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Published: December 8th 2008
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Courtney and I in front of Condochain
Home, sweet home, during TEFL training in Ban Phe I am going back in time now to write retroactively about the beginning of this adventure. It all began in Ban Phe, which is on the coast on the Gulf of Thailand. Despite the fact that not that much time has elapsed since I arrived (about 2 months), it is already difficult to remember my first impressions and the “important things.” Bear with me. . .
Ban Phe is the access port to a backpacker-haven of an island called Ko (or Koh, depending where you look) Samet, where we spent the first two weekends during our training.
I came here under the auspices of the “Special Thailand Project” (STP) through an organization called TEFL International. I learned about this opportunity on Idealist.org, just before my trip this month-long trip this summer to Thailand with Fiona and Virginia. I ended up applying for a spot from an internet cafe in Pai, northern Thailand and found out that I was in about a week later. A TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certificate usually goes for about $1,500 or so and the coursework/practicum lasts about 4 weeks. In our case, we paid $500 to secure a position and our course
only lasted 3 weeks. Our accommodations were covered during our time, though we paid for our own food.
The deal was that after the three weeks of training, we would be placed somewhere in Thailand and we were led to believe that it would most likely be a remote area, for a 4-month paid contract, including housing, at the completion of which we would receive our official TEFL certificate. To be perfectly frank, I looked at the organization’s website a bit, but really didn’t research it farther than that. I assumed that if they had this special project going, it must mean that there are so many jobs that they have trouble filling them all. BUT, things are often not as they seem or as you would assume at TEFL Int’l. Some people went for weeks after the course officially finished, in limbo. Many jobs came up but then fell through and it was extremely frustrating for a lot of people. I am very fortunate that I got placed early on and that I like my school, even though I’m not in love with the city. In fact, TEFL actually accommodated me a bit, because I was originally placed
in Bangkok, despite my strong (stated) preference otherwise, so they put someone else in that job and found me something else. This is a much better situation anyway, because that job was for high school and of course I don’t have much interest in working at the high school level.
The first sign that things would not be all smooth sailing came the very first day in the airport. TEFL had arranged a group pickup at the airport in Bangkok, on Sunday, October 5 at 12:00 PM. I had arrived in Bangkok the prior Thursday, after about a week in Sydney, and had been doing tourist things and eating my heart out while I adjusted back to Thai time. I got on the minivan for the airport at 10 AM, just to make sure I wouldn’t be late for the meeting time. I was seated in the farthest back seat of the van, and I overheard the girl in front of me describing the teaching program she was headed to. So I (rather rudely, but I was excited!) burst my way into the conversation to confirm that we were both headed to Ban Phe. The girl turned out to
be Courtney, who was my roommate in Ban Phe (after we pulled some strings to make it so). We ended up talking the rest of the way to the airport, for the almost 2.5 hours we were waiting to be picked up, and for most of the ride down to Ban Phe (4 hours or so). Needless to say, we had lots of bonding time from the get-go.
The airport scene was funny because there were some other people loitering around by the Starbucks, the assigned meeting place, but you couldn’t be sure if they were part of the group or not. Eventually people started breaking the ice and started in on the usual beginning small talk. Some people were overly effervescent and others barely talked. I don’t remember a whole lot about my first impressions of the group, except for my impressions of a few people—some which were dead-on and some which were modified as I got to know the individuals better.
I tried not to have too many expectations about the group going in. Because we were only supposed to be together for 3 weeks I figured we would just be temporary friends, if anything, before
we went our separate ways. But we spent a lot of time together and had a lot of group bonding and I am fond of almost everyone in the group for being an interesting and unique individual. My greatest fear, if you can call it that, was that everyone would all be fresh out of college and immature. Though many of them are fairly newly graduated, they are interesting and I think, for the most part, genuinely interested in culture as well as in having a good time. I am, indeed, the third oldest out of 22, but it didn’t pose too much of an issue for me. There are 3 Canadians in the group, 1 English girl, and the rest of us are Americans, including a couple from Boulder! There are 3 ex-Peace Corps volunteers (Haiti, Namibia, and Bulgaria) and I typically enjoy the stories that come along with that adventure! Most of the group came alone, but three of the guys came together, as did the Boulder couple (obviously), and another guy and girl knew each other before this. More to come . . .
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Courtney
non-member comment
You forgot to mention the additional 4 hours in our room when we should have been sleeping the first night haha. Ohh TEFL love...