Ok, I'm back. So, after the internet, we headed back to the guest house, and Courtney went to sleep. She was totally wiped, no energy. I decided to go for a walk.
I headed down a more non-touristy area, and a younger guy (local) got of a tuk-tuk in front of me, paid his fair, and started talking to me. He asked me where I was from, and a little bit of small talk. He told me about himself, he's 25, Si was his name, he was a monk until 22, and he's considering going back to the monkhood next year. And he teaches english out of his house to a handful of students. His house was near there, so we headed for his house, and he showed me his classroom, and he asked me if I would come by around 6:00PM that night, as his class would be there, and he'd like to have the class talk to and with a "falang" (foreigner), in real english (he speaks very good english, which he learned when he was a monk). He also wanted to take me around Luang Prabang and show me some of the wat's (temples), free of charge (usually there's an admission). We agreed on the deal, and he got his scooter, and we took off. I told him about Courtney, and asked him to stop at the guest house first, so I could check on Court and get my camera and tell her what's happening, and see if she's interested in coming to the class or visiting the wats. We stopped at the guest house, Courtney was sleeping, but woke up when I came in, but very groggy. I explained to her, and she said she'd like to go to the class at 6:00, so that was set.
I headed back downstairs, and off Si and I went. We visited That Chomsi on Phousi Hill (Phousi Hill is a big hill in the centre of old Luang Prabang). That Chomsi was where he studied when he was a monk. He showed me all around, then we headed across the Nam Khan river, to the Peacefulness Temple (Wat Phonsaat, I think it was), which was very nice. It's a new temple, very pristine condition. Then to Wat Xiang Thong, which is the main temple everyone goes to see, next to That Chomsi, then to another older and smaller one, not sure what wat that was.
AFter that, he dropped me off at my guest house (about 5:00), then at 6:00, Court and I headed to his house. Of course, I'm a guy, and I got lost, and we were late by about 20 minutes, which is kind of too bad, because he had started another lesson instead. We sat and watched, he was teaching his students (maybe 15 students) about the Laos New Year, which is next month, in english. He had a whiteboard with information about the New Year written on it in English, and they had to transcribe into their notebooks. He also had us check his spelling, which he had a few mistakes.
A little later on, he asked me to read what was on the whiteboard to the class, so I did, then both Court and I stood up in front of the class and answered some questions and also asked a few of our own (what everyone's names was, how old they were, etc.) His students range from 12 to 17 years of age, some of them better at english (the older ones), other very shy and not too good yet. Anyway, it was very enjoyable!
After class, about 7:00, we went for supper, then went home and slept!
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