sri lankan dancing, guest speakers and lychees

Thursday June 5th

this week's been a little nuts.  not only have classes shifted into high gear (term 1 finals are less than 3 weeks away. yikes!), but we have a talent show next weekend and i'm one of 5 teachers that are taking part in a student act - a Sri Lankan dance performance.  every night we practice for about an hour...and thank goodness because even with all the practice we're going to look incredibly awkward compared to the students. ha. 

Today I also was the 'guest speaker' for our students.  Every thursday, or every other Thursday (depending on availability), the administration arranges for a guest speaker to come for an hour right after classes end.  Our students have had the opportunity to listen to some pretty impressive people so far, some that are rather important in Chittagong and Bangladesh.  Us teachers, however, have pinpointed that our students lack the ability to manage their time effectively - so i put together a 45-min presentation on the basics of time management and study skills.  

while i kept everything simple, and thought i might be insulting some students with just how very basic all my points were, i still had a lot of girls come up to me after the talk and since then in the hallways thanking me.  it's one of those situations that's stopped me in my tracks.  the students i have in class are pretty spectacular, and at times i really don't feel like i'mteaching them anything (just providing some entertainment...because they seem to think my facial expressions and explanations of terms and vocabulary is HYSTERICAL).  Yet simple ideas like 'avoiding procrastination by using a planner' and 'prioritize your tasks and write a to-do list', ARE completely new to them.  So that made me feel pretty good, at least i'll be able to do something for some of these students while i'm here - even if it is just to rub off my organizational skills (or the skills i know i should have/use). 

in other news, and to make sure a picture can go with this post, in our Bangla class yesterday we learned that the season we're in right now (right before the rainy season/at the beginning of the rainy season) is called "modhu maash " in Bangla.  Literally translated it means "honey month"...which pretty much means that every fruit that people love are in season and available EVERYWHERE.  lychees have become my new favorite, and we can pick up 100 of them for 250tk (rip off, white person price...they're usually 200-220tk), which is about $4USD.  most other fruits are cheaper - per pinapple, about 50cents, a kilo of apples, $2.  it's rather fantastic, and as much as i'm looking forward to monsoons, i'll be missing the ridiculous availability of fruit in a few months. 

this is how they sell lychees. in bunches of 50. according to local bangladeshis, you have to count them when you buy them because people WILL jip you. or miscount. 

they're sold at market stands, or off the back of wooden carts on the street.