Birthday Haiku

First Bangkok Birthday
Had a great time with my friends
Ate way too much food

My birthday was great! School was canceled due to flooding, so I even got to sleep in on my birthday! Granted, I only slept in until 7, but who can complain about 40 minutes of extra sleep!? I had a lazy morning doing a little bit of school work, and then went to go watch a movie and eat Tony Roma's ribs with Diana. Holly and I went to go get a massage mid-afternoon, and then a gang of us went out to eat at Sizzler. It was great. Thank you friends for making my 27th birthday special! Here are some pictures from the evening. :)

Holly and me trying to be "extra Asian"

Helen, me, & Kristi W.

Kim, Diana, Joy

The gang at dinner: Jonny, Mike, Joanna, Holly, Kim, Diana, Joy, Karly, Helen, Kristi W., Kristi S., Catherine, Chiara, Heidi, Brad

Karly & Kim

Jonny & Mike

Chiara & Heidi

Kristi S. & Catherine

Joanna & Holly

Snow day??

So I just received this picture in my e-mail inbox from my mother-in-law. Crazy... the earliest snowfall in MN in 20+ years, and early it was, making its nasty appearance on Oct 10!

Well, needless to say, we don't have snow days here in Thailand, but we do in fact have rain/flood days, like tomorrow! It rained like a banshee today for several hours, which is really unusual (despite it being the rainy season), but we're experiencing the side effects of the hurricanes in other parts of Asia, the recent full moon that is affecting the tides, and complete saturation from previous rainy days.

We left for school this morning around 6:50 and it was already starting to sprinkle, which then turned into a downpour for the next 5+ hours. It was crazy. The soccer field is completed flooded... it looks more like a lake than a field, parts of the school ceiling on the 4th floor were actually falling down, and the streets at certain points during the day had 2+ feet of standing water.

Traffic was slow today, as you can probably imagine from the next series of photos. So they decided to cancel school tomorrow with the pending rain predictions for tonight in order to prevent a nightmare for some students, parents and teachers (some travel over 1 hour to get to school when the traffic is pretty good), and small and unproductive classes tomorrow for teachers. Apparently, this is the worst flooding that Bangkok has had in the last 20 years.













Check out the dude's mo-ped wake in the second to the last picture. And then I love how in the last picture, he turns around as if to say, "Am I really making a wake? Sweet, I am!!"

Anyway, I am actually quite thankful for the flood day that we have tomorrow, as I will have the opportunity to get farther ahead in my lesson planning so that I really don't have to think about school over October break when I'm at the beach for 6 days! I'm looking forward to the much needed rest. But in the meantime, pray for no more rain!!

God of This City

One of my new favorite songs is called God of This City. It was written by an Irish band called Bluetree, but has also been sung by Chris Tomlin on his Hello Love CD.



This song hits close to home for me in that it was divinely inspired when the Bluetree was on a mission trip to Pattaya, Thailand. Pattaya is well known for prostitution and sex change operations... needless to say, it's a dark, dark city. The owner of a bar/brothel wanted the band to sing at his bar to attract customers-- so they did. They sang worship songs for two hours, and this song came to be.

It is so comforting to know that God IS the God of not only this city, but every city. But it's even more comforting to know that God is at work: He is changing lives, opening eyes, softening hearts, drawing people to Him, and stirring their affections for Him... but greater things are still to come and be done as He continues to work, bless, and reign over all of His creation for His glory and purpose.

I think of my students and how so many of them are not Christians, and this song and His word give me hope. For if God's work here on earth is not done quite yet, then He is still moving and working to draw my students to Him... and maybe one day in heaven, my students and I will be rejoicing together in the gift of salvation. Until then, I will keep praying for them, reaching out to them, trying to set an example for them, and trusting that God IS the God of this city and that He is mightily working in Bangkok.

Real conversations...

Level 1 students entering room, one scares me...
Me: ¡Infarto! (heart attack)
Students: What? Fart? Did you say fart? Did you fart?
Me: No, infarto... significa heart attack.
Students: What, fart?
Me: [laughing] no, INfarto... you heard the word fart and you stopped listening. It's infarto. Uy, freshman.
Students: [laughing] fart... she said fart! Mrs. Karly said fart.

[Same students/class, but a different day...]

Me: My kids in the other class...
Students: What? You have kids?
Me: No, I don't have kids, I meant my students in the other class... you didn't let me finish.
Students: Why don't you have kids?
Me: [sigh]... because I don't feel qualified to be a mother.
Student A: But you're married!
Me: Yes, but that's only half of it.
Student B [punky, freshman boy]: You should have babies. I want to hold them and play with them!
Students: Yeah, you should have kids! When are you going to?
Me: Maybe one day, but not anytime really soon, okay?
Students: Awwwww, darn.
Me: Aaaaaand we're done. Now back to what I was saying, my kids in the other class... [lesson continues]

[Same class, same day...]

Student A [another punky, freshman boy]: You pretty today, Mrs. Karly.
Me: Why thank you.
Students: Yeah, you look beautiful. Did you do something different?
Me: Yep... I didn't brush my hair today.
Students: [laughing] Why not?
Me: I didn't have time. I had 15 minutes to get ready so I did the important things: dunked me hair in water, brushed my teeth, threw some clothes on and put on deodorant.
Students: You should do that everyday, you look beautiful.
Me: Uhmmm... okay, thanks!

Can I punch you?

Little kids are so funny. Some of them have no concept of "personal space" and this has become particularly evident to Mike as he calls his kids over to him during class... they are all over him, practically tackling him as they race over. One little guy in third grade not only decided to race over to Mike and be pressed up against him, but touch Mike's stomach. His response to touching him stomach was, "Ooooh, six pack... can I punch you?" Mike's initial response was, "No, you can't punch me..." but then gave in because a) Mike's a guy and likes to prove his "manliness" and b) the kid really was disappointed. So the kid wound up and punched Mike in the stomach and thought it was THE coolest. Kids were practically lining up then to punch Mike. HA!

Other funny comments from the elementary kids:
(Korean) student: You're married?
Mike: Yes.
(Korean) Student: Is your wife Thai? (Many of the American men teachers here are married to a Thai woman)
Mike: No, she's Korean
(Korean) student: What's her name?
Mike: Mrs. Karly
(Korean) student: No, what's her REAL name?
Mike: Oh... Seon Ah

Student: (after seeing us together) Is that your wife?
Mike: Yes
Student: Why didn't you marry an American?
Mike: She is American

Coge tu sombrero y póntelo, vamos a la playa, calienta el sol

"Grab your hat and put it on, we're going to the beach, the sun is warm."

And that's exactly what we did when we went to Koh Samet, an island in Thailand known for it's beaches. We went with another teaching couple, Ann and Paul Westerink and their baby girl, Keddy. It was beautiful and we enjoyed a weekend free of school work.

On the 2.5 hour drive there...




Waiting at the ferry station... where some not very nice guy ripped everyone off, but people didn't stand up to him and his not very nice self. If only the Tourist Police would have been there so as to not allow the guy to pocket excess cash! But it's a corrupt system in many ways, and there's not too much that you can do about it... [sigh]



Our bungalow room. I forgot to take more pictures, but this place had an "outdoor" private shower. It was quite exotic to be showering with trees above you and butterflies roaming!

The fire show we went to our first evening there. It was pretty spectacular to see these guys throwing torches in the air, while dancing around, standing on their friend's shoulders, etc. I for one would never be talented or coordinated enough to throw a baton around, none the less, one that was lit on fire...






Around the resort and at the beach...




















Only in Thailand will you find...
...Mike so excited for Starbucks coffee that is WAY over priced,

Wai-ing statues everywhere...
...including Ronald McDonald,
...and a bathroom sign that doesn't make women feel all that comfortable. hehehehe!!!

We had a fun trip, but we were glad to come home! :)

Amazed

My students sometimes blow me away when I least expect it. I have four examples of their awesomeness within just the last two days... and I really feel like bragging about them. :)

1. My AP students had their first in-class debate. Prior to coming to class they had to research the pros and cons of going "paperless" as a school, thus each student having their own laptop. As it was their first debate ever in the history of their Spanish education, and it is still the beginning of the year, I had ridiculously low, low expectations. I seriously thought that the debate would last no longer than 5-6 minutes. After drawing names as to which side they would take, having 8 minutes to consult with their teammate, 25-30 minutes later... and I had to literally FORCE them from talking because we had so many other things to do the rest of the hour. It was all in Spanish with only a few made-up Spanglish words and hints of yucky grammar/pronunciation, but it was incredible... my jaw was nearly on the floor the whole time. They MAKE me look good.

2. At the end of each chapter in the textbook, my level 3 students have a difficult but cultural reading. The former Spanish teacher skipped over these readings as he said they thought they were too difficult, especially the ones that were poems. I debated whether to do the same or not, but these kids are so weak in the area of reading, I decided to forge on, despite the difficulty of the text. Plus, this first text was a poem by Pablo Neruda as well as his biography... and I just LOVE Neruda's poetry, so I couldn't pass it up! I created some accompanying activities to help make the text a little more "user-friendly," but still didn't expect too much from them as they were supposed to read the poem, read the biography, and then see how they could possibly parallel in some very obvious, but also some very abstract ways... which is difficult enough to do in English! I was blown away by their ideas... they came up with things that I never even thought of! It was so neat to see how they totally rose up to the challenge and conquered!

3. My two level one classes have been a challenge in that they are full of (too much) energy. These last few weeks have been really full of teaching them the routines of Spanish class and learning how to channel their energy for "good..." at least for the good of Spanish class! It has been fun, yet challenging. Needless to say, they keep me on my toes and I really don't know what to expect from them. However, they have taken the new challenge of a foreign language and tackled it mightily. It's amazing to me how quickly they have learned to love a language, as well as how many A's there are in my classes. One of my classes took a quiz today and 19/25 of them got A's, 5/25 got B's, and 1/25 got a C... and this is even with a harder grading scale than most schools, where a 91% is actually a B+!

4. Still bragging about my level one classes... the former Spanish teacher said over lunch today, "Mrs. Karly, I have a bone to pick with you!" I got a little worried because I didn't know where the conversation was going and was wondering what I had done to offend him. He then continued to say "Your level one students keep coming into my Bible class and they always want to speak in Spanish!!" Oh how grateful I am for their enthusiasm and love of learning.

Despite how busy I am, despite feeling frustrated that I'm not always teaching with excellence, despite the craziness of my freshman students, despite the challenges of teaching AP Spanish... I LOVE my job. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be here. Thank you for supporting us in this journey and this ministry; we appreciate your loving prayers and words of encouragement... it means so much!

Flirtatious pork dumplings

Thai 101

This is what I've learned thus far:
1. I am tone deaf
2. I stink at Thai
3. Whomever it is that tries to teach me a phrase or word laughs at me when I try and usually says, "Uhm... that's kind of close," which when translated really means, "Actually you totally messed that word up big time and I have no idea what you are trying to say."
4. It's hard!!!

Today one of my students taught me how to say the word "dumpling" so that I can ask for dumpling soup. It sounds semi-like "gee-yow" (gee, like the letter "G") with a low tone that rises with the syllable "yow." She then said the word with the 5 different tones and I could barely distinguish between them. So technically I could be asking for dumpling soup, flirtatious soup, or lasso soup, depending on how I say the word. She then told me that it would be better if I ask for "gee-yow moo," which means pork dumpling. I laughed as I thought about asking for flirtatious pork dumplings. Bahahahaha! [Sigh]... this is so hard! :)