First week in Loeng Nokta

All this week I'm staying with a Thai host family in their house before moving into my own on Saturday. It's quite hard to sleep at night due to a painful combination of jet lag, heat and really noisy cockrels but I guess I'll get used to it! The food is good though there have been some strange combinations cropping up such sweet waffles with sweetcorn in and pumkins filled with 'custard' -not one of my favourites I have to admit.

All the people are very kind and helpful and have trouble pronnouncing/remembering my name. They've given me a Thai one which I can't pronnonce/remember. Its a type of flower though, which is quite fitting. Our host (the person who basically looks after us for a year) took us to visit the primary school we'll be teaching at for three days a week. Now if you know me at all, you'll know I am not fond of children. At all. But even I have to admit Thai children are really sweet and dare I say it quite cute. They all stand up and 'wai' (bow) to you when you walk by and they always tell you how beautiful you are. (Though I'm not sure how much truth there is in this!) For the other days in the week we'll teach at the high school and help out at the Tessoban or local government.

Quick note about the weather- very hot with occasional heavy showers which last for 5 minutes- several hours, so very unpredictable.

Sawat Dee Ka for now.

Two Nights in Bangkok

So I met up with the other 19 volunteers at Heathrow before flying to Mumbai and then on to Bangkok. We'll stay in Bangkok for two nights before travelling to our individual projects.- Hello twelve hour bus journey!

Bangkok is... interesting.

All the taxis are bright pink and the cars are almost all Toyotas. Or Hondas. Instead of "The car in front is a Toyota" here it would be "All the cars in front are Toyotas. Or Hondas"

We visited the MBK shopping centre and discovered you can buy brand new portable DVD players for around 60 pounds, (I can't find a pound sign on this Thai keyboard) and I spent a grand total of 80p on lunch- It was quite filling too.

It's boiling hot and it isn't even sunny and its around 80% humidity. Though it hasn't rained yet so I'm not complaining. :) There's air con in every building but as soon as you walk outside, BAM! you're hit with a massive wave of heat.

Last night I had dinner in a place with lizards running up the wall which entertaining to say the least. Oh and I saw a Lady boy fixing mobile phones.

I don't know when I can write again so goodbye for now!

T'was the night before Thailand...

...and all through the house... people were in an absolute packing frenzy.

Okay so this is my first blog, I've set it up to keep you (and myself actually) informed of all the exciting advetures I hope to have on my gap year to Thailand. Here's a recap of why/who/where etc in case you forgot or because I didn't tell you (more likely)

A charity called Project Trust are sending me to a rural part of North East Thailand for a year to teach english to primary and secondary school children.

I travel and live with a partner and I have my own house too :)

At the start of my year I will take a three week Thai language course in Chiang Mai and I could come back fluent in Thai!

So here I am starting this new, exciting experience so a big thanks to everyone who's supported me and thanks for reading my very first blog and thanks to Dan for helping me set it up. I'm not sure when I'll have internet access so the updates might be a bit sporadic!

(Beth and Chantelle here's your mention)- They're now complaining they didn't get a sentence to themselves.