Thailand is funny in terms of technology. There are some things here that are really behind technologically, like the fact that the internet is really slow and annoying, and that everyone deals in cash except for the really huge stores. But then there are some things that are really advanced, like my school. When I come in the morning, I do a fingerprint scan to sign in. I put my finger on this scanner, and hold it there until my picture pops up on the computer screen along with my sign-in time, I do the same to sign out at the end of the day.

What's even crazier is the way that kids are picked up at the end of the day. Every parent has a card with a barcode on it. When they drive through the security gates, that card is scanned, and the child's name appears on a computer screen in the office. The office then announces that child's name, and they come to the front to line up and wait for their parents. It is actually incredibly efficient, because the parent just drives up and the child hops in the car. Although it is efficient, it is completely chaotic at the same time. There are kids everywhere, waiting for their parents to come. They are technically supposed to sit in lines with their class, but that never happens, and they just end up running around and screaming. There is also someone constantly announcing kids names over the loud speaker. So from 3-5:30 every day, there is no silence in the school. In addition to the names being read over the loud speaker, there is a woman with a megaphone yelling the kids names again in case they didn't hear them. It is crazy. The teachers' bathroom is down the hall from the staff room, but in order to get there after school you have to pass through this chaos, so you just hold it because you know it's not worth it.

That little example actually describes this country pretty well. They have a lot of good ideas, but then they carry them out in ways that make absolutely no sense, well they don't make sense to us anyway.

My pictures still aren't up because, as I said, the internet is horribly slow, but I am going to keep trying and hopefully I'll get them up soon!

Back to work I go...