Mormon Tabernacle Choir

The first broadcast of Music and the Spoken Word was on a hot summer afternoon in the Tabernacle on Temple Square, July 15, 1929. The announcer climbed a ladder to speak into the radio station's one and only microphone, suspended from the ceiling. He stayed perched on the ladder throughout the half-hour program. An audio engineer was alerted by telegraph when to start. Hand signals cued the announcer. He began, "From the crossroads of the West, we welcome you to a program of inspirational music and spoken word."
Those words, first spoken eight decades ago, still open the program, Today Music and the Spoken Word is the world's longest continuing network broadcast, carried on more than 2,000 radio and television stations and cable systems. It has been broadcast from locations across the country and around the world. Through all the ups and downs, twists and turns of four generations, this broadcast has lifted spirits, comforted souls, and brought millions closer to the Divine. Every week since 1929, listeners young and old have tuned in to a familiar station and found a trusted friends-the Choir's broadcast of Music and the Spoken Word.
Vocabulary
broadcast = ออกอากาศ
announcer = ผู้ประกาศ
suspended = แขวนอยู่
perch = อยู่บนที่สูง
crossroad = ทางแยก
inspirational = ที่บันดาลใจ
decade = ทศวรรษ
ups and downs = ชีวิตขึ้นๆลงๆ
twist and turn = หมุนไปหมุนกลับ
generation = ยุค

Boston

Boston, the capital and the largest city of Massachusetts, is one of America’s oldest cities. Rich in economic and social history, Boston is regarded as the unofficial ‘Capital of New England’ for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region.  Boston has become the economic and cultural hub of New England with over 617,000 residents and many institutions of higher education. In 1630, Puritan colonists from England founded the city on the Shawmut Peninsula. During the late 18^th century, Boston was the location of several major events during the American Revolution, including the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party. Many cultural tourist sites attract a great number of visitors every year, including the Freedom Trail, Prudential Tower, Paul Revere House, Harvard University and Fenway Park. 

Freedom Trail

The Freedom Trail is a red brick or painted path through downtown Boston which connects sixteen nationally significant historic sites. Originally conceived in 1958 by local journalist William Schofield, the 2.5 mile trail stretches from the Boston Common to the bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown. It is one of America's first historic walking tours; tells the story of the American Revolution and beyond. 

Prudential Tower

Prudential Tower is called 'the Pru' by many Bostonians. This 52-story skyscraper is home to the world famous Top of the Hub Restaurant and Skywalk Observatory. The tower was designed by architect Charles Luckman and Associates for Prudential Insurance. Completed in 1964, the tower is the 26th tallest building in the US as of 2008.

Paul Revere House at 19 North Square is one of the few remaining homes from colonial America. This distinctive wooden structure stands out among all the tall brick buildings that populate this North End neighborhood. Paul Revere, best known for his midnight ride to warn of the British troops' march on Concord, owned the home from 1770 to 1800. 

John Harvard Statute,
Harvard University

Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the US. It is also the first and oldest corporation in North America. 

Fenway Park is the world-famous home of the Boston Red Sox, located on Yawkey Way in Boston's Fenway neighborhood. Built in 1912, it is the oldest ballpark in all the major leagues. There are several unique features inside this ballpark, including Peksky's Pole, the manual scoreboard, the Lone Red Seat, and the 37 foot-high left field wall known as the Green Monster. 

 Vocabulary
economic = ทางเศรษฐกิจ, regarded as = เปรียบเสมือน, unofficial = ไม่เป็นทางการ, impact = ผลกระทบ, hub = จุดศูนย์กลาง, resident = ผู้อยู่อาศัย, institution =  สถาบัน, puritan = ผู้เคร่งครัดในหลักศีลธรรมจรรยา, colonist = นักล่าอาณานิคม, massacre = การฆาตกรรมหมู่


downtown= ในเมือง, significant = สำคัญ, journalist =นักข่าว, trail = ทางเดิน, monument = อนุเสาวรีย์, Bostonian = ชาวบอสตัน,  skyscraper = ตึกระฟ้า, observatory = หอสังเกตุการณ์ , architect = สถาปนิก, distinctive = โดดเด่น


wooden structure = โครงสร้างที่เป็นไม้, stand out =  ยื่นออกมา, midnight ride = การขีม้าตอนกลางคืน, march = เดินแถว, legislature = สภานิติบัญญัติ, neighborhood = บริเวณใกล้เคียง, league = กลุ่มที่รวมตัวกันเพื่อการแข่งขัน, manual = ที่ทำด้วยมือ, scoreboard = กระดานคะแนน, monster = สัตว์ประหลาด

Independence Day

The Fourth of July or variously known as Independence Day has been a federal holiday in the United States since 1941. In June 1776, representatives of the 13 colonies fought in the revolutionary war and declared independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain with the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. It has been celebrated as the birth of American independence and is commonly associated with firework, parades, barbecues, carnivals, fairs, picnics, concerts, baseball games, family reunions, political speeches and ceremonies.  Independence Day is the national day of the United States. 

Vocabulary

federal holiday = วันหยุดของสหพันธรัฐ

representative = ตัวแทน

colony = อาณานิคม

Revolutionary War =  สงครามปฏิวัติ(อเมริกัน)

adoption = การรับเอา

Declaration of Independence = การประกาศอิสรภาพ

celebrate =  เฉลิมฉลอง

associate with = เกี่ยวข้องกับ

firework = ดอกไม้ไฟ

family reunion = การมารวมกันของครอบครัว

Norman Rockwell Museum

Norman Rockwell Museum houses the world’s largest and most significant collection of original Rockwell art. Highlights include enduring favorites from Rockwell’s Saturday Evening Post covers, the powerful Four Freedoms, and the nostalgic Stockbridge Main Street at Christmas. The Norman Rockwell Archive contains more than 100,000 photographs, letters, and other rare mementos.
A visit to the Museum is an uplifting experience. Founded in 1969 with the help of Norman and Molly Rockwell, the Museum is dedicated to the enjoyment and study of the work of America’s favorite artist. The Museum’s changing Norman Rockwell exhibitions present an illustrated chronicle of American life and showcase our nation’s ideals of kindness, tolerance, democracy, and freedom, as interpreted through the artist’s spirit, wisdom, and gentle humor.

Find more information about Norman Rockwell, please visit..

http://www.nrm.org/about-2/about-norman-rockwell/
http://www.nrm.org/about-2/the-museum/

Vocabulary
uplifting = ที่ยกระดับจิตใจให้สูงขึ้น
dedicate = อุทิศ
exhibition = การจัดแสดงผลงาน
illustrated = ที่แสดงเป็นตัวอย่าง
chronicle = เหตุการณ์ในอดีต
tolerance = การยอมรับความคิดเห็นของผู้อื่น
interpret = ตีความ
spirit = จิตวิญญาณ
wisdom = ปัญญา ความรู้
humor = อารมณ์ขัน

Emily Dickinson

My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun –

In Corners – till a Day

The Owner passed – identified –

And carried Me away –

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) wrote nearly 1,800 gem-like poems, only a handful of which were published during her lifetime. The world that inspired her to write about life, love, nature, and eternity was a small one centered on two Dickinson family homes in the center of Amherst, Massachusetts.

The Homestead

Emily Dickinson was born at the family’s Homestead in Amherst and spent most of her life there. From her second-floor bedroom she had views of the busy Main Street, the family meadow, the town center, and her brother’s home next door. In this room she polished the poetry so well-known today. 

Vocabulary
gem-like = ดุจดั่งอัญมณี
poem = บทกวี
handful = หนึ่งกำมือ
publish = ตีพิมพ์
lifetime = ช่วงชีวิต
inspire = บันดาลใจ
eternity = นิรันดร
homestead = บ้านที่พัก
polish = ขัดเกลา
poetry = การประพันธ์บทกวี

Pocumtuck Homelands

Pocumtuck Homelands and Lifeways

The central Connecticut River Valley has  been a homeland for Native peoples of at least 10,000 years. Over time, Native people adapted their lifeways to new plants, animals and changing environments. They knew precisely which seasonal resources to use for food, shelter, and medicine. The forests were a managed wilderness; planting lands were cleared and cultivated, and forest underbrush was periodically burned to encourage the growth of useful plants to generate new growth to feed deer herds, and to ease travel. 

Local resources included a wide variety of foods and medicines from animals, fish, birds, berries, roots, barks, leaves, and saps. About 3,000 years ago, Native people here began to cultivate seeds ad roots from plants like sunflower and goosefoot. About 800 years ago, they began growing and storing large quantities of corn. Common food mixtures included pemmican, dried meat and berries; yokeag, ground parched corn mixed with maple sugar; and succotash, a stew of corn and beans.

Pocumtuck people lived in a large homeland that included seasonal hunting territories, fishing areas, gathering places, ad sacred sites. Native homes, known as wigwams, were covered with woven mats or bark that could be easily moved to different locations. Temporary fishing and traveling camps where built alongside the river, and more permanent homesites and food storage places were on elevated lands above the floodplains. Networks of trails ad waterways connected different extended kin groups and nations.

Vocabulary
adapt = ปรับตัว
precisely = อย่างแม่นยำ
shelter = ที่อยู่อาศัย
cultivate = เพาะปลูก
periodically = อย่างเป็นช่วงๆ
generate = ผลิต
native people = ชนพื้นเมือง
territory = ดินแดน
sacred site = สถานที่ศักดิ์สิทธิ์
kin = ญาติ

America..here I come..

 What a long journey!! It took me 31 hours of traveling on FOUR planes to get to Amherst, Massachusetts. However, I must say that I am very fortunate to arrive here according to my schedule. All the planes I boarded were very on time and landed a bit earlier than scheduled.

My very first flight from Bangkok to Narita, Japan was at 6.05 am; therefore, I needed to get up as early as 3 am to get there on time. Thanks for the scholarship that provided me an accommodation at Novotel Airport for me. Staying overnight there was so convenient for me; otherwise, I would have been very panic traveling to the airport. I stepped on the plane at around 5.30 and found out that there was no television screen in front of my seat. OMG..what would I do then? There was a big television screen in the middle of the plane which is not so far from where I sat. There were also two tiny televisions hanging on the ceiling of the plane. I thought to myself that perhaps this is only the short flight to Japan so there is no such a fancy facility. Therefore, my six hours of traveling was not as pleasant as I thought.

My second flight, taking 9 hours, was from Japan to San Francisco. Still, there is no TV screen!!! But this time I'd got a good company. It was a 24 year old Singaporean heading to Denver for a military training for two years. He was also disappointed because there was no TV screen so we had to relied on programs in the larger TV screen. San Francisco airport was rather large and houses as many as three terminals. It was not hard to direct myself into the right domestic terminal. There I decided to spend my first dollar in a cup of small cappuccino as I got so sleepy (It was 2 am in Thailand) and a box of salad as food is not free in domestic Untied Airline flights. Flight from San Francisco to Chicago took 7 hours. Surprisingly, there was a tiny screen for in-flight entertainment for passengers. I really don't understand why TV screen didn't exist on international flight, but domestic one. My last flight was from Chicago to Hartford, taking two hours. It was a very small plane as I expected. The plane arrived safely at 10.45 pm local time or 9.45 am Thailand time. In Hartford, I have to wait for ITD staff to pick me up. As soon as I found Utama, an Indonesian staff of ITD, I also met with some participants from other countries, i.e. Anne and Anniken from Norway, Soon from Mali, Reka from Hungary, and Dorisbel from Dominican Republic. We were extremely tired and ready to sleep but we still needed to wait for other participants who arrived at around that period. I found out that some only half of participants had already arrived, the other half hadn't, one participant got stuck in New York because his flight was cancelled, one didn't get her visa on time so she postponed her flight to Monday and one got turned down, which means the immigration of the US did not let him in the country because of some reasons. I was so glad that I decided to fly over the Pacific, otherwise, I might be stuck in the airport in New York like one of the participants. America is such a big country with so many people and cultural background. After 31 hours and 17,224 kilometers of travelling, I am here in America!


Vocabulary List for M.2 and M. 3
1.journey = การเดินทาง, fortunate = โชคดี, schedule = ตารางเวลา, board = ขึ้นเครื่อง, accommodation = ที่พัก, convenient = สะดวกสบาย,  otherwise = มิฉะนั้น, panic = ตื่นตะหนก, step = ก้าว,  seat = ที่นั่ง
2. tiny = เล็ก, perhaps = บางที, facility = สิ่งอำนวยความสะดวก, pleasant= รื่นรมณ์, company = เพื่อน, heading to= ไปยัง, military training = การฝึกทหาร, disappointed = ผิดหวัง, rely on = ขึ้นอยู่กับ, rather = ค่อนข้าง
3. terminal= อาคารผู้โดยสาร, direct=หาทิศทาง, domestic= ในประเทศ, surprisingly= อย่างน่าประหลาดใจ, in-flight= ภายในเครื่อง, entertainment= ความบันเทิง, exist = มีอยู่,  postpone = เลื่อน, immigration= ตรวจคนเข้าเมือง, cultural background = ภูมิหลังทางวัฒนธรรม

Last day at school..

I couldn't believe that I'm really going to America. In October 2010, after one night in Chiang Mai, I rushed back to Suphanburi when my boss called and told me about the announcement of this scholarship opportunity. There were only 3 days left before the application was due. I called and booked a bus ticket, hoping to get on the bus from Chiang Mai straight to Suphanburi. Unfortunately, it was fully booked so I had to take one night bus to Bangkok and then a couple hours in a mini van to Suphanburi. It was a tiring trip but I thought to myself 'if I can get this scholarship, it is worth doing'. And here I am..packing my stuff and ready to leave for America.
It's my last day at school and I'm now trying to complete all my work, searching for stuff and document to bring with me, and, the most important of all, tidying my desk. A new foreign teacher, Amy, is taking my desk for two months. She won't be happy to see the messy desk of mine.

Being Bostonians, a couple of my colleagues, Sarah and Nell, created Tuke's Personal Guided to Beantown (aka Boston) for me. They are so lovely, thoughtful, and being such a great Boston tour guide. Thanks a lot. I really appreciate that.

A pre-departure lunch party was held at Room 236 where Kru Wipa took this chance to show us her cooking skill. The food was so yummy that I wish I could bring the food to the US with me. God..I'm sure I'll miss Thai food. At least, I'm packing instant noodles with me just in case. Kru Chaht and Kru Wipa, on behalf of the EP staff, presented me with flowers and a congratulation card. It was such a lovely and touching moment. My  excitement was all over the places. My Thai colleagues were being so hilarious and I have had a great fun working and chatting with them. I told them to chat via Facebook so that I can laugh with them too.

4 days before departure

I've just received more information on my accommodation in Amherst. This is the ITD House or the Burnett house. It provides lodging to international participants during programs in Amherst. The house has eleven bedrooms and six bathrooms, a dining room, and a large living room which is equipped as an educational theater. A computer laboratory, laundry facilities, and a ping-pong room are available for all participants. The ITD House was previously known as the Burnett House. It was built in the colonial Revival style in 1898 by William A. Burnett, owner of the H.D. Fearing Haberdashery (hat-making business). This house is well known and loved in Amherst. 

I'll be accommodated here on the second floor. My house mates on the second floor include participants from Norway, France, Bulgaria, Belgium, and Russia. Third floor is for participants from Oman, Ecuador, China, and Togo. 

The rest of the participants will stay in Seelye dormitory in Amherst College, including participants from Barbados, Cameroon, Colombia, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, France, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Latvia, Macedonia, Mauritius, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, and Portugal.  

6 days before departure

Time is flying so quickly that I wish I could have 30 hours a day!! I had a seminar and a pre-departure cocktail party at the Dusit Hotel a couple days ago and had a great opportunity to meet the new Ambassador of the United States of America in person. She was so friendly, active and so diplomatic, god i love her so much. I also had an opportunity to meet with some of the interviewers who interviewed me for this scholarship and the best part was...they remember me!! 

With the US Ambassador , Kristie A. Kenney

Yesterday was my shopping day as I headed to Platinum Shopping Mall early morning with one of my former colleagues. We spent 9 hours shopping around and made a trip to Super Rich money exchange agency in Pratunam area. It was very tiring but it is something worth doing as I've now got pretty much all the thing I need for my trip. I've also got my second luggage from the mall which cost me only 1500 baht. I'll  have to wait and see if the bag is going to last the whole trip or not. I've now got less than a week to pack my bags and complete my work in Thailand and perhaps start my reading on topics to be discussed on my first week in the US.

I am planning to go back to my hometown this weekend to say goodbye to my mother before leaving Thailand for 6 weeks. It is not a long way from Suphanburi but I'm m already tired now. My driver won't arrive Suphanburi until 6 pm. and I don't even want to imagine driving at night!

16 days before departure

Feeling so tired and sleepy, I'm now sitting in front of my computer in the office. Last night, it was nearly 8 pm by the time I finished teaching. 30 minutes after that was spent in exercising. Before bed time I watched a documentary on American history and felt like I wanted to continue watching more on the next episode as it is so interesting. However, it was a little too late so I headed to bed. The alarm went off at 6 this morning and now I'm sitting here thinking of how unprepared I am. I haven't even started packing my bags yet. 16 days to go.. I didn't even have time to go shopping for my hair conditioner as I spent most of my time teaching and tutoring students. I've just realized how fast time flies these days as I've been so busy with my job and other commitment. My plan tonight is to watch the next episode of the American History: Civil War. It's all about slavery which caused conflict between American in the north and south. 

18 days before departure

Here is the Episode 3&4 (westward) of the great history of the States. It explained about the hardship of the pioneer trying to move to the west, especially the part about "cannibal".

19 days before departure

It's Sunday and I'm at school....again. I decided to check on this http://test.itd-amherst.org/?p=tsi_2010 and found some interesting tasks that should be done before my trip start. Reading..reading..and reading is what  I have to do. I printed out the document that is necessary for discussion only on June, 21..OMG..25 pages of them!! I knew it from the very first day of writing an application for this scholarship that i must read 25-30 pages a day for the whole 6 weeks period. However, when the time is getting closer..I have to admit that I'm getting a little bit scared. But I'm gonna be fine..that what I'm telling myself everyday!!

21 days before departure

It's been a long week and I'm getting tired of the whole lot of work that I have to complete before leaving for Amherst, MA. In fact, I don't even think of how I will travel to the airport until my boss said to me if I needed a school van. Last week I was very stressed about how I would survive the 25 hours flight. A couple of teachers told me to take some Thai herbal medicines and try to get as much sleep as I can.  I agree with them so now my bag is full of Thai herbal capsules and pills. I hope to enjoy my long distant flight now. Thank for the useful information from this link on how to enjoy my flight. http://blinklife.tv/how-to-enjoy-your-flight.html

Getting myself ready..

To prepare myself for studying in the US, I need to learn American history and other topics as much as I can. Documentary on America on History Channel is rather useful for a beginner like me. Take a look at this and you will find it informative and useful.