And so it begins...

Tuesday 01 July 2008. 7.00am

Wow! This place is incredibly beautiful. About seven of us met up at the guesthouse on Sunday afternoon and were picked up by mini-truck. We were then taken, with all our baggage, to the Nugent Waterside Centre. It is about a half hour drive from downtown Chiang Mai. As we left the city I wondered what we had let ourselves in for. When we arrived I could see immediately that we had nothing to worry about. The whole place is on roughly two acres of land and is tended by a team of gardeners who work at trimming and landscaping every day. Because we have now started the course and it is very time consuming I really don’t have the time at present to write a long description of the centre. Basically it is a very calming and studious place. Everything is planned to be open air and full of light. We eat all of our meals outdoors. We can’t wear and shoes in the resource room, the training rooms or our bedrooms. So basically most of us walk around barefoot. The bedrooms are fit for a king. They are very large with a double bed, a writing desk and ensuite bathroom with large walk-in shower. I hope to get a picture or two of the place posted on this blog.

Classes start at noon everyday and finish at eight every evening.

There are three meals served every day. Breakfast is served from 8.30am to 9.30am and consists of fresh fruit, bananas, melons and the like. There is also fried eggs and toast. There are other foods served for breakfast on other days, waffles and pancakes for example. I couldn’t believe how different the bananas tasted compared to ones I would eat at home. I had two of them along with my melon and fried egg and toast and jam on toast. The next meal is at 1.30pm and consists of some sort of vegetarian meal. Dinner is at 8.30pm and is usually a curry or something on those lines. Basically I don’t know what I am eating but most of it is good and the bit I’m not sure about I leave to one side. I can’t believe I actually ate cucumbers yesterday! When you squeeze half a fresh lime over them they are actually quite tasty. I haven't eaten any meat for four days now.

Including myself there are 12 students in total. I’m the only one from Ireland. There is one from New Zealand, one from Taiwan, one Canadian, one South African, four from the States and three from the UK. The ages range from twenty three to roughly about fifty five. So there is a good spread, so to speak. There are five blokes and seven girls.

We have two trainers, Ellen and Lauren. Ellen I believe is originally from the States and Lauren is from Australia. They are both well travelled.

For teaching practise we have been separated into two camps. Yesterday morning we were giving a class in Vietnamese to give us an idea of how it must feel for foreigners starting to learn English. Yesterday evening we sat at the back of the classroom as Ellen gave a class to local Thai people that attend every evening. For the last half hour of the class we had to meant and talk with the students. This gave them a chance to practise their English while it gave us a chance to meet the people that we would be practising our teaching skills on.

This evening I have to give my first lesson to the Thai people we met last night. I have to work on a text based lesson with them for 40 minutes. I still haven’t finished my lesson plan yet and it must be done and presented to my trainer before I give the class. So I gotta go now. Will be back soon.

Thank you for the positive comments and encouragement I have received in relation to this blog.