Turkey Day approaches

Man, I'm really bad about updating this thing now that I'm back in the States!

I'm chatting with Irene right now, who is nine days into her stay in Thailand. She put up a video of her shower on YouTube, giving everyone who finds it critical insight into the Thai way of life. What a tiny bathroom! Why is it that some cultures don't feel the need for a tub and instead just shower all over the floor, and in the case of the Thais, just use a giant squeegie to clean up the room after each shower? That was also my experience in Bulgaria.

Thanksgiving is coming! I am not going home, but rather decided, somewhat hastily, to host Thanksgiving at my house. Turns out that my friend Kate was going to invite me to her house and spare me the cooking, but I sent out my Evites before she could invite me to join them. So far only one person has responded positively and I expect only a couple more. I want to go to the parade as well and the weather forecast is very promising! Mostly sunny and 55 degrees...can't beat that in late November.

I have been building my presentation skills lately by presenting the job database and the on-campus recruiting process to the first year students. Shannon, my boss, invited me to present it with her since the assistant director quit. Tuesday night's group was about 70 people, which is by far the largest group I've ever presented to. Despite that fact, I wasn't overly nervous and everyone said that I was really good. A little serious, but good. Last night was the second presentation out of a series of four and the group was really small...maybe 25 people. Shannon said I seemed much more relaxed and in command of the room, which made me laugh. Have you ever had one of those experiences when you were talking in front of a group and you had no idea what you are saying although words were coming out of your mouth? This happened to me often as a teacher. I would never remember exactly what we discussed in class because I somehow managed to talk without thinking. I had the exact same experience last night at this presentation and at the time I felt as though everything I was saying was disjointed and didn't make sense. Thankfully the audience didn't feel that way.