Happy Halloween!

                   Hiiiii Everyone!  Today is Sunday, Oct. 31st, Halloween!  I can't believe tomorrow is November already!  Tomorrow starts my first real full week of work and I am so nervous.  I should be working on lesson plans right now but I needed a little internet break!  And I realized it's been over a week since I wrote last and we can't be having that!  My first week at work was rough.  And I didn't even have a full class load.  This is a lot harder than I expected!  I actually had a freak out Thursday into Friday.  It was a difficult 24 hours and I even cried and said I wanted to go home!  Luckily my boss and everyone I work with is amazing and made me realize I was not only having a Jess freakout, but that it was normal adjustment pains.  So hopefully this evening and tonight I can do some good planning and this week will be a little easier and go a little more smoothly for me.  On a fun note, get a load of this.... so Thai people have a real name.  And that real name is real long, so everyone is given a nickname.  And this nickname seems to almost be a short English word.  Here are some examples of the names of my students and the students of other teachers: Bank, Donut, Mint, Boss, Porn, King Kong, KFC, Nickname, and Arm.  I shit you not.
                                 On a lighter note, my housing situation has improved.  I have made some additions to my room and now it finally looks and feels like a real room.  Check out my new plant!:

Isn't it so pretty?!?!?!

I do, of course, still have many many geckos in my room.  But I actually really like them!  They are wicked cute!  Check out this guy!  

So cute!!!!

             Oh, so I haven't yet ( I don't think?) mentioned how much amaaaaazing Engrish stuff there is here in Surat Thani.  If you are not familiar with Engrish, it is when non-English speakers try to use English but majorly mess it up, ending up in a really funny situation.  Here is the first of what I am sure will be many, many pictures showing you the hilarious beauty of this phenomenon:

Sorry that it's the wrong way.... I am too lazy to do anything about it right now.  It says "Easy to carry ABORT"  LOL.... Also, I don't know if you can tell, but the white people's heads are clearly not the heads that were originally on these bodies, and apparently maybe Buckingham Palace (??) is in the background.  Amazing.

                         So this weekend we went to Khanom again.  This time we went because all of the Super English teachers went for a huge Halloween party at a bar on the beach.  It is (maybe?) owned by an expat and almost everyone there was foreign.  I had no idea there were so many white people in all of Thailand, LOL!  It was cool, there were tons of English teachers from other schools and everyone got dressed up and I got to watch as almost all of them got reeeeally drunk.  We also did some other cool things while we were in Khanom.  It's the height of rainy season and it's been really stormy out.  I'm sure you can tell by the pictures of the beach how choppy and crazy and huge the waves were!  Keep in mind, this is the SAME beach we were at last week, so the comparison is pretty crazy.  We went swimming in the water anyway, and it was still very very warm.  The undertow was crazy though!  It was really fun times!

Anneliese and Janet checkin' out the choppy surf!

I don't know if this picture really captures how crazy crazy crazy the waves were!

The boys were the first to head for the water!

We went in right after them!  It was awwwesome!

Look at this wicked cool preying mantis that attached itself to John and Janet's motorbike on our way back from dinner... which, by the way, was a REALLY good burger and fries at this place called Thai-Fi!

Our very talented makeup artist Anneliese applying her skills to the face of Mitch.

I can take NO credit for this!  Anneliese gave me the idea, the dress, AND did my makeup.  She is so awesome.  We were supposed to be silent film stars!  Even if people didn't get that much out of it, I looked wicked creepy and freaked everyone out for sure.

Ha!  Awesome!

Anneliese also turned Mitch into an awesome Sugar Skull!!!

And then somehow Janet, Anneliese and I decided a pyramid was a good idea.  LOL

Westside.  Janet looked so awesome... she was like a pop art picture.

Roomie Mike as Harry Potter!  

Next day still mad choppy waters

Halloween breakfast on the beach!!!!!!!!

So now I reeeeally have wasted some time and have to go!  If you ever feel like making my day and sending me a letter, here is my address here!:

                                      Jessica Gallant - Teacher

                               Super English

                               38/1-2 Bandon Road

                                  Talad, Muang

                                 Surat Thani, 84000

                                THAILAND