Although I'm well on my way to being able to yell in Thai, too.

Happy Boxing Day everybody! I spent this Christmas weekend the way every Christmas should be spent; in bed with too much food and too much tv. I was actually only depressed for about 7.4 minutes on Christmas Eve, and that was because I finished the parmesan goldfish my girl Kelly had sent me (I luuuurrrvvv you Kelly Bo Belly!). It was a pleasant surprise how well I dealt with my first Christmas away from my fam and friends and, most traumatic of all, my Sid. It's amazing what blueberry cheesecake ice cream and reruns of Speed can do for the soul.

Today is the 1st anniversary of the tsunami, and though I'm far away from the areas that were really damaged, many Thai people were affected and almost everyone knows someone who was affected. It's carved into the consciousness of Thais already, I've found, especially those who live in a coastal area and understand how closely coastal Thais are linked to the sea. The loss of fishermen's livelihoods continues to have an enormous impact on many small coastal villages in the south of Thailand. If you'd like to make a donation through the Red Cross to the thousands of people in southern Thailand who are still trying to recover from the devastation, click here. Not to go all mushy on you, but Thailand has welcomed me with open arms. It's only because of the care and generosity of Thai people that I've been able to live here and teach here without going completely insane. (I mean, I'm well on my way, but they've kept me from that final, irrevocable step to true insanity.)

Okay, enough of doing the right thing. Back to what I do best; sarcasm, cynicism, self-deprecation.

I was especially tired this morning. Probably a sugar overdose from my hedonistic weekend. (Oh man, how sad that I describe lying in bed and eating junk food as "hedonistic." I remember a time when a weekend only earned the title of hedonistic if it involved brightly colored drinks, pretending to be Russian in order to use the men's bathroom, falling down stairs or off a table, and screaming fights with strangers. How the mighty have fallen.) So I put an extra spoonful of the powdered Demon shit, i.e. instant Nescafe, in my cup this morning and now my hands are shaking so badly it's kind of freaking me out. I'm energetic though! Which is good, because I have Prathom 1 in a few minutes and those kids are nothing if not energetic. I can hold their attention for about 5.3 seconds and that's only through the sheer novelty of being yelled at in English instead of Thai.