Silence broken

Hi! I haven't posted for a while, so I guess I should catch up. However, the main reason I haven't posted is because there's not a lot of post worthy information. But, never fear! There are some interesting oddities about teaching Thai students that will allow you to enter my world a little bit.

First: is talking in class acceptable? Yes. Well, for Thai teachers anyway. It's such a battle to get some of these kids to HUSH!

Second: is sleeping a better option? For Thai teachers . . . yes. They would rather students sleep than talk. I guess the idea of actually listening to the teacher hasn't entered their minds yet.

Third: What time does class start? The schedule says 8:00, but my teacher doesn't take attendance for the first 15 minutes, so that means class starts at 8:14 and 50 seconds. However, if class is 1 hour and 30 minutes long, I can still come 1 hour and 20 minutes after class starts. (I have had a student do this and he was so shocked when I kicked him out of class.)

Fourth: Top excuses for missing class: I overslept because A) I was playing online games all night long or B) I had too much to drink the night before. Traffic jams, illness, or staying up late working on an assignment aren't used very often.

Fifth: Copying . . . you mean it's wrong??? Students will copy off of each other's homework, assignments, quizzes, tests, or exams. You name it. Helping a friend is more important.

Sixth: materials for class include: the student sitting in his/her seat. Paper, pencils or pens, and even books sometimes don't make the list.

Don't get me wrong. I really like my students. But there are just somethings that shock me . . . even after being here for a year and a half. However, to their credit, when someone does crack down on them, they usually respond well. If I can get some of them to be better students, I'll be happy. :) Just another side of culture that you don't get to see everyday :D.

Also, Joel and his family are coming to visit me! Well, as long as it stops snowing. They'll be here for 4 days!!! YIPPEEEE. I haven't seen any family in eight months, so this will be a huge treat!

Have a wonderful day.

Back to normal

Hello! Mid-terms are over, I've finished grading stacks and stacks of mid-terms, and I'm back to getting up at 5:45 every morning. I had NO idea how long it could take to grade writing mid-terms! However, after grading 4 classes of writing mid-terms, I have NO idea why college professors in America assign long papers. Reading them for pleasure and reading something to grade is definately two different things.

Ting and her friends are really busy as their senior projects are coming due in the next couple of weeks. They are all working on a computer programming project. Ting's project is really interesting. She's creating a talking phone which will help blind people identify unknown objects by pointing the phone at it and having the phone identify the object and tell the blind person. Her other project is a GPS system in a phone which will help blind people get around more independently. I admire her desire to use her gifts to help those less fortunate or handicapped.

On January 2nd, the king's sister died. It has been interesting in Thailand. For 15 days, everyone is wearing black, gray, and white. It is nice to see their respect, but I need color! The other day I wore black, white, gray, and some pink! I needed some color! This will continue until the 17th of January. They have also cancelled KU Fair, which is a fair held at the university I teach at. It is a fair which allows common people to come on campus and sell their goods for an entire week. There are also some fun things going on, but the main part is to help the common people make money. But apparently there is not supposed to be anything fun going on during this time, so the university decided to cancel it. Everyone is frustrated because we get a week off and everyone really likes the fair and it helps the common people so much. We'll see what happens.

I've added some pictures from my New Year's celebration. I flew back to Bangkok around 9:00pm on the 31st and then went to Central World Plaza with a friend. Tons of people, music, activity and FIREWORKS. We took a video of the fireworks, so I don't have many pictures, but they were fantastic. Enjoy!

This says Happy New Year (Sawatdee Bee Mai 2551). Thailand starts it's year from Buddha's birth.