The same old...

I'm out of blogging rhythym and don't think I could write a truly unified-theme blog, especially on a hotel computer, if I wanted so instead, more of the same scattered thoughts.

The honeymoon of going to the big city for vacation is over. The malls, the palaces, the restaurants are all less thrilling than they were since we first ventured out of our "little" hometown.

I found a baseball bat and softball today at the bookstore. Unfortunately, the only gloves they had were for kids. Anybody have an old baseball glove they're not using? Or ifI could find a mushball (one of the large softballs they sometimes use at highschools so they don't have to shell out the big bucks for gloves), I wouldn't need a glove.

The only non-business English books I could find were the Greatest Works of Oscar Wilde and The Greatest Works of H.G. Wells.

If you refer to God as the "Great I am" here, you may accidently be calling him the "Great Chicken."

My top criteria for finding a hotel is now whether their pool has a slide.

My language learning is progressing to point where I can usually answer all the bus-ride-length questions a person typically asks (where are you from, how long have you been here, may I purchase your wife (kidding)) but at times my mind simply shuts off to the local language and I stumble through even those easy questions.

I mentioned the other day to Amanda that if she were to lose me to another woman, it would have to be to an Asian featured woman with an Australian accent. "If I were to lose you...?" she responded. "You mean, 'If I were to give you to...". I stand corrected.

I agreed that if I were to give Amanda to someone, it would be that crazy old guy in our city who walks around in an ill-fitting loin cloth. If she's nice...

I find it tough not to compare our language school to highschool...on fast forward. Instead of 4 years, people are around for a maximum of nine language units, each lasting about a month. The "seniors" have been around for a year at most but some people only take a unit or two before trying another program, going to work or simply dropping out. It was fun to see the freshmen group of eight come in last month all nervous and green. Here cliques aren't based around sports or GPA, they are based on who you work for or where you'll eventually work in the country or your national origin. There are the kids who have a ton of extracirriculars (in our case a child but they might also include a house in need of repairs, neighboorhood obligations etc) and those who seem to do nothing but study. Some you meet and think they'll never make it through while others seem to have such a grasp on the material that you wonder what they still need to learn. It's really a curious little group.

Odd to say that after two days of vacation, I miss home and that after less than a week out of school I miss the classroom.

I find myself really missing teaching and am actually looking forward to starting some initial informal interviews with universities next week. Keep that in your thoughts.