Discipline? I'll show you discipline!

Classroom management? You're looking at it bubba! Haaaa! Next week, I will work on them calling me "Your highness" instead of "Teacher Don".

Just kidding. This is my M-2/5 class. They are my most skilled students. As a reward for their hard work, I try and give them as much free time as possible. The girls are practicing for a ceremony, for a Buddhist celebration next month. Sometimes they sing, and sometimes they dance, and it's always traditionl stuff. It's very interesting to watch them go through the motions of what they are practicing. They take it very seriously, but they still have fun doing it.

Drawing Tablets and New Underwear

Howdy all. it's been a wierd few weeks here. First, Roong had a small fender bender in the car( she wasn't hurt ). It took out a headlight and crinkled a fender. We figured we might as well get the rust taken out and have it painted, as long as it was going in, anyway. We got it back this afternoon. It looks ok I guess. The next, and worst thing was, I got nailed with a virus. It hit Roong's computer first, or maybe Pukky's, we aren't sure. Anyway, we got rid of it, but it popped up on mine about a week later. It ate all my Word and .pdf files. Everything is gone. All my lesson plans, the student books I wrote, everything. This was suckage of the highest caliber.

Ok, so what do you do after 2 years of work and research goes poof? Right! Cheeseburgers! Sunday, Roong and I went to Bangkok, for a little shopping, and anything on a dinner plate that didn't involve rice. Roong found a jacket and top that she liked, I ended up finding a few new movies, a drawing tablet, and new underwear. I wanted a Wacom tablet, but those are way too expensive. This one is an off brand, but the guy hooked it up to his computer, and it worked fine. It set up here on mine with no problems either.

My t-shirts are selling a bit better. I have gone from selling 1 a month to selling over 20. I hope that keeps going up. So, now, instead of a stupid little old ugly car, we have a stupid little old pretty car. Business is picking up a wee bit. And, I have yet another computer toy to piss me off. But, I wore my new underwear today, and that went well.

Just Stuff

I found a few more pics on my cell phone. Funny, I don't remember taking the ones in the classroom. I gotta keep a better eye on my M-1/3 class.

The kids are a hoot. I asked one to come up to the board and write a few sentences that she had made. This of course led to her calling her two best friends up with her, which led to a discussion over which ones to use. Not to mention the constant checking with the rest of their friends to make sure they are doing it right. They are so afraid to do anything by themselves. Sometimes its funny, but sometimes, I know this hinders their individual creative progress.

It seems I have a new student. Much to my chagrine, I didn't notice for a full 15 minutes of class time. The bear belongs to one of the girls, but I never did figure out which one. He was smuggled out at break time. They really shouldn't be laughing though, because the teddy bear will probably do better on it's exams than most of them will. Haaaa!

This Jan, and his wife Poo at the market. We usually sit there a few times a week, and watch Thailand go by. There is always something weird happening there. the market is the focal point of our little community. If you want the latest gossip or news, or just need a cold beer, head to the market.

And last but not least, is Chai. This guy is a hoot. He is like the "go to" guy at the market. He works there every day, and for everybody. He is either stocking, fixing, or chasing off pidgeons with his slingshot. He can do anything from repairing electrical wiring, to sewing canvas for the food carts. That thing you see him drinking is rather interesting. I don't know what's in it, or what it is called, but it's packed full roots and herbs and stuff. You pour water into it, wait a few minutes, and then drink up. You can refill the water 5 or 6 times before it loses its kick. The first 2 or 3 taste the best, and are enough get you pretty smashed. Ya just sit back and pass the jug around and around and around.......

Palmy's B-day

Palmy turned 20 yesterday. She has a few days off between terms at her University, so she is home for a few days. To celebrate the fact that we are one year closer to marrying her silly ass off to some poor boy....er, I mean, this joyous occassion, we went out to eat. Bannok was pretty quiet for the first hour we were there. We didn't even have to listen to any karaoke. YAYYY! As the girls spend most of their time nibbling at food, when given a chance to do some serious chowing down, they went at it with a vengence. We were stuffed. The owner, Eat, made this special sweet plate for Palmy with candles and all. She is such a sweety. Palmy and Puk dissappeared for about a half hour, and wandered around the ponds and flower gardens taking pictures. That place is amazing. Nan has got waterfalls and little jungle sections intertwined with the building itself. Since there are no walls, it's hard to tell where one ends, and the other begins. It really is beautiful. These are a few of the shots that the girls took on their cellphones. They managed to take about 75 pics of themselves. That's Palmy in the gray, and Pukky in red.

HTML Practice

I am just practicing with html for my RedBubble site. They have a lot of really creative artwork on there. Not just T-shirts, but great wall art and writing too. I just used this here for my stuff to see which sites it will work on, and which it won't.

If your in the mood for a bit of wall art for your home or office, then please give these a look.

Thai Wine

Someone gave me a bottle of Thai wine. I don't remember who or when though. It has been in the fridge for a few months. Palmy came home for the weekend, and asked about it, so I figured that was as good a reason as any to open it. The first problem we encountered was the lack of a corkscrew. We came up with some pretty ingenious ways to try and open the bottle without one, but nothing worked. We stopped just short of getting the Makita and a 3/4 inch wood bit out. I finally just took it to the sink, and lopped the neck of the bottle off. We lost a bit in spillage, but nothing serious.
The first thing we noticed is that Thai red wine isn't all that red. It's kind of a brownish color. The only red thing I have seen here is this rugged ass home made wiskey that the locals brew up at home. It actually tastes pretty good, but will tear you up after about 4 - 5 glasses. Anyway, Palmy and I had a glass. The next thing we noticed, was that it tastes exactly like prune juice. At first, I thought I was gonna hurl, and Palmy was making some pretty strange faces at the taste. But after a few minutes, you kind of get used to it. It wasn't actually that bad. For prune juice I mean. We made it through the bottle, and Palmy ended up rather giggley and sporting a very red face. There are actually more wineries here than I would have believed. I think we need to look in Bangkok, the next time we go. Maybe there will be a better selection.

Teacher's Day 2008

We had Teacher's day last week. We all go over to the Wat, and the kids show their appreciation to their teachers by giving them flowers. That's nice and all, but if they really want to raise that grade a bit, buy me a damn beer and let me go home early. Or at least stay in your seat and be quiet for a change! Haaa! That's Roxanne sitting next to me, right in front of you. Jan went to the earlier ceremony with the younger students. There are 2700 kids, so they divided them up into 3 groups.

Anyway, the kids shuffle up on their knees and present the blessed flowers to all the teachers. This was a hoot, because that sweet looking young girl that is giving me the flowers is a disaster waiting to happen. She causes more trouble than any 10 kids I have. She is exceptionally smart, and pretty, and realizes that the boys her age are about as sharp as a box of rocks, and will do whatever she wants them to. We tried to look serious during the ceremony, but we both couldn't help but laugh later in class at the absurdity of her giving me the flowers that is basically a promise of their intent to be good students in the coming year.

Side note - my boss has decided that we have to have a meeting every Friday at 0720. This sucks for 2 reasons. First, I don't have class until 1020 on Fridays, so I would rather sleep late, and get some work done at home in the air conditioning, than do nothing but sweat my ass off in that hell hole of an office. And secondly, he says he wants to have these meetings so he can review our teaching record books. That's fine, but HE CAN'T READ ENGLISH! He is also going to ask us if there are any problems...does he mean like the same problems that we told him about all last year, and he did nothing about? I can hardly fucking wait. :P

Side note 2 - The guy in Lopburi finally got enough kids for 2 classes. I am supposed to start teaching this saturday for 2 two hour classes. One is four 1st and 2nd graders, the other is two 3rd and 4th graders. This should be an adventure. The 3rd and 4th graders I can handle, because I have had them before, but I had to talk with Roxanne a bit to get an idea of what to do with the younger ones. It looks like 2 hours of ABC's every Saturday.....*le sigh*

I got culture!!!

I just got this in an e-mail from the instructor that taught our Thai culture class. They showed me how to dance, and explained that elephants were a good thing, and that Thailand grows a lot of rice. I don't remember them actually answering any of our more pointblank questions concerning things like what their Government is up too, and what REALLY did happen to King 8. Other than that, it was an excuse to goof off in Bangkok for a few days. Christ, I am still fat. You'd think that with living on rice and yard clipping, and perpetually perspiring, I'd lose a few kilos. Go figure.

*Note to mom.... King 4 was the king from "The King and I" story. I always thought it was King 5. Sorry about that.