People At School

Besides Gil, who seems to be a very interesting individual, the only people at school that I have had contact with have been Thai people.

Miss Buhpa helped pick me up at the airport and has been very helpful in me finding things and places around town. She is the marketing secretary, I think, and she can speak English really well. She has been helping me and the other teachers get over to Thailand with our visas and other necessary documents. If I have any questions I have been going to her.

Another girl who helped me with my apartment is named Kop (pronounced cope). She is younger, probably about my age and her English is not great. She can speak English and understand, but I've found it has been a challenge at times trying to communicate with her.

Sies is one of the busdrivers who drove me from the airport to the hotel and from the hotel to my apartment to get my luggage to my place. He is about the same age as me and is a really nice guy. Similarly to Kop, his English is poor at best. We talk in segments and have broken conversations, a lot of actions. When he was driving me to the hotel yesterday he asked me if I smoked. I told him I did not. I thought he was talking about cigarettes, but during the conversation I began to think he was talking about marijuana.

Interesting development in that department. Makes me wonder about drug testing and other stuff like that. Also, I can only imagine that drugs are pretty readily availible in this society. Given the lifestyle and low morals in certain areas, I can imagine that drugs will be previlent. However, drugs can be found in America too, if you look in the right places.

I did meet my principal last night, Simon Faulkner. I had met his wife, Linda the other day at school. I believe they are Canadian, though I am not sure. Anyway, I was walking down the street close to the school and I see Simon coming out of a bar called 'Woodstock' and call my name. I crossed the street and enjoyed two beers with him and Linda. It was good and nice to sit with them. They told me that I would be getting a lot of information today during orientation, probably a lot of things that would have been good to get from the beginning, but I did come a little early.

I had met Simon earlier at the job fair. He was one of the individuals to interview me and he seemed like a nice guy then.

Looking forward to meeting more people today.

Aaron