A day in the life of Gary

I have received complaints from many people that my blog has not been updated in a while, here is the beginning of a blog that I never published chronologizing a day in my life. 

This posting will be a rambling of little significance, so feel free to stop reading now.  But, if you would like to know what a day in my life is like, this is for you.

6:00 am (6:00 pm Central Standard Time yesterday) my alarm goes off.

6:10 am, my alarm goes off again.

6:20 am, my alarm goes off yet again.  "Ok," I think to myself, "I didn't shower yesterday, so I can't go back to bed anymore..."

6:30 am, I finish showering and shave, this is only the second time that I have used this razor and it is a clase shave.  I am happy about this.

6:35 am, I throw on my Charlie Brown shirt.  Today is Halloween, and although QSI doesn't celebrate it, the primart students do celebrate character day, where they dress up like a favorite character.

6:40 am, I take out a loaf of banana bread for breakfast.  I do a quick check: no ants = good.  I have had to throw away my breakfast on Monday and Thursday this week because of ants, and I know that I accidentally ate a bunch of them on Tuesday.  I am glad that the banana bread is good because I really like it.  A poor substitute for my mom's banana bread, but a substitute nonetheless.  I think about how the price of the bread has recently increased because high season has begun in my tourism-driven neighborhood, and then smile because I still get charged the low-season price.  Thai people are wonderful.

6:50 am, I am on my motorbike.  Although it looks like rain, this is the first day this week that it is not raining as I ride to work.  Perfect.  I almost get into two accidents, possibly a record low.  The excitement keeps my heart strong.

7:20 am, I am at school.  "What do I have to do today...?" I ask myself. I begin to pull my supplies together and quickly type up a lab for my chemistry class.  As I do, several students drift in and say hi, some asking what we are going to do for the day.

7:55 am, BZZZZZ.  The bell rings and I am left thinking, "crap, that happened too soon."  I grab a pop quiz, go to the office and put into the copier, grab my attendance sheet and go to the flag.

8:00 am, some students play the Thai National Anthem while two students raise the flag.  The 8 year old class shouts the anthem while no other classes say it at an audible level.  The anthem ends and I quickly bow.  While my director gives some announcements, I look around and notice that many of the students chose spider man as their character to dress up as.  Many also are bloody...funny.

8:05 am, I am in my homeroom. "Nice costume Mr. Gary, what are you?" asks a student, another tells me "that is not a scary costume."  I reply "no, Charlie Brown isn't very scary, not unless you think being trapped in an awkward kid's body who can't kick a football for 50 years is scary."  I am proud of myself, but they will never understand the real scariness behind my costume.  Even though all of my students know who Snoopy is, no one thinks I look like Charlie Brown.  I pull up a cartoon of him and then a picture on facebook from two years ago when I shaved my head and dressed as Charlie Brown to show them.  They are both surprised that I once shaved my head and now know that I have facebook.  My first real mistake.

8:16 am, I realize that I held my students too late and tell them to go to their next class.  I take a deep breath and begin my first period of the day.  Physical science.  "I am so excited to see you all, I have something fun that I want to do, could you all clear your desks?"  Pop quiz, they love me.  I imbue the students with everything they could ever want to know about concentration.  Really I just showed them two different glasses of tea and asked them to read a few pages about concentration and then answer some questions.  Afterwards we discuss it, they tell me that reading is boring and ask if I can boil some water for them.  (Earlier this week I was boiling water and POP, the flask broke.  I may never hear the end of it.)

9:00 am, "go to your next class," I say, "good riddance to all of you."  Physics.  Possibly my favorite class, if I am allowed to have a favorite.  Secondary 4 (seniors).  "what are you supposed to be?"  I show them the pictures of me as Charlie Brown and then tell them how wonderful college is.  I also tell them about some people who had a great scheme to cheat on the SATs but got busted.  This lasts about ten minutes (we always talk about the SATs or college for at least 10 minutes each class).

9:10 am, physics class actually begins.  I am awkward in front of the class.  We go outside to swing my soccerball pendulum (a poor substitute for a bowling ball pendulum).  One of my students offers to climb the basketball hoop to tie the rope for me because, according to her, Asians are good climbers.  Afterwards we swing the ball and discuss the gravitational and kinetic energy involved.  I bend over to look at the ground, a student pretends to kick me.  Haha...he thinks he's so funny...I throw the pendulum at him and he almost falls over, even though it wouldn't have hit him.  Take that sucker.  We go inside and discover that a Joule is, in fact, a kilogram meter-squared per second-squared.  Now I have made their day better.

9:45 am, good bye physics, hello chemistry.  I explain the lab to the students.  They don't get it.  I explain the lab to the students again, two get it and begin working.  I explain the lab to the students again, three more get it and begin working.  I explain the lab to the students again, two more get it and begin working.  I explain the lab to the students three more times and then give up on them for a while.  Later I explain it again, "oh...why didn't you say that the first time?"  (I did...6 times...)  We don't complete the lab, so I decide to postpone the rest of in until next week.

9:30 am, recess.  I am not sure if the students realize that the teachers like recess more than they do.  I support the school government by buying a chocolate milkbox.  "Mr. Gary, you drink chocolate milk every day, don't you?"  "Yes."  "Aren't you worried about getting diabetes?"  "No, I am worried about getting osteoporosis."

9:45 am, I survived until my prep.  First, how about some tunes.  I start with John Wayne Gacy, Jr. by Sufjan Stevens.  I am not sure why this song has been in my head, but I have to listen to it.  I think of Emily (Nelson) Larson who first introduced me to it.  Oh, the East staff...what wonderful memories.  Tunes are good, now a quick email and facebook check.  Oh, how exciting, a message from my cousin Kate.  She talks about family and suggests a haircut for me.  Good, now I have to plan for earth science later today.  Ok, we are learning about earthquakes.  Maybe I can have them practice an earthquake drill?  No, I will do that next week.  Ok, we need to spend more time with the scales for assessing the magnitude of earthquakes.  I know, they can look up pictures of damage online and then explain how the quakes should be rated.

Ok, so a little more of significance happened on this day.  I helped chaperone a school dance party, a fun experience.  I caught three students drinking on campus, another fun experience.  And I spent the rest of the night thinking about how long of a day I had.  I never really got back to finishing this post, but in light of a few complaints, I thought that I would make the effort to publish something.  Here ya go.

I will survive

Well, I never really updated my birthday weekend like I said I would.  Here's the skinny:

Friday night I went out by myself to get some time alone.  Unfortunately, with the island being so small, I ran into a teacher from school.  Being a nice guy, he bought me several drinks (and I quit drinking when I needed to, with age comes wisdom).  All in all, a good night.

Saturday I laid low most of the day (watching episodes of Heroes and Prison Break that I found online) and then went out to a favorite restaurant with several teachers.  Drew, being the nice guy that he is, paid for me meal (if I had known beforehand I might have run up a higher tab...).

Sunday I began my scuba certification.  All in all, a good weekend.

The following weekend was even better.  As part of my scuba training, we (Drew and I) did two dives near the Phi Phi islands on Satuday and two dives at Racha Yai on Sunday (becoming scuba certified in the process).  It was a great experience, in total, I saw a leopard shark, sea turtle, octopus, several moral eels, several lionfish, some lobsters, a box fish, several clown fish and an assortment of beautiful coral and other tropical fish.  We also got chased by some territorial trigger fish, which was enjoyable for me.  All in all, a great weekend.  My instructor took some photographs underwater, but I have not had the opportunity to see them yet.  When I do, I hope to post them.

The last few days have gone by quick.  I taught for a day and a half and then had a another day and a half of parent teacher conferences.  I survived my first solo parent teacher conferences and left with a very positive attitude.  Many of the parents that I met were excited to have me teaching their children as the last science and math teachers were not as effective.  Additionally, all of the conversations that I was worried about went smoothly.  Hopefully, things change for the best.  If not, I now have contact information and a good repor with the parents.

The next two days I have no school, giving me a four day weekend and my first real break.  Having considered doing something fun, I decided to relax instead.  Some of my plans include reading Brisingr (the last book in the Eragon trilogy), getting ahead in two of my classes, sending some packages out (maybe Kelly will finally get her birthday present, maybe Peter/Janelle and Steve/Mary will finally get their wedding presents...maybe not).  I also hope to catch up on emails and  facebook messages that I have been ignoring, watch a movie with a friend and learn to surf with another friend.  We'll see how much I get done, I probably won't get to it all.  But for now, I am going to sleep, and sleep well.  Starting in five minutes and going as late as possible.  Good night friends, I hope you have a wonderful day.

My Thai Birthday

More to come on my birthday (although not too much more, I didn't do much).  This weekend I started my scuba training, next weekend I will be doing four dives around two different islands.  It will be sweet.  This is a poster that my students made for me, I am very proud of it and will probably ship it home.

The prettiest bird that I ever did see...

This is the prettiest bird that I ever did see. Unfortunately it flew into a window and died.

Vegetarian Festival

This morning  I went to a street processional that was part of the Vegetarian Festival.  The Vegetarian Festival is a Chinese holiday that took root in Phuket in the 1800s when there were many Chinese tin miners.  During  the procession,  the spirit medium performs acts of self mutilization through those involved.  These pictures are not for the faint of heart:

It will be hard to try and explain what I saw...

This first picture is o a man wit ha knife through his cheek.

The second one is another man with several scythes through his cheeks.

The third picture is of a man with a whole collection of knives through his cheeks.

The fourth picture is a collection of swords.

The fifth picture shows a man with firecrackers going off around him.  Beyond self-piercings, many people would dance on top of lit firecrackers or hold them above their heads.

The sixth picture shows a man who pierced his whole body with pins that have ribbons/beads attached to them.

The seventh picture is of a woman with several knives in her.

The eigth picture is of a woman with a round pole stuch through her face and apples on it.

The ninth picture is a man with a spear.

The tenth picture is a man who pierced his tongue.  Definitely creepy looking.

Baggage check anyone?  The eleventh picture is of a man who pierced himself with a suitcase.  There were many interesting objects used besides knives, including the masts of model boats, huge branches, hedge clippers, guitars (see picture # 12), guns (pictures 13 and 14), flags, clocks and just about anything else that you could think of.

The fifteenth picture is a man wrapped in barbed wire.

The sixteenth picture is of a man who either cut his tongue or lips and let himself bleed all over himself.

The seventeenth and final picture was the hardest thing to see.  It is of a child who pierced himself and was participating in the festival.  It was wrong...

If you made it this far, thnak you for looking at my pictures, but sorry if you are feeling sick.  I will try to make my next pictures a little happier.