Oh those Thai crazies, they are out there.

I was all set for a relaxing weekend, with Friday off from school, to lay on an island 3 hrs South of Bangkok with my friend Glyn. I head out Friday morning get into Bangkok on time.. things are running smoothly enough for me to stop and eat some delicious American food before I head to the bus station. As I cross the street to the bus Station an attendant from one of the buses pulling out runs off the bus and asks where I'm heading. I say "wangchan, Rayong provience". He agrees shaking his head "yes, yes, here, here" I repeat.. "rayong? going to rayong?" he assures me that this is the bus to Wangchan, Rayong. Hesitantly, I get on the bus.. it can't be that easy.

Glyn tells me that it is a 3 hours ride to Wangchan and a 2.5 hour ride to Rayong city. I sit in the front row so the attendant can remember to tell me where to get off since I have never been there before. As 3 hours pass, no signs of wangchan or bus stops approaching. We also seem to be stopping every 5 minutes to pick up and drop off new people. I ask the man again.. "wangchan?" he says he will let me know when we get there. So I tell Glyn that we are definitely going to wangchan but I seem to not be describing what Glyn wants to hear. Finally, at the 5 hour mark, the attendant, who's smiling face I was about to drop kick, lets me off in Rayong city. Not only was I not in Wangchan but I had another 40 minute Songtaew ride into Glyn's town. After which Glyn had told me that we missed the last ferry to ko samet so we couldn't get there this weekend.

When I finally arrived in Wangchan we decided that drinks would be first priority and that the weekend we'll think about later. We hung out with Glyn's Thai friends and decided we would head into Bangkok the next day for the rest of the weekend. Later in the night Big Ass' (Glyn's Thai friend) mother comes back a bit after midnight with her catchings of grosshoppers. She goes into the fields at night and catches them by hand to sell at the market. Apparently they are quite the money maker. She fried some up for us.. and yes.. I ate some. They pretty much taste like whatever you fry them in, so it wasn't too bad. Quite an experience.

The next morning we get to the bus station and I'm actually quite excited that this bus ride will only be 3 hours. We get on the bus and an hour into our ride we hear a loud banging noise. We glance back and two rows back a Thai man is banging his head, hard, against the bus window. He had a charlie mansion look on his face and the attendant came running and wrestled him down. We had to pull the bus over at the local police station. The window was pretty well cracked and we were surprised the man's head wasn't swollen. They got him off the bus and since the window was broken we couldn't use that bus. We had to sit on the side of the road at high noon in the dead heat and wait for another bus to pass us by. We sat for about 2 hours. Which made this bus ride, another 5 hour ride. Of course.

Glyn and I found out later from a Thai woman who spoke some english that this man apparently wanted to break through the window and jump out of the bus?! So at least I didn't get to see that happen. Only in Thailand.

... and we had a good rest of the weekend once we got to Bangkok.

Back in action..

Well it has been a while readers. When I last left, it was Song Kran in April and I was preparing to be homeward bound. Well I've been home and back and then some. Home was great, and even better to see some familiar faces. But as it is never a dull moment in Thailand lots have been going on since I've been back. School started middle of May and brought with it new teachers, new students and new schedule. We are expecting more teachers middle of May which is exciting and we have a new teachers aid Sam from Tazmania and also a new Chinese teacher, SiSi.

June 4th was the first school-related "no classes" day so far this year. It was "teacher day" (wai kru). The gist of this day is that there are no classes and most of the teachers sit on a stage and all the student present their flower/fruit/vegetable arrangements to the teachers on stage. Now let me remind you the school is M1-M6 each class having many classes within the grade. For example: M1/1, M1/2, M1/3, M1/4.. and so on until about M1/10 or so. For each grade. So two people from each class come to present. This is a whoole day event. Morning: M1, M2, M3. Afternoon: M4, M5, M6. After the presentation of flowers, then awards are given. Luckily Brett and I were placed in the back row on stage so it was easy to "disappear" from time to time stage left. We stayed for most of the morning and not much of the afternoon. I did manage to take pictures though so check those out of the website.

Classes this year so far are good. I'm teaching M1/1 & M1/2 in Reading and Writing; M4 in fundamental and traveling around suphanburi (which as far as knowing the town I don't), M5 and M6. I actually enjoy teaching the older students as I thought I might not. But we are reading Matilda in my M5 and M6 classes, which is always interesting. That's all for now, more later.