First Day of Class

I just finished my first day of classes, and I have to say that they went better than even I had hoped. The kids are absolutely great, though their immaturity, at least by American standards, is worse than I had imagined. I'm teaching freshman in college but they often act like 6th or 7th graders. I spent most of today learning names, and by names, I mean nicknames. The Thai first names are too long and tonal for a foreigner to easily pronounce correctly, and the differences between two names is often very subtle, with only a few tonal differences. As a result, every single Thai has a nickname by which their friends and family identify them. these nicknames are more often than not monosyllabic and very simple to remember, so I spent the first 10-20 minutes of each class asking each one of them their nickname and writing it down next to their true first name on my roster. I think I have already begun to memorize some of their names, but tomorrow will be a real test of my memory. I also got my hands on the work that still needed to be graded for these classes, so I have a good deal of mid-term exams to grade relatively quickly.
The weather here continues to be gorgeous, and while it threatens to storm every evening, as it is doing now, it seems unwilling to actually commit to a real rainstorm. Apparently it has been an unusually long time between storms, as this is the monsoon season, so this is a bit of a dryspell apparently.
The food here so far has been nothing short of excellent, most of it falling under the category of street food, which is by far one of my favorite things in the world. Variations on Fried Rice and Fried Noodles dominate the restaurant menus, and grilled meat and vegetables, usually on sticks, are available on most corners. Fresh fruit is also everywhere, including more than a few fruits I've never even seen before. For breakfast today I got a sweetbread roll, something that looked a lot like a bearclaw in form, that was stuffed with curried pork. Not the kind of breakfast I'm used to, but not bad at all! Tonight I will attempt to get a cellphone and a few other items that I need. Apparently haggling is not a lost art here, so I will have to put on my game face.