Transitions: Finishing Language School and Moving to Ranong

Well. A lot of life has happened since I last wrote. I actually had to review previous posts to see where I left off in sharing life here. After my last post I hit a turning point in life so yes, a lot of life has been lived. I was still struggling quite a bit with speaking Thai. I just couldn't form a sentence quick enough to carry on a conversation with anyone. I took a class on learning to read the newspaper with the same two students I studied with the month before. I began to have lunch with one of them about once a week and we only spoke Thai. That was the beginning of improvement for me. At the same time, I began hanging out with the secretary from school more often and only speaking Thai with her. We formed a good friendship and she helped me so much with Thai. She explained many things to me and frequently asked if I fully understood everything she said. If I didn't, she'd explain it. I also would help her with English questions she had. And because she understands and speaks English, I was able to speak some things in English when I just had no clue how to say it in Thai. I also started private lessons once a week around the same time to help with conversation skills. Multiple friendships formed at this point and all were instrumental in getting me to speak more Thai. All of this began to build my confidence a bit and I was able to speak Thai more freely. Still not very good, but I was at least trying more often, which was way more than before. My one friend and I would eat dinner together frequently and she introduced me to many new Thai dishes which were always delicious. We shopped together, ate together, and even cooked together once! At school she would ask me to explain English phrases or questions asked by possible new students in Thai, which I think also helped me improve a lot. This friendship helped me feel less lonely and more connected within Thailand. It also helped improve my writing in Thai because we would chat on a messenger app frequently as well. This was all a major turning point which helped me prepare for the major transition of leaving language school, moving south, and beginning to teach English. I knew the transition was coming and it made me very nervous to think that I would be moving soon and still could not speak well. Even though I am moved, I still worry that I won't be able to communicate well with others because my Thai is very basic. Here are a few pictures from those months.

Hanging out and watching the World Cup

Field trip. Taking the boat is faster and cheaper.

China Town with the Green Light Team visiting from America

Dinner with some teachers at one of their houses.

Introducing Few to cinnamon rolls from Cinnabon.
A few weeks later, we baked our own from scratch!

History class field trip. One trip per week!

Celebrating Steve's birthday with friends

Dinner with one of my teachers and Few

My Newspaper class

Dinner with 3 teachers, fellow students, and Few

So much fun was had. So many new experiences. And so many good friendships were formed! I can't believe it all happened in the matter of just a few months! This past month was a whirlwind of life. Trying to hang out with my closest friend as often as possible since I was going to be moving soon, visiting Ranong to pick a house, packing, and saying farewells made the month seem ten times longer than it actually was. But at the same time, it just flew by and I couldn't believe it was already time to move! Here are a few pictures from my house hunting trip to Ranong and hanging out with the Roi Et team on the beach in Ranong.

Eating durian with the Roi Et crew

Lunch with Pam and Chris after house hunting

The house I chose. 4 rooms, 5 bathrooms, large common area, and large kitchen!
Don't think I am rich. Rent is less than $200 a month.

I came back from that trip, packed up everything, hung out at the school with everyone as much as possible, baked goodies for the teachers, and said my farewells.

Wrote the teachers a thank you card in Thai.

Baked a blueberry cobbler for all of the teachers and staff
 as well as individual pumpkin breads for teachers and staff.

I think they were quite happy with their treats! 

I've officially been living in Ranong for one whole week now. It started out lonely. I really missed school, my way of life in Bangkok, and my friends. Here, I spent the first 5 days completely alone. It rained every day (still does) and it took twice as long to walk to Big C and to 7-11 as it did in Bangkok. I no longer lived on an alley with lots of street carts selling yummy foods. I felt a bit isolated. But I knew it would get better once I started getting out of the house to visit schools and buy major appliances and furniture needed. Thankfully, my friend from Bangkok video called me to encourage me and let me practice speaking Thai since I hadn't been speaking at all all week. That gave me a needed boost in spirits and the next day I was able to go to a school and visit 3 classrooms. It was fun. I then got to order a fridge, microwave, wifi, and a closet for delivery the following day. I have all of those things now and am officially unpacked. I visited a village in the mountains on Friday and helped teach English and then helped with English at the English center yesterday. Life is better with a fridge and microwave for sure. And wifi. I wouldn't be blogging if I didn't have wifi! I do feel sorry for all of the delivery guys because I didn't understand a lot of what they were saying. Especially the wifi guys. But I did ask one of them to help me tell the fridge delivery guy where I lived! That was great because I sure couldn't tell him!! I still have many more purchases to go such as washer/dryer, stove/oven, couches, tv, car, etc. Some are more luxury items such as tv and couches, but the others will be very beneficial to me in the long run. Luxury items will obviously fall to the bottom of the purchase list. Little by little, I will get those things though. Month by month. Here are a few pictures from Ranong so far.

This giant green shelf is two-sided and holds everything I own outside of clothes and bathroom stuff!

Here is the side facing the kitchen 

Excited about my closet and finally unpacking the last of my belongings!

Guest room is ready, minus the leak in the roof.
Just a minor leak and they plan to fix it.

My room

Large kitchen

So excited about having a fridge!

Yay for microwave!

This is on my 20 minute walk to Big C, the closest grocery store

Just one of the classrooms I visited

View from our restroom stop in the mountains

 And that's about it. I plan to spend the next two months observing in the classrooms so I can learn their methods and then I will start teaching on my own. Exciting and terrifying all at the same time! But I look forward to it. And even though I've only been here a week, I look forward to returning to Bangkok to do my visa at the end of the month. Normally, I dread that day. But now, I'm looking forward to it because it means I get to visit my friends in Bangkok and be surrounded by yummy foods again! Looking forward to staying with my friend for a few days to catch up and eat lots! Hopefully, someone can watch Lucy for me. She'll be quite upset if she has to stay alone those days. Especially since she's still not used to this house and doesn't like me to leave. She has to adjust to the move too.

Lucy misses her large green yard back at the church in Bangkok

That was a whirlwind of a catch-up for you, but if you want to know more information about things, you know how to reach me! I'm always happy to hear from you!