Ja

All of the staff at the hotel are really nice... and most speak at least some English (many get an English lesson from us each month). There is one that for some reason became our favorite in the first week there, Ja. For the first few weeks we didn't really talk to her much, but she would see us walking towards the hotel and have our keys out on the counter by the time we got there, and she would be just sitting behind the counter smiling at us.

When we got the assignment to teach an English lesson to someone that doesn't attend classes at the school ... I decided to ask her. She was very excited to get a lesson. Since she works the evening shift at the hotel, I was able to teach her while she was working (during a time when she wasn't busy). I did my lesson mostly on objects around the hotel room (just took a bunch of pictures and used my laptop during the lesson). It went very well and she seemed to learn a lot of new things.

Since the lesson I have talked to her a good bit. She has helped me teach the kids around the hotel how to hoop (by being kind of a translator).... on a side note.. finally got her to hoop yesterday. We determined the other day that there were more kids around the hotel trying to hoop then I had hoops for.... I still had a bunch of piping left.. but no connectors. So while she wasn't working yesterday she took me to the pipping shop to buy the connectors. And then to see a couple of sites around Phuket town. One of which was a park on the ocean (not a beach).... which had very little shade.... but she tried to stay in the little bit she could find.
Side note for anyone that doesn't know..... and I don't know if you could tell from my motorbike video.... Thai girls don't like the sun.... they are very against getting tanned (or really, darker then they already are). So while riding around town in 90 degree weather.... they will be wearing jackets to keep the sun off their skin. Its pretty ridiculous and amusing all at the same time.

There is a dog that hangs out around the school.... an amazing dog actually. That follows us around all the time (and is typically allowed in most restaurants and things). Well the only problem with him is... he is a street dog... so he is really dirty and makes your hand smell bad and sometime turn black after petting him. So me and Veronica decided to give him a bath... picked up some dog shampoo and tried to turn a hose on him..... totally didn't work.
So.... Ja decided to help us out and lure him into the bathroom by the pool (pretty much all bathrooms have some sort of hose and a floor drain) and lock him in there.... and we bathed him in the bathroom. He didn't quite like the water at first.. but he loved the attention once we started scrubbing him. Ja was far more forceful at keeping him in there then we were.

Later that night we ended up sitting by the pool (with the dog of course) with Ja and a guy that also works at the hotel. The guy was playing a guitar and we were attempting to sing some songs in English.... then Ja and Joy (Malta's g/f) would sing some songs in Thai. They both sing really well (especially compared to the res of us). We had a lot of fun and ended up staying at the pool till almost 6am!

Tomorrow is Ja's birthday, so a few of us pitched in and bought her a cake and some candles. The guy with the guitar is going to help us.. and we are all going to sing happy birthday (maybe in multiple languages(hopefully)) to her tomorrow... should be fun.

So we have spent some time hanging out with some of the hotel staff recently and its been pretty cool. The staff here are really nice. Though it has to be interesting for them. Ja was showing me some pictures of her hanging out with some of the students from previous courses.... going to the beach and other random stuff. So... basically every month they have a few weeks of the students getting used to them... then a week or two of hanging out with the students........ then the students leave and the new people show up. .......must be odd.