New home!

Hello everyone! I have finally arrived in the town that I will be taking my TESOL course and began training today! The course has been offering us some really helpful lesson planning and activity ideas. There is a lot of repetition that gets a bit annoying, but overall the instruction is interactive and interesting. I am still getting to know all the people on my program, all of whom I like a lot. Today was not very exciting, but yesterday was a lot more interesting and filled with new people and places:

I checked out of my hotel in Nai Yaing and got a taxi to the accommodation ATI set up for me and the other teachers. The drive was over an hour long and took me around the Phuket region on what i assumed to be a major road (it was only 2 or 3 lanes and had sporadic traffic lights). At first, I was intrigued and confused as to how a small town could suddenly appear from what was just moments before blank highway and how stores and car dealerships existed in what seemed to me to be the middle of nowhere. I suddenly realized that this is what route 1 must look like to a foreigner: random shops, restaurants, and civilization broken up between random stretches of highways and exits. The colors of the buildings were beautiful, usually blues or yellows. Occasionally w would see large pictures of the King framed in ornate gold. We passed a few ornate golden temples with menacing dragons protruding out and colorful, gated schools.At one point we passed a sign that said "Big Buddha." I looked down the road it pointed to. After seeing nothing and drawing my eyes away, I saw a giant white stone Buddha on top of a hill. It must have been at least 3 stories high. I tried to look up something about it in my guide book, but only found a Big Buddha on Kho Samui, which is an island farther north. There must be many of these large Buddhas, though I was very excited to spot the first Buddha I have seen since being in Thailand.

After arriving to the town my hotel is in, I attempted to explore, though there is not much to explore. It consists mostly of restaurants that turn into beer (prostitute) bars at night and a couple of overpriced convenience stores and beach ware shops.the town is situated around a cove that has a beautiful, CLEAN, white sand beach. We are able to see a couple of islands just offshore. After exploring the town I had my first Thai Phad Thai and then checked into my hotel.

On my way to my room, a man approached me and asked if I was part of the ATI course as well. I told him I was and he told me to meet him and a few of the other teachers-to-be on the beach. After arriving on the beach and talking to the other teachers for a bit, some men playing baci ball approached us and asked if we were doing ATI. They told us that they had done it a couple of years ago and were still teaching English in Phuket because they loved it so much.

Later, almost all 30 of the ATI teachers went to dinner together and then drinks afterward. Everyone seems extremely down-to-earth and people that I would enjoy spending a lot of time with. Most people came alone, but a few came in pairs. One couple is married.  A few people on the program had jobs and then decided to leave them because they just weren't happy. It makes me feel so much better that I am doing this now and seeing the world before settling down in a job.

Here's a picture of the ocean and islands from near my hotel in Nai Harn/new home!