Amy (and Monica) Take Thailand: Week 4 Part 1

     Sunday was another day of attempting to go to the floating market with Jill. But, again, it was raining. So we stayed around the apartment. And it was also cramfortheTESOLtest day. Because Monday was our final examination for the TESOL and no one decided to really study on Saturday. So on Sunday, I spent my time divided between studying, hanging out with Jill, and hanging out with Jill while studying.

This is at the night market and it needed a photograph

     I went out with Jill for dinner and got curry (finally!) and it was delicious!

     Monday was d-day! We had two hours (or even three if we wanted) to take the TESOL exam which was just a total of 13 questions that require written answers -of which we only had to pick 10 to answer- and 10 multiple choice questions. I finished and felt pretty confident so that was nice. Then we had to wait around for the rest of everyone to finish because there was an announcement at the end and some people were going to go off to camps! I was not one of them.

     With the TESOL course done, and some free time on my hands before I had to create one last lesson plan, I walked home with another girl from my course. When we got back, we ran into two other people who were going to the beach and invited us to come with. We thought they meant the one within walking distance, so we ended up at separate beaches, but our beach was pretty cool.

This was an attempted shot of sand crabs.

And so was this one.

It even has an exercise park!!

     That night, those of us left went out to dinner again to celebrate finishing the TESOL course and just hang out. I ate more bomb food and got to sleep in for the next day!

Pretty sunset

     Tuesday was another short day. There were only about 6 people left in the class and it was the official last day of class. Those of us left got to present a final lesson plan for critiquing purposes and got some last minute tips, tricks, and overall advice from our instructor. We even took pictures with him!! He gave me one of the best hugs on the planet.

His arm looks funny but that's just because it's behind his back,

      In a true form of nostalgia, I walked home and finally decided to take some pictures of my walk home since I realized my time in Hua Hin was drawing to a close. Once I got back to my room, I did what I had been doing pretty much all week which is hang out at the pool (finally!)

This is the view from the bridge I cross over the street on.

And the other side.

Panorama!! What what!!

The bridge that is covered in photos of The King.

RAINBOW!

     One of the XploreAsia people had our TESOL certificates for us, so we all were gathered up before everyone left for their camps to take one final group photo. Many goodbyes and last minute phone numbers were shared. Then there were six of us.

D'aaaw!!

This is my artsy pool photo.

     Plans were made for Wednesday to be an adventure day, I unfortunately had money that needed saving so I had to pass on the adventure. But I did have my own adventure pan out while I spent my day packing and relaxing. A frog appeared in my room!

It's up there!

     At first glance, I could have sworn it was dead. It didn't move for TWO HOURS, so I figured I could let it be and make someone else deal with it later.

     Then it moved! And that is when I started worrying. I didn't want to touch it because it was in a deciding position between inside my room and outside my room. I (mostly) ignored it and just checked on it throughout the day.

Still there.

     Once all the adventurers came back from the waterfall, I asked one of them to come rescue me from my frog dilemma. He came in and kept poking it with a straw. It almost fell into my room, then he got it out on the balcony where it took a flying leap of faith into the jungle across the way. From the third story, I can only hope it survived.

     We went to downtown Hua Hin that night for some final bonding, and our instructor was supposed to show up to hang out and say goodbye and all that good stuff. He didn't end up coming, and I didn't want to stay out late because I was leaving at 6 AM the next morning for my placement. The bar we were at did have some funny looking drink cups though!

Funny one.

Normal one.

     As per usual, when it finally came time to saying goodbye to everyone, I mostly held myself together, until about person number two of eight. Oops. I walked out and didn't want to talk to anyone else. Jill was leaving with me and she laughed at me. Then one of the guys I said bye to came back and gave me this huge hug and told me that I'd be great at my school, and that was really nice. Plus he's like 6 something so he picked me up, which was kind of fun.

     Jill said I could wake her up in the morning so I wouldn't have to say bye to her yet. And that way she'd be too groggy to be upset so I'd have to deal with that part on my own. I got back to my room, prepared for the next day, and went to sleep.