Long time, no see

I know, I know... I am AWFUL at keeping this blog up to date. It's not that I don't want to share. Like I've said before, I really don't feel like there's much to write, it's a pretty normal life here, nothing exceptional really goes on. My last post shared some of the difficulties that this year has brought. My students are more challenging that I anticipated and much of my time and energy has gone to figuring out the best way to discipline them and get them to act properly so that they can learn. We're getting there, but it continues to be a daily struggle and a huge drain. I also have a huge class (for Thailand) with so many levels of ability, so there have been many days where I work from 7:30am-9:30pm or later trying to get everything graded and planned and put together. There was also a flood that caused a ton of problems in Thailand. I was here for the beginning of it, but then I went home for October break (2 week break at the end of our first semester) and it got worse and school got cancelled for 3 more weeks. Some Thai schools just started back last week. There has been a lot of damage all over the country because of it, although the area immediately around me is okay and our school was not affected. But with the missed weeks, it has left all of us extremely behind. We have certain standards for each subject that we are required to meet and have an artifact to prove we met it, and I am struggling to make sure everything gets taught. All of this to try and excuse the fact that I haven't written in 5 months, and I apologize. It's not all bad. There have been a lot of good things... The Christmas program was amazing, I got to spend Christmas at home, my students can be quite funny when contained and at the appropriate times, and an awesome new mall opened up. I started working with the youth group at church, I've been on a few habitat for humanity projects, I've continued to decorate my room/house to make it feel like home, and I just signed another contract to return for another year. As soon as I have a bit more time and have gotten my pictures and videos downloaded and such, I will post some more fun exciting posts that aren't quite so... drab and sad.