I can't believe it's one week until Christmas. There are a few sparse decorations around - a tree in front of Big C, some palm trees with miniature lights on them, a foil Merry Christmas banner over the door to the Condo - nothing much, really. The church pastor gave me a CD of Christmas carols that I listen to every night. It makes me a little melancholy. I think I would have been better off if there were no reminders at all - it's easy to forget it's Christmas here. I was swimming at 7 pm last night.

Joe sent me some packages but I wonder if they'll arrive before Christmas. Some teachers told us that we are not ALLOWED to go to school next week - December 21-25 - as the Royal Princess is arriving to hand out the diplomas for graduation on December 23 and for security purposes the school will be cordoned off. But you always get vastly different stories from each teacher you talk to , so I don't put much stock in any of it.

I think I will leave Sunday for Khon Kaen, the next big city, to get a re-entry permit, then proceed to Laos for a few days. Since I now have my official work permit, I have to get permission to re-enter the country every time I leave otherwise, my work visa extension becomes null and void. Plus pay them 1000 Baht ($30) each time. I'm only four hours from Laos, so that seems like a logical place to start my travels.

The university has gone into overdrive preparing for the Princess' arrival. But she comes every year, you would think some of the improvements would carry over to her next visit, but no. They put in hundreds of palm trees, truckloads of new sod, thousands of potted decorative plants ( in plastic bags, but when you group them all together , the effect is stunning.) All of a sudden, there are floral arrangements everywhere, and the TVs on each landing are on. I never knew they worked. But the creme de la creme - hard to envision but it's true, there is not only toilet paper in the staff bathroom, but  SOAP as well. This is more luxury than one can imagine.  For as clean as Thais are body and clothes wise, they don't seem to feel any compulsion to wash after toileting. And you have to do such acrobatics to use those squat toilets! There is even a communal dish towel hanging from a paper clamp in the ladies' room. But I've gotten so good at drying my hands on my pants that I don't even need it.

The best part is the signs. They have put up huge signs overnight - at the crossroads, at each entrance, everywhere. They look lovely until you walk behind them and realize that they are like movie sets - attached to tree limbs propped up against more tree limbs. That reminds me - I don't think I've ever seen real lumber in this country. Houses seem to all be made of cement blocks, even the interior walls, and scaffolding and ladders (even for the four story condo going up across the street) are constructed on site out of tree limbs.

I have given 4 out of my 5 mid term exams, everything pretty much went well. Some of the classes are very crowded so it's hard to ensure that they haven't cheated but I did my level best to scare the crap out of them. One class of 36 was to write "If I could time travel."  Fully 34 of them wrote " " If I could have time to travel, I would..."  I guess it's not an expression they're familiar with. Like when I asked on a quiz if "spotless" was a good adjective to use when advertising an apartment. They unanimously said no. Or the question (Fill in the present continuous) "I'm ___________ very hard right now."  (working) One boy used 'feeling.'

Now all that's left is the correcting. How long do you think it would take to ship them to Princeton?