Hannah’s Weblog

So I have been in Thailand two weeks now. I am now settling into Thai life and loving it more everyday. This week has flown by, and I am still loving teaching at the school. We have had to make some alterations which I hope will work out for the best. Basically the way this volunteering teaching is set up, is that 3 of us teach each class, plus one translator. The first week this was fine, as we were just finding our feet and discovering how much the different classes know. But now its too many teachers spoiling the english broth….Ruth and I are pretty strong minded people and we week really well together but have decided that we will get more out of the lessons if we teach alone. The children too, will receive more classes. So a few conversations with the school and some rescheduling and we are set to start on Monday. This way we will teach classes simultaneously, teaching from 8.30 until 11. I only hope that this will work, as finishing everyday at 11am is pretty early. Hopefully we can and will find some other projects to work on…The children though are simply delightful! Most mornings I am given drawings and notes from them, they love the attention that we give them , and definitely love learning English! This weekend, we have been invited to a teachers conference. Kind of sucks as its our weekend, and meant I couldn’t go to Chang Mai with the others, but I will have to see how that goes……

This week I have been exploring Surin by bicycle. It reminds me of Japan, and is such a wonderful way of getting around! I have my basket and my bell, and am very happy The roads are a little hairy though, especially around schools where the students on mopeds seem to flow is every direction regardless of the main flow of traffic! But seriously I know everyone says it, it is even written at the airport, that Thailand is the land of smile. But it seriously is!! I can only speak for Surin, but everywhere we cycle people smile, and great us in the adorable Thai style ( hands in a prayer position and a  bow) smiles smiles smiles…..I love this kind spirit!

So this week Ruth and I came across a huge festival. 100’s of monks wearing bright orange robes, with yellow sashes ( as they are youngsters) crowded around the temples near the starfish office. It was such an amazing sight! We stood and watched for ages, taking in the special occassion. All of the young boys clasped huge bouquets of plastic red and pink flowers, teddies and certificates. I am not sure what the event was celebrating, but a few broken conversations with soem of the older monks, we gathered it was some sort of graduation. It was magical! The temples are also truly beautiful. The colours, gold, pink bright blue. I have found them so peaceful and love sitting and thinking near them. Bhudism is such a peaceful and forgiven religion, while Ruth and I were in the company of all these monks the air literally felt calm and peaceful.

So as I have this teachers conference this weekend I couldn’t go to Chang Mai with the others, they set off yesterday for a 15 hour bus ride. Stuart, Ruth and I were left to ourselves and decided we needed a night out! We were sat on the verander about to go out and the rains came….We couldn’t let it stop us so grabbed hooded jackets and headed up to Big C to grab a tuc-tuc. Now this is something I have noticed in Surin and it’s kind of annoying…anytime you want to walk or are not in need of a ride tuc-tuc riders pester you. Whenever you NEED a ride, they all hide away!!! We stood in the rain about 15 minutes and not one single one passed by….finally we saw one at the traffic lights, so frantically started jumping up and down true ferang style….! He stopped We headed to a place we had eaten before, but this time sat outside, there was a band playing and lots of Thai men getting drunk. I had phad thai…its sooooo good! A few beers later we decided to continue on somewhere else. The next street looked lively so we strolled down. Mmmmm…a kind of dodgy street….blacked out windows, girls hanging around. One of them was definitely a strip club as they hadn’t even bothered tinting it out. You could see the girls dancing on the stages inside. We didn’t fancy going in any of these so thought we would check out Speed3, a club we had heard about. By now it was 10.30 and early in Surin, as the place was practically empty! The ratio of staff to customers was kind of uncomfortable. They either sat slumped in a corner, or sat drinking whisky at one of the little tables. We were ushered to one of the tables, and ordered 3 singha beers.  There was a huge stage and a young girl was singing. I remember thinking, why is she so genky? There’s no one here…I was in for a surprise. About 20 minutes and 6 acts later the lighting dimmed and the smoke machines began clouding the stage. I am surprised the drummer at the back could breath as everyone disappeared from sight. Out came 3 dancers. White shirts sleezly undone to their belly buttons, skinny black jeans and sparkly waistcoats. They busted some awesome rountines, one step left and kick. Two steps right and kick. Turn around and look sexy! The female singer was adorning a white skimpy leotard witha black corset. She had long white feathers coming out of her hair!! We all looked at eachother and were like what the f***!hahahahha… The next hour proceeded pretty much the same. the costumes and dancing just got better and better. Bikinis with tassles, lycra,sequins, leather, pvc…..yup. you name it they were sporting it! It was fabulous! Then they took a well deserved break. And this was when the party started. The club exploded into a dance fest, we boogied to eminem, pussy cat dolls and some wicked clubbing classics!! The club filled up. everyone orders bottle of whisky and soda water….so you can imagine it was messy. The Thais sure do know how to party though! It was a great night!