My classroom: I have been busy setting things up and praying for the little kiddos that will fill the seats soon. I am so excited to meet them and start building relationships with them. I have finished creating my calendar wall and my word wall. Have about a zillion other projects I would like to do. I am putting up pictures of “BEFORE” Miss Katie got her hands on her classroom and I’ll take pictures of the progress as well. Oh, yeah…and my first day there, I got a very friendly welcome from a very unexpected class pet. See if you can figure it out in the picture. I tried to catch it, but it was way too quick for me. It’s a cute little bugger. Don’t exactly know where it got to…. perhaps it will welcome me again when I least expect it.
My Apartment:
I moved into my apartment on Thursday and I absolutely love it. The rent is 13,000 baht which is $325 a month. I have a king size bed, a whole extra room that Khun Sak calls “the stuff” room…..other foreigners have started a small pile in the corner of things to take home and it just grows and grows…..ummmmm…….
I have a view of the village, but there is not much else around, no mountains or anything. But I like it well enough. And at night it is very peaceful. There is a Muslim Mosk nearby so the first night here I heard the prayer echoing over the loud speaker at 4:30 in the morning…was rethinking my decision to move here….but now I just put the fan on and I don’t even hear it at all. I have big plans for the patio…make sort of like an Asian garden with palms and plants and little rocks. I also have two little window boxes outside of my bedroom, so I’d like to put plants there too.
There is an American and her husband moving in kitty corner to me pretty soon. And my thai neighbor next door is very nice but speaks no English, so our smiles tell our stories for right now. Until I can learn Thai. Khan Sak, I guess you could call him the apartment broker, has been exceptionally helpful to me in getting set up. He even took me around the moo baan, or village, and showed me where to get everything I could possibly want….thai massage, phad thai, toilet paper, etc etc.
Friday night fun
I went downtown to Suhkumvit, a very nice and posh place to meet my principal Jeannie for dinner. We went to the Emporium, a very ritzy mall that has everything you could possibly imagine and more!!! After our meal in the mall…..that was my first non-thai meal…I had Indian….with curry and flan, we headed down the street to get thai foot massages. Let me tell you, I am a changed woman! Never again will I go without these special treats! For 200 baht, or $6 I can get an hour massage. And after I was done I felt soooo much better. Amazing. That is definitely going to be a weekly affair! After our Thai massages, I went back to Jeannie’s place to see what her apartment looks like. It is absolutely amazingly beautiful! About 4 times the size of my place and she had bought everything in China before she moved to Thailand. Absolutely stunning. She is trying to talk me into moving near Suhkumvit when my lease is up. I’m not sure if I want to live in the big city. But it’s awfully tempting….
Yesterday I went to the market and was so busy bartering I didn’t take one photo. Not one. But as soon as I stepped out of the air conditioned Taxi, the sights and sounds overwhelmed me. I started to walk through the little square block in which hundreds of booths were set up. The front part is all food. Such a vast variety of food. The smells almost made me go blind, they were so intense. Fish, all types, fried, or fresh, people munching on little bags of fried minnows like they were candy, I saw pig legs, and live frogs in baskets waiting to be taken home and eaten. In one booth there layer upon layer of fried duck. Like the whole duck was just stuck in the vat and then pulled out. Very interesting. Then next to them there would be fresh fruits. Ahhh sooo wonderful and delicious. My new favorite fruit is like a giant kiwi….although right now I do not remember the name. There was also people selling all types of fried food and thai food. Ohhh those smells were wonderful. I bought some Saku, my new favorite thai food which is bean paste wrapped in steamed rice and steamed until it forms a gel-like ball, and a strawberry slushie. Cost for lunch: $1.10. After walking past all the booths, I came to a table with a variety of gadgets and household items. I tried to speak Thai with them and they were more than happy to oblige me after I asked them to say the numbers in Thai. They really enjoyed it and we all laughed and had a good time. I think they were surprised that I was trying to learn Thai. I bought some dish rags, soap and other kitchen type stuff from them and they threw in extra things for me. It was very kind of them. Thai people are so willing to please and make everyone happy. They are very very charming. Then I went to a little dish booth and saw some dishes I really enjoyed, and I talked the woman down to 500 baht for 4 plates and 4 bowls. That’s $12.50 for some dishes….not bad. I also looked at bedding, but didn’t find anything that really caught my eye. It was getting pretty hot, so I decided to head on home and jump in the pool.
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