i hope they're alright!

it's sunday afternoon (2pm) here. that's makes it sunday early morning in MN (2am). i wonder what you're all dreaming right now. what a thought! i can't remember my own dream from last night. that's strange.

on my way here to school, i saw the aftermath of the first vehicle accident i've seen thus far here in thailand. i reached the main road from my alley and noticed, immediately, everyone (in the entire neighborhood) at a stand-still looking at a tuk-tuk which held a little girl (maybe 7 or 8 years old)... and a bunch of fruit spilled over the road that seemed to have come from a blue motorbike that was parked near the curb. i stopped to scan the scene and noticed two men helping a woman into the same tuk-tuk with the little girl. i'm against gawking (i'm that person who wails on my horn at everyone else who's slown traffic to a crawl just to see blood and guts at the scene of any flashing lights or cars pulled over. it's a top three pet peeve of mine.), so i tried to keep walking while i looked back and forth between the sidewalk ahead of me and the scene of the accident. everyone else was just standing, hushed, and watching. as the women was helped into the tuk-tuk i noticed she looked very out-of-it. once she was in the tuk-tuk she hugged her daughter tightly and they drove off. i noticed then that her daughter was crying very hard. as they were about to turn the corner i saw the woman holding the crown of her own head. off they went while the rest of us were obviously sobered and very quiet. i immediately thought, 'wow, no ambulance, no police, no reports, no nothing but a TUK TUK?! huh.' there is a hospital on the other side of the school so i'm sure that's where they were taken. the bike (with its contents... the fruit) were left at the scene of the accident.

as i walked on i ran into anelda and she asked if i saw what happened and the told me she had been walking right next to the place where it happened but she only heard a falling-bodies type noise. when she looked she saw and heard the little girl screaming from under the bike. everyone was just staring at first, probably in shock. the women was slumped over and had a helmet on. people rescued the girl and the mother. when they lifted the mother and put her on the curb she just slumped backward, probably unconscious... and that made the daughter scream louder. i asked anelda if she knows who hit them and she said she thinks that they just fell, no one hit them. i hope they're okay. i'm glad to know the woman had a helmet. i don't know about the daughter. both were conscious when they left. hopefully they'll be just fine. three months and that's my first accident to report.

the coming week will be our fifth week of school. that's halfway through the first quarter. 20-week terms. 10-week quarters. 2 terms. 4 quarters. (right, my star mathletes!? you know who you are...) the routines at school are constantly practiced and will be perfected soon enough. the boys are still in need of work on their walking-in-line abilities. it's gotta be straight, school standards.
i was on timeout duty for grades 2 and 3 last week. that means i go fifteen minutes after lunch and 'handle' the boys who've been sent to timeout for their 'bad boy' behavior. there are such offenses as: 'talking while others were talking,' 'fighting' (which is play-fighting here), 'unfinished work,' 'playing,' 'talking in lines,' and my favorite: 'late to timeout yesterday.' there was a crackdown on the grade 2 - 6 boys because their behavior in morning lines was an embarrassment to the program. timeout consists of the boys standing outside the classrom in two lines while i inspect their uniform status (tuck in shirts and tie shoes), then we go into the classroom and they fill out a timeout form, then they 'sit properly' and wait with their arms folded on their desk, mouths closed. once everyone is finished they each stand behind their chair and share what they had done to 'earn' timeout, then tell what they should have been doing, and what they'll do next time. it was intense and the boys were very nervous. many i'm-sorrys and thank-yous and a lot of wai-ing (bowing with prayer hands). the only repeat offenders i saw were the ones who were late the day prior... and no one was late twice in a row. they miss out on play time after lunch and it is not fun. it works well for our boys here.

what else is there to report? hmmm... school's out in MN. that is so WEIRD! it's perpetual summer here so i don't even know the difference. what's everyone doing for the summer and what's in store for LLCS (my old school in mpls) next year? i'm eager to hear!!!

the boys have been busy learning more letter sounds (and not in alphabetical order. nor do we introduce the name of the letter, just its sound), they learned the names of our body parts (but not all), we did more practice with color names, sang some new songs, 'head, shoulders, knees, and toes' is their favorite because i can be quite dramatic when doing it 'vveee-rrrrr-yyy slllloooowwwwwwwwwllllly.' they become quite the giggle-monsters. we're still working on settling down after fun activities like songs and games. they're getting better, as is their English and confidence with using it. my little mathletes learned horizontal and veritcal addition last week, no carrying yet, that's next week. i'm not sure what they're learning in the classes with their thai teachers (careers, resources, thai, chinese, boy scouts, music, art, and social studies) but i did have one of their thai teachers approach me to report that 'they are so cute, your class.' i agreed (of course) and then she said, 'they are so polite. more polite than other classes.' i said, 'awww, that's wonderful, thanks for sharing!' that was nice, huh?! i'm so proud! *smiling*
everything is a competition here and we've only won the weekly contest for Tidy Classroom once. there's a 'shield' (award) for Best Lines and Best Assembly (behavior) as well. we have a grade one assembly every week. it works really well for motivation and is a lot of fun for the boys. we sing happy birthday to anyone who's had a birthday, give merit awards (two boys per class each week), sing another song, give out shields, do announcements about big events, and say the prayer in English (the school prayer is said at the end of each day school-wide and at assemblies).

other than school, just practicing yoga and running on the mouse-machine (treadmill). i've also been heavy into reading and am loving our latest book club (my girlie book club from mpls... miss you ladies!!!) pick: eat, pray, love by elizabeth gilbert. i highly recommend it to anyone. it's a memior and i've really connected with her story. i'm hoping to finish by our meeting day so i can put in my baht's worth. i've got a lot to say on this one... i've never dog-earred and underlined so much in a book ever before. definitely recommend it.

no new bugs to report... but now that i said that i'm bound to have the biggest cockroach in thailand become my roommate until its cleaning-solution death. anelda really hates cockroaches and does the sweetest little dance whenever one approaches her path on the sidewalk... it's so funny i wish i could videotape it... but i asked her, 'if they were purple and glittery would you still hate them?' she said she hates purple and yeah she'd hate them. so i asked if they were yellow (her favorite color) would she still hate them... she pondered and then said, 'YEAH! it's not because they're ugly, it's because they eat and live in rubbish (trash)and they're dirty.' i tried to ease her mind, but the dance continues and so does my daily entertainment. haha. (hey, she laughed at me about the GINORMOUS spiders that were out for my blood in the bungalows. and i don't even hate them.)

better sign off, there's work to be done and i'm sure i've been wordy enough already.

hope all is well with you. i always love hearing from you!!! send me a message.