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...)