Hurray!

I received an email from my mom today, telling me that she bought plane tickets for herself, my dad, and my little sister Lauren to come and visit after Christmas (well, they will leave Christmas Day, so I guess it is after Christmas.)

I've been realizing that part of my love of traveling and seeing new places involves sharing it with the people I love. Before I studied in Thailand during my junior year of college, almost all of my traveling was with my family. It has been strange to love a place so much and have my family not completely understand what it is like. I'm so excited that they're coming because now they will get to experience a culture that is very new to them but familiar to me.

Here is a list of things I want to do with my family (I really like lists):

- go to the island Koh Chang and stay at a beachfront resort
- spend a day snorkeling among gorgeous coral reefs
- go elephant riding and bamboo rafting in the jungles north of Chiang Mai
- visit Wat Suan Dok and have them meet Phra Tong, my old supervisor
- go out to dinner at Riverside and listen to jazz along the Ping River
- take them to the university and show them my office and classrooms
- go to Doi Suthep and watch the sunset from the top of the mountain
- take them to a Kantoke dinner (a traditional Northern Thai experience) and watch my dad try to dance the "Rhun Thai"
- go to Kat Luuang, the daymarket, and make them eat roasted cockroaches (or at least look at them)
- walk from the Faculty of Humanities to see the house that I lived in with my host family
- go to the Thanoon Khun Doon and experience the madness of the Sunday Walking Street

That is just the beginning. So let that be inspiration to all of you... if you come and visit me, I promise that we will do fun/exciting/culturally important things.

A day in the life of... me.

Here is an example of my typical Tuesday:

6:30 Drag myself out of bed
7:15 Leave my apartment, stopping at my favorite coffee shop down the street for iced coffee
7:30 Walk to Huay Kaew Road to catch a taxi to the university
7:40 Arrive at CMU, convince the taxi driver to charge me 15 baht instead of 20 baht because I speak Thai
7:50 Drop books off in my office and review my notes for my class
8:00 Begin teaching class
8:15 Recap the first fifteen minutes of class for the fifteen students that walked in late
9:15 ENG 203 ends, walk to my next classroom
9:30 Begin teaching ENG 103
10:45 Class ends, I start the walk back to the English Department
11:00 Talk to my family briefly on my cell phone
11:30 - 2:30 Fill out the time waiting for my next class with eating lunch, checking my email, hanging out in the faculty common room, journaling and reading the book of the day
2:30 Teach my last class of the day
3:45 Class ends and I catch a taxi at the main road back to my apartment (I probably should walk but my 4:00 I am exhausted)
4:15 Arrive home for swimming, dinner, preparing for classes, and random excursions
10:30 Bedtime... my favorite time of day. Hurray.

Five versions of the same story.

I had a mission a few weeks ago to find the Humanities Academic Services Center, the organization which arranges supplemental English programs. I wanted to pick up a tutoring job or two to add to my monthly income and was told that this is the place to go.

So now the complicated part of the process began: finding the building where the center is located. I asked around the office and was told at least five different locations. I checked them all out and still couldn't find the building. I was beginning to doubt that it even existed, so I wrote a note to one of the professors in charge of the program.

Yesterday I finally found the building. It is located just up the road from the main English department building, about 2 minutes away from my very own office. I had been traipsing all over this enormous campus when the right place was just a few steps away. I checked with the staff of the center and it sounded like nothing was available right now. Oh well. Maybe next month.

A close, personal relationship with the sidewalk.

I was on my home from buying dinner at a street market tonight a few blocks away from my apartment. Totally lost in my own world, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, missed a step down where the sidewalk disappeared and fell flat on my face. I don't mean just stumbling a bit and awkwardly catching my balance. I was down on the ground, on my hands and knees.

This was so incredibly ironic because I talked with my parents this morning about how the sidewalks here are often uneven and sometimes nonexistent. Serves me right for not paying attention. I tend to look at anything but my feet when I walk in cities, which isn't the best idea.

As I was by myself and there was no one to laugh about it with me, I picked myself up in a hurry and continued sauntering down the busy street. I didn't look around to see if anyone saw me fall, just hurried home to doctor up my bleeding knees.

And so it begins.

Three of my classes have their first major graded assignment due next week. Two classes have oral presentations and one has an article and note sheet project. I am nervous for them; I'm never really sure if they understand what is going on. Thai students are generally very shy and reserved and will not volunteer a lot of information (for example, if I ask a question, usually no one will respond). I always ask them if they understand and they will nod yes, even if they have no idea whether I'm assigning an essay or giving the Gettysburg Address.

This response is very cultural; for a student to ask a teacher a question during class causes the teacher to "lose face." Thai people don't want anyone to be embarrassed or questioned in front of other people, so they avoid saying or doing anything that would cause this. Of course I would much rather lose face and have my students ask questions, but this type of response comes with the territory of teaching Thai students, who are polite and respectful at all times.

The same goes for asking questions in class. If a student admits that they do not understand in class, they "lose face" in front of their classmates. Usually if my students do ask me questions, it will be after class or talking to me in private.

I just hope that they come prepared with the assignments and presentations on Tuesday!

I'm picking up good vibrations...

A few days ago I was hanging out in the English faculty common room, checking my email. All of a sudden, there was a slight tremor; I couldn't even call it an earthquake. Instantly, there was mayhem. The formerly quiet common room erupted into noise and exclamations by some older female Thai professors. They started scurrying about, talking to one another about "the huge earthquake!" and "that was so terrifying!"

All this time I had remained at the computer, calmly continuing to check my email. I didn't even get up from the chair. Adam, an American professor from Boston who knows that I am from California, looked over at me and said, "Well, Megan, what did you think of that?" I smiled and said, "If you want to feel a real earthquake you need to go to San Francisco."

Happy birthday Britt!

Here is a shout-out to my best friend of 10 years, Brittney E. Nichols, who turns 22 today, on June 19th. Yay! You're 22!

Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion . . . . I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.

I love bureaucracy. Today I tried to figure out the different documents I need, including a work permit (which allows me to get paid!) and my visa. Right now I have a three month immigrant visa, which expires at the end of August. I must have talked to five different people today, all of whom told me different things. Apparently I need to get a year visa to stay legal, which I have to apply for after I receive my work permit. Expats who have lived in Thailand for eighteen years told me that this process is never completed correctly.

The most important thing is to get my visa stamped for re-entry, since I am going home to the US during the semester break in October. I heard that I can't apply for re-entry until I have the mysterious year visa, which I won't be eligible for until I have my work permit. And I was told that the work permit can take forever to be processed...

So please pray with me and for me, that I would laugh and be "jai yen" instead of being anxious that all these documents would come through and come through in time. One of the things I love most about Thailand is the easy-going nature of the people and their interpretation of time. It is liberating and frustrating at the same time, but that is just part of being in a different culture. A good sense of humor is helpful when navigating cultural differences! I trust that God will provide and that eventually everything will work out.

So today I laughed, shrugged my shoulders and said "Mai pen rai," which means, "It doesn't matter, no problem."

P.S. In case you were wondering, the title is a quote from author Kurt Vonnegut. I often resort to laughter and tears at the same time.

Currently reading...

To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Wolfe
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Sun Also Rises, by Earnest Hemingway
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard
Abba's Child, by Brendan Manning

Yes, I am reading five books at once. I alternate. One is my "before bed" reading, one is my "office hours and my students aren't coming in" reading, one is... well, you get the idea.

One of the wonderful things about this job is that I am only in the classroom 12 hours a week, and so besides preparing for classes I have a lot of down time where I can do all of the reading and re-reading that I wanted to do during college and didn't have time to do.

the english department

one of my classrooms

the view from my apartment balcony

my office at CMU

Insert catchy and creative title here:

I need to give myself a break. I need to remember that I have only been in Thailand for two weeks and that it is ok to still be getting used to things. I made a list in my head and here are some things to which I am adjusting:

1. A new job
2. Another country (another continent, for that matter)
3. Another language
4. Another climate
6. Another culture (religious and social)
7. Living by myself
8. Moving somewhere where I hardly know anyone
9. Graduating from college (I still don't feel educated enough...)
10. Being in a position of authority and respect

Sometimes I forget that it is ok to not be ok all the time. So if you feel that I am being too hard on myself, help a sistah out and remind me.

"Good morning community members."

What one of my sophomore students said when she got up in front of the class to share her newspaper article.

Something funny.

So here is something humorous that happened to me on Tuesday. I was walking to my 2:30 class and was talking on my cell phone. Now, if any of you know me particularly well, you know that I am unable to multi-task; this includes walking and talking on the phone at the same time. So I went upstairs in the building, still on the phone, walked into my classroom, finished the call, and sat down at the desk.

I look up at there are thirty pairs of surprised eyes looking at me. Titters sweep the classoom and I hear, "Farang mai rhoo laew," or "The foreigner doesn't know." I realize that this is not my classroom and these are not my students. I stand up, grab my bag, smile, and walk out of the classroom without saying anything. I made it to my correct classroom and was relieved to find my students in it.

So let this be a caution to all of you against trying to do ANYTHING while talking on a cell phone. The end.

2 Corinthians 8:11-12

A verse from Corinthians that my mom shared with me that really blessed me when I was feeling insecure about my teaching abilities:

"Finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have." II Cor. 8:11-12

This reminded me that if my heart is willing and ready to give and serve my students, that God will in turn bless that effort. It is only the second week of classes and I feel a little frustrated that my students aren't learning; I need to remember that nobody expects me to be perfect.

A view of the city.

Roadkill.

Every day when I leave my apartment in the morning, one of my goals is not to get run over. In Thailand, the traffic rules are... there ARE no traffic rules. Every so often there will be a traffic light, but these are mostly ignored. Crossing busy streets is always a life and death experience. Often I will make it across one lane but will have to stand in the middle of the road waiting for the other lane to clear, while motorbikes and cars and taxis zoom around me. Pedestrians cross streets at their own risk.

This evening, when i was walking home from dinner, I had my headphones on and was a little zoned out, when I rounded a corner and was almost demolished my a motorbike on the sidewalk. Yes, the motorbike had decided that the road just wasn't good enough and it was the sidewalk or nothing. I didn't die. The motorbike swerved and I leapt out of the way with surprising agility, if I do say so myself.

I thought (falsely) that I would be safe from the insane drivers who claim to always have the right-of-way if I walked on the sidewalk, but they have taken over everything. I have a whole new appreciation for American crosswalks.

The back door.

Today one of the full time English faculty told me that she liked my face. I "wai"ed and said thank you, and then she said, "Yes, your face. It is just so plump." This, obviously, is not quite as much as a compliment, but I bowed and said thank you anyways.

However, the situation was redeemed somewhat when she patted my shoulder and said, "Yes, you look like very sexy, sensual American movie star with plump face." Again, compliments through the back door, or at least through the side door.

Thai people have a very definite idea of who is overweight and who is not. Here, anyone who is larger than about a size 4 is considered fat. Last time I was in Thailand, I was told I was a fat horse (literally!) by my Thai parents almost daily, but here at the university I have gotten nothing but compliments and being compared to Hilary Duff and Britney Spears. Maybe it is because so many farang (foreigners) work at CMU, but I have been surprised at the reaction. My hair gets a lot of comments, and Thai people like to touch it; they do always ask first, as the head is the holiest part of the body.

Reunited and it feels so good!

Yesterday evening I went to Wat Suan Dok, the Buddhist temple where I had my internship the last time I was here. I got to see Phra Thong, my old supervisor, who is now Ajaarn Thong, as he dis-robed and is no longer a monk. It was so strange to see him in regular clothes and with long(er) hair!

I got to see a few other monks that were in my classes who are now fourth year students, but most of my students have already graduated and moved on to other things.

Tonight my little sister Lauren graduates from high school. I'm feeling pretty down because I can't be there and my brother Nathan flew in from New York, so today might be a hard day. Missing family events like this is going to be the hardest part of living on a different continent.

Faith Hill.

I had my first class yesterday, English 210 or Oral Expression I. It wasn't until 2:30 in the afternoon, so I had all day to prepare for it, which was nice. I was pretty nervous when I first walked into the classroom, but the class only had about 17 students, so it was a pretty small group.

I taught at Wat Suan Dok the last time I was here, but this was the first time that I had complete control over my own classroom, all by my lonesome. The students are very, very respectful (they "wai" me every time I hand them a piece of paper), so classroom management isn't really an issue.

I went over the syllabus and course schedule and we did a few icebreaker games, and then I asked them to choose English nicknames for themselves (names that are much easier for me to remember!) We went around the room, and I came to a boy in the front row. "Faith Hill," he said. "You mean Faith?" I asked, somewhat confused. "No. Faith Hill," he said again with a completely straight face. Keep in mind that this is a male student. I came to the conclusion that he must be a fan, but I don't know that I will be able to call on "Faith Hill" in class without holding back a laugh.

CMU does not have classes on Wednesday, so tomorrow I'm looking forward to sleeping in, going swimming and meeting some of my monk friends at Wat Suan Dok. So it is almost like I have a three day weekend!

Thai time.

Today I had my first faculty meeting, which was an interesting experience. I knew nothing about where I was supposed to go or what I was supposed to do, so I just showed up at about 8:30 and started wandering around looking for someone who could tell me where to go. Communication is NOT one of the university's strengths.

I met the head of the English department who immediately chastised me for not wearing a dress (Disclaimer: I was told that female faculty members could wear pants. I didn't look like a slob; I thought I looked very nice when I left my apartment...) She also chastised me for not knowing what was going on. I didn't know what was going on because no one told me what was going on. AHHH!

I was in meetings from 9 to 2:30 and learned what I was going to teach, mostly beginning level English comprehension and oral expression. Everything is all planned out already; the curriculum is very standardized. There must have been at least 30 part time faculty members, mostly foreign; at a university with 26,000 students, you need a lot of faculty! Pretty different from Westmont.

The "flexibility" and easy-going nature of Thai people can be extremely frustrating, as evidenced by some of my experiences today. I hope that the bureaucracy and the university "system" won't be too difficult to navigate. I apologized profusely for my inappropriate attire and tried to be as polite and friendly as possible; hopefully the Thai teachers won't hold my white linen pants against me for long.