Roots in Pitchit, Thailand

I just got a job for 6 weeks for sure, possibly extendable through October...starts May 13th, so we shall see. I'm excited at the prospect of rooting myself here and spending 6 months in Thailand, as I envisioned on this trip (not just running sight to sight and country to country across SE Asia as I've been doing the last 4 months), but I just finished WWOOFing for 10 days... I got used to sleeping in a tent pitched on the concrete slab floor of an earth-brick shelter with two blankets for a bed in the middle of about 3 acres of restored tropical forest in a moderately primitive village-town 50 km from the nearest city. My neighbors were a few minutes' walk away and in the center of the village (adjacent to the land I called home for 10 days) was a sizeable forested temple complex. Being back in an electrified house the owner advises me to lock constantly in a concrete-yard/tract-home neighborhood with construction noise first thing in the AM and some funky energy is not sitting well with me. I couldn't sleep last night. I do not like the electrified, closed in, locked up feel of the house. I'm going to ask if I can live at the temple while I teach...not sure how far away it is, but the monks walk by barefoot every morning for alms, so hopefully it's not too far.

I now have to decide what to do with the next week, as it will either be my second to last stretch of time longer than 3 days to travel before my flight home July 10th, or my last chance before the school year ends in October. I haven't decided between Chiang Mai (and possibly Mae Hong Son, Pai, and Chiang Rai?) and Koh Pagnan or Koh Chang (the little island near Ranong on Thailand's western peninsula, not the big one near Cambodia) for the next week before school starts. I could really use some dental work and I gotta find teacher-y looking clothes where they sell to tourists...I went shoping at a thai department store and I am considerably larger than a Thai XL. Well, I didn't want to pay 480 Baht ($12) for a shirt anyway. ;)

and (shock of shocks, horror of horrors, yesladiesandgentlemen hellhasinfactfrozenover...) I have a cell phone. blargh. I didn't buy it and haven't yet paid for time on it, but the school guy gave me one to borrow while I'm here.