Bangkok 13/05/06

Well I just finished writing 56 lesson plans in ten days, at first I thought I had to write 70 but as it turns out my Math ain't that good (god help the poor little blighters I will be teaching that to! Oh and as I have not yet received the curriculum for Social studies that is on hold.

So for those of you who don't know I have gone from being a casual english teacher to being a home room teacher, I will be teaching english, math, social studies and science/health to a bunch of seven year olds, I think I mentioned that sex education comes into it, ohh the tittering of little giggles, I can hear it now, and then there is how the kids will react! So after all these years I have found myself doing my Mothers job! weird huh.
I have actually enjoyed writing the lesson plans and am looking forward to some of the classes, I think it will all be a bit of a shock to the school, I plan to have fun with my class, science will involve experiments (I have two sorted already oh there will be bubbles and their will be spongey things). There will also be field trips, after all i am only planning on being there for a year so if they don't like my methods it's all the same to me.

This week I have to fly to Singapore, never having been on a "business trip" before I am very excited, these private schools have so much money it's ridiculous, but what I really want is some decent english reading books, I have been spoiled after working at the beautiful (and well stocked) Waverley library and having access to both UTS and USyd libraries for so long. We need Captain underpants, we need Captain knowledge and we need some other half way interesting english language, books it's no wonder the kids don't want to read when all you offer them is Richard Scary.

Anyway enough about work, Oh yes I should mention I have invented my own superhero for math, "Captain infinity" and his side kick "Polygon" (who is a cat always drawn amidst a cloud of bird feathers).

Anyway I am now regretting my decision not to have taken the job I was offered down in the restive south, as if you are a teacher down there you get free self defense lessons and half price off the retail value of weapons!! wow, what a bargain, apparently this is in response to 47 teachers being killed down there in the last 2 years! hmmm maybe not...

Very excited today, New Zealand makes front page news in the Bkk post!!! I mean Thailand (like every other country in the world has the front two or three pages exclusively for local news, but not today no sir. Apparently a N.Z. woman, a drunk driver had over 426 milligrammes of alcohol in her blood, apparently the article goes on to state you can die if you have anywhere over 400 mg, now there is a science experiment for my little kiddies! The best thing about the Bkk post is the little International asides, there was also a little article on how an Australian was endeavouring to sell New Zealand on ebay apparently the auction lasted 3 days before ebay pulled it.

Now for the gross story of the day, woke up the other day with a really itchy shoulder eventually went and looked at it in the mirror, something had bitten me in the evening but I hadn't really paid much attention but boy now I wish I had. My whole shoulder looked not just angry but irate, it had nasty looking pustules and everything, Glen declared it looked like some medieval pox, it has cleared up to a mild rash now, but I still worry I may be host to some nasty alien parasite, whose pupa are, as I write, furtively burrowing and growing waiting to burst (oh god, I really should never have watched alien!).

Have I talked about the apartment yet? It is small, two rooms with an onsuite, but the rooms themselves are reasonably spacious, both rooms have a balcony which has a nice pastoral aspect (it looks out over a field or two of grass, we have workers in conical hats, buffalo and birds (all seasonal), after rain the birds and bugs really get going and that is great. We can watch the sunset from our balcony or the sofa, it comes partly furnished, the aforementioned sofa is faux leather and dips toward the middle in a very uncomfortable saggy sort of way, on the plus side it does convert into a bed for those who need a place to crash for a night or two. a glass topped table, wardrobe and tv cabinet are it besides the bed, ah yes the bed.
Beds in Asia are as hard as bloody rocks, in fact they appear to be rocks with a bit of straw wrapped over them to disguise the fact. The first purchase was some nice foam squabs to make it possible to sleep.
Alright, I shall sign off for now, catch y'all later.

PS: congratulations to Karyn & Lawrence.