We had a brilliant time in Nakhon Sawan meeting up with Beth and Holly. We were helping them with teaching in their schools which was really interesting as it allowed us to pick up some new teaching techniques. All of the teachers were very welcoming and were pleased to have us at the school, some of them even wanted us to stay for longer. I was having troubles with budgeting and was left with very little money which was rather stressful, my Mum kindly gave me £30 which is enough to last me till the end of the month.
Budgeting my money is a new experience for me, and one I am not too good at. I have found that to be able to afford food for the whole month, even if I am just spending my money on food, I have to buy less than I need to fill me, so I am generally hungry most of the time, unless a meal is bought for us.
We are going to start cooking soon and get taught how to use our very basic equipment to cook some lovely thai meals. This should help my money problem.
After receiving the TRX from home, I have gotten David into it, he seems to be enjoying it, but then if he isn't he just has me shouting at him till he finishes the workout. I am also feeling a lot better as it really does give you a good workout, something I have missed. Before, I had resorted to using makeshift weights which were impractical and sore on my hands.
I have also been doing some painting which is very relaxing, it allows me to forget about everything else. It is a nice feeling to paint because I want to and not because I have to have it inspected by my teachers. I saw some oil paints in the Arts and Culture centre in Bangkok and was tempted, but was discouraged by the price tag as 4 tubes would have amounted more than a months wages. Its a good job I stocked up from school and will have some waiting for me when I get home.
I am loving teaching at the moment, mainly because I am jut playing different games with the students which have them practicing their English, and laughing hysterically for an entire lesson.
We went rice picking the other day, I was sort of dragged into it against my will, but ended up enjoying it. We worked for about an hour and a half and were dripping with sweat.
It is so hot all the time, it was almost 40 degrees a couple of hours ago, and in summer, if we go down south. Peter said it could reach 50 and that we would burn in a minute or two. I will have to stock up on the hats and sun cream. It will be a shock to the system returning home next year when it has rarely been under 30 degrees and 25 degrees is seen as very cold.
I am sat in the coffee shop at the moment, saving my money as we get free cake and coffee, I have not spent anything since monday. So I might be able to afford tea tomorrow night!
Love and Kisses
Ben
x
Thursday, 22 November 2012
Tuesday, 13 November 2012
Presents.
I wanted this to have its own post because it was so amazing! I received a rather large parcel from home the other day and as soon as I opened it I was ecstatic. My hands were shaking I was that happy. I didn't know what to do with myself, I was running around like god knows what. I think I got a bit too excited with all the sweets and scoffed half of them almost immediately, it was the best. I did feel a little ill later on though.
I was so happy to have art materials as I had been really missing painting. I realised that the last time I had done any painting was in my Art exam for my A2. I did another on monday night and was quite pleased with the final outcome, I stuck to sunsets and landscapes, but missed out the birds.
I had quite a hard time explaining the teachers that the picture on my T-shirt of me, the one Kate Whiteside got me for my 18th, was actually me. David tried to back me up but they still didn't believe it. I didn't want to take my top off and show them as this would have been highly inappropriate, so I just left it there.
I rang my mum to say thank you and it was lovely to hear her voice, and my dad's as well. Nancy said hello, but in a very shy manor, unlike her.
I am still delighted about everything in the parcel, the TRX is great. I am getting David on it, he is not really used to excessive amounts of excersise, but hopefully I will be able to change that. I might take note of my Mum's motivational technique and just scream "COME ON" in his face. I may even add in "PAIN IS JUST WEAKNESS LEAVING THE BODY". David is going to love it!
HOO RAHH!!!
B
X
Travelling!
We have been rather busy since the last time I posted and it has all been very exciting. We have been having troubles with our visa and it has been rather stressful trying to sort it all out. The problem is that our school and town has never had to do anything like this as the project is new, and last year, Ali arrived with 3 months left with his visa already sorted. Therefore nobody seems to know what they are doing which led our teachers on a wild goose chase trying to track down the right documentation. This did lead to us making a visit to the immigration office in Bangkok at the end of last week with two teachers. It was quite tiring, but good to get out and about, the trip was pretty pointless as we didn't really need to go to Bangkok, but we ended up having a lovely lunch and going to the suit shop for a fitting for the suits we ordered on the first day in Bangkok.
We arrived back home on Friday rather exhausted after a day on the bus and I ended up reading pretty much all of eclipse, from the twilight series, which has been finished now and I have moved onto starter for ten.
Saturday was very exciting as we were meeting up with 4 other volunteers for a film, James Bond, and a good night out. I got my hair cut and ear pierced in the morning and we all met up at around 2 to check into a cheap hotel. We paid 150 baht each for the night. After the film, we retreated to the hotel to start drinking, I attempted to face time family and friends, but the wifi in the Hotel was poor and wouldn't allow it.
I drank red cock, which is a cheap white spirit that I picked up at Tesco for 130 baht. I proceeded to drink far too much and have memories of being up on stage in Mix Club without a shirt on and being applauded by lots of Thais. It was a very enjoyable evening, however, the morning after was not pleasant as a hangover plus the excessive heat can leave one feeling rather queasy.
We managed to get our visa sorted yesterday and last night, we had a lovely meal with Brayung (our host) and her family. She is an excellent cook and has promised to teach us how to make my favourite Thai dish, Panang Gai.
We caught a bus from Ubon last night and arrived in Bangkok at 5.30, which is really too early to function. So after monging out in a coffee shop for an hour or so, we dropped off our massive rucksacks at the train station and set off into the heart of Bangkok, coughing through the thick fog of fumes.
There is not much open until 9 or 10, so we visited a very extravagant temple, which isn't really my cup of tea, much like visiting museums or going on walks, or getting a jigsaw as a present, but I was rather pleased that we didn't have to hang around too long. We are now sat in a little coffee shop, using the Wifi and passing time so we can explore Bangkok more enthused.
We are heading North to Nakhon Sawan this afternoon to meet up with some other volunteers, Holly and Beth and to see their project. Amy and Robyn are also going this weekend, so I can see us having another big night out, I think ill stay away from the spirits this time.
Stay classy England,
Ben x
We arrived back home on Friday rather exhausted after a day on the bus and I ended up reading pretty much all of eclipse, from the twilight series, which has been finished now and I have moved onto starter for ten.
Saturday was very exciting as we were meeting up with 4 other volunteers for a film, James Bond, and a good night out. I got my hair cut and ear pierced in the morning and we all met up at around 2 to check into a cheap hotel. We paid 150 baht each for the night. After the film, we retreated to the hotel to start drinking, I attempted to face time family and friends, but the wifi in the Hotel was poor and wouldn't allow it.
I drank red cock, which is a cheap white spirit that I picked up at Tesco for 130 baht. I proceeded to drink far too much and have memories of being up on stage in Mix Club without a shirt on and being applauded by lots of Thais. It was a very enjoyable evening, however, the morning after was not pleasant as a hangover plus the excessive heat can leave one feeling rather queasy.
We managed to get our visa sorted yesterday and last night, we had a lovely meal with Brayung (our host) and her family. She is an excellent cook and has promised to teach us how to make my favourite Thai dish, Panang Gai.
We caught a bus from Ubon last night and arrived in Bangkok at 5.30, which is really too early to function. So after monging out in a coffee shop for an hour or so, we dropped off our massive rucksacks at the train station and set off into the heart of Bangkok, coughing through the thick fog of fumes.
There is not much open until 9 or 10, so we visited a very extravagant temple, which isn't really my cup of tea, much like visiting museums or going on walks, or getting a jigsaw as a present, but I was rather pleased that we didn't have to hang around too long. We are now sat in a little coffee shop, using the Wifi and passing time so we can explore Bangkok more enthused.
We are heading North to Nakhon Sawan this afternoon to meet up with some other volunteers, Holly and Beth and to see their project. Amy and Robyn are also going this weekend, so I can see us having another big night out, I think ill stay away from the spirits this time.
Stay classy England,
Ben x
Tuesday, 6 November 2012
Remember remember the 5th of November.
We decided to throw a little party for bonfire night and after telling our host, the ball started rolling until it seemed as if half the school would turn up at our humble home.
I decided that I wanted to enlighten some of the teachers to toffee apples, so after buying all of the ingredients, which isn't an extensive lift, I began. For my first batch I used muscavado sugar so the toffee would be more like treacle, it was very stressful as I had to heat it to 140 degrees, and I had a limited selection of tools, so i was trying to do it all with a metal spoon. The toffee was bubbling away in the pan and looked rather terrifying, I then just went for it and started to coat the apples in this bubbling mixture and overall was quite successful. The next batch worked even better, I am not sure whether it was due to the fact that I used different sugar, or just improved after my first attempt.
They were delicious, the best toffee apples I have ever tasted and everyone else enjoyed them as well which was good. We invited some volunteers from near our project and the teachers supplied the food, which was lovely. So, along with a quaint little bonfire that just made us sweat and an assortment of fireworks, we had a nice night. There were some problems with the fireworks and one I set off went straight towards Lewis, hitting him in the ankle and he just managed to get out of the way before the final explosion.
I did the gentlemanly thing and offered my bed to the girls, which the eagerly accepted, which left me on the floor, leading to a very poor nights sleep, meaning that I was not in the best state for teaching. Apart from my two lessons, I have been asleep pretty much all day, waking up about an hour ago feeling much fresher, but also with the realisation that I might not get to sleep so early tonight.
We went to Phana on Saturday to see Robyn and Claire, it was nice to catch up with them and after some free food and some whisky, we settled down to watch a film. We know how to PARTY!
This saturday should be somewhat more eventful as we are going to Ubon with all of the volunteers in the area for a night out and are going to stay in a cheap hotel.
Next week we are going to Bangkok for a day, then to Nakhon Sawan to visit some more volunteers. We are not teaching next week because most of the students will be helping at home with the rice harvest.
Everything has been good apart from one thing, the death of my phone, I was on my back and it fell out of my pocket. I assumed it would be fine as it had survived a similar trauma without a scratch. To my dismay, it just would not come back to life. The worst thing is that I had to buy a new one, which has made a rather large dint in my months allowance. It is much more difficult to live off £90 or 4500 THB than I had originally thought it would have been, money just seems to vanish, even though I am being very anal about what food I buy and making sure that it does not go to waste.
The biggest worry for me is that I will not be able to afford a substantial amount of food to keep myself in shape, so I might be returning home next year actually fitting my Grandads description of be of being a long, long... pipe cleaner.
B
x
I decided that I wanted to enlighten some of the teachers to toffee apples, so after buying all of the ingredients, which isn't an extensive lift, I began. For my first batch I used muscavado sugar so the toffee would be more like treacle, it was very stressful as I had to heat it to 140 degrees, and I had a limited selection of tools, so i was trying to do it all with a metal spoon. The toffee was bubbling away in the pan and looked rather terrifying, I then just went for it and started to coat the apples in this bubbling mixture and overall was quite successful. The next batch worked even better, I am not sure whether it was due to the fact that I used different sugar, or just improved after my first attempt.
They were delicious, the best toffee apples I have ever tasted and everyone else enjoyed them as well which was good. We invited some volunteers from near our project and the teachers supplied the food, which was lovely. So, along with a quaint little bonfire that just made us sweat and an assortment of fireworks, we had a nice night. There were some problems with the fireworks and one I set off went straight towards Lewis, hitting him in the ankle and he just managed to get out of the way before the final explosion.
I did the gentlemanly thing and offered my bed to the girls, which the eagerly accepted, which left me on the floor, leading to a very poor nights sleep, meaning that I was not in the best state for teaching. Apart from my two lessons, I have been asleep pretty much all day, waking up about an hour ago feeling much fresher, but also with the realisation that I might not get to sleep so early tonight.
We went to Phana on Saturday to see Robyn and Claire, it was nice to catch up with them and after some free food and some whisky, we settled down to watch a film. We know how to PARTY!
This saturday should be somewhat more eventful as we are going to Ubon with all of the volunteers in the area for a night out and are going to stay in a cheap hotel.
Next week we are going to Bangkok for a day, then to Nakhon Sawan to visit some more volunteers. We are not teaching next week because most of the students will be helping at home with the rice harvest.
Everything has been good apart from one thing, the death of my phone, I was on my back and it fell out of my pocket. I assumed it would be fine as it had survived a similar trauma without a scratch. To my dismay, it just would not come back to life. The worst thing is that I had to buy a new one, which has made a rather large dint in my months allowance. It is much more difficult to live off £90 or 4500 THB than I had originally thought it would have been, money just seems to vanish, even though I am being very anal about what food I buy and making sure that it does not go to waste.
The biggest worry for me is that I will not be able to afford a substantial amount of food to keep myself in shape, so I might be returning home next year actually fitting my Grandads description of be of being a long, long... pipe cleaner.
B
x
Thursday, 1 November 2012
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:
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
x
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