Boat Racing, Teacher's Day, and Simon Says

How do other people do it? Write so well in their blogs, I mean. I see this blank posting before me and feel its blankness rather than feel inspired to fill it with my words. Maybe if I work in snippets of life?
Snippet 1: A week ago, we celebrated Teacher's Day. In spite of teaching at the school for such a short time, I joined in the festivities: watching students sing or dance, receiving gifts (I will never need to buy soap or laundry detergent again; why don't we give such useful gifts in the U.S.? Afraid of sending the message that the receiver has questionable hygiene? Pish posh), and playing sports with the other teachers (I performed poorly in badminton, I am sorry to say. In my defense, I was outmatched by an athletic and practiced opponent, and overwhelmed by the many watching eyes).
Snippet 2: Last weekend, I left Vientiane for a beautiful ride through the countryside and boat racing festivities on a smaller scale than in the capital city. Still, Saturday was an adventure. The riverside was crowded with booths at which to eat, play carnival games, buy this and that (remarkable how similar street fairs seem to be, the world over, yet how unique; like the Fremont Sunday market, this was, except for the heat and firecrackers and dishes washed in river water :)). We failed to see many races, but the several we saw-- traditional boats of 20 and of 50 rowers going all out down the Mekong-- were memorable.
Snippet 3: I tried to teach Simon Says in class today. I couldn't even manage to explain it to the english teacher who was helping me (so, when I say do something, don't do it, unless I say Simon Says...), but I think we had fun. The time passed more quickly than the listen and repeat drills that we've been doing and the students may have learned... well, I'm not sure what... that the strange foreign teacher will jump on one foot in front of the class with her eyes closed? We'll get to the real learning eventually, I think. First, I need to win their respect :)
Snippet 4: I helped make name tags for a class-- writing the Lao script in English. Phew. I wish English was phonetic. As it was, I could have spelled each name ten different ways. Think of "ough" and all the ways to pronounce it and curse English's non-uniformity of spelling with me. But that's what you get when I language is made up from so many others-- french words, german words, african words...
Snippet 5: I rode my motorbike last night to a meeting that wasn't happening. I would have been upset except that I was proud of myself for riding at night (a fear conquered) and had a conversation with a Lao shopkeeper. He spoke a touch of english and I think I did quite well with my Lao. My students wouldn't believe it, but I think I'm learning and may one day be conversational.