NAI HARN BEACH

On the very southern tip of the island of Phuket is Nai Harn Beach. This is where I have been living for the last couple of weeks. Phuket has its share of bustling tourist towns, but luckily Nai Harn Beach is a little more on the quiet side. The beach is real pretty and the water is so very pleasant. The waves that hit Nai Harn are actually pretty big and occasionally the beach will be closed to swimming if the swell is too dangerous. Luckily there is a lagoon on far side of the beach full of calm, turquoise blue water, it's like a massive salt water swimming pool. Little kids splash about and it's the perfect place to sit submerged in chest high water with an ice cold beer. Just off the beach is a sparse grove of evergreens where a handful of restaurants have set up tables. It's a great place to grab lunch during class, sheltered from the sun with a warm breeze coming off the ocean. The hotel where I have been staying is across the street from all this, pretty cool.

There are 29 people in my program training to be English teachers and we've just started our last week of training. Two weeks down, one to go... then all of a sudden I will be standing in front of a classroom of 40 kids trying to sound smart. Shit. Three weeks isn't a lot of time, but for some reason I feel like everything will be ok. We've had a few practice sessions already, my first two were in a juvenile detention center. It wasn't bad at all. Well, the first one was pretty rough, but the second time around was a million times better. I think the learning curve will be pretty big, I mean, once I get thrown into the classroom for real I won't really have much of a choice but to figure it out. Today I taught at an orphanage, it was rad. The place was called The Youth Football Home, it's an all boys orphanage that revolves around soccer... just my kind of place. The kids are so well behaved and very smart, and they all run around in little soccer jerseys. I think some German soccer fanatic started the place, I also think I will try to volunteer there for a little while if I can, room and board provided, nice!

I will find out this week where I will be placed. Rumor has it that most of us in the program will be in and around Bangkok. I will take what comes to me, but I have to say, the last couple of weeks have been pretty nice staying in this little beach town...