It's now time to...

move onto the next adventure. I had my last day of teaching yesterday which was pretty fun. The kids suddenly became very attached to me and didn't want me to go (although knowing children this probably has a lot to do with the balloons and sweets I gave them). The kids from P2 especially love me (they are 7-8), because they were supposed to have a test but I went up to get them for English, and the teacher let them come because it was my last lesson with them. They were pretty hyper after that.

I also have far too many photos of all the children, because every time they see a camera they point at it and say "one, one" meaning "take one picture", and then proceed to all crowd around the camera and pull funny poses/give each other rabbit ears etc. When the picture is taken they then launch themselves at you all desperate to see themselves on the tiny screen.

On Thursday the nursery finished for the year (the 2 month summer holiday for Thai schools is coming up) and they children who were leaving the nursery to move into P1 had a whole little graduation ceremony and show which lasted all morning. Some of the girls did dances (or rather a 5 year old's version of a dance) and they were all dressed up in matching costumes and makeup. Then the director made us get up on stage to introduce ourselves to the parents (with Suwat, our host Dad doing the translating), and I got a certificate in English for volunteering there, which only has 1 spelling mistake - pretty good going really. This wasn't much of a surprise because I had to write down my name for them.

Yesterday at school P5 went on a trip to a local fishery/aquarium with children from another school (and a couple of the other volunteers) and the director of my school took me and the Swiss family (who turned up to volunteer for the last week) along as well. It was really cool, there were lots of fish including some huge ones as big as a very large person which looked like they might be catfish or something similar. There were also several turtles, sharks, and lots of glowing neon fish. I got to see some of these in their natural habitat today as well. We teachers decided to join the conservation volunteers for the day on the boat and when they went diving we got to snorkel. Apart from the prodigious amount of sea water I managed to swallow, this was really cool. I saw hundreds of fish and some coral (albeit pretty ugly coral).

Outside of school, I've had a nice week apart from the horrid cold that has finally got to me after going around everyone else in the house first. Last Sunday, all the teaching volunteers went kayaking which was really good. We drove for ages and got to this bay called Ao Thalane. Then we kayaked out into the see and round the coast, by some dizzying limestone cliffs and through this beautiful canyon, before going through a mangrove forest which in a 2-person kayak is a little bit tricky, because if you're not bashing into the trees, you're losing your paddle in the branches. The scenery was amazing and it's really nice to do something active when you've been cooped up in a classroom all week. We stopped to have freshly cut pineapple (which out here is absolutely delicious, as are bananas) and a couple of monkeys turned up for the leftovers.

We also went out on Thursday for my leaving meal. We went to a bar/barbecue restaurant at the end of Ao Nang beach called The Last Fisherman. It's a nice, relaxing place and the food was really good, if extremely filling. We also get to have a another barbecue at the house this evening. They have one every month or so for all the volunteers to get together and somehow it's worked out that I get to go to 3 in 2 months which doesn't quite make sense but I'm entirely not complaining.

Oh and for all those people who are wondering, no I haven't managed to lose/break any electrical equipment this week. My shiny new camera is decidedly not going to go for a swim like the last one.