Past Perfect Continuous or Future Simple?
Yes, folks, now that I have been through two grueling weeks of grammar and much more, I am getting a cozy relationship with verb tenses. I was sitting at the computer in school and looking at one of the signs by the computer (Please just print one copy downstairs.) and thinking about the verb usage--present simple! I decided that now that I am to the point of analyzing print that I see and thinking about the verb tenses that others are using in speech, I have "arrived" with my knowledge of the 13 tenses and my Grammar Guru Greg would be proud. 
Greg, shown here at the board as he has been for many of the full mornings of my life in the last two weeks, has gone over all tenses with the best diction I have ever heard in my life ( pronouncing the end of words so clearly and distinctly) and with pure love of grammar! I have never seen anyone get excited about the subject of grammar until now and the man knows answers to any question you can throw his way and loves the intricacies of it all! Though I have gotten the tenses down, I am still working on understanding usages --is it "prediction with time mentioned" or "a gradual development that took place in the past"? And then... I have to have two teaching ideas for each verb tense. I can hear the crowds clambering to jump on a plane and come on over! Our test is next Monday-- Mary, Rudo and I will be doing our study group each night if we don't have to teach. Tomorrow I am going to make my diagrams of mouth placements of plosive, fricative and affricative speech sounds and get my verb chart finished as well as research my article and start to think of some game I must create for the last night we teach here.
And though Mary (Wisconsin), Rudo (Zimbabwe) and I study diligently and do our homework and get a decent night's sleep so we can be on time for our 9:30 class each day, there is a large contingent that are the extraordinary party folks. As Mary said, "The drinking here makes the college kid's parties at University of Wisconsin/Madison (voted the top party school in the USA) look like a tea party." I must admit to MY first two drinks out last night and a couple of games of pool with the large party bunch, but when asked--"Are you going on to 'Oasis'?"--the next bar in line --my answer was "no" and I was sleeping by 11 so I could go to the beach early today. Josh, one of the guys who is in the class and stays at the school here too, was doing some mixing of drinks last night at a bar called "The Pool" and then went onto the Oasis -- just popped his head around the corner --it is 10:36 AT NIGHT--the next night--and said he had just woken up from his late night last night and was going out for a bite to eat... did I go on to the Oasis? (i.e.--example of: party folks here/past simple)
The beach! We got a tuk tuk to Nai Harn beach for the three of us and had lunch under the shade of the trees then ventured out to that hard life under an umbrella at the beach. Reading, swimming, walking the beach, deciding which ice cream to get from the vendor passing by, moving the lounge chair so we won't get sunburned, chatting... all in a day at the beach.
Mary borrowed some snorkeling equipment to try it for the first time and now can put that on the list of things that she enjoys! 
A tuk tuk back.. and the driver stopped midway through telling us that he may have to get us another ride as something important (we were not sure which pedal/lever/button) was not working... but soon the wrench was out, and he was turning and pulling on some wire and metal rod and we were back on the road and delivered to the hotel.
Yup, it is still hot here and a quick walk anywhere brings beads of sweat. I drink lots of water, take cool showers, walk slower, and generally just get over it as it is the fact of life here... and you, who are back home enduring the cold and waiting patiently for spring, are (I'm sure) saying in your most comforting voice, "Oh, you poor thing." My room is on the fourth floor of the school and it is usually pretty hot by the end of the day... but I happy to report that the ants that invaded my room in the first few days (how was I to know that banana chips and crackers crumbs should not be allowed to fall on the bedspread? ...and that they got stuck there till the ants were enjoying a feast?-- or that they should not be kept in a bag that had any opening in it?). Red ants bite here and I was itching for days after the initial bites( I woke one night and got up thinking that mosquitoes were biting me, only to find unexpected company of about 50 of the red ants in bed). The battle began.. and I went out to Tesco Lotus to get some spray (off came the sheet and the mattress was sprayed) and some poison chalk (you draw around the bed post legs and the ants just don't climb up anymore--how ingenious)! I see cockroaches as I walk at night and I have seen the same dead (and drying out) brown rat on the sidewalk when I walk in the morning (I am waiting to see when it is gone--I am on day three).... but MY abode is free of even the red ants... so-- what is a little heat and a few other creatures!
There are many places that we all eat around here and one of my favorite it the coffee shop and bakery (those that know me well I am sure are not surprised by that!). I had to find a Thai person "off campus" to do a lesson with and Saw at the bakery agreed to do a lesson with me. So now, when I pass by, we always wave and then I am in for my daily coffee frappe. Mary, Rudo and I like to go there to study in the evening as it is air conditioned. Tonight I even felt a little chilled in there and I have not been even cool since I left Chiang Mai in the north. (I am leaving my fleece sweater here). There are other restaurants too...Chewy's (although Duncan found that they were charging the farangs more than the locals.. and just on principle people have boycotted that place), and Steak Samkong (whose manager is one of the students at the school--Lamp--a kind, nice man as the Thai are). Several of us tried a small Thai place that we were told had a great dish for about a dollar (with drink!)--rice and some green cooked vegetable topped with chicken and a small bowl of soup on the side. As Soly was finishing up the soup, she mentioned, "I don't know what these things are at the bottom (of the soup), but I don't care--it's good." And so the adventures c
ontinue....
Greg, shown here at the board as he has been for many of the full mornings of my life in the last two weeks, has gone over all tenses with the best diction I have ever heard in my life ( pronouncing the end of words so clearly and distinctly) and with pure love of grammar! I have never seen anyone get excited about the subject of grammar until now and the man knows answers to any question you can throw his way and loves the intricacies of it all! Though I have gotten the tenses down, I am still working on understanding usages --is it "prediction with time mentioned" or "a gradual development that took place in the past"? And then... I have to have two teaching ideas for each verb tense. I can hear the crowds clambering to jump on a plane and come on over! Our test is next Monday-- Mary, Rudo and I will be doing our study group each night if we don't have to teach. Tomorrow I am going to make my diagrams of mouth placements of plosive, fricative and affricative speech sounds and get my verb chart finished as well as research my article and start to think of some game I must create for the last night we teach here.And though Mary (Wisconsin), Rudo (Zimbabwe) and I study diligently and do our homework and get a decent night's sleep so we can be on time for our 9:30 class each day, there is a large contingent that are the extraordinary party folks. As Mary said, "The drinking here makes the college kid's parties at University of Wisconsin/Madison (voted the top party school in the USA) look like a tea party." I must admit to MY first two drinks out last night and a couple of games of pool with the large party bunch, but when asked--"Are you going on to 'Oasis'?"--the next bar in line --my answer was "no" and I was sleeping by 11 so I could go to the beach early today. Josh, one of the guys who is in the class and stays at the school here too, was doing some mixing of drinks last night at a bar called "The Pool" and then went onto the Oasis -- just popped his head around the corner --it is 10:36 AT NIGHT--the next night--and said he had just woken up from his late night last night and was going out for a bite to eat... did I go on to the Oasis? (i.e.--example of: party folks here/past simple)
The beach! We got a tuk tuk to Nai Harn beach for the three of us and had lunch under the shade of the trees then ventured out to that hard life under an umbrella at the beach. Reading, swimming, walking the beach, deciding which ice cream to get from the vendor passing by, moving the lounge chair so we won't get sunburned, chatting... all in a day at the beach.
Mary borrowed some snorkeling equipment to try it for the first time and now can put that on the list of things that she enjoys! 
A tuk tuk back.. and the driver stopped midway through telling us that he may have to get us another ride as something important (we were not sure which pedal/lever/button) was not working... but soon the wrench was out, and he was turning and pulling on some wire and metal rod and we were back on the road and delivered to the hotel.Yup, it is still hot here and a quick walk anywhere brings beads of sweat. I drink lots of water, take cool showers, walk slower, and generally just get over it as it is the fact of life here... and you, who are back home enduring the cold and waiting patiently for spring, are (I'm sure) saying in your most comforting voice, "Oh, you poor thing." My room is on the fourth floor of the school and it is usually pretty hot by the end of the day... but I happy to report that the ants that invaded my room in the first few days (how was I to know that banana chips and crackers crumbs should not be allowed to fall on the bedspread? ...and that they got stuck there till the ants were enjoying a feast?-- or that they should not be kept in a bag that had any opening in it?). Red ants bite here and I was itching for days after the initial bites( I woke one night and got up thinking that mosquitoes were biting me, only to find unexpected company of about 50 of the red ants in bed). The battle began.. and I went out to Tesco Lotus to get some spray (off came the sheet and the mattress was sprayed) and some poison chalk (you draw around the bed post legs and the ants just don't climb up anymore--how ingenious)! I see cockroaches as I walk at night and I have seen the same dead (and drying out) brown rat on the sidewalk when I walk in the morning (I am waiting to see when it is gone--I am on day three).... but MY abode is free of even the red ants... so-- what is a little heat and a few other creatures!
There are many places that we all eat around here and one of my favorite it the coffee shop and bakery (those that know me well I am sure are not surprised by that!). I had to find a Thai person "off campus" to do a lesson with and Saw at the bakery agreed to do a lesson with me. So now, when I pass by, we always wave and then I am in for my daily coffee frappe. Mary, Rudo and I like to go there to study in the evening as it is air conditioned. Tonight I even felt a little chilled in there and I have not been even cool since I left Chiang Mai in the north. (I am leaving my fleece sweater here). There are other restaurants too...Chewy's (although Duncan found that they were charging the farangs more than the locals.. and just on principle people have boycotted that place), and Steak Samkong (whose manager is one of the students at the school--Lamp--a kind, nice man as the Thai are). Several of us tried a small Thai place that we were told had a great dish for about a dollar (with drink!)--rice and some green cooked vegetable topped with chicken and a small bowl of soup on the side. As Soly was finishing up the soup, she mentioned, "I don't know what these things are at the bottom (of the soup), but I don't care--it's good." And so the adventures c
ontinue....posted by Tracy at
9:22 PM
