Dear Michi,

All is well over here, please let Pa and Mummy know and tell them not to worry.

Golden Sweat has been very accommodating with my nonsense and makes sure I get to school on time every day. He is very smart and helps me a lot, especially on grammar and phonetics. When I get too stressed with school, he encourages me. He also packs food for me when I am rushing for my assignments and makes Milo for me every morning.

I bought a new Paul Frank bikini on Saturday and have been swimming every day since. (Splurge, I know.) The pool water is cleaner after the rain, or maybe I can’t see too well at night.

The Pool - Day & Night

My classmates are awesome. I think it’s the Western culture. They’re very friendly and generous with compliments and encouragement. I’d love to say the same to them, and I truly mean what I say, but somehow I just find it hard to express myself.

I taught a new pre-intermediate class and got an “above standard” for my lesson today! It was probably my lesson plan that scored. I had a good warmer leading in to my context for teaching comparatives and superlatives and I used my students as examples. My little “invention” of a bigger or smaller game where they form sentences like “A cat is bigger than a rat,” or “My eraser is smaller than a rat,” went quite well even though I was running a little late into the lesson. The pre-intermediate students took a little longer than I’d anticipated for a worksheet they had to complete. I miss my students from the intermediate class!

Origami dice

Kenji visited us over the weekend and they helped me with these origami dice. I got the instructions off this YouTube video. School’s been absolutely exhausting and I have 3 lessons and an assignment due this week! Kenji and Golden Sweat went to Ayuthaya on Saturday but I didn’t join them. Just gotta tide over this week and the next two weeks will be more relaxed!

Working hard and healthy!

Love,
Jie