Well, it has been a busy 2 weeks since we returned to school. The children came back on January 7th, and were around for 3 days before the weekend. Last Saturday to Tuesday I attended the Bangkok Search Associates job fair. It was a wild, wild experience. There were about 350 very qualified teachers (not quite sure how I got an invite...) trying to impress, smooze, and bribe their way into around 85 different international schools from around the world. I'm not sure if any of you have been to a job fair like this before but let me tell you, it is quite an experience. Firstly, you have about 60-90 seconds to impress the recruiters enough for them to give you an interview. Then, if this is successful, you get to have 1 or more interviews with them, where they may grill you on pedagogy, or just talk about their school for a half hour (the latter is my favourite type of interview.) Due to my stunning good looks, I secured 6 interviews with schools from Cambodia, China, Germany, Korea, Kuwait, Laos, and Switzerland. Switzerland, Germany, and Korea shot me down, but Cambodia, Laos, Kuwait, and China all offered me jobs.
So...the good: I accepted a job at the International School of Phnom Penh. I'm pretty excited, as are they (by the sounds of it.) It will be a great career move - once I have had IB training and experience I will be able to write my own ticket to anywhere in the world. (I'm not being cocky, I'm very modest actually, there just aren't a lot of chemists teaching internationally. It's great for me.) It will also be a pretty exciting adventure. Cambodia is about 20 years behind Thailand, as far as development goes - Pol Pot helped them lose that race - so it is a very frentic, developing place to be.
The bad: I will have to leave Bangkok in the summer sometime. That means all you people that want to come and visit, do it soon. Otherwise you will have to come to Cambodia. Jess will still be here for next year though so if you are nice, she might let you sleep on our futon.
The ugly: There really is no ugly...yet. Life is good right now. Work, Eat, Sleep, Tiger Woods '09, go out on the weekend...what more can you ask for.
Come visit while you can!
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Tri Country Chirstmas Tour 2008
Jess and I just arrived home from our Christmas trip and since we have a day left of freedom before we have to go back to school, I thought I would update everyone about our travels.
We left December 17th and flew into Singapore. The flight was only 3 hours but when we landed, it was like we were on another continent. Singapore is very much like a western country - very orderly, parks, sidewalks without vendors or potholes, no strange smells or soi dogs... Initially it appealed to me but the longer we stayed the less time we wanted to spend there. The first night we met up with my friend and his girlfriend for dinner at a 'hawker centre.' There were 83 different food stalls set up around a bunch of tables. We had a bunch of different dishes and all were great! It was the best food I had on the trip I think. Day two saw us visit Little India, where we had lunch at an Indian restaurant called Banana Leaf Apolo. The food was served on giant banana leaves set in front of you. It was amazing. That afternoon we enjoyed some very expensive Singapore Slings at Raffles Hotel. (You gotta do it when you're there) and a Trishaw tour of Chinatown that night. It was very interesting since most of Singapore's inhabitants have Chinese origins. The next day we spent the morning in the Asian Civilizations Museum. It has an extensive collection on all things Asian. Well organized and interesting. By that afternoon we were ready to leave the city though. We had seen and done all we wanted to see and do. So we left the next day.
We took the bus from Singapore to Melaka. The bus driver was possibly the saltiest character I
have ever come upon. I think he lived on the bus as it looked like he had a bed and his towel hanging in the window. Occasionally he would bark an order at us, like "Customs! Leave things!" or "Toilet!" He showed the most violent film I have ever seen on a bus. It was horrible. Upon arrival we went for a walk to find some dinner and wander through Chinatown. Jess had her fortune told - she found out that I was born in the year of the Monkey and am a Jungle Monkey to be exact and I should be an engineer or architect, not a teacher. (I knew I took a wrong turn somewhere!) The next day we wandered around Melaka some more until the heat became unbearable. We found an old church that had been used by the Portugese and Dutch that St. Francis of Assisi had been interred at. There were lots of old tombstones inside the church from the fifteen hundreds. That afternoon I personally played PSP for 3 hours and slept for 2 hours.
The next day we travelled to Kuala Lumpur, the capitol of Malaysia. KL was still a bit more orderly than Bangkok but what I realized by that time is that I kind of like the disorder in Bangkok - you never know what you will see. In KL we went to the Batu caves, which are the caves that have become a Hindu shrine. You have to walk up 27o some odd steps to the first cave and inside it there are all sorts of altars. Outside there are lots of monkeys doing their things and some very odd statues. We wandered around the colonial part of KL and it's Chinatown. We realized, while walking through all of these Chinatowns, that you can get the same knock-off/souvenir crap anywhere. Unfortunately it is very hard to find any indigineous souvenirs anymore. The last day we were in KL we waited and waited and waited until it was our turn to go up to the Sky bridge between the Petronas Towers. (Another thing you have to do I guess.)
Day nine was our most epic travelling day. We were up at 4:30am to catch a train to the airport
so we could fly to our next destination. Sounds easy right? No. No it wasn't. We took a taxi to the train station, a train to the airport, a bus to another terminal, a plane to the nearest airport, a taxi to the ferry terminal, a ferry to the island, and a taxi to the hotel. But we finally arrived at around 2pm and proceeded to lay on the beach for the next 3 days. That night we had an amazing Italian "Christmas" dinner at L'osteria. We spent most of our days in Langkawi on the beach, recharging our batteries from all the cities. Our last day in Langkawi we rented a scooter and drove to the cable car. It takes you about 700m up a mountain to some spectacular views of the island.
On day twelve we flew back to KL then on to Phuket. The next day we spent the full day at the beach. It was sunny and hot and the water was perfect. While in Phuket we did an Island tour to Ko Phi Phi Lai, Ko Phi Phi Don and Ko Khai. All were nice (except extremely overcrowded) and you realize that once you see one island, they are all the same - sand, palm trees, water, etc. When we got back to the mainland we realized that the power was out all around us. It stayed out until about 8:30pm which made for an interesting dinner. Luckily we found a place that was running on gas. By day fifteen I was ready to get back to Bangkok. I can only take so much sloth and sun.
We spent New Years in Phuket and it was nice and low-key. We went out
to a seafood restaurant and had lobster, then went down to the beach a lit of paper lanterns and watched some fireworks, then we went home to bed by 11:00pm. On New Years day we went to the beach in the morning and it was nearly deserted but by lunch the crowds had returned so we left. We went for dinner at a nice Italian restaurant and then I came down with food poisoning...again. The next day we had to check out of our accomodation at noon (we stayed at the 3rd Street Guesthouse, by the way, and it was great!) so we spent the afternoon in a mall (not my favourite way to spend a day.) We flew out of Phuket at 8:30pm and arrived at our door at 11. All in all a good trip.
I have also updated my Flickr site with more photos.
Happy New Year everyone!
We left December 17th and flew into Singapore. The flight was only 3 hours but when we landed, it was like we were on another continent. Singapore is very much like a western country - very orderly, parks, sidewalks without vendors or potholes, no strange smells or soi dogs... Initially it appealed to me but the longer we stayed the less time we wanted to spend there. The first night we met up with my friend and his girlfriend for dinner at a 'hawker centre.' There were 83 different food stalls set up around a bunch of tables. We had a bunch of different dishes and all were great! It was the best food I had on the trip I think. Day two saw us visit Little India, where we had lunch at an Indian restaurant called Banana Leaf Apolo. The food was served on giant banana leaves set in front of you. It was amazing. That afternoon we enjoyed some very expensive Singapore Slings at Raffles Hotel. (You gotta do it when you're there) and a Trishaw tour of Chinatown that night. It was very interesting since most of Singapore's inhabitants have Chinese origins. The next day we spent the morning in the Asian Civilizations Museum. It has an extensive collection on all things Asian. Well organized and interesting. By that afternoon we were ready to leave the city though. We had seen and done all we wanted to see and do. So we left the next day.We took the bus from Singapore to Melaka. The bus driver was possibly the saltiest character I
have ever come upon. I think he lived on the bus as it looked like he had a bed and his towel hanging in the window. Occasionally he would bark an order at us, like "Customs! Leave things!" or "Toilet!" He showed the most violent film I have ever seen on a bus. It was horrible. Upon arrival we went for a walk to find some dinner and wander through Chinatown. Jess had her fortune told - she found out that I was born in the year of the Monkey and am a Jungle Monkey to be exact and I should be an engineer or architect, not a teacher. (I knew I took a wrong turn somewhere!) The next day we wandered around Melaka some more until the heat became unbearable. We found an old church that had been used by the Portugese and Dutch that St. Francis of Assisi had been interred at. There were lots of old tombstones inside the church from the fifteen hundreds. That afternoon I personally played PSP for 3 hours and slept for 2 hours.
The next day we travelled to Kuala Lumpur, the capitol of Malaysia. KL was still a bit more orderly than Bangkok but what I realized by that time is that I kind of like the disorder in Bangkok - you never know what you will see. In KL we went to the Batu caves, which are the caves that have become a Hindu shrine. You have to walk up 27o some odd steps to the first cave and inside it there are all sorts of altars. Outside there are lots of monkeys doing their things and some very odd statues. We wandered around the colonial part of KL and it's Chinatown. We realized, while walking through all of these Chinatowns, that you can get the same knock-off/souvenir crap anywhere. Unfortunately it is very hard to find any indigineous souvenirs anymore. The last day we were in KL we waited and waited and waited until it was our turn to go up to the Sky bridge between the Petronas Towers. (Another thing you have to do I guess.)Day nine was our most epic travelling day. We were up at 4:30am to catch a train to the airport
so we could fly to our next destination. Sounds easy right? No. No it wasn't. We took a taxi to the train station, a train to the airport, a bus to another terminal, a plane to the nearest airport, a taxi to the ferry terminal, a ferry to the island, and a taxi to the hotel. But we finally arrived at around 2pm and proceeded to lay on the beach for the next 3 days. That night we had an amazing Italian "Christmas" dinner at L'osteria. We spent most of our days in Langkawi on the beach, recharging our batteries from all the cities. Our last day in Langkawi we rented a scooter and drove to the cable car. It takes you about 700m up a mountain to some spectacular views of the island.On day twelve we flew back to KL then on to Phuket. The next day we spent the full day at the beach. It was sunny and hot and the water was perfect. While in Phuket we did an Island tour to Ko Phi Phi Lai, Ko Phi Phi Don and Ko Khai. All were nice (except extremely overcrowded) and you realize that once you see one island, they are all the same - sand, palm trees, water, etc. When we got back to the mainland we realized that the power was out all around us. It stayed out until about 8:30pm which made for an interesting dinner. Luckily we found a place that was running on gas. By day fifteen I was ready to get back to Bangkok. I can only take so much sloth and sun.
We spent New Years in Phuket and it was nice and low-key. We went out
to a seafood restaurant and had lobster, then went down to the beach a lit of paper lanterns and watched some fireworks, then we went home to bed by 11:00pm. On New Years day we went to the beach in the morning and it was nearly deserted but by lunch the crowds had returned so we left. We went for dinner at a nice Italian restaurant and then I came down with food poisoning...again. The next day we had to check out of our accomodation at noon (we stayed at the 3rd Street Guesthouse, by the way, and it was great!) so we spent the afternoon in a mall (not my favourite way to spend a day.) We flew out of Phuket at 8:30pm and arrived at our door at 11. All in all a good trip.I have also updated my Flickr site with more photos.
Happy New Year everyone!
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