Good times :)

Today is the first chance I've gotten this week to write about my weekend, which was really good, for the most part. But I also wanted to write about other things that've been on my mind.

First things first, the Americans celebrate Thanksgiving this Thursday, and I only take note of it because I find myself surrounded by Americans and it means so much to them. Gareth Cliff says its the day we give thanks for not having been born a turkey, and I'm inclined to agree with him!

But I'm also thankful for lots of other things, and I like the idea of taking a day to be aware of them.
1) I'm thankful that my body is whole, my mind is whole and I have the capacity to do and be anything I want. There are people for whom life is so much harder than it is for me, and I'm grateful for the perspective to see that my problems are pretty small in comparison.
2) I'm thankful for my parents for giving me all the opportunities they could, and for always helping me, even when the help was in not helping. They have moulded me.
3) I'm thankful for South African school children, for making me a teacher. And to Thai school children for showing me that I don't know it all yet.
4) I'm thankful for Tyron, for being Tyron, and for being MY Tyron, and everything that means.

There's lots of other things that I'm thankful for, but I didn't intend it to be that kind of post, so I won't go on.

Now, about my weekend:
Sunday marked the celebration of Loy Krathong festival in Thailand, as previously mentioned. So my school was dead set on having this really massive event with each grade doing a dance, and a big catered supper and so one. Teachers also all had to do a duty, which is fine.
However, we were required to be at school from 8am on Sunday to do these duties and supervise the last rehearsals. So Ben, Jennie and I planned to go to the cinema on Saturday night, to stop ourselves going too big and being useless at school on Sunday morning. Naturally I'd been looking for an excuse to see the new Harry Potter movie anyway. Very dark, and too much suspense for my weak heart, but I'm keen to see the next one.

Anyway, we were late for school on Sunday, and arrived just after 9am. I thought we'd have to sneak in, but there were hardly any teachers around, and even fewer kids. Most of the parents seemed to have had the good sense to ignore the school's request to send their children to school for no particular reason.
There was no rehearsal that we were aware of all day, so we stayed in Jennie's room amusing ourselves with Spongebob Squarepants. I even straightened my hair for the first time since coming to Thailand (and I'll admit that I thought my hair was going to refuse!). I cannot emphasize more how much nothing was going on. I didn't even see my Grade 12's until 5 minutes before the performance.

We started primping at about 2pm; there's only so much Spongebob a grown woman can/will watch. That part was quite fun, I haven't spent that much time and energy on getting dressed in a couple years lol. I even managed to have a quick Skype with Ty before we started.

The show went off ok, pretty boring. The fun part really started afterward, when I joined some teacher friends for a beer on one of the klong boats on the canal opposite the school. I know, I don't drink beer, but I'm not really high on options over here. Besides, if you drown it in ice it doesn't taste quite so bad :)

On the way to the boat I bought a krathong and convinced Ben to come with me to do the traditional floating. You're supposed to put a piece of your hair and a coin into the krathong, light the candle and the incense and then say a little prayer. You think about all the hurts and bad things that have happened in the past year, and all the water wasting and stuff, and you put it away from yourself. Then you put the krathong in the water and give it a little push. Its such a beautiful ritual.
The other traditional thing you do is send up lanterns. I don't know if you're supposed to say a little prayer while doing that, but they're very pretty :) I'll put up some pictures later today.

No one wanted to go out after having a beer, so we decided to all split taxis and go home. But I got waylaid by some of the Thai staff  sitting outside the school having a drink. So Ben, Jennie, Katie and I were just going to sit for a very little while, and had the time of our lives. I love being surprised by having a really good time! It was so much fun that I only got home at 5am, luckily we had been given Monday off school.

I was so proud of myself for not flaking out and going home, which I've been known to do. I want to trust my instincts more and take more chances and not always be so tired. And I think I'm doing it.

Patience is a virtue...

It's only Wednesday, and already I know that this can be written off as a bad week. I've been called fat, directed to wear a clown costume, been turned away from Thai costume shops that don't stock my size, and been poked and prodded at for being shaped funny. Naturally it only gets worse.

This morning as I walked into school after raising the flag, the secretary pulled me aside and spoke to me about my clothes, which are apparently inappropriate. I would like to point out at this juncture that I am wearing a non-revealing black top, three-quarter pants and sandals, the same thing I wore at Cambridge for almost three years.
It is not acceptable to the owner of my school that I wear flat shoes AND short pants on the same day. I can wear short pants, but must then wear heels or closed shoes. If I want to wear sandals I must wear long pants or a skirt.

Now, if you know me, you know that I am physically incapable of moving at anything faster than a crawl when wearing heels. I just can't do it, God knows I've tried. In the interest of efficiency in doing my job, heels would be a hindrance.
The other issue is that I have big feet, by Thai standards, and so cannot find shoes to fit. So I wear open backed sandals so that my heels can hang off the edge. Naturally, with closed shoes this would not be possible. The options here are therefore either to be really slow at getting anywhere (and uncomfortable within an hour) or in agony all day and develop ugly blisters on my heels.

The pants issue also presents a problem for several reasons:
1) I live maybe 15 degrees north of the equator, in Southeast Asia. It is SWELTERING hot, every day.
2) Thai people don't make pants my size cos Thai people don't wear pants my size. So they are nowhere to be found, except in the very expensive places.
3) Number 2) also applies to all skirts that are not of the wraparound variety.

You can see why I feel like a behemoth all the time, with my self esteem swiftly eroding. Feet too big, too tall, boobs too big (I get stared at on the street), hips too wide, hair too curly... I mean I'm foreign!! Of course I look different! Although I think they would find my foreign-ness easier to accept if I wasn't brown. Ai.

So it would appear that I have nothing to wear, again, and no money really to rectify the situation. Because who came to Thailand expecting to have to buy a whole wardrobe? Certainly not I.

Another first

Today I experienced another first time, my first Thai massage. Nicola's has been raving about them since I arrived, but somehow it hasn't happened until today. We took a walk down the road (literally less than 200m, massage parlours on every corner in this place) and it's not even expensive, 200baht for an hour. But boy she works your body hard! And to be honest, in the beginning I felt like it was a bit invasive. I mean, she twists and turns you in all different ways and that's great, but to do that you have to become quite intimate withe the lady. She's nothing but professional though, and she did a great job. I think it was more of a workout for her than for me!

In other news, school's plodding along nicely. Nicola and I were discussing a trip to Chiang Mai (up north) for Loy Krathong festival next weekend, but my school put paid to that idea. We're having a big celebration at school and all the teachers are expected to attend. Even more than that, we're expected to wear traditonal Thai dress, which is going to be very interesting. I don't really mind so much, as it should be good.
Loy Krathong is a festival when Thai people say thank you to the God of Water for what she gives them, and also to apologise for wasting water so much. You make what's called a krathong, a small floating device with a candle and flowers, and you light it and loy/float it down any body of water. There's a big canal in front of my school and that's where the ceremony will be taking place. It's clearly very important to the owner of my school, as they've built a jetty and put in a fountain en alles. I thought this was normal Thai practice but some of the other teachers who have worked at other schools here before said that this is the first time they've seen such a big deal made out of it. I wonder why?
Anyway it should be fun.

The biggest news I've left until last: In exactly 19 days mine own Kassandra will be here in Krungthep (Thai word for Bangkok) and working at my school, and a whole 9 days later Tyron will be here too. I simply cannot wait!! I've been trying to plan a nice December, but haven't wrapped my head around it yet. So excited!!!

Bangkok weekend

This weekend I had so much fun doing things that I don't normally do, and I feel so good about them that I must get it down.
On Friday night I went to a party at a teacher friend's house, Jay. He's married to a lovely Thai woman, May, and the party was to happen on the rooftop. I thought my rooftop was cool (its in fact the furthest thing from cool) but Jay's is the epitome of cool. So for starters, I've never even been on the rooftop on an apartment building before (22 floors) and secondly I've never partied on a roof top before. We had so much fun, jamming with a jembe, did some singing, Jennie did some piggy-backing, and so on. I did leave fairly early though, no one else was going in my direction, and I didn't want to take the risk of falling asleep in the taxi all by myself.

On Saturday I got way out of my comfort zone and played tennis. I know, right? Just weird. I don't voluntarily do sport, its not my thing. But Nics was really keen, and Shawn (my packrat landlord) has loads of spare rackets and balls, and my building has a tennis court. I really enjoyed it, and am determined to get better at it, so Nics and I have decided to play every weekend. During the week would be great too, but I don't get home till after dark.

I have also decided that I should take up running again. Its a crying shame to have brought my takkies all this way and then not have shown them anything, Plus there's a really nice park around the corner from me that is perfect for that purpose.

After tennis, we sat up on the balcony having some beers and singing our little hearts out. But African harmonies don't work so well if you only have two voices, neither of which is a bass. KC will be useful for that purpose also :)

We then went adventuring, looking for a nice place to have a drink. I love it when a really good night kind of sneaks up on you. We were planning on a quiet one, and then bed, but an internet search said there was a salsa festival happening this weekend, so we went looking for it. The place was closed (weird) so we met up with Jennie, Taylor and some friends of theirs at this place near home called The Australian. I didn't expect much from it, having seen my fair share of Sukhumvit bars, but! They have this great Filipino cover band who are actually really good, and the vibe is cool. So that was a very pleasant surprise, and our quiet drink brought us home at 3am. Not bad!

I'm enjoying challenging myself by doing completely different things, and its so worthwhile when they turn out well. Like right now, I'm sitting on my bed, having just eaten something I would never before have considered an entire meal - rice with a little olive oil and salt and pepper. And its great. I love that I'm breaking barriers and changing myself. This weekend I really feel like I'm accomplishing my mission.

Catching up

So its been a while since I wrote anything, mostly because time's just getting away from me.
What's happened since Phuket?
 I haven't really been going out very much, last month scared me a bit in terms of making it through the month with my meagre earnings, which are meagre again this month as a result of paying too much rent. I'm looking for private students to supplement my income though. Naturaally when I say I'm looking, I mean that I've thought about it and the process hasn't really developed beyond that point yet. Oh, the woes of being a lazy sod.

Well, school started up again, and our director left, after just over 2 months in the position. There are mixed feelings about this amongst the staff, with the general consensus being 'good riddance'. However, in his place we have a vice director, the main disciplinarian, a very confusing man. Sometimes I wish for people like Spencer Welman and Grassy Buitendag to come and make sense out of my school.
So what I've been doing lately is getting involved with discipline stuff and setting up relevant programs to deal with this stuff. On the one hand, I'm thinking that this is NOT what I signed up for, but on the other hand its kinda cool figuring out firsthand what works and what doesn't.

Some frustrations are mounting at school, things not working they way they should. I think its mostly because the teachers here are not career teachers, most of them have never done this before in their lives. They still think, as I did when I started my PGCE, that a teacher goes into a class and teaches their subject, and that's their whole job. People complain about doing duties, and having to go the extra mile and sitting detention, and all that kind of thing, but are also complaining about how nothing seems to work at our school, the kids have no discipline and respect, this that and the next thing, and they really don't seem to see the link between the two. Its weird for me starting a new job, and being one of the people that knows what's going on. I didn't even know what was going on at Cambridge half the time!

The most important thing to mention about school is that my dearly beloved bestie has managed to secure herself a position here, starting 7 December, as an English teacher, and I can hardly wait!! I won't have to translate perfectly good Safrican English into American all the time anymore, because somebody will FINALLY understand me! Woohoo! I literally cannot wait. She'll be living with me for the first little while, until she sorts herself out.

Another arrival that I'm waiting for with bated breath - today marks 40 days until Tyron/Pyron arrives for a visit. I'm so excited I could pop. Its been a tough 7 weeks without him, nothing could have prepared me for it. But its also forced us to develop in other ways, so good and bad. I learned how to do long distance from my friend Bethelah, and she told me "Communication is key!" Remembering her wise words is helping out more than I would have believed at the time. So we're soldiering on, and that's amazing.


Other interesting things that have happened lately:

1) A great Hallowe'en party that Nicola and I went to, that was very cool. We got dressed up en alles, and I even sliced my finger open to add to the gore. Alas, that part wasn't planned. Pictures to follow, when I'm more organized.

2) Thursday morning a crazed old Thai lady burst into my bedroom without knocking, and started shouting at me, I can't imagine what for. She spoke absolutely no English, and kept asking me if I live there. Well, I mean, I'm lying in the bed, and was clearly asleep, what else would I be doing there? She shouted some more, clicked her tongue at me and left. Without closing the door behind her. WEIRD!!! Note to self: Lock the door before falling asleep.

3) I can't remember what the third thing was. The bizarreness of the second thing made me forget.

4) Oh I remember! The building I live in is populated mostly with Indian people and farangs, so they were putting up lights and decorations for Diwali yesterday. I think at some point it got too much for our poor circuit board, and half the street was plunged into darkness at about 8pm last night. Naturally nobody thought to just unplug some fairy lights, so the electricity stayed off till about 3am, when I was woken up by the lights that I had left on. As they say, TIT (this is Thailand...)