You Know You're in Thailand When...

1. ...you break a serious sweat trying to make a rubber band ball. (Side note: it's harder than you'd think.)
2. ...you go to 7-Eleven three separate times in one day.
3. ...your students get sent home early due to political demonstration a few blocks away.

Things I Miss About America

This too hopes to be a continuous post.

1. Pandora. Internet Radio.
2. D.E.B.s (Delicious Espresso Beverages).
3. Hulu
4. Netflix
5. Clean air
6. English
7. Having a kitchen

Day-to-day Thailand Hilarities

This post endeavors to chronicle some of the everyday absurdities that I encounter.

1.  Students in 6/7 designed jackets for their class which include a sort of crest/emblem which portrays a Panda (symbol of China and 6/7 students study Chinese language) riding a DINOSAUR.  Specifically, a T-Rex.

2.  A large, billboard size, poster reproduction of Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam" at our school is mislabeled "Creation of God," thus being wrong on three levels: first, it is the incorrect title for the painting; second, it is an incorrect description of the event depicted; and third, it is fundamentally contrary to one of the essential beliefs of judeo-christian monotheism.  Well done, St. Gabriel's College, a Catholic high school, well done.

3. There is a painting of Santa Claus in the Staff Canteen for absolutely no reason.

4.  There is a sign in every bathroom stall of the women's teacher "toilet" reminding users, "Do not step up to the toilet," complete with accompanying cartoon of what not to do.

The Worst Blogger Ever

That's me.  I'm the worst blogger ever.  I had actually completely forgotten about this until I was casually in Zurich for the afternoon and Aunt Kim asked if I was planning to start it up again.  So here I am, giving it the ol' college try.  (I give it maybe a month...)

I made my triumphant return to Thailand Sunday afternoon.  It was hot.  It's still hot.

It's nice to be back though.  Weird.  Things are still strange but now equally familiar, and that makes for an interesting effect.

When I finally managed to haul the way too much stuff I brought back with me up to my room, I discovered that in my absence a new resident had installed himself and pooped throughout the room.  This squatter, my gecko friend, is not particularly threatening, however he is quite quick, a bit untidy (I refer you to the previous poop comment), and given to making sporadic, obnoxious sounds in the night.  Thus, he had to go.  But as I had a strong desire to make absolutely no physical contact with my reptilian friend and he is an agile creature, my only course of action was to scare him into the bathroom and shut the door after him, leaving him only the options of living out his life there or escaping via the cracked window or the piping shaft.  After remaining for awhile, he seemed to have left by late Monday.  But lo and behold! He made a triumphant return last night, taking advantage of my having left the bathroom door ajar during the day and reentering my bedroom proper.  I have left him to his own devices today while I'm at work and hope that he is wise enough to depart because if I see him again tonight...well, tonight we wage war.

On a less close-encounters-of-the-lizard-kind note, my first full day back in Thailand was marked by a classic St. Gabe's meeting.  During this meeting, I found out the following:

     1) I have 7 classes per week--a hilariously light schedule;
     2) I don't have Bence this year :(, but I do only teach M6 which means all of the same students from last year :)
     AND
     3) The returning American teachers and a few select newbies will be "going on tour" to the St. Gabriel's Foundation schools throughout many Thai provinces to help proctor a practice English oral exam which is to be administered officially by Trinity College (in the UK) sometime in January.  This is to say, for 9 weeks of an at most 16 week semester, we will not be teaching; we will not even be in Bangkok most weekdays.  Hilarious!

Speaking of the noobs, the most recent influx of recent Loyola grads arrived late Tuesday night and on Wednesday I helped with their orientation process--assigning their timetables, explaining various projects to which they will be party, showing them around the school, taking them to the bank, etc.  They seem a nice group so far, but one can never really tell this early on.  It's kind of bizarre to watch what was basically our experience last year from an outside perspective; it's funny for me to watch them figure things out, ask questions, acclimatize, acculturate, and get used to the ways of St. Gabe's.  Today (Thursday), was their first Staff Canteen lunch and it was funny to see how many of them went for the innocuous omelet option in lieu of the spicy minced pork (the actual dish of the day) or who ate only a bit of it.  Granted I'm generalizing some, this is not true of all of them, but it's just funny to see what is essentially I and my friends this time last year.

I had my first classes today; 6/7 and 6/3.  I got a copy of the book about two minutes before my first class and still taught the first lesson.  If this were a tweet, this is where I'd #ClassicStGabes and #Imapro.  The kids were pretty decently well behaved today, one can only hope it remains this way, but that is unlikely.  Nevertheless, I'm reminded that I really love these little jerks and I'm glad to be back.

...except for the heat and humidity.