Koh Samui Saturday 29th April 2017

Sapphire – What a hectic week it’s been. Cannot believe it’s been 7 days since our last Blog update.

We ended the week (second week of the TEFL Course) and celebrated our first month on Koh Samui with our classmates at the Lucky Shaker Cocktail bar. It was an amazing celebration and the first time we had partied with our TEFL companions. What a really great group of people.

We had (quite) a few “Friday” cocktails. These innocent-looking cocktails, pretty and blue in colour contain several types spirits and taste divine but aptly named “Friday”. One would not want to go to work the next day after a few of these.

After cocktails we all decided to take a midnight swim. We trekked down to the beach in high spirits. The water was fantastic and the stars were amazing. The evening was a great stress relief for all of us and after much chatting, swimming about, reminiscing and laughing about the past week and a few rousing sing-alongs (Mandy had us all playing her favourite singing game) we made our way back to our hotel room. We were feeling more relaxed than we had felt in the last week.

As far as the TEFL course went, we’d been busy with lesson plans, practicing for our Adult lesson practicals and “resourcing”. Making up flash-cards, typing up worksheets, designing and making games, painting props and so on.

Mandy did her 1st official practical on Friday at the International School and did awesomely well.  My practical is on Wednesday at the same school. I’m lucky to be working with a great bunch of people in planning and preparing this lesson which is for adult learners.

An agent who works with the Samui TEFL Training Centre came to meet with the students with regards to teaching positions he has available. He recruits teachers for a number of schools in Bangkok and surrounds. Mandy and myself had a meeting with him and he confirmed that our decision to look for work in Cambodia would be our best option as we do not have degrees.  There are ways to work around this illegally but we are not willing to go this route!

The laws in Thailand are becoming more strict and although there are employment possibilities for non-degree holders, these are limited. As a non-degree holder you cannot obtain a legal work permit and are open to exploitation. Working in Thailand on a tourist Visa is illegal and although there are schools who have ways and means to work around this, we are willing to take a chance on working illegally in Thailand.

So after completing the TEFL course we will be moving on to Cambodia where we will be able to obtain a one year work permit without a degree, legally. In hindsight, had we known what we know now, the TEFL course in Cambodia would have been a better option.  But no regrets, as we have met some awesome people and have amazing memories of our time spent on Koh Samui.

We have been very fortunate to have made contact with someone in Cambodia who was highly recommended to us and who has been wonderful in assisting us with our travels to and accommodation on arrival in Cambodia.  We look forward to sharing the next stage of our journey with you once all has been finalized.

We had a very relaxing day today after our late night out. Besides doing our weekly chores of washing and spring cleaning our digs, we had a lovely swim.  (the beach beautiful as usual with a few private yachts anchored in the bay).

We swam out a bit further this time to a small reef as we wanted to test goggles we had purchased as well as a waterproof cell-phone pouch (in order to take photos).  Cell phone pouch photo’s were effective so we will be able to share photo’s of the beautifully lit beach at night from the water and if possible our next snorkeling trip.  Watch this space……..

Looking forward to tomorrow and the week ahead.