Thailand is a predominantly Buddhist country, but since Phuket is such a popular destination for western tourists, Christmas decorations and holiday decorations litter the island, often quite jarringly. Coming across this Buddhist temple with a Christmas tree inside was quite a spectacle.
Last week, a group of us visited a little bar around the corner from the school to listen to a Thai guy play an acoustic set on guitar. The picture of Geoff posing with the Christmas stocking was taken at this little hole-in-the-wall.
The Thai guy sings a mixture of Thai song and western songs, often butchering the words of songs we know very well. Listening to him sing Oasis or the Beatles or even 'Happy Birthday' was funny the first couple of times. However, his sound system is very loud and my bedroom window happens to face the direction of the bar. Having been serenaded to a butchered version of the Cranberries 'Zombie' at two in the morning for the third time in a week, the novelty is losing it's charm. Especially since we have begun to teach this week.
Being thrown into the classroom this quickly was a bit of a surprise, but my first day went rather well as I taught a lesson on singular and plural regarding 'things that can be counted.' "Can you count bananas?" Yes. "Can you count water?" No, but you can count bottles of water. Some water, a bottle of water two bottles of water. Etc., etc.
Perhaps the most interesting part of teaching so far are the names. Some Thai keep their given names and spell them out in English phonetically. Other chose English names for themselves. My favorites so far: Jib, Joke, New and everyone's personal favorite, Gun.
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