Odds and ends...

On Wednesday went back to Ayuttaya. Tam's (gr. 7) mom took us (mike, colleen, and me). Since I recently went I wasn't looking forward to the trip but I was obligated to go. Part of the job I guess. That evening played some Texas Hold'em with the gang. The next day I headed to Khao Sarn Road (big backpacker's destination). It started pouring right before I left to go. I walked down to the pier and took the water taxi. In some places at Khao Sarn I had to walk through water that was like 8 inches deep. I bought a hammock and the Fort Minor album Rising Tied. In the evening I headed to Lumpini with some teachers to check out the night bazaar. It has a big beer garden with a detractable roof and a stage with a band on one end as well as a big market. Just as we were about to leave it started pouring again. Today spent most of the afternoon organizing pics then headed to the mall to print a few pics. Just before I got off the bus it started pouring. Afterwards I went to Sizzler and took a table next to the windows so I could watch the lightning from 4 floors up. Headed home and watched "Motorcycle Diaries," a movie about the Argentine Guevera going on a trip through South America with his friend. Very good movie. Tomorrow headed to the dentist.

19th Last Day of School...

Last day of school. Probably the weirdest day since I've been here. Cleaned up the classroom a bit in the morning my grade 8 homeroom. Then took the grades 9's out for lunch down the street. Then had the grade 7's in my class playing games in my classroom for three hours in the afternoon. It was weird saying goodbye, particularly to the grade 7's. I don't know if I'll ever see them again, and if I do come back some day, they might not be here anymore. Still hasn't sunk in yet.

Kanchanaburi...

We left Tuesday morning at around 11:10 for our junior high trip to Kanchanaburi province. In total we had 30 students from grades 7-9 come, four teachers (Sarah, Mike, Colleen, and myself), and p'Sit (Thai staffer, fluent in English and Thai. The trip was arranged by a tour company which made it less stressful for the teachers. We took 4 vans up. I rode with the grade 7 boys. About an hour and a half before arriving, it started pouring. The place we were staying at the first night was kinda secluded and we had to drive through 2 creeks to get there, and since it was pouring the creek had a lot of water in it. We crossed the first creek alright, but approaching the 2nd creek, our driver made a wrong turn and we ended up half way down a steep dirt road. The van wouldn't back up so we had to get out and stand in the rain while the van was pulled back up. Then, while crossing the 2nd creek my van got stuck so we had to get out and push it out. So by the time we arrived (around 6:30 or so) I was pretty soaked. Then we had to climb up a hill on a slippery muddy path so we were wet and dirty. The place we stayed at was pretty nice. The students slept in tree houses and the teachers slept at the owner's house (lots of Thai houses are on stilts, and often much of the house is just a covered porch, so we were basically sleeping outside). Some guy was snoring really loudly next to us (and didn't stop when Mike threw his pillow at him) and there was an asthmatic dog below us so none of us teachers got much sleep that night. The next morning got up at about 7:30, had breakfast and took a shower (shower being a big container filled with cold water with a bucket to pour the water on yourself). After packing up the vans we headed to a waterfall and swam around at the base for awhile. On our way my van got stuck in a puddle and had to be pulled out. We then headed to the border with Myanmar, but it started raining just as we arrived at the viewpoint so we got soaked again. We then headed to a hot springs. Had a good time throwing students into the water. We went to a guesthouse that floats on the edge of the River Kwai for the second night. This morning we went rafting down the river in bamboo rafts for maybe 45 minutes or so but most of us just floated down the river in life jackets instead. We then went to an elephant camp to ride elephants (the same camp I went to back in July with Craig and Michelle). The final event was an animal safari which was pretty brutal because the animals were all running around on gravel. But the highlight was the giraffes, which reached their heads into the safari bus to get the corn that some of the students bought to feed animals. The giraffes would reach in an grab corn that was on the floor. The camels also stuck their heads in and drooled. We arrived back at the school at about 7. I thought how nice it is to be back home, then remembered that this won't be home for much longer. Tomorrow is the last day of school. Weird to think that most of these students I will probably never see again.

Graduation...

Last week was psychotic with finals and report cards. I also had to make slideshows for the kindergarten and gr. 6/9 graduation which probably took like 7 hours. The gr 6/9 graduation was on Friday afternoon and lasted a couple of hours and was really boring. After school went to a movie with Ms. Colleen and Mr. Mike and 9 of the gr. 8/9 students. We watched Zanthura which was pretty boring. After I went downtown with Colleen and met up with some teachers at Crepes and Co. Headed over to the Dubliner after but it was pretty packed due to the St. Patrick's festivities so we headed over to the Londoner instead. Tomorrow I'm headed on a 3 day field trip with the junior highs.

Wikipedia...

It's almost 2 in the morning (time of writing, Sunday morning, published later). Why am I still up? I should be in bed, sleeping. Instead I'm putzing around on my laptop. Switching back and forth between various useful and useless pursuits. Why am I playing hearts on my computer? I hate playing hearts on my computer. It's impossible to not win. Why can't I get anywhere near the 25 million points record I achieved in pinball in grade 12? Wikipedia, now that's my new obsession. Check it out for yourself at www.wikipedia.org . Its an encyclopedia. But unlike a set of encyclopedias on the shelf collecting dust, wikipedia is always up to date. A few days after Kirby Puckett (one of my favourite players back in my baseball card collecting days) died I decided to read about him on wikipedia. It was already updated to include his death and had a link to the statement released by his family. I was reading about the current unstable politics involving Thailand's prime minister and they had a picture of a protest that had taken place 5 days before. Today I read about the death of Milosivec on CTV and then read about his life and death on wikipedia. As you can see I'm obsessed. Its organized so will with convenient links to other articles. And it has articles that the World Book Encylopedia might not, such as in depth information on all 5 series of Star Trek. Would the World Book Enclopedia have an article on Zondervan Publishing House? I think no t! So all of you sleepless people out there, please check wikipedia and tell me what you think. I think you might thank me. But now my Internet spazzing (I can't really complain since I'm leeching off of someone nearby with a wireless router) and I can't look anything up on wikipedia. Hence the hearts. Hence the pinball. All accompanied of course with the greatest tunes in the world in surround sound. These speakers will be passed on to Nathan upon my departure and will be sorely missed. I always feel at the peek of my intellectual abilities late at night. That's when all my greatest work in university was done. The only problem is a lack of motivation to do something constructive during these hours of peak performance. I could be worrying about the future. About what job I'll get and what people I'll hang out with and whether I'll be happy. I used to do this a lot as a child. I'd be laying in bed almost ready to cry because I would have to do a science fair project the following year. Over the years I've been able to mostly block these worries out, making going to bed a much more relaxing experience. Don't have a clue what I'm doing tomorow in school? Oh well, I'll worry about it in the morning! But often my thoughts turn to the past and I think about all the good times I've had and miss. Sometimes makes me sad. Isn't that crazy? Instead of being happy about all these good experiences I'm sad because they are over. Makes the present and future seem less exciting when I'm always stuck in the past. But then I decide that 2 years from now, I'll probably be thinking back to this moment in my life in the same way. Winamp makes me feel like some radio dude or something. All my music is in a giant playlist, so if I have a song I'd like to listen to I just have to type "J" (for jump), type in a couple keywords, hit enter and I'm there in like 2 seconds. Why am I still up writing random comments here? I should be in bed. I'll have to drag myself out of bed tomorrow. But it seems like I can go to bed early and still have to drag myself out of bed. It seems I go to bed feeling alert and wake up dead-tired. I used to fantasize of changing my schedule somehow so that I'd go to bed in the morning, sleep till dark and then wake up till morning. But unfortuneately I'm stuck in a society that makes it difficult to choose my circadian rhythm of preference. As a result I have to lay there for an hour (or more, sometimes less) trying to fall asleep. Many nights I decide to try to feel myself fall asleep. But I always forget to because I fall asleep without being aware of it. Sleep is something that has always fascinated me. How long does it take to go from conscious to sleeping? Sometimes I start thinking things that make absolute no sense in the world of consciousness and suddenlty realize that my previous thoughts made no since, so its like I was half awake, half sleeping. Well, I'm gonna go to bed. I'm gonna try to feel myself fall asleep. I'll let you know if it works. But first one more game of pinball.

Crazy Hair Day...

Punks
Originally uploaded by Shaggy Z.

Today was crazy hair day here at school, invented by the teachers mainly so we could do something stupid with our hair and wear jeans. Basically most of us teachers are overgrown kids and I love it. Pics available at my Flickr site.

Love Life...

______________________
"Love Life" ~ The Cross Movement

What's life, when you ain't living right
Sight when you're blind as night
Low level living, trying to perpetrate height
With all your might, you scrape, and thug, and you fight
And refuse every invitation to come into the Light
What's it like, to have to maintain
Gain, life left lane, strife, death, pain, all in vain
This world will make a lot of promises to keep you high lit
If you're an earthbound thug, than you've got what you get
Man you don't expect more
You might as well plunder in this war
But also expect the God of Heaven to one day tally up the score
Who you playing for, does your coach know the game
You shootin' with a ball made of flame
If your tired of your contract, you saw what it paid
Hold out right now, make your team force a trade
It ain't an easy move, in fact it's hard
But the only real ball players play for this real rough squad
Coached by God, the one and only Jehovah
The first dribbling skill he teaches is the Cross over
In fact He did it to perfection, no question
Refer to the Holy play book for accurate recollection
He's seeking no names rookies, who he never met
And those in foul trouble who admit that their game is suspect
He'll turn a freshman into an upper classer
With joy and laughter, He'll take ya higher than NASA
He'll turn a player to a sho'nuff pastor
And turn a pathetic amateur into a perennial master
Cause ain't nothing lacking in Christ
Cause he loves to turn a thug into the Love Life

[Chorus]
What's the right life
More rugged than thug life
It's the Love Life, It's the Love Life
Mo' better than drug life, mug life or the club life
It's the Love Life y'all
[2x]

[Bridge]
How is it that your gonna go all out
When you don't know what life's about
You're wile-ing out, you're wile-ing out
Thug life ain't really what you hear them claim
Somebody always gotta a better aim
Get out the game, get out the game
When Christ comes back to collect on dues
Watch how many thugs sing the blues
You better choose, He can't lose

All here we go again
New day and new flow again
Mission to prove and show again
Let my Sis and Dun's know again
Same stizzy and plan again
Proclaim the God-Man again
To the dead –mannequins
Wantin' clothes and places to stand again
On the bully, everybody's high strung like a pulley
You don't survive unless you understand the game fully
So as God's aliens and strangers in this place
The only way we make it is to stay up in His face
By prayer and grace as sheep among wolves
We duck buck shot and keep it moving with the hooves
Now tell me what's rugged
To dwell with the murdurers and the thugged
And have a four-pound and won't even lug it
Now you don't want to kill but you will keep it real
You got a whole lot of heat some of these cold blooded cats need to feel
Like Davy Crocket, you'll loose the hand rockets
But there's a crown of thorns that won't let you cock it
Cause it's the one who was hit with the three spike bullets
Who bled all on your trigger, now you can't even pull it
The shots pierced through His wrist and His feet into the wood
He took it like a Savior like a thug never could
Like a God, like a King, like a soldier at war
Who knew the cost of dying, and all that it was for
All for us, who would never feel his pain
So now we say to live is Christ and to die is gain
So Praise the true God in His wisdom and might
Who can turn a thug to the Love Life
It's the Love Life y'all, It's the Love Life y'all

[Chorus]
______________________