Back to school

Today was the third day of my TEFL course at the Text-and-Talk Academy on Phaholyothin Road in Bangkok.

And here it is

There's eight of us altogether. Emily, Erin and William are from the U.S., Cobus and Yoakim are from South Africa, there's a Frenchman called Philippe and, besides me, only one other Brit called Patrick. We seem to be off to a good start, but we already have our first exam tomorrow morning and it counts towards our final grade. They don't waste any time at T&T. So it's revision time.

That's our classroom and Keith our trainer

Two weeks in

and I think I'm starting to adapt to life in the Big Mango. I had been to Thailand only once before, for three weeks last November, and the weather then was wonderful. I knew that it was going to be much hotter at this time of the year, and one of my few concerns about moving was how I would cope with the climate. Having prepared myself to step off the plane and into an unbearable heat haze on arrival, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was nowhere near as hot as I had imagined it might be. In fact for the past two weeks it's been my Thai friends complaining that it's too hot, while I'm just glad that it isn't cold and raining every day. Monsoon season is still a few months away, but that will be a different story all together.

Bangkok by night

So far I've had a pretty relaxing time. Everything is so cheap that it makes eating out or going to the movies far more affordable than it ever was in London. In fact it costs less to buy a hot meal on the street than it does to buy the ingredients and cook for yourself. Consequently very few apartments have kitchens. So no oven unfortunately, which means no baking, however there are a multitude of ways to indulge my sweet tooth here in a land where, seemingly, condensed milk goes with everything.

Tomorrow marks a change though. Tomorrow I begin my TEFL course in preparation for the teaching job I have lined up to begin in June. No more easy life, oh no. As of tomorrow, for the next six weeks, I will be working the grueling hours of 10am till 4pm, a whole four days a week. I might even have to tolerate lunch breaks as well. How will I ever cope?