10 days to go! I can't believe how fast time has flown, I have recently finished my second year at University, moved back home to Solihull and I'm surprisingly organised and actually nearly ready to go... Well apart from the fact that I haven't bought my rucksack yet, but even still this is amazing organisation for me! So here's an update on what I have been up to.
Pre-departure meeting. I went to the meeting in Manchester and met up with Dip who is also going to Thailand and who I coincidently met on a family holiday in Turkey 5 years ago. We managed to get extremely lost whilst trying to find the building we were meant to be in at Manchester Met Uni and we may have been a tiny bit late so hopefully someone with a better sense of direction will be able to guide us around Thailand otherwise there is no hope! At the meeting we were told a lot of important information about documents we would need and being safe in Thailand. We also had a very useful talk from one of last year's ETA's who told us all about his experiences in a rural village which got me very excited and eager to go, as well as a little worried about the language barrier and all of the cultural differences between England and Thailand! We also had a teacher training session to give us a taster of what it is like to learn a language using only that language. We were taught Thai foods only using the Thai language so we could see what it is going to be like for the students we teach learning English. The way to do it seems to be mainly through gestures, pictures and repetition. We were also told that if all else fails, sing head shoulders knees and toes, "they'll love it". During this session we also played some games which we could use in the classroom. It was during one of these games that I met Joy (http://joyontour.wordpress.com/) who is the other ETA at my school!
I booked my flights! I have booked to fly with Emirates, leaving Birmingham on the 22nd June, having a 2 and a half hour lay over in Dubai before carrying on to Bangkok and arriving in the evening on the 23rd June. We finish teaching on the 28th August but I don't fly home from Bangkok until the 16th of September as I wanted to allow time to travel around as much as possible. I was really nervous about flying on my own in case I got lost as I've heard Dubai airport is huge but I've recently found out that I will not be alone. Hooray! The British Council very nicely released a list of everyone's flights and I found out that I am on the same flight as Emilia, so after a couple of Facebook messages seats have been changed to be next to each other, and we're even staying at the same hotel in Bangkok, bonus!
Planning, planning, planning. Myself and Joy have spoke a lot about teaching, stressing about documents and most importantly what we are going to do when we are out there! We have been throwing around ideas about weekend travelling to islands and the full moon party along with which countries we want to visit after teaching. Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Laos are all places on my list but we will have to wait and see what we get time for. All very exciting stuff.
Finally spoke to my mentor. Whilst in Thailand every ETA has a mentor who will collect us in Bangkok and take us to our placements. From there they are our point of contact at our school and I guess will keep an eye on us and check that we're getting on okay. I emailed my mentor at the end of April and got a little worried when I didn't hear back but a month later I finally got a response! My mentor's name is Lanlalit and she is an English teacher at Watbansong School. At the school there are 1071 students aged 7-12 and each class has 35-40 children. I thought 30 was more than enough so this is going to be a challenge! Lanlalit told me about Surat Thani and that people in the South of Thailand are friendly and kind which is very good news. Myself and Joy will also be sharing a rented 2 bedroom house with internet (wahey!) in walking distance to the school and very close to the Buddhist temple. I was also asked for my passport details so me and Joy are assuming that we are flying to Surat Thani from Bangkok which is great news as I was dreading a long bus/train journey all the way down South.
Documents. After putting off sorting out my documents for as long as possible I finally got my DBS application done online which was fairly painless, but then had to go through the hassle of finding 3 forms of ID to get certified at the post office and sent off to Thailand and scanned in and emailed. It was annoying, but it is done and I've had email confirmation today that my DBS certificate is on its way so I'm hoping that I will receive that before I go next Sunday! I also got my visa done at the Thai embassy in Birmingham. 10 minutes after entering and £60 lighter I came away with a very expensive sticker in my passport which means I can stay in Thailand for 90 days and teach. With all of that done I've also got a folder together with photocopies of my visa, passport, driving license and anything else important I can think of in case I have a disaster and lose things or someone needs to know who I am.
Shopping. I dislike shopping for a purpose as I never normally find anything that fits the requirements. Whilst teaching I need to cover my shoulders, knees and chest but its going to be so hot that I wanted light and loose clothes so I don't end up turning into a pool of sweat. Luckily the shops are full of long and knee length colourful skirts so my shopping experience hasn't been a complete disaster! I've even bought a yellow t-shirt as I've heard that we may be asked to wear yellow on Mondays as a celebration of the King. So prepared.
Military Coup. My main concern now is the Military Coup in Thailand, I was worried that it might affect the trip but I'm hoping that the only main inconvenience will be the 12pm-4am curfew which means everyone has to be off the streets during these times. I've done a bit of research and found that the curfew has been lifted this weekend on Haad Rin beach for the Full Moon Party and that it doesn't affect some of the touristy areas which are mainly islands. It is just a bit of a shame that we won't be able to experience the proper Bangkok night life at the start of our trip. Hopefully the curfew will have lifted by the end of August when we return to Bangkok though!
All I have to do now is buy the last few things, pack, say goodbye to friends and family and get on that plane! EXCITING.
