Extended course description: This is a course that will change how you write papers, and how you formulate arguments. We will shed shed our amateur apparel and don the suits of professional researchers--creating arguments based in rock-solid research and writing sentences so profound that they echo when you reach the period.

Okay, there are less glamorous moments that we will have to trudge through. Nevertheless, you will be able to use your newly acquired research skills to make birthday gifts and delicious vinaigrettes.

This course is designed to teach you how to write and research as a scholar. Our focus will be on the research practices of communication studies, although the skills we learn may be applied generally.

I just pulled that off of my professor's website, which I have finally been able to open. Communication Research seems like a much more exciting class in the syllabus. Classes end next week, before final exams in two weeks, and I haven't seen anything about vinaigrettes yet...

Now I remember clearly what it is like to be sick. I had cramps, soreness, and lack of appetite until sometime tonight. The fatigue has yet to fade, unfortunately. Minutes ago I pad-locked my door and set-off in search for food, catching myself at the staircase shoe-less. That was the second time today I forgot I needed shoes. I'm not really sick-sick. Just half sick, half exhausted, from yesterday's Samut Prakan trip as an upperclassman / chaperone for the freshman orientation trip.

We went to Borahn City, an impressively large mock-up of Thailand. An amusement park that isn't terribly amusing. Pretty, informative, but more amusing. Most of the kids were dying of boredom and riding around in a trolley in the mid-day heat. Borahn City may well be the hottest place in Thailand, the trolley driver told me that.

Outside of freshman stuff, which is scoring big points with my dean, school is good. I am taking a Communication Research class. At the beginning of the course we observed commercials and PR plans but the second half has been and exact repeat of Statistics for Social Sciences which was a joke. Minutes ago, when I went outside shoe-less, I was going to meet a fourth year student who is in my research group. Ben brought 30 questionnaire surveys for me to translate and do something else with before Monday.

Tomorrow's plan: rest, drink electrolyte-enriched water slowly, and stay in my room.

Bangkok University won the Thailand Premier League this year. Not an intercollegiate cup, but the proffesional league. The equivalent of the Ohio State Buckeyes winning the Super Bowl I suppose. The trophy is now sitting in the middle of the campus on a card table. Students are free to lift it up, throw it around, and take pictures holding it with friends. Pretty cool. I'm now practicing with school team, but only the football team for my facualty, not the Premier League champs.

A lot has happened in the last month. The world cup kept me pinned to a friend's house for 4 nights straight at the beginning of the month. Lots and lots of stuff to do for school. Midterm exam two days ago. Actually, not a lot happened in June, it just seemed busy.

Yesterday I crossed a footbridge and jumped in an uperclassmen's car, on the otherside of the main road near my house. We picked up two of my friends and another uperclassmen and headed to Hua Hin and Pechburi, the beach. We all voulenteered to survey possible locations for freshman orientation, which meant a long day of sleeping in a car, listening to music, eating seafood next to the beach, and taking photos of a bunch of beach resorts. This is one thing I really love about life these days: everyday is different.

The day before yesterday, Friday, was a monk's blessing and fashion photoshoot. Again, an early morning start. Elevated train, subway, bus, then motorcycle taxi to P'Dang's new business. He has opened his own modeling agency, so I applied. The morning was spent with 3 monks in the main room of the 3rd story condo. They blessed the business and us, ate food, and returned to the temple. We were blessed, ate food, and returned to working on the day's models. One of which turned out to be me. I'm a photographer, not a male model, but the other 6 staff members had left already.

The PT kids made it over. Interesting group. Seems like nobody knows much more than the names of the other kids. Rob skipped the key "team-building" months that brought our previous groups together. Which might work out ok. The group this year may not have set any expectations for people, before going in this year, which could be a good thing. I'm going to go check things out Thursday, I think. Thursday morning bus, arrive late afternoon, 2 days/3 nights in the village, then back to BKK Sunday morning.