The Good. The Bad. and The Ugly.

Hello my friends, I apologize for the delay in post but as soon as I posted my last message we had a meeting with our boss and were told it was time to move.... AGAIN!! 

The Good.

I was not excited for this at all, but I was really trying to trust that everything will work out. It's just that after 3 months we were finally beginning to settling down.  And here we are, 2 days later were were moving again, leaving all of our friends, and moving into the middle of no where, Bang Phao.  About 2 hours outside of  Bangkok.  

It was finally pay day and we went to get our money from our Boss, is always a production as she is a very popular woman especially when it comes to pay day. However she has grown quite fond of our little group. (And that IS an understatement) She actually refers to the 4 of us (Nick, Me, Michelle, and Cas) as  "Her Angel Crew". She is so thankful that we are working at her school, because we are so "smart, professional, and beautiful" (and these are direct words lol) After receiving more money than we actually were supposed to get,  she gave us even better news. 

[to be read in an Asian accent]

"I want you and teachuur Nicholas to be team leadars, and I want you to know dhat I am looking out for you, and care about you vewy much, so because of dhis I am going to let you keep your room here in Bang Bon. Dis way you can come back on dhe weekends to hang out with your fwiends and go in dhe swimming pool." 

This news was amazing, but I did feel a little guilty, there was no need for us to take up a room only for the weekends, but what Boss says goes! The following day, 8 new teachers piled in to a van taking all of our belongings. We were keeping our news a secret, we didn't want anyone getting jealous, or start any unnecessary drama.  

We pulled up to our brand new apartments and unloaded our things. In the Thai tradition when there is  a new building or home there is a ceremony that takes place. There were monks praying and blessing the rooms and a big tent and tables set up with more food than you could imagine. Many new foods I have been very curious to try but wasent sure exactly what it was. It was so sweet. The apartment building is run by a very big Thai family of which 2 speak English.  Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all. 

To the left is a collection of Thai Desserts, mostly coconut and rice flavored, all very delicious. 

The Bad and The Ugly.

Time came for the passing out of the keys and picking of rooms. After a quick speech of how, important it is to represent ourselves correctly and if we are going to bring a prostitute home to make sure that she is a "Nice girl, and speaks good" Of course Boss comes to us first and asks which room I would like, and which room Nick would like. Hold up, we get our own rooms? Hmm.. Interesting. Well they are much smaller than our apartments in Bang Bon, but was that really necessary? Boss said that we could use one room as a hang out room or kitchen since that was the only thing lacking from these BRAND NEW apartment. Fully furnished and stocked with a refrigerator, microwave, iron/board, air con, plates and silverware and bedding! [All provided by the school] So up we go to our new places. As we head up we see some sad faces! Our Philippino foreign teachers were forced to share  a room, and a bed. Why? Because they aren't westerners. So here we are, sitting on 3 pieces of prime real estate and the Philippinos have to share a room, and a bed, with someone they didn't know, and to top it off , if they wanted to get their own room they both had to pay 2,000 Baht.  This didn't sit well with me at all! SO racist, I spent the greater half of the day trying to accept the situation but there was not much I could do. If I gave up my room to one of them, they would make them pay anyways. Here I am being treated better than a King, and they are being treated like dirt. Many rationalizations crossed my mind.... " Well there flight was only 3 hours, compared to our 28?" "  English is OUR native language, it is their second..." But nothing made me feel better. I talked to them and expressed that I did not agree with how they were being treated, they didn't like it either, but that is the way it goes. This is Thailand and they do things their way, and there is not much else you can do than Smile and carry on. 

 Having our own rooms is going to be interesting, like I said in my previous post  I am excited to finally get settled in [for real this time] decorate, and start making Thailand feel more like home. Nick of course calls his room "The Man Cave" and plans on decorating accordingly, I just want my room to be cozy and make sure it smells good. Im a sucker for candles and such, Now if only I could find some Glade candles ANYWHERE in Thailand I could be happy. For now I will settle for scented oils, and tea light candles. The next couple of weeks are going to be very exciting. Summer school started on April 1st and we moved in the weekend prior. I am teaching kindergarten again, and 2 classes of pre-school, subjects English and Drama! Hahah This should be interesting! :) Nick is teaching 2nd, 3rd,4th,5th, and 6th Social Studies and Science. Summer school is only a month long and then we get ANOTHER 2 week vacation. Life is pretty rough at this point ;)  [Sarcasm of course] To make things even better we have 1 day off for the Thai Memorial Day in the first week, than the following week is the Thai New Year, also known as The Songkran Festival, this tradition started with the cleansing of the Buddah. They would pour water over all the statues to cleanse them and make a good luck wish. As the New Year is during the hottest month of the year, this tradition eventually turned into a country wide water fight. No one is safe. Elderly, police men, woman, children... if you walk outside at any point during the week, [oh yeah, did I mention it is a week long celebration in which we, yet again get the entire week off from school] You will get SOAKED! Buckets, Guns, Balloons, everything is an option! I have been looking forward to this event since the moment I chose to come here! The week is finally upon us, and to Bangkok we go!! Our friends are actually joining us from Cambodia and I am very excited to see everyone again!! :) 

More to come, pictures, stories... I hope I survive this one and yes I will be safe! :) 

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Question of the Day!

If you were to become a teacher, ideally which grade would you want to teach and why?

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