ippy

not to get too po-faced about it, but first up they need basic skills. They aint learning them by throwing paper aeroplanes about (unless of course theyre training for a career throwing shit into bins and having to factor in air resistance (though unfortunately no ones teaching them what air resistance is anyway so theyll just have to figure it out by also throwing it on whatever that job is - unless of course their job actually is to design and throw paper aeroplanes). Secondly every kid should have an opportunity to excel regardless of where they live. Its not a surprise that a great many of

Tefling on koh samui. Not much to tell ya. Been doing observation lessons all week. Id just be repeating myself by suggesting that the thai education system is a cluster****, and the lord only knows how they plan on staying some kind of power base in south east asia. I mean, ffs, fifty five 9 year olds in a class. I also saw a class for TWO DAYS that had a teacher for around 3 lessons out of 12 (two of them were my tefl colleagues). The kids just ran amok in their classroom or wandering about the school as you might expect any 9 year old to do. "Wheres their teacher?" "oh he didnt come today".

Grand Hirafu: 33 (+) Rusutsu: 2 (-)

i know, and im actually in a lovely hotel as well. aside the insane cost of taxis, its kinda nice compared to both bkk and the endless rain of trat. i might actually be... enjoying(?) it?

I love killing shit off... Kagura: 44 (+) Maiko Snow Resort: 22 Naeba: 0 (-1)

aside missing my first bus option (thanks to the person replacing me sleeping in, then upon arrival at his new digs pitching a fit and having to be consoled by the teacher chaperoning him to maybe not go straight back to bangkok), a largely uneventful 20 hours of travel thus far. Just got to catch the boat, then its taxi/pick up to my digs for the month. Snowboard bag is of course as annoying as ever mind you and i got no sleep, but the bowels have remained relatively silent throughout. Sorry dudes.

Next is (belated update because theres nothing to tell you), Koh Samui. Finished teaching on wednesday, the apostilles arrived this afternoon and was going to leave tomorrow, but decided id get the sleeper train 3/4s of the way there so dont need that day to recover in bangkok before the second half of the journey. So saturday it is! Im also ecstatic that i could literally decide to go to daveseslcafe and pick any job i like and probably start within the week if i wanted. All docs a go-go. But before all that theres the small not entirely insignificant issue of moving house with a gigantic 180

Kagura: 43 (+) Maiko Snow Resort: 20 (-) Naeba: 3

Kagura: 42 (+) Maiko Snow Resort: 20 (-) Naeba: 4

dont tell me, tell the haters!

Not entirely sure thats in the spirit of the game Grand Hirafu: 31 (+) Rusutsu: 4 (-)

Hows about any of these grouped up? Hakuba 47/goryu (since it won). Togari-Nozawa onsen (Nozawa/Togari). Shiga Kogen Iiyama massif (Myoko, madarao, ryuoo, kosha) Niseko United Zao Asahikawa and environs (asahidake, furano, kamui, Tomamu) Happo and environs (happo, iwatake, tsugaike, cortina, norikura). Yuzawa (kagura/Naeba/gala and the rest). Metabo can tell us the fukushima dream team. And im sure theres another tohoku spread out there. Isnt there a cool little resort near zao as well? Alas, im in no place to tell you.

to be a good subject it needs to have no fillers and genuinely have a bit of a choice. If youre going to be putting kagura up against the rest of the yuzawa minnows you need to start combining tickets. Taking the hakuba one as a for example, a norikura/cortina ticket would have given a bit more of a push against 47/goryu. Even better though, a tsugaike, iwatake, norikura, cortina ticket would have seriously challenged goryu/47 and happo. There needs to be a cosmological balance otherwise its just a grind to the obvious finish line.

Kagura: 42 (+) Maiko Snow Resort: 17 Muikamachi Hakkaisan: 2 (-) Naeba: 7

Im starting to think some of you have a pathological fear of shit ending? Let go... its over... lets move on to the next phase of our lives! Grand Hirafu: 29 (+) Rusutsu: 6 (-)

Kagura: 39 (+) Maiko Snow Resort: 16 Muikamachi Hakkaisan: 4 (-) Naeba: 9

Grand Hirafu: 28 (+) Rusutsu: 7 (-)

Kagura: 36 (+) Maiko Snow Resort: 14 Muikamachi Hakkaisan: 8 (-) Naeba: 10

Kiroro: 3 Grand Hirafu: 26 (+) Rusutsu: 6 (-)

Kagura: 36 (+) Maiko Snow Resort: 14 Muikamachi Hakkaisan: 8 (-) Naeba: 10

Kiroro: 6 Niseko Grand Hirafu: 23(+) Rusutsu 6 (-)

Kiroro: 7 Niseko Grand Hirafu: 20 (+) Rusutsu: 8 (-)

an hour and a half behind schedule, but the passport was returned with its brand new visa stamp, in one piece. No more visa runs (touch wood).

3 hours tue and thu 4 hours mon wed fri. And in thailand classes are an hour long, so no mucking about. They break for lunch at 11.30 though which is far more civilised

Having met aussies, i dont disbelieve you. For the first two minutes i couldnt understand a word he said. It wasnt uintil i started speaking in my english teacher voice that he replied "**** off! im aussie mate!" that i realised the situation. Whilst living abroad ive learned two new things about aussies (well three if you include the word bogan). First, you have snow. And second, you can actually be gay and australian (though you must hide it nevertheless behind accusations that the person youre talking to is gay, and insinuate that well, as a favor to me and not because youre actually gay, (