Today was a great day at school, the boys are slowly warming up to me and approaching me throughout the day. I learned a few good behavior management techniques from Christi, one of my cooperating teachers. She is from Texas but you can't hardly tell with her worldy accent. It seems that most Americans that have been here for a few years create this accent that is a little of everywhere and I always have to ask where they are from...which sounds silly once they tell me one of the states lol. Dr. Joann (our lee professor) is leaving late tomorrow night to go back home so we had a going away dinner for her tonight with a few of the school directors and teachers. They took us to one of those buildings with a revolving top floor that over looks the city, and it was absolutely amazing!! We went up to floor 85 and took pictures (all the ones at the very bottom). It is going to be strange when she leaves because we really will be on our own, she has played a huge role in getting us from point A to point B...this may be interesting! When we're not in the classroom, they have us two desk prepared where the rest of the teachers are, they don't use desk to plan in their classroom like we do. They have little cubicle offices and its where they all hang out, its literally like a show off the Office" lol. I put a picture up so you could get a feel of what we see half the day when we're not teaching. Christin and I just sit back and listen/watch everyone and giggle.I want to share a few "taboo" things in Thailand and just culture points I've learned in this last week, you may find some of them intersting.

1. Never show the bottom of your foot or point your toe at an elder or someone in authority over you (The feet are considered the lowest part of your body and its a sign of disrespect, so its best to NOT cross your legs!)

2. Instead of shaking hands o

r waving to someone, everyone "wia" (pronounced whys) to one another. Lowest respect does it first (students wia to us then we wia back).

3. Thai's do not like to be touched on the head, which is very tempting to do to little kids. Like the feet are considered the lowest, the head is considered the highest and it is disrespectful.

4. When Thai's o

ffer you food, you try everything and clean your plate t

o be respectful and show them that you appreciate and like the food (trust me...you eat enough to kill someone...even if it is rice!! They are very hospitable here).

There are many more but its been a long day and I literally when blank as I started typing that lol, I'll add more later. We have a kid named

(american pronunciation)=kiddyporn. It made me laugh. Tomorrow is Sports Day at the school, but it is not exactly Field Day like you may expect. No. These kids have been practicing cheers for it all week, and when I say cheers I mean similar to cheerleaders. They dress some of the high schoolers up, put makeup on them, and they cheer. The younger kids just do stomps and cheers. This culture has alot of "lady boys" so

they call them, and its where men dress as women and it is almost impossible to t

ell the difference sometimes. Sadly, this is very excepted and WANTED by many families! They encourage their son

s to one day become these "lady boys" by saying..."you are so sweet, you will make a great girl." About 40% of the culture is homosexual, and it sta

rts at very young ages. Girls also wish to be guys, and they are termed as "Toms." They are much easier to point out than many of the lady boys...I mean "lady boys" even have their own BATHROOM!!! Most

of the boys do not want to be "cheerleaders" but it is an old thai tradition and the school leaders have failed to see the culture change. I am not telling this out of my opinion, these are things Thai's here in Bangkok of shared with me about their culture. I can't notice these lady boy characteristics in my boys because they are so young and I like to not think about these precious little buddies in any other way, but on

e thing I can say is that they are mini Van Gohs!! This tiny, shy little guy in my class named Kattanik can draw and color better than any child I've ever seen. He colored a science workbook page about mountains, streams, etc....and he shaded and faded out the colors and it was just unbelievable. The kids here are going through a "Ben Ten" craze, which I had never hea

rd of. I believe its similar to Pokemon or something, but they draw these little alien, dinosaur creatures and it would blow your mind. I will try to take some pictures next week to post on here.