Opa...

Pretty busy week coming off of overnight camp. Sunday night I watched Napoleon Dynamite at Mike and Vicky's. That was my 11th time but my first time in Thailand. Tuesday night I went to Post Cafe with Emily and Heidi for some coffee, reading, and visiting. Wednesday was some sort of festive day (sadly we didn't get it off work). It is called Loy Krathong. Here is a quote from some website that I can't access anymore: "One of the most beautiful and popular festivals in Thailand is Loy Krathong. This takes place on the full moon in November. During the evening, many people will go down to their local klong (canal) or river to float their krathongs. They believe this will bring them good luck. The krathongs contain a flower, a candle and three incense sticks which are lighted before being placed on the water. The people usually make a wish at the same time. Some people believe that if the candle remains burning until the krathong is out of sight then their wish will come true. By the end of the evening, there are hundreds of flickering lights bobbing up and down on the water. Quite often there are also firework displays as well as shows and beauty contests for everyone. Overall it is really a memorable evening." So a few of us and some of the Thai teachers headed down to the pier. It was more crowded than I anticipated. Had to walk through like a kilometer of very crowded market just to get to the pier. The rest were gonna cross the river to check out the festivities but I wanted to get out of the crowd so I headed back with Nathan. On my way back I bought my own copy of Napoleon Dynamite. On Thursday night almost all of the foreign staff went to this greek restaurant called Atheno. It was for Melisa's birthday and sort of for mine I guess. The food was aight, and after the owner and a waiter started dancing and a bunch of us (myself discluded) joined in. On Friday I went downtown with Mike, Vicky, Craig, and Michelle. After supper we went to a tailor. Craig, Mike, and I are getting tailored suits for the Christmas program. We had to choose the style of suit we wanted as well as the material. They took measurements and stuff but we have to go back on Tuesday for a fitting. After we got back we watched "50 First Dates" at Mike and Vicky's. This morning I slept in and then finished book 6 of Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series. Bummed around the staff room in the afternoon doing pretty much nothing. This evening I went to Harry Potter with a few teachers. I have read the first 4 books (but have only seen the first movie) and thought the movie was fairly entertaining. In terms of teaching the week was pretty rough. The grade 8's are annoying and rude and I almost felt like crying after I had them on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. One of them sometimes plugs here ears and yells when I try to talk to her. Another (the owners' son) told me to go away when I was offering to help him with a math question. Another girl told me she had the right to stand up when I asked her to sit down and then when I asked her to stay in at recess the class told her to fight for her freedom on their way out. I won't be missing those punks when the semesters over. But I really enjoy the grade 6, 7, and 9 kids so that sort of makes up for it.