Halfway Through

These bowls of noodles cost us about $1 each

You know who you are... (natural extracts)

Today is the first day of our third week on the CELTA course. By this point, we've all taught 4 lessons of 45 minutes, as well as handed in two lengthy assignments, and been assessed continuously every day. My friend L keeps saying she's heard that the third week is the toughest, and that people cry during this one, even though we have the most free time. It's likely because now we're expected to be more autonomous in our lesson planning, which can be very daunting.

The cabin fever I expected really has been setting in; in the computer lab this week I mused aloud that I feel I've become very boring. My entire personality now seems to revolve around this course, and I can't quite remember what I used to do before I entered this world of training and lesson plan-tailoring! Over the weekend, I did not end up going out drinking, but I did go for an aromatherapy massage! I saw a weird looking roach (?) in the shower as I got ready for my massage, and I wish I had taken a photo of the bathroom... not because it was dirty, but because this bathroom, like others here, was Asian-style, with the toilet, sink and showerhead all in the same space. This was a bit jarring for me at first when I arrived, but interestingly, our resort has a separate shower in the bathrooms.

A night market... but not the night market!

Besides my massage, I also had some interesting food experiences this weekend, such as the $1 noodles in the photo up top. I hear there is a nearby food shop that sells frogs' legs, and my classmates and I are keen to try them. Perhaps the upcoming weekend! I'd really like to get away from the Western food, because, rightly, it's not always the best here. By request, here are some items we've had on our fixed menu at the resort:

• Chicken in coconut milk and galangal
• Roast chicken with herbs, chicken green curry
• Indian-style curry, hot & spicy chicken with green apple (surprisingly, not my favorite)
• Deep fried tofu, chicken breast with mushroom sauce
• Fried fish with sweet chili sauce, omelette soup

Delicious banana rotee with chocolate was only $1!

This weekend, I tried to meet up with some friends of friends in Chiang Mai city for the Sunday night market, but despite (or because of??) how dolled up we girls got, the driver misunderstood us and took us to, well, a market... but it wasn't the night market we expected. I was unable to contact these nice people, so I did a bit of browsing, and then got some delicious banana "rotee" (apparently the correct spelling is roti, and here's what I found that I think approximates the idea) to ease my guilt. We're going to try again next weekend.

We grabbed a tuk-tuk back to the resort, and got caught in a slight rainstorm; the four of us (our male companion who isn't in the pictures was directing us) got pretty soaked, and we thought we were lost for a second! But we managed to get back safe and sound, if not dry.

Beautiful girls from all over the world, in a song thaew