Good week

NOTE: Do not include SBTC (Small Business Training Center) on any mail you send me! Just my name. This makes it easier and faster to get from customs. That is all.

What a week. Somehow I had a good week despite the fact I spent much of it teaching grammar. I was recently reminded of the applicability of “Good Morning Vietnam”, when Robin Williams says, “I gotta get to English class, otherwise there’ll be a bunch of Vietnamese speaking in short choppy sentences!” We’re working on writing in class right now. Fragments and run-ons are perfectly normal in spoken English, especially in the sports world. It also makes reading my student’s writing a painful, confusing experience.

Then there was Friday night BS. I’ve already had more deeper conversations with more students in these first six weeks than I had all of last year. We talked about two parables—the wide/narrow gate and the rich fool (as an example of a guy who missed the gate). I love the parables, even for all their difficulty, their still just stories. And everyone can tell a story. Plus, you remember stories better than lectures even if you don’t understand them.

Of course, by Friday night, I’m pretty wiped out because we have BS ourselves that morning. Saturday is my day of recuperation, where I lounge around the house, read books, pretend to study Russian and play x-box.

I have yet to make it through an entire service at the local orthodox church… it’s one of my goals this year. Today is for Alana and I and planning lessons.

I am tired, but it is a deeply satisfied tired.