First Day of School (Again)

Well, I'm back teaching at the secondary school again.  Monday was our first day of class, however we couldn't do much since so many students were MIA, in particular almost all the boys.  The teacher said that usually happens on the first day back.  It did give us an easy day to socialize before official teaching begins.

While talking with the teacher, formerly known as Yuphaporn, she told me her new name is Pitipatakan, "Pat."  That's right, over the break she changed her name.  Funny enough this goes back to the whole fortune teller business.  After the psychic had advised me to make merit by releasing turtles, I had gone to the temple with Yu/Pat so the turtles could be properly blessed.  The monk told her that previous bad luck she experienced was stemming from her name and advised her to change it, so she did.  Who knew so many turtle expenditures and name changing fees (plus getting new credit cards, bank cards, etc) would come from a $1 psychic visit!!

* random story - As I was running on Monday, guess what I should see by the side of the road ... a 3ft dead lizard.  It was huge and its purple tongue was hanging out.  I finished my run, then raced back on bike to take a picture (since how often do you see a gigantic lizard like that?!).  It was barely 7a, and only 1/2 an hour since I'd seen it, but somebody had already taken it - alas!  I looked sadly down at the drag marks.  Who knew a dead lizard would be in such demand?!