I'm writing this feeling quite over excited!

Thanks to the university in my town having a massive graduation next week I get from friday till next thursday off so I've got my ticket for an overnight bus to bangkok tomorrow after school and will be spending some time in the big smoke! I get in at 5am and my mate who i'm staying with is at school till 3.30 so I'm wasting the day away meeting a guy (phil) who is a tour guide here now who i met here last time I was travelling for coffee and I'm gonna head to one of the "best cinemas in the world" to catch an english showing of Harry Potter! (the one cinema here only shows dubbed movies! boo!). after that the plan is to go to jens have a little kip, get a shower by which time some of the interns surrounding bangkok will be winging their way to meet us for some drinks! plus on sunday I'm heading with jen to Koh Chang for a couple of nights and days of sunning on the beach and snorkeling before heading back east! JOY!!!!!!

The Koh Chang thing is a top idea need to figure out the practicalities of how long it'll take but I'm gonna get some beach time for sure! maybe Koh Samet if not Chang!

Woop!

Had an amazing week last week too, the school competition and the festivals (chinese on my day trip to kalasin and Loy Krathong on sunday back here in Sakon Nakhon) were out of this world. The competition was great fun with a trip to some temples in the sfternoon, the next day way all traditional thai dancing and was soooo beautiful! I headed to Kalain friday night and woke up sat morning to the sound of fire crackers being set off at the temple next door, a bit of investigation showed the dragons and parade of traditional dress and make up and drumming. after that PatricK's teacher took us to the dino park where the story goes...

Some monks at the near by temple kept dreaming about dino's in kalasin and in about 1994 they started to do a bit of digging, they did indeed find dino bones on the sight where the monks had been living and now there is a museum showing some of the findings next to the dig site! After that we went to another AMAZING mountain temple where we were invited to prey! The mountain temples are so much more basic than the ones in the cities but they feel much more spiritual. They are all active temple where monks are living and studying and with so little tourism around here when you visit you feel very humble to see the day to day activities happening! One in particular (the one completely made of wood) I found mind blowingly beautiful, very spiritual and just soooo peaceful, I could have spent all day just sitting in there, makes you understnad how buddists can spend so much time meditating in these conditions!

I headed back here saturday night and had a chilled night in, sunday morning I did my weeks lesson plans then headed over to jenny and loves for birthday cake! (jenny's birthday) we spent the day teaching their private students and then had some down time before picking up pizza and ice cream cake and going over to EQ's aunts place again for a birthday/Loy Krathong meal. After dinner my adopted family took me to Loy Krathong down at the local lake, fireworks, floats and fountains galore!

Loy krathong is a buddist festival where you pray and give thanks to the water gods. The Krathongs (the small floats decorated with flowers candles and joss sticks) are lit, the candle burns down and lights the joss stick and you float it out into the lake or river while making a wish and giving thanks to the water gods and your ancestors! It was truly beautiful and an honor to be part of! After a good walk round and many hello's we went back to the bar for ice cream cake before heading home! I took a million photos and EQ was hysterical panicing every time he thought theyd lost me coz I'd stop to take photos! it was so sweet. I found out he lives with his aunt as his family live to far from our school for him to commute it, they were visiting for the festival so got to meet all of them too! The little one in the middle of the picture is EQ's little brother!

School is going ok, the kids are still a nightmare but I think my attitude is slowly changing enough to get a long with it. Actually had a great lesson with my final class today, they were really enthusiastic and at the end practically mobbed me for my stickers!

I scared two of my classes today by springing a test on them! hehe it was quite good for me though, just on the stuff I've covered so far, a gap fill sheet. The class that has paid attention did it in about 15 minutes but the one thats a nightmare struggled to do it in the hour and got it wrong, made me realise that they are learning stuff, or at least the one that want to are! The fact that 6/1 couldnt do it told me I havent been setting my lessons to low (easy) and that 6/5 must have learnt it from me! yay!

Also I have to set exams for their mid term and end of term so it gives me a good idea of what I need to do since they all HAVE to pass! haha!

Anyhoo I'm off to bed since the VIP bus will be my bed tomorrow night! (no trains from here!)

Love and miss you all!