dental decay in a bag and to do lists

kj

I always have great expectations for my weekends here. Not important social engagements or spectacular nights out in Bangkok. No, I have grand visions of completing detailed lesson plans for the remainder of the term, of sweeping, mopping, disinfecting and waxing the floors, of finally deciding what I want to study in graduate school, of mastering 10 new songs on the guitar and preparing myself a fabulous dinner. and that's just Saturday. I keep thinking i'll learn to drastically lower my expectations but somehow, as each friday afternoon creeps up on me, I look down to find my hand scribbling out another ridiculously unrealistic list of Weekend TO-DOs!

Some weekends are more successful than others, though all are ultimately failures when viewed in terms of [# of items actually completed] as a percentage of [total # of items on list]. Last weekend I did manage to eradicate my house's rapidly multiplying ant population (for now, anyway), create a good two days' worth of lesson plans, and floss my teeth twice a day on Saturday and Sunday. These two days were a relative success compared to this weekend, as far a productiveness goes. Midterm exams are coming up next week and I have to submit my exams to my supervisor by Wednesday. nine exams to write. at least 50 items each. it is Sunday night and i have completed about 50%.. of one exam. This will be a busy week.

Friday night I stayed up late with a group of the Thai and Filipino teachers, taking part in that beloved Asian tradition: awful karaoke (i realize this description is redundant but the karaoke is especially awful when I'm holding the microphone). Waking up later than I'd hoped yesterday morning and feeling an utter lack of motivation, I started my day with 2 hours of half-assed pilates and lazy yoga poses while listening to reruns of Car Talk. On days like yesterday when I can feel impending unproductiveness, I end up including things on my long ambitious lists like, "take dirty dishes downstairs," "eat breakfast - eggs expire 7/26!" "take shower - remember: behind ears!" and "get dressed [white stain t-shirt and brownish shorts?]" just so I'll have something to cross off.

Aside from spending hours writing useless TO-DO lists for myself, I went to the nearby Buddhist temple to check out the weekend scene there. I'll post about this trip in the next couple of days, but for now I'll just mention the bag of sugar water I bought on my way out of the gates this afternoon...

I saw a man by the road feeding giant spears of sugar cane into this shiny metal contraption. Out the other end of the machine came the squashed remains of the spears and from a tube on the side flowed a stream of cloudy yellowish liquid. The tube deposited the liquid onto a cheesecloth filter, which was suspended with clothespins over a bucket that looked just like the ones we use at home to store laundry detergent and wash the cars.

the juicer

To serve the sugar cane juice, the man scoops a few handfuls of ice into a small plastic shopping bag, ladles in a few cups of juice from the wash bucket and sticks a straw in it. Its flavor isn't particularly good nor interesting but it sure is sweet.

final, cavity-inducing product
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noodle boy speaks and an after school snack

sd
The district-wide speech competition was held today at a nearby rival school, and who was chosen from my classes to compete? none other than noodle boy, himself. The two minute speech about his family was three minutes short (a five minute requirement for this age and ability is ridiculous) and included such inspired sentences as, "My mother he my advertise in New York and tom yam soup clean." and "My dog will have fifteen when I..... um.. breakfast is always good." Even though their public speaking abilities are somewhat *ahem* lacking, and they can't speak English at the best of times, let alone when they're standing in front of over 100 audience members, it was great fun watching our kids compete today. Noodle boy even earned second place in his division and without a single mention of noodles!

Rewarding myself for a hard day's work sitting in a school auditorium, I bought a smoothie, of sorts, from a neighborhood woman on my walk home this afternoon. It seems to be made of blended ice, sweetened condensed milk, coconut water and some sort of simple syrup. Cool, creamy, coconutty and refreshing in the 95+ degree heat.

typical baffling Asian English-language labeling
"Hat Family!"

and when I got home, I even had some left to enjoy a couple of slammers with a package of time tams in my freezer. if you're unfamiliar with the joys of the tim tam slammer, this little girl can show you how it's done.

a delicious union:
cold, sweet coconut drink and a tim tam.
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