Its December?

Hello, old friend! It's been a while since I've written anything, but not much has been going on. School is great, but there are a lot of holidays in December so I have to be super careful about money. The weather is the same. It rains almost every night. But I love falling asleep to the sound of rain hitting my window. I live in a condo now, and it's just awesome! They clean it every day, and by clean I mean make my bed and take out my trash. But that's really all the cleaning there is to do. My giant floor to ceiling window gives me a great view of the wall of the building next to me, and some of the sky, which is always beautiful and different. I got a different, cheaper, motorbike. It looks more like a scooter and less like a motorcycle, and the gas mileage is quite poor, but it was a ton cheaper than my last cool motorbike. It does its job though-get me to and from school every day and get me to Phuket town every Saturday.

The week routine is a good, steady one. I usually wake up between 7 and 7:30 on my own, and then I wait for my alarm to go off at 7:45. I get up, get everything packed for the day because its awful to not have your materials for class, especially as the teacher. Pick out my shirt for the day, and take a shower. The water is free here so I can take a nice long shower, which my family can tell you I love. Ever since I shaved my head, drying takes significantly less time. It's hard getting used to only spending 10 seconds drying my hair, when it used to take minutes. Then I brush my teeth and go put on my clothes, and roll up my sleeves as I think about how nasty and sweaty this shirt will be at the end of the day. All of my classrooms have air conditioning, but only my fourth graders use theirs. And only during my class. That really helps my opinion of them, because they're a bunch of monkeys. During their test last week, I caught almost half of them cheating. One girl even had answers written on her hand! Amateur... I'm' pretty sure I know every single cheating trick in the book. Don't ask me how.
The weekend is much more relaxed. Sometimes I will go out with friends, or explore by myself, but usually I spend the weekends preparing for the next week, like making lesson plans and tests and worksheets. I get paid every Saturday after 3pm, so every Saturday after 3pm, I get on my not fuel efficient bike and ride 20 minutes down to the outskirts of Phuket town. The drive there is pretty smooth, until the end: the intersection of death. Two lanes every way, one direction goes at a time. Lights last for minutes. Traffic is backed up a whole kilometer. Luckily, on a motorbike you can just cruise around other cars and stuff until you make it to the front. This usually takes about ten minutes. It's annoying as heck. And usually when I do get to the front, its another red light and I have to wait another ten minutes. After I pass this intersection from hell, I go off another road where my agency is and get my money, count it, and sign that I received it. Then I get to go back to the intersection again! There is another option, but then I have to drive all the way around the west side of the island through Patong, and its much longer. So I do the same thing on this side! Slowly drive up to the front and wait for the green light again, but then I do a u turn and go to the giant mall right on the intersection for my weekly Starbucks visit. I usually just get a drink and listen to the pleasant American soft pop music. Then its back to the intersection! But I'm happier this time because I'm full of Starbucks. I really wish they would build one in my district, but I guess its good for my wallet that there's not one.

I keep saying this, but its weird how its almost Christmas in the States and there's not a speck of cold weather here any time of year. One morning I had to go somewhere at 7am and it was probably 75 degrees and I was freezing! Unless I'm at the mall and I see all the Christmas decorations, I forget that its December! I do kinda miss wearing a jacket and sitting by a fire to warm myself, and definitely cuddling up under the covers for a nice winter's nap. But I'm sure all of you are wishing you were at the beach with me right now where its warm and sunny all the time and we always drink cold drinks while we sift sand between our toes. I do love it here. It really is a completely different kind of culture all around. One thing that has started to bother me is all the tourists here. They're always complaining and arguing and not knowing how to drive motorbikes. Silly tourists...