Poking Fun...

Hello hello hello. I hope this post finds everyone well. I apologize that I haven't written in a while but I have had much to do in the last three weeks. Thailand continues to be very good to me and I continue to love my new home more and more each day. It is interesting going out of the country for whatever reason (visa run usually) because of the places I have been while living here I am eager to get back after about three days. I start missing the food, the cheap prices, and the cute faces:) I am also happy that I have developed quite a few friends and we all enjoy making fun of everyone else's home country. For instance, our elementary and middle school PE teacher is from Honduras. We all know he is from Honduras but we make jokes about him being Mexican. Another teacher and myself were in my classroom talking about possible coaching ideas for the new school year and we needed to talk with Diego about them because the "Mexican" is also the athletic director. So, me and Dan are talking and Diego comes into the room. "Ahhh...waiter, there you are!" I say to him, "I will have the enchilada platter with two tacos and no guacamolie, Dan would you like anything?" "Why not!" Dan says right on cue, "I will take a chinchilla!...What took you so long to get here man? Is there a sombrarro sale going on somewhere or what?" "Ha ha ha," Diego says back. "You know Dan, with how busy you Canuks are with getting drunk, playing hockey, and puting maple syrup on your ham, where do you find the time to make "mexican" jokes?" This is what goes on all the time. It is a riot because we have Americans, Canadians, Mexicans (ha ha ha), Brits, and Danes so everyone gets their shots in at each other. When I get made fun of it is usually about cheese.
The students are also wonderful as well. They are so kind and respectful it is amazing. I haven't had one discipline problem the whole year. The biggest problem a teacher faces is reminding students not to use Thai in the classroom (when in class they MUST use English). How easy is that huh? I still am amazed at the nickname situation over here. Students have very long names and are given a nickname when they are born and they are known by their nickname. Being that I do my best to find humor in every situation, I made a discovery when looking at the nicknames of my 8th grade students. In one class I have students who have the following nicknames: Off, Time, Phuk (pronounced Fook), Yoo, Best, and Mahn. I am so tempted to have the counselor make an announcement over the loud speaker (however, I don't think he would get it and ACTUALLY make the announcement), "I need to see students at lunch in the following order: Time, Yoo, Best, Phuk, Off, Man, thank you!"
Well that is all for now. I hope that everyone found the "Obama Special Olympics" comment as funny as I did. Until next time, it's not about what you have, it's about what you don't have (it's a thinker).