The Bloom & The Rest of the Week

Hey everyone!

Sorry I have gotten a tad behind with the postings.  Jet lag has officially kicked me in the rear.  So since I have written last I have a few neat little things that I was able to do!

The biggest thing that has happened in the past week was that for two days, campus 2 went on their team building retreat (Tues May 7 & Wed May 8).  We were put into groups.  Each with about 10 members.  Abbey, Rachel and myself were all with a fantastic group.  At 7am we were to be at our campus and ready to leave.  I was very excited since we were having a car rally on the way to our resort we were going to. 

Together our group had a list of 8 tasks to complete before arriving at The Bloom.  We made several stops along the way to pick up things such as cultural items and different goodies that they asked for on the list.  After each thing we did, we had to take a picture and send it to the leaders though a program called line.  Our team was able to complete all of the tasks and get to the resort on time!

Once we got to the resort, we were able to settle in before our welcoming ceremony. Abbey and I shared a room.  The view of the mountains was absolutely astonishing, and although I took some pictures, they can not truly express the beauty of it all.  The rooms, pool and meeting area were all incredible.      

Our welcoming ceremony was Zen.  Lines of people sat in front of lead staff and each of us received a white string bracelet with a message from our staff member who put in on our wrist.

After the welcoming, we did several different group activities for the rest of the afternoon with only a short break before supper.

Supper & karaoke were cowboy and cowgirl themed.  A lot of the Thai teachers were dressed up.  It made me feel a little silly wearing just a skirt and a tanktop, but I don't have my sister here with me to lend me cowgirl clothing.  Either which way, we were able to have a blast singing and dancing.

Abbey, myself and some other teachers turned in early to try and sleep on a comfy bed.  It was exhausting just having come a few days before and trying to keep up with people use to the time.  In the morning Abbey and myself enjoyed a swim before we checked out and had an amazing North American-ish type of breakfast which was very tasty.

Before heading home with our group, we stopped off at a floating market.  Of course, I came back with a few different items to send home. :)  Abbey and I were excited to be able to take pictures with some transformers and even had some Thai icecream. (Yum yum yum!)

The end of the day brought us back home, had a quick meal on the soi and then led us to our first class of the semester.   Our classes start shortly after we get home and run from Mon. - Thurs. till almost 9pm.  It makes for a very long day.

The rest of the week, we have just been settling in at Lertlah.  Mostly attending meetings, organizing and preparing for the school year to begin.  Our school bell plays "Its a Small World" which is interesting.  We have already eaten at the cafeteria and later in the week, Tyler and myself discovered the noodle house down the street. 

Friday night we went out for supper with a combination of all foreign staff for a welcome to Thailand party.  What should have been a 40 baht cab ride there turned into a 140 baht.  It was alright though because we were able to see some cool things around our place.  Once ate a bit, chatted and left Rachel, Lyle, Abbey and myself walked home.  On the way we stopped at what to be some kind of carnival / night market.  It was unbelievable. There were so many different things to see and buy.

As for yesterday and today, it has just been mostly relaxing (with a trip to The Big C to stalk up on some items yesterday).  My stomach has not been overly happy with me so taking it easy was a good choice on my part.  Hopefully I will be 100% tomorrow for work.

Miss F.