Monday, July 01, 2013

Adventures in Thailand Part 4: Getting Settled

I can't believe that in just a few days I will have officially been in Thailand for one month. Sometimes I swear I've been here a year and others it's like I just walked off the plane. Life is currently a bit crazy. When I first got here I was able to find an apartment right away. It took a little over a week to truly get settled in an I actually switched apartments (same building, just different floor) in that first week or two. The landlady and her son are both super and helpful. They got me a motorbike (moto - because I just can't call it a motorcycle, and a bike is something I power, not an engine... and it's what they call them in CR so it's kinda ingrained in me) to rent that was terrible and terrifying but then got me a good one which I love.

Last week I got incredibly sick. I'm still not really sure if it was food poisoning or some kind of flu. I went to school Monday morning with my stomach feeling not so great. I've actually come to expect this in the morning here as I assume my body is just getting used to the food and more specifically the spices. Usually it goes away pretty quickly and I'm good to go. This time it just seemed to be getting worse. By lunch I felt awful and asked if (since it was 11am and I didn't have another class until 1:30pm) I could go home and lay down and then I would come back for my 1:30pm class. I managed that and after school went home and went immediately to bed which is where I spent the next two days as well. I returned to school on Thursday, but I really wasn't feeling back to 100% until Saturday.

Other than being sick, I've very much fallen into a groove at school. The Thai teacher I have now continues to be fantastic and I feel like I can actually teach the kids. That is, of course, if they were ever actually in class. It seems at least once/week there is some kind of special activity. There was Teacher Appreciation Day (which I VERY much appreciated), some cultural day, Boy Scout somethingorother day, who knows what's next.

So now I feel nice and settled at school but it's looking like I'm going to end up moving apartments. When Kiki moved into our building they told her they would work on getting wifi there. I moved in under the same assumptions. After lots of talking to Kung (the landlady's son) and going back and forth with various internet providers (all of whom we have had to seek out and get info from because the landlady and Kung weren't actually doing anything) it seems we aren't going to be able to get internet. On top of that, after talking to some other friends, it seems we're paying quite a bit more for utilities than anyone else, which makes our super cheap place, not so great of a deal afterall.

I spent the entire day Sunday riding around on my moto just stopping in at different places asking about apartments. It's not like back home where all the places have websites and on every street corner there are free "Apartment Guides" that give you all kinds of information. No, you just have to go... and go... and go... and go.... and ask the same questions over and over and PRAY that someone at the apartment complex speaks enough English that you can get the info you need. In the end, I still haven't found anything, but there are couple that might work. I'm not excited about moving away from Kiki (who is not moving because she's only here for 3 more months and she's decided coping with the stupid AirCard for internet is tolerable for that long), but on the plus side I'll be moving closer to Fums and OyOyOy, and Fums will actually be here about as long as I will. (More on those lovely ladies later). Overall I'm still really loving it here, I'm just ready to actually be settled and start feeling like I really live here.

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