It is almost a week in my new school. I have over 700 students in a week all between the ages of 6-10! It maked for an interesting day everyday! My school is very large, it has about 5 buildings with another two under construction now. These will be for kindergarton (anuban) and the sports facilities as i understand it. The typical day starts with the flag ceremony in the morning followed by 3 one hour lessons (no break) then lunch and another 3 one hour lessons. A long day for most of the kids but the lessons are fun and they can leave the classroom whenever they want to get water and go to the toilet etc... Lunch is supplied to me but it generally is indescribable, it is usually rice with a very spicy paste or curry, vegetables, fish soup and some sort of sweet that they say is dessrt but looks nothing like anything in the UK. Generally though it is too hot to eat anyway. So i attempt the spicy stuff while the Thai teachers laugh, then tackle the dessert before admitting defeat.

My landlady has taken to treating me as her daughter, she worries for me, cooks for me and teaches me Thai every evening, before getting my scooter she even took me everywhere. It is nice to have such a friendly face around, her whole family are very nice to me.

At the weekend i went down to Na chon chisee (i know i will have spelt it wrong, sorry Jackie and Jade). I went to their school for the day which was such an experience, so different to mine. They are so looked after, brought in western food for lunch, given own space to relax in. It is also a private school so much smaller classes and all the children want to learn. It did give me afew tips on what to do with my own classes which was very helpful. After that we went to Bangkok for the weekend where we met up with more people. Walking down khaosan road and knowing so many people was strange, it was like a large unplanned reunion of the training week. It was good to catch up with so many people and find out their stories but it was also good to let your hair down and enjoy the madness that is khaosan because in my town there is nothing like it.

I finally picked up my scooter today, a little more expensive than i wanted to pay but freedom none the less. I cant stand relying on someone for lifts or taxi drivers after having my own car for so long. The feeling of driving home on it was like nothing else, in the town most people drive scooters so there are lanes and spaces for them everywhere. It is so safe people just leave the helmets on top of the scooters when parked as no one will steal it. I went for a random drive today to get used to the scooter.

I am currently laying on my bed with the air con on listening to a massive thunder storm going on out side and watching three geckos running around my wall. Sometimes i just have to stop and take it all in to realise how lucky i am to be doing this. It is a strange feeling having so much time on my hands, i am not used to being able to go for ice cream, practice scooter riding, going for coffee, having a thai lesson, pamper session, writing blog all in one evening and it is only just 8pm. Cant be a bad life :-).