July 31st = The Day of Joyous Celebration

In eleven days, I will get my first paycheck. Yes, I have been here for almost two months, working for almost two months, and I still have not seen a baht from Chiang Mai University. I'm not bitter, but I must admit that I am looking forward to the end of July with eager anticipation. Because there is a lot of paperwork to process, CMU can't pay their part-time faculty until two months after the first day of classes.

Because I am basically a dirt-poor college graduate, I evaluate every purchase carefully. However, it is almost laughable at how my perception of the value of money changes when I switch countries. At home in Santa Barbara, I would easily drop $10 - 15 for a dinner out with friends, but here I evaluate whether or not I should walk 45 minutes in 98 degree weather (95% humidity) rather than taking a taxi for 15 baht (about $0.50). I get weird here. Because everything is so cheap, I get extra frugal and often save no more than a couple of dollars.

This makes me think about the economic situation in general. Thailand is a very poor country. Some refer to it as a "third world" country, which is another discussion altogether. I'll tackle that one in a later post. Being a university teacher is one of the best paid jobs around - and CMU pays their employees well, for Thai standards. With my salary, I can live comfortably, but not extravagantly. However, I am only one person. Most of the jobs that the average Thai person holds pays much less than my job. How then, would one afford a car, a college education for children, heck, children in general? Not to mention insurance, a home mortgage...

I have new respect for the hard-working people of this country. I am always learning something from them. At any rate, I hope I will re-think how I spend my dollars when I get home.

July 31st, I still await you with open arms.

Goodbye Walden.

Two moderately-sized geckos used to live in my shower. I named the smaller one Walden, and the bigger one, Pond. For a few days, Walden had stayed in the exact same place on my bathroom floor, not moving at all even when I walked in or out. Being in denial, I figured that we were at last friends and his not moving meant that he was not scared of me anymore. After about three days, I came to terms and decided that he must be dead.

Now came the hard part: removing the body of the dead gecko into the trash bag. After living in the village north of Chiang Mai when I was a student here, my tolerance of abnormally large bugs/spiders/creepy things has gone significantly up, but I wasn't thrilled at the prospect of touching Walden's slimy little body.

Finally, I tried to remove him by sliding a piece of paper under his body and lifting him into the trash bag. I won't go into detail, but it was difficult and a little frightening. I was terrified that as soon as I got close, Walden would spring back to life and jump in my face. He didn't, and at last the process was over. I felt a little sad for about two minutes, and then looked for the other gecko, Pond, to see if he was still alive. I haven't found him yet... oh dear.

The Postharvest Technology Institute does not exist. Period.

Today my supplemental English Conversation course was supposed to start. At least that is what I thought.

I finished my 2:30 class and immediately walked to a main road to try to find a taxi to take me to the Postharvest Technology Institute, which is where the class would be held. I did not know the name of the institute in Thai. This presented a problem. None of the taxi drivers had heard of it. I tried to show them on my map. No use. After about twenty minutes of this, I was getting nervous about the time. I called a Thai friend and gave the phone to the taxi driver. Finally, I thought we understood each other. I hopped on and off we went.

The taxi driver dropped me off by the side of the road and pointed. I guess that meant that my building was somewhere in that general direction. I started walking and went in the first building I saw. I explained to about five people who I was and what I was there for. They took me in to see the director (of what, I don't know) and the director then proceeded to tell me that the building I was in was NOT the Postharvest Technology Institute. It was somewhere further down the road. So I started walking again.

At long last, I found the building. I went in and went through the same routine, explaining that I was a professor from the Humanities Department here to teach a class. I received a lot of blank looks. I was told to stand in a hallway while various Thai women discussed what to do with me. (I can understand Thai better than I can speak it. They also said I was cute and had nice skin. How nice).

Next thing I knew, I was on the phone with my supervisor and she was explaining that the class did not start today, but that the date had been changed to Wednesday and she forgot to tell me. Opps. At least I know where the building is now. Weary and sighing, I started the long walk to a road where I could catch another taxi in my very cute but uncomfortable shoes, glad that at least now I got to go home.

Explanation of pictures below:

I went to the Fourth of July celebration held at the American Consulate in Chiang Mai today. It was great. They had a live band and "American" food (Starbucks, pizza, hot dogs, McDonalds, Coors Light) and lots of tables to just sit and hang out. It wasn't really what I expected... but I'm not sure what I expected. Lots of people were there; I was a little surprised at how many. Once it got dark they had kareoke to popular songs celebrating Americana and fireworks. The fireworks were actually really decent. I was expecting a few little sparklers, but they went all out!

The pictures below are of the American flag over the consulate and of my friend Mark (who also teaches at CMU) and me.

Happy 4th of July!

Braces and orange rubber bands.

I picked up a tutoring job working with two eighth grade boys after they get done with school once a week. Today I meet Boon, one of the boys. He is a skinny, awkward kid about half my height, and has braces with neon orange rubber bands. I noticed this because he never stopped smiling during the entire hour we spent together. He is adorable.

I wanted to spend the first session just getting to know him, so I asked about his family, what he likes to do, etc. He speaks (and comprehends) English very well for his age, partially because he has visited the US several times. His aunt lives in Chicago. I told him that I was born in Chicago, which caused us to bond immediately. His favorite movies are The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I asked who his favorite character was: Legolas. Yes, we also have the same favorite character from LOTR. It was meant to be.

I think I terrified him a little (as I recall, most thirteen-year-old boys are terrified of girls a little, especially of strange foreign girls with blonde hair who won't stop asking them questions). I am looking forward to seeing Boon next week on Thursday, along with Thaikom, his friend and my other student. Maybe we can watch The Lord of the Rings and talk about how Legolas has sweet bow and arrow skills.

Heh.

I went to a grocery store today (not a street market, but an actual grocery store) with one purpose in mind: to buy glue. I needed said glue to repair two my favorite things, which are my pearl earrings (fake, of course, bought for about $8.99) and my J.Crew leather sandals. I've missed them.

So I went to the store, found a section where they sold tape and pencils and figured that glue might be somewhere close by. I was right. I bought a tiny bottle of glue for about 26 baht, a little less than an American dollar.

I thought to myself that this glue must be super glue, partially because it had the word "SUPER" written on the package, in English and in giant letters, and partially because it had a picture of an elephant charging the customer (me) that was so lifelike it freaked me out. Yes, most definitely super glue.

I went home to perform the surgery on my earrings and sandals and discovered that all the directions for using the glue were written in Thai (Don't ask me why this surprised me; that seems to make sense, as I am living in Thailand). So I used my college-educated brain and tried to figure it out. I was applying pressure to the bottle, trying to make it come out, when the top exploded and I got glue all over one of my hands. Now, this would be of no concern to me, except that on the bottle it said, "AVOID ANY CONTACT WITH SKIN." In English. Ha. Assuming that my skin was about to melt off my bones, I rushed into the bathroom and spent a good twenty minutes trying to get the glue off my fingers.

It still is not completely gone. But my earrings and my sandals made a miraculous recovery.