As I have mentioned in my blogs before, I am currently living and teaching English in Thailand.  Thailand is desperate for native English speakers to come here and teach Thai Nationals English.  As a nation that has never been colonised, outside of the tourist hotspots very few people speak any language other than Thai.  As the country strives to develop economically, it has been accepted that the Thai people need to learn to speak English, hence the need for teachers. 

However, this being Thailand, or more accurately, this being Asia in general, even though there is a massive damand for us 'Farangs' to come over here and teach, that doesn't mean the process of doing so legally is easy.  Luckily the company who employ me organise all the paper work that is required to get a work permit.  Trust me, there is A LOT of paper work.  And so many copies of every document, I needed 12 passport photos (in two different sizes), numerous copies of my degree certificate, passport and visa.  I needed a letter from my university verifying my degree certificate isn't a fake, I needed a disclosure from the police in the UK stating I had no criminal record, copies of my birth certificate and my TESOL certification.  I also needed the originals of all these documents with me.  Once I had provided all of the above, the HR department had to go to the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Education in our province and collect documents from them, the school I teach at had to supply an enormous amount of paperwork, including a ton of details on a specific director at the school who will act as my sponsor.  Then I had to fill in 6 different forms stating everything from my GCSE grades through to my parents' religion and everything in between.  Once I'd filled in these, my Thai colleague had to translate it all into Thai onto another copy of the documents.  Then, we were finally ready to head to immegration to apply for the visa.  After all of this, no one was holding their breath we would have everything to satisfy the officer on duty.......

So, on Thursday morning, with everything crossed, myself, my Thai manager from my school and a HR colleague from the Bangkok office headed to immegration.  The first step was easy, we applied for a 30 day extension to my current tourist visa, as you need at least 21 days on your visa to apply to upgrade it to Non-immegrant B.  This was done without a problem.

Next, upstairs to apply for the 12 month Non-B visa.  Thankfully our opfficer seeemed to have a sense of humour, and he laughed and joked with my Thai colleagues as he scrutinised the papers.  And, amazingly before we knew it, I had the much coverted 12 month visa stamped in my passport!

Now, all that is left is to actually get the work permit attached to this visa.  It turned out that we needed a couple of extra papers to do this, so the HR lady will apply for it for me on Monday.  This meant I handed over my passport, degree and birth certificates and other important documents to her (a weight off my mind, I'd been nervously clutching them all day!) 

It was about lunch time, so my Thai colleague and I decided to get some food and spend the afternoon in Bangkok before making the 2 hour journey back to our town.   I got so excited when she took me to a restaurant called Sizzler.  This place is immense, and my town needs one!  I got a full rack of ribs with bbq sauce and baked potato.   This along with unlimited ice lemon tea refills and the amazing salad/soup/fruit/icecream bar thrown in was just amazing.  Everything I'd been missing in one meal, I was a damn happy girl!!!

After a bit of shopping and a lot of wandering around an amazing mall, we ended up at Villa Market, basically a massively expensive supermarket selling all imported foods for the Westrern Expats living in THailand.  I ended up with a basket full of sauasges, cheese, chocolate, bread, gravy granules, sourcream, real yoghurt, kettle chips, tons of scrummy food I haven't seen since I left the UK in January.  I was like a kid in a sweet shop, wandering up and down the aisles with a massive grin on my face!  I ended up managing to spend almost a tenth of my wage in two bags full of shopping, eeeekkkk!  Kinda glad we dont have one in my town, or I'd be permenantly broke!!

This isn't to say I don't like Thai food, I love Thai food, but, sometimes, I crave my Western food fix, and now I can get it WHHOOOOOO!!  (That night I had pasta with real mozzerella, yesterday lunch I had proper turkey and cheese on french bread, this morning I had sausage, egg n beans) yum yum yum, I am in food heaven!!

So, after a really successful trip both at immegration and with the shopping, we boarded our mini van home, and both promptly fell asleep for the journey.  When we got out of the van right outside our apartment, my Thai colleague, was like 'OMG cover your arse, you've ripped your pants!!'  So glad we were right outside our buliding, and with a readjustment of my backpack, I could cover up my bum until I got to my room!!  We were both laughing about it, as only the day before our boss had told me my pants weren't really suitable for work, and asked me to get some new ones, and now I had no choice!  Saw this as a funny thing and carried on into my room.  Once inside I inspected the damage, and yup, a MASSIVE rip right across my backside, revealing my sexy white ass!!  I'm sure all the guys sat on the van must have loved that as I leaned over to get out the van!

I chuckled to myself as I showered and changed, and then unpacked my bags.  However, I soon stopped laughing when I realised after emptying out all my bags, I was minus my purse :o(  So, I had lost every baht I owned, and my UK bank cards.  I normally leave a load of baht in my room, but because I knew it was pay day on Monday, and I wanted to be able to treat myself in Bangkok, I had taken all my money with me.  So, after double checking everywhere, I had to call my bank in the UK to cancel my card.  Then call my Thai colleague to borrow 10baht (15 pence!) for the bus to work on Friday.  I had Sterling cash in my room, so planned to take that to work and change it at the bank at the end of the day. However, once I got to the bank, they needed to see my passport to exchange, even though this is sterling, NOT travellers cheques.  PROBLEM, my passport is with HR in Bangkok so they can process my work permit on Monday.

So, I had 50 baht on me that a friend had given me back that I had lent to her the day before.  I spent 10 of this to get home, leaving me with 40 baht (60p) to see me through to Sunday when I was meeting a friend to go shopping and she coupld use her ID to change me some money.  I needed 20 baht to get to the place to meet her on the Sunday, so had a whole 20baht to entertain myself yesterday.

Thankfully i had a fridge full of yummy food and a new learn Thai CD and book from Bangkok to keep me happily entertained until this morning!

I have now been out with my friend and exchanged my money, been shopping and made up for my day stranded in the flat yesterday!!

Funny, that when I spent so much in Villa Market, I felt bad and thought I should have saved some more money for later.  Now, I am so glad I spent as much as I did as any I had saved would only have been lost with the rest!!

Oh, and today when we were out in town, I bought two new pairs of pants, hoping there won't be anymore flashing for a while!!