Graham and I are on Ko Tao for the weekend. He was supposed to go sit in the office for a few hours on Friday, so no one would be jealous of his having an extra half-day off, but instead he told them to just dock his pay. Actually, it doesn't even make that much of a difference, money-wise, b/c if he had worked on Friday, we would have taken the fast boat over and that would have been more expensive.
We went to Kopi restaurant last night. Two of Graham's coworkers sing and play guitar on Thursday nights. They're pretty good and everyone shows up.
Graham just sold another piece, his concerto for two trumpets, which is exciting. He doesn't yet know who bought it, but they bought all the parts, so they are likely to perform it.
We're staying in a bungalow on Shark Bay, where they actually do have sharks, unlike Shark Island. Our bungalow overlooks the water and there is a balcony in the front. It's lovely. We got in this morning after a rather restful overnight boat. Since it's off-season here, things are a lot less crowded, which made sleep possible.
Getting paid tomorrow and we're off to Ko Tao this weekend. We got a new roommate this past weekend, which they failed to mention to us in advance. "Hello random girl sitting in our living room. Can we help you?" Her name is Alma, she's Irish and has been bumming around Thailand for a few weeks now. She seems really cool. She will be working in the high school with Dave, since Mona and Graeme left.
We went to Khanom beach last weekend on Saturday and came home on Sunday. The beach part was fine, but our room was filled with mosquitos and I got stung by a bee that happened to be under the blanket and now I have a huge welt on my leg. The whole night was just torture. We had the fan on, were under the blanket, despite it being really hot, and still were eaten alive. Finally at seven something in the morning, I got up and went out to the beach to sit/doze.
Jason and Mai got back from England last week and brought magazines! We're all quite excited. Okay, the girls are. Don't know that any boys here have fashion magazine fetishes.
Off to teach.
Back home, safe and sound. Its' alawys a trial getting into town from the train station, though. No one believes you when you say that you're going to Surat Thani town. "Where you go?" Surat Thani. "Ko Samui (island), Ko Phangan (island), Krabi?" Surat Thani. "Then where? Ko Samui? Ko Phangan?" It gets annoying.
We took the morning off, which is good, b/c I need to plan for my afternoon class. Also classes for the rest of the week. My afternoon classes this week will involve lots of running around for the children and then lying there too tired to tackle each other.
We saw Harry Potter again on Saturday afternoon. We had gone to Jim Thompson's house at around noon. He's an american who moved to Thailand, fell in love with the place, and began exporting Thai silk around the world. He was a big force in making Thai silk as well known as it is. His house is an architectural study of old Thai architecture and antiques. He had houses from six different styles shipped to his plot in Bangkok and had them rebuilt there, but with the ornamental walls turned in, so you could see the carvings from inside. They also have good Caesar salads, though the pieces of lettuce were a bit big.
Anyway, it's monsoon, so we sat out part of it having a late lunch at Jim Thompson's, then during a lull, we left and walked to Siam Square, a huge shopping center, where we watched Harry Potter again. Graham was interested in seeing The Day After Tomorrow, but despite the cool visuals, I voted that it was lame, so we watched Harry Potter again. And had movie popcorn!!! Two thumbs up for that! Plus, there's an Au Bon Pain in the mall.
We ended up finding a Tex-Mex place that allowed sandals and went there for dinner. It was pretty good, though still no bean dip and the chili con queso was lacking in chili.
As soon as we get our June paychecks, we're going to Ko Tao. Also, buying a telephone(s) and some other stuff.
Yesterday we saw the new Harry Potter movie, which is great! We were both surprised to see Gary Oldman in it. Then we went to a bookstore where I perused pointless fashion magazines. Unfortunately, they cost more than $10 here, so I couldn't really buy any. Later, we went to a used bookstore on Khao Sao Rd. where they have cheap used books, including a big stack of Italo Calvino ones.
There's one tex-mex restaurant listed in the book, but it requires shirts with sleeves and no sandals and Graham only brought sandals, so I'll let him know how it is.
Jason and Mai are still in England, coming back on Tuesday. Graham and I are going to Bangkok for the weekend. It will be nice to have a couple of days off, though such a quick trip doesn't allow for much downtime. I've been covering for Odette's Saturday and Sunday class, so I only have one day off a week. On the plus side, I get paid overtime.
Mona and Graeme, the new teachers, bailed after four days. She apparently wasn't used to teenagers and wasn't happy with their behavior. Since Jason is gone, Bob, another teacher, is putting out the announcement for the positions. Odette's replacement will be arriving in mid-July. She has a lot of experience working with young children and seems nice, if a bit enthusiastic. She's another Canadian, and will be our fourth roommate, meaning the house will be half-Canadian!
Tomorrow there is some sort of teacher appreciation assembly in the morning, so I don't have to go in until 10:45. I was wondering aloud to Graham if they would pay me for the morning. He pointed out that it wouldn't be a very good teacher appreciation day if they didn't.
I'm pretty run down with all my extra teaching, plus the TEFL course that I'm taking online. Hopefully going to Bangkok and getting tex-mex food will help things. Dave and I found salsa and tortilla shells at the Tesco/Lotus supermarket last week. I've been fantasizing about the green chile bean dip and the salsa at Anita's. Hopefully, come October I'll get to have it.
We're in the new house and doing a decent job of getting settled in. We have a roommate, Dave, who is Canadian, from Stratford, Ontario. We are supposed to get another roommate, but we don't know when. We picked up a fan and dart board for the living room the other day, so our quality of life has improved considerably. We also joined a video club.
We spent last Friday and Sunday at Kanom, the beach nearby. Jason and Mai, my bosses are leaving in a few days for a three-week vacation in England. That means I'm going to be covering his classes on Saturdays and Sundays, which means we won't be able to go away for a while. Not that that's a problem, since we're flat broke and need to save money to visit DC in October.
The lineup at The Language is, me, Dave, mid-30s, Canadian, really laid-back and generally cool, Lucy, 27, Brit, also cool; Stuart, Brit, mid-20s. I haven't really had a chance to talk to him, but he seems okay. Then Mona and Graeme are arriving in early June from the Czech Republic. Odette, an Irish girl worked for the last week, but decided that children aren't her thing and she's leaving. She's looking for other work in the area with older students, but I don't know.