Faith Hill.

I had my first class yesterday, English 210 or Oral Expression I. It wasn't until 2:30 in the afternoon, so I had all day to prepare for it, which was nice. I was pretty nervous when I first walked into the classroom, but the class only had about 17 students, so it was a pretty small group.

I taught at Wat Suan Dok the last time I was here, but this was the first time that I had complete control over my own classroom, all by my lonesome. The students are very, very respectful (they "wai" me every time I hand them a piece of paper), so classroom management isn't really an issue.

I went over the syllabus and course schedule and we did a few icebreaker games, and then I asked them to choose English nicknames for themselves (names that are much easier for me to remember!) We went around the room, and I came to a boy in the front row. "Faith Hill," he said. "You mean Faith?" I asked, somewhat confused. "No. Faith Hill," he said again with a completely straight face. Keep in mind that this is a male student. I came to the conclusion that he must be a fan, but I don't know that I will be able to call on "Faith Hill" in class without holding back a laugh.

CMU does not have classes on Wednesday, so tomorrow I'm looking forward to sleeping in, going swimming and meeting some of my monk friends at Wat Suan Dok. So it is almost like I have a three day weekend!