Far far away

WISH I WAS THERE

so i think when you travel to other countries something happens to time. it warps in such odd ways. i know i have only been here three weeks, but all that i have experienced in the last three weeks is enough to fill a few lifetimes it seems. well maybe not that much, maybe only one and a half, but you know what i mean.

a little over a week ago my dad emailed me to tell me my aunt beth was in a major car accident. my aunt beth is an amazing woman..she is the care-giver for my grandmother and my aunt rachel, she also has a full-time job. i have always been in awe of her faith in God, and how she is constantly serving and helping others. i have always wanted to be like her in that way.

so it turns out she drifted into the other lane when she was driving to work, and her car was hit. and then her car was hit again. she was stuck in it for 40 minutes. then she almost died as she was airlifted to the hospital.

she is still in a coma right now, and the doctors arent sure why. if i was there i would be at my grandmother's helping her and my aunt as much as i could, but obviously i cant be there. i dont like to think about it much because i feel so helpless and like i cant do anything. but i know im suppose to be here for some reason, even though im not sure why...so if you pray, please pray for my aunt and family. they need it, more than they need me to be there to help..

GO CELTA GO!

on a lighter note..

so my classmates have decided that i must have been a cheerleader in a former life. whenever i teach enthusiasm gushes out of me. the first week i would jump up and down and do a sort of dance whenever i would drill the student on different words, i didnt really notice this. then i would also swing my arms around to make them shout the words louder. one day we were doing a game, and it was one team against the other. i kept yelling, go team A!! whenever my team got a point. i guess most people dont get that into such things. heehee..now my classmates tease me all the time about my "like-you-can-do-it" spirit.

one of the things my tutor told me i needed to work on, which must come from my former cheerleading life i never knew existed, is grading my praise. he says it is lovely how im always praising the students. but apparently i tell the students GREAT JOB!! WOW!! at everything they do. the example he gave is once i was showing the students a picture of a car, and asked them what it was. they said, car. i was like YEAH!!! YOU GOT IT! WOW!

but these students are pretty smart, it isnt that hard for them to point out what a car is. so apparently if they had told me that the sentence i wrote on the board was in past perfect progressive, that would be the perfect time for such an elicitation of excitment. so i have tried to work on that..its hard though! i like to be excited about everything i suppose.

on monday i did a lesson, which i didnt think went that great. i was like, oh well, hopefully i will get to standard. you can either get not to standard, standard (which is what everyone usually gets) or above standard. it turns out my tutor thought my lesson was good! no way! i got an above standard on it! mainly cuz i just used all the ideas he told me to do. so that made me oh so glad...it also resulted in my other classmates high-fiving me, and then one of them even bought me my new favorite delight. an irish creme blizzard with kit kat from dairy queen! they are quite amazing, and just the right size. the large ones here are the size of the small ones in america. ahhh...it was an amazing day.

but then my other two lessons were at standard. but they both went better than i thought they would..i just hope i survive these next two weeks. im learning so much though! that is what i keep telling myself...


MOTHERS DAY PIGGY

my friend ja invited me to have dinner with her family on mother's day! which was the day after the queen's birthday this past sunday. we went to this amazing chinese restaurant. i had never been to such a place. they had this lazy susan sort of thing in the center and kept bringing plates and plates and plates of food. one plate consisted of a pig which still looked exactly like a pig. they were bringing it to the table and i was like, what is that? and then when they placed it down they were like, pig..and as they placed it on the table, i saw the lil snout, eyes and ears, and was like, yup, it sure is. so we picked off the pig skin and dipped it in some sauce. i actually didnt mind it! you can look at the pics of the friendly pig feast here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55907373@N00/

MOTO BIKE BABE

this weekend i got to tour the new place where i will be working--elite prep. my director called to give me directions, and said i had to take the sky train, then the motorbike taxi. i was like what? no way! i have seen these motorbikes zipping around pedestrians, whizzing in and out of stopped traffic and squeezing between huge buses, and i would get to ride on one! i was excited, cuz it seemed so life-threatening.

once i got the right station, i found a man sitting on a motorbike wearing an orange vest and assumed that he might be a taxi man. i told him asoke tower, he nodded and i got on. i didnt know what to hold on to so i just touched his back the whole time. it was such a rush, i felt like i was in the chase scene of some action movie. then when i got to my stop he was smiling so big at me, i gave him some baht and smiled back, wondering why he seemed so pleased.

i told someone about my adventure, and it turns out you arent really suppose to hold on to the motor man, but the handle behind the seat...oopps! so i guess he thought i enjoyed the ride a lot..haha!

anyways! i love the people i met at my new work. they are all very welcoming. i will be working with thais and americans, most of them are in their 20's. then today i went to observe a class i will eventually be teaching-- SAT writing-- and wow, it is intense! the material is so in-depth, and there is so much to cover in an 1 hour and 30 minute class. the kids are super smart though, and seem to catch on quick. they ask hard questions, like about grammar rules and such.. so i will prepare my best, but i think i might be employing the, "im not sure of the answer, but i will get back to you" line a bunch. oh well! im eager to see what it will be like...

HELLO GOODBYE

my new roomie from germany was here. for a week, with her boyfriend from australia. he was searching for a place to stay while he is here until decemeber, and didnt find one until yesterday. so he was staying at our place the past few nights. yeah, interesting times! but my roomie is super sweet. she is 26 and just finished an internship in bangkok, and will now be studying at the university.

but last night i came home to an empty room and a note that said she moved to her boyfriend's place and will stay here sometimes but not often. but she will still pay for her part of the rent. ok with me! i have my own room now. how fun...

so i have to teach two lessons this week, one of them will be 55 minutes, and then one more next week. i also have two assignments due, and i will go to my new work twice this week to get trained. ahhh! i need some strength.. step by step. =)