Trip To The Land of Smiles

Well, I've been in Thailand for about a week now.. and I have one thing to say..... "Holy Crap... it's HOT!!!!"

Now that is off my chest... on with the news of the day... Yesterday was the beginning of the 3 day New Year celebration also known as Songkran or Water Festival.  Which is to say... it is a nation wide water fight... throwing water on each other from cars.. motorbikes... pickup trucks filled with as many people they can pack into them.. along with huge containers of water. A stroll down the main streets is not a great idea if you have a camera, mobile phone, purse or anything you don't want to get wet.   10 seconds after you step out of the car and onto the street and you are hit from a dozen different directions with water guns, buckets of water and hoses...
It's all in fun... and a hell of a way to release stress.

 


 As far as my job hunt goes..

I have talked with a few schools and sent some resume's out.  School starts here in about a month and most schools are hiring for the year now.... I hope to hear back from some of them this next week.... Wish me luck... lol..

My Fantastical Trip To The Land of Smiles - 2008

After loosing my ass in a nasty divorce in 2007 I was pretty much a basket case.  I had lost pretty much everything.  I had a friend that lived in Thailand that had for several years been on my case about going to Thailand to live.  Since I didn't have anything left and little income I decided to cash out and move to Thailand.  So in April of 2008,  April 13th to be exact, I boarded the airplane to the Land of Smiles.

After 36 hours in transit I arrived at Chiang Mai airport.  Jack and his family were there to meet me.  

I went into pretty much culture shock immediately as the 13th of April is the beginning of Song Kran, or the Water Festival.  In Thailand the whole country pretty much goes into the total INSANE mode for 3 to 5 days.   Basically it is the biggest all inclusive water fight you could ever witness or participate in.  And so my adventure began with a BANG.. or Splash as it were..

Jack, Wan, and Sirikorn

Street vendor selling Squirt guns and other water fight paraphernalia.

total chaos 

truck load after truck load of wet people throwing water and doing crazy stuff

more craziness

After 5 days of total insanity I boarded the airplane again to go to Phuket where I was to attend a school that taught a TEFL course and provided certification.  This was a 30 day, 120 hour course in grammar and  teaching Technics for teaching English as a second language.

I was picked up at the airport by one of the school staff along with 2 other students... a couple from Egypt.

We were taken to the school where I had a room waiting for me... now mind you.. the heat in Thailand at this time of year is unbelievable... and the humidity just crushes you.  My room had a fan and lots of windows.. which were never closed and the fan ran continuously.

There were 19 of us in the class this month from all over the world.  We became good friends and did a lot of things together.  The beaches were only about 30 minutes away and we would catch a  bus to go to what ever beach we decided to go to that day.  My favorite beach was Nai Harn Beach.   

(To be continued)