acadian450

Well made it safely to my destination yesterday afternoon March 1,2013. The first difference from my last visit is that I am living in a part of the city where tourists rarely come. This part of the city is very interesting, small industries, next to restaurants. You very seldom hear any English and like in Bangkok this time a white person is a novelty. this part of the city is very dirty, dust everywhere and lots of garbage lying around. Just stopped by the school for a minute today's activities were centered around the volunteer house. Beautiful house but no air! I am staying in an apartment which has air thank goodness. However the person has not moved out of the apt yet! They tell me he will be gone by Saturday! The rest of the ... read more

I am back in Bangkok after a crazy long flight. Had to go from Halifax to Toronto, less than an hour on the ground and then back over Nova Scotia to London with another very short wait about an hour and then on to Bangkok. A total of 23 hours in the air, never do that one again! Bangkok is amazing you leave for a bit and whole streets change business. The street where my little hotel is has blossomed over the time I was away, at least four new businesses in what were run down buildings. will be here for a week or so then on to Phnom Penh. It was nice to land at the hotel and be greeted by a number of the staff and immediately taken to my room, paperwork could wait! ... read more

Well I did have good intentions to keep this up but as some of you know I wanted to to go North and then take a few weeks to relax by the ocean in Hua Hin and Jometien. Jometien is in Eastern Thailand and Hua Hin is in the west both are on the Gulf of Thailand. Well that is what I have been doing. My Kobo has become my best friend. The downloading of books from my own account at the Halifax Library works every time, it is so convenient. I am currently in Hua Hin I found out pronounced whoa hin. I was going we to rent a house but the one I wanted was gone by the time I got here and two other leads did not pan out either. So I settled ... read more

This program has self correcting feature when you type......the instructors on the stage were Zumba instructors not scumbag instructors can you believe that word is in dictionary... read more

I landed in Udon Thani a city of 250,000. This is not a tourist site. There are a small number of ex pats here and my first night I met a guy from Ireland, an Australian and a Brit. They all live here but were having a drink in thotel bar. They had mixed reviews of living here but they all have families so they are for the long term. Last nite I met a bar owner who is young and Italian. He loves it here. This town used to be home to an American base during the Vietnam war so as you fly into what was the American airport, now Udon Thani international you see all the American Houses. Apparently there are a lot of mixed nationalities here because of that but it is not ... read more

Wll gang this is a second attempt at getting the blog started for the 2012 summer tour. lost the first attempts. I am using the new I Pad 3 and let's say I am not very good at it yet. The trip started from Ottawa this time where I was for Crystal's niece's wedding. CAught a bus at the very run down Grey Hound station on Catherine Street. Five hours later I was dropped off at the equally run down Toronto Station! But a short two minute walk later I was at a bus stop for the airport bus. It is now about 5 pm and lots of traffic. The guys who drive those airport buses deserve a lot of praise, trying to get to multiple hotels on any kind of schedule, with a big bus ... read more

It is different being in the middle of a natural disaster. I lived through White Juan in Halifax back a few years ago but that only lasted a few days. We are now into the third week of the major flooding in Thailand and it still gets worse. The bright side is today is day three in a row with no rain at least yet. I came on August 26th and this is the longest stretch without torrential rain. The city of Bangkok is now being hit, the outskirts to the north are submerged, all schools which are supposed to open next week after a month break have been closed for another week. Water in some streets is nine feet high. All shopping in that area is closed becasue they have been hit by floods or ... read more

Well the TESOL course is over, we won't know until next Wednesday if we passed or not. However if we only needed minor changes to our Portfolio they were to let us know before yesterday evening and I have not heard. The Portfolio consisted of two papers, a daily journal, observations forms on your peers, self evaluations of each class we thought, and all our lesson plans for those classes along with supporting documentation. It was not a walk in the park! The material is graded here and then sent to England in hard copy to be verified by Chichester College. Thus the delay until next Wednesday to see if we pass. This school has an international accreditation so I should be qualified to be an ESL teacher anywhere. Now the hard part, looking for work. ... read more

Ok living in a city of 18 million people not far from China you would think there would be a big vibrant China town. I had heard two versions, one it was great but from a guy on the course who lives here I was told not to bother. Ignoring him I head off there Friday evening and let me tell you it was a great disappointment. Now before I go to far, it may be my fault, maybe I missed the nice parts. I was for almost an hour though and I was in Chna town as all the signs were Chinese. Anyway I will let the pictures tell the story. The one nice thing was the temple, beautiful. Week three of the course is done, one more to go. This week I get to ... read more