Sunday 23 January 2011

Don't throw fireworks!


More job hunting, CV's sent out and all of that jazz. No luck so far. Need to really kick it up a notch during the week. Yesterday signed up to monster and a few others… will do some searching on that today. Never had to really look for a job before haha! Ah well, it will eventually happen... it better eventually happen.

So we pick up the story on Sunday, the day of a festival and my first day at the school, though not teaching.


Sunday 21st November

Last night I was given some sandals because I didn't bring any myself. Because I'm clever like that. They gave me the largest sandals they had at the school... at least three sizes too small. So that was nice. Had to put them on when I got up to go to the bathroom and get a shower. All of the bugs in the room from the night before seemed to be gone... at one point the teachers left the door open and it let a lot of them in. But this morning they all seem to be gone. I think the lizard I am sharing with may have got them all. Sweet.

So I got up and had a look around the school and took some pictures. I went back to my room to unpack and sort out my cloths and everything. But after just fifteen minutes or so there was a knock on my door. I opened it and it was this random guy. He tried talking to me and did some eating actions. No idea what he was saying though. Then he called someone and handed me the phone. It was someone who spoke English, no idea who. I'm assuming a teacher! They said that this guy was going to take me for breakfast. Ace. So we walked out of the school and down the road. First 'shop' we stopped at I got a bottle of Fanta. Except it wasn't a bottle. It was poured into a plastic bag filled with ice... very strange!

The second stall was where I got some food. They cooked me rice, egg, sausages and other assorted meats. Wasn't too bad. The sausages were ridiculously hot though and left my tongue burning for hours. Everyone there was really friendly though and I met a girl who I think goes to the school. She knew some English, was able to tell me the names of all the food I was eating, which I was impressed by. Whether I should be impressed by that I don't know! But hey! At no point was I charged for any of the food!

I got back to my room and it wasn't even 9am! Early start to the day. At about 9.30 another person knocked on my door. This guy was much younger, I'd say early to mid 20's. He spoke much better English. He told me about the festival I'd heard a lot about the day before and said he was going to take me out with one of his friends to it tonight. He said he'd pick me up at 12 for lunch too.

So I spent the morning unpacking and sorting and then had a little walk around the village. Everyone said hello to me and I practiced my suwadee cup and cob-coon cup. Very nice. Then the director came and showed me how to get to the various markets and shops and stuff. We were in the car and they seemed like at least three or more miles away! But I guess I'll have the time to walk there on an evening, just not the morning.

He dropped me at Ben's house. He wanted me to help him with his English, so I did, and he helped me with some Thai. We then got the car to the city. We bought some floats for the festival tonight, I got some sandals!! Needed sandals! We grabbed lunch as a sushi bar and then we came home. I grabbed another shower... the heat here is insane! It really takes it out of you. This may be a struggle, but it's getting to winter so it may also get cooler. I had a lie down for a couple of hours to recover and wait.

After a few hours I got up and got a drink… though all the drinks are warm! Ben’s brother picked me up early and I went to his house for dinner. Chicken and rice. Have a feeling this is going to be a large part of my diet for the next few months. We drove to the festival… just me and Ben, and met his friend out there. It was rammed and everyone had floats and candles and all sorts of stuff. Ben got some mini-fireworks and we headed to the river. There was a floating dock there and people were getting on and one side and off on the other. I set my float off after trying to light the candles about seven times. I watched it float down the river but was hurried up and on and off by the security. We headed up the bridge overlooking the river and the various giant floats. There were people swimming in the river, I won’t call them crazy because it’s not like it was going to be very cold. Some people put money on their floats and the swimmers pinch it. On the bridge there were loads of people with fireworks. They seemed to be throwing them over the bridge and letting them explode in the water. I must have asked Ben ten times, do I throw this fire work? With actions and everything. He told me yes every single time. I don’t know who was a bigger fool. Him probably, for the three errors he made, giving me fireworks, lighting them and telling me to throw it. All I did was fail to notice that my firework was clearly rocket shaped. Oh well. I threw it into the river.
“Nooooooooo!” Came from Ben, far too late for anything to be done about it. Floating in the water the fireworks began to go off. The rockets fired off in random directions, at the people in the water, the people on the river bank and the people setting off their floats. I felt awful, but I also couldn’t stop laughing.

We left pretty quickly and made our way to another party with dancing and drinking and all sorts of merry things. No fireworks luckily. By the time it was over I was exhausted and I went home and crashed into bed, not even a little bit ready for my first day of school the next morning.

Check out the pictures at;
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=263416&id=620438469&l=16a606d7eb

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