-^-for posterity-^-

i can't think of anything else to write. my back is sore, my legs throb and my feet feel like they've walked for miles. here is my life.

the semester begins and i teach three classes. i teach one simple listening and speaking class. the students come on time, understand about one third of what i say, jot things down in their notebooks and leave quickly when the bell rings. that class i don't enjoy teaching. i have to police them. i have to make sure they don't speak english. there's thoroughly too much giggling. giggling should be outlawed.

the other class is a business class taught to people who work in the people's committee. that's a wonderful class but a bit long. it stretches on for three hours with only one fifteen minute break. the students are all curious and ask millions of questions and their english is good. we can talk about things that matter. they do, sadly, have poor pronunciation. the same pronunciation anyone has who tries to learn a language when they've lost their young, malleable brain. their tongue will not adapt. their speach patterns refuse to change.

the last class just began. this is my biggest challenge. we're working on teaching the origins of westen thought. we cover books like gilgamesh, the illiad, plato, virgil, ovid, beowulf, dante and many, many others. the real challenge comes to the surface when we try to post on the internet. the class is streamed with a course being taught at bluffton college. i have the teams in groups of five and they have to write small essays twice a week. they post and respond to what bluffton students write. it's a wonderful idea but the logistics of it are mind numbing. this friday the internet posting begins.

i've also been organizing a movie night. we're going to show a movie every friday night for the next fifteen weeks. the movie night will be a huge success. a lot of students are bored silly on the weekend and rarely have the opportunity to watch a movie let alone a free one. the first movie night is tomorrow at seven. we're showing billy elliot if anyone's in the area.

after the movie, we're having an internet discussion. you see, they're showing the same movie at bluffton on saturday (if you're in that area, you might want to watch) and we're all going to go to a website and talk. organizing a movie night is difficult. i've, so far, written six proposals, attempted to translate them into vietnamese, failed, had someone help me translate them, handed them in and been rejected. 'but you didn't include this.' 'oh, who is going to bring the dvd player to the room?' 'who is going to sweep the floor after?' (this, honestly, was one of the main sticking points. i voulenteered to sweep the floor but they said it wasn't my duty. in fact, i think they were a little offended that i would volunteer. they said a person named cuoi would sweep and that they would pay her ten thousand dong.)

i'm tired. i'm going to sleep; hopefully it's not the same sleep that socrates talked about. i'm interested to see how this all works out. sigh.