It's Saturday again. The week does go by so fast. I really have a dream schedule, one three hour class per day so I only have to 'worry' about one preparation per day. The English classes are very on your feet active because the goal is to get the kids listening to a native speaker and speaking themselves so it's a busy class but you can endure anything for three hours.

I'm trying to upload pictures of my Friday class, it's only 17 (very small class) Education students, all girls . They love to play bingo for cough drops (that's all I could find for prizes.) They are more vocal than your grandmother at Bingo - "C'mon, one more!"  "Yes!"  and they practically fall out of their chair when they get Bingo. Just to clarify, I am playing Bingo with vocabulary words.

The four falang teachers are doing a project with our Tourism classes. We are making a tour guide to Takhongyang, which is the area of Mahasarakham that the university is located in. Restaurant reviews, maps, emergency info, etc. It looks like it's really going to work out well. The next time you visit Mahasarakham, ask me for a copy.

Today the American teachers have arranged to take Thai lessons with a Vietnamese teacher. Yes, I know that sounds contradictory. I have studied as much as I can from books but I really need help with the vowel sounds and I can't get it from the books. Hope it works out. The work ethic here is a bit lacking, so who knows how it will play out .

I thought I might take a bus into Roi Et, a town about an hour away, just to see a different street.
 
Ajarn Kelly and Ajarn Steve are going to Kalasin, another nearby town, today. Four of their classmates have been placed in government schools there and are very happy. It would be like teaching in our schools - they are close with the teachers and principal, work together, talk, eat together, go places together at night. The University is a very isolated atmosphere - I suspect most professors go directly to their classes and directly home afterwards. Although I am in a huge room with maybe 30 cubicles, I rarely see anyone I know or can speak to. When I come in at 8 or 8:30 in the morning, there are no lights on; throughout the course of the day I may pass one or two people I know and say sawat de ka but no conversation.
I do like the kids and the few other Americans and the university atmosphere, but it's definately different.

The Pool opens Monday! Yeah! I can't wait . It looks delicious. Thais are adept at creating an atmosphere - there are large Aspara women statues , a beautiful fountain, tile dolphins in the pool bottom, teak chaise lounges, huge potted palms with orchids growing off their trunks. They just net an orchid root ball to the trunk of a palm tree and it flourishes - it's the most amazing thing. 

 There are a couple of modest gym facilities at the school but they all open at 5 pm , and to be honest, by then I'm cooked, so the pool will be a welcome respite.

The cool snap passed and it has been blistering hot again. I had to change classrooms once as the kids and I couldn't stand the heat and the air con wasn't working. And the sun is brilliantly blinding - you step outside and you feel like Gizmo in that Gremlins movie - "Bright light! Bright light!"

Gotta go learn some Thai.