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| Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 | | 9:32 am |
Chiang Mai : Day 5
This was our last day in Chiang Mai. In the morning, we visited some ruins of the old city.  I forgot what this temple was called but it was really old. It was built before Chiang Mai was built. ( Click here for more pics )Well, that's all. I hope you enjoyed the photos of my trip to Chiang Mai. | | Monday, March 3rd, 2008 | | 8:09 pm |
Chiang Mai : Day 4, part 2
That evening, we attended a really cool cultural event. You were served a delicious meal and afterwards, you could see several Thai performances.  Carlota and me at dinner. ( Click here for more photos )It was a really impressive event and I would highly recommend it to anyone ^_^ | | 9:55 am |
Chiang Mai : Day 4, part 1
On our fourth day, we went exploring on our own. The previous days, we had used a tour agency to see the sights. This is the Chiang Mai Culture Museum. It shows the history and culture of Chiang Mai. It was a very nice and interesting museum.  ( Click here for more pics )In the next update, you'll see pics of the cultural show that we attended that night. | | Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 | | 7:51 am |
Chiang Mai : Day 3, part 2
After the elephant village, we went to see the 5 hill tribes. Forgot what their names were but one of them was the famous 'Longneck' tribe. To be honest, I had expected a bit more from this. My idea was that we'd visit a whole village of each tribe. Instead it was just 1 tiny village with all the tribes together. You had about 1-2 houses per tribe, which were inhabited by a few old people who also ran a souvenir shop in their home. Anyways, it was still worth seeing.  ( Click here for more pics )As you can see, we visited a lot of places that day. So that night, we slept really well after such a long exciting and busy day ^_^ | | Saturday, March 1st, 2008 | | 9:32 am |
| | 8:55 am |
Chiang Mai : Day 2
Our second day in Chiang Mai was very calm. We slept in until 9.30 am. Around noon, we met up with one of Carlota's friends, Marco at the Siam Celadon Tea House. It's a really nice little restaurant with yummy cakes and refreshing smoothies.  Here we are in the gardens of the tea house. ( Click here for more pics )Well, that was all for day 2. I'm sure you'll love the next update. Day 3 was a very busy day with visits to an elephant village, hill tribes and much more ^_^ | | Thursday, February 28th, 2008 | | 4:45 pm |
Chiang Mai trip : Day 1
On Saturday, we arrived very early in Chiang Mai. After finding a very comfy hotel, we decided to go on a tour to Bhubing Palace and Wat Doi Suthep. First, we have BhuBing Palace, the royal palace in Chiang Mai. The royal family stays here once in a while. The gardens are absolutely gorgeous, full of flowers (mainly from Europe).  This is me and Carlota at the entrance of Bhubing Palace. ( Click here for many more pics )Hope you enjoyed the pics. As you can see, we did a lot on our first day. You'll see more of my trip to Chiang Mai in the next few days. | | Saturday, February 2nd, 2008 | | 8:40 pm |
Dinner at Fuji
Last night, we had a little get-together : first, dinner at Fuiji, a Japanese restaurant and after that, we went out for drinks.  The whole gang. ( About 10 more pics )Hope you liked the pics. | | Friday, February 1st, 2008 | | 1:31 pm |
My classes
This week was my last week. Next week, there are still classes but it's only 'makeup quiz' classes. So only students who missed a quiz have to come. So I took some class photos this week. My Monday classes.  ( Read more... )I'll miss them. They were able to give me a headache at times but overall, they were a good bunch.  | | Monday, January 21st, 2008 | | 12:17 pm |
An interesting article about the lives of flight stewardesses.
http://bangkokpost.net/News/21Jan2008_news02.phpI cut some bits out but here's most of the article. -------------------- "Cabin crew, prepare for a protest. Flight attendants are upset over the way their profession is portrayed in a new TV soap opera, Songkhram Nang Fah (The Air Hostess War), and will today make their feelings public. Cabin crew led by the Thai Airways International labour union will petition Culture Minister Khunying Khaisri Sri-aroon to get the drama pulled off the air. Acting union president Somsak Srinual said the Channel 5 show, in which female flight attendants battle to win the heart of a pilot, is humiliating and hurts their image. The crew of other carriers, such as Bangkok Airways, also found the soap opera objectionable. They feared it would discourage young people from entering the profession, he said. The drama first aired on the channel last Tuesday and ran for three days last week. Songkhram Nang Fah is scheduled to air Monday to Thursday at 8.25pm. The female lead is a charming air hostess, the envy of her co-workers, and a married pilot takes a fancy to her. Rawiwan Mala, who has watched the series, said the melodrama contains many scenes in which characters exact revenge, get jealous and fight each other. It would not do audiences any good, he said. Panadda Laochuwong, a mother of two, said the content was too strong and it should be taken off the air. It portrayed the flight attendants' lifestyle as scary and saucy. Darichat Jaikrajang, a Japan Airlines flight attendant, said the drama misrepresented the nature of working as an air hostess. ''Ability and discipline are far more important than physical beauty if you work as an air hostess,'' she said."------------- Interesting. I haven't seen this drama series tho I do wonder if my students have. I wouldn't be surprised if they have seen as Thai students LOVE Thai drama series. I have to admit that I'm a tad surprised at the complaints tho. One person said that the series contained 'characters exact revenge, get jealous and fight each other'. No offense but that pretty much sums up every Thai drama series that I've tried watching. Occasionally, I have watched episodes of Thai drama series (eventho I don't understand a word of it) and pretty much all you ever see is women giving each other evil looks, women screaming hysterically and getting into massive catfights. I highlighted the flight attendant's statement for one simple reason : It's quite refreshing to hear a Thai flight attendant admit that there is MORE to being a flight attendant than just a pretty face. You see, most of my students really seem to think that 'being good-looking or cute' will get them a job in airline someday. They believe it so firmly that it made me question if I was the one suffering from illusions. We all know that flight attendants in the West certainly don't get a job only for their fine looks. I've tried telling them that this isn't the case but they never seem to believe. Maybe now they will? Probably not but at least I know now that I'm not totally insane ;-) | | Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 | | 4:25 pm |
The story of the class that just didn't care at all.
My 'Tuesday at 3 pm' class officially gets the award of 'worst class EVER'. The class was quite small from the start: only 8 students. But it was a selection of 8 students that really didn't care at all. They never came to class. It was almost a miracle if I would have more than 2 students in my class by 3.30 pm. Most of the time, I would let my class out by 3.30 or 4 pm, simply 'cause there were too few students to teach. Some students hadn't shown up for class in 3-4 weeks. They never did their homework. Example : One homework assignment was to send me 2 emails over a period of 2-3 weeks. Out of the 8 students, only 1 student sent me both emails. One student sent me 1 email. The other 6 sent me nothing. Obviously, you can understand that their behaviour didn't endear them to me at all. After a while, I just started to get annoyed with them for wasting my time and efforts. Today, after 8 weeks, it was time for their midterm. I almost wondered if any students would show up and if they did, what on earth they'd present. After all, the past 2 weeks, only 1 student had showed up so she knew what had to be done for her midterm. The other 7 had no clue. Of course, at 3 pm, no one was there yet. The first student (who I hadn't seen in 4 weeks) showed up at 3.15 pm. I asked her why she had been absent and if she was aware that today, she had a midterm. She wasn't aware of it. As for her absences, well, she spent 2 weeks caring for her mother who's sick with cancer and the third week, she was sick with the flu. I told that next time, she is absent for such a long time, she should contact me. Nonetheless, I decided to still give her a chance. She can do her midterm next week. At 3.35 pm (!!), three other students showed up. These three had only come to class 2 times (out of 8 weeks). They hadn't bothered coming to class for 4 weeks straight. So I basically gave them the choice : an 'F' or a 'withdrawal' (meaning they withdraw from the course and do it again next semester) 'cause they certainly aren't going to get a higher grade from me. They choose to withdraw. Smart choice, I'd say. That still leaves 4 students who didn't bother up for class AGAIN. But you know what really annoys me? One of those students was the one student who DID know that today was midterm. That really shows you how much they care, huh? So yeah, this class deserves the 'Worst Class Ever' award. ----------------------- BTW This is just an EXTREME example of a lousy class. Please don't let this story give you the impression that my job is an absolute nightmare. It's not. My job is quite enjoyable, tho occasionally quite stressful too. Not all my classes are like this. In fact, this is probably the most extreme case of 'non-caring students' that I've known or heard of. Most of my classes really are quite nice and friendly tho a tad lazy at times. | | Sunday, December 23rd, 2007 | | 3:49 pm |
| | Wednesday, December 19th, 2007 | | 4:05 pm |
Beautiful flowers
There are some beautiful flowers in Thailand. Today, I got a chance to take some photos of the most beautiful flower in Thailand.   | | Saturday, December 8th, 2007 | | 6:34 pm |
| | Sunday, December 2nd, 2007 | | 11:29 am |
Collage of Culture 2007
Every year, the Webster university organizes a culture evening. Last night, I attended it. It was really cool. I also went last year but I think I liked this one a bit better. Last year had a lot of traditional dances and songs. This year, it was modern. A lot of people just performed songs in English or their mother tongue.  Traditional Thai dance. ( Click here to see more pics )That's all for pics of Collage of Cultures. Hope you liked them. | | Friday, November 23rd, 2007 | | 8:08 am |
No internet connection for a week.
On Wednesday, there was a small fire next to my apartment building. Nothing serious. No one got hurt or killed. Unfortunately, there was one small 'casualty' : the internet connection in our apartment building. I guess the fire must've fried it or something. So yeah, I wouldn't have internet until Wednesday or Thursday :-( So if you don't see me online or it takes me a while to reply to emails, now you know why. | | Friday, November 9th, 2007 | | 3:59 pm |
Happy Birthday to me!!
Today, it's my 25th birthday. One quarter of a century. 25 years of Els-awesomeness (just kidding). I feel kinda old now. I didn't really do anything special today as most of the celebrating was already done last weekend. I just treated myself to a massage and that was it. Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday!!! I appreciate it ^_^ | | Monday, November 5th, 2007 | | 7:43 am |
A birthday cake
Last night, Ray and Keri knocked on my door and brought me this .........  A homemade brownie fudge birthday cake with my name on it!!! They couldn't be there on Saturday but they made me a cake anyways. It's absolutely DIVINE!! Unbelievably good ^_^ Also, in other good news, I've finally finished correcting all my exams and such. I just need to add up the grades now, which shouldn't take long. So yeah, it's good to have that done. | | Sunday, November 4th, 2007 | | 9:44 am |
My birthday party last night
Last night, I had an early birthday party to celebrate my 25th birthday (my real b-day is on the 9th). We had dinner at this nice Thai buffet restaurant. Great food btw. This is the whole bunch at the dinner table.  On the left, front to back : me, Sheryl, Mark, Dennes and Jaime (end of the table in the middle) On the right, front to back : Scott, Tee, Tiff and Brendon ( About 12 pictures behind the cut )I did get a few gifts too, tho I didn't expect anyone to get me anything. Tif and Brendon bought a really nice necklace. Scott and Tee bought me the Bourne Identity and Bourne Supremacy (bootlegged) so now, my Bourne trilogy is complete! Mhahahaha! | | Friday, November 2nd, 2007 | | 8:31 pm |
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