Long Overdue

I am currently done with all that needs to be done at school. My finals have been written, all of my unit plans and evaluation rubrics are done, and I am just waiting to finish lessons so that I can mark them and return them. I have no idea what my summer school schedule looks like or even what we are doing next so I am just waiting. As a result, I have some free time to do some things that I have been meaning to do- like edit some videos and update the blog. Here is what our apartment looks like or looked like before we filled it with our stuff. Look forward to more videos, not good videos, but videos nonetheless.

Like Clock Work

Like clock work is how the seasons change here. If the end of the rainy season is the end of October then on November 1 there is no more rain. This has held true for winter. I use that term loosely because I know many of you are still suffering form what a true winter has to offer. It is now February and this starts the building of heat until the rains come back in April. Today has a high of 37 degrees Celsius. Normally I really like things to work like clock work. I am a big fan of schedules and lists, but I am not sure this applies to the seasons. Well if you are tired of winter, know that somewhere in the world (Thailand) is hot- so there is hope just around the corner.

Christelia

Let's Celebrate!

Celebrating has been a theme here in Thailand. The Thai's love to celebrate anything, everything, nothing! This has lead to many of our frustrations, crazy right! Celebrating being frustrating? But it's true. There have been many times that we have come to school or gone to class to find there are no students because they are celebrating something- a brothers birthday, (not a homey- brother but a Catholic brother) the opening of Christmas celebration, the school's 50th anniversary, sports day, and one of the latest a talent show. This bothers me more than Ed- I have a schedule and a plan we need to follow.

For this talent show everyone in the entire school prepared a dance for it. Who knew soooooooo many students were great at dancing? Well they didn't come that way- that type of showcase needs practice! So when do we practice? After school? No way! This is going to take some serious class time to practice for! After all we need to be prepared to celebrate, what else would you use class time for preparing for a test? So that is what happened. For the WEEKS leading up to the the big show classes were cancelled or rearranged (all while teachers were writing finals). One week I only saw half of my classes and still only half of the kids in the classes I has- it's okay they had a pass. All in all it was a big deal- there were 20 rows with 20 tables with 10 chairs at each table. Each chair (ticket) cost 500 baht or about $17.00 USD. OMG!!!! There was a huge stage and lights and speakers like a rock concert. When stuff like this happens you can't fight it! I mean they have the right to P...A...R...T...Y!

Last week was no different- it was Chinese New Year. This of course meant a celebration was in order. It's the year of the rabbit! So they decided that there should be no classes on Thursday, we have many families with Chinese Heritage and so many will not come. Very true! On Wednesday I had one class with 19 students absent and a different class with 16 students absent. I teaching though correspondence now.

So maybe the students haven't learning much the last few weeks but I have or trying to. It is to relax a little and just celebrate anything, everything, nothing!

Chrristeila

Grocery shopping in Thailand

After our wonderful experience of studying with Homprang at the massage school , we learned how much better we felt if we ate something good for breakfast and ate more vegetables. As a result we decided to start eating breakfast at home instead of at the school canteen. So for breakfast we are eating granola, yogurt, and fresh fruit with snacks of vegetables. This leads us to our story...the adventure of grocery store shopping in Thailand. As with most stories this has a very valuable lesson and some comic relief. Our first experience of shopping went pretty well but recently we have had some different experiences.

Last week we went to the store for carrots and a few other things. Most fresh produce in supermarkets here come packaged up into reasonably amounts, however this day we found some carrots much like you would find at home (select your own) and placed them in the bag and headed to check out. We emptied our items on to the counter. When the lady came to the carrots she began searching for the bar code on the carrots. Finding none she placed them aside for them to be returned to the store. When I inquired about getting the carrots (that was the reason we came after all) she called someone over and they took them away! Lesson: if it doesn't have a bar code you are not getting it! Okay point taken- we'll get carrots next week.

So this week when we went to the store we were sure to only pick up items that had a bar code, but this left us with no less interesting of an experience. We go to check out and there are two young ladies working the cash register. They are wearing university uniforms so this may be the first time they have ever worked. (In Thailand the parents take care of everything until they are out of university and possibly even married- to the point of spoon feeding their kids well into elementary- literary. Their main focus is on school and very few work until they are completely done with school- very different than us) With that being said this is what happened...They started ringing up our items and when we got to the produce something happened- they were ringing the items in but it was not adding to the total. I noticed but they had no idea. Then we get to the bananas, they were in a package with a bar code but they wouldn't ring up. The girls were trying to fingure out what to do and asked a more experienced lady next to them- she must have told them they need to go find another package and try and ring that up because one of them left with the bananas in hand out into the abyss of food in search of more bananas. She clearly had never done this on her own before because it was some time before she returned with more bananas to ring. Then as they were trying to ring them up they closed out the transaction and we had to pay for them separate. While all of theis is going on we notice a sign right behind the girls with the price of the bananas. Moral: two are not always better than one and work experience is really important! Hope you all have enjoyed your trip to the store this week as I am sure it was an experience as well getting stocked up before the blizzard. Don't forget to check for bar codes!