Paisley Firefly: Final week in Chiang Mai

Hey there, sorry about the delay with posting, it has been a crazy month. I hope you enjoy!

The final week in Chiang Mai had arrived. Time for the final presentations and exam and then the real work would begin. I was very anxious for the presentation so I was grateful to my family back home who were doing all they could to keep me calm. I was ready and had it all planned out to the tee but still couldn’t stop the anxiety from hitting. On the day of our final presentation we were also fortunate enough to visit a children’s home and donate some necessities. Whilst there, we spent some time feeding the children and playing with them. It was a lot of fun and made me excited to start teaching (and made me hope that I would end up teaching primary school). After that it was time for my final presentation. To be honest, most of the presentation was a blur because I was so nervous I could barely think straight, but other than that it was actually okay (well in my opinion). The last couple days of the course were to refine all the skills they’d taught us, in preparation for the final exam and for teaching.

The final exam was long and tedious and wasn’t even used towards our certificate, so overall, a waste of time (especially as it was open book). But I guess it’s all part of the experience. We were all just excited for graduation and to go out and celebrate. We’d all been told where our agency had placed us to work and had been told we had to be in Bangkok that very Sunday. After the exam we headed off to buy train tickets. With that out of the way it was time for some food and to get ready for the night ahead. Not long after 5pm we all headed to the Red Bus Bar for graduation.

The Red Bus Bar was a lovely spot for graduation, perfect for our final night all together. The night started off with a speech and some encouraging words for our future teaching careers and then the graduation ceremony began. We were all given our TEFL certificates, our permission to teach English as a Foreign language basically, and then the farewells began. It was bittersweet night where we were stoked to be finished with the course, but rather bummed the whole experience was over. It was like the last day of high school, where promises of future meet ups were made and the ever ‘true’ statement “We’ll talk all the time” was said countless times. Everyone had good intentions of keeping their promises, but sometimes life just gets in the way no matter how hard we try.

Everyone left the red bus bar at around 10pm to either go to Zoe’s or wherever else was on offer for the night. After listening to rather chilled music and singing and even some dancing, everyone was excited to let loose. We were only at Zoe’s for a short amount of time (Fun Fact: clubs generally close at 12am because the sale of alcohol is prohibited after midnight) and then it was time to head back to the resort. One very memorable moment from that night was eating one of the most incredible burritos ever, from a street vendor. I’d go back to Chiang Mai just for that. After the burritos, 4 of us (Tristan, Zanru and Sara) walked back from where the song thaew dropped us (where Simone and Thiv were staying) and ended up going into two 711 stores that were just a couple hundred meters apart, just because Zanru wanted to see the cashier at the other 711. It was rather amusing for me to watch everything as basically the only sober person there. The after effects of a night out can also be rather amusing. Not so much in this case though, as the next morning was our final day in Chiang Mai. After getting back to the resort, Zanru and I just chatted for a bit and were there after joined by Tristan to watch a movie. We were all pretty tired and decided to call it quits after 2 of us (not me) fell asleep.

Sara and I had problems with our phones so we wanted to buy a cheap phone to put a Thai sim card in (and to use whatsapp and line). So the last day in Chiang Mai started off with Sara, Tristan and I at Tesco sorting that out, only to find the phones we bought don’t actually use whatsapp as we’d been told they did and having to return the phones all of 5 minutes later. Then we headed back to the resort to pack up everything, which was a mission and a half. Lunch time!! Sara, Tristan and I met up with Thiv, Simone and one of the teachers from the course. We headed to Star Avenue for some Mexican, yum!

Unfortunately, our time in Chiang Mai, much like all good things, had come to an end. I was rather upset the experience was over, it was honestly once in a lifetime. I was, however, excited for the next chapter as I had a good feeling it would change me for the better. So with that feeling, I hopped on an overnight train to Bangkok and, other than the food poisoning I was lucky enough to have for the last 6 hours of the trip, had a rather pleasant experience.
(Sorry about all the pictures and the fact that they're not in order, I hope they give you a little more insight into my time in Chiang Mai).