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8 พฤษภาคม 2551
 
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So far.... erm...

Am slowly getting used to life here. Things are slower here; much, much sloooooooower than in Bangkok. For someone used to being able to chat to friends, or buy food in the small hours of the morning, it's hard to lie down on a mattress at 11pm and think of sleep. As soon as I get home, a feeling of wanting to go out again, but not knowing where to go, or who to go with, takes over.

Last week I watched 8 DVD's in 3 days, more movies than I've seen in total over the last 3 months. Almost all of them were watched on my laptop, late at night, whilst I fought off feelings of wanting to call friends back in Bangkok, to tell them just how lonely I felt, and cursed myself for not agreeing to have cable TV (bit difficult when you don't have a TV..) and high speed interent.

It's funny. I only ever feel lonely late at night. The rest of the day it's the opposite. Although I don't have much to do at school yet, I hardly ever seem to have any time to myself. People want me to do stuff with them straight after school (around 4-7ish...), the very time that, if it's not raining I want to take my bike out into the country for an hour or two before it gets dark.

But then, early evening, when, in Bangkok I'd be starting to think about of going out somewhere, everyone's busy with their families, or wants to sit at home relaxing and watching TV. No one, except me wants to go anywhere.

I'm sure I'll get used to it. I need to. There's only so many watchable Ewan McGregor, Johnny Depp, Leonardo De Caprio and John Cusack movies in my DVD collection and, at the rate I'm watching them, I'll have got through the lot in a few weeks.

Once I get into teaching (although I've been at school for a week now, I haven't done that much actual teaching yet...) I'm sure I'll be too tired to be staring at the celing at 2am each morning wondering whether to try and find some way to sleep or to change the DVD again.

It's just that there's not much to do at school at the moment. There's a lot of preparation to be done, but its hard to prepare for something when you don't know your students, or what they are capable of. There's also a lot of names to be learn but that's hard when you don't have classlists. At the moment school is 20 hours of teaching with an equal ammount of sitting around waiting to teach.

The sitting around bit's not too bad. The other foreign teachers are both really friendly. They're both English and, like me, (so far...) seem to have fairly laid back personalities. There's free (but not so fast) internet though, I'm not sure I want to use the net at work too much. But sitting around all day, doesn't tire you out. I guess I need to find something (some exercise, or maybe, as people in the market keep suggesting, a bf) that does.

My Neighbours

I've managed to meet most of my neighbours now. I'm living next to a family who let their dog, a real life version of santa's little helper from the simpsons, do most of the talking for them. They silently slip into and out of the house at all hours of the night without me noticing a thing but, their dog goes crazy whenever I try to do the same thing. Their youngest son seems full of energy. So much so that he likes to crash his bike into my gate at 6 every morning, though I kind of like this. Being woke up to the sound of the gate rattling and the house shaking beats the alarm clock on my mobile phone anyday.

Next door but one are a couple from Phrae (the guy) and Phayao (the girl.) They both seemed friendly enough, and, one evening last week, insisted that I have dinner with them, and get to know them and their kids. They cooked soggy vegetable and steak, especially for me. I took a few nibbles and, when prompted said the obligatory 'aroy dee' (it tastes good.) After I'd stuffed the first couple of mouthfuls down, they kept trying to pile more on my plate. I made excuse after excuse (I'm full... I've eaten already - kind of true. I'd spent a day pigging out on Thai kanom at school and wasn't that hungry anyway) but was far too embarrassed to mention the real reason... I don't actually like steak (or most farang food in general) that much... at all.

I met the guys who live across from me a few days ago. They're like a filipino version of the flanders family (from the Simpsons...) but nowhere near as bad as that sounds. They said hello, invited me to come round for a chat sometime, told me a bit about their work (they work for an NGO nearby) and, somehow or other only mentioned 'finding god' once - though, once was probably a bit too much for my liking.

There's also a probation officer, a couple of old people who like saying hello to me, then looked really freaked as soon as I reply and a lot of big scary dogs. I feel a bit selfish going home late at night (it will probably be 10pm when I finish writing this) as the sound of barking dogs echoes down every street that I walk down... And the closer I get to home, the louder, and more annoyed each dog becomes. So far, 3 of them have bared their teeth at me. One day I'm convinced that one of them will go for me. I'm not sure why they are so vicious. Maybe they're not used to white faces or, maybe, like the town's mosquitos they have this misguided idea that foreigners taste better.

Where I live there are also lots of insects. Fortunately most of them live outside my house. It's nice to fall asleep to the sound of geckos and frogs croaking away and wake up to the sound of birds singing and cockrels crowing. There are also those that aren't so cute. Big cockroaches and beetles, and large black and red biting ants. There's another sort of ant too. It has thin cream coloured wings, flies around for an hour or too and then dies. I'm not sure what it's proper scientific name is so I call it a 'suicidal flying ant'. I have no idea why (maybe they're as scared of the neighbour's dog as I am...) but for some reason they much prefer to die on my doorstep. Every night I come home to see hundreds of wings scattered over the top 3 steps and small black insects crawling around looking for a good deathbed. Judging by the number of dead ones I see each morning, my top step appears to be the perfect place.




 

Create Date : 08 พฤษภาคม 2551
1 comments
Last Update : 13 พฤษภาคม 2551 22:12:19 น.
Counter : 341 Pageviews.

 

Kerrie, Please you teach me when I write the wrong English.
I'm trying to read and,trying to understand your tell.My
English is too bad.
I think that you very happy with your slowly getting used to life there.
Your NeighbourHs are nice.

 

โดย: tandao IP: 202.149.24.161 15 พฤษภาคม 2551 14:58:06 น.  

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kerrie
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กรุงเทพ Thailand

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