Back to school.

We arrived back in Muang Samsip on Sunday morning after narrowly avoiding another nights stay on the hard, uncomfortable bed at Mister Nick's house. We spent all of Sunday around the house, apart from a trip to Tesco for our weekly shop. We slept, cleaned and planned for our lessons this week.

I was nervous about teaching again after having more than a month off but also rather eager to return to the classroom. I was feeling a bit down at the start of the week and I couldn't put my finger on why. I was feeling a little homesick and really wanted to be at home in my own bed. However, the change from the busy life in Chiang Mai, where we were doing something different everyday, to returning to the comparable monotony of life around school.

Things started to pick up as the week went on and I started to sink back into the life of a teacher, enjoying the company of different teachers and being able to make simple conversation with some who I had never had the chance to speak to because of the language barrier.

Tuesday was exciting as we found out about a festival where the monks came out of the temples after 3 months, the celebrations involved a lot of fireworks, which I was more than happy to be a part of. A quick trip to the market and we returned home with bags full of assorted explosives. Miss Brayung then took us to a school just outside of Muang Samsip to let off our fireworks and she also bought us some huge flares, which were great fun. We visited the temple to pay respect to the monks and were suddenly attacked by a gang of young children armed with firecrackers. We chased them away and they ran as fast as they could as they were screaming with laughter.

We have also planned a little party for bonfire night and have invited teachers and some other volunteers, so we have some fireworks left over and have been searching for marshmallows to toast over a bonfire.

I have had some very successful days of teaching this week, on of my lessons yesterday involved a very heated competition of Chinese whispers.

I had my first Muay Thai lesson on Wednesday and it was great, I am still feeling a little sore as the constant moving, kicking and punching really takes it out of you, I am still looking forward to next weeks lesson though!

We went to Ubon last night to meet up with Claire and Robyn, we were planning on having a nice dinner at a floating restaurant, but these thing never seem to go to plan. We realised that Skyfall had been released, so we hurried to the cinema to watch it. I had a moment of panic when I realised I didn't have enough money for the cinema, as well as the taxi home, and I was not able to get any from the bank, so I resorted to borrowing some from David, which I have yet to pay back. Skyfall was excellent, it is one of my favourite films and hopefully I will be able to budget another visit.

I received my first letter from home the other day from Kate, which was lovely, even though it was quite difficult to read, it was a breeze in comparison to my Mums, or Davids. Enclosed was a scratch card, which I ended up winning £2 on, which was great until I realised that I can't change it over here.

It would be lovely to here from more people and to get more letters or packages, so if you fancy sending me a letter my address is:

Muang Samsip AmphawanWittaya School

Amphur Muang Sam Sip 

Ubon Ratchathani 

34140

Thailand

They don't celebrate christmas here, but we are going to have our own celebrations. I would absolutely love it if I received a few gifts to open on Christmas morning.

That's all for now,

Ben 

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