A Morning Greeting

Hi

It's Thursday morning and I've just arrived at school. Most days, I drive into the school through the front gates, sign my name in the registrar and go park my motorcycle in front of my building. This whole process is usually fraught with students milling around making it nearly impossible for me to drive through school. As I've become more of a familiar face around campus, more and more students will say 'hi' as I drive through or walk around campus. Recently, a group of girls has congregated near where I park my motorcycle. I don't remember exactly how long ago they started hanging out there, but it's been within the last month. They make sure to say 'hi' every morning and are always ready to chat. There aren't my students, just students at Bunyawat. Chatting with them has become part of my morning routine. Today, however, I was late. I arrived at school a bit later than usual and as I parked my motorcycle these girls made sure that I was aware of it. Every morning the student have some function to attend. They play the Thai national anthem and the Bunyawat song and other information is passed on to the students in the morning before classes. They are supposed to arrive at 8 and classes start at 8:20. Normally I arrive at school at about 7:45 and so this group of students has plenty of time to say hello to me and move on where they are supposed to be. Today, they waited for me. They didn't go to assembly like they were supposed to and waited until I arrived and said hi to me before they went.