Short Nakhonsithammarat Update:
I wrote a longer one but lost it with sketchy-internet here. Oh wells, cliffs-
-Girls: Am getting better at Thai, getting lots of numbers but language barrier sucks, boom boomed-out one of the Singha Girls at this open-air type place. Asked for the number, she is like, where you stay, came by after work. She probably thought I spoke a lot better thai than I did, so doubtful repeat. Need to get a lot better at the Thai, or have chill older Thai dude set up dates for me with digits. Rajabhat Uni just opened up this week so college girls, (Singha girl was at least 30, but I like) that are more my age, speak nit-noy English should provide for better opps.
-Have found more chill spots, the classic Thai open-air restaurant/bar beats KFC or Farang bars. Over-employed with bored hot thai girls, cheap, mellow.
-Found a country western dance/bar which was pretty awesome/lol "Take Me Home" (The West Virginia Song) played by Thai band was the highlight. Some chill English Teacher who had a Thai BF led us there, Thai bf was super happy that he could bring farang and had farang gf to boot.
-Still pretty limited living 50m from the school and 6km from downtown. That changes as I move out with the chill aussie, (peter) to a cool house with 3x the room at half the price. A/C, water, electric, pretty new/good. Have to get an internet hook-up, which has been answered 7097097689 times in this thread. Also, old-chill-thai-guy has got a used Honda Wave for 10k which I'm snap-calling soon. So bike+closer to town apt means a lot more freedom.
-Still haven't seen anything that would qualify as a club, they do exist I hear, just haven't checked them out yet. 2 other guys I kick it with are busto until payday, and not going to go there by myself. Mai pen rai.
-Found coffee shop with wifi that I just show up, put on headphones+pimsleur and have 3-4 barista/Thai teachers helping me out. Good motivation to learn lol.
-Wandering around with Alex, (san diego guy, him and peter I like, all others not so much) got a little lost came across what was half restaurant/half families house. Make awesome yellow-noodles dish, kids are playing around with us, parents are taking pictures. Father proudly gives us a ride back home. Getting lost is awesome, but avoid dark areas + lots of barking dogs.
-Haven't got my camera fixed. Missing specific Nikon USB hook-up, might just buy another but kind of lame. Alex might just go on a little photo-safari with me to show the few 'sites' of Nakhon.
-School is actually pretty fun, been teaching the kiddies 'Farang Phrases' which is US Slang, and they love it. Short lecture-lesson, small worksheet, a game at the end if we have time. Kids can get chatty/add so gotta be fast paced. Another difficult thing is massive gap of knowledge within classes, some kids on hello/how are you level, others could probably get by in an english speaking area after a month or so.
-Still a little more to discover in Nakhon, and when the Uni gets going will liven up, other teachers (except the 2 aforementioned) are crying/dying of boredom. Just putting them on ignore and out of sight out of mind.
-That being said, staying till next March doesn't seem too appealing. Especially since this is my first ESL job and I could make more baht grinding, (though not sure it would fit me well, I'm not ballin poker-wise, and if I did it I wouldn't do it in Nakhon unless I was in like srs Thai GF mode, keeping poker dl too, etc etc). Plan is get the most I can out of here, earn resume/exp points, go teach at a new locale when bored (mecca for me = South America) 3-4 years max. Go back home, law/grad school probably end up carrying poppa's briefcase around for a bit, (attorney) then i guess...uh...settle down. End emoness, just some good realizations I've made here, a tad bit of direction won't kill me.
-Alex booked a plane ticket home, he can't save money here, has a girl waiting, is turning 30 having some early mid-life crisis. Not the best for him, Skypeing at rando hours with the gf, no effort to learn thai but he's the closest thing to a kid I'd kick it with back @ home. He's gone into I DONT GIVE A **** MODE @ school which is tight. We're supposed to wear ties and nice shirts to I guess fit in with the super-uniformed students. He rocks some plaid short sleeve flannel stuff with silly ties, Thai teachers whisper amongst eachother. We had to make intro speeches to the whole school, mine was very very short boring and sweet, except for like putting on my sunglasses at the end and waving goodbye. Alex comes up all sloppy haired, wearing his flannel and silly tie. The kids start applauding and he does the dictator pound and wave and is like "I'm from CALIFORNIA and I LIKE SKATEBOARDING!!!" He instantly enters legend status with the kiddies as the dean frowns on. I play the game, it works out well, lots of Wais to teachers and small-talk. They give me every worksheet and try to help me all I can. I do little to know work aside from actual teaching. Also good b/c they found me a house, showed me the coffee shop, (one of the teachers husbands own)
-Long weekend coming up, have this Friday off. Going out to Khanom, friend from Pattaya is going to Full Moon Party. I pretty much am a tool for not going if I'm already going to be a ferry-ride away chillaxing @ Khanom? Don't trust myself in that situation, even though we'd have a big group, but getting wasted and doing drugs is not something I plan on doing ever or until I get a super chill set-up, (like Peter and I @ the house, maybe hot Rajabaht students) Also my wanderlust and admitted prejudice against the backpacker/traveler/farang-visitor type probably won't mesh with the FMP. I can tell I'm overthinking it already, but wondering what you guys think, I guess have just had really bad experience b/c the only farang down here are scummy English Teachers, old dudes that locked down thai wives, and just random travelers who just look super-sketch and insta-look away cross the street if they see another white person, (**** YOU MEAN OTHER FARANG KNOW BOUT THIS PLACE DAMN IT!) seen maybe 4 total of the last group and they all had fanny packs. Teachers/old dudes, there's a few good apples in the bunch, and I definitely am a partier at heart, faking professionalism so ya.