My Teaching Journal

7-11 January (Pattaya, Thailand)

admin — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 11:52:17 +0000

Well for the next few days Si, Luke and myself did pretty much the same thing.

Woke up
Ate
Sunbathed/swam
Eat
Sunbathed/swam
Eat

Just what a holiday should be like! Didn’t really buy much as I already bought GENUINE stuff in the USA. On our last night we had some drinks to finish off and we went to a karaoke (as I was determined to sing after a few drinks). Some like the songs I sang with the old Thai lady on the keyboard were…

Like a Virgin – Madonna
My Heart Will Go On – Celine Dion
My Girl – ???

Simon even went around with the tip jar because I was so fantastic . Afterwards we went to find food….not quite KFC but….

CHICKEN FEET!!!!!!!

The next day I was sick and had such an unsettled tummy – I blamed the chicken feet. At least my mum will be proud I ate them because the Filipinos eat them too haha!

Ohhhhh I’m not looking forward to working the day after I get back, the most I’ve slept on a long haul flight on this trip is three hours

6 January (Pattaya, Thailand)

admin — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 04:35:33 +0000

While the boys were having a swim we had another wee look around the shops but once again I didn’t really buy much. Afterwards to hopped in a van to Pattaya, which cost us 1700 baht, not too bad between 4 people.

First impression of Pattaya…

White man + Thai girl = Happy times.

There are soooooooooooooooooooo many older men looking for men here it’s not funny. AND there are 10 times more Thai girls looked for love too! Our hotel is pretty nice for it’s price, it’s kind of like a small resort with a pretty good buffet breakfast and two swimming pools.

After a few drinks and card games we went out for dinner. The night life starts here the minute it gets dark! After dinner I went to the hotel while the boys went out. Three white men out on the streets on Pattaya. Hmmmm

P.S. I HATE PATTAYA

5 January (Bangkok, Thailand)

admin — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 04:28:36 +0000

We were so shattered once we arrived in Thailand. I only got about 2 hours sleep and the seats weren’t as comfortable as Denver>Frankfurt…AND there were no TV screens in the seats. We met up with Silas and Luke and nce we were settled in we pretty much looked at shops straight away. I didn’t buy anything though because I was such a zombie from the flight.

In the evening we went to the Night Bazaar with the boy’s mate that lived in Thailand. Had a lovely dinner then went to a VERY swanky hotel for cocktails, I of course only had water because I was going to pass out from exhaustion.

4 January (Berlin, Germany)

admin — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 04:23:14 +0000

On our last day in Berlin we went to a concentration camp (Sachsenhausen). It was the first proper concentration camp in Germany and what the other ones were based on. I’ll also have to come back to this post and add more detail because I’m paying by the minute here!

We left to go to Frankfurt airport about 2 pm and believe it or not we NEARLY missed our plane!!! There was heavy snow in some areas, people driving back from holidays and there were 7 accidents on the autobahn, including flipped cars!!! (OUR FLIGHT DIDN’T DEPART UNTIL 10.50 PM!!!). What should of been a 4-5 hour drive took much longer. I didn’t even have time to say a proper goodbye to Dobbo . Once we had checked-in we had 9 mintues to sprint to the other end of the terminal and pretty much sat straight on the plane.

More than 8 hours of drive time + 11 hour plane ride = VERY SORE TAIL BONE

3 January (Berlin, Germany)

admin — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 04:14:30 +0000

Today we did a massive walking tour in Berlin, it started off at the big Branderburg Gate – with some snowflakes! I’ll have to back back and add more detail to this post because we saw sooooooooooooooooo much stuff, including the Berlin Wall and where Hitler apparently commited suicide. I could easily spend more time here because there is sooooooooooo much to see and do in Berlin!

In the evening we took Nat and Dobbo to a pizzeria for putting up with us and showing us a fantastic time!

2 January (Berlin, Germany)

admin — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 04:07:22 +0000

We drove to Berlin from Potsdam which took about 45 minutes. We checked into a very hmm, funky backpackers hostel (could hold 900 people). The reception kind of looked like a big spaceship and it had lots of metal mesh and neon blue lights. The hallway had only neon blue lights and while we were walking to our room for the first time we smelt a woof of vomit from someone’s new years celebration (this didn’t go away for days!). After settling in we went to Alexanderplatz for a feed.

Pretty relaxing first day because we knew the next would be a biggie.

1 January (Potsdam Germany) 2009!!!

admin — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:02:02 +0000

Not too much to say for today…woke up at lunch and Si later went to a friend’s place for food but I wanted to stay in bed. Later on I finally showered and felt a lot better but realised there was absolutely NO FOOD in our room and the only thing I could have was SPARKLING WATER…YUCK . Luckily Si bought back a bun and an orange or I would of died.

Later on in the evening we went to Toby’s house for dinner and yep…that’s pretty much the first day of 2009

31 December (Potsdam, Germany) NEW YEARS EVE WOOP WOOP!

admin — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 14:41:31 +0000

After a big sleep in we did some sightseeing in Potsdam. We saw the oldest university in Potsdam which was an amazing building with lots of columns and statues. We went to the place where Hitler officially was granted power but there’s only an arch to mark this. Lots of places in Potsdam were bombed in the war. Our last stop was to where Albert Einstein had his laboratories…so much history in one day!

After a nana nap we went to one of Nat’s friends houses for dinner and drinks. We played this dice game which was reallly confusing. Something about rolling a dice and guessing if the person before you is telling the truth or bluffing with a higher number than the person before. If your wrong you have to take a shot of wine or straight vodka…the kiwis of courses ended up having the most shots since we weren’t good with our numbers! Luckily I managed to have a few breaks from the game but I saw Si have at least five vodka shots…it was a dangerous game! At about 11 pm we went to the famous castle in Potsdam for the big countdown and fireworks. We didn’t go to Berlin because it would of been too crowded and too much of a mission to go to bars with such a large group of people. We went to a nearby two-storey bar which had dance music downstairs and old school upstairs. At least it wasn’t as crowded as Christmas day!

We left about 5.30 am…Kirsty…NO KFC!!!

30 December (Munich, Germany)

admin — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 14:04:36 +0000

On the way to Potsdam (next to Berlin) we stopped off at Munich for a few hours. The city is very Bavarian (think of Octoberfest) and we visited a few attractions including Marienplatz (Old Square), and the Residenz (former royal residence from the 14th century). The weather was sooooooooooooo cold but the sky was beautiful blue. We finished our stop over with some German food/beer at the famous Hofbrauhaus Brewery. It was a massive restaurant with a cranking band and it was really packed. There wasn’t one table that didn’t have one of those massive beer glasses, the ONE LITRE ones!

After filling our tummies we continued our drive to Potsdam which took about 5 hours. As soon as we got there we met up with some of Nat’s friends and went to a yummy pizza restaurant, the best in Germany and ranked 20th in the world!

27-29 December (Kufstein, Austria)

admin — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 13:53:11 +0000

For the next couple days we went skiing/snowboarding at Austria/Germany’s biggest ski mountain, Ski Wertz. For a day pass it was 37 euros and to hire skis was 22 euro so it was a pricey couple of days. There was 250 km of tracks, 90 lifts/gondalas and 70 restaurants so it was absolutely maaaaaaaaaaaaaaasssive. Luckily I remembered what Emily and Joe taught me….PIZZA/FRENCH FRIES!!! I got a lot better by the end of the two days and now I want to buy some skis! It was really cool being able to have a wee break at the restaurants. The key passes were like key cards so when you walked through the chair lift entry you didn’t need to use your hands, it was so good not having to walk up any slopes, chair lift all the way!!!

I forgot to mention over the time we’ve been here Nat and her parents have been cooking traditional German food – they’re soooooo nice! We ate Maultashen (German ravioli), Schupfnudeln + Sauerkraut and Linsen (lentils + Spatzle + Saitenwurste. There’s nothing I (or Simon) haven’t liked! It’s too overwhelming trying to order German food at the markets because the words are so long and I have no idea what they mean! well I know ‘wurst’ is sausage and ‘shwein’ is pork.

On Monday we walked around a massive lake, it was quite cold but worth it for the scenery. Parts of the lake was frozen so Si and Dobbo kept trying to through stones though the ice. Those two are like little boys sometimes. n the evening Lilo and Claus took us to the big castle in Austra (built in 1100 AD) which looked really pretty lit up at night. It’s so amazing that Europe has these amazing castles, makes New Zealand seem so young!!!! Anyway we had a gluvein (mulled wine) to mark the end of our time with Nat’s.