A bit of R&R before finals

Since I’ve got some free time on my hands (as I have my entire time here) I figured I would post another update.  Classes ended over a week ago now and I have passed my time by running away to Phuket for a few days and then coming home and causing some problems at school!  

First off, Phuket.  I had a great time there when I went the first time back in September, although it’s hard to believe that it was all part of the same venture abroad.  This time, Lizzy and I met up with a friend of hers from college and some of his friends who, after doing their TEFOL training in Barcelona, decided to move to Phuket to teach.  I can’t say I’m not a bit jealous of them all.  Not only did they get to live in Barcelona for a few months and then backpack across Western Europe and Morocco, they now get to live on a tropical island.  Yeah, I know I could have too, but I feel like I would have been even more bored than I am sometimes in Bangkok.  Plus, I would definitely have skin cancer or something since I enjoy lying out a little too much.

Fun with Glow Paint!

Anyway, we got to Suvarnabhumi airport at 7am, flew an hour to Phuket, hopped on motos, met back up with Kenny’s roommates in the southern part of the island,  got in a van to take us to the pier before embarking on a two-hour ferry ride to Koh Phi Phi.  We didn’t get to the island until around 4:30pm and were drinking by 5:00.  Not only did I not know we were headed there for the weekend, I also wasn’t prepared for how crazy a Saturday night could be on this island after having traveled all day.  

The night started pretty chill, with a couple of beers and progressed from there.  The night is a blur of climbing on a wrecked boat stranded in the low tide, watching fire dancers twirl and toss flaming batons high in the air, sharing buckets with the group, finding glow-in-the-dark paint and decorating my face and arms (and clothes) and thinking I lost Lizzy’s camera.  I stumbled back to the hostel around 3am.  Most of the group was planning on heading back already the second day since they had to teach the next day, but those of us planning to stay decided we couldn’t handle another night on Phi Phi and boarded the ferry with the rest of the group.

Big Buddha

View of Chalong Bay from Big Buddha

Back in Phuket, we spent the next couple of days motoring around the island to check out various beaches and lookout points, getting some serious sun and paying a visit to the Big Buddha watching out over the island from its highest peak.  I ate my first sandwich in months (yum!), had a few great panang curries and snuck into a 5-star resort to enjoy the infinity pool, comfy lounge chairs and waiters bring around fresh lemon water and fruit kabobs.  Suffice to say, it was tough to leave, but after 5 days and one last sunset, Lizzy and I had to make out way back to Bangkok, and back to work L  Thankfully we got a great deal on tickets and paid as much for a one hour flight as we would have for a 16-hour bus ride

Vijitt Resort

Back in Bangkok, we reported to school on Thursday even though there was no school and most of the teachers left after just an hour or two.  We took this time to get some serious grading in, but after just 4 hours I, too, was ready to go.

Thursday, Lizzy and I met up with some more friends of hers that were passing through Bangkok.  This time it was two guys she went to high school with, T.J. and Jason.  We went out a little harder than we had planned and come 6:30am when it was time to get up and go to work, one of us wasn’t able to make it in.  Thinking that we didn’t have anything to do again, we decided that I would sign Lizzy in so she wouldn’t get docked pay for not being there.  Unfortunately, no one had told us we had to proctor all day, so when they went to tell Lizzy which class she was supposed to be in, she was no where to be found.  It didn’t help that I was in the dark as well about where I was supposed to be, so I was just sitting in my office having a great time chatting with friends on Skype.  After they finally told me what was up, I raced off to my assigned classroom and tried frantically to get a hold of Lizzy’s phone to get her to come in.  As our luck would have it, her phone decided not to take any of the twenty or so calls I tried, nor the countless others from the school’s office AND our agency.

Just before lunch, I was called out of the room, fessed up to signing Lizzy in, and came up with a decent enough story to keep her from getting fired on the spot.  Just after that, I finally got through to her, but since there was less than 90 minutes left of the day, we worked out a more thorough story and planned to get a nice long talking to from the office come Monday.  It was a bit stressful, but we brought it on ourselves.  Thankfully, things had pretty much calmed down by Monday and we are both employed and still counting down the days until we are completely done with the semester…or on our plane back home.

Last thing… Less than 20 days until I’m headed back home…that is if Expedia helps me figure everything out since 2/3 of my flights home have been canceled by Korea Air.   So if everyone who reads this could just keep their fingers crossed that they can find me a replacement flight, I’d greatly appreciate it.  Until then, I’ll try to get out and enjoy the last of my time here so I have more great stories to share when I finally get home!