Mid-terms and Monsoons

I thought I hated mid-terms when I was in school. I didn't know what hate was until I had to grade three sections of English mid-terms. Like every other english teacher here at Assumption University, I spent my week grading mid-terms. Grading on the bus, grading during breakfast, during lunch, during dinner. Grading in the classroom, grading in the bedroom, grading in the elevator! the number of tests was not nearly so frustrating as the quality of the responses, or, should I say, the attempts at responses. Much of our time was spent deciphering just what it was the student in question was attempting to say. Which wasn't always anything at all to do with the question they were answering, because they're reading isn't much better than their writing. Add to that the fact that the test itself is rife with awful sentence structure and poor grammar because the silly Aussie who wrote the exam is even more incompetent than the rest of the administrators here, which is saying something. But that's the subject of a different post to come in the relatively near future. Anyway, I am glad to finally be done with those. In the mean time my other assignments have been piling up on me, so the grading is not nearly done. I am happy to report that a little over two thirds of my kids are on a path to pass the class. I can't take any of the credit for that, since I just started with them, but if I can keep them on that path I'll have a higher than average pass percentage. Which, from what I can tell, will be frowned upon by the English Department which apparently looks to fail somewhere around 50% of the basic english students.
It wasn't all work though. Last night four of us went to Ponthip to buy some DVDs and get dinner at an Italian restaurant. The food was definitely Italian, and by that I mean expensive and more pomp than circumstance. We had another fun ride on the Khlong, which is a much better ride during rush hour when the boats are so frequent that the collective wakes send water up over the canal's banks. I also got to ride on the back of a Bangkok Mini-Bus, which is a covered pick up truck. And by "ride on the back of" I mean stand on the metal running board and hold on to the outside. Like I've said before. Enclosure while traveling at speeds isn't really an appreciated concept in this country.
At the moment there appears to be a large thunder and lightning storm headed our way. As this is Monsson season this isn't that unusual. However, it hasn't rained here in two and a half weeks, which is unusual, so the Thais seem very excited about this storm. I guess I can understand. If you lived in San Diego and the sun didn't come out for two weeks you'd get pretty excited about it's return too! And while I share their excitement over a good rainstorm, it's time for me to get inside, because my laptop doesn't react too well to Monsoon conditions!