December 16, 2009

October Holiday: Part 1.

Well, it’s December now, and the leaves aren’t changing in Thailand.

The color of the Fall foliage still falls in that infinite range of deep, rich green hues. It’s still mostly hot as hell but it doesn’t rain as much.

The death throes of Autumn and the birth cries of Winter are begging to be heard over the seemingly relentless commotion of Bangkok. Only when the heat and noise quiet in the dead of night does the temperature dip.

Even the dogs are asleep when the temperature creeps below 80 degrees, and as the city awakens, so does the heat and the haze. As it always does.

Late Autumn is still raging in Southern China and occasionally it spares a southerly breeze for this country in the south. After the northern Thai mountain ranges have their fill, the scrap winds sweep down the plains of central Thailand and creep into Bangkok.

By the time the wind reaches my eighth-floor apartment on the northern outskirts of this metropolis, it’s just enough to send a flutter through the damp laundry drying on its metal rack.

Winter is coming though. So they say.

My first term ended October 1st. After a marathon, week-long grading session at school, I submitted grades, left school and began thinking about what I’d do for the whole month.

I’d been looking forward to having the entire month of October off, but when it began, I couldn’t decide what I’d do. I had notions about where to go, but I hadn’t even settled on a cardinal direction.

Go south? Lounge around the islands and while away in hammocks and bungalows? Go north? What does that mean? The ancient city of Ayutthaya is an hour train ride north of Bangkok and costs only pennies to get there. Chiang Mai is part of the northern-most section of the country and is famous for its mountain ranges, cool climates and ancient cultural heritage.

Go northeast into Isaan? That conglomeration of provinces famous for its culinary contributions to traditional Thai foodways and for the hospitality of the proud Thais that call the unique area home?

Leave the country? Go where? I had friends with plans for Bali, Malaysia and Australia to the south, and Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam to the east.

A chance phone call from some friends who were already in Chiang Mai (and Pai to the northwest) settled it for me.

“What are you still doing there?” asked Kerry. “We’ll be back in Chiang Mai in two days, we’re in Pai now. We have a room there already. Leave tomorrow.”

After a short pause, I agreed, and there it was. I spent the next day with my girlfriend Paeng before boarding a bus north. We’ve grown considerably close and it wasn’t easy seperating for what would be nearly a month.

The day I left for Chiang Mai was hectic, divided between spending time with Paeng and wrapping up a few things in my apartment. But when I boarded the bus, I realized that despite having moved to Thailand, I’d actually begun my first real independent traveling experience… and there was considerable anxiety involved, although now a laughable sensation.

The majority of white faces in this country are experienced travelers, mostly of the backpacker type, who use Thailand as a starting point before heading off to other places. It’s relatively convienent for the world traveler. It’s training wheels for the novice backpackers, like me.

And there I was, wobbling off to my first destination.

The bus ride itself was pretty uneventful, as it should’ve been, but I knew it was a 10-hour trip and I knew I’d be arriving at about 6 a.m., with no reservations or much direction. Only a text message from my friends describing how to tell a tuk-tuk driver how to get to Sarah Guesthouse on Soi 4 off Tanon Tha Phae.

The bus was on time and I arrived in Chiang Mai under a blanket of thick, cool, misty air; the sky a rich, pre-dawn deep blue. A fleet of cigarette smoking tuk-tuk drivers were waiting for the mothership to deliver its precious white cargo.

They descended, and I was snatched up by a nice enough fellow who charged me a reasonable 60 baht fare to take me to this guesthouse I knew nothing about.

Tuk-Tuks are funny contraptions. The idea makes a lot of sense, and they are convienent, but you take them when you have to. They’re uncomfortable, noisy and open, so you’re more than likely to sit at a traffic light staring down the barrel of a city bus’ chugging exhaust pipe:

Peering from the sides, I was seeing this famous city for the first time, and liked what I saw. Framed by beautiful mountain ranges, the city was waking up, and people were buying food mostly. We zipped through several narrow alley streets before reaching the guesthouse.

Dawn was growing brighter but the sun hadn’t appeared over the mountain ranges. The guesthouse, with it’s main brick house, and adjacent concrete-block hotel, were quiet as a graveyard. There was no one around, so I sat at a nearby table and continued reading Henry Miller’s Tropic of Capricorn, until Sarah the owner came down to open the office.

I told her I came here to meet up with some friends who had been staying here but were, at the moment, spending a few days in Pai. She knew of them and rented me a room at 150 Baht ($4.50) a night, payable whenever.

I went up stairs to my room: a nice, simple room with double twin beds, a powerful ceiling-mounted fan and a nice bathroom. A great deal. I laid my pack down on one bed, stretched out on the other and fell asleep reading Tropic of Capricorn in this new place…

September 1, 2009

Teacher! Teacher!

Mr. John! Mr. John! TOILET! Mr. Jooohnn! TOILET!

His hands firmly grasping his crotch, he shuffles toward the door with a sheepish, embarrassed, hurried and pleading look. He needs to the use the restroom right now.

::sigh:: I’m mid-sentence.

“Yes, you may use the restroom.”

He releases his grip on himself and rushes to the door, his wood-soled shoes sliding the last three feet or so against the polished-stone tile. The door swings open and before he closes it I hear a whisper from the ranks in my class. My eyes dart from the source to the doorway.

The gesture is universal, and communicates only one action…

…I’m gonna go have a smoke… he gestures to his friend, bringing the familiar V-sign up to his mouth.

“Get back in your seat! What are you thinking? I can see you…!”

My head hangs… Another sigh.

I exhale, look up and point to him, and then I point to his seat. His gesture was clear, and so is mine.

Get your ass back in your seat, communicates my gesture.

These are my students. And this gentleman, the crotch-grabber, is deep in his thirties. It’s the thirteenth week of school and I don’t know what his name is. He’s come to class a handful of times.

With another sheepish grin, he sulks back to his seat, unable to make eye-contact with me.

We’re in my English III class, and the day’s lesson is the second conditional clause, using the base + modal form.

Ninety percent of my students can not ask to use the restroom in English. One hundred percent have no clue what I’m talking about.

That’s pretty much how it goes for me everyday. Some lessons sink in, but the gaps are too wide to do any good. They’re supposed to be learning the nuances of conversational English grammar, advanced for many secondary-school-aged native English speakers and my students don’t have the grammar capacity to learn through context by reading around the problem. They’ve forgotten  basic sentence structure but I’m trying to teach them when to use an infinitive and when to use a gerund, and when either is acceptable.

My boss, Joe, tells me it may be the first time in their academic careers they were actually presented a challenge from a course, and they’re unable to cope with what that means. The deeply-ingrained culture of group-harmony  here has produced the ultimate no-student-left-behind phenomenon.  Homework? Four whole pages of multiple choice based on reading a 100-hundred-word article? And I only have one week to do it? Come on! You’re killing us!

Exasperation.

I’m a new teacher, and I haven’t found out the best way to deliver a lesson suited to their learning habits. Our language barrier is miles tall and meters thick. They signed up (they were given clearance to sign up) for a class they were wholly unprepared for, but I slog on. There are only a few more weeks left, and then I’ll regroup and re-arm. Maybe this time I’ll get a say in what books are taught. Student advisers? Course prerequisites? I’m just as clueless to their educational system as they are to the course material, and my understanding of the system is vital for lesson planning and delivery…

I’m learning on the job, and at least I get to laugh, joke and have fun with my students in between these futile gestures of actual pedagogy.


August 6, 2009

Deep in it.

I haven’t been writing as much lately because, frankly, I haven’t been doing much other than teaching. I’ve decided to stay for another term beginning in October and I’ll have a few weeks off then. I’m planning on traveling then, but to where, I’m not sure yet…

I’m thinking about seeing more of Thailand, but I’m also interested in checking out some other countries… maybe southern China, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia or even the Philipines or Indonesia… not sure yet, but until then, I have to shutter myself in and save money.

To that end, I’m just sticking to teaching, water polo and occasionally basketball on Sundays at my school.

But who knows what’ll happen in the mean time. I’ll keep you updated when something goes down!

July 25, 2009

An afternoon in Bangkok.

Bangkok 3 005

__________

Right now I’m laying on my bed, writing. It’s just after six in the afternoon. I opened the panes of glass facing out and I rolled back the small window to the hall, and now a nice breeze drifts though.

From eight floors up I smell the cooking from the street. While the fragrant smell of frying oil, garlic and the aromatic sweetness of stir-fried fish oil and lime juice drift up, so too do the shrieks of laughter and adventure from the dozens of Thai children playing below.  Just as many dogs are barking and everything’s punctuated by bells on carts and the bits and pieces of a conversation between two Thai ladies washing dishes and clothes on their porches, sometimes they laugh and it’s one of the most beautiful things you can hear.

It’s a perfect afternoon and my belly’s full. I ate some five-spice pork from a local vendor and I love flirting with her. I usually eat alone and I prefer it, I think. I chew on a raw, fresh spring onion stalk, ladle sweet chile paste over the perfectly braised pork and ponder this beautiful community I’m priviledged to be a part of.

Buses, cars, motorbikes, bicycles, carts and pedestrians race or drift along. The current is complex but there’s a place for everyone and everyone’s happy. No one yells, everyone smiles and patience and compassion are as abundant as the afternoon rain showers.

and I’m falling in love with this place.

__________

July 22, 2009

Kanchanaburi: end of the trip…for now.

I’m definitely coming back to Kanchanaburi when I have extended time off in October. I’m not sure exactly how long yet, but I will be coming back to just sit on this magnificent porch and fish, read, write, and maybe do a few oil pastel drawings too.

Keep reading →

July 17, 2009

Kanchanaburi: Falls, Elephants, Rafts and the Death Railway.

We got up early and caught the tour bus out to Erawan Falls, a national park about 60 km outside of Kanchanaburi.

The national park features a seven-tiered waterfall that you can swim around, jump off of or just lounge around in, plus the hiking trail used to access the different tiers:

Buddhist Lent Holiday 208

 

Keep reading →

July 14, 2009

Kanchanaburi: “Old Florida” Sanctuary.

Later that night, following the amazing banquet at my school, I met up with Ryan and Ian, who were all ready on the streets around Khao San Road. After we got together, we had ourselves a good ‘ol fashion KSR bloodbath and turned in for the night around three the next morning. 

With plans to catch the 9 a.m. bus to Kanchanaburi from the Southern Bus Terminal, I’m surprised and pleased to report that we did, indeed, make it to the bus on time.

Keep reading →

July 10, 2009

Welcome freshmen!

This past Friday I met up with my friends Ian and Ryan, two teachers from Phuket, and we hit Bangkok hard. It was their first night in town.

I ended up drinking too much and almost missed my first of three three-hour classes, but I made it on time with one minute to spare.

Keep reading →

July 4, 2009

Day to Day.

I’ve more or less settled into a nice routine here in Bangkok and I thought I’d share with you guys who were curious about the rote day-to-day experiences I have.

6:00 a.m. -the alarm on my phone goes off. At this point, when looking at the snooze ‘menu’ on my phone, should I select the up-and-at-’em 5 minute snooze? The semi-responsible 10 minute snooze? The slightly gluttenous 15 minute snooze or the I-might-get-fired-if-I-select-this 1 hour snooze?

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July 2, 2009

Change of pace.

I’ve really enjoyed writing a sort of serial account of my first experiences in Bangkok and beyond, but I’d like to move into shorter and more frequent accounts of my day-to-day activities. From this post on, I’ll try and update as close to daily as I can. For this post though, I’ll give you a little pictorial narrative of my Nai Harn Beach experience and then just fast forward to ‘now’.

Since I arrived in Phuket and settled in at the All Season’s Resort…

Keep reading →