As much as I often sometimes (ok– often) complain about my classes here, I must count myself as being so grateful that I’m not in any of the many other classes that I walk past where the teacher sits at the front of the classroom and, in a monotone, speaks into a microphone. Half the time, it seems like the teacher is reading, rather than lecturing, and just sitting OUTSIDE of the classroom leaves me feeling quite bored. By comparison, my classes are all wonderfully interesting.
I went to Kanchanburi again last weekend with my Thai language class for a “language camp” of sorts. We spent two days in Erawan National Park, which is the Yellowstone of Thailand, so to speak. The highlight of the weekend was the fifteen or so minutes that I had to myself while (waiting for the rest of the group to return from the waterfall) spent basking in the sunshine in the green grass in front of my bungalow. I miss the sun, really. It’s not the same in Bangkok. And I miss the quiet. And that sense of, after a fashion, oneness with nature. And for fifteen minutes, I had that. Quiet. Rest. Nature. Grass. Sunshine.
This is the 7th tier of the waterfall that we hiked up to: (–which was wonderful in and of itself– to be hiking. Using my legs. Walking through trees. I miss that.)
That aside, it was more or less what one would expect out of a language camp– language activities, Thai food, etc. I was with a fun group of other international students, which made the trip enjoyable. It would have been even better if I had slept on Friday night… by 11:00PM on Saturday night the Thai language activities were beginning to lose their appeal.
We also did a Thai cooking activity, which was a pleasant confirmation to me of the fact that Thai cooking is just a matter of having an intuition of knowing how much of which sauce to add to what meat. If I were to write a book, patterned after Nietzsche, it would be titled: Thai Cuisine, or How to Cook With a Blowtorch.
We passed the three hour bus ride back singing songs that we all knew. Even though, at one point, we were forced to resort to the Backstreet Boys, it was quite delightful. =)
As an observation that will receive no explanation, I might remark that too often the best of intentions are killed for an excess of thought and a want of action– but equally worthless is an excess of action and a want thought.
The end of the semester is coming up quickly, which means that I may actually be pretty occupied with schoolwork over the next few weeks, with end-of-the-semester essays and the like coming due. I have a research paper due tomorrow for my 400 level British and American Thought class. I … read the prompt this morning. It’s 2:50PM now. I’ll get started on it… sometime. Yeah. Some things never change. =)
It seems to me that all I ever write about is my laptop, and I’m hesitant to write about it on that basis, but I suppose I will anyway. So I’m on motherboard three or four or something, and my volume control buttons don’t work. It’s not really a big deal to me– of course, it would be nice if they worked, but being forced to —horror— click on the volume control is an endurable torture, and there’s nothing else wrong with the laptop. So I’m torn. Part of me thinks that its a shameful waste to have Dell replace the motherboard yet again just because a couple non-essential buttons don’t work– motherboards are not cheap, after all. But on the other hand, I’m really frustrated by the fact that, three motherboards later, I’m still having problems– the same problems that I’ve had with the previous three. So I dunno what I’m going to do. Ug.
Well, that’s about the news around here. It’s still quite warm, although cooling into the mid to upper seventies in the evenings.
Oh, did I mention? I discovered an amazing video store near campus– just a little hole in the wall, really, but with literally thousands of titles and a huge selection of independent foreign films. I’ve never encountered a video store (netflix aside, of course) in the ‘States that has a selection half as good. For example, they have an entire Clint Eastwood section– like fifteen or so Eastwood films. And international films– Fellini, Rossellini, Godard, Bergman, etc. Anyhow, after class today, I’m headed yonder there with my film-guru Modern British History prof, and he’s going to give me “viewing assignments” of sorts. If I don’t write an essay tomorrow, I’m thinking I may just shut the shades and go for my first movie marathon of the semester. Speaking of which, tomorrow is Friday. Huh. How cool.
when did these motherboard problems happen? i personally think that when kevin went to ireland and had to use power adapters it did some funky stuff to his. Perhaps when you return to the states you can get another motherboard and see if the troubles go quietly into the night.
You and me both, stayed up this past Sunday night to do a paper that was due by noon on Monday, sufice to say I watched two movies before taking a 4 hour nap and then did it right before class. We are masters at procrastination Mark, its a good thing!