First Week_Mid-week_From CULP Leader

Sa Wat Dee Khrap (Hello) from Thailand and greetings from Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School (AFAPS):

What an incredible experience. Hopefully you have been following our blog postings and watched our Cadets embark into this amazing  journey. As we pass mid-way through our first week, I am impressed more and more with the ability of our future Army Leaders. Each of our Cadets have become true ambassadors of the United States and are doing a great job.

Yesterday, we had the pleasure of meeting the Superintendent and were presented with official AFAPS Cadre / Instructor Hats. It was an honor to meet with him and the hats were very appreciated. The entire Staff and Cadre here have been such a great help and continue to make efforts in provided us the best support and experience possible. All of our Cadets are actively participating in Cultural and Sports Clubs, including activities such as Fencing, Thai Martial Arts, Table Tennis, Volleyball, Basketball, Swimming, Body Building, Soccer, Tennis, Rugby, English Club, and Chinese Club. All of these activities are with the Thailand Cadets and our folks are integrated into their programs.

Today, we continued to teach English to the Thailand Cadets utilizing innovative ways to maximize engagement during the sessions. Every day we huddle-up and share better ways and lessons learned so that our teaching style continues to grow and the Thailand Cadets gain as much exposure to conversational English as possible. (Any suggestions from our Blog Followers would be appreciated). One of the new ways was to share some of our Army Cadence and actually take them marching; it worked great and was well received by the AFAPS Cadets. Also, had push-up contests and explained the differences with our exercises. I taught them the 8 count push-up.

I purchased some Thailand "Microwave Meals" for our Cadets to try and supplement the amount of food eaten. Our Cadets are working out and actively participating in sports about 3 to 4 hours a day. All extra calories are being burned off quickly...:)

Every day you can expect at least one new blog posting, but I expect this number to increase as we get used to the schedule. Our days start at 0530 and end on/about 1900hrs. I look forward to your comments and experiencing this English Engagement and Cultural Immersion by means of the virtual community.

Khaawp Khoon Khrap (Thank-you),

MAJ Glassman (CULP Leader)

CDT Drumm and CDT Evans playing ping pong with the Thai cadets

CDT Kornblut and CDT Slininger partaking in some Thai boxing

CDT Winne having a pull up contest with one of the Thai cadets

The Thai cadets forming up 

CDT Kornblut's picture from the top of the hill near our house

An example of what we eat on a regular day.
Every meal has rice, 2 dishes of either
meat, vegetables, noodles, or soup, and milk.

MAJ Glassman and CDT Evans with Jack, the #1 Army cadet at AFAPS