I've made it into week three now (the letter C for those of you keeping score at home) and I suppose teaching is starting to feel a bit more routine. The first lesson of the week always follows a simple pattern of songs and games and then the introduction of the new letter and new vocab and then a worksheet and then more songs and games (or at least, that is how its supposed to go, sometimes things like vomit get in the way) And the second lesson of includes some review and new information (like body parts or numbers). I've learned that "5 Little Monkeys" and "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" are total crowd pleasers, but for some reason "Little Green Frog" absolutely fails to make a splash (ba dum!).

I love the moments when I can make the students laugh. Their happiness energizes me to keep going. But a lot of the time, they're distracted and not paying attention, and in those moments, it is really hard for me to care about what I'm saying too. How well the class goes seems to depend a lot on the time of day. I think the morning is easier. In the afternoon they've either just woken up from a nap, so they're still sleepy and disoriented, or they are ready to leave for the day so they are extra hyper and distracted. I count a lot on the help of the Thai homeroom teachers to make the lesson go at all smoothly. Pure chaos would rule without them in the room.

Right now, one of my life challenges is to figure out exciting ways to spend my time when I'm not at school. The nice thing about this job is that there is nothing to take home with me at the end of the day. When I leave, I'm done. So what to do with my evenings and weekends? Last weekend I spent with other friends in Bangkok, essentially just be silly and lazy together. This coming weekend is a holiday so I've got a long weekend and am hopefully going to travel somewhere fun and take a break from the highway and the malls that surround my life in Bangkok. A break would be much appreciated. I'd like to see a tree. And breathe some fresh air. That doesn't seem like too much to ask right?

After work, some nights I'm really lame and I just take a nap and hunt down dinner and then maybe write in my journal. But I am trying to do better than that, so tonight we are having a scrabble and movie night with the friends who are my neighbors. And I'm hoping for more company tomorrow night and maybe a nicer dinner out? By nice I mean sitting down and eating off a plate, not takeout back to my room in a plastic bag that I then eat out of a cup. (I am remarkably and tragically lacking in household goods right now. Though actually, I'm really not that bothered by it.)

So, that is pretty much how my life goes right now. I'm amused by the mundane moments of my "big adventure." And I'm hoping for more legitimately adventure-y moments. But it is all new and fascinating and I am quite sure I'm learning things that I won't recognize as learning and changing for many months. I'm hoping to take some pictures soon, of my apartment and the environment I'm living in. I'll post them when I have them.