#28 Thailand part 7: A fire in my belly (and no it's not because I ate some bad chicken)

It's a dreary Sunday morning in Phibun Mangsahan. I can hear the forlorn sound of a rooster crowing in the distance and the occasional whirr of a skilsaw as a new flat is being built next door. A cup of very average instant coffee is steaming beside me.

Despite the romantic ideas I fed myself with about travel I've realised you can never escape the mundaneity of the everyday. You can only learn to embrace it and that, quite frankly, is a relief. Once you've managed that you can stop running.

I have to admit during the last month and a bit my brain has been in New Zealand following the election news. Everyday there have been new campaign promises, policies, interviews, live press conferences, posed photos and opinions splashed across my newsfeed.

Some opinions have sparked heated debates between me and my friends and politics has been the topic of most recent conversations.

If there is one thing that's finally sunk in over the last few months, it is the amount of room for improvement there is in New Zealand at the moment, despite us having a comparatively high standard of living.

There I was, desperate to get out of New Zealand and volunteer in Nepal, when there is so much work to be done in our own back yard. My mother told me this before I left and she was right (as usual) but I guess sometimes you have to experience things for yourself before you fully understand.

Travel has definitely made me glad to call NZ home and the recent conversations have made me want to protect what we have and stop things slipping back any further. When I return I'll endeavour to harness some of the anger that's been stirred up and use it as motivation to actually DO something instead of just talking about it.

I've also been thinking a lot about empathy and what it means. It's been something that's come up a lot lately.

The more you learn about the world and the obstacles people face, naturally, the more understanding you gain. Simply being exposed to people who are different to you can change your perspective and this is why travel can be so eye opening.

At the same time I think empathy is something that doesn't necessarily have to come from experience. Just because you haven't experienced something yourself doesn't mean you can't try to understand it. This was a discussion that came up a lot with my friends and in the media recently. It was leading the national conversation about what kind of world we want to live in especially after Metiria Turei announced she had lied to WINZ in order to provide for her child. Her defendant's begged for the other camp to have some empathy.

Perhaps, because of the way our society is organised under capitalism, empathy isn't immediately financially rewarded and therefore we are taught to see it as weakness? I'd like to think that helping people up instead of kicking them when they are down leads to closer, happier, healthier communities, which results in a flourishing economy in the long run.

This conversation about what we value as a nation is so important and whilst we are on the subject I'll take this opportunity to remind everyone to vote on September 23rd! It's a privilege and throwing it away is an insult to everyone in the world who wishes they could vote but can't.

Back in Phibun there's only one more week of teaching left before I hit the road. It's weird to think I won't ever see my kids again. They'll grow up and go on to live lives I'll know nothing about. I'll miss them a lot.

It's always surprising the things you learn from each new experience. I never thought I'd learn so much about my own country whilst living in rural Thailand. Nor did I think I'd find out what lights that angry fire in my belly whilst being so far away from the things that light it.

So long Phibun Mangsahan! I'm glad we met. Another chapter almost over.

All you need is...

Helping out with a Saturday class at the 'I'm Growing' learning center.

#27 Thailand part 6: The boredom and the breeze

There was a breeze this evening just as the sun was dipping below the tree line. The air was gently perfumed with frangipani and the possibility of rain.

It was only when I noticed the breeze out the window that I realised how long it had been since there had been one. I walked down the road for a bit taking deep breaths and relishing in the coolness. The sky looked as if it were blushing and everything was quiet except for the whisper of leaves.

These days I have a lot of free time after school and it's allowed me to appreciate the small things such as a cool breeze. It was just another thing I hadn't truly appreciated until it wasn't there any more.

Phibun life isn't exciting in the way it was in India where every day something crazy happened.

(I was thinking* the other day about how to describe India and the first word that popped into my head was intense. I remember feeling that it didn't have quite the impact that India deserves and that 'intense' is overused these days. We should probably save it for actually intense things. Not to describe a conversation or a movie ie "that movie was intense man" when what you really mean was that the movie was pretty interesting and you managed to not fall asleep half way through.

*This was one of those thoughts that you don't realise you've had until you remember it later. Sometimes I think there are about ten tabs open in my brain at any given time.)

Any way back to having a lot of time... naturally this means time to think and most importantly, I've come to realise, time to be bored.

Most of us, myself included, tend to think being bored is a bad thing and try to avoid it as much as possible. Running from everyday mundaneity is partly the reason I wanted to travel. To break away from the 9-5 and fill life with as much as possible.

However I've come to realise the brief chapters of boredom are ok. It's during these still moments that all the good thinking happens. The mind has time to sort itself out and subconciously forms plans or analyses past decisions/conversations/actions and picks out pearls of wisdom to store away for the future.

Without this time to reflect we are just going through life packing it full of experiences but not learning anything. It's like shopping for the thrill of it without actually looking at what you've bought when you get home and what's the point of that? (I hate to use shopping as an analogy for life but you catch my drift I hope).

So what have I been doing in Thailand? I've been watching Rick and Morty and old Graham Norton episodes whilst eating single serve fluorescent fruit flavoured jelly on my Hello Kitty bed sheets. I've discovered new artists and music and read countless articles both trashy and academic.

I've spent evenings sipping iced chocolate with LS at our favourite cafe talking about everything from politics to bear puns, the Thai schooling system and dirty jokes.

I've written various rambles in my journal that will never see the light of day, tried my hand at sketching, written some terrible haikus and had my horizons widened by some great podcasters.

So even though there's nothing really that exciting to write home about I thought it was only honest to write about the quiet spells in between the excitement of travel because without these moments the other bits wouldn't have the same effect.

Most of the time we are just human beings not human doings and that's actually probably ok!

The view from my front door - Phibun Mangsahan, July 2017

#26 Thailand part 5: All-you-can-eat buffets are not a challenge and other lessons learnt.

Over the last month and a bit I've been trying to figure out why I really came to Thailand and thanks to bears I think I've figured it out.

I like to think that chapters in life have symbolism in them just like the movies and the theme for Thailand is most definitely bears.

It all started with a giant bear at the hotel in Bangkok that I convinced LS to pose for a photo with and continued on to Phibun Mangsahan. We kept noticing them on blankets, in cars, at school and at our favourite resturant Siri. I'm talking teddy bears of course - not real bears. That would be the beginning of a much more exciting blog.

After jokingly discussing this 'theme' with LS I decided to research what bear symbolism meant in the hope they were significant in some way and that their significance would give us some deeper level of understanding Thai life.

Whether you believe in this stuff or not, what I found gave me warm fuzzies, which coincidentally is exactly how I imagine being hugged by a bear would feel.

According to www.whatsmyspiritanimal.com -  a very reputable source - bears represent a time to be courageous. They also represent protection over children and apparently appear in a persons life when they are required to step into an authoritative role, engage and inspire. All quite relevant right now and I think it sums up exactly what the Thai chapter is all about.

I've had to become an authoratative figure in the classroom which is a skill I needed to learn. As for protection over children that's an obvious one. Teaching has meant I've had to dig deep down to find the courage to do something completely out of my comfort zone. As for engaging and inspiring, it's a great feeling when the students are enthusiastic about what you are trying to teach them. I've found that if you plan a lesson you are excited to deliver then that makes a huge difference.

Any way enough about bears and children. There were several other things that motivated this post.

Firstly I wanted to examine an aspect of travel that doesn't get talked about very much but is something I've been thinking about a lot lately.

When travelling you interact with so many people with such vastly different backgrounds and people you have very little in common with except those core human traits that go beyond, age, race or religion.

These interactions, at least in my experience, often bring to light inequalities in such a way that it is impossible to ignore and even more impossible to know what to do about it.

Many of the people who have been so kind to me are unlikely to ever travel to New Zealand or any of the other countries I hope to visit. I probably won't be able to return their hospitality in the same way they welcomed me into their homes and countries.

When I think about this I feel a pang of what I can only describe as guilt. Why do I get this priveledge just because I was lucky enough to be born in a fairly wealthy, developed country to middle class parents? I don't know what to call this feeling and the closest thing I could find was white guilt. I looked into the concept and read a very interesting article about it from the perspective of an African American woman. Her take on white guilt was that it was a wholly self indulgent coping mechanism to remove yourself from the blame. A sort of "I can't be part of the problem because I'm feeling bad" type thing. I can see her point and makes a lot of sense. But the article didn't explain how to actually stop being part of the problem. I'd be interested to know what other people think about this.

Is white guilt the only term we have for that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when inequality stares you right in the face? How do we stop being so self indulgent and actually make some changes? I sincerely hope talking about this isn't coming from a self indulgent place and instead a curious place.

Perhaps the only way to deal with having that priveledge is to use it well and live life with only good intentions. To learn and experience as much as you can and try your best to see things from someone else's perspective. Make an effort to truly understand where someone is coming from. These are things I'll endeavor to live by for the rest of my travels and when I come home.

The other thing that motivated me to write was a particularly eventful weekend.

The other foreign teachers, who I will refer to as the United Nations of Phibun for future reference, and I went to an all-you-can-eat sushi bar in Ubon and into town for drinks afterwards to celebrate a birthday. We were intrigued by the promise of a Thai 'cowboy' club. Who wouldn't be with that description?

It turned out this was a bit misleading and there weren't any cow boys after all. Just non-stop over-the-top glittery Thai pop. There were Andy Warhol-esque paintings of The Beatles, Ghandi and Che Guervara on the walls but that was where anything vaguely familiar stopped. It was brilliant and bizarre. My favourite combination.

Later we moved on to another place at the suggestion of the UN of Phibuns' Thai friend. His brother would drive us. When we got to his truck it was clear we weren't all going to fit in the cab and some of us would have to ride on the back which we were all far too keen to do.

I never saw who was driving but it quite possibly could have been an actual enraged Grizzly Bear for all I knew (see what I did there? I'm trying to create some kind of connection for the sake of this somewhat disjointed piece). We later calculated he would have been driving at speeds of up to 160 kilometres an hour to get us where we were going in the time it took us but all's well that ends well. We arrived a bit wind swept but nevertheless alive.

When it came to getting a taxi home everyone was considerably sozzled especially our 20-year-old South African friend who I'll call Teacher Hungry or TH for short. We were about half way home when our taxi was pulled over by a police officer doing a routine check.

When he saw it was loaded with farangs (foreigners) his eyes lit up and he proceded to grill the poor girl sitting in the front seat about what we were doing going to Phibun Mangsahan. Completely understandable because it's not exactly a tourist hot spot. He wanted to see our passports but of course we didn't take them with us into town. Luckily we all had a drivers license on us which seemed to satisfy him.

Just as I was handing over my license TH projectile vomitted his all-you-can-eat sushi buffet all over the back seat. The police officer uttered a surprised and very restrained gasp of dismay. We all sat for a minute processing what had just happened and appreciating the volume of nori and rice that had just launched itself from TH's mouth. Thankfully the policeman took pity on us and let TH get out to clean up as best he could.

Despite it being quite a serious situation that had the potential to end badly, it was undeniably hilarious once the police officer let us go and we giggled all the way home, probably to the annoyance of the driver. We gave him a nice tip to make up for everything and to help with the clean up but I feel the indignity of cleaning up someone elses vomit is something that no amount of money can really make up for.

Several lessons were learnt that night. Don't actually eat ALL you can eat at an all-you-can-eat sushi buffet, and if you're going to drink afterwards, try to hold everything in until AFTER speaking with a police officer.

It seems strange to write a post that includes musings on the signifigance of bears, priveledge and a story about vomitting in a taxi but what the heck. Life is just a series of seemingly unrelated events that all wind up into one messy, confusing, wonderful experience and it's a lot of fun trying to work it all out.

The highly anticipated yet misleadingly described Thai 'cowboy' bar which turned out to be equally as bizarre as we had hoped.

#25 Thailand part 4: The first month

It's already been a month since I started teaching in Thailand and I'm mostly surprised by how much I still don't hate it.

When I first applied the thought of standing in front of 40 very small children every day in 30 + degree heat terrified me. I wouldn't say I love it but by my standards not hating a job is a definite win.

After a few weeks of feeling like I was in a bizarre dream I gradually settled in to a routine until one day I realised I was actually happy here - for now anyway!

Each day begins with a short scooter ride to school and morning assembly where we say Buddhist prayers and sing the national anthem. On Thursday's I'm on gate duty which means standing at the entrance to the school and welcoming all the kindergarten kids and their parents. They don't call Thailand the land of smiles for nothing. So many friendly smiles and greetings.

The rest of the morning is spent teaching at the kindergarten which involves a lot of singing, clapping and dancing around the classroom. It's quite fun being as silly as possible and I love me a bit of silly.

Then it's lunch time. To an outsider it's probably quite a comical scene. I eat with the rest of the students at a tiny little table with my knees up around my ears. The other teachers get to eat later at an adult sized table when the kids are having their afternoon nap but as the token Farang I just do as I'm told.

After lunch I teach the 6-8 year olds. They are little rat bags and will take any opportunity to be naughty especially if the Thai teacher doesn't show up. At first it worried me but I then realised there's no point worrying when this is completely out of my control. All I can do is be well prepared and present my lesson in the best way possible. The rest is up to the school and the students.

I'm not going to pretend I took the job for any other reason than my selfish obsession to travel as much as I can for as long as I want to. I knew at the time it wasn't fair on the students to have a teacher whose heart wasn't in it. Here I was with hardly any teaching experience and I didn't even like kids but it was either this or go home broke and unemployed.

However as time has gone by I think I understand the attraction to this career and I feel like I am putting some heart into it after all.

Whilst I know teaching is not something I would want to pursue in the future I think this experience is a good lesson/reminder that having a career which you find rewarding and stimulating is such a wonderful asset to life. It's a good feeling when the students learn something and you can walk away knowing you've given everything you've got to that class.

The evenings are usually spent eating dinner with LS. We made friends with a woman who can cook vegan food for LS and does tasty cheap meals for me. She also speaks good English as she has a Dutch husband which makes things easier.

LS and I had to do our visa run to Laos a few weeks ago. It was a fairly unexciting activity and involved a lot of different modes of transport, a good few hours at the Thai embassy, quite a few forms and sweating out a few litres of water but we got it done and we returned to Thailand with out Non immigrant B visas which means we can legally work in Thailand until August when we are required to renew it.

We stayed in a town called Savannahkhet which is just across the Thai-Laos border. It's a strange place with a mixture of very run down old buildings, a hint of French architecture and very upmarket places obviously catering to the visa run tourism industry. The only thing of interest was a very dilapidated Dinosaur museum but it was closed when we went to have a look.

All the rickshaw drivers knew why we were there and immediately would ask to take us to the embassy. Laos is surprisingly quite an expensive place so I chose to walk everywhere including for an hour in the heat to the embassy from my hotel.

LS and I stayed at different hotels as I wanted a cheap backpackers whilst she wanted a bit of luxury. The place I chose also happened to be the same place that a few other ESL teachers were also staying that weekend for the very same reason.

I went out with them one evening for a few drinks but it just reminded me why I don't do that very often. There was terrible Thai karaoke music, shallow conversation and I got hit on by a Laos woman which was rather awkward. It wasn't my scene at all but it was an experience and made me even more glad to have LS to talk to one on one on a regular basis.

Last week I came down with some kind of bug so I spent three days in bed feeling very sorry for myself. Of course, with so much time to think, I began to remember everything I missed about home.

I missed the ocean, the west coast sunsets, the seafood, the rain, the sausage rolls and bakery food, my family and all my friends. I missed the cities, Auckland and Wellington and the people in them and I even began to feel sad that I was missing out on Winter. It would be fun to wrap up in a hat and scarf and go for a long blustery walk along the beach with Dad and talk about everything under the watery winter sun.

Thankfully I knew this was just a result of being stuck inside away from people and feeling below average and I got through it by imagining now amazing it will feel to come home after a long time and really appreciate everything. Sure enough when I came right I no longer felt the urge to scroll through old photos and Google image search all my favourite places back home.

When I felt better I began to take notice of everything I am grateful for. When you have very little expectations you really appreciate the small things. After India and Nepal I am grateful for having my own hot shower, my own room, a double bed, good wifi, good food places close by, for having an income and English speaking friends. I am grateful for the weekends and for the heat and for the beautiful tropical jungle that surround our block of flats.

I'm grateful for the adorable kids at school and their smiling faces everyday and above all I'm so grateful that I decided to take the plunge, quit my job and go on this adventure.

I am exactly where I want to be.

Some of my kindergarten students

It's got nothing in the west coast sunsets back home but there is something magical about dusk in Phibun

A temple in Laos

Me and my little red scooter

Home

The word 'home' has many different meanings for many different people. For some it is the physical building they grew up in or where their family and friends are, for others it is another sort of inexplicable connection to a place, country or culture.

Whatever it is, home usually means a safe place with food, water, shelter and/or some kind of community. Most people will agree that everyone deserves to have access to these basic necessities and to deny a person of these things is wrong.

In fact the Human Rights bill was drafted so we would all be on the same page regarding this topic. Clearly the concept of 'home' and belonging to a community or in the larger sense a nation, is very important to us as humans.

The bill recognises the concept of home as being a deeply personal matter so when people tell new migrants to 'go home,' it really isn't that simple. Apart from a range of complex social, political and economic issues keeping people from going home, to tell someone to go home, you yourself have to be very sure that the land you're standing on is actually your home too. But that's a topic for another day.

Over the past three months I've spent a lot of time with people from all kinds of different backgrounds, cultures and walks of life. It's been eye opening, insightful and brilliant. I've had a taste of what it's like to know nothing about a place and to have to muddle my way through. Thankfully the majority of people I've come across have been incredibly helpful and compassionate and I would like to think that New Zealanders would be the same if these people found themselves in my home country but sometimes I'm not so sure.

When you have a home you tend not to think about it. Such is the nature of privelege. I am lucky enough to have had a stable, physically safe place to live, a close community of friends and family all in the same beautiful country. Unfortunately not everybody has this.

Sometimes, despite being stubbornly unpatriotic on most counts, I'm proud to say I'm from New Zealand even though there is no logic in being proud of something you have no control over. Maybe proud is the wrong word. Perhaps it's more grateful.

However, after being away from 'home' for three months, I haven't felt that old homesick feeling and it began to worry me. Surely it's only natural to miss something good and familiar?

Of course I miss my family and friends - the history we have, the in jokes, the unspoken understandings we share and their loveable, familiar quirks and that beautiful rugged Pacific Ocean - but not to the point that I want to go back. Not yet at least. I've been able to feel at home where ever I've dumped my backpack. (It's the best feeling ever to know you have everything you need in a 40 litre bag on your back.)

Upon some reflection I have come to realise I'm not homesick because I know that my home will always be there for me to go back to. I love the feeling of having all my belongings on my back because it doesn't have to be that way. It's very much a priveledge position to be in.

Many people who are being forced to flee their homes and immigrate to new countries don't want to leave everything they know behind. They don't want to make a new life for themselves and their families in a completely unfamiliar world. For some people who have chosen to leave their homes for economic, social or political reasons, the new country may never feel like home.

If I've learnt anything from my travels so far it's that being constantly confused is just a fact of life when you arrive in a new country you don't know much about especially if you don't speak the language. Of course some lucky people may feel an instant connection with the culture they find themselves in whilst others may never understand parts of it. The other thing I've learnt is that this doesn't matter so much if people are patient and kind.

What I'm trying to say, in a very long winded way, is that I've come to the conclusion that 'home' isn't a place. It's a feeling.

You can feel 'at home' somewhere that isn't actually your home and a big part of that depends on the people you are surrounded by.

So perhaps if we all started caring less about where we came from and focussed more on where we are going we could all just get along.

#24 Thailand part 3: Lesson plans, lightening and a challenge

Imagine you're watching TV in high contrast. Now add unfamiliar flavours, turn up the volume, change the language, switch off the subtitles and you have your very own DIY Thai experience.

As I write this we are having the most epic thunderstorm. The floor shakes with each clap of thunder and the lightening is so bright it hurts your eyes.

The first week of teaching wasn't as scary as I'd expected. Of course there were some classes that made me feel completely out of my depth but overall I'm glad to take on this challenge. I always knew teaching was hard work from what I'd heard from teacher friends and my parents but now I can comprehend that much better.

Despite the hard work and the lesson plans Thai life is good. Our living arrangement is perfect. It's a quiet place to call your own but there's a social element if and when you need it. An introverts dream!

Once a week I am required to speak in front of 1000's of students and teachers and teach them some simple English words. Strangely enough I'm not worried by this. If I mess up it doesn't matter because I'll be gone in four months. Plus they already think I'm a weird foreigner so I'm immune to any further judgement.

I wish I could take this feeling home with me to NZ and overcome the fear of public speaking. It's such a useful skill to have.

Another positive about Thai life is the food. It actually leaves me satisfied unlike in Nepal where I was constantly thinking about my stomach. The people are incredibly friendly and the landscape is beautiful. There's also so much wildlife here which keeps things interesting. Frogs, geckos, snakes, scorpions, friendly cats and dogs and the occasional unidentified insect.

After surviving the first week of school, SOB* and I took the mini bus to the larger city Ubon which is 40 minutes away from our town of Phibun, where we visited the mall.

* I'm going to stop using the SOB acronym now and change it to LS short for Life Saver, because quite honestly, this experience would be no where near as enjoyable without her.

I desperately needed more clothes as after washing and wearing the same three t-shirts for two months I was starting to feel a little shabby.

LS, being vegan, was finding it difficult to find good nutritious food but had found some vegan noodles and was keen to stock up on them.

Once we had all our supplies we ventured out to find a temple LS had seen on the map. In true Thai form it was spectacular and there was A LOT of gold paint involved.

We returned to Phibun after sweating from every pore of our bodies. I'm yet to get used to the backs of my hands sweating. It's not normal I tell you!

The next week passed in a blur of lessons, unrecognisable school lunches and asking 18 different classes to "sit down please..." over and over again.

In Thailand they still use corporal punishment and the kids know that if there is no Thai teacher in the class the foreign teacher (or 'the Farang') won't use the cane. To them this means it's time to cause chaos!

The first week I was left without a Thai teacher in all my older classes and boy did they take advantage of that. I discovered there's really very little you can do if the kids 1. don't understand a word you say and 2. refuse to listen even if they do understand.

Thankfully the second week I had Thai teachers present and the kids behaved themselves much better. The Thai teachers didn't need to do anything. Just having them there was enough.

The school days are long and teaching takes a lot of energy but so far it's more fun than an office job.

Finally the weekend rolled around and LS and I decided to explore the place that we are to call home for the next four months.

We wandered over to a nearby temple which was equally as beautiful as the one we visited the weekend before. It was slightly over grown but it was obvious that someone cared for it as best they could. It was surrounded by very lush green forest and bamboo.

When I think back to the last couple of weeks I still feel like I'm in a dream and can't wake up. I'm stuck with this odd feeling that this isn't real life. Or perhaps it feels like this isn't happening to me but rather I'm watching it happen to someone else. Maybe there's a name for this phenomena but I don't know what it is.

How did I end up here doing so many things that are so far out of my comfort zone? Public speaking, driving in a foreign country and working with children. Who even am I?

LS and I made our way to the river which looked alarmingly/comfortingly like the Northern Wairoa in Dargaville and had a good old fashioned heart to heart. It's difficult to put into words how glad I am to have a real funny, down to earth and interesting conversationalist to share these four months with. I really wasn't expecting to have such good company. It's definately the people that make a place.

The other night I glanced up at the clear
night sky, breathed in the humid, fragrant evening air and realised I felt properly happy. I hadn't been unhappy in Nepal, I just hadn't really felt any strong emotions at all. I'd seen so much in such a short time that things had stopped being surprising or amazing.

If you lose the ability to be surprised or amazed what is the point of travel? I guess this whole time I'd been looking for a challenge and now I'd found one.

To quote the Chic German Artist Girl I met in Nepal "this was definitely part of the plan."

Wat Phra That Nong Bua, Ubon Rachathani, Thailand - May 20

Wat Phu Khao Kaew, Phibun Mangsahan, Thailand - May 27

The romantically named 'Moon River' runs through Phibun Mangsahan and is a lovely place to sit and enjoy the river breeze

#23 Thailand part 2: The hello kitty home

Thailand wasn't a complete shock to the system as I had travelled in Malaysia before. It has the same SE Asia vibe.

The next day I headed for the hotel where the teaching orientation was going to be held and checked in. Just as I was about to leave my room and explore the door across the hall opened at the same time and from that moment on I was never alone for the entirety of the orientation course.

First orientation buddys (FOB) name was Elwood and he was from the UK. I asked if he wanted to get food down the road as that's where I was headed and afterwards we went for a walk sweating profusely the entire time. Later we met two other girls one who I discovered was my room mate and we all had dinner together.

The next morning we got all dressed up in our uniforms and it suddenly felt like real life again or the first day of school. Holiday mode was over. Nepali time was a thing of the past and we were on a schedule!

I was seated next to a girl also from the UK named Eve who was going to be living in the same accomodation and was to be my second orientation buddy (SOB) and partner in crime for the next four months.

Luckily it was soon apparent that she had a brilliant sense of humour and that we would get on well.

So the next three days passed pleasantly with FOB and SOB. (Hehe I like these acronyms.) The days were filled with teaching info and giggles and the night's filled with more laughs, good Thai food and meeting interesting new people.

It was very much like being back at uni and I loved every second of it.

On the last day we were required to get a police check and mine had now expired so a few of us all trundled down to the police station and gave them our finger prints. The rest of the day was spent wandering the streets and exploring with a nice Canadian couple who were going to the same province as me and SOB.

That night we took the overnight bus to Ubon Ratchathani province. It was surprisingly comfortable and they gave us cakes, a drink and a blanket. We even had a weirdly dubbed in Thai movie to watch if we so desired.

I slept a fair bit and we arrived bright and early in Phibun where we were picked up by our land lady and taken to our new homes for the next four months.

I immediately fell in love with it. It is very minimilist but adorable and has everything you need. It even has a tiny tv, a fridge and Hello Kitty sheets. What more could you want? After Nepal and India, Thailand is so organised. There are actual trees and geckos in the bathroom. I'm going to name them.

SOB and I took a catch up nap and then made a couple of trips to Big C which is like The Warehouse but better. It has grocery items and everything else. We also found a place to do washing and sat by the side of the road in the shade (not that it made much difference) and I video called the friendlies Naomi and Sam whilst we waited.

That evening we met the other teachers we were living next to and our land lady invited us to her place for a farewell dinner for her son who is in the army.

We all sat at a table in the middle of her street, feasted on delicious Thai food and got to know one another. I am living next to four other teachers and Eve. One is from Canada, one is from the Philippines, one is from South Africa and one is from Australia.

After the feast was over we went to meet another teacher from the Philippines who had been living in Thailand for two years.

The rest of the weekend was spent doing lesson plans, talking to friends and family back home and making the most of the decent WiFi and airconditioning inside as well as a quick scooter ride. That's right. I ride a scooter now apparently. Life takes some funny turns.

School starts on Monday. I'm 49% excited and 51% terrified.

Plenty of room for activities here!