Friday, December 31, 2010

Happy International New Year

From the Internet Cafe on Soi 2

Thank goodness for a break. I sit here thinking about the coming year; and the fact that until recently I neglected to realize we are ushering in a new decade. Perhaps it is the ambiguity of years that end in zero; or perhaps it is Thai culture to start with years ending in one. Or perhaps it's just a clever marketing ploy to get people to celebrate more extravagently. In the end it doesn't really matter a hill of beans - but it has gotten me to thinkabout the next ten year mark.

American society seems very goal-oriented, and I can't say two months is enough time to claim much knowledge of Thai society. From programs like 'Get Things Done,' to educational tracking and progress reports and Growth Model - to daily and weekly tracking of direct sales - there is a lot of overwhelming tracking of things. While sometimes this has its merits - sometimes it is more trouble than it is worth. Most especially when it is counterintuitive to the culture; or as asinine as to track every waking moment of existence.

Certain aspects of my school culture have been driving me up the wall, especially after the years of college training and year in a U.S. school. Here, tracking attendance is a joke. I've stopped bothering. Punishment for skipping, or cheating is nil. After exam retakes for students that failed - giving them the exact same exam - if they still fail you either a) give them the test over and over until they manage a pass or b) falsify their score to 50% (which is a passing score) and call it a day. The other teachers have mentioned having to raise passing scores to better passing scores after parent complaints. Oh bowing to the whims of the Ministry of Education of Thailand (no student can fail) and parental pressure. I see no similarities to the state of American education, nope not at all. That's sarcasm, in case that was lost in translation.

But I digress - goals, tracking, and what it is worth in one's personal life. An exercise at one of my direct sales job meetings was to write down your goals for six months, one year, five years, and ten years. Having just barreled through my five year non-stop dual degree a few months prior, I was kind of at a loss here. Set MORE goals? I finally just finished the one I'd had blinders on to finish - nearly; hit a road block at the end and here I am attempting to sell kitchen knives. What are my goals next? Uh... not be so blindsided by goals? How do you enjoy life with your eye constantly forward? Do you really need to set goals? Oh well, you won't fulfill what you want in life if you don't. How do you know? Maybe it just makes one more cognizant of what they haven't attained. This past summer I enrolled myself in a counseling program of my choosing; at the well-timed referral of a colleague. This was mainly to address the grief I hadn't faced up to since losing Dad; having only buried my head under the sand in my degree program and subsequent job search - in any case my counselor gave me a completely different exercise. Dry erase board, marker: What have you accomplished since graduating college? What? But I didn't accomplish my goal - well, so what HAVE I done? By the end of the exercise the marker board was full and I was crying. Less than half a dozen things on the board had been my 'goals' prior to doing them; but some of the things I hadn't initially set out to do were the most important. The exercise was to show me more about positive and negative framing - but I think it also illustrates how easily goals become burdens instead of inspiration. Sure - set more attainable goals, commit to your goals, work harder! But at some point I have to wonder - is it worth it to be a part of the rat race? To set big goals? When I could be happier with less? The phrase settling for less is misleading here - I mean doing without the excess many of us have come to know as our comfortable standard of living (which yes, has taken a hit with these economic times). Not to mention despite all the pep talks in direct sales marketing - you cannot always manage to get around every obstacle with creativity and will power alone along a straight path. Sometimes you have to be like water - and carve a new path. Yes, I stole that from the opening credits of Memoirs of a Geisha. As such I sit here wondering about the merits of setting goals at all. Besides which, my personal 'goals' are not under the governance of any Educational governing body. I will probably make a brief list of resolutions, but I won't publish it. Try and go with things without time frames, with out as much probability of external road blocks. Will it stunt my personal growth not to 'challenge' myself? No, I'll just have less hanging over my head. I'll give credit where it's due and cite the blog ZenHabits for its influence on much of this post. Though I won't claim for an instant to be a true minimalist.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Stolen Moments on a School Computer

The internet is addictive, and I'm in withdrawal.
A tangential entry before "proctoring exams" resumes.
Today's dessert: bread cubes, plus a syrup resembling a runnier version of pepto-bismol and a cupful of ice. I ate the plain bread cubes, which puzzled my Thai colleagues - who urged me to pour on the pepto and ice. I proceeded to describe the main dish as delicious, and shake my head at the "dessert."
Since it's exam week, school lunch is a bit better than can usually be expected. Some sort of stir fried wide noodle, egg, pork or beef (most likely pork but I have no idea), some leafy green veggie and of course your options of fish sauce, granulated sugar, crushed red peppers and some sort of vinegar with larger chillies. These four condiments are like salt and pepper in the states, present with nearly every meal. Depending on the meal there are a myriad of other assorted condiments as well (such as lemon or lime juice, or extra pepto for today's dessert).

"Balloon angioplasty" was on my M.3's health exam today. M.3 is 9th grade. Other highlights: hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia, diabetes, pectorial angina (sp?) and other things I'm sure are reserved for college courses or vocational medical training in the states. Well, I suppose we talked about diabetes sooner.

Today I sampled the delights of a Fanta soda slightly darker than antifreeze, that brought up a nostalgia for some unknown artificial flavor from elementary school fundraising carnivals and the state fairs of childhood. A plate of coca-cola, one green and one orange (or pink?) fanta, all brimming with ice, was brought around to the exam rooms for the teachers. I've been trying to avoid soda, but graciousness and my curiosity for the green stuff overcame that. Proctoring the exams has meant little more than passing and collecting papers, signing my initials various places, sitting and reading a book at the head of class. I'm thankful for my upstairs neighbor's generosity loaning me Love in the Time of Cholera, which is not something I would have picked up on my own, but I'm finding an addicting read. Though as it's set in the Caribbean and is translated to English from the original Spanish, I find myself craving good Mexican food - though the book has little to do with Mexico itself as far as I can tell.

Yesterday I received my first letter! I have not published my address because it is six lines long and I've been uncertain about what order to write the names of various districts - as here postal code includes county, district and subdistrict on top of everything else, and names here are all at least 4 syllables long. Postal mail has lost its charm in the states (for me at least), where I came to dread tripping over the leaflets of junk mail in my studio with a mail slot and would sometimes go a week without checking my mail box in my most recent apartment for dread of the stupid flyers - especially the pizza ads, I mean honestly. Here, no junk mail, not even a mailbox - literally my first piece of post in two months. And it was glorious. I was skipping around outside the apartment building, I was certain the landlords thought I was crazy.

Also discovered you cannot run the shower and the air conditioner at the same time in my apartment - the air conditioner and the water heater are both too energy intensive. Though I'm surprised I didn't figure this out sooner, and thankful that the electricity turning off did not stop the water itself - since I was mid shower at that juncture. The people that run my apartment building are great, and the girl at the office just kind of laughed when I came down in pajamas with my wet hair wrapped in a towel and asked "were you in the shower? was the air conditioner on?" Oh. Duh. Mai pen rai, mai pen rai - a phrase I've come to loathe and use frequently, often sounds more like mai bel lai - should be printed on the money (thought that's the place for the King) - don't worry, don't worry. Thankfully, we have old school breakers (just like the computer lab!) so it only took the flip of a switch to correct.

I am now the proud owner of a microwave oven. I will not even elaborate on the full scope of operation microwave - I have one now. I finally purchased one at Tesco Lotus - the Thai version of Walmart, and trucked out to hail a taxi with my arms full of microwave, toilet paper, and a few other necessary items - including a pole for a shower curtain. Not really the best planning, but it's difficult to set up an apartment when the greatest limiting factor is how much you can carry in one trip (and the finances, but that will be a post in it of itself much later) - and how willing you are to sit in traffic again for another venture.

I've also discovered that some of the best pronunciation coaches are cab drivers - most of them are friendly enough and are anxious to help you learn if you are making an effort, though as anything else that can't be made as a blanket statement. Free Thai lesson for the price of the cab ride that was necessary to transport a microwave (I'm all about using the bus over a taxi, but I'm not that delusional).

An afternoon of reading, I mean proctoring awaits, and my favorite activity of trying to get answers in the land of Mai Pen Rai, Mai Pen Rai. No word on the progress of my computer yet; I'm thinking they shipped it to Singapore to the Apple Repair Hub of Asia.
Paperwork, miscommunication, and "that's not my fault," here at school - because trying to get a direct answer is presuming the person you're asking is at fault - and just like all criticism is done via third party gossip to allow everyone to keep face - answers must play telephone, which gets quite confusing with the translation gap on top of it, especially when more than half the parties involved don't speak English, and the answer is not at all clear to begin with. What on earth am I talking about? You'll have to wait until I myself, know that answer; and even then, I'll only have a ghost print of the true story.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Stop Thinking Like an American

Stop Thinking Like an American!

The past few days this thought has been at the forefront of my mind; more so than such regulars as: no I don’t need tuk-tuk, no I don’t want to go to Ping-Pong Show, no I don’t need massage, I don’t have to answer “where you go?” and one of the most important phrases: ‘mai pet,’ (not spicy).
I try NOT to look in the mirror in the morning while applying mascara thinking putting on my makeup is the most important thing I will do today for what is expected of me at my job; and the female farang aesthetic that is favored. I am more than a cute white girl that speaks English and poses for staged school photos. At least I tell myself that, and some days are better than others. That’s just how it is.

It is normal practice for students’ parent’s to call them during class. Yesterday when one girl had her phone off, her mom called her friend’s phone to get in touch with her. I confiscate phones during the lesson when students are playing games or listening to music; but it’s quite the uphill battle – and I can’t confiscate the phone when their parent has just called them. Though I have answered a parent phone call that rang after it had already been confiscated for playing in class – that was fun. He had to call his father back and speak to him in Thai explaining his farang English teacher took his phone for playing in class. Am I sure he actually said that? His classmates confirmed, but who knows. I’ve also been advised by a few people NOT to learn Thai, for the reason that it will detract from my “oh I’m foreign I don’t know!” excuse, and also allow me to know when people are gossiping about me, because it’s generally assumed farangs don’t know Thai. Whatever, I speak Nit Noy (little bit); and I don’t care if I overhear gossip about me. Lying to a person’s face is basic cultural practice in Thailand any way, thought plenty of Thais shun this – it’s pretty standard.

I’ve retreated to McDonald’s just outside the university a few times as opposed to the mysterious school lunch of the day. At least I have some idea of the horrors I’m subjecting my gastrointestinal system to with the Golden Arches. I will also note that not every McD’s features the ‘Double Big Mac,’ I’ve only encountered it at the store right next to school so far. Also – Democracy Monument, road, McDonald’s. Watch the Red Shirt Protest (much more relaxed and less frequent since this past spring, and often at a location besides Democracy Monument now) while enjoying a double cheeseburger in AirCon. Also, Democracy Monument was designed by an Italian that immigrated to Thailand, he was bestowed with a Thai name at some point as some honor – anyway Thailand and Italy get along alright from what I can tell. Sometimes Thailand tries to be Italy, sometimes it wants to be Japan, sometimes it wants to be China…it’s a chameleon. Another aside on the Red Shirts – they burned down part of the largest mall in Bangkok this past spring. Talk about antithesis of political apathy; let’s oust the government and burn down the consumerist establishment that suppresses the proletariat with its bourgeoisie merchandise! Too much allusion to revolutionary France? Yeah, I thought so too but I find the whole mess quite entertaining. You can’t say the Thais lack passion.
I consider myself an adventurous eater, but I’m not keen on what us foreigners have come to call ‘gloopy soup,’ or rather those who came before me call it that so I do as well, which is composed of the gas bladders of fish, a near tasteless broth that is better described as the consistency of brown rubber cement, and top it off with the jello blood cubes for good measure. No amount of spices, herbs or noodles can save that soup, if you can call it soup, especially when created by a school cafeteria. I’m told many of the Thai teachers retreat to eat elsewhere for this particular gem as well. Luckily for the students, they have other options available for purchase – such as breaded chicken tenders (pretty good actually), boiled quail eggs wrapped in wontons fried on a stick, “sausages” (I have yet to see any Thai sausage that didn’t look like a hot dog, or scarier version thereof, except for Isan sausage), ice cream, and other such delicacies. I’m suspect of the school sushi pack offering. If I’m going to get food poisoning, I’d prefer not over taking a gamble on something paid for from the school cafeteria. The basic cafeteria meal is 600 baht per semester, not pay by meal. That’s about 20 dollars for the whole semester, which probably also helps explain some things. The other additional snacks are pay options.
The frequency of the water not working has drastically decreased, but not vanished, as construction on various projects is still ongoing. Toilet paper has reappeared in the bathrooms as well, though once the school runs out for the day, the week, or the semester you’re just on your own. I now have a stash of Kleenex packs in my desk (and I actually have a desk now!). It is a bit easier than having to remember to carry in a supply daily. There are even larger packs specifically designed for people to cart around with them for the restroom, and you can find these items in any 7/11. I stopped counting the number of 7/11s I walk by on a daily basis.
Students can pretty much go to the bathroom whenever, and since there are not nearly enough toilets for everyone, they go in packs and take 15-20 minutes of class to do it. They’ve been pretty shocked when I’ve told them no, wait a minute instead of immediately permitting them to leave the classroom. I’m also slowly training my charges to say “may I go to the bathroom?” instead of “teacher may I go toilet?” Yes, this is Thailand, “just accept it,” but some minor things I can change, and this is one of them. I tried restroom, but the L versus R thing makes bathroom much easier for them to say. Sometimes it sounds slightly like bathloom, which seems better than lestloom; only one R/L switch instead of two. But the struggles with pronunciation vary from student to student.

There seems to be a penchant for Christmas style strands of lights around town year round, but I am noticing the usual amount is multiplying as Christmas and New Years approach. We do actually get some time off for ‘International New Years,’ though none off for Christmas, officially. In fact my poor students are beginning midterms tomorrow, Christmas Eve – 7 exams a day, 3 days of exams, two days off to study in between (teachers report to work on marking). Today we have ‘regular’ class, but since approximately 8 students out of 30 are here, it’s free time/study time and I’m babysitting. Or just making sure they don’t burn down the building. Student supervision is much more lax here. Theft really isn’t a problem either, but then again, everyone here (at this school) is wealthy enough to have the exact phone, mp3 player and jacket they want. There is some fighting, bullying, and as previously mentioned, my boss is quite active in sabotaging student relationships.
Cheating on class work is a huge problem, in fact the exams will be given with two grade levels mixed up in a single classroom taking different exams – it would be silly to copy off of an M. 1 student for your M. 3 exam, now wouldn’t it? Copying and plagiarism aren’t really viewed as a problem for things other than exams. I’m working on that with my students– but again, T.I.T., just get used to it is the general view I’ve been met with on this. I wonder if the students will be allowed to keep their cell phones during the exam – that would pretty much defeat the point as they can text each other answers under their desks. They probably do. Though I feel sorry for an 11 year old subjected to 21 exams in under a week.

Besides learning about Thailand, I’ve learned a lot about South Africa, Britain, Germany and Holland from my coworkers. It’s interesting when I have a “what?” moment after learning something about one of these countries; similar to the reaction I get from some of them when describing something about America that they did not know. Though they already knew about our Health Care nightmares, and rest assured, America has a terrible reputation abroad for Health Care, as confirmed by every non-American I’ve polled so far. Yes, that’s a limited sample, but it doesn’t say a lot for our image abroad does it? One of the Thais in the office that worked in Wisconsin for 6 months refused to go to the doctor while in the U.S. because she was afraid of how much she would have to pay. Sounds like college “do I go to the hospital or not?” woes all over again.
I still applaud Purdue for making ambulances available to students in the dorms free of charge – imagine the deaths by alcohol poisoning and neglected illness there would be otherwise. I know this from the semester of the unfortunate stomach flu the week after all four wisdom teeth were extracted; and arguing with the residence hall staff and concerned floor mates that my mom would kill me if we had to deal with ambulances charges (this was day 4 of being unable to keep food or water down); and I conceded once they told me it was free for students, though the medic ended up looking me over and saying the hospital would just send me right back since I’d just been in the outpatient ER for a liter of IV saline that afternoon. In fact my mom DID freak out about the cost when I told her about this until I reassured her Purdue covers the ambulance for the dorms.
I’m not going to laud the health care systems of other countries against the U.S. system, for example the fact remains here that disfigured people sit on the street and beg for a few baht; nothing is accessible to everyone in any country, regardless of the hype.
I’m sitting in the computer lab babysitting my 8 students currently, but since my computer is in the shop, this will likely be the last post until at least after Christmas. No promises of a time table on that. Also, apologies for the limited email communication, especially the update list, though I hope my previous posts on technology woes and generalized rant help shed some light on that mess. So Merry Christmas or Marry Chriastmas if you prefer, Happy New Year and all that jazz.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Technology, Or Not

I have every intention of catching up on the shenanigans of the last month in writing and photos. In the meantime, my personal computer is in the shop, again, which blocks my access to nearly all of my files and actually organzing them to post, and I've hit another wall (or several) of frustration in my attempts to operate technology in Thailand, especially for teaching it and coordinating my personal files between systems. Trying to jump between four different versions of Windows on school computers, when I myself have Mac, combined with language difficulties, programs being installed in English OR Thai but not both, and machines switched off by circuit breakers...make for lots of headaches.

First, to IT corporations, specifically for dual Thai language/English language support: Kudos to those of you installing linguistic support for all languages. Shame on you for taking so long, and those who DO NOT offer such support, even in beta release.
Second: As long as you continue to ignore specific language demographics in your official code, you are putting yourselves at greater risk for hacking and compromise. You can whine about copyright infringement, violation of International copyright, yada, yada. But when you don't support the local langauges you sell to, you force even the common person's hand to hack the programs to function in that language; especially programs considered international professional standard. I will not single out any one company, because I have found this issue to varying degrees with every program I have sought help for thus far across operating systems. And I will admit a very select few programs have accomplished the Thai/English toggle, and naturally they control the market here. If I spend more hours digging through company help forums and still cannot accomplish my dual language needs, I will simply be purchasing some software hacks myself. For certain programs, it is fairly simple to get a bootleg copy, multi-language ready (so I am told). These programs legally come with Japanese, Korean, Chinese text converter and Arabic automatically - so why is it so difficult to get a plug-in for other characters installed? Did you only pick the richest countries languages to include? Seems likely.

You can argue about lack of respect for your company's code all you want, sit back and blame cultural views on property as you usually do, and even just blame the difficulty of employing people to help translate AND run support code. But it really comes down to language. I wouldn't be surprised if that was more of a hacker's gateway, getting native language to work in computer programs, than pirating entertainment. Yes, people will continue to buy your products even when your support is lacking, so you'll still be making money, because despite the 'choices' in the computer market, each might as well be a monopoly onto itself, and this is supposedly the digital age. I really don't blame people for hacking a program to get their native language to load instead of empty boxes. Maybe that sort of hack doesn't really irk your company. While currently certain companies are taking over English speaking markets by leaps and bounds, and some foreign markets as well, it will be the companies with the sense to support all languages that will eventually overtake and thrive. And aside from the company bottom line, I'd also like to point out the contribution of poor language support in technology to increasing the digital divide between rich and poor nations. Though perhaps a level playing field isn't what you're going for.

Several of the companies that are currently quite buggy do at least have beta releases in the works, and I applaud this. First major critique: assuming everyone is monolingual. What language were people attempting to use before you supported their language? English. So, why can't they use English and another language in your program on the same computer? You've got beta releases for languages; now make it so the same program can run in more than one language mode on a single computer. A few programs do, most don't (at least for my particular language combination). And to the companies with no official support and only hacks you can research on the internet or buy bootleg - get on that.

I will hold my tongue (for now) on computer/internet security, privacy, other forms of piracy, censorship and the country of origin of computer innovation for now; except for this: most countries around the world do not exhibit Net Neutrality. I'm extremely disappointed to see in the news today the United States will now be counted among those who don't defend the free internet, as per the latest FCC ruling. What's worse is most American citizens really have no idea what a policy opposed to Net Neutrality means for their freedom on the internet. Blatant censorship, or covert limiting of data streams as determined by a select few cable companies? It amounts to the same thing, if not worse, just in politically nicer terms. At least blatant censorship is honest (so to speak) about its goals. I have journaled about censorship since I have been here, but have decided it best to keep that from this blog. I like my blog NOT to be censored in my country of residence.

Happy Holidays, New Year, so on and such forth - not sure how long my computer will be out of commission; and finding computer time on a functioning, internet connected, English language enabled computer - well, that can be quite a trick.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Hijacking Football Practice (Dec 1)

In every other nation of the world, football refers to what us yanks call soccer; and they call our football: “American football.” It’s well known that soccer is quite popular with both genders in the United States, some of the students here were aware of that even. However, in Thailand it’s still catching as a girl’s sport, it’s mainly a boy’s sport for now. Though our school has volleyball for both genders. I believe some schools in Illinois have men’s volleyball also, but any way. I think a lot of that (lack of men’s volleyball in the states) has to do with Title IX, sadly.

In a combination of nostalgia and insanity, I joined boys’ football practice for an evening. I intended to just scrimmage with them, but it turned out to be running the laps, doing the cone drills, the whole nine yards. I talked to one of the coaches the previous day so I didn’t just run onto the field without his permission, but I surprised the students. :-) Sometimes at lunch time students scrimmage, and I have every intention of finding days where my skirt and shoes are ‘close enough’ and I just run onto the field to join them. I do however, have that whole teaching thing to keep in mind also, and I’ve needed lunch for eating and planning. We have approximately 50 minutes for lunch, so the students get somewhat of recess in there as well. The whole school has lunch at the same time.
December 1st was a Wednesday; the following week there was no class for the sports days (more later), and this week on Wednesday some of my students asked if I would practice, they wanted to see me play football. Unfortunately I grabbed the stack of papers I need to mark and indicated that I could not practice today; which of course got the response of “you know Teacher Jenny, if you didn’t give us so much homework you wouldn’t have so much to mark.” Yes. I am aware. Thanks for that. I’m still giving you homework.

I polled some girls about whether or not they’d like to start a girl’s football team. So far I’ve gotten a resounding NO. Though a teacher mentioned younger girls are starting to play football in Thailand, perhaps if they grow up with it they’ll be more enthusiastic about it.
I was worried about my foray into football being viewed as an ‘oh farangs always get what they want,’ but I told myself not to worry about it too much. And it turns out, it was received more in a “hey, the farang actually interacts with Thai people!” Sort of postive light. And I’ve gotten positive feedback from both staff and students. I guess I’d better catch up on this marking so I will be available to play again next time.

Other notes: our school practice football field is concrete, and smaller than standard. The boys practice in flat-footed football shoes; though for sports day they had cleats and got to play on a full size grass field in the stadium at Thammasat, Rangsit campus (major university in Bangkok, history and details for another time). The girls practice volleyball in the parking lot just adjacent, and ‘Cheer’ practice occurs between the two. Cheer is completely different in Thailand, and co-ed. The students posted a youTube video of this year’s cheer performance, I’ll find the link – they did an awesome job.

Monday, December 13, 2010

China Town/India Town (Nov 28)

Went and explored India town and Chinatown with Mei. India town = endless rows of places to buy wedding favors, wedding photos, wedding dresses, fabric for making wedding dresses, wedding photo boutiques, wedding scrap book shops – if you need to throw an Indian wedding in Bangkok you’ll be set; provided you’re not terribly claustrophobic in navigating the sidewalk. We also stopped in at a great little Indian restaurant. I left next to nothing uneaten; I was apparently quite hungry by the time we got there. I hadn’t eaten much the previous two days, had been feeling ill those two days, that probably had a lot to do with it. I was a geek and took a photo of the sign (complete with the address), so I’ll be able to go back.
Chinatown was neat, but not quite what I was expecting. It didn’t help matters that a whole bunch of it was closed on this particular Sunday, which I guess is not normally the case. Guess I’m a little spoiled having just been to China a few months back. If I needed any sort of Chinese herb I could buy it, and in bulk if I want, here. We tried to check out a Chinese temple of some sort, but some jerks were blocking the way inside with their tuk-tuk for seemingly no apparent reason, as in absolutely could not squeeze our way around. I’m growing less and less fond of tuk-tuks by the day, especially the constant “where you go?” cat call. Away from you overcharging scheming jerk. I usually respond with silence as opposed to the thoughts going through my mind.
Other observations: monk impersonators troll Khao Sarn Road, at hours of the day that monks do not normally make rounds for alms, and prey on foreigners that don’t know this. Monks generally go for alms in the morning, are not pushy, and generally prefer food, etc. instead of money. So Mr. I’m asking for alms in the middle of the late afternoon, I’ve got a bowl for money, and I won’t take it out of your face until you throw two baht in even after you’ve motioned you have empty pockets, and then I’ll have a little hissy fit about it being only two baht – yeah that behavior isn’t very monk like, unfortunately the give away hissy fit occurred after giving the money, fortunately it was only two baht. Next time he’s not even getting 2 baht now that I realize the scam. Jerk. Apparently even Thai people are sometimes duped by monk impersonators that go around asking for alms (though these scam artists do it at the correct time of day to dupe Thais) but aren’t actually following the true Buddhist way or monk lifestyle, they just want handouts.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Thanksgiving (Nov 25), Student Ingenuity

So, it’s past time for an entry, and as promised I will be catching up. That does mean however, I’ll basically be bombing my blog with multiple posts very shortly. I will do my best to keep things in some semi-coherent format and try to spread out my posts; and picture updates may come at a later date.
I had a lovely Thanksgiving. Another Tan Tong resident (my apartment building) organized a wonderful meal. She is an English teacher at another school, of Thai-American heritage, raised in Minnesota. Our celebration took place on the rooftop, with strands of lights, candles and yoga mats spread out to sit on and share the bounty. We did not have turkey, but we had a roast chicken, mashed potatoes, mixed veggies, stuffing, half a Thai pumpkin baked and stuffed with stuffing to be our ‘turkey,’ stuffed bell peppers, corn on the cob, salad, wine and pumpkin pie! All made more amazing by the fact that this was all concocted in an apartment building with no ovens. Hot plate, blender, toaster and toaster oven were used for creating this feast. Though perhaps one or two dishes brought by guests were made in their ovens at their own residence, the baked pumpkin, stuffing, pumpkin pie and vast majority of the dishes were created with a toaster oven or hot plate.
Our ‘table,’ though we had no table, drew together people from America, Thailand, Germany, South Africa, Russia, and likely one or two other places. Before the meal we went around and said what we were thankful for (or rather, as we began passing and serving food). Our meal was complimented by someone’s laptop and speakers brought out for mood music, the candles, an anti-mosquito incense coil and the backdrop of Bangkok in night lights. Specifically the view of the Rama VIII bridge to one side and one of the very famous Wats to the back, whose name of course, escapes me. (A wat is a Buddhist temple).
As one of the Americans in attendance, I was very thankful to have Thanksgiving, because for my family it is a more important time for family than Christmas (or at least, it has gotten to be that way over the past five years or more).
Some of the Thais at our table had never experienced Thanksgiving before. Most of the Europeans just knew it was an American holiday, but naturally did not celebrate it on their own. Everyone was happy to join in the celebration. It’s hard to argue with a holiday centered around eating a huge meal with friends; which no, is not the origin of Thanksgiving exactly, but whatever.
I’ve decided for future school work days that fall on major US holidays to arrange American culture lessons within whatever subject I’m teaching; which it seems can vary quite easily from semester to semester. I’m currently teaching Grammar and Computers, however I could be teaching Reading or Speaking at some point as well. Apparently the schedule for each teacher isn’t finalized until a week or so into the semester. English class is broken up into 3 sections (at least at my school): Reading class, Speaking class, and Grammar class. I’m also in charge of one of the clubs, ‘Public Speaking,’ which thankfully is a non-graded, fairly flexible time that I work with students. I’m also thankful to be working with the more mature of the two seventh grade classes for public speaking. What they’ve come up with so far has been positively delightful. So far we’ve done impromptu, and scripted student generated skits in front of the class. My idea being that a) there is safety in numbers (at least they think) and b) if they believe they are trying to make their classmates laugh any way, they’re less likely to be nervous about getting up in front to speak and having the class laugh. For the scripted skits I gave them the prompt ‘stranded on a deserted island,’ and they were positively brilliant. I didn’t require props, but many groups drew palm trees, making a fire, and building a lifeboat on the chalk board. One group had a member missing when it was their time to present, and without even being asked they delegated the third group member’s lines between the two of them so they could present without her there. During one skit, a boy outside the group presenting was spinning his flash drive around on it’s string, just fidgeting – and the group incorporated it into their skit as the helicopter that was coming to rescue them. Water bottle sitting on the front desk becomes fair game as a prop to indicate the stranded persons fighting over the last remaining water. And of course, flash drive or ‘handy drive’ makes a great toy/prop gun. Though how they ended up with guns on the deserted island is beyond me.
So despite my initial misgivings about ‘Public Speaking Club,’ it’s going very well. Though I think with the help of one of the secretaries I’ve befriended, we’re going to ‘suggest’ I be in charge of an art club next semester, which shouldn’t be too difficult to maneuver as long as it’s handled properly (hence, my friend the secretary, who is Thai, will suggest it first, not me). It’s a start. Some of the older students, 10th and 11th grade, have found out I studied to teach art, and want me to teach art. There are some office politics in that however, so, I’m not going in like a bull in a China shop. Not to mention the cultural gap between Eastern and Western Art Education. Plus, they would have to find someone else for computers, because having been hired to teach English, I must teach some English sections, even if I teach other classes in English immersion. Meh. Any way, I shall go with the flow as best I can. After all, T.I.T., this is Thailand. Obviously the letter must be said individually for that abbreviation; some of the other farangs have made it ‘Welcome to Thailand’ instead.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Holidays, Internet, Papers

Things have been quite busy, and I think I probably have enough material to write approximately 5 blog entries.  I'll try to keep this update a bit more brief for now though.
This coming week there is no class.  December 5th is the King's birthday, celebrated as Father's Day and a day off from work and school.  Since The King's birthday falls on a Sunday, we have Monday off from school, work etc.
Tuesday December 7th and Wednesday December 8th are 'Sports Days,' for our school.  I know that schools across the country hold sports days, but I'm not sure if every school holds them on these days.  I'm technically not required to come to school at all on these days, and there are no classes, but I am attending at least one of the two days to see what it is about and support our schools football team (soccer).  Apparently on the 8th there is a parade with a float competition between various schools, dancing and cheer competitions.  My boss would like to take me to this day as well, I have said maybe.  I want to be sure and rest and see other parts of Bangkok during my break.  From what I hear, most farang teachers attend one sports day to see what it is about - and do not attend sports days thereafter.  We'll see, I at least want to see what it is about.  And I'm grateful to know that jean pants and t-shirt are acceptable apparel to attend sports day.  I'm a little tired of wearing a skirt or dress M-F, as female students and teachers are required to wear.
We also have Thursday off, I think the school threw that in as an extra day off since we have the other four days of the week off from class.  December 10th is Constitution Day, so Friday schools and businesses will be closed for its observance.

I have had a lot of internet trouble lately.  Since our portion of the school moved into another building, we have not had wireless internet set up.  I did not have wired internet set up in the teacher's office until earlier this week.  I still teach my computer class in the other building.  In the computer lab I cannot use the teacher's computer (which is also the server for the computer lab) at the same time as using the projector to show the students examples and directions for what we are doing.  There is a cable to send what is on the computer monitor to the projector, and a cable to connect the computer to the monitor.  There is only one port for both cables, so you can only connect to one or the other at any given time.  I have to crane my neck around to see what I am doing to load the powerpoint slides or show the students how to find a certain setting in Microsoft Word - whatever we are doing it is very awkward to see what I'm doing.  Sometimes I try and use one of the extra student computers to work on something briefly (yes, thankfully we at least have more than enough computers for every student, even the class of 35). However the web browser on the student computers is not up to date enough for me to view gmail properly - which is quite a pain since I've set it up so my students email me their projects at a gmail address I set up just for computer class.  I tried to install firefox browsers on all of the student computers - before I discovered that the student computers are 'ghosted,' or wiped clean at every boot.  I would like to talk to the Thai IT guy about installing certain things on the computers, but I also don't want to offend anyone or come off as a know-it-all condescending farang.  So I'll just deal for now.
I can sometimes get wireless internet to work in that building, but it is very fickle.  At this point I've just gotten a lot more flexible about due dates and explained to the students the situation with the teacher's internet access.  They understand.  The teachers still don't have our desks in the new office, so the concept that the internet is not as accessible as it should be is not a difficult leap from there.  I've also had some difficulty with the internet at my apartment - there are definitely bottlenecks when too many people are trying to use the internet.  I think I'm going to invest in an internet dongle for accessing internet via the phone networks.  They are available in the states, but at quite a premium through the phone companies.  Supposedly they are much more affordable and reliable here in Bangkok.  We shall see.

I've discovered a lot more things about getting along in Thailand, and getting along at my particular school.  For example, the reason I had so much difficulty obtaining my documents to come to Thailand was that my boss was not aware that I needed them.  The other foreign teachers at my school were in Thailand already - so they had visas to teach or visit already, and from there renewing their visas and permits was no problem for them and the school.  My boss had not previously had to do the primary application for a visa or work permit for any of her staff.  Thank goodness the other farang teachers mentioned this to her.  Receiving the paperwork I needed to complete my application directly coincided with them reminding her that I needed paperwork from the school in order to get my necessary documents.  One of the office secretaries handled all of the e-communication with me, including the communication that was addressed as from my boss.  My boss cannot use email - but everyone in the office has her password so she can delegate tasks for them to do in her stead.  This is also why I could not get information about the computers I would be working with to teach - she has no idea about them.  Ah well whatever.  Also, I still don't officially have my work permit.  Apparently I will receive it in January.  I've been told this is no big deal.  I've also been told that means I'm working illegally, but not to worry because it won't be for too long and they are somewhat lax about this matter for short spans of time, and since I am in the process of application.  Plenty of farangs have gotten away with working sans work permits for periods of years, and most of the farang teachers have worked illegally for a least a month or three months.  Awesome!

A few other quick tidbits before this entry gets too long:
There is such a thing as a Double Big Mac.  It is exactly what it sounds like.  I'm a little scared of that idea, but curious at the sheer ridiculousness of it.  There is 'ketchup' and 'American ketchup,' I haven't figured out what the difference is yet.  Perhaps I've mentioned, or perhaps not: remember the Krispy Kreme Doughnut craze back in the 90s?  Yeah, that's just now hitting Thailand.  I find it amusing.
There is some new store opening in one of the malls at Siam (intersection with four shopping malls connected to each other by sky bridge walk way, including MBK where I had my cell phone adventures and Siam Discovery where the Mac Repair place is).  There is a multi-story ad banner featuring photos of various celebrities for said store opening - Thai celebrities and other Asian celebrities I don't recognize, Angelina Jolie, Princess Diana, Michael Jackson and Mr. and Mrs. Barack Obama.  I wonder if they know (well, the ones living) there are multi-story images of them in downtown Bangkok.  Hopefully I can get a photo of this sometime during the coming week off, I plan on having a bit more time to sight see, take photos and update things.  I will still produce an update about Thanksgiving, and some other things that have fallen by the wayside this week at a later time.  In the meantime - I have a class to teach now.  Presuming they are in attendance and not practicing for something for sports day, or just skipping my class.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Loy Krathong

So, one of the biggest Thai festivals of the year took place on Sunday evening.  And though I may have mentioned it, I have not made a big deal out of the fact that I have been sick this past week.  However, on Saturday and Sunday, though the antibiotics had taken care of my sinus infection, the initial cold virus swooped in for a comeback.  As such, much of my weekend was spent asleep or half dazed and over-medicated.
On Saturday, after finally getting out of bed around 3:30pm, I decided I must make the trek back to MBK to sort out a phone.  Previously I praised MBK's ability to hack, crack and otherwise get phones to work.  However, we were unaware that besides all that, the hand-me-down phone we had also included a broken microphone.  Theorizing that a repair of that nature would be slightly more costly, it was time to admit defeat and purchase a phone.
So I found my way to the bus stop to get to MBK and rode the bus to and from MBK successfully on my own.  With only one pushy tuk-tuk driver to tell off.  Tuk-tuks are for tourists.  They are pushy scam artists and if you are white they never leave you alone.  The going 'scam' for tuk-tuk drivers is to offer a "flat rate" fee of 150 baht.  Fare for an air-conditioned taxi is often 1/3 of that.  So this particular tuk-tuk driver outside MBK thought he would approach me, get ME to name a price (no, you name a starting price), and then thought he would ask for 200 baht.  I may be new but I'm not that naive.  I walked away and caught the bus for 8 baht.
I do however, wish that I could brag as such about my phone purchase.  Another lesson learned: don't try to haggle when you're brain fogged, sick and medicated.  It severely hampers your bartering skills and lowers your guard for how much you are willing to pay just to get out of the human chaos.  Time and place utility though I suppose, I needed a working phone.  So I ended up with a second hand nokia for 1,500 baht, which is about $50 U.S.  Not bad, all things considered.  But upon further inspection I decided I'd probably been overcharged.  Another English teacher, who is half Thai and speaks Thai - so she doesn't have to deal with the tourist treatment nearly as much - got the same phone second hand for 900 baht ($30.07).  The ladies in the office helped me look it up - NEW the phone should cost 1,180 baht ($39.43).  Well crap.  Next time, I will ask one of the Thai ladies in the office to go with me and help - they are more than happy to.  I'll still just be proud of myself for navigating the bus and avoiding the tuk tuk driver.  I was quite determined to travel downtown unassisted.  And, the phone does work.

So, Loy Krathong.  I'm taking a lot of information from wikipedia and observation here.  Basically - the majority of Bangkok converges on the river to release "krathong" out into the water.  A Krathong is made up of banana leaves, flowers, incense and candles - or more recently bread (dissolves and the fish eat it, more environmentally friendly).  It is supposed to honor the river spirits, ask for forgiveness from the river and bring good luck.  It is kind of a conglomeration of Buddhism, Hinduism and the Thai animist beliefs of various tribes - so actually pinpointing one meaning for the festival is impossible.  Loy Krathong also coincides with the Lanna (northern Thai) festival of Yi Peng, where paper lanterns are lit and sent up into the sky to make merit.  The hot air from the flame propels the paper lantern up, or at least in theory - I saw several sink that had to be put out by festival goers down below those launching Yi Peng off the bridge.  So, although Loy Krathong comes from the capital, and Yi Peng comes from the north, today they are both celebrated concurrently across the country.  Chiang Mai is supposed to be the best Loy Krathong/Yi Peng festival - so at some point I would like to see it there.  However that's not to say the Bangkok version wasn't a show.

So, most of Sunday I spent in bed wishing my cold would go away.  I got up to do laundry, got up to hang it out to dry, got up to go get some food - and laid back down after each trip.  So around 8pm I decided that I wasn't going to let the fact that I felt awful keep me from seeing one of the best festivals of the year.  Dose of Paracetamol (Acetaminophen in the U.S.), some water and a hearty dose of hubris and I was off.  Not actually knowing how to get there, feeling kinda of blah and thinking this is an important venture, I decided to hail a taxi.  Not a tuk-tuk, but generally get in a taxi, say the name of the place you want to go, done.  However I forgot to consider a couple of things.  One: when there is traffic, as in when there is a festival, walking will almost always be faster than anything on four wheels.  Two: Bangkok is quite similar to West Lafayette in it's curse of one-way roads, something I had not noticed as a pedestrian.  And Three: simply getting in a taxi and asking to go to the river isn't very clear, since there are quite a few points on the river you can go to.
So, in my first cab, we went toward one of the larger bridges, saw some people with Krathongs and decided that was a good spot.  I did get a nice view out across the river as we crossed the bridge.  My driver spoke a little English, was impressed that I could count to ten in Thai (poorly) and attempted to teach me the phrases "I love you" and "I like you" in Thai.  The trip meter said 59 baht, so I handed him 60 baht.  He handed me back 20 baht and a slip of paper with his phone number and an Americanized name on it.  Uncertain how to respond to that, I said thank you, smiled, probably giggled and placed the number and change in my wallet.  He drove off and I began exploring the bridge and the area underneath it where people were launching krathong into the river.  I realized 1) This was not the big event, this was a smaller gathering and 2) I was pretty much the only farang around.  I attempted to walk up on the bridge to get a better view of the river, and was whistled back down by a Thai police officer.  People had been walking on the bridge only moments prior.  Alright, well now what.
I could see the Yi Peng floating up into the sky in the distance, so I started walking towards them.  However after a couple of blocks, I decided that was futile, walked back and hailed another taxi.  So the cost of a little adventure involves more than one taxi, it could be worse.
My second taxi driver spoke no English.  He did understand Loy Krathong though, and managed to get me quite close to the heart of the commotion at the Rama VIII Bridge (the one I have photos of already).  Eventually he motioned to me to get out and walk because of the horrid traffic jam.  I paid him and got out of the taxi and joined the shoulder to shoulder swarm of people.  People were walking in between cars, buses and motorbikes because traffic was not moving at all.  It reminded me of the people swarming toward the bridge in the new War of the Worlds movie, and I pushed that slightly disconcerting idea out of my mind.  Thankfully, crowd control is often managed by the Thai cultural idea that you should not show anger or lose your temper.  So despite the shoulder to shoulder crowding, there isn't really a panic or mad rush to make it dangerous, people remain patient.  Fingers crossed.  I got up to the main festival area - lined with food and drink vendors, large krathongs made for a contest, beggars, beauty pageant contestants and people of all ages.  I purchased a bottle of water - was asked "where you from?"  USA.  "Oh!  Your country very good!"  I appreciated that.
I made my way to the river bank, pretty sure I wandered straight through the 'back stage' area of the beauty pageant, and a Thai man helped hoist me up over the stone wall separating the river from the bank.  I got pictures right there of people launching their Krathong, and several people swimming in the murky depths.  A wave rolled up and splashed my feet, I decided to find some higher ground after a few photos.  So I turned back around and turned my attention to climbing the Rama VIII bridge - the main festivities were occurring beneath it.  A staircase on either side of the bridge was shoulder to shoulder with people going up and down.  I made my way up and walked along the pedestrian portion of the bridge where people were launching their Yi Ping.  There were many Thais with good cameras, probably many from the arts university - and I was envious of them.  I also wished I knew more Thai so I could have a conversation with them.  I managed to get some decent photos with my camera none-the-less.  I think there is also a couple's aspect to sending up the Yi Peng, because many couples were launching them together - some with the message "I love you" written on them.  But that could be a modern imposition on the original holiday - I'm not sure.  I enjoyed just sitting on the guard rail between the road and the pedestrian crosswalk and watching people launch their Yi Peng.  It was peaceful and reminded me why I long to travel and see these things.  It was great just to wander around and observe things at my own leisure.  Finally, I decided I had better return home.  So I tried to make my way to the other side of the Rama VIII bridge to hail a taxi going towards my apartment.  At this point, I was actually all the way over in Nonthaburi, the suburb of Bangkok across the river (and the larger Loy Krathong gathering point).  However navigating the staircase was even more crowded and slow going - it seemed a fool's errand to try and scale the stairs on the opposite side after finally reaching the bottom of the first staircase.
So, I wandered back through the vendors (by the way, if you can sell it, it was for sale on the street that night).  I did not partake of the food, already feeling under the weather and not sure I trusted the food - or at least my stomach's ability to handle it, and went about looking for a taxi.  Of course, in the stand still traffic with many others looking for a taxi, this was nearly impossible.  So I looked toward the motor bike taxi operators.  The first declined, and said as a farang, better to get a taxi.  I think he was afraid I was going to freak out riding the motor bike - or he just didn't want to travel that far.  The second motor bike driver I found agreed, though maybe slightly overcharged, at that point my headache was going full throttle from all the lights and I just wanted to get home.  I still think there was some sort of divine intervention keeping me from having an absolute claustrophobic panic attack in the middle of that festival - or maybe I was just too out of it already from being sick.  It was 100 baht for the motor bike ride straight to my apartments, not too bad considering the motor bike can duck and weave around traffic and get you where you are going much faster than the four-wheeled beasts.  And a heck of a lot better than the tuk-tuk driver trying to charge twice that for less than a third the distance I traveled on the motor bike.  We drove over yet another large bridge - I've got my north and south all mixed up so I can't say which direction I was from Rama VIII, but I got yet another view of all of the lights out across the river driving past.  It was exhilarating having the wind rip past, nearly shutting my eyelids for me.
After all that, I took some more cold medicine and called it a night.  And quite a night it was.  My goal now: to save up and purchase a digital SLR before next year's Loy Krathong festival.  I would love to see the festival in Chiang Mai.  Also preferrably to not be sick during the festival - but the timing of getting sick is hard to coordinate.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

"Welcome to Thailand"

Whenever I'm absolutely and completely baffled by something, one of the other foreign teachers just looks at me and says "Welcome to Thailand."
You mean you can't fail students?  (At least not until M. 4, which is 10th grade, and even then...)
So, students don't need a pass to leave class or school early?  They can just go?  Ok, so no way to control students skipping class.  I see.
You shut the computer lab down by just flipping the breakers off?  *head desk*
The grammar text book uses the phrase: "as high as a kite" to describe extreme happiness.  Right.  Who proof read that?
You mean junk food is actually expensive, and healthy food is actually cheap?
The same companies that sell self-tanning lotion in the states, sell "skin whitening" lotions here.
Instead of catching and euthanizing stray dogs and cats, people set out their scraps for them.  They have about as much free reign of the streets and sidewalks as people do.
Along with priority seating for the elderly, small children and pregnant women, the buses also have a priority seating area for monks.
Nearly microscopic ants are everywhere.  No really, everywhere.  And they will eat anything remotely resembling food.  Candles made of vegetable wax?  Yum!  Lipstick on the rim of a water glass?  Tasty!
The Thai language doesn't really have tenses.  So, when there is talk of something happening 'tomorrow,' that is a very sweeping generalization that could be tomorrow or two years from now.

Alright, so moving on.  The floor is down in the future computer room.  One of the main office computers has internet.  The water has been working most of the time in the women's bathrooms.  The men's  rooms are still out of order, so one of the women's rooms has been designated the men's room until further notice.  My student that enjoys makeup?  Well, he also wears heels higher than I would, and when all done up for the dance competition, had boys in another class turning heads and demanding to know who 'she' was.  They were embarrassed and disappointed to find out it was a boy.  Though truth be told I'm not certain the head master is aware of any of this, she might faint.

So while we're on the topic of gender, let's discuss dating.  Whenever students begin dating, the head master makes a point to try and get them to break up.  This is not a secret, in fact even today a student in M. 1 (7th grade) got up and gave a sarcastic commentary on the matter, in English no less.  The headmaster even asked me to tell the students that in America, students don't date at this age.  That it's just "puppy love."  I met this request with a blank stare of confusion, which was clarified for me with the phrase, "tell lie, tell lie."  I proceeded to nod and smile while thinking to myself, no way.  In fact, this attitude of intervening in matters of dating extends to the teachers as well, and not just in affairs of match making.  My boss flat out told me when I moved, "only women in your apartment."  And kept reiterating, albeit with slightly incorrect English, that I should only have women visit my apartment.  She even made some remark about the whole building being only women.  Yes, I moved into a convent.  I should never allow a repairman to fix the leaky faucet in my bathroom or change the light bulb I can't reach.  And heaven forbid a male relative ever set foot here.  Alright, so, on the one hand you try and play matchmaker and set me up, and on the other you tell me not to bring anyone home, under any circumstance ever?  And on what planet does this make sense?
It did apparently assuage the 9th graders that she is currently trying to pry apart that she also tries to meddle in the teacher's love lives.  "Really?  But she's a teacher!"  Exactly.  It's not appropriate at either level, but at least it is consistent.  Personally, I find the greatest hilarity in the situation today.  Male student that enjoys wearing heels and makeup was sitting "too close" to a female student as they worked on an assignment together.  Head master comes over and scolds them, telling her "don't sit so close to him!"  As this scene was recreated for me, he did a little curtsy and hand flourish - and none of us could help but laugh at the sheer level of ridiculousness of the whole mess.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

The past two days

The events of the past couple of days are a slight blur.  Here is a brief summary:
  • Attended my first Thai wedding.
  • Ate amazing food.
  • Looked awkward in photos and video at said wedding.
  • Driven home from the wedding by the University President.
  • Saw Khao Sarn Road for the first time.  Declined pushy tuk tuk drivers.
  • Went to MBK/Siam Square etc. mall complex.
  • Have a functioning phone after our trip to the fourth floor of MBK and their tech gurus.
  • Rode one of the river buses home.
  • Attended a Chao Phraya River boat tour and dinner with my boss, a student and her parents.
<Phew>
Friday:
So, all of the English teachers dressed up a bit more for school on Friday, and we left straight from school to go to the wedding.  One of the Thai English teachers got married on Friday.  The actual Buddhist ceremony was in the morning, this was basically the reception.  The bride looked gorgeous.  After signing the guest book, we took a photo with the bride and groom and went inside the huge banquet hall.  We stood around together gawking at the ice sculptures and more than a dozen tables of food.  After waiting for more guests to arrive, it appeared alright to partake of the food.  There were two sushi chefs and an assistant, I had two helpings of sushi.  Took a little more wasabi than I probably should have - good for the sinuses.  There were multiple tables offering hot foods: chicken wings, fried pork and crab balls, chicken satay, mini pizzas (skipped those), etc.  Fresh fruit kabobs, tuna pitas, fruit custard tarts, dessert rice balls with peanut filling, fruit cakes, ice cream (also skipped), two different offerings of soup, chicken or pork with rice, ham and rolls, and I'm certainly not mentioning everything.  It was quite opulent.  After awhile of this, my boss came up to me and said, in effect, "you've eaten enough, come sit down."  She directed me to a frontward table and motioned to the chair next to the University President.  This is actually my second meeting with the University President.  He is fairly laid back and speaks English well.  Though I was a bit caught off guard when he asked me why I needed a Chinese Visa.  So he has reviewed the pages of my passport.  I kept my cool and explained the trip, he seemed pleased with the sister school story and he mentioned his next trip to China.  I think he was just making conversation.  As such in this position, I ended up being front and center during several key wedding videos and photos.  The bride and groom "cut the cake" (it was a fake cake for show) with a large sword.  Afterward they brought pieces of real cake to their honored guests: family and so forth.  However, they started with presenting cake to the University President.  So here I am, random new farang in the middle of their wedding photos - trying to look happy and cute and so forth instead of just totally bewildered.  After all this excitement, the President offered to drive me and the other female English teacher home.  This was a nice gesture because a) she and I live in the same building and b) going back with the rest of the group was going to take quite a bit longer.  However, it is still rather daunting.  The male teachers were certainly enjoying teasing us about the whole situation, as somehow female farang teachers are of greater fascination than male teachers - or at least in our current circumstance.  As such us ladies are often a tourist attraction simply by our presence, and requested (or told) of various engagements we have been invited to.  Besides just the cultural aspects of this, I think this is also related to our boss' adopted daughter mindset towards us.  So the President drove us home, talked about politics quite frankly and openly and bid us goodnight once we were at our soi.
At this point Gen and I were able to unwind a bit from that part of the evening.  We swapped our dresses for jeans and shorts and headed over to Khao Sarn Road to introduce me to all its chaos.  Explaining the sheer bombardment of neon lights, roasting street food, pushy tuk tuk drivers, creepy old farang men, cover songs of Western origin in Thai accents (Took my Chevy to the revy but the revy was dry), carts selling Hello Kitty everything, purses, sunglasses, fake documents to the nth degree (fake diploma, student card, pilot's license, press pass, TEFL certification....shudder...vision of creepy guy on Khao Sarn getting fake TEFL certificate and a classroom....), tie-dye, travel shops, backpack and luggage shops, Irish pub, disabled men begging, mothers with children draped across their laps begging.  The juxtaposition of obnoxious westerner and poor Thai beggar was hard to take.  Soi cats and soi dogs just hanging around as per normal here in Bangkok.  I think it will take another few trips before I can really truly describe this place.  Even this description is just a caricature, though maybe that is all Khao Sarn is any way.  We stopped by a place that was supposed to be holding a rave - I do enjoy my laser light shows and obnoxious techno.  But it was relatively deserted and I was getting quite tired, as was Gen - so we headed home.

Saturday:
Attempted to sleep in but was aroused to the sounds of some sort of parade right here in our little soi.  Still not sure what that was about, but there were really loud fireworks, a sort of marching band, and Gen tells me a monk giving blessings at the front of it.  I got a picture of the very tail end of it marching away - not a very clear photo.  Poor Ming was half way up my staircase, terrified and hiding from the fireworks blasts.  I came back and dozed again, I hope I'm not coming down with a cold but I think I've been fighting it off for several days now.  Got back up to trek to MBK and sort out the phone with Gen.  Just as I was fully ready and locking my apartment up, I turned around with a start.  The light was off farther down the staircase.  And who do I nearly run into but my boss, coming up the stairs to see me.  "Do you have plans this evening?"  Um...actually yes, I've mentioned that before... "Parents have made reservation for dinner on boat for you tonight!  They made reservation already, told me yesterday, I forgot to tell you."  Um, ok, I guess these are my plans now.  "Ok!  I pick you up at seven."  Alright then.

After this slightly surprising encounter, we went ahead with our plans to get my phone sorted out.  MBK is an 8 story shopping complex.  It is connected by sky walking bridge to the sky train, Siam Square (also a shopping complex) and Siam Paragon (also a shopping complex, the most high end of the trio).  It is right next to a Cultural Arts Center (have to check that out another day), and a place called Discovery.  I forget what goes on in that building - sports?  Language teaching?  I will find out later.  The fourth floor of MBK is cell phone mecca.  Unlike the United States where you almost have to go with one cell phone provider, and choose your options within that carrier's rules, in Thailand you pick all your own hardware and then just buy a carrier's sim card.  If you want to change carriers?  Buy a different sim card and stick it into your phone for about three dollars.  All carriers use a pay as you go format where you buy minutes on a scratch off card in any 7/11 convenience store.  I like this so much better than the U.S. monopolies!  Not only that, but there is not the "oh one thing is wrong with your phone.  You have to get a new one now," attitude that you will find in U.S. cell phone provider outlets.  One thing is wrong with your phone?  Go to MBK.  The numbers are worn off your faceplate?  Get a new one for 150 baht, choose the color you want!  Your battery is fried?  We will sell you a new one for 300 baht.  You have a Canadian phone that is Sim locked for Thai sim cards?  Find a good tech guy, he'll have it cracked in 40 minutes for 10 dollars.  You want to buy a nice phone but don't want to pay too much?  We have second hand phones all around, including blackberries and iPhones.  Want to jail break your iPhone?  We can do that.  You inherited this phone from someone that locked it?  We can crack that too, 20 minutes.  Lost your charger?  We've got it.  Need an obscene amount of rhinestones on your phone?  Take a look.  We have some cell phone adornments two inches thick with rhinestones.  We even have Hello Kitty Phones!  The actual phone, not just decoration.  Forget the U.S. throw away (recycle, if you look hard enough) mentality - this place is a cell phone junk yard/parts shop over 100 stands strong.  Let someone else use it when you want to upgrade.  Fix that one thing that is broken.  You can make the digital/intellectual property argument on "hacking" phones, but to some extent - there is no reason one phone should work in one country or on one network but not another.  It's just another way to make profit, and it's unnecessary to have that much waste as to have to get a new phone each time you hop a border or change carriers.  If you ever come visit and are close to needing a cell phone upgrade - pick your new phone up at MBK.

After this, Gen took me to an express boat bus stop and we rode the boat back from Siam.  9 baht. Much less traffic that way.  Then I got ready for my second boat ride of the day.  My boss/host picked me up and we drove to the dock for the dinner and boat ride.  It was very nice, and I think my student was in the same mindset I was about the matter.  She was nervous that she was having to practice her English in front of her parents and the head of the English program, I was nervous to be doing so in front of my boss and a student's parents.  My student served me rice, fish, and fish soup.  I also served her some, because I couldn't justify just sitting there.  She also presented me with a metal embossed bookmark and a pair of earrings from Chiang Mai.  After dinner (or rather, finish that bite and you're done you need to go up top), she and I went up to the boat's deck to take in the sights.  It was a lot more peaceful just she and I.  I told her not to be nervous to practice her English with me.  And I practiced counting in Thai with her.  We took photos of various Bangkok landmarks - beautifully lit up at night.  She enjoys taking photos and would like to be a fashion designer someday.  She also filled me in on what the boat guide was saying, since he was speaking in Thai, so I got some mini history lessons.  After the boat turned around we returned inside to partake of desserts (I have a photo!) and listen to the band playing.  She and I were both somewhat annoyed when we were instructed to go dance.  I taught her the English words "pushy" and "scheming" in relation to this portion of the evening.  We got half way to the dance floor and agreed to sit back down.  I was enjoying just sitting and taking the whole of the situation in, I think she was as well.  Of course my boss came to literally push us closer to the dance floor.  We got nearly there and sat down again.  Peace lasted only about one minute before she returned and pretty much dragged us onto the floor.  She explained later she is happy when she is dancing.  I wonder if she realizes people have different tastes.  I think my student is perceptive enough to realize what was going on.  We were finally granted some more peace and were able to go back up top to just take in the sights silently.  Overall it was a very pleasant evening with a very sweet student.  I finally got home and collapsed after two mostly pre-planned weekend nights.  I experienced so many things about Thailand these last two days, it's been somewhat overwhelming.  Between the sights and the hospitality accompanied by sitting, looking pretty, speaking English and being politically correct- I'm mentally exhausted.

Other tidbits: being asked by a University student here if I could pull strings to get them into grad school at Indiana University.  Learning that it is impolite to put your fork in your mouth in Thailand, you use the fork to scoot food onto your spoon and eat with your spoon.  Even since learning this piece of etiquette I've unconsciously broken this rule, probably more times than I'm even aware.  According to my host, waving to someone you don't know is flirting, she freaked out when I waved to someone on the street that was smiling at me.
Apparently I can't escape it, Friday one of my students asked me if I was pregnant.  Then apologized profusely, "sorry for asking."  The guys consoled me by reminding me half the school, including some teachers, believe they are a gay couple; and the kids frequently ask the married teacher why he doesn't have kids.  During the wedding, I talked with the very cute school secretary - she and I talked about wanting to lose weight but liking food too much, and made jokes patting our bellies and our "food babies," in a kind of who cares manner.  I preferred this to my boss patting my belly and explaining I should do crunches everyday to be slender.  Whatever.  I'll put on makeup and be a cute little farang girl, I'm not going out of my way to do crunches any more than I want to myself.
Also found things at MBK to get once I get my first paycheck here - night stand, electric induction stove plate, microwave, electric metal tea kettle, a nicer chair, and probably another table - either for my desk or to set up 'kitchen.'  In the meantime, I don't really have cooking apparatus, and I'm hungry.  I'm off to scavenge for a late lunch.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

No Child Left Behind

So in Thailand, middle school students are not allowed to fail.  That's right, they simply aren't allowed to fail their classes.  So, what if they turn in all the work, but they did a terrible job and failed?  Why you round their grades up to just over 50% and call it passing of course!
Now, they CAN fail their standardized exams.  We have nothing to do with those exams.
But failing classes, and teacher administered quizzes and tests - that's simply not done in Thailand.  So as a teacher, I have very little to hold over their heads to get them to work.  Do your homework or you'll fail - nope, mommy or daddy will call and complain, the head of the program could be fired - many people would lose face.  And we can't have that, now can we?  Although the use of a very skinny bamboo stick is ok for discipline.  I don't personally have the bamboo stick, nor would I want it, but the head teacher does and sometimes comes in as a supportive "co-teacher" when the kids are out of line.  At this point, I've threatened my students that I will not assign them a semester grade until all work is completed.  That's the worst I can do, give them an incomplete.  And then I still have to continue allowing them second chances.  At some point, you just have to make up their score and pass them.  Not that I'm going towards that without a fight.  My most recent threat to get students to do work is students with missing assignments will get even longer assignments than their peers.  Though it is a fine line to walk between pushing them to succeed, and having them or their parents complain and getting reprimanded.
They do have spunk, I'm thankful for that.  Such writing assignment answers as "I'm about to skip Ms. Jenny's class to have a late lunch," certainly show that.  I'm all about laid back "Thai style" but the inability to fail a student that deserves it is unbelievably aggravating.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Bathrooms

Oh yes, I'm very worldly.  I'm completely prepared to remain calm upon seeing a HUGE cockroach skittering around my bathroom floor.  It's the one crawling up from my sink drain while I'm washing my hands I'm not prepared for.  And of course, with the Thai custom of removing your shoes before entering living spaces, I'm barefoot to boot.
So, I think I'll just avoid my bathroom for awhile.  They'll skitter elsewhere eventually, right?  Or maybe I'll just go get Thomas or Ming to take care of them.  Thomas and Ming are two of the street cats that have pretty much been adopted by this apartment complex.  They're pretty chill.  Actually, possibly too chill to care about a cockroach.
I had a second non-Thai dinner this evening.  The Dutch teacher, one of the "officers" (school secretaries) and I had falafel for dinner at a place that caters to Israeli backpackers in Banglamphu.  It is within walking distance of my apartment, and on a cool day like today we can also walk from school.  There is quite a lot within walking distance from my place.  Now that I can at least manage to get on the correct bus to go to school and come home I can explore further.
I've come to the conclusion that I will be teaching in two buildings for the entire semester.  Today I caught a glimpse of what I think is going to be the new computer room.  The floor and walls are not finished, and possibly none of the wiring.  In fact, I think it would be lucky if it is done by next school year.  The other teachers believe it will take two months just to get the teacher's office put back together.  I'll just be thankful if I have a desk eventually.  Opening a cupboard for my legs and using the kitchen counter for grading only goes so far.
The water was functioning in the bathrooms today.  Yay western toilets!  The new ones do look very nice at least, although 3 toilets and 2 sinks for each gender's bathroom really doesn't cover a student body of 180.  It sure beats the raw sewage smell that emanates throughout the other building.  In both cases the sewer system isn't set to handle paper, so you throw it out instead of flushing it.
Yesterday I had my first instance of having to ask a male student to quit putting his makeup on during class.  Foundation and blush, for starters.  Thankfully that behavior is a lot more common in Thailand, and as such does not relegate him to the kind of middle school ridicule it would in the states.  Parents are also more accepting of it as well, I'm told.
I wonder if the cockroaches have scuttled off yet...

Monday, November 8, 2010

Moving, moving, moving...


Over the weekend our offices and classrooms were moved to the “new” building.  Bearing in mind, it is actually an old building, and not all of our classes have moved yet.  The move has been in the works for two years.  So upon hearing “we’re moving this weekend” the other teachers told me that might or might not happen.  Except this time it did happen.  So Friday after school some of us packed and taped and labeled things for the ten soldiers to move on Saturday.  The student tables and desks were moved, and we even have western style toilets now!  Never mind the running water still only functions half the time.  Being on a University campus, the University wanted our “old” building for college classes.  So it relegated us to this older building.  But don’t worry; we’ll do it up!  We’ll fix it!  During one class today I was interrupted by the sound of a power drill in the wall directly adjacent to the chalkboard.  Guess we’re still not done fixing it up after two years in the works.
Also, the computer lab, where I teach computer class, is still in the old building.  So the students and I have to commute back across the road and the schoolyard to the old building.  As if 50 minute class, no passing period, and computer boot up and log out time weren’t enough in the way of obstacles for accomplishing anything.  I’m also leery about when they do get around to moving the computer lab – how long will I have to teach computer class with no computers, and a workbook with no accompanying text book?  I can run some copies or print stuff out…oh yeah; they haven’t set those back up yet.  In fact, the students’ desks and classrooms are all set up, but the English program office is currently an empty room.  They just finished the floors, you know.  And Monday morning, we arrived at the new building to the piles of boxes everywhere and no teacher desks.  I’m currently positioned on a kitchen counter, sans Internet and typing in word.  I’m going to get a lot of grading done, having set up my grade book in Google documents.  Having to hop from my laptop in the office to the computer lab, that made sense.  How silly of me, trying to make sense in Thailand.  Thankfully Gen and I already have plans to go for a massage after school.  There are several good places right by our apartment building.

Speaking of which, as for my living arrangement, Saturday morning my host helped me load my suitcases into a taxi, and I moved into my new apartment.  So Friday evening, packing the office.  Then packing my suitcases.  Then Saturday and Sunday beginning to unpack my suitcases.  Monday morning: beginning to unpack things in an incomplete office followed by teaching in two buildings.  Blah.

Other recent events of note: fun times taking the wrong bus around town.  Being approached by a creepy guy asking me (very insistently) if I want more English teaching jobs.  I'm not so sure that was actually his motive.  Leaving said guy standing in the street.  Debating with another interesting South African Ex-Pat English teacher.  Discussing the parliament of Antarctica (you had to be there).  “Promise me Sarah Palin won’t be President!  I changed three Acts of Parliament in South Africa!”  “They kicked me out of the country, you know!”  Personally, I think it may have been for reasons besides political differences that they kicked you out of the country, creepy.

And we mustn’t leave out: calling students up to the front to give examples of “I’m about to do something."  I set two ground rules: no leaving the school, and no jumping out the window.  So naturally: male student: “I’m about to kiss you!”  Begins approaching me.  Not knowing what else to do, I turn the other way and put my hand out, rejecting said advance.  Class falls into laughter.  Well, I hope they remember “about to.”  The second grammar class of the day, the standout example was "I'm about to peeping Tom."  And yes, he knew full well what he was saying, aside from the grammatical error.

After all the excitement of the past little bit, Monday wrapped up quite nicely with Spaghetti for dinner and an hour long massage for 200 baht, which is currently equivalent to $6.74 U.S. dollars.  :-) The spaghetti was some of the first western food I've had since my airline breakfast, and it really hit the spot.  They actually have a fair bit more dairy around than I expected, so I've been able to get yogurt (some of the only dairy I can eat).  And 7/11 has loaves of bread, well closer to half loaves but in any case.  Today's school lunch was a cabbage soup, rice, curry fish balls and a dessert resembling frog spawn.  Pretty much all Thai desserts are something with very unique texture, little flavor that is then doused in sugary syrup to compensate.  Sometimes crushed ice is added if you wish.  I must say it was quite fun to play with as it rolled across my spoon, and it didn't really taste like much of anything besides the added sugar syrup.  I think it was actually fruit or plant based, the frog spawn comment is courtesy of the Dutch teacher.  It does give a good visual description.

A quick note on pictures: I'm being careful for now because I'm still getting my bearings and from my reading you have to be careful of people who don't want to be photographed.  Or even better, the people that allow it then come after you demanding payment for it.  Plus, I need to become known as a resident - hanging around with a camera screams tourist.  Then when you run into creepy guy on the street claiming he's got another English teaching job or what have you for you, having your camera out is one less thing to be concerned with.  As a farang I already attract plenty of stares, I want to keep my eyes and awareness on the streets.  I've got plenty of time for pictures.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Traffic

Alright, so living in Bangkok, a post needs to be devoted to traffic.  It is quite normal to have an hour, hour and a half, even two hours or more commute simply to get to the suburbs.  I read in one of my guidebooks that the average city has 25% surface area of roads, sidewalks, etc.  Bangkok's layout including 10% roads, sidewalks, etc.  And new cars are rolling out onto the streets every day.
Students rarely go to visit their friend's homes, instead they hang out in the school yard before and after school because traffic makes it nearly impossible to hang out anywhere else.
The commute from my host's home to school also goes directly by the royal palace, the current palace where the royals actually live.  Cool, right?
Well, actually, since it is surrounded by a huge white washed wall, and every member of the royal family gets the royal treatment (as in, traffic stops to let them pass), in practice it simply means the traffic jam is worse and time spent on the bus is extended.
The presence of motorcycles and motorbikes is high here, and for good reason.  It can seriously cut down on the commute time if you can weave in and out of the larger vehicles.  Personally, I'm planning on being a pedestrian for the foreseeable future once I have an apartment close to school.  Speaking of, I'm off to get that sorted out.  Hopefully successfully this time.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Farang Follies

The Thai word for westerner (or basically, any white person) is "farang."  This is also what Thais call guava fruit.  So they think it is very funny to see "farang eat farang," cannibalism!  It's a joke they never get tired of.
Fresh mango and fresh guava (farang), are SO different than what we have in the cans in the U.S.  They are a lot drier, and not as sweet.  They have a slightly grainy texture, almost like a pear, but not juicy, just crisp.
Street food or fast food is actually cheaper than cooking at home yourself.  In fact, finding an apartment with a kitchen in Bangkok is downright impossible.  As the British teacher said when I inquired about a place with a kitchen, "you're in the wrong country."  However there is quite an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables.  Other than that, pretty much everything is fried.  Avoiding allergens like peanuts, eggs, and gluten would prove very difficult in Thailand I think.  Thankfully avoiding lactose isn't too hard.  Also good I don't keep kosher.  I would imagine avoiding these things is doable, but requires a better grasp on the language than I've currently got.  Also at places that cook everything in one pan probably still impossible.  Though rice is such a staple, I'm sure there are some places that cook that separately - it's the cross contamination that would get you there.
I am looking forward to getting my own place, soon.  My host lives in a suburb that is far from school.  My host's hospitality is wonderful, but with the Bangkok commute I spend 3 hours on a bus or in a taxi every day.  Between school time and commute time, my day is totally shot.  The South African teacher is helping me out a lot, she's the other female farang English teacher.  I'm getting an apartment in the same building she lives in, much closer to school and right by the farang backpacker haven.  Walking down some of the streets of Banglamphu (the name of the backpacker haven neighborhood) I feel like I'm actually in the majority.  And since it's the area for broke backpackers, things aren't sold at too much of a markup.  I can go a few soi (lanes) over and go some place less touristy any way.
I'm getting the hang of the Thai buses, at least I can handle paying my own fare (12 baht).  I'm still learning the bus routes, but that will be different when I move as well.  I do know yellow buses are air conditioned, other buses are "warm buses," as my host says.  You can hail a taxi if the red light in the windshield is on - it indicates the taxi is empty.
More updates later.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Day One Observations

Alright, so Day one done.  Here at the beginning of day two.  Day two should be a little more relaxed, I actually only teach one class on Tuesdays.  Mondays I assist in a block class and teach three classes.  Nothing like jumping right in.  Wednesday I teach a block and two regular periods, and I haven't quite figured out what club time is about yet.  I'm assigned to Public Speaking Club, however Gen, the South African English teacher, may have recruited me to help her with Spanish Club.  I would love to help in Spanish club!  We'll see what transpires.  Gen and I believe we're going to confuse our students into thinking all female western teachers are called some variation of Gen or Jenny.  Oh well, not much to be done about that.  We are addressed by our first names here.  Thursday is going to be my long day, I assist in one block, teach two regular classes and then another block.  Phew.  Friday is just three regular class periods.  There is a lot of prep/planning time here.  Tuesday and Friday morning I don't teach any classes.  There are some prep times in the afternoon as well, but most of my classes meet in the afternoons.  Teachers move from room to room, not students, except for specials like art, computers and PE.  But there is no passing period, so starting and stopping class on time depends on how long the previous class takes to dismiss - especially when you have to lock up the computer lab.

This morning on the way in to school I saw students walking to their college graduation.  They were wearing light white (with the faintest hint of purple) suits and had red, gold and black robes to put over them.  It was really neat watching them walk, bus, taxi and congregate.  Reminded me of everyone congregating around Elliot and walking through the crowds of graduates myself to play in the ceremony.

Yesterday, as it was the first day for the new semester, male students here at the middle school whose hair was deemed too long were lined up and had their hair buzzed shorter.  After they were done they walked to class brushing the stray hairs off their head and shoulders.  It seemed kind of like something from a fraternity rush week, except administered by school personnel.

So I have met the previous computer teacher, the German.  He's given a lot of helpful insights and showed me around a bit.  He's more than happy to pass along the computer classes to me, in fact I think elated might be the proper term.  According to him they covered power point and presentation skills last semester, and it was like pulling teeth.  So I'm thinking we won't do a lot with power point.  However I've discovered that the student's computers have adobe dreamweaver and flash.  I'm going to look into what version, and see what I can come up with for those programs.  I'm sure the students would be a lot more receptive to something new.
The school has a set of computer curriculum guidelines, but it's kind of cryptic, basic and below their level - or plain unrealistic for middle school.  Then there are the textbooks/workbooks - I think they are written for someone who has never seen anything that runs on electricity, but speaks fluent English.
I mean honestly, looking at these computer books - learn the difference between hardware and software.  Save files.  Print documents.  Students this age can do that in their sleep!  My host admitted computers are not her forte.  She cannot tell the difference between PC and Mac, for example, which is why she did not tell me.  So mostly I'm nodding and smiling about following the "curriculum" (there really isn't one for computer class, just the objectives labeled as curriculum).  Quite honestly, all of the worthwhile components of the "curriculum" the students already know.  A few other tidbits - like the difference between a LAN and a WAN?  Um, sorry - I don't really think that's middle school level, or particularly relevant.  And the books are a workbook only-you need the accompanying text book.  We don't have it.  At least computers is an 'elective,' so I can tweak it.  Hopefully I can get things rolling in the adobe programs.
As for the English grammar classes I teach, there is a curriculum and a worthwhile book - in a lot of ways I think I will be doing more teaching straight from the text book than innovation.  I'll work some things in there though.

Other tidbits before we rush off somewhere else: glad I packed skirts.  Teachers dress code is pretty relaxed, except women must wear skirts.  The toilets at school are Eastern style, manual flushing.  By manual flushing I mean there is a basin of water and a bucket, and you fill the toilet with clean water after you finish until it clears.  It is a kind of water pressure/displacement system.  There are waste baskets to throw out toilet paper, but you have to bring in your own to use.  Luckily packets of tissue are in great abundance around here.

As I said about rushing off elsewhere...this post is probably very haphazard because I have been whisked off to several places during its completion.  I do have a Thai bank account now.  Many thanks to my host for helping with that.  Apparently I require a local account in order to be paid - through direct deposit.  We are paid monthly, and we are paid quite a bit more than my initial estimates - somewhere the numbers or my calculations were off.  I certainly don't mind making more than twice what I thought I was going to make.

I feel as though I have missed recording some other details from the past 24 hours, but I have been rushed around everywhere.  It is difficult to get it down.  Though I suppose I don't need to record all of my observations at once.  I will get some posts covering the food soon.  Also to follow will be posts on my students' knick names, a few gems from their get to know you writing and perhaps some politics.