Stuff that is awesome

Coincidences are awesome. It just so happens that the girl staying next to me in the guesthouse sat next to Chris on his bus trip from the Plain of Jars earlier this week. I realized they'd been on the same bus when she started talking about having to stop the bus to go right a UN van whose driver had managed to flip it. She's Israeli, and when I told her I'd been to Israel recently, she almost freaked out. So we're having dinner tonight. Should be fun times.

Big Brother Mouse is awesome. There were so many foreigners visiting today, and it was a really good thing they did, because we had well over a dozen kids of all ages come by to practice English. I got another live one today. He wanted to practice his English flirting skills. A totally harmless kid, of course, but it made for very animated chatter.

My Library is awesome, awesome, awesome. I stopped in today, and it is one of the coolest learning centers I've ever seen. The place is small (they've had to downsize due to skyrocketing rents in Luang Prabang over the past few years), but it's chock-a-block with great resources and kids dropping in to take advantage of them. There are computers for learning tech skills, others that show popular English movies with subtitles so the kids can practice following spoken English and quick reading. For the musically inclined, there is an i-pod equipped with English music and scrolling lyrics so they can pick up English that way. There is a 3-dimensional "frog dissection" puzzle, a library full of books, a gallery of the kids' own photography, a stack of logic puzzles and math puzzles. It's ideally designed for developing both English and critical thinking skills, and the kids love it. The place was hopping when I arrived. I met a young lady who in a little over a week will be taking her first airplane flight to Bangkok, where she will start as a scholarship student, another young man who was novice monk for 4 years and is now working on improving his English for college, and a whole assortment of other kids. It's incredible. They love it, and many of them call it their second home. So I know what I'll be doing with my afternoons and probably several evenings for the next several days. And what an opportunity for me as a teacher - the place is a model for what a great learning environment can be, so you can be sure I'll be soaking up as much professional info as I can while I enjoy the company and energy of all these kids who are so motivated and hungry for knowledge.

On that note, if anybody out there is looking for worthy causes to send a contribution to for the holidays, both of them can really take even a very small donation a long way, so if my enthusiasm is contagious, take a look for yourselves:

Big Brother Mouse can be found at www.bigbrothermouse.com
My Library can be found at www.thelanguageproject.org