another weird day.

turns out no school for us today. lol. no surprise there. i'm not surprised by much any more. the whole Thai attitude of just waiting, chilling out, not expecting answers, etc. is really starting to work for me. i kind of like it. i need to chill out in life in general, so this Mai Pen Rai bullshit might be good for me. =)

today was strange and many of the teachers were upset with it, but i honestly wasn't too bothered about things. here's how it went: we got to our office around 8:45, found out we wouldn't have classes for another week, so toured a bunch of classrooms (which we weren't allowed to see last week) and the library during the morning. i got a library card today - that's one thing i accomplished. then after lunch our jobs took an interesting turn. we had a meeting with dr. supa (crazy lady whose job is to run the program but who does a really shitty job at that). apparently some of us need to "volunteer" to teach at the other campus, which is of course where we expected to live and want to live, but were told we could not because we weren't allowed to commute. now we're living out in the boonies and might have to reverse commute because they couldn't figure out a class schedule until... well actually not until "sometime" later this week. anyway i'm volunteering to teach at Hua Mak twice a week so that I'll be closer to the city on those days but not have to commute every single day. it'll be nice to be able to get into the city more easily at least half the week.

then supa told us that we might not have enough students signed up for the classes, so we may need to find some other way to "contribute" to the university. so she wanted our ideas for that. we suggested things like informal English clubs, coaching sports, working with HR, etc. someone said help out in the counseling department (because heidi has her masters in counseling, so she would volunteer to counsel students to help make up her hours) but then Supa turned that into "can you teach psychology?" and started asking everyone if they could teach courses related to our majors, which of course we're totally unqualified to do. weird bootleg university.

then we brought up the fact that most of the students we've met on campus have never even heard of our department or courses (which are new) so we asked what they had done to promote the courses since we hadn't seen any flyers or anything like that on campus. that discussion turned into us setting up a few marketing projects, like designing flyers, setting up promo tables, etc. i worked with some of the teachers to make a schedule for all of us to go to various English Lit classes tomorrow and Thursday to talk for 2-3 mins in the beginning of class to promote our OPE classes. you know how i like making schedules. =)

anyway, it was just strange and a lot of teachers were angry that 1) we might not have enough classes to do the job we were hired for, 2) we suddenly need to find other ways of filling hours even though they are not things we're qualified to do nor what we signed a contract to do, 3) that we find ourselves promoting our department and classes even though that should have been done weeks if not months ago. it's all kind of crazy. Ken, a really sweet older Aussie teacher who has been in country for a few years, just shakes his head and quietly tells us that Thai universities never have their shit together but that you eventually get used to it and learn to love it. we've heard that same sentiment echoed by a few other teachers too, so here's hoping...

also a lot of peeps are pissed that we're so far from the campus. it's clear to us now that Supa lied about where we'd be living. like she lied to us about other things in the past few months. supposedly we live in Bang Na, right? which is a suburb of Bangkok. However, we clearly live twice as far from Bangkok as Bang Na. Our address is off of Bang Na HIGHWAY, but NOT in the town of Bang Na. So even though a map says that Bang Na is like 32 km/27 minutes from BKK, and that's what we all though when we researched it from back home before making our decision, our campus is actually significantly further than that. So we're all trying to gather our thoughts and take a more united stance to insist that we move to the Hua Mak campus, which is much closer to the city and definitely not in the middle of nowhere. That's the other thing about here - it's bad enough that we're so far from BKK, but even worse is that fact that there's nothing around here. literally NOTHING except the campus. not exaggerating at all. there's only one bar within walking distance and even that is a 20-25 minute walk away. and in the other direction, we can take a short cab ride to get to a small street with a couple vendors, one restaurant, and a waxing salon. that's it. this campus is crazy secluded. we're surrounded by a golf course, lots of rice paddies, and nothing else. and a bunch of 17-21 year olds. though some of the might be cool and it's good to mix with the students to a certain extent, it's not exactly a good social pool for us. our students probably should not be our friends, so we need to get somewhere that we can actually meet people and not be so isolated. so yeah, people are pissed. btw the loyola marymount teachers all get to live in Hua Mak, so it again makes no sense that ABAC & Supa think we can't handle commuting.

anyway, that was today. i know it sounds goofy, and it was for a lot of people, but actually i was okay with everything. i've been much more chilled out this week and less stressed about everything. oh - in other good news, we actually got a pay stub today for our work in october. we won't actually get it deposited into our accounts until friday, but it was still a pleasant surprise (lol) that we are getting anything at all yet. we were told that we might not even get that until after our Nov 25th paycheck. Not that we have ATM cards yet to be able to USE the money that will be deposited into our accounts, but still.... it's nice to have a bit more of a concrete date that we'll start getting some dollas.

Pataya

We were invited by the Office for International Students to join the Chinese first-year students for a beach day today in Pataya. The idea was to meet some of our future students and enjoy a day at the beach with some cultural exposure.

It was emphasized repeatedly last week that we needed to be on time for our 7:30 a.m. bus pick-up. Though we were on time, the bus was an hour late. Two hours later, we arrived at the Nong Nooch Tropical Garden & Resort but had missed the "cultural show" due to bus lateness. So we watched a weird, depressing elephant show, visibly unhealthy monkeys dressed in strange human clothing, and unfortunate tigers weighed down by chains that were only 1-2 feet long. One of the tigers couldn't even stand up b/c the chain was so short and he appeared so drugged up he could barely focus his eyes. Ick. I love tigers like no other, they are absolutely my favorite animal, but this was just super saddening and I really didn't feel comfortable getting my picture taken with the tigers like so many of the other tourists. I did pet the thing though. I couldn't resist that much.

Anyway, after the animal depression, we had a huge buffet lunch and then took a trolley tour of the garden in this resort. Odd garden overall, but it had lots of really beautiful orchids. We had to stay until the 3pm cultural show, which was an odd combination of dancing, Muay Thai boxing, and sword fighting atop elephants wearing obnoxiously colored styrofoam hats. Then we hopped back on the bus and finally landed at the beach around 4:45. We stayed there until 6, making for a pretty unsatisfying beach day. Jenn, Kate, Angelica and I went down the street for a drink instead of packing into the already crowded Pataya beach.

Also it rained all day. Kind of a bust. Most of us are done with the group tours. I know that the university is trying to take us on trips they think we would like, but it really hasn't worked out so far. I don't want to be unappreciative, but I'd just rather take my own trips from now on instead of spending entire days touring shopping malls or circus-like, touristy animal havens.

Did I mention that right there along side the tigers and fat, costumed monkeys was a black man dressed like some uncivilized tribal dude? He was all decked out in "traditional African" costume and tooth necklaces and crap. On display right there with the animals. Absolutely effed up.

On the way up side of the day were the beautiful orchids and other flowers in the resort garden. And also that I got to pet a beast of a tiger (drugged up as he was).

mmm mmmm good

I ate a spoonful of ants last night. They mostly tasted like the lemon and onion with which they were prepared. Not bad but probably not something I need to eat again.

We spent the morning getting medical exams required by the TH government then headed into the city for the rest of the day. Our group split in two for awhile and then met up later in the Khao San Road area. I didn't favor the decision to spend our first real night in the city in the most cliche backpacker area, but it turned out to be a fun night. We took a subway, skytrain and river ferry to get to Th. Khao San and found a chill aussie hostel for a few beers. Later in the night I had pad thai from a street vendor and it was the best pad thai I've ever eaten, plus it cost under $1.

Ayuttaya

Today was Chulalonghorn Day in Thailand, so in honor of the holiday we went to Bang Pa-in and Ayuttaya, the ancient capital of Siam. We spent the morning at a wat (temple) on a small island - we had to take little air carts to swing across the river to the island - and had awesome ice cream being passed out by women making lots of food for the holiday. Then we wandered around the gardens of the royal summer home in Bang Pa-in before getting back on the bus to head up to ancient Ayuttaya. We spent the afternoon looking at ruins and riding elephants. The elephant thing extremely touristy and circus-like, which made it strange and overwhelming. Also we saw a few indicators that made me question how well the elephants were treated, so it's something I'll research before we plan a longer elephant hike for later this year in the northern parts of the country. But it was still cool to ride an elephant for a few minutes!

young monk from Wat Nivet

I motioned to this kid to ask if I could take a picture of him. He nodded and tapped the elephant on the ear to make him turn his head for this pose.

this one was more candid
ruins of Ayuttaya

one of the many buddhas among the Ayuttaya ruins

Bang Na, Bangkok, Thailand

Last Friday, Lauren, Heidi and I journeyed out to the Narita airport and met up with 6 other teachers who were all on our flight to Bangkok. We were picked up from the airport at midnight and got to our campus housing around 2 a.m. I could not believe how hot and humid it was, even at that hour of the night. It doesn't cool down here at all, staying in the 90s with lots of humidity all throughout the night. I've gone running at 6 a.m. thinking that I could beat the heat, but no such luck. I am getting used to it though.

Saturday we explored the beautiful campus and then took taxis to downtown Bang Na, which is kind of a far trip. We shopped and ate before heading back to the ABAC campus that evening. Sunday we were taken on what was supposed to be a tour of downtown Bangkok but instead turned into a tour of four (FOUR!) different shopping malls. Apparently they think Americans like to spend all of our time shopping, but that didn't exactly fly with this crowd - most of us are more interested in hiking and eating questionable meat from street vendors than seeing the high-end stores of Siam Paragon. But after our tour, we decided to stay downtown and walk around for awhile. We eventually found a place to grab appetizers and beer while people-watching from an outdoor patio. It was really nice to sit down with the other teachers and all chill out for a while.

Monday through Wednesday we had orientation and training, which was riddled with surprises and confusion. Signing our contracts and other paperwork was a huge fiasco, but that frustration has since subsided and it seems like everything will work out. We start teaching either this Monday or the following Monday... we'll find out on Monday morning. One of the things I'm getting used to is that you don't get advanced notice about anything and that you have to sift through lots of convoluted information to figure out answers to the simplest questions. Thais are just so laid back about everything and never expect much information, so that's been pretty different for us Americans to get used to. The Thai say "mai pen rai" all the time - meaning no worries, it's cool, don't worry about it, whatever, nevermind. We're all starting to internalize that as much as possible, because it's a lot easier than getting frustrated and stressed all the time. So... mai pen rai!

A few days in Tokyo: Arigato!!!

Lauren, Heidi and I spent the last couple of days in Tokyo. It was great there, even if chaotic and almost overwhelming at times.

Wednesday evening we found our way into a small restaurant where we jumped at the waitress who welcomed us with a well-pronounced English “hello.” The hostess held our hands through the meal, trying to explain a few options as best as she could in extremely limited English and finding us dishes that met our vague “noodle” or “shrimp” descriptions. One of the highlights of our entire time in Tokyo came at the end of that meal when we stood up to leave, leaving a tip on the table, and the entire restaurant yelled goodbye and gozai-mas to us. It was uncomfortable and quickly headed for the door. When we were across the street and nearly half a block away, we heard our hostess yelling at and waving to us from the door, so we turned and waved back at her. We waved and yelled “arigato” to our hearts' content until we finally realized that she was trying to tell us to come back to get the money we left on the table. Google later confirmed to us that you do not tip in Japan. Oops.

On Thursday morning we went to Tsukiji, the largest and most famous fish market in the world, also the topic of a case study I did for an anthropology/international studies class I took at DePaul. It was crazy to see all of those fishermen, dock workers and food artists all conducting their business in this massive wholesale market filled with local restauranteurs, family folk and tourists like us. My shoes smelled after walking through the fish guts and nasty puddles of questionable water, but it was worth it to taste the best, freshest tuna I’ve ever had. We also spent time near the Sensoji temple and in a traditional Japanese garden, though the zen-ness of the experience was dampened by some heavy landscaping construction.

Thursday afternoon and evening, we spent tons of time walking around Shinjuku and Shibuya. Those are business and sort of touristy districts with tons of neon lights, LCD advertisements on buildings, and obnoxiously bright and loud arcades filled with business people playing video games. We may have spent close to an hour just watching the absolute madness of the big intersection in Shibuya. Literally thousands of people who cross that intersection every time the lights turn green. It is insane and the videos we took probably don’t do it justice.

This morning, Friday, we had delicious coffee and sandwiches for breakfast and then headed back to Shinjuku on a mission to see Mount Fuji. It took us forever and a day to find the Park Hyatt, which is on the 1,000 Places to See before You Die list. I will tell you, though, that you can go ahead and cross that hotel right off the list because nothing about it was that impressive and unfortunately it was too smoggy to even see Fuji. Finally we headed to the airport on a train with 100+ of the most adorable school children I’ve ever seen – all in dorky bright yellow hats and extremely well-behaved. We also happened to sit across from a guy who would be our flight attendant later on our plane to Bangkok. He played with the kids and took pictures of them, of course smiling and making the requisite peace signs. It was excellent.

Aside from the details of exactly where we went, I think my main memories of Tokyo will be the extensive but easy train/subway system (with its extremely long walks to make transfers), the bright lights and colorful streets, and the friendly Japanese who were always willing to help us out with their limited English skills. I had learned maybe 8-10 Japanese phrases and words, but only used about half of them. Otherwise we made do with lots of hand gestures and smiles.

Now it’s Saturday, 18 October at 3:00 a.m., or Friday the 17^th at 3:00 p.m. in Chicago. I just got to the AU campus in Bang Na, Thailand and got settled in my room. Dr. Supa picked us up from the airport and we arrived at the campus pretty seamlessly. We even got our rooms right away. So thus far, I’m pleasantly surprised that things are going according to plan. Maybe this sweet, disorganized lady has her act together after all. I'm excited to find out.