Koh SaMOOi

Hello Blogspot! It's been a while! Tomorrow makes a week of me reaching the beautiful island of Koh Samui! A crazy change in my life plan! After 12 years of being a corporate slave, I'm now planning to be a slave to cute, little brats what want to learn English! In a strange turn of events last month, I signed up to do a 4 week TEFL course on Samui. www.samuitefl.com Week one has been intense, hot, humid, extremely sweaty, but more than all that EXTREMELY EXCITING!! Classes start at 8:45am and end around 3pm, but we usually end up staying later to finish homework and prep for our TPs (teacher pracs.). The days seem to just fly by - 24 hrs, gone like that!!!! Except for Friday afternoon, I haven't noticed time pass. But that was because we were exhausted after our first TP, and I felt as if my brain was experiencing an information overload - and couldn't process anything more!! Quick day by day recap since my departure from Calcutta on Friday night: Fri 8Mar - uneventful flight. Too many mosquitoes inside the plane - never seen that before!! Also since it was an Indigo flight, I felt like I was going to Bombay and not Bangkok! Great part was that we landed 50min. early! How that's possible I'm not sure! After getting to Mike's place, he took me out to party with his friends. Always nice to get right into the action on arrival! Sat 9Mar - I completely forgot it was my Dad's death anniversary - that's the first time I've missed it, probably because I never saw the date in writing. Anyway I had a lovely day with Mike & was really glad he took me to the station. Simple things become so stressful in unfamiliar surroundings, so I was truly grateful to have him around. We had a beer at the station before I got on the train. Sadly I didn't have a berth, but the chair-car wasn't too uncomfortable. The best part was the 'restaurant' where I had a beer & some dinner & watched random people! Sun 10Mar - Got the bus/ferry to Samui without any trouble or stress. Checked into Grandma's House before noon. Got down to unpacking & setting myself up immediately - which didn't give me time to feel lost! In the evening I took a stroll to the beach & watched the sunset. Ate some really good food in the local road side restaurants. Mon 11Mar - Back2Skool!!! First day of TEFL. Met Rosanne (owner), Kathryn (Teacher/Partner) my lovely classmates (Skye 19, Damon 23, Giny 24, Deb 42, Nicola 36, Cindy 29). Seems so far away now - but I'd better remember what was taught - because we have a test next week!! We had a LONGGG walk home from school. Tried to sign up for a Muay Thai course but the 1.5km detour seems a bit too much to do! Specially since we walked all the way - to find no one/ no flyers/ no phone nos. to find out class timings!!! Tue 12Mar - Started class with my 'warmer' - and everyone loved it! I felt SO GOOD! We had birthday drinks for Cindy that night - at the Boat Bar. My first trink on the island - Sangsom :-) Wed 13Mar - School was quite hectic since we started prepping for our first TP. We had a lovely dinner with Rosanne, Kathryn & their families at Cafe Na. Really good food! Thur 14Mar - Stressful day, evening & night prepping for Fri's TP! The day ended with salsa music blaring from the bar next door and me lying in bed & running over my lesson plan! How times have changed!! Hehe! Fri 15Mar - My FIRST CLASS! I had the cutest 3 yr. old's to teach. Crazy how time flies when you're having a blast! Tho' there were a few panic moments in between! First off, I forgot to look at my lesson plan - till mid way through! Fortunately I was on track - and just needed a few reminders! The kids didn't understand a word of English - so it was hilarious how they repeated EVERY word I said!!! So even if I said 'sit' - they said SIT! hahaha! Once I got used to that I realised my only shot at any communicating would be to play dumb charades! I have a few faces stuck in my head right now - I hope I never forget them. There was a little boy with Downs Syndrome and it was awesome to see how two little girls took care of him. Such cuteness packed into tiny, little bodies! Though naturally there was a 'naughty' one, who decided to play tug-of-war with me and my flashcard!!! I have so much to learn :-) At the end of a long, long day (TP was followed by a full day's class & prepping for Monday), we all enjoyed a lovely evening drinking at the Reggae Bar. Sat 16Mar - Spent the morning lazing at 'home'. Cindy picked me up on our scooter for the day and we spent a lovely afternoon on ChoengMon beach. More soon I hope!