I’m still waking up with the dreads.  But, at least I’m doing better by mid day.  Pat makes me lunch every day.  Then I get all foggy brained in the afternoon from all the rice.  Can’t win.

Yesterday I didn’t have any classes because the ones I was supposed to teach were in tutoring all week.  They are getting ready for the end of the year exams.  Some of the English teachers brought me test examples (last year’s test) and asked me questions on some of the ones that didn’t make sense to them.  They didn’t make sense to me either.  One of them was written so badly that none of the answers were correct grammar.  Another one said something to the effect of “Why did the wife suggest her husband shouldn’t bring his camera to the concert?  a.  They don’t allow cameras at the concert.  b. She didn’t want to end up carrying it.  c.  She thought he might forget it.  or d.  she thought he might take pictures the whole time instead of enjoying the concert”.   wtf?  How is this a question on an English exam?

Yesterday after school, Pat took me to get the School’s motorbike which was at the mechanic’s.  It’s old, but the school is going to lend it to me for free.  The mechanic turned it on using a screwdriver because it didn’t have a key.  It also didn’t have a battery so the horn and lights barely worked.  He asked if I wanted a key and a battery.  Um, yea.  I got to test drive it though.  It has 4 gears.  I’ve never driven a motorbike with gears so I was nervous.  A shaky start, but it’s easy enough.

I spent most of the evening texting with my roomies from Hua Hin.  We are going to go to Vietnam in March!  We figured out where we wanted to go.  But, we haven’t figured out dates yet.

Today, as with every day, I’m awake before the alarm goes off.  Not wide awake, but awake enough to be aware that there are a lot of roosters in this area.  A lot.  They are so noisy and just non-stop.  Then, after my alarm goes off, I take my ear plugs out.  OMG there is so much going on in the woods.  There are pigeons living under the roof.  They are making so much noise in the morning.  Thank got I have bug screens on the windows or they would be in my house.  There’s always something running around in circles.  I can hear it rustling the leaves.  I think it’s a stray dog, but who knows?  There a ton of other birds trying to out cry the roosters.  I should try to get a sound clip.

Today I got the motor bike.  Made it home ok.  I have a little trouble starting it so I have to practice that.

I taught teachers again tonight.  I went over pronouns.  I also went over some of the sounds we have in English that they don’t have in Thai so they struggle.  They have trouble with B so Crab becomes Crap.  V is difficult so Volleyball becomes Wolleyball.  Th is a mystery.  Last week when I was teaching the word Athlete, the kids kept saying Asslete.  They can’t say S followed by a consonant.  Sweet becomes Saweet.   Then they asked a bunch of questions.  What’s the difference between street, road and esplanade.  How do they even know the word esplanade?  They wanted to know about idioms.  I used “It’s raining cats and dogs” as an example.  Blank confused stares.  I’ll have to work on that.

After class a different teacher took me out to dinner.  Mae, is a young teacher fresh out of college.  She joined us tonight and Monday night too.  They are taking me to dinner as payment for teaching.  But, I think they are just taking Mae because she’s young and they are taking her under their wing and trying to take care of her.  It’s beautiful to watch.

Today’s pictures are random:

(c) all rights reserved Kimberly Fiore