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Published: April 3rd 2011
Days 1-3
After a grueling 19hr flight I finally made it to Phuket! My cold really acted up on the plane with the lack of fresh and and pressure when landing and taking off, which made for a pretty miserable flight. However, the awesome Korean food and over abundance of new-release movies made up for it.
When I landed in the airport I was greeted by a man holding a sign with my name for the bunglaow I was staying at. I got rather nervous about getting in the unmarked Toyota Corolla "taxi" with him but really didn't have much of a choice. It turns out that the bungalow was really nice and close to the airport.
Saturday morning I got driven back to the airport to get picked up by ATI and it turns out that there were about 5 of us who had been on the same flight from Seoul to Thailand that were all doing this program! This was amazingly refreshing to know that other people were in this program and it reassured us all that this is legitimate. Right off the bat, I met a big group of people and about 5 or 6
of us got really close and have been hanging out this whole time. My roommate is really nice and is a Kiwi from New Zealand. There are people from England, South Africa, Australia, Canada, and Romania but the majority are from America.
Life has been pretty stressful while here; we have to worry about where to sit on the beach, what fresh fruit we want for lunch, and what time we want go out for drinks....pretty horrible, I know. We have gotten really lucky with the weather as well, as it had rained for nearly 3 weeks straight right before we got here...so much so that I got an email from the U.S. Embassy late Thursday warning us of the severe flooding and landslides. I was worried but where we are staying it doesn't look bad at all. It is also not as scorchingly hot as I was expecting. The evenings are absolutely beautiful...not too humid at all....yet anyway. The beach is literally right accross the street and you can practically hear the waves from our room. The town isn't what I was expecting at all. We are kind of on the other side of Phuket from where all
Beautiful orchid flower necklace
They have ones with jasmine on them and they smell absoulutely beautiful and if you hang them in your room, your room will smell of Jasmine for weeks.the happenings are, and is more like a suburb of Phuket Town and more low key.
So here, like Europe, motor bikes are very popular and everyone pretty much has one. Well of course I wanted to give it a shot. Today, about 6 of us rented motor bikes to go to the grocery store and pick up some food to keep in the hotel room (since nothing is given to us by the company, we have to buy every meal). I rented one and my friend wanted to ride on the bike with me. Now, before we left the lady asked if I could ride...and I said "OF COURSE!" So we take off and it is a little more difficult than I thought, but I push on not wanting to be the one to wimp out. As we are heading out to the street, we have to get out of a turn-about. I accelarate rather fast on accident and immidiately have to turn to get on the street...well, I couldn't turn so I pressed hard on the brakes and they didn't work! Now at this point I start freaking out because 1) the lady had just explained that
My humble abode
The hotel room I am staying in until April 24th. there is no insurance on these bikes and 2) my friend is riding on the back. I can't stop and end up heading straight into a cement sign for the hotel at a fast speed...not being able to stop I turn away from the sign and we both fall over with the bike landing on my leg. I'm in a panick, people start running over asking if we are OK, the lady comes over and starts screaming at me about how she asked if I could ride and how I said yes and blah blah blah. My friend and I are OK and so was the bike...HUGE sign of relief. At that point I decide to call it a day with the bike. So I get my money back from the angry lady and tell her to check the brakes on the bike. Everyone else also returned their bikes and we ended up just taking a taxi to the store...so it turned out all right in the end, but man, what an adventure. Next time (if there is a next time) I'm going to practice a bit before I take a bike on the road.
Oh, and about the
dogs!!! They are EVERYWHERE!! I was laying on the beach and a dog just came up and sat next to me on my towel...they are completely fearless! I would love to pet them all but I am sure they are full of fleas and bugs since they are mostly wild. They are all really cute and nice though.
About the coruse, some people have already been placed in a school and have interviews with the school next week. I should be finding out soon enough. The course starts tomorrow and goes from 9-4:30 for 3 weeks. I am not very excited about the course but I do hope it really prepares me for teaching a whole classroom of Thai children.
I will try and keep you all posted a few times a week to my life here in beautiful Thailand where Europeans walk around topless with thongs on the beach.
TAKE CARE!
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Mom
non-member comment
Glad to hear
Hey G Wow your off to a great start! Where did some of the people get placed? Will you guy be able to hang out once you are placed.