With two weeks of classes in the books, I'm finally starting to get in a routine and adjusted where I don't feel completely lost all the time. (Just MOST of the time now!) :) The constant uncertainty is half the fun of it though. Here's what I'm teaching:
Intermediate English - (I'm slowly coming to grips with my current profession being an English teacher... quite a change of pace from waiter/bartender.)
Leadership - (based on a Stephen Covey book, The Speed of Trust. Pretty interesting read... I'd recommend it to anyone... especially business students)
Speech - (everybody's favorite... not)
Life and Times of Jesus Christ - (This is a senior level class. It takes a historical and chronological look at the life of Jesus. I've had to do lots and lots of research for this one, but it's really interesting.)
Choir - (I've never even sang in a choir, so this one is quite interesting. If any of you know anything about how to teach choir or know of anywhere to get sheet music, performance tracks, etc. online for free... PLEASE EMAIL ME!!! All of the students are incredibly musically talented and my skills are pretty much limited to pickin' blues on the ole' 6-string)
Athletics - (I'm the default playing coach of our soccer team now, too. Which is a little funny because the vast majority of my soccer knowledge comes from playing FIFA '07 on Xbox. It's a lot of fun, though, and I'm starting to get the hang of it again. Oh yea - sidenote - we played basketball for athletics class the other day. There's not much funnier than playing 7 on 7 basketball with a bunch of Asians. I can't be mean because they're for the most part all way better than me at soccer, but we'll suffice it to say that soccer foot skills don't necessarily transfer over to American sports like basketball.)
Well that about covers classes. Everything's been fun otherwise, too. I haven't been sick at all yet, which is a definitely a plus. I've only lost five pounds, but I think that's mostly from the gallons of sweat I've lost. The food is actually pretty good. The students cook our daily meals, so I have a lot of rice, veggies, fruit, chicken, fish, etc. Every Wednesday a few of us "farangs" (white foreigners) go to town and get some good fattening food like back home. (Bread, cheese, and red meat don't make it into the Thai diet very often.)
Well here's a few pictures and such:
This was on one of our farang food nights. Also, my first experience with taking a passenger (Ken Morrison from Emporia State) on the little moped thing. They're quite a bit more squirrely than a motorcycle, but we made it. And of course Murphy had to prove his law once again and half way there it started to pour rain. This was before I bought my own helmet so I had no visor. So it feels kinda like free accupuncture all over your face going down the road. So here we are soaked taking a break because we couldn't even see.
This little guy was on a tree outside of the teacher house. I thought he was worthy of a picture or two. Lizards of varioius types are everywhere here! I walked into the farm house the other day and there was about a 14-inch one running across the wall. Gave me a little startle, but we leave them alone because they kill bugs and mice and things.
Speaking of lizards... I saw these two geckos playing leapfrog on the wall outside my apartment door.
Speaking of dangerous things... this bee swarm showed up at the school one day. Thankfully they didn't like the spot, though, and didn't hive here. They made this really neato wave thing periodically to cool off the inner bees. I tried to get video for a while and kept missing it, so I got frustrated and just quit.
These are a few shots from the golf course I played last Sunday. It was quite an experience. We had 5 people playing with 5 caddies... walking... 18 holes... everyone playing their own ball... it took six hours. :) It was so much fun though, despite the unforgiving Thai sun. Thankfully my caddie conveniently didn't take score on the front nine. Once I got used to the rental clubs and everything I did OK on the back. The back nine was also on the infield of a horse racing track... making it probably the world's largest sand trap on a few holes if you miss the fairway.
This is my 4-foot-something caddie, Beyiia. (I think) We had a lot of fun though. She knew about as much English as I do Thai... which is essentially the numbers. Good practice for my Thai numbers though. Unfortunately it was more practice with "hah, hok, jit, pbad, and even a gao here and there" (5,6,7,8,9...)
This was my one reasonable chance at birdie...
This was the result of my one reasonable chance at birdie... grrrrr :( I thought I'd drained it too.
This is Dr. Dusti Howell. He's here on Sabbatical from Emporia State. He's here doing a hill tribe educational project and also to help us clueless teachers get curriculum set up for the school here. Muchos muchos gracias for his time and effort here.
These were all taken around sunset from a bridge I found one day. Much better in real life, but I tried to take a few good shots.
Couple flower shots for all my special ladies out there...
"I don't mind having the tall white guy take my picture if he gives me candy..." This is Mahulah. Her mom is a student here. Just too cute for her own good.
This is Beka... incredible tenor voice.
Andrew... he graduated last year and runs the kitchen at the school. He's got some serious skill with ole' sautee pan.
Dola, Norah, and Mahulah.
Attiwat, Chalermnsak, Japur, and WiChai. This also happens to be the core of my world-class soccer team.
Well until next time... much love to all and please feel free to email me with updates and such from back home. I miss you all very much, but I'm definitely enjoying my time here so far!
Nathan Kimmons
June 28, 2008
