Every morning I wake up to a red sun as I get ready for work; watching it rise slowly during the 3 minute walk to school. And every evening I walk home to a red sun beneath the thin clouds before hiding behind the 7/11 at the entryway to my apartment complex.

This isn't my view of the sun, but we do have a bridge just like this in Bangkok.

There's an old rhyme I learned in science class during my middle school home-school days that goes something like this: "Red skies in morning, sailors take warning; red skies at night, sailors delight." This makes me wonder, does the sky look ominous in the morning, and thus make people paranoid about what the day's events may hold? And seeing the red sky at night lead people to believe they will have sweet dreams? Regardless, what does it mean when I see a red sun in the morning and at night?? I'll have bad days but good nights? All things considered, if I had a choice I'd like to have good days and unremembered nights. But I guess we can't have it all.

Through the smog of Bangkok, I see the fury of the red sun. I feel it every day. The moment I step outside my door I am hit with a wall of heat and the sweat that accompanies it.

2012 New Years Goals (Resolutions)

It's back by popular demand -- my demand, not yours -- and as always there's more than one. In no order whatsoever:

1. Exercise more regularly (average of 3 times a week)
2. Use my prep time more effectively/hand back assignments quicker
3. Get rid of old clothes
4. Learn one song on the violin
5. Decide on a living situation -- keep the place I'm in, change the place I'm in (remodel), or move into a more spacious place
6. Loosen up when making plans with others
7. Figure out what I want in life/set my priorities (don't know if this can be decided by the end of the year)
8. Have better self-esteem
9. Be happy.

Unfortunately several of these can just be checked off at the end of the year. They will probably be continuous every year .

But now that these are out there, I'm trusting you to hold me accountable to them!

(For the record, I have so far kept to the first resolution strong) Three weeks in and doing good! Just 49 more to go.....

A typical taxi ride

I don't have much experience taking taxis back in the States, but here in Thailand, taking a job -- ie passengers -- is entirely optional.


So it should come as no surprise to me that three taxis passed me up before one stopped beside me as I stood on the sidewalk and picked me up. I've heard a number of excuses from taxi drivers -- too much traffic, they're not going that way, the destination's too far, too many of us trying to cram into one taxi, they don't understand where I want to go; and of course the ever present pay-a-flat-rate-of-anything-from-200-500-baht-or-I'm-not-taking-you-anywhere.

But this time, without saying anything, these taxi drivers' message was loud and uniquely clear: your bag is too big and I don't want to load it in my car.

Quick background: I had beanbag chairs custom made for my classroom. The students think the chairs are for them. Silly children. They're for me. I need a power-nap chair after lunch every once in a while. The second day I had the chair, some girls sat down and ripped a hole in the seam. Thus I had the arduous task of taking out much of the beanbag bubbles, hauling it down to the curb, shoving it in a taxi, carrying it through the night market, and leaving it there for a week while they repaired it.

And so there I stood on the sidewalk, waiting for a taxi to take me the 60 baht ride back to my apartment. Two taxis pulled up then quickly sped by when they saw the enormous beanbag chair in an even bigger plastic bag next to me. The third one only glanced at me then moved on. At that point, the motorcycle taxi driver motioned that he'd get me one, so 3 seconds later there was a bright pink taxi right next to me. (How do they do it? Is it a secret hand signal they're giving each other?)

After a few shoves, the beanbag was in and I slid into the front seat next to my wonderful old driver (the passenger seat is on the left side, by the way). He made dreadful small-talk that consisted of him repeating the same Thai phrase over and over again until I simply agreed with him i the hopes it would shut him up. I kept telling him I didn't know what he was saying, so he finally used his very broken English to ask me how long I've lived in Bangkok and to tell me I was beautiful.

I always get stressed when the taxi drivers try making conversation in Thai since my comprehension skills are embarrassing at best. I've memorized a few set answers, but when their questions go off book, I begin floundering. And this was one of those many moments. The ten minute taxi ride was quickly becoming more than the 60 baht I was going to pay him -- he actually expected me to make conversation the whole time!

Thankfully, he dropped me off at the front of the school so I could cart it up to my classroom. I gave him a 10 baht tip for helping me get it out of the backseat, directed him out of the parking lot, and practically ran up the front steps with a gigantic green plastic bag hoisted over my shoulder like Santa's bag of gifts.

Unusual experience? Not really. With the exception of the beanbag, taxi rides run the gauntlet of strangeness. I'm just glad they haven't kidnapped me and carted me off to Cambodia yet.

What to do?

Not exactly a grand entrance back into blogger's world, but after such a long hiatus, better to come back with the familiar: my famous lists.


Things I'm thinking about doing tonight as I walk down my hallway to my apartment:

1. Make something light for dinner
2. Go on a hunt for a Christmas tree/extra decorations
3. Contact a few friends via FB before I forget what I wanted to tell them
4. Write Christmas letters home
5. Clean my kitchen
6. Check if fridge food is still fresh
7. Start organizing Christmas gifts for multiple exchanges
8. Change my sheets
9. Grade papers
   
10. Weed out what stuff to get rid of for an eventual 'yard' sale
11. Should I sweep the floor?
12. Post this list on my blog
    

13. Or forget it all and just go to bed with a good book.


So many choices......

Soccer is my dream. Literally.

I've been terrible at posting consistently, and I apologize.

Now, through very droopy eyes, I have something worth writing about. I took the position as head soccer coach for varsity/JV girls this season. I haven't felt like I belonged as a head coach this entire time and it has caused me no little amount of stress. It has gotten to the point where I've been dreaming that my soccer girls have been coming into my bedroom while I'm sleeping and we have continuous conversations about soccer. I know they aren't there. I know I am dreaming them up. But no matter how much I try to ignore these phantoms, I end up talking out loud to them. It's quite unsettling to say the least.

Thankfully, I haven't dreamt about them in well over a week, but that doesn't stop me from thinking about them all the time. It's like when I was in high school and all I could think about was my crush. It drove me to absolute distraction and I hated it. While I may not be crushing on 20 girls (let's not be perverse now), I can't help but think about everything we need to work on, whether the girls are in shape, and if I'm showing them drills that are helpful in game scenarios. Needless to say, it's a lot to think about.

So far we've had two games: the first game was against BPS and we lost 8-4, the second game against NIST we lost 5-4. NIST had previously beat BPS 10-1. I don't know how we did so much better against NIST (who is supposedly the best in the league), but the girls are persistent to say the least.

The problem is, every single day I'm battling one petty problem after another with my girls. Someone can't make practice because of this conflict, others can't make the game because of another reason. Girls are getting "injured" left and right. Girls are quitting the teams; I am left without experienced goalies on both varsity and JV squads. Students are missing equipment and uniforms. Half the time, I don't know who's coming and who's going. I'm bound to have a hernia at any moment. And this is what brings phantom soccer players into my bedroom at all hours of the night.

And then the other day I met one of the many professional soccer players here in Thailand, (honestly they are in abundance since I've met 4 already--without tracking them down). He offered to help me with my team since he's off-season at the moment. Skill-wise, I'm sure I can learn a lot from him, but in terms of motivating the team to work as a team and be self-disciplined and whatnot....sadly, I don't know what he can do for them. Fingers crossed though.

My apologies for venting about my girls. I adore them more than I can say. But sometimes they are high-maintenance and some of them don't use common sense; or shall I say, 'soccer sense'....yes, I'm laughing at my own joke.

I'm hoping after these next three games this week, my dreams will be filled with congratulatory high-fives as they come prancing through my room at 2am.

Sometimes falling asleep is harder than it looks

It's always interesting the things I think about as I'm drifting off to sleep. Most of the time it's worth writing down, but the point of drifting off to sleep is that one eventually end up in La-La Land.

But here's a few things I remember thinking about as I fell asleep last night in the flat cot in our lovely hotel in Hua Hin:

• What I wanted to do before leaving Hua Hin
• How much money I spent (more than I wanted to, but still within reason)
• What my plan for Monday's classes are, and realizing I didn't do an important icebreaker with my homeroom class OR talk about what they did over the summer. Very important for bonding purposes!
• How I'm going to pull off being a head soccer coach. I'm not exactly creative when it comes to new drills and such...
• Racking my brain for said new drills to try
• Checking with the basketball coaches to see if they are using the outdoor basketball courts so I can use them for control exercises
• Not wanting to leave Thailand, but considering other ministry options God might have for me while I'm here
• Deciding how long I might actually live here -- just how long term is 'long term'?
• Thinking about all the other places God could send me and use me, and a potential hubby I could find there
• Deciding that marriage may not be in my future after all and being surprisingly okay with it

Somewhere in the middle of all that I stuck in my headphones and watched How I Met Your Mother to help me eventually drift off to sleep. Unfortunately, it didn't last for more than two hours, and then I began the cycle anew; albeit with different things on my mind.

It is both a blessing and a curse to constantly make lists in my head -- especially when I'd rather be falling asleep.

I'm a Thai superstar

My name is Lissa Scott and I just starred in a 3-minute Thai home video.

Around 4:30pm I walked home from my 2nd day of school. You have to understand, I live about 3 minutes, a parking garage and parking lot away from school, so getting home takes little effort or time. But along the way, as I was walking beside the open parking garage, I passed a cackle of teenage Thai students from a local Thai school. They had stopped to get ice-cream from a local vendor that I had gotten ice-cream from during lunch.

I was nearly to my building's main entrance when these kids come running after me -- "Excuse me, Miss! Pii kah! Excuse me!" -- a young girl in a typical white, button-down blouse and navy blue, pleated skirt was ten yards behind me. "Do you mind if I ask you some...do you have a couple minutes....if we ask you some questions?" She stumbled over her uncertain English.

I turned to her as three more students came hurrying after her, panting for breath. She asked for my time again and spit out rapid-fire Thai in a high-pitch whine. Two more girls ran across the parking lot like their life depended on it, a digital camera swinging from one girl's wrist. A boy looked at me hesitantly, then asked if I lived in Parkland.

"Yes I do." I was tempted to answer in Thai, but refrained.
"Are you a teacher?"
"Yes, at the international school right there," I pointed in the direction of the school.
"My name is ....., and I am a student at -some Thai school- and we would like to ask a few questions."

The students kept turning to one another, rapidly speaking complete gibberish. Another camera appeared -- this one of the video persuasion -- and all six teens gathered in a circle to quickly play a round of "Rock-Paper-Scissors" to decide who would do the actual interviewing. Apparently the boy who first asked if I live in Parkland lost (or won, depending on how you look at it), because he pulled out his notes and began instructing the others on where to go and what to do.

Both cameras came out and a girl tried to figure out where she should stand with the cue notes so her partner could see them. With the girl hovering right beside me, my interviewer asked 4 questions in halting English about Parkland.

I smiled, answered in simple sentences, and used my best Thai accent. And just like that I was made into a Thai superstar featured in a school project.

It reminded me of assignments I've given out before, and will give out again this year. Ah, to be a student forced to interview strangers in a foreign language about meaningless things....the good ole days.