Spécial #6

I'm translating under deadline and listening to music. Not the most productive way to do it. I just heard the line "l'hiver était frette en calvaise" and missed home. It's on "Spécial #6" by Les Cowboys fringants. Every time I hear it I can't get over how good it is. "Le soleil s'est couché sur Repentigny..." it's so slurred and poignant and rocking.

In conclusion, I've just turned the music off. Back to work...

Fruits and Vegetables

Today's post is a video. You won't be able to see it on Facebook. Serves you right.

Day 4

Man, blogging every day is hard. Today, I...
...jumped in the pool. Twice.
...went to Chinese class, at a language school which isn't far from the high school where I teach.
...did three sit-ups. Just for fun.
...gave my students that vocabulary retest I was talking about. They did "just so-so".
...cleaned the heck out of the little kitchen in this apartment. More is needed. There are cockroaches.
...appreciated the sun and the sky in this tropical country.
...talked to Douglas in China.

The End

Test writing, teaching

Ok, some mundane news just to keep the blogging ball rolling. Tonight I'm writing a test for my students. They're in mathayom 6, which is their last year of high school. The test I'm writing is a pretty dry use-this-word-in-a-sentence vocabulary test, and it's a retest of one that most of them bombed just before Christmas. They do more or less okay at remembering the meanings of words, but if I ask them to make a sentence with it I consistently get nasty surprises like:
1) worthwhile: "Global warming is the worthwhile problem."

I get sad when my students don't know stuff. Next year I'm going to throw so much more mud at that wall...

Pool Pictures

This is day two of me blogging everyday. These are just some pictures I took a couple of hours ago down on the 4th floor, where the pool is. I'm taking baby steps with the blogging here. A pool picture or two today, maybe something else tomorrow. Goodnight, friends.

Blogging every day, Rain in Bangkok

I'm going to blog every day for a little while.
Today it rained heavily. In Bangkok. I'm still living in Bangkok, for those of you who haven't been following. I forgive you, since there hasn't been much to follow - here, anyway. I do (usually) reply to e-mails, so you can always keep tabs on me that way if you need to. It makes me feel loved too, so please don't hesitate to break out the old web-based e-mail client and send me some love.

But back to the rain. It rained heavily, which was wonderful. I opened all the windows and doors in the apartment and let the fresh and heavy and blessedly cool tropical air sweep through this little place. It's nice to remember that the air is, by definition, tropical air in Bangkok, even on the days it feels like dirty old hot city air. Today it felt like gloriously fresh tropical storm air. It's not the rainy season here in Bangkok now, so rain is pretty rare. I went out and walked in it with an umbrella, but I got all wet anyway.

The end. Please feel welcome to check back if you're interested. I really will blog every day for the next little while.

-Matthew