Thailand

Today marks (I think) our halfway point in Thailand.  If anyone is following the conflicts going on here, you’ve seen the exact same amount of trouble as we have.  If it weren’t for the internet I’d hardly know there is even any sort of problems here. Even the time we spent in Bangkok was uneventful (as far as violence goes… the actual sightseeing and everything was great and very far from uneventful).  I have only three students in my class here (currently we are at Prince of Songkla University, Trang campus, but today we are travelling to a different site), and Bre has 4.  All three of my students are engineering majors and all of Bre’s are English majors.  I don’t think it could have been planned more perfectly.  I am fortunate to have three wonderful students since they each seem to learn in a different way and I am able to accomodate my methods for each student.  The sightseeing and food are definitely different than in the US, and a week-and-a-half here has completely revolutionized the way I use silverware to eat (all food is eaten with a spoon and fork… the spoon is the vessel for eating and the fork is a tool for ‘sliding’ food onto the spoon).  It is much more efficient and I don’t see myself changing back to the stab and bite method used in the US.  Several camp leaders (teachers) are combining their groups so they can group teach, but Bre and I both agree that being able to give individual attention is a very important part of teaching English, at least for the level of students we have that need to experience a dialog style of speaking.  Okay, have to leave so I’ll continue these thoughts later.