I have arrived!

Hello!

I have arrived! Well, I actually arrived about a week ago and have been getting settled in but didn't have the opportunity to write about the most recent events. The flight was uneventful and I was able to get some sleep on the way. The 9 hour lay over in Bangkok was also bearable and since I was up at 2 AM anyway, I was able to watch the France/Portugal World Cup semi-final game live. Once I got to Lampang it was really easy to find who I was looking for since a) they were the only white person there b) I was the only white person on the plane c) the airplane only had 24 people on it (I counted) and d) the airport was smaller than a small house. They had already arranged an apartment for me, so we went straight there which saved me from having to haul my luggage around as I looked for a place. All in all, arriving was super easy. That afternoon I went to school to meet all of the people I needed to meet and got a tour of the school. Bunyawat is one of the oldest schools in the province and the biggest. The whole school has about 4,500 students. Thankfully, my program only has about 80. Most class sizes are 60-80 students while mine have no more than 30 students. After that I went home, had some dinner and crashed. The next day (Friday) I went into school again and prepared for classes. It was a very relaxing day and I've gotten the impression that's the norm - it appears that none of the other teachers ever take work home with them, so I work from 8-4 in a very relaxed, air-conditioned office and have the rest of the time to myself (that will get even better once I have a motor bike). I also arrived just before a long weekend, so I didn't have classes until Wednesday (today), which is nice. Then I spent Saturday settling in and getting some needed shopping done (sheets, cell phone, fan etc.) and wandered around town getting hopelessly lost and catching a bus back to some place I knew. Then on Sunday I caught up with my friend who is from Lampang and hung out with her. Oh, before I forget - on Friday night I had to attend a wedding. It was the daughter of the director of my school, so I had to go. It was crazy. All we did at the reception was drink whiskey, eat foods (including fish stomach soup) and watch old Eagles concerts. It was ridiculous. Afterward, Kirk (one of the other teachers) took me to a birthday party for another foreign teacher in Lampang and there were quite a few other teachers there, so it was nice to meet them. I was definitely the youngest (and probably the most conservative). There's a group of about 40 foreign teachers in the town that get out (out of about 70 total), and they're an interesting group and all teach English at different colleges around town. So that's pretty much the story...Over the next few days/weeks I'm going to be looking for a motor bike to buy and a house to rent, so that's exciting.

Until next time,
Ryan