Hello all! It's been a while; I've been busy and also a little stressed out (which I though was impossible with my life in Thailand!) I've been a bit anxious and emotional about some things and have fallen behind on my yoga and meditation the past few days. It makes a big difference. This weekend (Th-Sun) though, I'm going to do a meditation retreat with monks and nuns from Thich Nhat Hanh's Plum Village. I think this is coming at a really good time because I've been feeling kinda down recently :(
A few updates:
1. Its the end of the semester, so I've been grading like a madwoman and trying to make sure my students are ready for the exam that I don't write (and therefore have no idea what is on).
Something that did make me feel better though was some good evals from my students. Most of it is a scantron in Thai which I can't understand (yet!), but some wrote comments in English:
"I want to learn English with Alison next term and every term. I <3>
"you are very cute and you are the best english teacher for me hope to see you again"
"you are my very good teacher . I like you :)"
"we love Ali so much"
2. A good friend of mine got Dengue Fever so I spent the last 5 days taking care of him. He had a fever of 40C (around 105F) for 3 of the days and was ridiculously sick, but didn't want to go to the hospital! He's doing better though (due to my excellent care, I'm sure)
3. It turns out peace and non-violence really are the only way. After weeks of spraying the ants with this natural pesticide that I got and trying to kill them, I finally just put out a peace offering bowl of honey on the balcony and they have left everything else alone since.
4. My Thai is coming along well, I can read slowly (even though I usually don't know what it means) and my writing is decent. Today I wrote on the board in Thai and my class cheered for me :)
It was the last day of class since I'm going on the retreat, and so we had a party in my favorite class. Everyone brought in snacks and a couple of the students gave me presents. It was really sweet and I found myself really sad not to be teaching them anymore.
Now that the rainy season is coming to an end, we are getting some gorgeous sunrises
2 comments:
Hi Ali
So nice to read your blog. And ironic too, I am about to go on a meditation retreat too. We'll have to compare notes once we get out! I hope it is really good and helpful for you, and am so glad you are having such wonderful adventures (well, despite the ants, and the sick friend, etc)!
Mandy
Hey. As it happens, I'm going on a retreat as well... to Rowe MA, with Joanna Macy (again). This one's for 7 days. Wow. Hope things are still going great! Sorry to hear that you've been a little down, but the meditation retreat sounds excellent. Gonna send u a long email shortly, and some CDs by snail mail.
lotsa love,
Dad
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