Saturday, June 14, 2008

Just Stuff

Not much going on that is out of the ordinary here. So I am just putting up a few pics that I had on my cell phone. Oh, I did start teaching a class one day a week at our daughter's school. I am teaching an English class that preps them for their University entrance exam. Most of it is just going over basic grammar. It's interesting for me because I am now teaching 10th, 11th, and 12th graders. They are a lot easier to communicate with, especially since this is a voluntary class and they want to be there.

This is a shot of one of my 7th grade classes actually being quiet and sitting in their chairs. This is kind of like a solar eclipse, it doesn't happen often, and you have to be quick to get a good photo of it. You see the little guy that is sitting in the third seat back on the left? His name is Tay. This is the second year I have had him in one of my classes, and to date I have yet to hear him say anything. Not just in English, I mean in Thai either. I have heard him laugh, but I honestly can't remember ever hearing him utter even one word. That might sound strange, as I am supposed to be teaching him English, but things are a bit different here. Thailand seems to have a full integration policy when it comes to school. We have children that should normally be in a special school, but I am not sure if Thailand has them. If they do, they must be too expensive for most families. So we just kind of go with the flow as to what we actually make the kids do. I am not happy with that, but I could spend an entire hour trying to get Tay to say "Hi", and only succeed in wasting an hour for 35 other kids.

These are some of the people that work at "Good View". That's where I hang out on Friday nights when Roong is at class. I have to kill four hours, and they have live music and take pretty good care of me. I drop Roong off at 5pm, so it's usually just me in there for a few hours. I like that, because it's nice and quiet. They have pretty good seafood there too. Going to a Thai restaurant early is interesting. When you walk in, everyone is doing one of two things. Either they are all sitting together eating, or the girls are all sitting together chatting and putting on their "night faces". Sometimes they are doing both. Sometimes the boys are putting on their "night faces" too. You never know.