karolinexo

Hey you guys! I miss you! Sorry for the delay! So what has happened in the last two months? Quite a lot! I’ll start at the beginning – you might want to get a beer, this could take a while. I got to Bangkok on 18th April and stayed with my sister at the very posh yuppie school she works at. Then we had a big fight and I moved out – not really, I found myself a flat which actually turned out to be one room with a teeny bathroom, in a part of old Bangkok which has been pretty cool (dirty, happy, hectic, delicious, friendly, smelly, hot). I was setting myself up with a quiet place to work during my month long English Language teachers' boot camp known as CELTA. After that nightmare, I got myself a job at the language centre I trained at, and I started work today. That didn’t really take long, did it?

Ok what can I tell you about Bangkok? Here you get about 70 Thai Baht for your Pound, and if you want to live Thai-style, 30 Baht can get you a portion of fried chicken with rice and red chilli sauce, which rocks, by the way, I had it for dinner tonight. So if you save your pennies you can get by on not a whole lot. I’ll be on about 430 quid a month, or 30,000 Baht which is a fortune compared to the average Thai wage - won't be leading a very extravagant lifestyle on that, but it’ll be good enough for me. As I said Thais tend to live in one room studios with a small bathroom and no kitchen, which is fine considering how much you need for food. I’ve decided to move up the road a bit to a place in the Victory Monument area, as there are more coffee shops and places to sit about there than where I'm at now. Some of the other staff live there so I'm hoping to stalk them and bribe them into taking me for drinks too.

As a white-skinned gal who is still considerably taller than the rest of the population, I tend to stick out a bit here. But in a good way! It's sooo weird! All the things you can find at home to make you less smelly you can find here, only everything here has whitener in it (for men too). Pale skin equals status, so milk bottle features are good. (I’m not so pale now though, me and the sun had a fight on the beach in Penang and I got a right kicking.) Thai women are gorgeous, and I can say that because I’m a girl. They are so petite and immaculate, everyone wears blouses with pencil skirts and teetery heels, and they all have great hair. For everyone who knows Frances, including you, Frances, most of the women are Frances-sized! As for Thai men, there's not a pick of fat anywhere. Thai policemen are particularly impressive in their skin-tight black uniforms, although every one of them has a bloody whistle permanently in use. And Chinese-Thai men are absolutely incredibly gorgeous, really totally wow. Ahem. I have the utmost respect for Thai metallers (I would anyway), as they all sport looong hair and head to toe black even in 35 degree heat. I almost got chatted up by such a Thai metaller the other night (when I was out panicking about lessons until 5am) who it turned out liked Chris Cornell and was covered in tattoos. He also told me he loved me and other cheesy, cheesy lines so I just laughed and told him bye-bye! Anyway, yes it gets that hot, it’s great. When it rains, it screams down, which is just gorgeous. I got caught without an umbrella walking home one evening and got completely drenched in about 5 seconds, yes, it was great.

Thai people are always happy! When you smile at them they are delighted and smile back. Losing your temper is a real no-no as it debases you and puts you on a par with animals, so if something goes wrong or you get annoyed, you just have to swallow it and say 'ah well', which is a pretty good way to live I reckon. People do try to speak English to foreigners like me and giggle with embarrassment when they don't know a word, it's really lovely. I haven't made a decent effort to learn much Thai yet, but I should be able to take classes through work - which is pretty cool I have to say. Got through my first day today, and am bloody knackered, but do feel like a teacher-person which is pretty fantastic.

Considering that I didn't like to walk into a cafe or strange bar by myself two months ago, I do feel pretty good about all I've done here so far. I miss my lovely friends so badly, it's really lovely to get your emails (uk_viper and the missus particularly)! And I'd better go before I a) fall asleep or b) start crying! Bye for now - won't be so long until next time!