English Camp, Upgrade, and Mermaids...

Last week I had English Camp on Monday and Tuesday. We were driven to a school that is 23 kilometers away in a town called Klang and had to be part of an all day English camp for a few different schools. The first day we got to do an activity with the kids, they were divided into groups and we did the same activity over and over again with the different groups. It got old, but it was nice to get away for a while. While at camp we met two other English teachers Bryan and Barry. They have been here for 7 and 9 years, dont particularly like it but wont leave. It is very common to find "farrangs" (foreigners) who say they dont like it but stay.

On day 2 we went on a tour of the city. It wasnt much of a tour.... We went to the dump, yes the dump, drove around a temple, went to some construction sight, and finally a playground. That was fun. I got to go on the monkey bars and act like I was a kid again... soooo much fun. We ended the tour by going to a rice mill. That was kind of cool.

The rest of the week was very typical except that on Thursday I got to move into the Western house!!! Woohoo!!! I got an upgrade! I dont live in a box anymore!!! I have a room with windows, a full cute kitchen, and a nice bathroom!!! and two new roommies (Danielle and Jessica) the other two English teachers.

Fridays I get off work at 11:30... which is amazing. This Friday it was the day of a famous poet from this area so the kids put on a show for the whole school. There was a band that played, some break dancing, and a mermaid competition. I guess this author wrote about a fat ugly mermaid or something... I dont know, obviously I cant understand Thai... and the teachers english is not good enough to explain what is going on. I had no idea what it was about and went to get some ice cream and run into boys and girls dressed as mermaids... it was strange to say the least!