Eden

This is my beautiful neice,
Eden Marie Storer.
Daughter of Troy and La Rae Storer

He said, "welcome home."

So Monday the 8th we left Beijing, China and flew to Tokyo and then from Tokyo to Portland, Oregon. I think we left China around 8:30 AM and we landed in Portland about 8:45 AM. (Those numbers may be off by a couple hours, but nothing too significant.) So it was really crazy... we traveled backwards through time! cool! We had to go through customs, so that meant filling out a card, getting out luggage, passing a couple guards (who could have checked our bags, but didn't) and then we handed our cards to one last guard and when I handed it to him I was officially in America! As he reached to take the card, he said, "welcome home." I grinned from ear to ear. Home. I'm home. After 11 weeks of traveling in Thailand, Laos, and China, I was finally home. We had one more jump from there to Minneapolis, and then I said goodbye to Dr. Larson, Dr. Baker, Sarah, and Bekah, and Bethany and I went with Bethany's parents.

I spent the night there and then the next day after a relaxed start, Bethany and her parents took me to Grand Forks. I met up with Troy and spent the night there. The next day, (Wednesday) I worked with Troy and David, (Troy's father-in-law) putting some things (a highly specialized technical word) in a gym floor to support volleyball poles. Today (Thursday) I helped them again... this time building a wall and starting to put up a wall in a part of the school staircase. Then when we came home my parents and sister were home (yay!) Everyone is doing well, and I would like to give some more details, about my time in China, but the next few days I will be with my family, and I don't know how much time I will have for blogging or email. I will try get caught up with all of that (I haven't even tried yet) as soon as possible. Thank you my dear friends for your patience.

-Luke

Here I am on wednesday in front of a very large waterfall. It was quite amazing to think of how much water was traveling down the river every second. Wow!

Here is Nathan. That is a fisherman's net hanging from the tree. the bottow has little pieces of chain tied to it to make it sink in the water.(I also had four other students at the office who were not on this trip. Lo, a girl who helped clean the office, and who couldn't really speak English, but paid close attention and tried to best to begin learning. Sone and Toon, two women who attended class, and Tou, a man who didn't come to class very regularly, but was there for some of the time.)

Here are most of my students from the office. Starting on the left: Sith, Sounthone, Ter, and Nui is in the front. Nathan (pronounced Na-Tawn) is taking the picture. Notice the waterfall in the background.

Departure Imminent

Concerning the survey:

The final statistics for the “Is ‘happy as a clam’ a simile? Survey” are in. Out of the MANY who participated in this survey, at total of 75% stated that they thought “happy as a clam” was indeed a simile and 25% did not think it was a simile. Special thanks to Bekah, Micah, Dad, and Christy for their participation in this survey. So there you have it Christy, the majority of my audience agrees with me and says that it is a simile.

Responding to comments:

Heather: I can’t begin to imagine what is like to deal with constantly changing emotions. I have very grateful that under normal conditions I have very steady and reliable emotions. I think I would go insane if they changed more frequently. I have been taking pictures. I sure hope they all turn out. I have been a little nervous about that. I suppose we will see when I get back. If the pictures don’t turn out, I do have a couple CD’s of digital pictures that people have taken while I was here.

Christy: I do feel quite satisfied with my teaching here. That is what I have been feeling the most as I have been getting ready to leave today. Satisfaction that I made it, and I succeeded. I am ready now for the final part of my summer internship.

Official blog entry:

My evening at the Korean Barbeque was quite fun, and I ended up enjoying the food because first of all I decided not to use any of the sauce, (so this time everything tasted more interesting) and second, because they had fried noodles that I was able to fill up on. During the meal we were talking a little about things I should have seen before I left, and then someone said, “Tomorrow, would you like to go tomorrow morning?” I shrugged my shoulders and said, “sure.” So at the last minute, we decided to take the office staff and go on a road trip to a couple provinces where we would see some more of Laos and some beautiful waterfalls. I could spend a lot of time telling you all about it, but I need to use that time to prepare for my departure today. I will just tell you that we left at 7:00 AM and returned at 9:30 PM and I was quite glad I went, and I was also quite tired.

Today I leave Laos around 2:00ish and then go across the river to Mukdahan, Thailand. I will get on a bus at about 7:00 PM and ride through the night and arrive in Bangkok at 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning. If things go according to plan, I will meet Bethany there, and we will go together to the airport, if we don’t see each other by 7:00 AM we will go to the airport separately and then meet at the gate. At 10:30 AM we depart from Bangkok, and at 4:10 PM we arrive in Beijing, China. At 8:00 PM we will depart from Beijing and fly to Yinchuan. That is where my information ends. I don’t know much more than that. We will teach English teachers in the middle of China, and then return to America—arriving in Minneapolis at 5:27 PM on August 8th.

For this next part of my summer I will not have internet access, so my email will pile up, and I will not be updating my blog. You may want to begin checking my blog for updates after Aug 8th, but I don’t know exactly how much I will write at that time, or if I will write anything the first couple of days back home.

I wish you all well.

-Luke

It Is Finished

Title of Blog Explained: Today was my last day of teaching in Laos.

Responding to comments:

Heather: I enjoyed your “blabbing” a great deal. Thanks for leaving your comments. It has been frustrating, but until yesterday, I didn’t realize the extent of the frustration and now it doesn’t matter any more. (except to learn from this for future reference.)

Christy: Yes, I have been amazed at all the crazy things I have done this trip. I have really experienced Laos a way most who come for a short time will never see. I think part of the reason I have learned so much is that I have been here alone. It has really “stretched” me.

Official blog entry:

Eighty-Eight hours of teaching! I have taught for eighty-eight hours since I returned to Laos. This is not counting the time I have spent explaining things outside of class, nor does it include my times with “the girls” (a good portion of which was spent explaining things and correcting pronunciation and grammar—unofficial teaching but teaching none the less)

I taught my class at the school in a classroom today, (but not the normal one—we didn’t have the key for that room today either) and I had four students. After class one of my students came and told me that she also works at the tourism office. She said she needs to be able to speak clearly when she answers foreigners’ questions. I told her that tomorrow I will meet her at the tourism office at two. I do not know how I will be able to help, but I figure if I go, I might be able to get more information and be able to understand what she needs to do. If tomorrow I am just as lost as I was today, I will apologize and say that I don’t know how to help her. It’s just as simple as that.

In the office, our class had normal attendance once again, and went well. In both classes I tired something new. I had them make up a story about how a beggar became a billionaire. It was quite a challenge for them, but I think they enjoyed it. Both classes told me that they thought I was a very good teacher. One student said that I am very clear in my explanations, and I use many different ways to help them understand how to pronounce a word or what it means. Another person said that he is better at pronunciation and reading now. He also said that he is better at using articles (people here like to leave off “a” and “the” example: “I work at Forestry Department.”) One student asked if I had training in psychology because I know how to teach like a professional teacher who has had psychology classes, and all of the students said that I should come back next year and teach for a longer period of time. I told my students that I was very glad they I had taught in Laos, and that I had learned a lot from teaching them. They had been very good students.

What are my feelings right now? Well feelings are very fickle they like to change a lot. If you had asked me on Friday how I felt about teaching, I would have said I have enjoyed it, and I would like to maybe come back and do it again. Today I don’t really feel like that at all. I am VERY glad I am done, and I can hardly wait to leave on Thursday afternoon. I won’t be too surprised if my feelings change their mind again as I float away from Savannakhet. (Luke rolls his eyes at the irrationality of emotions) By that time, I will probably wish that I could stay a lot longer.

Tonight I will be eating a farewell meal with all of my students from the office at the Korean Barbeque. (I think I might have accidentally given these people the idea that the Korean Barbeque is my favorite place to eat… oh well. It will be my last time there, and I think I am going to go home and eat some bread and cheese before we meet here at six.)

-Luke

Low Attendance

Responding to comments:

Erin: Yes, I am always hanging around with “the girls” over here. The reason for that is simple. Ter, the woman who cooks for me, has a group of friends who speak English. It is difficult to spend time with guys when you don’t know any around your age, and the ones you have met can barely speak English. I will make sure to say “Hi” to Bethany from you.

Bekah: Looking forward to seeing you. Take care.

Official blog entry:

The wedding party was like an American wedding reception with a few differences. Some of these differences may be due to the fact that this was not a typical wedding party. This wedding party had about 1000 people, and the bride was 47 and the groom was 51. This was the bride’s first marriage and the groom’s second. Because the wedding was so large, half of the crowd was seated at tables outside the hotel and the other half were inside. (We were outside.)

They made sure those outside could see what was going on by having a video screen showing the couple and the live band, and to make sure that not a single guest would miss a single detail of the evening, they placed several large speakers outside and turned the volume up just loud enough to
1) Distort all sound coming out of the speakers
2) Make it necessary to shout across the table to be heard
3) Cause permanent hearing damage to all present.
(Actually it wasn’t THAT loud, but it WAS just about as loud as a live rock concert—except the sound was distorted from having the sound turned up too loud for the speakers—not because the guitars had special effect peddles to distort the sound.)

The food was good, and displayed in a way that looked fancy and appealing. It was more food than I have ever seen at a wedding reception, and all of it was quite good. We had noodles, a chicken soup (Chinese I think, because it reminded me of soups available at Chinese restaurants), a whole fish, duck, a couple different dishes that were meat mixed with herbs and a sauces (one dish was chicken the other beef) a plate of king prawn, a plate of vegetables (which included some slices of raw tomato) and a tray of fruit.

After the meal some people danced (all of the guests were invited to join the dancing, but only a small fraction of the 1000 did). Americans would probably think the dancing was pretty hokey. The first type of dance was walking slowly to the music with your partner (not touching) while your elbows were next to your body and your hands extended in front of you. AS you walked, you slowly turned your hands like a Thai dancer (or lack of a better comparison). The other dance I saw was like a slow line dance with people standing in a square (again, no touching).

I learned that night that the wedding ceremony is held at home with relatives in the morning. This wedding party was the time for all the friends to see and congratulate the newly wed couple.

It was a little interesting this morning, at the school; I had only two students and no classroom. (This was because of a mushroom growing training that was happening at the same time) some of the teachers went to that (including the one with the key). So the three of us had class outside, and halfway through another student came and five minutes before class ended a fourth came.

At the office we had a similar situation because of the mushroom training. I had two students, and so we started 15 min. late, and then another couple students were there when we started at 10:15, and then a fifth student showed up at 11:00 for the second hour of class.

Not knowing when and if students will come to class has been a common thing that has happened during my teaching experience in Laos. It has happened because each of my students has different jobs and responsibilities that need to be fulfilled. Sometimes they have to go out to the villages for five days and work with the farmers, other times there is something like this mushroom training. The teachers at the school have classes that they have to attend in other towns, and a couple people have been sick. It has been very understandable why this has happened, but now having dealt with it for 21 days of teaching and having only one day of teaching left, I have decided that it bothers me.

When my students are late or absent, I feel like they do not think the class is important. Of course this is not true, but that is how I feel. It has disrupts my teaching. It is difficult to decide what to teach or how to teach it when you do not know if you will have eight or two students. Sometimes I came to class and had to improvise class because my plans didn’t exactly work with the number of students. It has required flexibility on my part. Also when students are not in class for a week, the miss a whole lot, and everyone knows what is going on except that one person. The same problem exists when someone is late. Do you sum of everything that you taught in the last 15 min. or do you ignore that they were gone and just keep teaching. (I have tried to give the basic information about what we are doing when it has happened to me). It is difficult to build from one day to the next when you don’t know how many people will be in class today, or who they will be, or if they will be there tomorrow. I am not angry (if this section sounds angry to you) I am just observing what has happened and learning that I dislike it. My students all have very good reasons for being late or absent, but that doesn’t make it any less disruptive or frustrating. I now have a new appreciation for TBC’s attendance policy. I can guess how frustrating it is for a professor whose students have inconsistent attendance.

-Luke

Postscript: If you want to learn a little more about Star Wars and its director, George Lucas, here is a really intereting article. http://www.adherents.com/people/pl/George_Lucas.html It is kind of long, and gets more into conflicts Lucas had with other people concerning copyright laws after about the eighth page, but the rest is really good. I would recommend reading though the the quote "That corner of the world falls quiet. An ancient mystery is about to be re-enacted. The audience is listening. " and maybe stop after that. If you want to read about the selfishness of film-makers read the whole ariticle. (about 15 pages) It's a look into human nature.

My Final Weekend

Responding to comments:

Bekah: looking forward to seeing you… I am glad you enjoyed the stories. I have a lot of fun writing them. Yes, I have thought a little about writing children’s stories… that is essentially what I am doing already, these stories are children’s stories… though usually not read by children. I suppose you are specifically referring to getting them published… I have thought about that too. I don’t know yet if there will ever be a chance for that, but I am keeping copies of all of them, and we will see what happens in the future.

Hopacopim: I understood exactly what were saying with the huge game of Charades/Taboo. I especially like the use of Taboo. There are a bunch of words I can’t use either… but for me, it is not because I don’t know them, but because my audience doesn’t know them.

Official blog entry:

Really there is nothing too new to write about. Saturday I did play badminton (and had quite a lot of fun) and that evening I ate supper with the girls.

Today is Sunday, so I relaxed, and just enjoyed my day of rest. I talked to my favorite father on messenger.(Yes, he is my only father, but that doesn’t make him any less my favorite.) Tonight I go to the wedding party.

-Luke

Grilled Rice in a Leaf

Responding to comments:

(sigh) I am going to need a couple more people to respond to my little survey in order to make this survey a survey… so I am going to extend this survey until Monday or Tuesday and see if more people respond to my poll. You don’t need to leave a long explanation, you can just write, “Yes, Simile” or “Not Simile” in a comment. When you leave the comment for the survey, try to remember to leave it on the entry “Survey Concerning Similes” thank you.

George: I am still conducting the survey, as you have noted by now. We will see what else people have to say.

Micah: glad you made it all the way through. I will be curious to see how long this thing is at the end of the summer. You know, copy it into a word document and see how many pages it takes up. I have written a small book, and when you get behind, that is a lot of reading to do.

Thanks for your comments concerning similes. I agree with you.

Official blog entry:

On the way over here I passed the little… what do you call it… a restaurant? not really. It’s a little building without walls made with a table and some chairs for eating at and another little area where food is prepared. It is directly next door to the office. So I walk past it every day. As I walked past it, today two of my students from the office were sitting there. I said hello, and they invited me over to try some of what they were eating. It was a Lao desert. Sticky rice with coconut milk wrapped into some leaves, and then grilled over some coals. You take off the leaves, and you eat the rice (when you unwrap the rice it is all stuck together and is dry enough for you to hold in your hands and eat it like a soft candy bar without getting your hands all messy). It was quite good, but nothing absolutely spectacular either.

Today is Saturday, and I have just been enjoying my day off, relaxing, listening to music as I do little odds and ends in my room. At 5:30 I will join “the girls” for badminton, and on Sunday, they invited me to come with them to some sort of wedding party. From what I understand this is the party after the wedding. We will go, eat food, and congratulate the newly weds. It should be an interesting experience.

This afternoon I had a fun and interesting experience, the man who takes care of Jay’s house came and knocked on my door and when I answered it he said, “speak English” I didn’t really understand what he meant at first, then I realized he wanted to practice speaking English. He can’t make sentences, but he knows a few words or short phrases in English.
He first started with numbers—holding up his fingers, “one, two, four.”
“three” I corrected
“tree”
“th-ree”
He contorted his face, “thuree”
we continued, “four, fi.”
“FiVe” I said emphasizing the “v”
“Fi-Va”
“no just five”
“fiva, fiva, fi, fiva” he said, either trying to stop saying the “a” at the end, or not noticing the difference between what I said and what he said. I don’t’ know which one it was.
”close”
We continued with numbers, and tried to communicate some other things. It was like playing a game of charades.
Drink, water, eat, rain, America, twenty-one, forty-eight, etc.
I didn’t look at my watch when he came in, so I have no certain idea of how long we sat there working on words, but I would guess it was somewhere between forty minutes and an hour. It was kind of fun, and a different style than teaching a class, but I used some of the same techniques, such as writing the word and underlining the part he didn’t pronounce correctly. After a while we ran out of things to say, so he got up and left.

Have a nice weekend.

-Luke

Survey Concerning Similes

Responding to comments:

George: I am a bit confused, are you saying that the two sentences I asked about where not similes, or were you saying that my statement "as happy as a clam" is not a simile, or were you saying all of the above were not similes.

If you are commenting about the two sentences in "the official blog entry" I agree, but if you were talking about my title of my blog. I say you are very wrong indeed. I will attempt to take a survey to see if the rest of my blog-reading world agrees with me.

Attention all blog readers! I would like to know if you think "as happy as a clam" is a simile or not. Please take the time to leave a comment with the words "Yes, Simile" or "Not Simile" expressing your opinion. After I collect the results, I will post the information in my next blog entry for all to see. Remember, the more people vote, the more accurate this survey will be. Thank you one and all for your time.

Official blog entry:

So today is my last Friday in Savannakhet, Laos. I teach on Monday and Tuesday, and then I leave Laos on Thursday afternoon. When I get to Mukdahan, (on the other side of the river) I will board a bus going to Bangkok. I will travel overnight and arrive early in the morning (I assume about 6:00 AM) I think I will be meeting Bethany at the bus station and then we will go to the airport together, get on the plane, and fly to China. Then it is three weeks teaching there and a flight home on Aug. 8th.

Tonight for supper I ate rice and a fried egg and some dried meat (aka jerky) a very good meal. I just thought I might mention that Ter fried the dried meat before serving it to me. Have you ever thought of frying up jerky. It was very good.

THE ROAD
A short story by Luke Storer
Dedicated to Kayla Storer

Once upon a time there was a road. This road was located in a kingdom not so far away, but still too far to go by tuk tuk or even by bus. It was not a nice paved road, but a half-eroded (okay actually three quarters would be more accurate) road that was very uneven and full of potholes. Every day it rained and the water formed rivers that flowed down the road and lakes inside the large potholes. All the water added to the road's problem. Also, every day a large, heavy truck (weighing at least the weight of three medium-sized elephants) would drive down the road and this made the road fall apart even more.

Fortunately, little magic gnomes would come and fill in all the holes with gravel while no one was looking. Somehow they managed to do this in broad daylight instead of waiting for night. The way they decided when to put gravel on the road was based on a complicated equation based on the square root of PI times the quadratic equation of the month of January. (It was all very complicated and several buildings full of math-gnomes worked for hours on end figuring out a calendar for when the road-gnomes were supposed to work next… but that is not part of this story) The gravel made the road look nice, but was not very helpful for the poor common peasants who rode motorbikes around the kingdom. The gravel was temporarily helpful for stable vehicles on four wheels, but for two wheeled motorbikes, all the gravel did was make it more dangerous to drive. Their wheels would catch in the loose gravel and they would nearly be thrown onto the ground. Most often, despite the dangerous conditions there were no accidents, but every once in a while someone would get hurt.

After the old king died, his cousin, (twice removed on his mother's side and five times removed on his father's side) was made king because several decades ago when they were both in elementary school the king (at that time prince) pinky swore that if his cousin could climb to the top of the castle and tie a red ribbon to the weather vane on the highest point, he would make a decree that his cousin would become king after him. His cousin succeeded, and to this day there is a red ribbon on top of the castle because no one has been brave enough to go and remove it.

This cousin, became a very wise and kind king. He used his wealth and power to give all of his peasants flying carpets for trasportation. As a result, they no longer used their motorbikes and didn't need to worry about loose gravel, potholes, erosion, or even being sept away in the river when it rained. Everyone was happy and lived long happy lives because they didn't receive horrible injuries from the dangerous road.

~The End~

As Happy as a Clam

Title explanation: a simile describing how I am doing.

Responding to comments:

Christy: Thanks for the further information on the space capable airplane. and the shortcut for putting an umlaut over a letter. ö

Ringo: I am currently sitting here trying to think of an appropriate comment to give you a hard time about shamelessly taking over my blog to “wave” at Christy. (smile) I suppose I could give you a warning… (the following quote is to be read with a deep authoritative voice) “Ringo, that is quite enough from you… consider this your first warning… if these actions continue I will be forced to…” oh great now I have to think of a threat… hmm… “I will be forced to use a quote from ‘A Hard Days Night’ (is that the name of the Beatles movie?… not “Help”) that is actually directed at me but will be directed toward you. If you do not cease these actions you will find out what I am talking about. (beacuse this whole message is probably really silly and confusing right now)

Official blog entry:

I was teaching one of my class at the school about similes and metaphors. One of my students made a couple sentences that I don’t think contain similes.

John is as tall as his father.

The dog is as friendly as she.

Do those count as similes? I tried to look for an answer online, but didn’t really find what I was looking for. Then yesterday afternoon I had the opportunity to speak with my father on Yahoo Messenger (I love you Dad!) and we came to the conclusion that they were not similes based on the dictionary’s definition: “a figure of speech that compares on thing to another of a different kind.” What do you think?

The class at the office was a lot of fun Yesterday On Tuesday, my students mentioned something called “Deep Impact” they tried to explain, but I didn’t really understand what it was, so I went online and read the news and an article on How Stuff Works (http://science.howstuffworks.com/deep-impact.htm) and then today we talked a little about it. Conversation flowed, and we were able to talk about the origin of the universe, evolution, cloning, and abortion and contraception. I don’t think these people have been challenged to think about these sort of things before (to question why they believe what they believe). I helped them see a little bit of both sides of the arguments. I love explaining things, so it was a lot of fun. I would like to show special appreciation to Mr. Schlecht who has taught me so much about everything. (Especially science) Because of Mr. Schlecht’s biology class, I was able to explain things to my students, answer questions, and give information for both sides of each issue.

The last two nights I went to the park to watch the sun set again. (or should it be sunset? I was watching the process of it setting, not just the moment it set… the while thing… well you get the idea either way). Tuesday I was by myself, and then last night. “the girls” were there. Afterward, we went and ate Korean Barbeque (this is now the third time I have had it, but it was at a different restaurant this time.) This restaurant had little building things built around the yard—instead of just a room with tables. The buildings were completely open (they didn’t have any walls) and you took off your shoes before you stepped upward onto the platform. There was a short table with little stools and a dim light hanging from the ceiling. It was fun eating at a short table, only my legs are a little longer than some people, and so they got tired of being bent after about an hour.

I think I have decided that I need to eat carbohydrates to feel full. The Korean Barbeque is good, but it is only vegetables, meat, and glass noodles. I have to eat a lot of this kind of food before I feel full, and I get tired of the taste of the food a long time before that happens. (There is this sauce that you dip everything in, and so everything ends up having that same flavor). The first time I ate at a Korean Barbeque I was able to fill up on fried rice, (a complex carbohydrate) and eat the meat and vegetables just to eat them… not to fill my empty stomach. So I ate until I was sufficiently tired of the food, and then when I got back to the house I ate some bread and cheese to supplement my supper.

-Luke

Comma and Decimal Confusion

Responding to comments:

Dad: That is really interesting about the Badminton shaped shuttlecraft. I don’t have time to read about it now, but I will take a look later.

Erin: Nice to hear from you. I am having a great time, but look forward to coming back home to America about Aug. 8th.

Official blog entry:

Yesterday I went to the local park at 6:00 PM. It is a very nice clean park, and it is full of people at that time. Many of them are doing aerobics to the music blaring out of speakers nearby, and others are jogging, or just walking around the park. Some people stand by the river to talk with their friends and others kick around a football (aka soccer) with their children.

I went to get some pictures of a sunset on the Mekong. Unfortunately the clouds were not cooperating, so I think I will try again tonight. I did stay and enjoy the park though, before I left, I saw my favorite “star” Earendil (did I spell that correctly Christy) a beautiful silver pinprick of light shining out in the evening sky before any of the other stars come out.

I have found that I have used my spelling skills a whole lot this summer. It is a good thing they improved from when I was in elementary and high school, or I would be in trouble. (I used to spell atrociously) When talking with people, they will sometimes ask me to spell a word that they don’t recognize, and in class, I often have to write words on the board for them to see. I have been pleasantly surprised at how well I am doing with this spelling thing. There are occasions when I don’t know how to spell a word, but I have a dictionary right in front of me in class, and I can check that pretty quickly. (sometimes, I even find that I DID spell it correctly, and I don’t have to make any changes)

An interesting thing I learned the other day is that the commas and periods used in numbers mean different things here. I had thought that numbers were exactly the same everywhere in the world, but that is not true.

In America, we would write 1,000 days and 3.14 = PI but here they would be confused by that because they would write 1.000 days and 3,14 = PI. Isn’t that funny? This difference has caused some confusion a number of times in class.

-Luke

Postscript: http://www.webmath.com/k8metric.html This is a really useful web page for calculating conversions of metric and US systems of measurment.

Badminton

Responding to comments:

Heather: Thanks for your encouraging words

Official blog entry:

Last night I played badminton with “the girls” and one of their brothers. (“Guy” – probably not spelt that way) I had a very enjoyable time. Out of the four games five games that we played, Ad and I won three and lost one (we didn’t play in the last game at all.) I think I like playing badminton. Either I am pretty good at it, or the people I am playing with are not very good. Either way, I feel pretty good about playing it.

Afterwards, we had supper and talked for a while. One of the girls was asking me all sorts of words for things: dimples, mustache, goatee, sideburns, eyelashes, ghost, scared, scary. It was fun. (like what I do in class, but less structured.)

Sometimes spending time with these girls can be kind of exhausting since I don't always know what is going on, and it can be hard work to communicate. Sometimes I would rather just stay at home, but last night I had an excellent time.

-Luke

Luke's Journal: Volume II

Responding to comments:

Christy: Yes, the Van der Waals thing was pretty cool. I was going to write something about suction cupped feet in the story, and I decided to read about the animal to make sure I was writing something accurate, and I found out about the force. I really want some of that tape. I really would like to climb on walls.

Mrs. K: Thanks for reading the blog. I am happy to hear that it has been fascinating. I will be teaching on Monday the Fourth of July, because unfortunately (for some strange reason) they don’t celebrate it here in Laos… oh well (laugh)

Heather: glad you liked the story. I love writing those things!

Official blog entry:

I have now begun the second volume of my summer journal. At the beginning of the summer, I purchased a small notebook to write about everything that happens. While I was in Thailand it became apparent that that notebook would not be enough (at that time I had already filled half of it) While we were in Hua Hin, (I think that is how you spell it… I wrote about this town earlier in my blog. We went there for part of a day, and I think I went to an internet café.) My cousin, Sky, and my Aunt, Milka bought me another notebook for when I filled up the first one. Well that day has come. (actually on it happened on the evening of July First) I wonder if it will last me the rest of the summer. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Saturday I traveled with Ter and five other girls to Ter’s hometown. I have found that I often really have no idea what is going on when I spend time with them. This may be because at the very most, they only speak English 50% of the time. We left at about 9:00 AM. I drove the Prado and we headed east of Savannakhet. After we left the main road, the road because a very bumpy dirt road, and we had to stop several times for directions. (this was greatly confusing to me for a while… didn’t Ter know where her hometown was?) We had to stop and trun around a couple of times because we passed wherever we were going, and we were trying to find our way. I enjoyed seeing the beautiful landscape of Laos, and I got to listen to a CD of my favorite songs as we drove in the comfortable air conditioned car so I didn’t really mind. The girls also seemed to be enjoying themselves chatter to each other in Lao and laughing quite often. After I while, I stopped trying to figure out if we were returning the way we came or taking a new road or which way was north, and I lelt the girls just give me directions. At one point, the road stopped having fields on both sides, instead it was a rather narrow road cut out between trees. At the next turn we came to a path that was like a tunnel cut into the jungle. It was just big enough for the Toyota to drive inside. It looked like something from a movie. It was pretty cool. Before we traveled 200 ft. onto this path everyone figured that this probably was not the right way. It took a while, but I skillfully maneuvered the Toyota around at a wider point were the path split into two parts. We decided to stop and take some pictures here. Speaking of maneuvering the Toyota, I think I am getting pretty good at driving stick-shift now. After some more back-tracking and driving around we got to a part of the road that had huge puddles, that looked like miniature lakes. We decided that it might be too deep for the Toyota, so we decided to turn around and just go to Ter’s house. (somewhere in the conversations I found that we had been trying to get to a lake that Ter hadn’t been to for 10 years… and that is why we had been getting lost.) We arrived at Ter’s parent’s house about noon. This town was like Savannakhet only a little less developed. The houses here were bigger than some of the raised huts we passed along the way, but they were raised on poles like those had been. Ter’s house was a nice big house, and we spent most of the day downstairs in the open area below it, but before we left we got to see the upstairs. The upstairs was very clean and had a lto of area. It had a few rugs and a couple pieces of furniture on one wall a few pictures on the opposite wall, but the rest of the house was pretty much open and empty. The walls, ceiling and floor were all beautiful wood. There were also a few bedrooms upstairs, and those were similar. (empty except for a few essential pieces of furniture.) I liked the house a lot. It felt like it was the loft of a barn that had been turned into a house. Or maybe a giant tree house. (like from The Swiss Family Robinson) The majority of the days was spent just “hanging out” an American phrase that explained to the girls. In the afternoon we went to a lake that seemed to be a sort of Animal Preserve or something. we fed some turtles from a dock, and we got to see them pretty well. They had pointed snouts, and some were about the size of a toaster while others were large enough so that their shell was bigger than a kitchen sink. At the end of the dock was a little building that was some sort of shrine or something the girls stopped and shook a little jar with some sticks in it, and then took apiece of paper and stuck it in a box. After supper we returned to Savannakhet and got there about 8:30 PM. I was quite glad that we had chosen not to spend the night. I was happy to be alone and glad to be able to enjoy my Sunday of rest. Tonight I will play badminton with them, and probably have supper with them afterwards, but I have had all of my morning and afternoon to myself.

Exciting news, I got info about my trip to China, and I have a list of the names of everyone I will be working with as well as a short description of who each person is. With this list, I will be able to begin to get to know each person and think of them before I ever meet them at the Airport. The team is about 21 people, and they will all arrive in Beijing at different times July 14th and 15th The cool part is that Bethany and I will be the last people to arrive, and everyone on the team will be at the Airport to welcome us.

-Luke

Randy: The Gecko Who Loathed His Name

A short story, by Luke Storer. Dedicated to Kayla Storer.

Once upon a time, in a kingdom far away there lived a gecko by the name of Randy. Randy would have been a happy little gecko—eating bugs all day long crawling around on walls, hanging out with his friends, but there was a problem. The problem was his name. Randy loathed his name. All the other geckos and normal names like Gnam, Nuixay, Floon, and Huantone, but not Randy. At school all the other geckos made fun of Randy and teased him because it.

One day Randy found genie bottle in a pile of stuff at someone’s house. He tried to rub it, but his little hands stuck to the side of bottle instead of rubbing it. (due to what is called the Van der Waals force) Randy quickly darted around the room looking for a piece of cloth. He then held the cloth in his hand and rubbed the genie bottle. out of the bottle came a big powerful genie. He was quite grateful for being let out of the bottle (he had been in there for approximately 5,672,807 days, 13 hours, and 2.395 minutes—not that anyone was keeping track) to the thank Randy he asked said he would give Randy three wishes.
Randy immediately knew what to ask. “I would like you to change my name.”
“Change your name?!,” the genie asked in disbelief. “Why would you want to do that? I think the name, ‘Randy’ is totally wicked.”
“Really?” asked Randy.
“I sure do,” said the genie.
From that day Randy the gecko liked his name, and he and his new friend the genie became best friends.

~The End~

If you would like to read about Van der Waals force, you visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_der_Waals_force

If you would like to read about an invention using this force, check out this web page http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn3785 I wonder where I could get some of this stuff. It sounds like it is at least as good as duct tape.

Responding to Comments:

Christy: glad you are enjoying the descriptions

Heather: great idea… I think I will ask Mr. Schelcht (but I will probably wait until school starts so that I can ask him in person. Thanks for leaving a comment on my blog… I do feel very loved.
-Luke

Rainy Season

Responding to comments:

Mom: I love you, thanks for commenting.

Christy: Thanks for sharing your opinion on the Peanut butter and tomato Sandwiches. You are wrong, but I don’t mind. (smile and laugh)

Official blog entry:

First of all, I would like to wish my Father a very Happy Birthday. I love you Dad!

The other day in the office, we talked about people who have influenced your life, and each person got tell about one or two people who really changed their lives. One person named a former boss who taught him a lot of things that have helped him, another person said his parents, and then one of the people said Fida (the organization that they work for here with Jay and Milka) After that idea was given, a couple others agreed. (I thought that was kind of cool) When it was time for me to share, I got to brag about my mom and dad for a little while, and I told about John Senechal who ran the Youth Center in Cando where I hung out all the time.

It’s rainy season. Up to this point, it has mostly rained for short periods of time every day, but most of the day has been filled with lots of heat and humidity. The last three days it has really rained a LOT. The last three mornings I have woken up to find it is raining. I have to drive the Toyota to the school because I do not feel like I am talented enough to drive the motorbike and hold an umbrella at the same time (though many people here do). Each day it has rained all morning and usually stopped around noon. Last night, I was up until 11:30 reading, and I heard it start to rain. to the best of my knowledge, it rained from then until 11:30 this morning without stopping. The raining fluctuates between a gentle rain to a strong downpour back to gentle raining. (that makes me wonder, “what makes it rain hard sometimes and not other times?” I doubt they have the answer on How Stuff Works and if they do, I don’t know where I would look.

My class at the school is down to have I have decided to call in my journal, “the faithful five” five students at the school who have come almost every single day. (the other ones sometimes come and sometimes don’t) One of my students said that in the city people are lazy on rainy days like this and they don’t do anything, but out on the farms they go out to work in the field when it rains.

I just finished teaching today, and we all had a lot of fun. I began with some sentences that had some errors in them, and I asked them to help me fix them. They would offer some ideas, and I would get two or three ideas of what would work, and then I would ask them which one they thought was correct. I tried my best not to grin too much at some of their sentences, and it was all very fun. Sometimes two of them would be correct, other times just one of them, and sometimes none of them. When I finished letting them think about the sentences I would go through and show them how to correct each sentence.

Then we got off of that and someone asked how to ask if someone is going to come back to visit you. I gave them all opportunities to answer and I wrote those answers on the board. Then I asked them if they thought the answers were correct. Together we went through and corrected the sentences.

When I thought they had the idea down, I asked them to ask each other if they were going to come back to visit and when.

We concluded class by using the same format of writing things on the board and correcting sentences asking a person to join them for supper. (a common question around here… if someone is eating lunch at the office and I come to use the computer they ask me to eat with them… so I decided to help them ask that question correctly.

Oh, and when we were making corrections, two times students remembered something I said and used it to find the correct answer. (One from something I said yesterday, and the other from the very first time I corrected her paper.) That felt real good. (huge smile)

-Luke

Marker Mangos

Mom: I love you Mom! glad you are enjoying the descriptions.

Christy: Thanks for all your thoughts on dueling. Actually, I think Albert was at fault, although it was a bit confusing. He was at fault because he don’t think he actually challenged the Count. He went to talk to the Count at the Opera and was very disrespectful, and was going to strike the Count but was stopped and the Count took it as enough to demand a duel. Anyhow either way Albert apologized the proper way and it turned out to work fairly well.
Interesting that you tried something like the Mango’s and sticky rice.

Elise: You Rock! One Month?! I have no idea how much that is, but I know it’s a huge amount—especially for one sitting. I think you do receive an award or something. Just a min…

I, Luke Storer, hereby present Elise Glanzer with the official:

“I just read a month's worth of your blog in one sitting and I am still alive Award.”

Would everyone please give Elise a hand.

Thanks for calling to tell Hanna about the fact that I quoted her. I was hoping she would hear about it somehow. The musical entertainment thing you did sounds really cool. What kind of musical entertainment did you do? Email about it at: luke.storer@gmail.com

Bekah: Thanks for reading everything. It’s quite a lot of reading to do. I have enjoyed writing, and I am glad you enjoy reading it. I’m looking forward to China. (that is coming up VERY quickly) And I am so glad you were able to raise all the support for your trip! That is excellent! I have heard from Bethany Moos (usually about at least once a week we email each other or see each other online) She is doing very well were she is at too.

Dad: I love you! Glad your enjoying everything.

Everyone: I am a little surprised. No one made any comment about peanut butter and tomato sandwiches. I guess it must not sound so strange after all. Or perhaps you all figured I was odd enough that there really was no reason to say anything about it… after all it is Luke. Anyhow I found that a bit amusing.

Official blog entry:

I guess I haven’t told you much about how I am doing recently, and that is mostly because there is nothing to tell. I have been doing very well—rarely feeling lonely. The last time I was bothered by an “attack” of loneliness was on Sunday, and the feelings were not overwhelmingly strong this time so I was able to distract my mind with other things before a very long. The days are going by rather quickly, and before long my teaching experience in Laos will be over. I have mixed feelings about that. It’s exciting that I will able to go experience a new culture, and I am very excited to be with people I know, but it’s really too bad I couldn’t work with these students for a longer period of time. My students keep saying that they need me to stay for a whole year. I agree that would be good, but I also am REALLY looking forward to going home.

I had some fun this afternoon with my teaching. I ended up writing a sentence asking a person for another piece of fruit. Then I took my container of markers and said, “Let’s pretend this is a plate of Mangos. Ask me for a piece of fruit.” One person said, “Can I have another piece of fruit?” I told her no because she can’t have another until she has had one. “You need to say, ‘Can I have a piece of fruit’ first, and then you can say ‘can I have another piece of fruit?’” It was a lot of fun as we practiced asking for more fruit and passed the markers around. It was good practical practice too. Something they will actually use.

The other day we were talking about America and one of my students asked why it is when America goes to help a country there is always a war. Good question. They were probably thinking mostly about Vietnam and Iraq. I think I mentioned it earlier in an earlier entry that Laos had tons (literally tons: about 1 ton per person) of bombs dropped on it during the Vietnam War. Naturally my students don’t like war at all. I thought it would make for an interesting discussion to ask what they think of America’s war in Iraq, but I wanted to wait to find a couple articles they could read defending both sides first. I looked on the internet, but I haven’t found anything that will really work. I need something short and not too complicated, but with enough information to explain the issues. (not an easy request) So if anyone has ideas, where I could find something, let me know.

-Luke

Postscript: Have you ever bruised the bottom of your foot? It doesn’t feel too good. (Luke makes a face of disgust)

Sticky Rice and Mango

Responding to Comments:

Jay: I have a hard time believing that I enjoyed something with calf dung in it! That is crazy. Thank you for waiting to tell me until now. I am not certain how I would have reacted at the time.

Christy: Yes it is quite fun to discover things about English. It has always been automatic, and now I am figuring out why I say it that way. That’s interesting that you might have had dragon fruit juice.

Ringo: I’m glad you enjoy grammer.

Heather: I am quite glad you were able to pass my test with flying colors. Sorry that I disturbed you with my descriptions of food. I will try not to write anything else that is too disgusting, and if I do I will let you know in advance so that you can skip that paragraph. As to the dragon fruit, It is an interesting plant. Jay emailed me and told me he has one in his yard, so I will probably take a picture of it.

Isaac: Yes, my blog is quite lengthy. Maybe I will print it off when I get home and then glue the pages so that I can have it in book form—just like a real novel. Then again, maybe not… It takes up a lot less space on the computer. I don’t have your email address, could you send it too me? luke.storer@gmail.com I will answer your question that way. Good to hear from you. Is Craig down there? Tell him hello from me if he is, and tell him to email me about how his summer is going if he has time.

Dad: Glad you are enjoying the updates on teaching.

Official blog entry:

Have you ever wondered about duels? I know that I have seen them in movies and read all sorts of stories with them in books, but I have never really understood them. It’s always been a bit confusing to me. Then the other night I came across an article on www.howstuffworks.com all about them. If you are interested, take a look. I thought it was very helpful. http://people.howstuffworks.com/duel.htm

The other day I had a Lao desert. Mango and sticky rice with coconut milk. It is really quite good. The flavors go together very well. Kind of like the way the flavors in a peanut butter and tomato sandwich go together (not at all the same flavor, but the same delicious contrast in flavor) The temperature of the two foods were a contrast as well. The rice was warm and the mango was cold. (it reminded me of the contrast between ice cream and a hot brownie.)

-Luke

These, This, Other, Thing, Etc.

Responding to Comments:

Elise: Thanks for taking the effort to keep up on my blog. I am sure it takes quite a lot of work. If you miss just one day you have a lot of reading to do. Two weeks is quite a lot.

Annie: Ringo! It’s good to hear from you. I am glad you were able to stumble across my blog. Don’t worry, I won’t hate you for using my blog to get in contact with Alyse and George. If you have a chance tell me what you are up to: luke.storer@gmail.com (Hey! I just had a great idea! this blog could be a great way to announce my new email address… Just a min. Ringo, I will be right back to you…

ATTENTION ONE AND ALL!
Luke Storer has a new email address at: luke.storer@gmail.com eventually he would like to phase out his other email addresses and only use this one. He probably won’t do that for a while, but if you want to begin to use this email address feel free. Luke will still be checking all old email address. Thank you. That is all.

Sorry about that Ringo. It’s no problem that you were correcting my blog. I just want you to be aware that I do not claim to have a blog without errors. I very well may miss punctuation mispel words, and occasionally use grammar that ain’t too good. (laugh) Please don’t hold it against me. If I had more time, I could probably go through and make a number of corrections, but it just isn’t important enough to me. The most important thing is that people get to hear about what I am up to.

Dad: I’m glad the website helped you out.

Bethany: No I have not tried the stuff that is like grapefruit, but I have had a number of other fruit—and I like the majority of it quite well.

Official blog entry:

This weekend, I decided that I have been giving my students at the office plenty of opportunities to practice pronunciation and work on writing, but not much of a chance for actual conversations, so today I talked with one of my students and asked him If he had any pets. We had a little conversation there about pets, and then I had two other students ask each other questions about pets. and then two others and so on and so forth.

In the conversations that followed, I learned that some Lao people believe that if you feed a dog sugar it will be more violent, and one of my students believed that if you spit into sticky rice and feed it to your dog, it will obey you. (It has worked for his brother for years)

We started to talk about food, and I found that the Vietnamese enjoy eating dog and cat, but none of my students really did… wait, I think one of them did. And the Lao people make some food with cow dung. They flavor a sauce with the dung found in the small intestine of the cow, and it makes it taste bitter. I don’t think they use very much of it. But then Ter told me that I ate some the other day. I am guessing my face looked pretty funny at that point. I had a hard time believing I really ate cow dung uhg! (Luke makes a face of disgust)… no wonder I didn’t really like it. (laugh)

On a much more exciting note, all of my students at the office can now say the “th” sound. That was one of my big problems. I couldn’t explain it to a few of my students, and they just were not getting it, so I mostly ignored it, but tried to get them to say it right at least once a day. Today I noticed that a couple students (there is that ice cream song again playing down the street… but wait! I think they fixed something, because it is a whole song now… that’s cool… still annoying, but at least it’s a whole song.) where saying it almost correctly, so I tested them… I wrote
These
This
Those
That
Other
Thing
Theater
on the board, and I asked each person to say the words… they all succeeded in making some sort of “th” sound… I was so happy! They aren’t all perfect, but I can work with them and they will improve, because they can make the sound… before they couldn’t do it at all.

An interesting note about the “th” sound have you ever realized that we have two different sounds for it. One sound is in “this” and the other is in “theater”
The “th” in this has a sound to it, but the “th” in theater is just air coming out of your mouth. Your mouth is in the same position for both sounds.

And another thing I never thought about… have you noticed the difference between using “the other” and “another”? Correct the following sentences.

“There was a box full of ice cream sandwiches in the freezer. Al ate one and then he ate [another/the other].”

“Jake had two dogs. One was fat and lazy and [another/the other] was very hyper.”

Do you know why? I didn’t until today. The answer is in the articles. “The” is a definite article. If you say “the table” you are saying that there is only one in the room, or one that you are talking about. “A” is an indefinite article. If you say “a table” you are saying it is one of many tables. The same goes for other. If you say “the other” you are talking about two things and are saying that there is only one more thing. “Jake had two dogs. One was fat and lazy and THE OTHER was very hyper.” if you say “another” you are really saying “an other” and are talking about one of many things (at least three) “There was a box full of ice cream sandwiches in the freezer. Al ate one and then he ate another.”

You may thing this is all quite boring, but I thought it was fascinating.

-Luke

Dragon Fruit

At supper tonight we ate a dragon fruit. It was an oblong fruit about the size of my two fists side by side-maybe a little smaller. (Like if I was holding a sword with two hands) The fruit has a relatively thick hot-pink skin and there are these pieces of skin that are green and stick out from the sides of the fruit…they stick out kind of parallel to the fruit all facing one end. It is hard to describe… It kind of looks like a fireball and the green things on the side of the fruit look like tongues of fire. When pealed, the inside is white-grey with lots of little edible black seeds throughout it. When I took a bit, the texture of the fruit with the seeds reminded me of kiwi fruit. It did not have a very strong flavor… barely sweet at all… a little tart. I think I liked it… It was quite different. Ter said there are other ones that are larger and are sweet.

-Luke

Postscript: If you want to see some pictures of dragon fruit, check out this web page: http://www.geocities.com/wenjin92014/foto2001/dragon.htm Don’t be startled by the picture of the baby.

Rainbow Six

Responding to Comments:

Christy: Yes that is how it is. (smile) Lao Morning glories – I haven’t seen the plant growing anywhere, but I hear it has white flowers. What I have seen was little branches of the stuff with a relatively thick stalk that the leaves are on. (a little thinner than a pencil) and the leaves are long and pointed. maybe a little more than a quarter of an inch wide at the bottom and then narrowing to the point. a little less than three inches long. (but this is based on Luke’s memory and his mind that is not very good at estimating measurements. Yes I called home, and that was very good.

Official blog entry: Tom Clancy’s, Rainbow Six, is a very well-written book. It is exciting, believable and very realistic. From the beginning of the book he not only gets you well acquainted with the “good guys” but he spends time each chapter developing the story of the “bad guys” In the book’s realism is included a rather large amount of swearing and very graphic violence. So graphic, that last night when I finished reading chapter seven (page 196) I felt my conscience kick in. I thought I would be able to just allow my eyes to skip over the foul language as I read, but I do read the words, and with my very excellent imagination, the violence becomes quite real. I thought, “What am I putting into my mind?” I debated the issue as I fell asleep and this morning when I woke up I knew I couldn’t finish the book (as much as I really would love to) Maybe I will read it some day (like if I can ever find a copy that has been well-edited) but for now it will go back on the shelf, and I will try another book. A Time to Kill. by John Grisham. according to the Author’s note at the beginning, this was his very first book. We will see how this one goes.

For lunch I ate something that was quite a bit like eating Ramen Noodles. Green noodles—very similar to the ones in Ramen Noodles (I have no idea why they were green) and a beef broth over the top of those noodles. It was a little spicy, maybe had curry in it, I don’t know.

-Luke

20 Days till China

Responding to comments:

Rachel: Ya, we’ll miss you too. where are you going to be? (another school I know, but I can’t remember where or what you are going there for… you don’t have to respond in a comment on the blog. drop me an email instead: luke.storer@gmail.com Thanks for taking the time to read my blog.

Christy: thanks with your help with Platypi. As to morning glories, I have now seen what they call morning glories, and it is a completely different plant. But, if you would like to eat some in America Christy, be my guest. (smile)

I hereby pardon you (Christy McDougall) from all guilt in using my blog to ask Alyse a question. You will not be punished for your crimes, however next time, you will be fully conscious of the seriousness of your crime and the penalty may be death.

Alyse: I really don’t have anything to say about your comment, but I thought I would say hello and thank you for being so kind as to be up early in the morning and talk with me for a little while on messenger.

Samantha: yep, I was at FaHoCha… the duct tape guy. Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Official blog entry:

So my time teaching is about half over. In some ways it has flown by, and in other ways it seems like such a long time. It's kinda strange how that works. I look forward to meeting the team in China, but I still have two full weeks of teaching left.

Pineapple is so much better here than what I have had in America. Its kind of like comparing tomatoes you buy in the store to the ones you grow in your garden (or get from someone else’s garden) Ok, maybe the difference isn’t quite THAT drastic, but it is noticeable. And it is much less expensive here. You can buy a pineapple about as tall as the distance from the top of my middle finger to my wrist and almost able to fit inside my hands if I took my pinky, ring finger, middle finger, index finger and thumb of my right hand and touched them to the pinky, ring finger, middle finger, index finger and thumb of my left hand for the price of 3000 kip (aka 30 cents) Not bad at all.

I went to Thailand today for a couple hours and then returned to Laos without any trouble. (I had to do this because my visa only lasted 15 days, so I had to leave and come back to get another 15 days.

-Luke

Platypus

Responding to comments:

“Mawidg, Mawidg, is wat bwingz uth togever tuday”
–Quote from The Princess Bride.
(I really need to watch that sometime… its been far too long.)

Christy, Alyse, Heather, and all other girls who have ever caught the bouquet at a wedding: No, it was not really my intention for everyone to talk about bouquets or marriage, but it happened… and I really don’t mind. I wish all of you girls well and hope that you don’t have to wait too many more years before you get the chance to get married.

Official blog entry (and nothing about flowers or marriage)

I can hear the wonderful sounds of thunder of rain on a tin roof as I sit here and use the Internet. (happy sigh)

Today my students at the school all wore some of their favorite clothing, and then each person got a chance to explain why they like their clothing and how it makes them feel when they wear it. I wore a pair of my favorite jeans (the really comfortable ones that I have mended a couple of times—for those of you who might know which ones I am talking about) and my beige? tuxedo shirt (what color is this shirt—tea colored I guess) It is the one I like to wear with the sleeves rolled up. The one that I tea-dyed with Christy and Alyse. I have other favorite clothing, but these are my favorites that I have with me. Tomorrow in that class everyone will be bringing a favorite possession and each person will tell a little bit about it. I will let you know how that goes tomorrow.

Here at the office, I have been working with prepositions. It is difficult to explain when you use at, for, in, and on in relation to time. I have been drilling them with these, by making sentences with a blank at the beginning and having them fill in the word with the proper preposition. (i.e. ___ Friday, I will go to Mukdahan.) They are doing quite well. Today I also worked on the difference between another and other. So much of this is automatic, it sometimes takes me a little while to be able to explain how to know which one to use. So when I can’t explain, I just do examples. With another and other I realized that we use “the other” when you are talking about two things, and “another” when you are talking about three or more things. I had never realized that before.

I got a grand idea for something I will do next week in class. I was looking on the internet for a picture of a platypus (because I needed to show my students what my favorite animal looks like) and I came across a web page that explained some interesting facts about platypuses (“is that how you make it plural?” Luke asked with a raised eyebrow) I decided I will print it off, take it to the school, have them read it at home, and then we will go through it in class both to explain meaning, and to work on pronunciation. If you would like to see the web site, here it is: http://www.pbs.org/kratts/world/aust/plat/ and here is another great site: http://www.platypus.org.uk/.

As has been the tradition for the last couple days, I will once again give you a little piece of information about Laos. Lao food includes some flavors that we don’t use in America very much… at least not in food. They like to use bitter and tart flavors. I believe most of the bitter and tart flavors come from the greens that they use. (I say greens, because I don’t know if you can call them vegetables.) Lao people eat leaves from lots of different plants and trees. Sometimes the leaves look like a pile of giraffe food in the middle of the table. Today I was looking at a picture, and I pointed to the “greens” and Ter said that it was “morning glory” in English. I don’t know if that was an accurate translation, or if morning glory here is the same thing as what we have in America, but if it is, Mom, you should pick some of the creeping jenny out of the garden and serve it at supper. (laugh)

-Luke

The Greatest Among You Will Be Your Servant

Responding to comments:

I got a jolly grand total of four comments today! Hurray! (lately they have been a little low, so it is nice to have so many)

Dad: I really don’t have anything to say, except thanks for leaving a comment Even if it didn’t really tell me anything I didn’t know or ask me a question, it let me know that you read my blog. Thanks (grin)

Micah: I really like the word you used, “backlogged.” They should make sure they put it in the dictionary along with the new words associated with blogging which they have already inserted. (weblog, blog, blogger etc.) I have been backlogged before. When I was in Thailand without internet access several of my friends started their own blogs, and it was quite overwhelming at first to get up to date. I am sure it is all the more overwhelming with my blog. (I speak with an abundance of words)

You are welcome for the comments I put on your blog. I know if is nice to get them.

Which is more annoying… “Heart and Soul” or the Ice Cream Bike music? It’s hard to say. My automatic response would be the ice cream bikes are much more annoying, but that is because I have to deal with it right now. Heart and Soul isn’t bothering me right now. But I am pretty sure that since Heart and soul is at least music (not just a couple of short measures of a song) The Ice cream bikes have a higher annoying quotient.


Christy: Have I ever had the ice cream? Not the stuff from the bikes. Jay said it might not always be the most sanitary thing. But I did have ice cream in Thailand from safer sources, and it was very good, but not really any different from American ice cream. Thanks for your Favorite things list.

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***NEWS FLASH!***

THIS JUST IN... LUKE STORER WAS ABOUT TO POST HIS NEWEST BLOG ENTRY, WHEN HE READ AN EMAIL FROM A VERY RELIABLE SOURCE SAYING THAT THE ICE CREAM FROM THE ICE CREAM TRICYCLES IS MOST LIKELY SAFE TO EAT.

REPEAT!!! THE ICE CREAM FROM THE ANNOYING BIKES IS INDEED SAFE TO EAT!

THANK YOU, THAT IS ALL.


PLEASE WAIT A MOMENT AS WE RETURN YOU TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED BLOG READING......

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Official blog entry:

Walking around every day in flip flops has helped me to understand why washing someone’s feet was a job for a servant. In a place where you have a lot of grass and paved roads and most people where shoes, the dirtiest your feet get normally is just a little sweaty. But when the roads are dirt or gravel, there is a lot of dust, and it is hot here, so your feet might get a little sweaty and then the dust sticks to them. Then when it rains, it gets muddy, and your feet can get pretty muddy. So dealing with dirty feet was probably not the nicest of jobs. On top of this, I just remembered how in some cultures the feet are recognized as the lowest thing. So to point your foot at someone or stick your feet on a desk or show someone the bottom of your feet is very insulting (that is the case here) How humble it is to wash a person’s feet.

Today has been one of the coolest days we have had. It almost felt cold. At noon the temperature was 29 degrees Celcius (that’s 83 degrees Fahrenheit) I can’t believe I thought that was cool… It almost felt a little cold. (ok not really) but I really enjoyed the weather. It is starting to heat up this afternoon though…too bad it doesn’t last. (sigh) I look forward to cool temperatures when I return home.

An interesting piece of Lao culture for you: I learned last night that when you have some food on a plate (for example pieces of pineapple.) it is believed that the person who eats the last piece will get the beautiful girl or the handsome boy. (depending on their gender of course) So sometimes when you are with a group of friends, someone might say, “I need the last piece, I need the last piece.” I do not know for certain how much they believe this… maybe about as much as we believe that the girl who catches the bouquet is the next person to get married… I really don’t know.

-Luke

Ice Cream Bikers

Responding to comments:

Heather: I did not forget snack before breakfast, snack before lunch, snack before supper. I chose not to add it to the list. (smile) I said it was a list of a few of my favorite things. In addition to that, I would also say that the snacks are not nearly so significant as the meals themselves. I do enjoy them, but I would not place them on my “favorite” list.

Christy: I mostly enjoyed the book, though I was a little disappointed with the very ending. But I will write you an email instead of posting all of that here. (I would not like to ruin it for anyone.)

Official blog entry:

Not much new happened today, so I will just tell you another thing about Laos. They have ice cream bikes here. Pretty much the same as an ice cream truck—they drive around town slowly and play annoying music to make their presence known. There are only a couple of differences. One is that they drive a peddle powered vehicle (like a bike), and instead of playing a full song, it is a clip of something. Actually there are two different clips, but they are both cut off. So you hear it start to play this song… and then all of a sudden after about a measure and a half, it stops… then it is silent for a while and then it starts the second clip and plays about a measure and a half.

It is only the most annoying thing I have to listen to every single day of my life. (smile) (an attempt to quote Hanna… maybe not the best job… but an attempt nonetheless) The music is quite loud, so there is no way you can escape hearing it. (no matter where you are) “You hear it at least once a day, and when you hear it, you hear it every time it plays its song… all the way down the street!” Luke said with clenched teeth. And if you happen to go to another part of town, you will probably hear it again. “Oh Joy.” Luke said sarcastically without any trace of joy in his voice. (Luke laughs and shakes his head) Ok, maybe I exaggerated a little.

-Luke

My Favorite Things

Favorite Things

I assume most of you (if not all of you) are familiar with the musical the Sound of Music and the song “My Favorite Things.” If you have not seen the musical or heard the song, please find the movie somehow and watch it. It will help you to become a more cultured individual.

I took another idea from www.eslcafe.com and decided to designate this week, “Favorite Week.” for my class at the school. Today we went over the lyrics to the song. It took a little while, but we went through each phrase, and made sure everyone understood all the words. Then after that was finished, we went on to other things. At the end of class I told them to make a list of some things that they like to do when they are feeling sad, or things that make them smile, then tomorrow we will share our lists with each other.

Here are the words to the song.

My Favorite Things

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things

When the dog bites
When the bee stings
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don't feel so bad

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Iif you don’t know what a strudel is, it is a pastry made from a thin sheet of dough rolled up with filling and baked. And, for those of you confused about the word schnitzel, it is a seasoned and garnished veal cutlet (aka a slice of calf meat—to help people with the term veal cutlet)

After returning home, I too made a list of a few of my favorite things, and here is what I came up with:

· Cold winter days and big heavy sweaters
· Ridiculously long scarves that reach down past my knees
· Breakfast and lunchtime and supper
· Duct tape
· Getting lost in a book
· soft beds with lots of blankets (when it is cold—not here in Laos)
· Torrential rains falling while I watch from the porch
· Lightning and thunder and dark clouds
· North Dakotan winds (especially when they are strong enough to push you over)
· Blizzards (as long as those I love are safe inside)
· Grey foggy days
· Dressing eccentrically just ‘cuz I can
· Plays and Musicals with costumes and makeup
· Summer youth camps
· Holidays with Family
· My mom’s wonderful soups
· Surprises for others (like presents at Christmas—and special things at random times)
· Playing violin or bass and singing
· Lilacs blossoming in spring
· Walks in Ellendale’s cemetery all by myself
· Mist on my face as I travel at relatively high speeds (such as on my motorbike here, or last summer on Flathead lake with the wave runner)
· Children laughing and playing pretend
· A cool glass of clean water to drink
· Air Conditioning

I had a lot of fun creating that list. Before I was finished, I was grinning ear to ear. If you have time, make of list of your own. Then either post it on my blog or email it to me. I guarantee you will be smiling by the time you complete it. Here’s the address in case you forgot: luke.storer@gmail.com.

Just a random bit of information for you: Here and in Thailand I have not seen normal napkins. (normal being defined by what my ethnocentric mind is used to) I have found one of three things at tables instead. 1) a roll of toilet paper, 2) a box of Kleenexes, or 3) a cup with “napkins” but instead of a big square folded so that it has four layers, take one layer the size of a napkin and fold it in half.

Another thing about Laos—geckos, both inside and outside the house. mostly you see them on the walls at night. I believe they eat insects, so there are more of them were there are lights. (like on the porch when the light is on) Geckos make the strangest noise that I wish I could describe, and they move in a path kind of like a slithering snake winding back and forth. (that is, if you made a line where they ran, it would look kind of like a snake.) They stand very still on the wall, and if they are startled, they move surprisingly quickly. (I think they would be very hard to catch.) They are not annoying at all. They stay out of the way on the ceiling or the walls mostly, so that after being here a while you hardly think about them.

I finished The Count of Monte Cristo yesterday, and today I began a book by Tom Clancy, Rainbow Six. The book is enormous. I am reading a paperback version, and I would estimate that the book is somewhere close to two inches thick. (I am not the best at guessing measurments, but I don't think I am exagerating too much) I brought this 897 page book to the office, and one of my students asked if it was a dictionary. (smile) I am currently on page 23, and I wonder if I will finish it before I leave on July 14th.

-Luke

Computer Expert

Subject Line: "Hello, I am Luke Storer, and might I add in all modesty, a recognized computer expert in Savannakhet, Laos" (modified quote from Adventures in Odyssey: when Eugene first enters Whit's End in the episode where Connie goes to California.)

Responding to comments:

Dad and Christy: Thanks for the encouraging words

Official blog entry:

Today’s second session of teaching how to use the printer/scanner/copy machine, went very well. I explained by mostly demonstrating how to do it, with little explanations here and there. It probably sounded something like this:

“Ok, first, click here… now… see what happened. This is the “crop” tool. If you want to make the picture so that it only has this part, click and highlight like this. then click here. See. Do you understand?”

After showing them the basics of the machine, one teacher said, “show me how to use this [referring to some picture editing program, like Adobe Photoshop, but not] I had never used this program, but it was close to other programs I had seen, so I went through and found out what each tool was by simply doing it. and showing them what that tool did… another example of what it might have sounded like:

“Ok, this is the clone tool.” I don’t know what it does… let me see… [Luke attempts to use the tool] ok… see what it did. click where you want to start, and then click in an open area, and move the curser like this… see… it copies the picture over here… now if you click again, it will copy again, and again… understand?”

Then they asked me to show them how to use Excel. (at this point, I was wondering how much they thought I knew… and what they wanted me to teach them exactly) so we messed around a little, and they tried to show me what they use it for, and they tried to ask me how to do something, and it took a while for me to understand, and when I did, I could help them anyhow… I just don’t know enough about Excel.


So I asked, “any more questions” a little afraid of what their response would be.

They said, “meecrosof wor”

“What,” Luke’s forehead crinkled in confusion.

“meecrosof wor”


“Oh,” I smiled as I recognized what they were saying. “Microsoft Word,” I said emphasizing the consonants. They repeated what I said, practicing their pronunciation.

So I went and opened word and asked them what they needed help with. On teacher showed me Format Columns. I demonstrated that, and then I remembered that the other day someone wanted to add a picture to text, so I took a picture that we had just scanned, and I showed them how to format the picture and make a text box, so that the text wraps around the picture.

That’s about all of that. I took some pictures today of a couple houses and of some people working in a rice field. They should give you an idea of what this place is like. (after I get them developed when I return to America)

-Luke

Expect the Unexpected

Responding to comments:

Christy: what is 35 degrees in Fahrenheit? I think just about anyone over there should be able to find it out by looking at a thermometer… currently I am at the office and I do not have one, but let me look on the internet. (five minutes pass as Luke searches on Google) I found a web site: http://www.csgnetwork.com/tempconv.html It should help anyone who wants to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit.

Here is your answer: 35 degrees Celsius = 95 degrees Fahrenheit

I think I exaggerated a little last night when I described Sawannakhet. This may have been because it was dark when I answered, and as a result I based my answer on my memory. Here are some amendments to what I wrote yesterday.

First of all I think I gave the impression that there were a lot of little wooden houses. Actually most of the houses are fairly normal in size. (not that small) but what differentiates the nicer houses from the not so nice houses is the condition they are in, and how fancy they look. Richer people have more decorated houses, and their yards are kept clean. Poorer people have plain houses, and the windows and doors may not be in very good condition, and their yards are overgrown. Both of these houses have metal fences, it is just that the nice houses have prettier fences, and they are not rusty.

I also said a lot of the children are barefoot. I think I said this because the barefooted children stand out to me. Looking today, I noticed a number of children are wearing shoes. Maybe the actual percentage of children with and without shoes is close to 50% to 50%

Official blog entry:

Did you know that we use the “th” sound a whole lot in English? Well we do, and if you can’t say “th” it is really difficult for people to understand what you are saying. Something that is getting a little frustrating is working with pronunciation with students who just do not understand a how to make a sound. With the “th” sound, in Lao it sounds like the “d” on dog. So “the” becomes “du” and “that” becomes “dat” and other becomes “uder.” I have tried to explain it a couple different ways, and other students get it (although they still get it wrong sometimes) but this one person can’t make the “th” sound. Another student is not able to differentiate between “s” and “sh” and another students wants to turn “single” into “singrle.” I feel quite exasperated sometimes. (though I hide it from my students).

I mentioned about a week or two ago that I was getting tired of Lao food already. That was back when my stomach was hurting. Well, Ter, who has been cooking for me at supper time, has done an excellent job and I am not getting tired of the food really at all… ok, I probably wouldn’t mind eating some western food, in fact I would probably be quite glad to eat something that I am used to, but it is not like I wish I didn’t have to eat. At noon I eat rice or noodles with some sort of sauce or topping (with vegetables, and chicken, or something) and then at night Ter cooks for me, and there are only two things so far that I don’t care for that much (but I could probably learn to like in time) and those things are a fish soup that we had, and papaya salad. I am curious if I will gain or lose weight this summer. I wish would have checked my weight for an exact number before I left… I only know I was about _____ (you don’t actually need to know my weight)

I did something unexpected today. Last night Amkha's (who I mentioned earlier… he is Jay’s friend, and his wife is the principle at the school I teach at… but I spelled his name Umca, because I didn’t know how to spell it. Now that problem has been resolved.) called me and asked me to teach how to use a printer. I figured I could probably figure out enough to show him how to use it, so I said yes. After we had confirmed the time (2:00 PM) Amkah said, “Ok, tomorrow you teach how to use printer at school.” “WHAT!” I thought to myself, but to Amkha I said, “I will be teaching the teachers at school?” “Yes, you will have owners book [owner’s manual].”

So today, at 2:00 PM I went to the school and found the printer/scanner/copy machine that I was supposed to teach these teachers to use. After looking over the instructions for a little bit, I began to show them how to put a picture in the scanner and save the picture. Different teachers came and went. At about 2:30 there were ten teachers gathered around the computer, and at the end of my time there were three. As I showed them how to do it, they were all talking in Lao rapidly (I assume they were explaining and arguing over how you were supposed to do it.)

Because of some technical difficulties I was only able to show them how to scan pictures, so tomorrow I will go at 9:00 and teach at least three teachers some more about the printer/scanner/copy machine. Who knows how many will actually come.

So once again I have found it is necessary to just “go with the flow.” When something unexpected comes up, don’t panic, take it easy, and deal with it as it comes. I have never really seen myself as a computer expert, but I know enough to read an owners manual and explain the basics to these teachers. Who knows what unexpected adventures lie in the days to come.

-Luke

Describing Laos

Since the majority of what happened today was really the same as any other day, the majority of this entry will be a response to the comments Christy made on my blog.

Christy: I bet you would enjoy teaching English. It fits with all of the languages you are interested in. I think you would especially enjoy the part of helping people making the correct sounds with their mouths.

Hmm... I think I will get married. I wouldn’t mind that so much. Maybe I will do that some day.

As to my adjustment to being alone, I had only the one short attack of loneliness yesterday, and now today I haven’t had any.

When I go on to my next country, I will not be able to have access to the internet. Therefore I will not write on my blog. After I return, I think I will try to sum up those three weeks (without taking too much time) and post them on the blog… however three weeks is a long time to write about… I mean… look at the entry I wrote after being gone one week. We will see what happens.

Ok, now I will describe a little more of what it looks like around here. (not an easy task) let me see. Nearly all the houses are surrounded by fences. The nicer houses with iron fences, and the small wooden house have wooden fences. Along with these fences, It is common to have padlocks on the fence and on doors to the house. (I believe it is because the locks on their doors are not very secure. Houses have either wooden or tiled floors, (not carpet) Jays house has wooden floors. The Electricity here has been off for at least part of the day every day since I returned to Laos. (this is because people are working on the power lines every day) Usually the power is off in the morning, and then it turns on again sometime in the afternoon. That way we always have electricity at night. I think the electricity fluctuates too. When I sit on my bed and read, the light will be bright for a little while, and then it will be slightly dimmer most of the time.

As to the size of Sawannakhet. I believe it has several thousand people (maybe a couple hundred thousand? Luke does not know) There are a few main roads that are very nice, but the majority of them are quite rough, and some are dirt. I believe the road that goes past Jay’s house and the office was once paved, but that is not the case now (except for tiny patches here and there) when it rains the roads that are like this become quite sloppy. (probably also why the roads are in a poor condition. all the rain as eroded the pavement. A couple other things to give you an idea of the standard of living here. may of the children that I see on this street run around barefoot, and many people have these trash cans created from old tires. (quite an ingenious idea of reusing something that will never decay.) these trash cans look like black cauldrons in front of the houses. Although this city has quite a large number of people, it does not feel like that, maybe because of the dirt roads, the small house, and the fact that no building here is more than three stories tall. The vegetation includes pomegranate trees, bamboo, and coconut trees. Let me know if this description was helpful, or what else I could describe for you.

Official blog entry:

On the drive back to the house from the school today, the breeze was cool, and it began to rain. It rained so gently you could hardly call it raining, but it did a little more than just mist. As I drove the motorbike, (the one I drive to the school every day) I was very refreshed by wind and rain on my face.

Then in the afternoon, I was sitting on the little porch on Jay’s house, It began to pour down rain. The temperature dropped from 32 degrees to maybe 25 degrees while it was raining, and the sound of rain pounding on the roof was so beautiful. It was so very beautiful that it filled my heart with Joy.

-Luke

Third Day of Teaching (creative heading, I know)

Responding to Comments:

Mrs. Peckinpaugh: Thank you for reading my blog. It has been very encouraging to hear how so many people are thinking of me, and are enjoying reading about everything that is happening. I impressed with all the food you have had the opportunity to eat. You are quite adventurous, (I am especially impressed that you have eaten insects!) Much of the reason so many of these foods are new is that I grew up in North Dakota, and we do not have a large number of Korean, Thai, and Vietnamese restaurants here, and even if there are some (there may or may not be) our family has never gone “out to eat” very much, instead my mom has cooked incredible meals ( I love you Mom!)

Official Blog Entry:

Good news. Today’s classes went very well. At the school, I went through some sentences asking them to help me make corrections (the way I teach writing at the office) and then we worked on pronunciation. They have trouble with “s” and “sh,” so adopting and changing a couple ideas that I found on http://www.eslcafe.com/, I wrote “s” on one side of the board and “sh” on the other. Then I made the noise and asked them to point at the noise I made. I also helped them by explained that “sh” is the sound you make when you want someone to be quite and you hold your finger in front of your mouth. Finally I wrote: “She sells sea shells by the sea shore,” and I asked a couple of individuals to try saying it. They did surprisingly well. (but they all need to work on it much more before they have it down.) With the rest of the class time, I asked them what they do with a stubborn student. We will continue that discussion tomorrow.

At the office, we worked on a number of words that they have trouble saying. For example. they asked for help with the difference between will and win. (I had them read my lips as I mouthed the sounds without making any noise. they needed to tell me which word I was saying. This way, they paid attention to the way they need to move their mouths to say the word. I also worked on “s” and “sh” with these students. It is quite a challenge to work on pronunciation because sometimes there may be two or more things in a word that make it difficult. For example: will (they have trouble with the “w” and the “ll”, and such (they have trouble with the “s” and the “ch.” After working on these words, we went to a chapter of a book that Jay had given me. I told them to read the chapter and find things that they don’t understand, and we will go over them in class, but instead of working on meaning, we worked on speaking. They wanted me to read it out loud, and then let then read it, and then I was to make corrections on their pronunciation. They enjoyed this, and felt that this is really what they want to work on. So tomorrow when we come together among other things, I will have them each read from the page… working on their pronunciation (which is exactly what Heather suggested I do the other day. (Hats off to you Heather for being so smart.)

So today has been going very well. Now, on my third day of teaching, things are starting to come together. In hindsight, I should have never been concerned about my teaching—that it wasn’t working correctly (when I had only been doing it for two days), but each day seemed like such a long time that I don’t think I quite realized it had been such a short time, and I did not think about that fact that I was bound to make mistakes for the first week or so since I have never taught English before. (duh Luke! that was quite obvious.)

Last night I found a web page: http://iteslj.org/ with a multitude of questions I can ask to students for discussion, so that should not be a problem, and I also visited http://www.eslcafe.com/ where I borrowed some ideas for future classes.

One more thing before I go. Yesterday I spoke of how I have a couple of these attacks of loneliness every day. Well, so far, today I only had a one short one. (we will see how things go tonight) Maybe I am starting to adjust to living alone in Laos. Only time will tell.

-Luke

Second Day of Teaching

Responding to Comments:

Christy: Yes, the bugs were like sunflower seeds both in taste and in the crunch, and somewhat in the texture. Thank you for your suggests with pronunciation. And Lao is a tonal language, and theoretically musicians should have an easier time learning the language, but not necessarily easy. I think it is because a musician can hear the difference between two words, while others might not.

Heather: Great idea to have them read. That way they can concentrate on pronunciation more than on what they have to say. I am sure Manja gave that idea in my ESL class, but I had forgotten it. (I sure wish I had those notes with me right now… I bet they would help.)

Erin: Yes, the bug was dead, (and it was fried in oil and soy sauce I think) but it was not covered in chocolate… that would have been much easier. If you want to write me a letter, the best way is to email it to me. (I don’t know my address here either… in fact, I have no idea where Jay and Milka get their mail… or where the post office is for that matter.

Official Blog:

I am currently doing quite well. I am in a very good mood. I just finished my class on writing, and it went quite well. Thus far, this has been my favorite part—helping the people in the office improve their writing. I know exactly what I am doing. I give them a topic to write on at the end of the day (just a little bit a ago I told them to write about goals that they have) they go home and write, and then they bring their paper to class at 10 AM. Sometime between noon and 3 PM I go through the papers making corrections and getting an idea of what they had the most trouble with. Then from three to four I go through different mistakes, writing them on the board, and then asking them what they would fix. It is very enjoyable, and I feel more like I am teaching.

The other parts of teaching still need some perfecting. I am learning how to do it as I go, and I am not quite satisfied with it all. For example, my class at the school is very shy. Most of them are afraid to talk in front of everyone else. There are moments when they do very well, speaking in full sentences very clearly, but most of the time I ask a question, and no one wants to answer. I am not yet certain how to deal with that. I am also worried that I am going to run out of things to discuss in class very quickly. Today, the things I planned did not take enough time (maybe because people were not talking) and I had to improvise to come up with something else to do for the last twenty minutes of class. I am going to look online for some ideas, and see if that helps me out. Today at the school we talked about movies. I asked them to tell me about their favorite movies, and then I talked to them about violence, swearing, drugs and alcohol and sex. I asked them if children should watch movies with these things, and why not. I also asked them if they would choose not to watch a movie because of these things. (There were not too many who felt that they needed to worry about watching these things much, but when I surveyed the class all of them said they wouldn’t watch a movie if it had too much sex—of course how do you define too much?)

At the LKA office, I had each of them tell me about what they do. Then I asked questions about how they do those things. It was quite educational for me, and it gave each of them an opportunity to explain something in English. (I learned that they mostly work with agriculture, health, and education [though there are other areas too] and they work to help the people learn how to improve agriculture using fertilizer, how to improve health and prevent disease, and they provide the schools with supplies. Laos is a very poor country, and they are working to help the people improve the standard of living here.

So with these morning sessions, I get them to discuss, and then use what they say as an opportunity to correct mistakes and improve pronunciation, but it doesn’t feel like teaching as much. In the afternoon working with writing, that feels like teaching.

I never expected teaching to be so exhausting. I have to concentrate to hard and pour so much energy into it. I only teach for four hours ever day, but it wears me out so much. The fact that it wears me out does not help my mood swings. Oh, I haven’t told you about my mood swings yet? Well let me explain. Ever since I arrived in Laos this second time, I have been dealing with loneliness. I mentioned that the other day, saying that I feel like an island out in the middle of the ocean, separated from communication. Well, there are many times when I do not feel like that any more. I have been able to get to know the people here at the office, and I have spent time with the group of Ter’s friends, so I am getting opportunities to socialize. I have also found things to do with my free time alone (which I often treasure since teaching and spending time with people trying to understand what they are saying is so exhausting) But, at the same time there are moments where I am overcome with a feeling of being alone. These emotions come in waves. (that is why I say I have mood swings) I will be doing fine, and then all of a sudden I realize I am alone in Laos, and I can’t get on the phone and talk to my parents or a friend, I can’t walk down the street and see familiar faces, I am thousands of miles away from home, and not only that, but I will be alone until the fourteenth of July! And I can’t talk to anyone about it either. I feel a little like the kid at camp who is homesick and wants to go home. Then before too long, (sometimes after listening to music or writing in my journal, or reading) it will the feelings will fade and I will be fine…. until the next time they pop up. Like I said… I have mood swings. This usually happens a couple times a day, and it is very intense while it happens… I have this panicky feeling for a while, and then it goes away. Maybe this is the culture shock thing we talked about at college. (though I think it is mostly dealing with loneliness, and not culture). Anyhow, I am doing great now. (That is another thing. When I do my blog and email, I feel connected to you all once again, and so I usually feel pretty good.) So I guess I wrote all of this to tell you how I am doing, and to let you know that if you wake up in the middle of the night, you can think of me before you fall back asleep. (because it is the middle of the day here.)

Last night was a very fun experience. Ter’s friends took me out to eat at a restaurant where they have Korean Barbeque. It was a buffet where you pick out the raw vegetables and meat you would like to eat, and then at you cook it at your table. (Each table has a hole in the center where they put a bucket full of hot coals, and then they put a dome shaped thing with a little moat around it over the bucket.) You fried the meat on the top, and then you cooked the vegetables in the moat. It was a very fun social thing, because you are all grilling over the same bucket, and then as the meat cooks, you flip the meat over using your chopsticks, and you talk to the people around you. The only problem was that we used the same chopsticks to handle the meat that we used to eat. I don’t know how dangerous it was, but I tried to protect myself by putting my chopsticks in the hot water in “the moat.” before I ate off of them. But who knows? I might have forgotten a couple times, or accidentally eaten some meat that was not quite cooked. I don’t know. I am feeling okay now (about 20 hours later) so maybe I am okay. During our conversation a couple of the girls asked me to play badmiton (spelling?) with them sometime. (we will see).

I am reading The Count of Monte Cristo again, (I don’t know if I mentioned it before, but I ended up taking a break from reading it so that I could read Why not Women? while Jay was around) and enjoying it thoroughly. It is nothing like the movie, and that is okay. I can accept that. I enjoy both separately and in a different way from the other. I have begun reading the book with a dictionary by my side, because there are so many words that I really don’t know. Some of them, like plebian, I have heard before, but I want to make sure that I am understanding it correctly, and others, like lorgnette, are completely new. I don’t know if these words are used because it is an old story (and therefore a different vocabulary) or because it is a French story (and some of the words are French words adopted by English) or a combination of the two.

-Luke