Gave my last exam today! wooo hoo! It was my education students whom I have come to like. They are very focused and have excellent work habits. They talk of wanting to be 'a good teacher' someday. BTW, a teaching degree takes 5 years here, 4 years study, one year practice teaching.

I did have to "fail" one of my education students . She is in her 5th year (so since this is an Oral 2 - second year - class she must have failed already.) She missed so many classes and was late to the few she came to and missed two major projects. Then she comes to the very last actual class and says "I have to talk to you. I have to pass this class."  Should have thought of that last November. I pulled her aside no less than 3 times previously saying, "It doesn't look good. You need to come to class."  But who knows how much English she understands?   I finally got a Thai teacher to talk to her and she said basically, da  - da   - da  - da! (in Thai, of course) Which just by body language I could tell translated into, " You didn't go to class.   You didn't do the assignments.   You failed the midterm. Drop the class already!" BTW#2 - you can drop a class here almost up until the last week. Great for the GPA.

I know I'm tired and I'm bored and I'm very lonely. But .... oh, I don't know, I just don't like it here anymore. Is this my mental ADD kicking in? Am I now noticing things I overlooked before? Have I misplaced my rose colored glasses?   Sometimes I think people are well, not mean, but just not nice. Not everyone. Maybe not even a lot of people. But some. I love my students, the pharmacy professors that I tutor are lovely, but the English department - well, I've just never made any connection with them. Day after day I get my lunch and sit at my desk and eat and no one has ever once asked me to join them in the faculty room. If I say hello, they answer back, but that's the most conversation I've had with pretty much any of them. My desk is situated such that I can go whole days without ever seeing anyone. One teacher had the kahoonas to say that "You're bored because you have so little to do.   I wish I had time to be bored."  But in truth, I know how they teach. Preparation is not a requirement in Thai education. 

I question whether they even want farang teachers here or is it to fulfill some requirement? We don't seem to be included in anything unless we hear about it by accident or through the students. Last Monday every (Thai) desk in the department had a battleship gray and yellow floral Songkran type shirt on it, which they all wore. I asked if it was a holiday and someone said , "No, the university gave everyone a shirt to wear on Mondays" (I think maybe to respect the King as I think he was born on a Monday.) Even the cleaning lady sports one. Everyone but the farangs. Guess we're not part of the university.

waaa waaa waaa


On a lighter note, the pharmacy lecturers took me to dinner at a Muslim restaurant last night. It was lovely!  They warned me ahead of time that there would be no pork, but we had chicken curry, and fried roti with curry and beef with oysters and some kind of spicy salad and a fruit 'frappe" that was supposed to be good for the skin. (They're hell on collagen here, it's in many of the beverages in the 7-11.)

As always, I want to take them all home with me but I know that they will probably never get to America unless on scholarship for study. I wish I had the money to bring them all to my house for a visit - students included.  

The students pay megabucks (100,000 Baht, about 3,000US) to an organization that sends them to America and gets them jobs at McDonald's and the like. They pay for their own housing and food when they get here. I'm thinking this is a good business proposition - I could empty out one of the houses, put in bunk beds, ship the kids over and get them jobs for 1/3 of the cost.

Well, maybe 1/2.

Jim called and invited me to Korat this weekend so I think I will go despite the fact that I have mountains of exams to correct, score and record. But Monday is a holiday, Macha Bucha Day, so I can put a big dent in the pile then. Besides that I may go nuckin futz if I stay in this room any longer. So I have to get up at the crack of 7. (That is a dig to all of you working stiffs in case you didn't get it.) 


Macha Bucha day strikes me as kind of funny. It's to commemorate the day when some 1500 followers of Buddha convened in a certain place with no prior notice. Totally by accident. Just showed up.  I'm thinking one of them probably IM'ed the others, but who's to know the real story.


I understand that they are having a "snowicane" back home - 3 consecutive nights of blizzard conditions. And it is so hot here. Just waiting 10 minutes for the songtaew at 8 am is enough to melt your makeup and dampen your drawers. I'm not sure which is worse, but I'll take the heat myself.

Well, it's late and since I'm leaving in the morning I have to do my own laundry. Now wear do you put the soap again?