A day in the life of an English teacher: BKK

I honestly have the most rewarding job as an English kindergarten teacher, and I live in the huge unpredictable city of Bangkok, Thailand. I thought I would share my typical week day in this wonderful place I call home (for now).

Its such a great feeling to wake up in the morning and not have to drag myself out of bed after hitting the snooze alarm 3 times. I splash some cold water on my face, put on my uniform of black pants and a polo shirt (a different colour for every day of the week) and do my hair and make up. In Thailand the way you present yourself is very important in terms of how others see you. Its more about the fact that you look after yourself than pure vanity, so I put a little more effort into my appearance. In the same way, the Thai teachers that I work with are some of the kindest and most genuine people I have ever met, and we are constantly laughing and joking around with each other.

Teacher A and I taking a selfie

Getting around Bangkok: Public transport at it's best

Of all the places in the world Bangkok must surely be the most convenient in terms of mass public transport. I sold my car back home in South Africa, and in exchange I have used possibly every means of transport that exists whilst living in Thailand. If you want to go anywhere, at any given moment in time, for whatever fee you are willing to pay, it is most certainly possible here. From cheapest to most expensive, here are the public transport options available to you in 'The Big Mango'.

When life takes over

I had this idea that once I had moved halfway across the world to Bangkok, I would be immensely inspired by everything around me and therefore have a constant flow of moments and events to discuss in detail on my blog. The truth is that I am inspired by this city in so many overwhelming ways that I seldom find the words to explain the experiences that I am going through. I like to think of it as having all the words and emotions in a bowl of alphabet soup, but not being able to digest them into sentences. Does that make sense at all or does it sound like a super weird bio lesson?

Other than being overwhelmed and speechless at the best of times, I am also busier than I have ever been. I used writing as a mechanism of escaping my somewhat vanilla life back home, and I am now on this whirlwind adventure, along with a teaching job that keeps me occupied anytime in-between. Sometimes I will look at my phone and I haven't even had the time to reply to a simple text message. Sitting quietly with my laptop and my thoughts is a difficult feat when there is so much going on around me.

So here comes the point of this blog post-life takes over sometimes. I place certain interests and hobbies in a list of priorities and often they slip to the bottom of that list when I have too much on my plate. Living in a foreign country is a challenge and an adventure, and after a few months I finally have the urge to find the time to write again! So for all the sweet strangers and friends and family members out there that are reading this (Hi Mom), I have returned from hibernation and I will be writing a whole lot about a whole lot from now on. x

Expat life in BKK

What is it really like for an expat living in Bangkok? Well let me just say it is not easy to begin with, but it is a lifestyle I wouldn't be able to afford back in South Africa that is for sure. When I decided to  move to a foreign country I had to realise that I was not just here to visit for a few days, I needed to find an apartment and settle in. This whole process of making bkk my home was unexpectedly easy in some ways and equally frustrating in others. What I did have to accept straight off the bat was that my life back in South Africa could in no way be replicated in great big Bangkok (as much as I tried).

Bangkok Lessons

Hello Everyone! I apologise for being absent for just over two weeks (it feels like months), but a lot has happened in such a short space of time that having time for blogging my thoughts just hasn't been an option until now.

As I have mentioned before, Travis and I have moved to Bangkok in Thailand to teach English. I have decided that because my life has changed so drastically since living in a foreign country, so should my blog. I am still going to keep consistent with the different topics I like to discuss, but there will obviously be a whole lot of Thailand experiences coming your way. I have only been living in Bangkok for a short while and it feels like I have so much so say, but I also won't be one of those people that breaks down every moment and emotion of the day, I promise!

In the time I have been here my brain has been overloaded with information to the point where I feel physically exhausted. It's amazing how completely different one culture and environment can be from another. These are some of the important lessons Bangkok has taught me in just a few weeks-some more forcefully than others let me tell you...