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.