My New Reality

I have arrived in Thailand! It took three days to get here but I am finally here after months of preparation its nice to finally have it be my reality. We arrived on the morning of the 7th in Nahkon Phanom and I already feel quite at home. We spent the rest of the 7th resting and today (the 8th of Oct.) we began to tour our schools. My school held a luncheon and welcome ceremony for the entire group. I was given a beautiful wrist lei, a bouquet of flowers and a Thai good luck charm to help me through out the year. Students preformed traditional Isan music and dance and it was beautiful! I was able to meet the teachers who I will be working with and they were all very friendly and immediately welcomed me into their group, I already feel at home. After lunch and a lesson in making papaya salad the faculty of the school tied white string around our wrists to offer us protection, good luck and happiness during our time in Thailand.

After we complete our month of training I will move onto school ground on November 1st and begin my teaching. I will be living in a two bedroom house with another teacher at my school who happens to be from Laos. She was very friendly and funny and is looking forward to helping me learn Thai in exchange for me helping her with English. After my visit to my placement site I feel very relieved and so excited I can hardly stand it! It seemed the perfect place for me and I cannot wait to become an active member of their community. Above I posted the view from my school and below I have posted my home as of November 1st, some of the student dancers, and my delicous lunch!

So far living here is very easy, though I am sure that there will be many challenges during my year. The hardest things to get used to is carrying my own toilet paper with me at all times as it is not something that is provided for you. There also seems to be a shortage of sinks, which is something you don't miss until it is gone! Other than that my adjustment thus far has been fairly easy, though sleeping on a mat may take awhile to get used to, I have to say I am loving it here so far.