Moving to Hat Yai

Yep, that’s right. I was placed in the south of Thailand in the Songkhla province, in a city called Hat Yai. It’s about an hour from the Malaysian border. I passed my TESOL course with flying colors, hooray! I also got a fun award for most creative lesson plans in my class. Teaching English in Thailand is very different from the U.S.A. As I will work in a school, I really work for an agency. The agency is somewhat like my home base. This is because most schools cannot speak English, they hire agents that can work with foreigners. The agency helps me once I get to the city. I got extremely lucky as my agent is amazing! Her name is Pi Toi ( Pi means Mrs.). I am living in her office for the moment. Her office is a four story building in a very commercial part of Hat Yai. I am on the 3rd floor with a large window that looks out onto the street below. During the day time the street looks empty. However at night it becomes a huge night market. Hundreds of shops and food venues. It basically has everything, anything you can think of, clothes, burgers, sushi, shoes, bags, jewelry, they have these ridiculous fly swatters that look like tennis rackets that you can turn on and electrify all insects. My agent has one, I posted a photo of her with it under snaps. (=

My room is huge. I was a bit scary staying in this huge building by myself every night. I have to lock up all doors, and pull down a large metal door to “close up” the office. I am liking it though, I will stay here for a few days, maybe weeks. Then I will find my own apartment near the school I am working at. I am meeting the other English teacher from my school tomorrow, and I will hopefully be learning a lot more about my position. From what I know from my agent, I will be a 1st grade English teacher. I will also be teaching some other subjects like Math (ha) and science but these will be in English (and they will be on a 1st grade level). I might also be teaching some classes in 2nd and 3rd grades. I also got a curriculum, which I am going to work on adapting to the students level of proficiency.

I took a 13 hour train ride from Hua Hin to Hat Yai on Friday evening, despite what you hear, about over night trains (I myself have been on some terrible ones). This train was amazing, I had my own bed, it was very clean and I think I slept better than I have all month. When I arrived at the train station Pi Toi picked me up and she had a friend with her Dez. Dez is from the Philippines, she is a English teacher in Trang, a town that is a few hours north of Hat Yai. Dez also speaks Korean, and about three other languages I can't remember. She is so smart and hilarious, she talked me into eating some squid sushi. We are going to hopefully find a yoga studio today and visit a large reclining buddha statue (its a landmark in Hat Yai).

I am missing my TESOL gang, as we were all placed throughout Thailand. I have friends working in Bangkok, Phuket, Trang, Songkhla and a ton of northern towns. I’ve been getting up in Hat Yai and running in a different direction every morning to learn more about my city. I came across a Buddhist temple yesterday, and I met an extremely needy cat. Yes, I am considering opening up a cat farm for stray Thai cats. Going to post some photos under the snaps tab of my zoo visit yesterday, a monkey raiding a motorbike for food, Tesol graduation, and the sick sunburn that I got from falling asleep on the beach.

With love Felicia <3

My agent and friend Pi Toi, with her fly swatter.