So last night after getting off the phone with my family I had an adventure in my bedroom! To explain I have to go back to Tuesday night (I think). On Tuesday I walked into my room to get ready for bed and as I went to turn off the light I was confronted with the most terrifying sight I've seen in Thailand. About a foot under the light switch was a HUGE HAIRY SPIDER! This thing was about the size of my hand! I jumped when I saw it but decided to go get a bowl and just throw it out of the apartment...but no! As soon as I took 1 step towards the door the spider SPRANG off the wall toward me causing me to scream (usually creepy crawlies don't even make me bat an eye) and then he scurried into my wardrobe...and I couldn't find him again!

So last night I walk into my room again and there he is...the spider is sitting in the middle of my floor! So I backed out of the room and grabbed my camera and a bowl...I snapped a few pictures and then tried to capture him with the bowl. Sadly, this did not go as planned! The damn spider ran away and hid up by the ceiling...and there was no way I was going to be able to fall asleep knowing the creature was right there above me! So I went back out of the room and grabbed my lethal bathroom cleaner and my 'Off: Deep Woods DEET 40' bug spray (it's got a better range than the bathroom cleaner). Once I had my supplies I went back into the room and assaulted the spider with chemicals until I was able to trap it in the bowl and pitch it out of my apartment!

I probably killed the spider and my room smelled like a camping trip afterward but I was able to sleep calmly. After some research I believe it was a cane spider which eats cockroaches (good) and baby geckos (BAD!), so he had to go even if he was harmless to me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cane_spider

Pictures of the scorpion, spider, and Loy Krathong coming soon!

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So Sunday was Loy Krathong again. The sky was lit up with floating lanterns and the river was covered with handmade banana leaf boats.

I started the evening at the schools celebration. I got to see the giant Krathongs the students made and see the girls (and a few boys) dressed up for the beauty contest. They were all beautiful in their traditional Thai outfits. Most of them were wearing the sparkly Thai 'evening' gowns but a few had on more playful costumes.

Then I went down to the river with some of my students. I was on the back of one of the students bikes since mine decided to kill itself on Friday. Getting to the river turned into a playful race as we swerved in and out of traffic...occasionally driving in the wrong lane. We were all laughing and making faces as we got down there...the race wound up being a tie. Then we walked along the river looking at all the different Krathongs we could buy before we all settled on some dyed lotus shaped bread ones.

Once we had our krathongs we snipped off some hair and part of a nail to get rid of our bad karma. Then we got onto a long boat and went to the middle of the river to light the candles and set the krathongs free. The boat ride was frightening and fun at the same time...I cringed and Sai shrieked every time someone shifted which made the boat feel like it was going to flip over.

After making it safely back to the shore we walked around some more. Grabbed some snacks and relaxed until about midnight. Then it was time to go home and get some sleep.

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Well besides arguing with my boss on Friday and catching a cold I had a fantastic weekend!

I started my weekend on the rainy night of Thursday. It wasn't raining that hard when I left so I pulled on a rain poncho hopped on my motorbike and battled my way into town for pub quiz. Of course it began raining harder as I drove but it didn't stop me from making it all the way into town. I had a blast a pub quiz with my random team of awesomness...we surprisingly got 3rd place (at half time we were 5th or second to last). Sadly, this was the last pub quiz for both Paul and Kelsey...they both left on Sunday to return to their homes.

On Friday night I trekked back into town for Korean barbecue and got completely lost. I wound up going about 10 minutes too far before I turned around. It started raining lightly during the time I was lost:( I finally got to the barbecue house just as everyone showed up :D We had a blast eating and chatting...even though Andre insisted that my name is Jessica again. After gorging on the 99baht all you can eat/cook buffet we followed the guitar player to his friends restaurant/bar. We hung out there for the rest of the night (the guys played with the guitars and played random songs). I wound up leaving first at 1:30 cause I was exhausted.

When I got home I got a scare! As I was walking towards my sink to brush my teeth I just happened to look down and saw my foot hovering over a scorpion (How did it get to the 5th floor!?)! After looking down at it like a deer in the headlights I promptly changed course for the kitchen. I grabbed a small bowl and flipped it over the scorpion. I watched him scurry around his little cage for a while before getting ready for bed. Before bed I looked at him again and saw that he was collapsed on the floor (seemingly dead). For some reason I decided to leave the bowl on him over night.

Saturday I woke up with a cold :( but that didn't stop me from having a good day. I checked on the scorpion 'carcass' and thought I was going crazy cause it didn't seem to be in the same place as it was when I went to bed (but I was slightly sleep deprived so I left the whole thing alone). That night I went out to Coolin' Out bar for Paul's goodbye 'party'. I had a great time hanging out with everyone and making new friends. Time flew by and before I knew it, it was 2:30am! Well at 2:30 almost everyone had moved on to new places so I decided to head home.

Sunday morning I decided to sweep the scorpion 'carcass' out onto the balcony. So I removed the bowl and the damn thing sprang to life and bolted! Which scared me to death! I jumped, yelled, screamed and then chased it down and got the bowl back over the faker scorpion. After he was trapped again I slid some paper under the bowl and threw him off my balcony!

It was a good weekend minus the scorpion scare!

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So this semester started with a number of headaches which have just gotten progressively more frustrating. All of these headaches have been predominately caused by the ineptness and disorganization of the PSU registration system.

Headache #1: trying to figure out my teaching schedule.

Now you would think this would be an easy thing. You'd assume that before classes started I would have student lists and know which classes would be canceled because of a lack of students. However that's not how things seem to work anymore. We have to wait for the first week of classes to be over just in case the sneaky students decide to not sign up for their classes until the end of the first week, effectively putting everything a week behind! Then we have to tell them during week 2 that we are closing the class and they have to find a new class.

Now I remember being in college and having to register before the end of semester to be considered a student for the next semester. But, obviously that doesn't happen here. I also remember getting emails during the break about classes being closed for lack of students and that I was being removed from the course, well before the semester started.

SO, the registration system is a mess that needs to be organized to cause less confusion before a semester starts.

Headache 2: Dealing with my boss who wants to suddenly give me new classes 3 weeks into the semester.

Ok I understand that AJ.Tim suddenly had an emergency and had to be hospitalized (baby issues). But, we already knew she was VERY pregnant before the semester started and by doing a little bit of research they would have known that she might have complications since this baby #2 in less than 18 months. They should have had a contingency plan just in case she couldn't finish teaching her classes before she took maternity leave. But, NO we can't plan ahead for a just in case...since Becky had to cancel a class she can suddenly take this one over even though it's at the same time as another class she IS teaching.

I had to explain to my boss that I cannot teach the class and that it is impossible to move the class since the students are all from different majors and will not all have the same free time. On top of that I do not have time to figure out how to teach this class and make a midterm in the time I have before I go home for vacation.

Headache #3: Still dealing with my boss who wants me to teach a short BS class after I get back from my trip.

After she gave up on the real class my boss wanted me to teach some work practicum course that they just decided to suddenly add more sections of after midterms. I cannot figure out why they decided to do something so asinine since we are lacking in staff and half of the staff is already working overtime every week.

During this half of the conversation I had to point out that again I will not have time to plan this course. I also would not have time to teach it since I have to do make up classes, grade midterms, and make finals after I get back.

It would make much more sense to me to put these extra classes off until next semester and to stop offering so many classes each semester so we stop running into the problem of not enough students in each class.



Having to to put up with this 2 semesters in a row has made me start to rethink staying here for so long. I still love my students but I'm getting really sick of the office BS and the inept people who are in charge of my department.

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So recently Thailand has been getting slammed with rain...and by slammed I mean it's rained for a majority of the day everyday for a week. Yesterday we had an almost consistent 36 hours of rain. This led to the schools in town getting closed for 2 days...sadly PSU was open both days (but a lot of students didn't show up yesterday). All this rain has made it so I've been cooped up on campus and when I do go out for a walk (cause there's no way I'm driving in the rain) I get soaked. Luckily the town hasn't flooded yet...I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Today the rain stopped at 8ish and didn't start up again until 3:30ish. Unfortunately I have terrible timing! I decided I should take the bike out and get gas since it needed to be used after almost a week of sitting. So I made it all the way to the gas station and almost home before I got hit by the rain. It sneak attacked me!

If this rain keeps up I'm going to have to turn in my motorbike for a longtail boat or start swimming into town.

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