Hello,

Teaching again today and yesterday. Yesterday i felt a bit dishartened as i only taught one class, class 5, and i tried to teach them about time. The class is in general quite naughty, and a lot of them didnt really get it, so it was more difficult to control them. because they found the time so difficult we didnt get onto the game i had planned for the end of the lesson, so it felt like a bit of a boring lesson. Went back to the pool in Singburi yesterday afternoon to work on my tan. Today i was back at the school and taught class 3 (8 year olds), who i have not taught before. i tried to teach them days of the week, but it becamae apparent very quickly that their grasp of english was not good. so i stuck up the months of the year on bit of paper around the class room, asked them to move their desks to the side and tried to play a game with them, where when i shouted a month, they had to run to the month they were born in. i got the 'English teacher' to come in and explain it to them, although she didnt understand me eihter! So in the end i just shouted a month and got them to run to it (i had to point to which one it was (even for the teacher). The kids loved it though, it was so amazing to watch them have fun and also pick up what the months were. At the end of the lesson they all came over to day goodbye and gave me high fives, and weird handshakes, and some of them told me they loved me and asked me to give them a kiss. Ahh they were so sweet. I think they really enjoyed the lesson. I then had an hour until my next lesson, in which i prepared for my classes tomorrow. Good job i did becasue i was then asked to teach class 6, not class 5 as i was originally told, so luckily iwas prepared. I taught them about time, and they understood it much better than class 5 did yesteruday. Some of the kids are naughty, but by the end i had built up a good rapport with them. i took a drawing one of them had done of a monster off of them (they were supposed to be working) and hshowed it to the class and instead of just telling them off, i asked them if they thought it looked like me ad pretended to be upset. they thought it was really funny and were well behaved after that. The girl that was being naughty even wrote i love rosie on her work book. We also had time for the game i had preparted about telling the time, and gave the winning team stickers. We had some spare time so we played bingo and hanman which they love, and gave out some prizes for that too. Tomorrow i have class 5 and 6 again. I really enjoy teaching, and i can really see myself doing it, although i dont know if i could be arsed with all the hard work i would get back home. but i actually kind of enjoyed the lesson planning and the interaction with the children (when they are being good). For those of you that watch the league of gentlemen, the english teacher is an exact Thai version of Tubs, exact same mannerisms, the way she bends and nods slightly when you talk to her, and sayd 'yessss'. I find myself trying not to laugh. The head teacher is really nice and speaks good englis. he was telling me that in vietnam they eat dog and it is not very nice, and i should go to Chang mai instead. i dont have time for chang mai, so maybe that is for a future trip.

So tongiht is my last night in this little village near Singburi. I will really miss it here, it is beautiful, and you really get to see how thai people live here, it is not on the tourist trail. However i feel that it is time to stop having my hand held now. beiong here is like being on a school trip, everything is done for you and you get told where to go and get taken from A to B. I will miss that a lot, it is nice to not have to think and not rely on yourself, but i know i should move on now. So tomorrow i am taking a bus to Bangkok (two days earlier that planned) with some of the girls here, and they will stay there for one night, then i will be really on my own. I am going to stay there for three days and then go to Cambodia. Not sure how i am going to get to Cambodia yet, i can either take a 4 hour bus, to the border, then a tuk tuk to the next town, then 3 to 6 hour taxi. All on what is reportedly the 'worst road in South east asia'. or i can fly. however it is expensive to fly (about 150 pounds) for only a 45 minute journey. there are reports in all the guides here that one of the airlines is bribing one of the cambodian/thai officials so that they purposely dont improve the road so that people fly. So do i take an allday ngihtmare journey (for about40 pounds), or do i pay the money to the fat cats and fly? hmm. answers on a postcard please. am thinking am going to be a proper traveller and take the road. will be nice to see the countryside i suppose!!!

Will try and email from bangkok.