Things have not turned out as expected...not that they ever do really. Life has a way of making sure you don't get too cocky and sure of yourself. It's Wednesday evening and i am officially halfway through my training course to become an EFL teacher. EFL meaning English as a Foreign Language. There is one other person in my teaching group. One. He and I were both told that there would be a group of about a dozen or so people in the program so we were both a bit surprised at the lack of bodies. Luckily the two of us get along so it isn't a complete catastrophe or disappointment. This week hasn't exactly been a non stop thrill ride but things are getting on well. We have training from 9 AM to about 3PM at a resort quite near our guesthouse. Thankfully we are both staying in the same guesthouse so we get picked up and dropped off together everyday. Its somewhat comforting to know that our training class can't start without us as we are the only students...which is good because the man who picks us up in the morning is almost always 10 to 20 minutes late. He can also drive a manual in heavy traffic (Thailand traffic is one step away from chaos most of the time) with one hand talking on his cell phone...which i have decided to take as a comforting thing rather than an attempt at ending my life prematurely. I am remaining positive although the program has not as of yet turned out as i thought it would but, as i said before, what does? I have a nice clean room 50 steps from the beach. There is an awesome beach bar/restaurant next door where i eat most of my meals and tend to spend most of my free time. The beach is clean and empty most of the time. I spend a few hours a day after training hanging on the beach watching the cute Thai kids that live close by play in the sand. One little boy who can't be more than 3 has a little Mohawk and wanders around the sand with a little pink toy backhoe. He will spend some time digging a hole and when he reaches a depth he seems content with he gets up and chooses another spot and starts the whole process again. He usually gets about 3 done until his mother or grandmother come scoop him up for dinner. Sometimes he has a crew of 2 other kids with him to help with his excavating. Another little boy a bit older with a a toy truck and a little girl younger than both boys who spends most of her time watching and then smacking the boys around if they aren't getting the job done right. Whew...do not mess with Thai women. There are 2 puppies that seem to show up whenever they feel like it and play around in the water. Inevitably one of them will decide to romp into my lap while I'm not paying attention. All of a sudden i have a wet sandy puppy on top of my book. One of them got ahold of the strings of my bikini and almost untied my bathing suit top. The hazards of lying on the beach around here i suppose. There were jellyfish in the water my first 2 days here but i haven't seen any since. I poked one with my sandal but wasn't brave enough to do much more than that. I had visions of Finding Nemo in my head and almost got brave enough to touch the top of one but had a mental flash of myself in a hospital room on the phone to my sister trying to explain what happened.
I have hopes for the weekend. My compatriot and I are going to rent a car and drive around the island. Lots to see and do...he wants to stop at the crocodile farm...
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Friday, May 16, 2008
Chickens and Irony
So I'm finally here. I landed on Samui at about 1 pm on Thursday...i think. I'm not actually sure when i got here due to the fact that i had one of the most hellacious layovers in the Bangkok airport. The hellishness was due mostly to the fact that it was a 10 hour layover that started at 1 am. Seven hours later i felt like calling quits and throwing in the towel to this entire experience and going home. Thankfully i did not listen to my freaked out, overemotional, tired, drugged up inner self and instead got on yet another plane to fly to my final destination.
Samui is just how i remembered it. Balmy, lush, full of white people with bad sunburns. I got picked up at the Samui airport and driven to my guesthouse in Lamai which is not a part of the island i have ever stayed in. I had decided on the plane and on the taxi ride to the guesthouse that i was not going to have any weird expectations of my accommodations. I expected it to have a bed and a bathroom and for it to be clean. Thankfully these expectations were met but another realm of interesting issues have arisen in the last 24 hours that i did not expect.
Issue #1: My guesthouse is in between the street and the beach which means a tiring 30 second walk to the beach if i can get my lazy ass up. The path to my place winds around an old scooter repair shop, the back of a laundry and some tiny houses that have seen better days. If one was to look only to their right while navigating themselves to my front door, they would see only interesting buildings and potted plants lining the path. I have a funny little courtyard that is attached to mine and 2 other rooms (which are vacant at this point). Pretty little place to stay. But unless you walk like a crab (how they kind of scuttle sideways) and i don't, you cannot miss how the left hand side of the path is totally different than the right. There is a tiny house and next to it a pile of random trash (empty water bottles, dead leaves, branches, what looks to be half of a tiny pink sandal, coconuts, an old discarded suitcase, broken baskets, pieces of blue tarp, rotting fruit, and other random junk. you get the idea). There are some gigantic trees that have some extremely loud birds sitting in them that sound kinda like a steroided version of pretty bird from home. One of them sounds like he has a bullhorn up to his beak when he makes the wolf whistle sound. The difference between the right and left side of the path is somewhat confusing but i have somehow come to enjoy the weirdness of it in the small amount of time I've been here.
Issue #2: Roosters are freakin loud. The house on the left hand side of the path has chickens. I'm not sure yet how many because i keep noticing more of them every time i walk the path. There is no chicken coop or fence or anything so the chickens wander about eating things, picking through the trash and making noise. Although there is one chicken that is stuck underneath a big overturned basket type cage. I have to wonder why that chicken is in the slammer and not frolicking about as the others are. What crime can a chicken commit that requires such solitary confinement? He seems pretty pissed about it too, hes always making grumbling clucking noises to himself when i walk by. And what chicken farm would be complete without a rooster? The rooster is huge. Not huge like an elephant (though that would scare the crap out of me) but huge like up to my knee. Maybe all roosters are that size but being that I've never had the joy of raising chickens, its huge to me. We kind of had a showdown on the path my first day here. He just stood in the middle of the path in front of the gate to my room and gave me what i think was a glare. Can chickens glare? I remember when i was in elementary school at Judson, the Wicks (founders/owners of the school) had their family house on campus and the kids had a somewhat open invite to visit their place. They also had a big white rooster that might have been the reincarnated soul of Hitler. Evil bird would chase anyone who came near the front door. Anyway, having had this experience in my childhood, i was a little reluctant to start a confrontation with the mutantly large rooster that was standing guard outside my room. He glared at me for a minute or 2 while i decided if i should go find somebody to shoo him away (yes i am a sissy) and then he wandered off to do whatever roosters do. Fast forward to 5:30ish the next morning. The bird in the tree that makes the wolf whistles has given his bullhorn to the rooster who sounds like hes standing right in front of my door crowing. I never thought id wake up to that but i guess i will for the next couple months.
Things are OK so far. Its hot and humid and i have and interesting place to stay. There is an Internet cafe next door to my guesthouse and a good restaurant on the beach a couple of houses down. I haven't accomplished much as of yet other than starting my 'who gives the best Thai massage' survey, shooing a cockroach out of my room, and beginning my new vegetarian diet. We'll see how long the veggie thing lasts but for now its something I'm working on integrating into my life...though the thought of eating chicken seems oddly gratifying right now.
Samui is just how i remembered it. Balmy, lush, full of white people with bad sunburns. I got picked up at the Samui airport and driven to my guesthouse in Lamai which is not a part of the island i have ever stayed in. I had decided on the plane and on the taxi ride to the guesthouse that i was not going to have any weird expectations of my accommodations. I expected it to have a bed and a bathroom and for it to be clean. Thankfully these expectations were met but another realm of interesting issues have arisen in the last 24 hours that i did not expect.
Issue #1: My guesthouse is in between the street and the beach which means a tiring 30 second walk to the beach if i can get my lazy ass up. The path to my place winds around an old scooter repair shop, the back of a laundry and some tiny houses that have seen better days. If one was to look only to their right while navigating themselves to my front door, they would see only interesting buildings and potted plants lining the path. I have a funny little courtyard that is attached to mine and 2 other rooms (which are vacant at this point). Pretty little place to stay. But unless you walk like a crab (how they kind of scuttle sideways) and i don't, you cannot miss how the left hand side of the path is totally different than the right. There is a tiny house and next to it a pile of random trash (empty water bottles, dead leaves, branches, what looks to be half of a tiny pink sandal, coconuts, an old discarded suitcase, broken baskets, pieces of blue tarp, rotting fruit, and other random junk. you get the idea). There are some gigantic trees that have some extremely loud birds sitting in them that sound kinda like a steroided version of pretty bird from home. One of them sounds like he has a bullhorn up to his beak when he makes the wolf whistle sound. The difference between the right and left side of the path is somewhat confusing but i have somehow come to enjoy the weirdness of it in the small amount of time I've been here.
Issue #2: Roosters are freakin loud. The house on the left hand side of the path has chickens. I'm not sure yet how many because i keep noticing more of them every time i walk the path. There is no chicken coop or fence or anything so the chickens wander about eating things, picking through the trash and making noise. Although there is one chicken that is stuck underneath a big overturned basket type cage. I have to wonder why that chicken is in the slammer and not frolicking about as the others are. What crime can a chicken commit that requires such solitary confinement? He seems pretty pissed about it too, hes always making grumbling clucking noises to himself when i walk by. And what chicken farm would be complete without a rooster? The rooster is huge. Not huge like an elephant (though that would scare the crap out of me) but huge like up to my knee. Maybe all roosters are that size but being that I've never had the joy of raising chickens, its huge to me. We kind of had a showdown on the path my first day here. He just stood in the middle of the path in front of the gate to my room and gave me what i think was a glare. Can chickens glare? I remember when i was in elementary school at Judson, the Wicks (founders/owners of the school) had their family house on campus and the kids had a somewhat open invite to visit their place. They also had a big white rooster that might have been the reincarnated soul of Hitler. Evil bird would chase anyone who came near the front door. Anyway, having had this experience in my childhood, i was a little reluctant to start a confrontation with the mutantly large rooster that was standing guard outside my room. He glared at me for a minute or 2 while i decided if i should go find somebody to shoo him away (yes i am a sissy) and then he wandered off to do whatever roosters do. Fast forward to 5:30ish the next morning. The bird in the tree that makes the wolf whistles has given his bullhorn to the rooster who sounds like hes standing right in front of my door crowing. I never thought id wake up to that but i guess i will for the next couple months.
Things are OK so far. Its hot and humid and i have and interesting place to stay. There is an Internet cafe next door to my guesthouse and a good restaurant on the beach a couple of houses down. I haven't accomplished much as of yet other than starting my 'who gives the best Thai massage' survey, shooing a cockroach out of my room, and beginning my new vegetarian diet. We'll see how long the veggie thing lasts but for now its something I'm working on integrating into my life...though the thought of eating chicken seems oddly gratifying right now.
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