Week 4 - The fat controller

Work this week has been interesting as I attended some lectures as it was the last week of lectures before the exams.  The lecturer that was introducing me was a little eccentric but extremely nice and was keen to practice his English, as are most are here once they get over there initial shyness.  The first lecture threw me as I had no idea what to expect or what he expected of me.  After the 3^rd one I had a little routine to let the students (hopefully) understand me and not bore them.  The key to this was to stay where I was from (Birmingham - UK) and then with the UK being represented as a large blob on the white board ask the students where certain cities were in retrospect to Birmingham; north or south.  This seemed to amuse them when they got it completely wrong.  So after Birmingham, London, Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle were on the board, this linked nicely to football and some more interaction with the students.  I thought Manchester United would have the most fans, but Chelsea and Liverpool came out on top.  After this they got to ask questions, an interesting but not surprising observation was the one class which had a majority of girls was more out going and willing to make mistakes and ask questions (even if of a slight personal nature!!).  Another lecturer here has the habit of holding my arm as we are walking which is slightly disturbing to me and I have no idea how to stop it?!?!?

Also got a valentines tip from the mostly girl class; a white rose is better than red as it is pure love.....lol

Finally did some exercise this week, some of the lecturers and students play 5-a-side football on a Wednesday night for an hour.  Have to say I really enjoyed it and although I was soaked through with sweat (yeah, nice image I know) it wasn’t as tiring and hot as I thought it would be but the temperature was still low thirty’s.  Played a fat Paul Scholes role, I like to term this role the fat controller, scored a couple and created plenty also did plenty of running ;)

RANT

One note which annoyed me this week was my phone contract, for some reason they put a ฿1000 limit on the contract and rather than ring or text saying your phone will be blocked they just blocked it, also the same day the universities wifi was down. So I have no internet (and can’t ring anyone) which I hate not having, since its the only way I keep contact with the UK.  The only reason I had reached the limit was ringing home in the first few days before we had the internet set up. So had to get my fiancee to ring and up the limit, I said ฿5000 but we settled on ฿2000, not like it will be ever reached again.

Hmmm I like this rant feature so will make it a permanent part of the blog, I think driving standards may get it in the next one! Because I’m now legal and fully insured see below.

Ending on a good note....

As took a major step in getting settled here and got a Thai car license, it’s valid for 1 year then it can be converted to a 5-year license.  Did try to get a motorbike license at the same time but didn’t have the correct picture on my UK one, the license got printed and they were just about to give it me then didn’t.  Oh well better you learn how to ride Thai style and do their test.  (the cost for the car license was as follows: 12 passport photos - ฿120 (this was for immigration letter - ฿1000), 2 medical certificates - ฿120, driving license - ฿340) if that was in the UK the 12 pictures alone would have been more than the driving license!!