Koh Samui Pt 1

well, life here has settled into a kind of routine, even if short lived. we finished week one of our course, and we are settled in our new beach huts.

Home, sweet Home

 the weekend was been a nice little break. i feel like we have been going nonstop pretty much since we got to the island. we first met everyone involved in the course at a sunday night dinner, and then had class all day monday through friday. it was kind of nice to be a student again. a little break from being on the other side of the process. of course, the class was all about being on the teaching side of things. it was a very useful course (so much information that would have been appreciated before i taught in france; c'est la vie).

friday night was our time to unwind from a full week of school. we had all kinds of fun. starting with chilling on the porch with some guitar music, moving on to drinking games and pop music. and finally we got to see a lady boy cabaret show. in thailand they have a third gender, called kathoey. these are male-to-female transgender or effeminate gay males. it is a fascinating phenomenon in the fairly conservative social structure of thailand. anyways, there is a cabaret show full of lip syncing kathoey all dolled up. they even called on some of the guys in the audience to undergo the transformation (including our own little andy- the one guy in our group). it was great fun. the rest of the night was filled with the usual fun of going out.

Andy a.k.a. Spicy

saturday the sun finally came out, so we finally got to enjoy the beach right outside our front door. saturday was the day of relaxation.

The beach outside our beach hut village.

 sunday we had to return to the real world and start prepping for our teaching practice this week. starting tomorrow we are teaching in the local elementary schools. they have divided up the time so each person gets three individual lessons. i am in the group that goes first tomorrow morning. on the one hand, having taught a fair amount, i am excited to meet the thai students and get back in the classroom. on the other hand, i am freaking out about all the unknown factors and how my lesson will go over. ahh!! well, i better get back to work so i am over-prepared and comfortable when i get in front of all those thai students tomorrow.