Chiang Mai CELTA Centre (Kait)

It’s our first night in our training center outside of Chiang Mai- I can’t even express how lucky I feel to have found this place! It’s absolutely perfect- I can’t imagine a better place to spend a month studying and relaxing. The website describes the rooms as “rustic” and “functional as opposed to luxurious”, and Ace and I decided to share a room, so I was basically expecting to be sharing a twin bed in a buggy closet somewhere. Not the case! This place is so much nicer than anywhere I’ve stayed since I moved out of Mom’s! The compound is this lovely, lush, plant-y area with stepping-stone paths all over and open-air study areas overlooking a beautiful pond boiling with the hugest catfish and koi I’ve ever seen. Our room is spacious and full of light, has carved wooden doors and what I’m pretty sure is a queen bed, a mini-fridge, two little desks, air conditioning AND a fan (!!), a flat-screen TV and a lovely, spacious clean shower! Amazing! It also felt wonderful to finally unpack all of my wrinkly clothes; I hate living out of a suitcase! So we’re already all moved in and feeling at home here. An extra bonus- the whole compound is covered with adorable little 2-inch geckos that hunt bugs on the ceilings and walls. Haven’t found any in our room yet, but I was thinking we should catch a few hang out in the room and eat any bugs that decide to live with us. All 12 people that will be taking the course have arrived, and it seems like a really fun, interesting, social group. We’ve got a few people from the U.S., a Scottish guy, an Aussie, a woman from New Zealand, a Hungarian girl, and a few Brits. I’m the baby of the group, and I’d say the oldest guy is in his mid-fifties. He’s done everything from owning a chicken farm and cattle ranch in Panama to owning a liquor store in England to writing a book. A lot of people have already taught in different areas of Asia (and I think one guy was teaching in Saudi Arabia) and are looking to get accredited. We’re really looking forward to getting to know everybody even better. After arriving at the compound this afternoon, we all got moved in and then 8 of us took the 40-minute walk into the nearest little town, passing people planting rice in rice paddies and people driving these cool-looking cattle (oxen? water buffalo?) along the one lane road. Going back was also exciting, as we took a sort of taxi-truck back to the compound, getting quite lost, hurtling along the tiny road, and getting hit by the motorbike behind us when the driver had to slam on his brakes. Fortunately, no one besides us looked too worried or surprised by this J We got back to our compound, had a very tasty dinner of curry and spicy mushroom soup, and sat around drinking Thai beer and chatting with Clarence, the owner of the compound. He’s a super-laid back, funny Brit who came here as an English teacher and is still here 40 years later. Class starts tomorrow at 10:30- I’m a little excited and a little nervous. This is probably the last free time I’m going to have in quite a while!