Let the leaving parties commence!

Don't think Bifern & Na wanted to be
in my photo...

Despite it being my last Sunday in Thailand I decided to relax and take a day off just lounging around and watching films (aka what I do best). We were looking at travelling to Phi Phi islands this weekend but unfortunately, as the students were performing the play on Saturday morning it would have left us with no time to do anything so it wasn't worth doing unfortunately. On top of this, it seems 9 weeks has finally exhausted everything Phuket has to offer with our limited transport and hence we had no burning desire to really do anything on the island either.

and the worst picture of me goes to...

On top of this, another problem is money. Having to wait for pay day is so painful and it's inconvenient being paid at the end of the trip- at least I'll be able to take money home with me to survive on until the monumental day my student loan comes through! Our school assured us though that we would get paid on Monday 25th August which would give us time to arrange a trip to the bank as the school pays us in cheques which we have to cash in. Of course, Monday arrived and the money didn't. Well, it wouldn't be Thailand if things were too organised. This is actually rather concerning as the school were under the impression we would be getting the bus on Wednesday instead of Thursday despite the fact we've had repeated conversations with our mentor about when we need to be leaving this week and the fact the school has to pay for the bus back. No matter how many times we have informed someone of this the school still seems very confused on the whole matter so if I actually ever make it back to England I'll be very impressed!

Due to the fact that the school thought we were leaving on Wednesday, the director took us and several of the other female teachers out for lunch at a Thai restaurant. I'm not entirely sure why it was just the female teachers, maybe he was trying to boost his ego by taking 9 women out (he is definitely no Ryan Gosling, believe me...) but it was a lovely idea and the food was AMAZING. I love Thai style of eating out- basically order everything on the menu and everyone shares it between themselves. Definitely a lot more social way of eating and solves my dilemma of never knowing what to order... just order everything instead! I even managed to try Som Tum (papaya salad which is really spicy but so delicious and apparently a big deal in Thailand).

Let the kids loose on the selfies.

The only downside to this was we promised Pink we would be back at the school for 1pm as EP1 and EP2 wanted to take us to the beach for our leaving party. Zeen was VERY keen on the idea and all morning was yelling at me "Teacher swimming!!!!!" and I was definitely looking forward to chilling on the beach with the EP kids- it's a tough life teaching, ey? However, 1pm turned to about half 2 and when we arrived back at the school the kids had completely disappeared. Turns out while we were gone they were sent to the beach to interview foreigners about their nationality and their time in Phuket which I am a little bit gutted I missed out on. As soon as Shedah came in and told us that all the tourists kept running
away from them, it sounded like it had the potential to be very amusing to watch. It did seem the idea of a party on the beach with the EP kids was out of the window until Pink decided it was back down to the beach we go! Of course, Gun (an EP 1 student) drove us in her car as she is the only student in the entire school to have a car and not a scooter. I am assuming this girl is rich. Anyway, it is not deemed inapproriate in Thailand for students to drive their teachers around or indeed make the teachers get on the back of their motorbikes.

That is something which is very different- the teacher/student relationship is a lot more relaxed than in England where there are definitely strict rules. The teacher/student Facebook friends thing is fine out here and we had to tell them during our "party" at the beach (the term party is used quite loosely, it was basically a glorified photo opportunity) that we weren't allowed to accept their Facebook friend requests. It wass quite cute really when they asked "why" and they couldn't even comprehend the fact that teachers could send nasty messages to pupils (that was the angle we went with. Some things are just too hard to explain with a

"THANK YOU FOR TEACHING US!"

language barrier!)

I am really going to miss EP 1 and 2. On the beach they all got into a big circle around me and Flo and started saying in English (after a five minute practise session which we pretended not to hear) "I love you, I miss you, thank you for teaching us!" It was all quite emotional- they nearly got me bawling and I'm going to see these kids tomorrow! The rest of the week is going to be emotionally exhausting if today was anything to go by...