Meeting the others! / The first day at school!

Update time!

 Yesterday morning Meghan arrived and after my slightly weird day on my own when i first arrived it was fantastic to talk to someone. She's very talkative and really nice. I suppose when you throw yourself into these kind of situations everyone you meet is like minded so you are all going to get along. Together we went to knock on Adams door (who we discovered had arrived the previous evening) and introduced ourselves. Adam is also chatty and easy to get along with, so between him and Meghan it was nice to just listen and chill out with them, as I think you all know how talkative i am with new people! The rest of the day was really good. We all went exploring Phuket town, and walked along the beach and had some decent food, which was a pleasent change from the emergency pot noodle thing i had to buy the previous night. Blegh!

I did my first bit of Thai haggling also, more by mistake than anything else (i was riffling through my purse to see if i had enough cash and the woman just kept on lowering the price) and Meghan and i managed to get ourselves some fake designer sunglasses, fake Rayban no less!! 600 BHT for the pair, which is like 3 pounds each.

Meghan and Adam went out for a 'few drinks' in the evening, but feeling slightly tired after all that walking i declined. Im kind of glad i did, as they didnt come back from town until about 3am this morning! Classes started at 10am and we had to be ready to leave at 9.30am. They both looked tired!
Although i opted for the early night, my body clock thought other wise and i got about 2 hours of proper sleep and the rest of the night was just light napping. I think it was also because i was worried about what to expect from the course and my head was just going into overdrive.

As it turned out, it was a good day. Plus we met the other person on the course, Marie, who is great. She comes from London, but has been traveling around for about 3 years i think she said. She's also nice and easy to get along with.
  I think the course going to be a real challenge (we found out that we will be teaching adults, not kids...heyho) and i'm going to have to work really hard at getting my head around everything we have to learn but if i don't freak out too much, ill be just fine.

  Our teachers are nice too. 1 is German, 1 is Canadian and the other is Thai. The German is quite intense in his teaching, but i think that is mainly because there is so much for us to get through (he teaches us Methodology - the method of teaching) but i really enjoyed his class as it was a real eye opener to what and how our future students will be feeling when we attempt to teach them English. He did this by teaching us a bit of Japanese, talking only in Japanese. I got the first few phrases down ok, but then more were added and i had brain meltdown and just forgot everything and ended up slipping a few English words into the mix... like ''Oh'' and ''bugger.''

 Our next lesson was Grammar, taught to us by a very laid back Canadian who went off at many a tangent when chatting and teaching us, which was a pleasant change of pace from Methodology. It was quite daunting to see how little i actually know about my own language. Verbs, Adverbs, Polite Particles, regular and irregular verbs, comparatives and superlatives, i could go on but im beginning to freak myself out again!

 To finish of the day we met our final teacher, Tin, who is to teach us about Thai culture and some language skills. She was fab, so lovely, softly spoken with a wicked sense of humor. It was a lovely way to finish off  a surprisingly enjoyable day.

It is bucketing it down at the moment and has been on and off all day. Hopefully going to meet up with Marie for some dinner in town later.

Ill add some photos soon hopefully, i just need to find a PC that my photo card fits! C x

I've arrived. The first day and night is survived!

I have arrived.! The flight was long but comfy and after 14 hours i got here in 1 piece. Feeling a long way from home and want to just pop over to mum and dads at the mo, but i think i just need to chill out and take it one day at a time. The hotel is lovely. The room is large with air con chugging out at a hundred MPH so its a little bit chilly in the room! Ive had a good nights sleep and yesterday i found a mini mart so got some breakfast for this morning. If im feeling brave i may go for an explore later.

The Hotel is on a hill with a bit of traffic chugging up and down (whole families on the back of 1 motorbike!) The staff at the hotel are friendly and nice but i am yet to meet anyone else on the corse with me although i am told they are coming/have already arrived. I shall keep you posted. Wish me luck for my first day at school tomorrow!! xxx

The night before!

Well, here I am. The night before the flight, packed and ready to go. To say that today has been a smidge stressful would be an understatement and I can safely say, with both hands on my heart, that I would not have made it had it not been for my mums organisational skills, practical thinking and general mum-ness.


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxThank you Mum xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

So, with the backpack packed (and still under the weight limit!!!) a rucksack masquerading as hand luggage, a snazzy handbag and a belly full of butterflies, i am ready to face the unknown....well, just about, lol.

The plan is to take one day at a time, work hard, don’t panic and stay safe.

Hopefully the next time i post on here, it will be with some fabulous photos! Wish me luck!

3 days to go and getting slightly stressed

I leave on Friday. I have packed my bag. Everything is under control.


One of the above statements is untrue.

I have bought everything that i really need to go out there with anything else can be easily bought out there. But i neglected to look into the finer points, such as taking the car off the road, cancelling my car insurance and trying to work my way through the Inland Revenue's website so as to print out the relevant forms that need to get filled out and sent off all before Friday! I had a month...a month...off work to sort out all of that, but time has sped up, as it always does when important things need to get done. So, after a minor meltdown, my lovely Mum slowly an methodically worked though the list with me and I think I’m just about treading water now. Phew!

This last week has been busy with many leaving meals and get together with friends and family. It has been fabulous to eat such delicious food and have a good laugh and gossip with my friends. The comedy cake was from The Girls as a lovely farewell gift, it was a very tasty cake but being able to eat my own head proved slightly strange! Tonight it's a meal out with my family and tomorrow its a meal in with my best friend Jo.... with all this food, I'm going to need another seat in the plane just for my belly!

24 days to go!

I had my very last day at work last Wednesday. It was a bit of a weird one as the new nanny was there and there was very little to do aside from tell her bits and pieces about the girls and where everything was in the house. It was just a very lovely, chilled out day with very few PDAs in the evening when i said goodbye (which is a good thing as Ive never been overly good or comfortable with them) but I'm going back there next Friday for a yummy meal, which i am really looking forward to as Linda is a marvelous cook!

Well, as you can see from the title of this blog, there are only 24 days until my departure and I'm starting to get quite a few butterfly's in my stomach. I'm very very excited but also incredibly apprehensive but everything will work out for the best i am sure. I found the website for the hotel ill be staying in and it looks lovely and that has eased my mind some what ....http://www.patonghillside.com/. Doesn't it look lovely!? My home for a month!

I've emailed the two others on my course again and they are both getting just as excited. I have also email Mr F again and found out that there are now 6 people on the course, which is a little better, and he seems confident in some last minute applicants, so watch this space.

The Visa is ready to post and just a few phone calls to make and then i can start wondering what the heck i need to pack as i truly haven't got a clue.....any ideas??????

First Contact!

In my last entry i mentioned that I had asked Mr F to give out my email address to the others on the course with me. It appears he has remembered to do so, (Hurrah!) and i received two emails from students on the course with me at the ending of last week. One is a girl from Canada (22) and the other is a guy from Leeds (25). I have had a few emails between myself and the girl. Both of us, it seems, are very excited about the whole trip and both of us don't know what to pack! She seems friendly so hopefully we will get along well when we meet up in 8 weeks time. I wrote an email back but i am yet to receive a reply from the guy in Leeds, but hopefully that will come soon, with a little bit about himself so that we can both get an idea of what we all are like. The forth person is a mystery. Male, Female, young, older, who knows. So far i am the oldest at 30, but seeing that i have the mental age of a geeky teenager i don't think that will be an issue.

My friend Catherine has a friend who also (yes you've guessed it..) has a friend, who has been to Thailand and was teaching English out there for a few years. She has very kindly given me her phone number so that we can have a chat about her experiences out there and what i can expect out of the country and the course when i am there. A tutor of one of my girls also has family out there and has given me her daughters email address so that we can meet up if we want to when I'm in Bangkok, which is just super kind of her.

8 weeks to go! Blimey! It feels like time is speeding up. I only have 2 and a bit more weeks at work before i leave and have my month off before i fly out. A whole month off...i can not wait!!!!!
I still have to fill out the visa application but that is pretty much the last thing to do on my 'To Do List' and then all i have to do is sit on an aeroplane for about 12 hours or more and watch some clouds go by!

OK. I'm ready. Bring it on!

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.