Kim and Jeremy in Thailand

Okay, maybe I shouldn't have been lamenting the dullness of life. This afternoon, I was actually with the 7th graders for study hall during the lock & drop drill. That classroom has a huge, wide glass door. The whole point of the drill is to hide. So we all (about 20 or so) crammed into the one-seater bathroom which is off the classroom. That's one way to get to know each other better. And just picture 20 7th graders in such a confined area...they couldn't quite get the silence thing down. "Whose leg is that?" "Who touched me?" Lots of giggles. Then the sound of a flushing toilet. From there, it was hopeless. Even I was laughing.

Then I realized that the classroom we're sort of in has a broken intercom. We'll never hear the all clear. And there's still 20 minutes before the bell. So after about five minutes, I broke rank and went outside to check. Sure enough, everyone else is back to class. I returned to share the good news, but the kids had relocked the bathroom door from the inside and were too loud to hear me telling them to come out. Finally, I got their attention and they came back out. It was definitely the highlight of their day. And it sure made mine more interesting. Being locked in a bathroom with 20 seventh graders...I'll have to add that to my list of 'unique' experiences in Thailand.

Nothing terribly interesting is happening here. Really. It's almost sad-I've actually been able to keep up with my grading.

Today we're having drills. In the morning we'll have the fire drill, and in the afternoon, we'll have the lock & drop drill. That's a drill in case there were hostile intruders; we basically try to hide the kids and turn off all the lights in a matter of about 10-15 seconds. The kids, of course, love the drills, since it interrupts class and they spend the whole day guessing when the drill will happen.

Other than that, our big agenda for the day consists of:
a) Garcia night (regular Tuesday night dinner with Grace staff)
b) Buy plane tickets for my parents to get from Chiang Mai to Bangkok
and c) Laundry (always a thrill!)

Yes, we lead an exotic and thrilling life here...

Hooray!! Today is finally Saturday! This has been a long week for students and staff alike. Maybe it has something to do with being the first full week back from school. At any rate, everyone seemed happy for the week to be over.

Other than school, our excitement for the week was somewhat limited. We did go to the Immigration office (have to go every 90 days to keep our visas). And last night I went with Krista, Holly, and Angela to see Just Like Heaven at the movie theater. It had just arrived and was really quite cute!

Today is Children's Day in Thailand. Apparently this is a rather big deal, but mostly in a PR, 'let's have an excuse to celebrate' kind of way. We've been told that what is normally a 20 minute trip could easily take hours. There is a definite sense of annoyance when the holiday is mentioned. So we're avoiding downtown; just working on schoolwork and watching some movies.

In other news, it's only a week and a half until my parents come out here!! I am so excited that they'll be coming!!

The first week of school has gotten off to a good start. I feel miles ahead of where I did at the beginning of first semester!! Since my classes are all semester classes, I get to start over. Only this time: a)I knew all but three students names already, b)most students were able to log in without extra help, c)only one class period has both CS1 and CS2, as opposed to all of them, d)I wasn't distracted by trying to settle into a new country, and most importantly, e)I had done this once before.

Yesterday was Saturday, and I went to one of the markets with Krista, Holly, and Judy. They were getting things taken care of at the tailor's, but I had a different mission: to find and purchase fried bugs. My curiosity was getting the best of me, and I kept hearing about Chiang Mai's fried bug selection, but had never personally run across it.

Well, luck was with me yesterday. Krista remembered an area that had sold them previously, and as we went over there, there was quite a display. Silkworms, grasshoppers, beetles, even cockroaches, all deep fried and waiting to be eaten. I got a bit of a grab bag assortment for only 20 baht, or about 50 cents.

I took my prize back to my house with Krista and Holly. Krista was up for trying some, but Holly took a bit more persuading. Jeremy was fine too. So we spread out our morsels and went around the table, taking photos of everyone enjoying their tasty snack. Actually, the fried silkworms didn't taste like much of anything, just a bit of a bitter aftertaste. We ate some slimy looking thing that was pretty gross. But the grasshoppers were quite good-they really did taste like chicken.

The cockroach...well, I'm still thinking about him. He's a pretty good sized guy. There were two kinds-baked cockroaches, that had their legs all lasso'd together with a rubber band like they'd been in some sort of twisted rodeo. The others were batter & deep fried. I didn't try to buy either, but the thai lady was getting a kick out of us farangs and threw it in. Maybe I'll munch on him later today with a little sticky rice or something...

Happy New Year, everybody!! Hope you all had a wonderful New Years' celebration.

We celebrated New Years by going back out to the houseboat that we had been to in September. About 25 people or so from Grace went out there to celebrate together. We arrived at about 3:00 in the afternoon on Saturday, and spent the afternoon and evening playing games, singing, and talking. A few brave souls even went swimming! (It was in the low 70s there.) At the stroke of midnight (or approximately, since we didn't have Dick Clark) we toasted tropical Starbursts, which are quite rare here in Thailand. It was a lot of fun.

Then yesterday we went to a Lahusee village. They celebrate New Years for a whole week, so we were right in the middle of it. They did lots of tribal dances, which we got to join in on. We saw their bamboo houses and traditional clothing, and ate their traditional food. We even got to pound the rice to make rice cakes! It was actually a very interesting day, but you'll be able to tell better by the pictures, which should be up within a few hours.

School starts tomorrow, so we're trying to get everything ready. It will be great to have the students back again!!