I hope this works-my page was on Thai and i'm only learning spoken Thai so very confusing. I robbed my title from my phrase book-in thai you put either ka (for a girl) or krap(for a boy) at the end of short sentences to make them polite.
Hello everyone (sa wat dee ka),
Sounds like ye're all having a great time. I have amazing respect for alice and ian after reading that blog-what a journey!! I'm very jelous of ye all cos ye're all doing work and i feel like i'm way behind cos i don't start until the 18th :( My trip over was great-KLM are pretty unreal.
I got to see a lot of Amsterdam cos i have a friend that lives there that worked as a tour guide there in her first year. Actually ye might find it interesting to know that she did her degree in english and history and did a masters in english, then went to amsterdam with a view towards working for greenpeace, (nothing to do with her degree-i know), which is apparently difficult to do without a science degree or some background in development. So she decided to volunteer and planned to work her way up over 5 years (she though it'd take roughly that long) but after a year's volunteering they were taking on interns and offered her a place cos of her year's experience with them. She did that for a year and then they offered her a position as as an assistant to 3 people there (and i think she works on articles too) but they include her in things that aren't in her job description so she thinks she might be able to move up again. And if she gets a second year contract in her current position she gets a raise of 5%. that was very long but thought it was interesting to have some info on how orgs like that can work and how valuable experience is over a degree sometimes.
I'm in Chiang Mai until the 18th learning Thai, cos the organisation want volunteers to have 3-6 weeks of Thai before arriving. They wanted me to do 5 but no way was i only doing a 4 month placement :S So Chiang Mai is pretty great. most things are within walking distance and the coffee is strong and tastey-very important/first world concern. there's also 6 tescos here, a starbucks and a pizza hut. Thai people are friendly but not pushy-no one's really stared or proposed marriage, yet anyway, though i did meet a guy who had been to Ireland. I thought he might get over friendly but he didn't even ask my name. Its pretty roasting here so i think i look a state all the time and it's keeping people away :P
It's a bit lonely cos i'm staying in a hotel and though it's cheap there doesn't seem to be any internationals around. I think the tourist season is in November so that's probably why. The Songkran festival-Thai New Year-is the 13th-15th though so there should be a lot more people around and my boss is visiting htat week with some volunteers, thank goodness. I'll be scared to go out though cos they celebrate Songkran by throwing water at people for the 3 days. After the D-Talk course and their warnings about drinking water, ice and swimming you can imagine that i'll be a nervous wreck during this time.
I'm just adjusting to the food here now. it's quite over powering when you arrive cos everywhere just smells of food, and there's a Korean restaurant right next to my hotel-which i ate in and it was quite nice-but during lunch and dinner time you can kinda smell it all over the hotel. My stomach's been adjusting though so i've been taking it easy. Had an unreal spicey chicken stir fry today though with jasmin rice. this and water cost me €3.30 so you can live very cheaply here.
My Thai lessons are going wellish, kinda. it's extremely difficult. there are 5 tones and you might have the same spelling of a word 5 times but the tone will change the meaning, for example there's a fine line between saying "to ride an elephant" and "the shit of the elephant"-yes, my Thai teacher actually used that example. :P they don't conjugate verbs though so it's basic in that way.
Sinead, you might find it funny to know that my teacher keeps saying my pronunciations are too French!!-turns out i did learn something in our French classes-though i am not applying it at the right time or in the right country.
As you can see I don't really have any news-I just blogged cos all the cool kids are doing it basically. I'll write again when i get to Mae Sai and actually start work. for now this is holiday time so keep blogging so i've something to do. :)
Take care everyone.
Katherine. X
1 comment:
That's so cool that you're learning Thai!! I forgot you had said that. What an extra bonus to get out of placement! Also hilarious that you're speaking with a French accent! When I hear French people speaking English here they sound like you "sineadeuuuuu", it adds to the funniness.
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