Sunday, October 21, 2012

In Which Connor Is On Strike

Connor stayed up until past four again yesterday, and it looks like he's headed that direction again today.  So I apologize if today's blog is less-than coherent.  Luckily our night nurse is on duty this evening, so I'm going to actually get some sleep.  He napped in five-ten minute intervals during the day, so I couldn't really catch up.  I think it's probably the medication change that's throwing him off in a major way.  He's definitely becoming way more awake and alert as we continue to lower his keppra, but this is a bit too much of a good thing!

Thank goodness for night nursing!

Needless to say we didn't do a whole lot today.  I'm pretty sure that all the information I heard in my Thai class went in one ear and right out the other, but hopefully I retained a bit of it somewhere in my subconscious that will stick.  I'm actually kind of amazed I didn't fall asleep in class!  It's pretty interesting subject material though, so that helps a lot.

We worked on some phrases today, which will hopefully be really helpful on my trip.  I'm slowly gaining enough of an ear for Thai pronunciation so that I can at least hear when I'm saying something wrong.  Thai is a tonal language, so if you change the pitch in which you say a word it can change the meaning.  It has several consonant and vowel combinations that we don't use in English, so I'm still struggling to figure out how to make those sounds. 

My Thai accent probably won't ever be perfect, but hopefully over time I'll be able to improve enough to make myself understood.  I've been listening to a lot of Thai stations on my Internet radio that Jer gave me a few years ago, and I think that's helping.  On one of the stations they have a daily program that teaches English to Thai speakers, and I tune into every once in a while.  I figure it's something Ellen and I might be able to listen to together, since we'd both get something out of it!

Anyway, thankfully our night nurse has now arrived and I'm off to bed.  Hooray!

~Jess

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