i love my life

I have been giving you all bits and pieces of my life, but I'd like to give you an idea of my daily schedule, so you can be oh so jealous.

Don't worry, I will not continue writing blogs about everytime I go to the bathroom(athough I do have some interesting stories) and eat a meal, but I thought I'd give you an idea of my schedule.

I wake up around 6:30am. That's kinda rough. I wake up, shower and eat breakfast. I bike over to the other dorm, called the Meechai dorm, which takes about 10 minutes. Then I spend about a half an hour on the computer blogging/checking email etc. Then Andy, Johan, Bart and I get picked up in an Air Conditioned car and get driven to CBAT UDON, which is the college of business administration and tourism in Udon Thani. Udon is like the closest big city to Nongkhai, it has an airport and is fairly central in the Issan region.

We teach(and by we, its really me teaching and the boys causing trouble. Although Johan is very helpful. I actually kinda like that they don't do much, because then I get to control the classroom but they still help me whenever I need it.) from 8:30-10am. Then we get driven home and I chill aroudn on the computer for a little while longer.

The first week, I got errands done around town, such as buying food, exchanging money and buying my cell phone, because we had Thai language classes at 330, so we had to stick around. Now that those classes are over, its a little less structured. For example, Monday Sandra, Bart and I went to a local pool at the hotel. It was 40Baht, which is a little more then a dollar, to recieve a towel and a spot poolside. After spending three lovely and lazy hours at the pool, I went back to the green dorm(about a 20 minute bike ride) to grab Anke and we headed to the water park to check out aerobics. It is led by a "ladyboy" who is a man but dresses and acts like a female(transvestite). It was an interesting experience, and something I am going to continue doing!!!

We then went back to shower and then about 10 of us met at the "danish bakery" for some Western food. The first time since we arrived, where I ate a cheeseburger!!! We had a great time!

Then we biked back to the Meechai dorm with some beers and hung out on the roof and talked for a few hours. Anke and I biked back to the green dorm around midnight.

Basically
8-10=teaching
10-7=relaxing, exersizing, spending money, reading, etc.
8=big dinner with at least half of the volunteers
9-11=party time(either at a bar, or on the balcony)
12=bedtime

Most of my days follow a similar pattern. Although some days instead of sitting by the pool, we chill out on the balcony in the hammocks and read or talk. It's so hot in the afternoon, that its not worth it to go out in the sun for too long. Yet, I have been here more then a week, and my first spot of color didn't occur until I went out at the pool. Now I am very burnt!

Some of the volunteers left to a camp for a few days, so since its more convenient to be at the Meechai dorm, I stole one of the girls beds for the week.

The only things that would make my life better: Airconditioning at the dorm(although we do have pretty affective fans), less mosquittos(or better bug protection), and maybe someone to snog every now and then(bonus points if you figure out what Snog means), and the ability to keep up with my TV shows on the internet!!

Other then that, life is great!