nate and I think a few of the other guys are going to join us. I'm planning to stay there for the next two weeks or so.

I did pass on word to the family concerning the political unrest here, but just to let you all know I am currently far removed from any of the protesting and I plan on staying local here in Phuket, further reducing my chances of encountering any trouble. Even so, I hope they can get it all worked out as soon as possible...

Word has it that the hostel will have free wireless, which means that sometime in the next 2 days you'll all have quite a bit more blog to read and perhaps even some pictures!

Thanks Gail for the message on one of those last posts. Yes, of course it's okay that he passed it on! It's always good to hear from people and I will especially appreciate it in the coming weeks now that training is over and most people I know have gone home.

In case any of you were wondering, improper (or lack of) suntan lotion use when located 7 degrees north of the equator is a bad idea. No really. When you come visit me, it may be the one thing I insist that you don't try. And no, I don't need any scolding, Mom (or any other moms that may be reading this (or any soon-to-be moms (or any mom impersonators))). Purple ankles are lesson enough for me, not to mention the cringes I receive when anybody takes notice of my swollen skin. My timing, of course, is impeccable, seeing as I have to somehow manage to carry all of my bags today. "Ow" is insufficient.

On that note, I'm off! Enjoy the start to your week!

I did it!

I'm done! I'll get my teaching certificate this afternoon and then all I have to do is run a game with one of the classes here tonight! It sure is nice to relax finally. Though not for too long, since now everything becomes suddenly and utterly unknown. We won't worry too much about that yet though, since the school here is allowing me to teach PAID lessons next week before the next course starts. Yes, by Wednesday I will be getting PAID to teach English! Life is good. Time to go enjoy the rest of the day spending time with all the people that will be leaving this weekend! Post again soon.

Hello

Okay time for another brief update! I have a heck of a story to tell about this past weekend's trip to Malaysia with Nate, but it's going to have to wait for now. If it had been a Steve Martin film, we could have titled it "Busses, Vans, Tuk tuks, Motorbikes, and Human appendages." We did both make it back safely and alive enough to visit the beer gardens Saturday night. Which is another story entirely.

For now I'll just update you on the course. Yesterday we took the 3 hour grammar and phonology exam. (3 hours = 75 minutes if you're me) I figure it went pretty darn well, and I'll find out in about 45 minutes here if I'm right. Assuming that I passed, I have only to finish building a game for the last teaching day as well as prepare my report on having tutored a Thai person. Basically, things here are finishing up! After the last few things, we have nothing required of us on Friday, so it'll be time to start saying goodbyes to each other. It sounds as if Sully, Nate, and I will be staying locally and are going to try to stay at the Phuket Backpackers for a week or two while we get ourselves sorted.

I'll let you know if there's any major news. Otherwise, post again in a few days when I'll be certified to teach English! I hope those of you returning to MN in the next day or so all had a good trip!

Border run!

It's Friday here already, which means 3 full weeks of class have gone by and only 1 week left! I taught 3 more lessons this week, and the final 2 went incredibly well. One of my teacher assessments actually said that "you have looked in your element over the past two lessons." I'm incredibly happy with the way things have gone throughout the course for me and yet again hope that a job will be soon forthcoming. I should have one more observed lesson next week, and then I'll share a 90 minute unobserved one on Thursday, the last day of the course. Things are going by so fast!

Despite the fact that it's Friday, there'll be no beach party for me this weekend. Nathan and I are headed south to Hat Yai for the evening before jumping across the border and back on Saturday. Our hope is to be back that night so that we can have as much of Sunday as possible to study for our 3 hour grammar and phonology exam on Monday! Hat Yai is thankfully a good clip west of where the bombings just took place yesterday. The south is in a bit of unrest, though actual violence is very sporatic. Cross your fingers that we'll have a safe trip! See you next week!

Goings on

Well, it looks like I'm going to have to just stick with current stories instead of trying to catch up with the ones I haven't posted yet! Life is busy here. Either we're in class, preparing a lesson, teaching, or studying. And if we're not doing one of those, we're most likely eating or at the pool or the beach.

I've now taught three 45 minute sessions, with another 3 likely this week. I'm excited to get them done, but nervous realizing how quickly the next two weeks are going to fly by. Already we've had to say goodbye to 3 of our classmates and we all know that the end of the course will come all to soon. On that same note, I plan on beginning to apply for teaching jobs this week, and if possible I think I will stay in Phuket, at least somewhere on the island. Job prevalence is pretty high, so cross your fingers and hopefully I can have it all worked out soon!

While I haven't gotten the chance as yet to tell the fun stories about Patong, this past Saturday a small group of us spent the day at a beach called Kata. I found it absolutely stunning.

Oh, while I'm throwing up a few pictures; These here are displayed on the "large" setting on blogspot and I am only able to add them one at a time. I have started dumping photos on Facebook and I expect to find a photo sponsoring site sometime after I'm done with the course. I'll try to throw a few on here every now and again, but sadly some of you will have to be patient and wait a few weeks. Sorry!

Okay back to Kata. What an amazing day in an amazing place. A perfectly sunny day on a white sandy beach with new friends from around the world. Saturday was one of those days I could only have hoped for when I left home. It was only my third encounter with an ocean, having only been to San Diego once and having spent only a brief time actually on the beach in Patong, where the rip current was strong and swimming was frowned upon. We were lucky enough to hit a day in Kata where the waves just barely broke on their approach and we could spend hours out playing in them, regularly alternating with sunbathing and running around or playing in the sand. I'm currently quite the fan of the ocean and I hope that wherever I teach in Phuket, I can live somewhere near the beach so that I can run barefoot across the sand each morning. We'll have to cross our fingers for that as well.

Well, it once again approaches class time, but perhaps this week I'll have so much to do that I'll distract myself by writing again? Only time will tell! Hope you're all well back home!

Oh the places you'll go!

Hi everybody!

Sorry I haven't made a post since last week. As you might expect, things have been pretty busy around here. I only have a few minutes before class starts this morning, but I thought I would try to give a bit of an idea about what's been going on.

For starters, I taught my first observed lesson last Wednesday. Here at the school they offer free English lessons to the locals. This allows us, the trainees, the opportunity to practice our teaching while saving the students a bit of money. The class sizes here range from 1-14 on any given day, and are composed of people from all walks of life, ranging probably from about 17-60 years old. My first lesson went fairly well, considering I'd only been training for 3 days at the time. We don't find out if we're teaching that day until 1:30 PM or so, and you have to be ready by 4:00, so the first time I wasn't exactly as prepared as I would have liked. In any case, I'd consider it a success.

This past weekend most of us students met up over at Patong Beach, the most touristy and popular beach on the island. While the school is located in Phuket Town, which is on the southeastern side of Phuket, the nice beaches are all located on the west side, toward the open ocean. Patong itself is quite the adventure. Hopefully I'll get to write a long post just about the weekend. So many stories to tell.

Life is good here, especially now that I'm more accustomed to the area and know where to go most of the time. The heat isn't terribly bad, but if you do perhaps decide to pick up a game of basketball with some teenage Thai guys while wearing jeans... there's a good chance your body temperature won't come down for a day or two without a good swim. Not that I'd know.

I did end up dumping some random pictures on Facebook, since it's much easier to drop them there in quantity, but again, I'll try soon to add more here when applicable. I also changed the settings on comments so that you don't have to be registered to leave them. Sorry about that.

One final note for the moment. An add on to the food post, I've now tried deep fried chicken knuckles, which are precisely what you think. Diced up chicken feet battered and deep fried. They were actually very tasty, though I can't say gnawing on the knuckles was my favorite. What IS my favorite food out of anything here so far has to be deep fried bananas. While I can't say that any Thai meal I've encountered has actually been bad at all, deep fried bananas are an absolute treat.

Okay, time to run along, hope all is well at home! Go Phelps!

Mmm, food...

I know you've all been eagerly awaiting a report back on my experiences with Thai food. (Right? It's kept you up nights, I'm sure.) I do believe my first advice to anyone coming here is not to order anything American. It will scare you more than anything else you can order. For example, I'd have a better chance of guessing what is in a Dome Dog than figuring out what they made my cheeseburger with on Monday. And a ham and cheese, which I was looking forward to so much, turned out to be a single thin slice of ham, a touch of cheese... and three thick layers of grilled tomato on toast. Tasty maybe, but not entirely what I was going for.

I'll have you all know that I made it until Tuesday evening before any meal made me cry. It was a simple chicken curry dish that I was conquering quite well until about halfway through... after that not so much. It's quite a predicament to be in when you're hungry, the food is amazing, but your lips and tongue are on fire and you have tears running down your face. Julius was having a lovely time watching me squirm over and over before undoubtedly digging back in to try again. And again. And again. He was nice enough to give me an entire week to practice before he's going to go back and make me try the same dish again. What a pal.

I've also learned to be careful when ordering fish. It so happens that when you order fish, you're actually ordering a fish. It might be an incredibly tasty, filling, and appetizing fish, but certainly will be an entire fish, most likely cooked in some fashion and laid out unceremoniously on a plate, perhaps with some carrots for garnish. Mine was named Ed, I'm quite sure. He was delicious enough that I even dined on him without the barbecue sauce(i.e. liquid fire) that the waiter kindly brought for me.

In most restaurants nearby, you can get an entire heaping plate of fried rice and meat for about 40 Baht, which equates to roughly $1.25 USD. Pair that with a delightful fruit "shake" or Thai iced tea and most days we can have lunch for 75-100 Baht, or $2-3 USD. I'm continually amazed at the variety of beverages carried by most of the shops and restaurants around town. It's already a battle waged every day between ordering something you adore and trying out something new.

At this point I'd love to write on and on about the activities of the past few days, but I've got to get ready for another day of class. I did teach my first lesson yesterday, so I'm free today after 12:30! Whoo hoo! News on that later!

-Tom

The first day of classes...

... have been a lot of fun, albeit quite hot. I have to say that being in a very foreign country is a hell of a lot more fun when you have people to talk to. We start class each day at 9:30 AM and carry on with various breaks until 6:30 or 8:00 PM each day. As part of today's class, we got to sit in on a teaching session with Thai students and I have to say that it was an absolute blast. I am very much looking forward already to leading my own session, which I will begin on Wednesday or Thursday! When you only have a 4 week course, things get rolling quickly!

I was very suprised by the diversity of my class, as so far as I can remember there are only 3 Americans and a Canadian among us. The majority of the students are British, but we have some from other places like Bangladesh, Nigeria, India, and the Philippines. In truth, I have a hard enough time understanding the English I come across, let alone learning Thai! Speaking of English, it turns out that all of our textbooks for students revolve around British English, which means that beyond grammar, I actually do have to learn English again. It's a good thing I've had Chris Hurd around all these years!

I'd like to retract any previous statements concerning the heat here not being so bad. Today proved me wrong and necessitated a visit to the hotel to use their pool. I have no idea what the actual temperature was, but even after all of my walks in the sun this past weekend, today was the first day I would consider uncomfortable. Perhaps it had something to do with the power going out and 20 of us stuck in small room for a few hours... who knows.

I am currently drinking a bottle of green tea with pomegranate, which is delightful. I'm sure if it had a nutritional label it would probably compare well with Kool-Aid in value, but it sure beats water or coke.

I have pretty regular internet access as it turns out, and today I happened across the Twins website. Does anyone else find it particlarly ironic that we take over sole posession of first in the division on the VERY day that Liriano pitches? Let's hope there are some omens there!

Tonight the school buys us dinner and a "moderate" number of alcoholic beverages, so we're all eagerly awaiting the evening! Hope all of you back home are looking forward to your long week as much as I am!

-Tom

P.S. I'm about to have Julius Google map his home in Nigeria...

The first weekend...

... brings with it the first surprise. Even though there are 18 of us in the course this month, I'm the only one so far that has opted to stay in a room above the school instead of a hotel room down the road. What that means, with the staff being gone for the weekend, is that I have the entire school to myself for my first weekend here. I don't know that any of the other students know that I'm here, and I haven't as yet run into them by wandering over to the hotel. SO, I've spent my first days in a foreign country on my own.

It hasn't been all bad, just slightly less adventuresome than I would have imagined the weekend with other people to hang out with. Every day so far I have gone for a few exploratory walks, simply picking a road and following it on foot for a while. It always makes for an interesting walk, since the sidewalks are about as random as one could expect, sometimes disappearing entirely. I think the hardest part about the strolls has been remembering to look the right way when crossing a street. It is kind of fun not to have to obey any traffic laws though, you just simply walk out into traffic whenever you need to cross and they all go around you!

It has rained on and off since about 8:00 last night and when it decides to rain here, the sky isn't usually joking around. One of the engineers upstairs has obviously developed the means to allow the maximum amount of water to fall at once without actually requiring anyone to swim. This morning it was quite nice out and so I walked all the way down the couple miles to the supermarket, picking up a few snacks and wandering around the mall. KFC here is an ice cream shop inside the supermarket, which I found amusing, though Mickey D's appeared to be fairly normal.

On my way home this time, it of course started raining while the sun was still shining, though fairly quickly it was cloudy and raining quite heavily. Having nowhere to be, I simply made sure my bag shut tight and whistled my way home in the rain. The problem with getting wet during the day in Thailand is that you can't really get dry. Certainly a towel can make you less wet, but it takes a good couple of hours in front of a fan to really actually feel dry again, even after a change of clothes.

As I sit here, the sun appears to be out again, so I think I'll wander over to the hotel again and see if I can run into anybody before lunch. Maybe then I'll at least have somebody to laugh at me when my nose starts running again...