Ramblings and Progress Updates.

You'll be pleased to hear that i am feeling less sorry for myself today, Hoorah!!!! and i am being very pro-active!!! I have been emailing the very nice man, Mr F, at the language school in Phuket asking a whole bundle of questions, some relevant and some....not so. Why he has not told me to stop harassing him yet i do not know, I've got to admire the guys Patience understanding and general uber helpfulness.

Apparently i do not need to take any pens, note pads or any of the usual stationary shenanigans with me as the school will provide them all, which is good for keeping down the luggage weight but a bit of a shame as i always loved buying brand spanking new pens, pencils, rubbers, rulers and, of course, a swanky new pencil case to put 'em all in. I remember mum buying all that for me for secondary school and they would stay safe and shiny and new right up until the first day of term or maybe about a week in if i was lucky, then they would all just get borrowed, be trashed, or just lost... school memories...sigh. But anyhoo, i digress, i have more important and exciting things things to talk about and purchase like, Travel Insurance...Wooooooooo!! (?)

I asked Mr F if he knew yet how many people would be on the course. In the brochure it says that the average class size is between 12 and 16, but i figured what with our current economic situation and the protests that have been taking place in Thailand that the numbers maybe down a bit.......Mr F said so far, 4 people have enrolled on the course including me! Now, for a slightly socially handicapped (shy, introverted, call it what you will) person such as myself I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Less people is less daunting, but it also means that the friendship pool is on the shallow side and that means we all have to get along. There are less names to remember which is a plus, but also, the chances of me doing my normal thing of blending into the background are slim to none. I did say to Mr F that because there was so few of us, would he give my email out to the other students so we can at least introduce ourselves before we get there and know a little about each other, that way it might seem a little less scary. So far i haven't got anything back but there's still a few weeks to go, so fingers crossed.

I did get to do the exciting thing of shopping for smart clothes on Friday (whilst i was supposed to be getting my last Hep B jab...whoops! It has been rescheduled.) This may not sound terribly exciting for the rest of you, but for the past 7 years i have been in a job where it really doesn't matter what i wear, I try not to be scruffy but mostly its just jeans, t-shirt, pumps or trainers. So the chance to shop for 'smart stuff' was just fabulous, i tried on so much, most of which was totally inappropriate for the climate out there but fun to try on anyway. Ive ended up with a lovely blue shirt (an item i had to buy as all trainee teachers when on work placement have to wear this) and a pair of cute light tan girls chinos, for the record they are straight legged not tapered...no one should do tapered! I already have some smart black shoes, but might force myself to buy another pair.....just in case.

I've printed out all the info on the school plus the Phuket school licences that Mr F sent me, so now all that remains to be done is to fill in the 30 day Visa form and put all the printed out stuff with it and send it off to the Consul in hull and hope they say, 'Yes Carrie, of course you can come into our country. Welcome! Welcome!' .......Fingers crossed.