Football, Finals, and Language

Greetings From Mae Sa Luang!

Football season has started again. Yes, that right folks Legacy's football team is ready to hit the field again. We are hoping for at least one win this year. We are very excited. We have some pretty good players. Our cheering section could use some help though. There are only 4 of us girls, which doesn't give us much of an advantage. All of the boys are needed on the field being as we only have 11 with Nathan. No subs. :( We do have some former students who will be around and want to come play, which will be beneficial! I keep on telling them they should put me on the field. I could do some damage with the metal plate in my leg. I'm bionic woman, right? What do you think? Haha! Just kidding football is not on my list of sports that I'll be playing anytime soon. Mom, don't worry. I'm not completely crazy.

Here are a few photos from the opening ceremony that took place this past Sunday.

This is at the opening ceremonies for the church league tournament.

The purple guys are us. Legacy's colors are purple and gold.

Chillin' in the sun and watching the game.

Sporting our colors for support.

The students thought I should have a hat to keep the sun off my face.

Aren't we cute? :)

Erika is trying to find her Minnesotan roots and

I'm trying to find mine by wearing a sombrero

and sunglasses? I'm a Cali girl, can't you tell?

Everyone just chilling and eating snacks while watching

the game and their competition next week. We're hoping to win!

We have commenced finals' week here at Legacy Institute! I can hardly believe that the first semester will be over is just a few short days. All of the teachers are busy wrapping up classes, lectures, review sessions and administering finals. I know I said this last year, but creating the finals and inflicting the pain of taking an exam is quite different than being given the test. I'm not sure which side of the desk I prefer. However, seeing the fear in the eyes of my students makes me wish I was on the other side. Sometimes I think they think I'm going to try and trick them on the final. At least that's what I thought some of my professors would do. I have reiterated several times, "I am not trying to trick you. I am only asking questions we have covered in class. If you study this, this and this, you will be just fine." That doesn't seem to reassure them. They still look at me with big, brown eyes full of fear and uncertainty. Then I have to ask myself, "Is this because they are worried about their test? Or is it because they don't know what I'm saying in English?" Hmmm....

I can empathize with them in not understanding. (Mai Kaljai) We started our Thai class. We met for two class meetings and for various reasons, we've not had class again. Hopefully this week, we'll get started back up again. It's tough though! It's like learning 44 pictures for consonants of which I have to make mental nots of what kind of picture they look like in order to remember the sounds. This excludes the vowels. There are 21 of them and they make 32 sounds. All of this isn't really too bad considering English has how many sounds?!?! However, Thai is a tonal language, which means if you say the wrong tone, you could be saying something you really wish you hadn't and you turn ten shades of red when you realize it. Or you are speaking nonsense. I think I have them down now, but I had to listen to them a millions times. Maybe I have them down... maybe not. Haha! By attempting to learn Thai, I am able to understand my students much better.

Funny Story: One of my students came into the teachers' house to get something last night. I asked him what he needed. He said, "A electricbowl." I look at him with a puzzled look and asked him, "A what?" "A electricbowl." Hmmm... I look at Nathan. He and I are both confused. My student again says, "An electribowl." I figure out electric! Ahh electric! YES! (It's like a game.) "An electric what?" He says, "bull. You know and it does a little motion with his fingers." I didn't know... :( but then the lightbulb went on! (haha) "Oooohhhh a light bulb!" YAY! I win! Haha. He looked it up in his dictionary and it said electric bulb. He has added a new word to his vocabulary.

I hope you found it a little funny. Some of my stories are not as easy to tell over my blog... it doesn't have quite the same effect. :(

That's all for now. Hope things are going well wherever you are.

Lots of Love and Hugs,

Lainy J.