Unpacking the Backpack

The teacher training course was finally finished and we eagerly awaited to be told where in Thailand we were going to be placed and whether we'd be teaching kindergarten, primary or secondary school. It was two days before we were due to be shipped out to our new home towns when the results of this life lottery were unveiled to us and it's safe to say that we were absolutely bursting to find out. BURSTING. I was one of the only ones to be given a job in a high school and found out I'd be calling Lampang, a town in the north of Thailand, my home for the next six months of my life. The night before I left Bangkok we all had one last farewell night out and I enjoyed myself so much that I had to be sat on by five of my course mates in order to wake me up when I didn't turn up for the last meeting the next morning. Whoops. Myself and three other newly qualified English teachers who were also heading up north clambered into a mini van and said an emotional goodbye (made more so by the hangover of course) to the rest of our course buddies who we'd become so close to in such a short amount of time. We drove north for seven hours and watched the mountainous landscape unfold before us. The sun set casting an orange glow across the undulating countryside fuelling our increasing excitement about our placements. We were going so far up North that we had to stop in a town on the way for the night; we bought noodle soup from a street stall for dinner for around 60p and watched the lightening crackle in the pollution-free sky - yep, definitely not in Bangkok anymore!!!

Coy carp farm at the hotel we stayed at in the town on the way.

First glimpse of my school.

The grounds of the school contains many ponds and statues that I've been told were made by the students!

An early start the next day was followed by another five hours in the minivan during which we dropped off one of the other teachers. We finally arrived at my new place of work - Maetapassanasuksa school (bit of a mouthful eh? It took me a week just to learn how to say it!) which was 40km from the nearest town, Lampang. The small high school of only 250 students is surrounded by mountains, vibrant green jungle and acres of rice paddies peppered with the squatting silhouettes of hard working farmers. Term hadn't started yet and there was one teacher on duty watching the school during the holidays who didn't speak any English but I eventually ascertained that they were insisting that I live at the school alone; whilst the place was undeniably stunning I certainly didn't fancy the idea of being stranded in a stretch of field by myself for the next six months with no transport, shops or other people for miles! I have a sneaking suspicion that they wanted free security for the school whilst it was closed. After a fair amount of negotiation in broken English and even more broken Thai I was eventually allowed to find a place to live in Lampang town and was introduced to Neal, an English teacher at a different school in the area. I watched the mini van roll away with the remaining two teachers inside who were due to travel further north and I thought to myself, "this is it, this is your new life now". I can't imagine how scary it would have been if I hadn't spent the last ten months traipsing between adventures across Asia by myself; after all, I'd already had my super scary "oh jeeeeez I'm really on my own now" moment when I boarded that one-way flight to India last July! Neal recommended his building to me to live in and I was keen because the rent was only £60 a month (cheaper than my Sky bill alone in the UK) however there wasn't anyone at the office so out of the goodness of his heart he let me, a perfect stranger, sleep in his room that night whilst he stayed with his Thai partner, Ja Muoy, at her restaurant. He tactfully informed me that if I say her name in a descending tone rather than ascending then it means 'pubic hair' in Thai; this is just one of the many embarrassing mistakes you can make with the complicated tonal structure of the Thai language!

View from my building's communal balcony.

The view from my private balcony - the sunsets here set the sky on fire!!

Lampang's River Wang.

The next morning I was finally assigned an 'apartment' which consists of a room with an en suite, a fridge, a little balcony and, thank Buddha, air con!! If there hadn't have been any AC then they would have seen a Jenny shaped hole in the door as I ran out because it is so incredibly hot here at this time of year; going outside is literally - LITERALLY - like walking through the fiery gates of hell into a sauna during an apocalypse. I had to sign a contract which was entirely in Thai with the landlord who spoke no English so we basically just pointed at things, smiled excessively and hoped for the best. The town is completely off the tourist grid which is great for many reasons - it's cheap, I get to experience the 'real Thailand' and the culture hasn't been spoilt by too much westernisation however it also means that I'm one of the only foreigners around, no one speaks English and it can feel a tad isolated, especially since all the other teachers had been placed in groups. The agency who employ me said they'd purposefully given me the most difficult placement because they knew I'd been travelling solo and thought I could handle it. Challenge accepted! I spent the next few days before school started filling my fridge, exploring Lampang and unpacking my stuff; what a bizarre feeling it is to empty the contents out of my trusty old backpack and stuff it in the bottom of a wardrobe after living out of it for so long! I'm officially no longer a backpacker (for now) and I'm not going to lie, the thought is a little devastating BUUUT responsibility calls and I have a new home and career in The Land of Smiles to get stuck into, I get to wake up to the sun every morning, eat insanely good tropical fruit and Thai food everyday, meet new people, learn a new language and immerse myself in Thai culture. No complaints here!!!!

This is just one of my many neighbourhood temples.

Lovely Ja Muoy (in front) took me to the night market and introduced me to a variety of Thai street food that I hadn't tried before.

Ja Muoy's little dog, Snow White.