Sawatdeekaaa

Good Morning Thailand!

After a four day journey involving 3 planes, 1 taxi, 2 tuktuks, 1 sleeper train, & a shuttle that took me to the wrong travel agency – I was delightfully relieved to see the smiling face of Apple, the driver from The Language School who came and found me at Holiday Travel in Suratthani!

I arrived at my new residence where I met my housemate and was surprised to find myself in a beautiful, 3-story Thai house with wood floors. My room is decked out with pale blue, built-in cabinets, a desk, & a vanity, plus my own balcony! During the week Joel and I will have the run of the place, and we will be joined by two more teachers who live in another town and will be staying here only on the weekends. There is plenty of space here, our living room has an awesome built in bar and we are one of the few houses in town that actually has an oven. Doesn't sound like we will be doing much cooking though, the kitchen is in a bit of shambles & the street food is so cheap its hardly economical to cook anyways. Most of the teachers from our school actually live on the same block as us, as well as the two managers, so we have already met most of our neighbors!

After a tuktuk ride over to Tesco Lotus—the local version of Target, that is accompanied by a whole mall of electronic stores & salons—we headed over to check out the school and meet some more of the staff, the school is only a few blocks from our house (maybe ten minutes walking, if that!) and on the walk I already spotted a few nice pieces of graffiti as well as an art supply store!! The town is very interesting, so many small shops of every variety which are mostly run down but then every few blocks you will find some super modern store or restaurant that seems totally out of place. The school itself is one of these oddball places, I'm happy to say it is just as nice as the pictures made it look!!

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering through town, found a nice market with tons of unidentifiable foods! Lots of fresh fruits & fish in every form imaginable, many of the stands have large silver pots with different kinds of curries, meats and vegetables. For lunch I had a delicious tofu soup with rice and they brought us a platter of mild greens (like green beans & cucumber slices) to tame anything that was too spicy. Luckily they put all the spicy stuff on the side so you can try it at your own pace!

In the evening we met up with several of the other teachers for dinner at the restaurant at the end of our street and then headed down to Chill Haus, a very hip local bar, to enjoy live music by one of the other English Teachers.

Very few people here speak English, and if they do it is not very much! I am really motivated to learn as much Thai as I can, the characters seem overwhelming—the writing is an art form in itself! But we are quickly getting down some of the phrases and it is clear that it will be advantageous to learn how to barter with tuktuk drivers and small shop owners! Everyone smiles at you and if they don't speak English they hurry to grab someone who can.

Overall there seems to be a very friendly and welcoming vibe from the people here. The weather is hot & humid but it is not unbearable and afternoon rain showers give a nice relief, while still hot the moisture is welcomed! So far I am digging the lifestyle of the Thais and absorbing as much as I can from their culture!! Looking forward to orientation and training on Monday, until then I think I will join in as some of the teachers have planned to stay a night at the beach, which is about a 45 minute bus ride away! And I just might have to pop over to the massage parlor across the way from my house—I hear its the best in town and they only charge about $13 for a 2-hour traditional massage!!!!