A lot has happened in the last few days!

Thai dancing was really fun -thinking I could take it up over here! And the Thai lesson showed me that I still can't speak Thai... In the afternoon, we went to Chatutak market, which is massive, and sells everything you can imagine. We found ourselves in the pet section for a bit too long! Lots of puppies squished into cages, which wasn't nice, and the whole area stank! But the clothes section was fun, and I hope to go back! Managed to buy some snazzy patchwork trousers for 160B too.

The following 2 days we had our i-to-i course, where we practised some teaching techniques etc. Was good fun though, and got to know some more people!

In the evenings, we have spent some time outside the hotel, with some drinks. Also went to a local bar/restaurant one day, and there was casually an elephant in the doorway.

Yesterday, we went on a tour day - went to some floating markets about an hour and a half away, which was really cool. When we came back to Bangkok, we went to a boat restaurant (pretty sure that we walked through it when I was here before, to get to our tour boat), which was quite nice, though it was raining really heavily and big thunder and lightning storms going on! We headed to the Grand Palace after, and Wat Po, which is the temple with the huge reclining Buddha. Photos to follow!

The previous day, I had found out that there was a problem with the school I was meant to be working at in Bangkok, so they had to change it, and we had no idea where we'd be going. Was pretty disappointing at the time, but then we found out last night what would be happening. And so this morning I came to Surin on a 6 hour bus journey with some of the others... and fingers crossed they're going to give me a job here in Tha Tum at a school with Yasmin. Izzy and Niall are living here too, and there are quite a few people in and around Surin city, so we should be able to catch up!

The journey here wasn't pretty, as we got in at 4.30am before having to get up at 6am to leave at 7am! Had spent the night (again) at the reggae bar, which was so fun! Lots of emotional goodbyes though, as we are all spread out over Thailand now L We all slept most of the way here. We were met at Surin bus station by Nang who works for IES Global (the company we're here with), and then a guy called Khim came with us to our apartments.

Interesting time here so far! Lizards and bugs everywhere! Izzy was met by some teachers from her school so they went for dinner. Meanwhile, Niall, Yasmin and I wandered down to the night market - we are definitely the star attractions here! We found a little restaurant to go to, but obviously couldn't understand the menu. So we asked him to bring us some food - there was a hotplate and pan on our table, and they brought out loads of meat and veg. We had to mix it in the pan, with some water they'd poured in for us. Had no idea what was going on, but it was quite nice, despite our initial scepticism! Haha.

Still no idea if I am actually definitely staying here, or when I'm starting work, or where it is... But we might go to Surin tomorrow! And I have to go to Laos at some point for a border run to sort my visa. After all that, if we have time before we start teaching, I might go to an island for beach fun!

Haha, talk about 'welcome to Thailand'!