The final 2 weeks

wow so i have alot to catch up on! starting with... ah yes my last week at the school. for this week we were teaching all ages at the school from 6 up to 15. needless to say the p1's (aged 6 and 7) didnt really grasp alot, and as they had just moved up from pre school which is just fun and games they didnt understand the concept of sitting at a desk and learning so they just ran about all lesson climbing on eachother and jumping on tables and screaming, it was complete chaos. then there was p2 who i adore because there were quite a few kids from my summer camp class in there and despite only being 7 and 8 years old they were all so enthusiasitc especially the ones i'd already taught for 3 weeks. and it was lovely because at the end of every lesson i would say 'bye bye!' and they would all run at me and hug me, almost taking me out in the process. to be fair the older ones startes copying them and doing that aswell. but i do love my littluns. in terms of teaching, the older ones were great because you really saw progress in their learning. we had a day off on thursday and the teachers took us out to these other schools which both had presentations bring held on e-learning, which, between you and me, is a pile of poo. making the kids sit and watch a lesson being conducted on tv does not count as a lesson. but because this is thailand and they are so desperate to develop as a country they see any kind of technological progress as beneficial and neccessary. i stuck to the blackboard and pens and paper in my lessons as a little protest against it. anyway at one of the schools we met a thai english teacher who could actually speak english! (a rareity). and at the other school there was a tree that was covered in huge hairy bats which was cool. oh and we went to this temple and there was a dead monk in a coffin who had apparently been dead for 4 years. i did not enjoy this.
so at the end of that week i was so sad to be leaving the school and the village. we went into the village to say goodbye and the grandma of some of my students put on a massive spread for us all, the food was sooooo good and i got to spend a few last moments with some of the kids, including my little chubby bun who i love and miss so much. anyway after dinner i gave them presents to say thankyou and the grandma started crying which completely threw me as i didnt expect it at all, and she was just holding onto me and sobbing and it was all too much so i just started bawling! which then set jenna off aswell (women eh!) and i found it very hard to leave after that. the next morning the grandma was waiting outside the gate for me as i left with all my bags and she walked to the bus stop with me and waited until the bus came. she literally didnt speak a word of english but somehow we managed to communicate and i think she told me i am welcome back to the village anytime. then the bus eventually turned up and after a few more tears i waved goodbye to the school and travelled into bangkok where caoimhe was waiting for me!
i found caoimhe curled up on a bench in a shopping mall fast asleep. to be honest at first i thought she was a homeless person. i joke i kid! i knew it was withers and it was so good and so weird to see eachother again. its been 4 months. we spent the next day and a half basically catching up on everything and then on sunday afternoon we went to watch a muay thai match which was extremely brutal. we enjoyed it for the first few matches and then we got bored so we left. on the monday morning bright and early we got on a 6hour bus to surin. i can even describe how excited i was as we started getting closer to the elephant village. being back there was SO GOOD. it felt like home. we had a yummy dinner cooked for us by out homestay hosts and then went to bed ready for a 6am start to go on a 6km elephant ride! at the time we didnt fully understand where we were going and why we were riding for such a ridiculously long journey but then we later found out there was a parade happening in the neighbouring village that afternoon. so thai, caoimhes mahout picked us up on his motorbike and took us to the parade. as we were waiting for the elephants, a load of thai teeneagers ran up to us yelping and giggling and daring eachother to talk to us (standard thai teen behaviour) after a few minutes we worked out they were trying to ask us to go and speak to their teacher which we did, and i told them i had taught english and they asked for my email so that was exciting. then the we heard the music approaching as the parade came down the road and i start dancing and the kids all screamed, it was so funny. then i saw the elephants coming through and i saw my elephant chokchai with my mahout hong riding him, and hong had painted chokchais face and he looked so beautiful! chokchai is a full grown elephant but hes only 7 so hes still a baby really. hes so cute, hong has taught him loads of little tricks like when you give him a treat he bows down and says thankyou (in elephant language) and hong has taught him to pick up objects off the ground and pass them up to him with his trunk when hes sitting on him. its brilliant. anyway so i ran up to chokchai and made a big fuss of him and then hong ushered for me to get up on the elephant and ride him through the parade which i obviously accepted! it was so much fun. i felt like a thai princess apart from maybe slightly less elegant, especially when a thai women gave me some fruit to eat and it was all dirty but i didnt want to be rude so i ate it and it was really quite disgusting, and hong saw my face and started cracking up, but i had already committed to the fruit so i had to at least have a few more bites before casually tossing it into a hedge.
for the next few days we carried on having a wonderful time, and i was obviously the happiest person in the entire world because i was with the elephants again and nothing makes me happier than that. we swam with them in the river and we did field work for the conservation project and we rode them for hours and it was just perfect! so glad i went back. so as you can imagine, i found it very hard saying goodbye but i held it together! i know i will be back there someday so its not goodbye forever. so we came back to bangkok for one night and then went down to the beach in pattaya which really is not a very nice place but we wanted to go to a beach and this was the closest and most convenient one, plus my thai friend nang reccomended a good tattoo artist there where i could get my tattoo done. but i wont go in to detail, pattaya is basically full of old fat sleazy white men with thai brides. everytime i look at one of them i try to convey the message of 'shaaame on you' on my face and i hope it bloody comes across because the way they live their lives is sickening. but me and caoimhe still enjoyed ourselves, especially loved our guesthouse owner who was so nice to us and the room itself which greeted us with a beautiful blast of air con every time we went in.
SO! now i am in back in bangkok. i have tomorrow to do a final shopping trip and sort out my flight ticket and then first thing wednesday morning i fly home. woah. i am scared and excited and sad and happy all at the same time. i cant believe its all over. i have honestly had the time of my life and i dont reeeally want to come home, as much as i love you all! and yes, i have got the travelling bug, and am already planning future trips including a stop off in thailand to see some of the amazing people (and elephants) i have met out here again. for those of you who have followed this entire blog, well done! i hope you have enjoyed reading it. i can guarantee i have enjoyed the experiences i have blogged ten times more. so i guess all thats left to say is goodbye southeast asia, thankyou to everyone who has supported me back in england, and i will be home soon! lots of love x