Earlier this week, Pat came to me and told me we needed to tutor a student to help him get ready for an English competition in two weeks. So now one free period a day for the next two weeks is taken up doing this. I’m exhausted thinking about it, but how do you say no to that? We met with him on Friday. Still, I feel bad for him as he didn’t have any more notice than we did and the school he will be competing at has known for over a month. He has to do an impromptu speech on any number of subjects he might draw from a hat. It’s not very impromptu as they have given us the subjects and most kids just memorize all the possible speeches they might have to do. The speech is 5 minutes. I’d have trouble talking for 5 minutes on any of the subjects…. The other category is storytelling and a girl is doing that one. She was memorizing an Aesop’s fable. I read over it and it was grammatically wrong. Ugh, Thailand.
I’m caught up on lesson planning for this week and one ahead for next week. I was hoping to a whole week ahead, but I had some engineering work available so I worked on that most of the weekend. It pays better. I think I can get everything done for next week before the weekend. I’m going to Chaing Mai next weekend. One of my friends from Colorado is on vacation and will be there. It will be nice to play tourist for the weekend. Plus I will get to try my hand at catching a bus on the side of the highway late in the day on Friday. I’ve only left in the morning. Fingers crossed.
I did another reading lesson for Fai on Friday night. She really doesn’t want to do this for more than a half hour. I can’t blame her. She’s in kindergarten, drawing and coloring is far more fun than reading. But I did learn how to tell the difference between a girl dragon and a boy dragon. The girl dragon has a bow on her head. Similar for boy and girl cars – the girl car has the bling. Just in case you were wondering.
My sink has decided to pull away from the wall and looks like it might fall at any moment. I was told maybe someone would come look at it on Saturday. I stayed home most of the day and no one came. I gave up and went to get a massage in the afternoon. I got there and the guy was in and no other people. I’ve been lucky lately. Well, he’s been working on me for a month now and I’m still just as tight. I think he decided he’d had enough of it. He got out the oil (traditional Thai massage doesn’t use oil) and dug so deep into my lats that I thought he might snap my spine. Then he went to town on my calves. It was so painful and even though I cried, he didn’t let up. He did ask if I was ok. He was going to work the knots out of my calves no matter what. I could barely walk last night and it’s still difficult when I first stand up today. I almost fell just getting out of be this morning. Then he worked on my diaphragm and psoas. I’ve never had Thai massage that worked on those muscles directly. OMG those were tight. As painful as it was, I found it fascinating to watch him basically go “ok no more fooling around, we are going get down to business”. I also feel even more confident that he knows what he’s doing (not that I didn’t already), but knowing that the back of the hips won’t relax if the calves and the psoas are tight….. I think that maybe the shoes I’ve been wearing to work are part of the problem. They don’t have a huge high heel, but they have a heel. They are very comfortable so I don’t notice they are making my calves tight. Then add on top of that that I’m not loving my job and that stress probably gets transferred to my calves and is getting stuck in there. Some teachers wear slippers in the classroom. I have slippers. I’m going to try wearing them this week and see what happens.
I had a conversation this weekend with Xploreasia about the whole agent issue and I feel much better after that. Also, they will help me find a job somewhere else next semester if I want. I don’t think I want to teach anymore, but if I haven’t figured something else out, I’ll see what options they may have and decide then.
I don’t want to say it out loud in case I jinx it, but the weather was comfortable all weekend. Between the cooler weather and the butterflies, I’m a fan of the rainy season. Now we have orange butterflies too. Triple the butterflies! They are so pretty, but it does make for quite painful motorbike riding. I did find a very large dead yellow centepede under my table in the kitchen. I saw it, shuttered, sprayed it with bug spray just in case and decided to deal with it tomorrow. It seems like a task for the daylight hours.
(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
One of my advanced classes and one of the math teachersmosquitoes 😦The girl dragon has a bowThe girl car has bling, although the boy car has hearts and flowers?
Yesterday near the end of the day Noi told me there were no classes today. Ok. Not sure why Pat didn’t tell me this. It’s Teacher’s Day. There are ceremonies in the morning and in the afternoon there’s Freshman Orientation. It happens once a year in the first semester.
I got to school and all the teachers were wearing their government uniforms. The students were all wearing their blue uniforms. The students and teachers all had food. I would have loved it if someone had filled me in on this first ceremony so I could have brought food too. The first ceremony was to give the food to monks. They had seats for the monks and they had their food donation bowls. The teachers went first. One of the teachers grabbed me and held my hand as I took her food offering and put some in each bowl. After the teachers, the students followed. As the bowls filled up, there were students that took the food and put it in bags and then took the bags to a pickup truck. The monks got an entire pickup truck of boxed milk and junk food. It was a touching ceremony, but also sad that junk food is the food gift of choice. I hope they get better food on most days. They eat entirely from food donated to them. I think they go out every morning with their bowls asking for food. Not sure where they go as I’ve never seen this, but have only heard of it.
Next was sitting in the meeting hall as the monks sat on the stage and chanted. They sat in a line and had their hands out in front of them. There was a string laying on top of their arms draped from one monk to the next. At some point I asked Pat what the string was for. She said it was holy string. Oh, of course. She pointed to a couple of students that had string on their wrists like bracelets. Holy string. After the chanting, one monk walked around the meeting hall with a bowl of water and a wand of reeds in his hand. He used the reeds to spray water on everyone as he walked by. Holy water, of course. When he got to Robin, he took the reeds and smacked him on the head twice. The monk has a sense of humor! Then there was another offering of food which was in stackable lunch boxes. This looked like real food and made me feel a little better. Pat told me this was for the monk’s lunch. They have to eat before noon. Monks don’t eat after noon. After noon they can drink liquids as long as they aren’t made from animals like milk. But no food.
After the monks left to go have lunch, the Teacher ceremony started. They moved chairs up onto the stage for us. As they were making announcements, the teachers were all giddy and giggly. They weren’t listening to the announcements at all. They were talking amonst themselves. It occurred to me that maybe they were nervous being on stage. The students had made the most detailed intricate flower arrangements I’ve ever seen. They brought them up to the stage and bowed at the shrine and then walked on their knees to the Director and gave them to him. I think there were two per class. After that they moved us to the floor below the stage and the students came up one at a time and brought offerings of flowers and bowed at our feet. This ceremony is the student asking the teacher to teach them and the teacher promising to teach.
After the ceremony I went to lunch with Noi. We got lunch at a noodle place. Largest bowls ever. Then it was off to run errands. She stopped at one point and pointed to some red berries and asked me what they were in English. I have no idea. They are manaou hoo. Manaou is lime so they are sour like limes. She mentioned that I had a great memory, but I told her I didn’t think so. If I did, I’d be able to speak Thai. She said maybe I didn’t have good memory with languages, but I did with calculations. I thought, maybe not calculations, but spatial. I have good spacial memory. I see things spatially and I see and remember patterns and shapes. I think this is why the butterflies are so wonderful to me. We don’t usually pay much attention to air. But there are so many butterflies here that you can’t look off into the distance without seeing butterflies in the sky. My brain is use to seeing nothing in the air around me or it interprets it as nothing, but now that it is filled with butterflies, my brain picks up on the change in spatial input. I’m now paying attention to the air, the space, the place where there was never nothing, but I wasn’t paying attention to it before. The butterflies are shaking up the normal spatial perception and it’s like a fun game to my brain. I think this is why I love the purple ones too. There’s ground and my brain knows ground so it pays no attention. Then the ground moves and changes colors and my brain has to switch out of automatic. At this point, there’s no choice but to be completely present.
After lunch, the students did Freshman Orientation which I think is more like Freshman Hazing. Each class created an activity for the freshman to do. I’m not sure what the activities were as I used this time to work on lesson plans, but when ever I looked out the window I would see a bunch of students running by all covered in paint or white stuff. There was lots of laughing, cheering and girls screaming so they were having fun.
Tip called me and asked me to meet her for coffee. She and Fai were at the coffee shop when I got there. I had ice cream and watched Fai color. She had drawn a picture of me. It’s so funny. I have a giant afro in the picture! Yes, my hair is curly and unruly, but this afro was bigger than my head!
(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
One of the other English teachers, Tussany
Manaou HooManaou Hoo FaceHome Depot – ish
Dog eating the offering off a spirit houseGuess which one is me
There’s a bullfrog (or I assume it’s a bullfrog) near where I live. He is so loud and monotonous. I can even hear him when the ac is on and I have earplugs in.
There’s always one fly or gnat flying around me at all times. It doesn’t matter where I go or what I do, there is always one.
At school, the guy that sells homemade ice cream at lunch serves it over colored rice or some other substance. Today I tried it. Mine was over some gelatinous thing and a pumpkin like squash. Why is this good? Ruined my ice cream. But the prize goes to – Ice Cream Sandwich. I watched him put four scoops of ice cream on a hot dog bun and give it to one of the kids.
I think I have lice again. Started doing the shampoo again.
At my house there are hundreds of butterflies with grey on the outside of their wings and purple on the inside. This creates an amazing effect. As I walk up to my house I cannot see any butterflies because they are sitting there with their wings closed, but as I step I disturb them and they flutter. The ground shifts and turns to a sea of fluttering pale purple. I usually walk up to my house, back to the street and back to the house a couple times. I assume these are from the worms that drop from trees. Well done Mother Nature, well done.
I went to the market and walked up to the guy that sells popcorn. He remembered that last week I got two bags of popcorn and immediately prepared two bags for me when he saw me. Two bags of popcorn cost 20 baht ($0.57). Maybe next time I should get 4.
There’s a sign on the main road that is a picture of a cow. I remember back in February when I was deep in culture shock and I first saw the sign thinking, “I bet if were to see a cow on the highway right now, it would make me happy”. There are no random cows on the side of the highway. Today, I came around the corner to see 4 cows on the side of the highway. No people, just cows walking along the road. My prediction was correct, seeing cows on the side of the highway does make you happy.
(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
Board in an English Classroom – Where’s the English?
For my first class yesterday, the Thai co-teacher, Q, was nowhere to be found. The rest of the other teachers were in a circle meeting. Sometimes they have circle meetings after morning assembly, literally, standing in a circle in front of the school. I don’t usually go to these as no one tells me about them and I wouldn’t know what they were talking about any way. So, I am sitting outside a locked classroom wondering what is going on. 13 year olds are running amok all over the second floor of the language building. Mostly, they are running and sliding across the wood floor trying to knock each other down. I would have loved to join them, but I wasn’t wearing socks and I think this might be one of the things I’m too old for. It might be like the last time I tried slip and slide. It looked fun, but it wasn’t, it was just pain. I was sitting on a bench and at some point most of my class came and sat on the floor in front of me. They started asking me questions. Some of it was in English and some in Thai. Some, I have no idea. They wanted me to sing. They wanted to see my eyes without glasses. Why don’t I wear contacts? Then they had me repeat things in Thai. I think they were having me say student’s names, but I’m not sure. I could tell if they were trying to get me to say something not nice, because the girls would giggle, act all offended and hit the boys. Even though most of it was me not understanding them and them not understanding me, they sat there for at least a half hour completely engrossed in everything I said or did, until Pat came up and opened her room for us to use.
I have half of my lesson plans done for next week. I have high hopes that they will all be done by Thursday so I can get ahead. I’d like to be ahead by a week. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.
The monk I am teaching two nights a week has just such sweet energy. He is smiling ear to ear when he comes to class. You can tell he is excited to be learning English and thinks I’m silly. I try to be as silly with them as I am with the kids. I have an hour between school and the Monk’s class. I decided to stay at school and work on lesson plans. That hour seems to go so slowly, but then class goes quickly.
Today was my busy day with only one free period so I’m wiped by the end. My second to last class is 16 year olds – over 50 in one class. It’s insane. They were 15 minutes late. I can’t keep their attention for more than 30 seconds. You’d think it was kindergarten. Noi is my Thai co-teacher for that class and she stepped out half way through. The rest of the class was a total loss. How are you supposed to teach speaking to 50 students in 20 minutes? I was talking to Pat about it and she said that they know I can’t hit them so they think I can’t punish them. Thai teachers hit their students to keep them in line. I’ve witnessed it so many times. It’s difficult to watch. They are so much better behaved when a Thai teacher is around. My new plan of attack for most classes is – not good = no game. For this class, it will be no game and homework.
It’s market day so that helped me feel a little better after a long day. I didn’t buy much, but something about the energy of the market makes me feel more balanced. Or maybe it’s something about the day to day activity of shopping that does it. I have been finding quite a bit of enjoyment out of the “mundane” day to day activities like washing my motorbike, shopping for food, cooking, cleaning, etc. I like the lack of thinking.
Tonight I talked to a realtor and the rental agent for my house. The realtor is going to take a look at my house and work up some numbers. The rental agent is very helpful. I don’t want to have to put the house on the market, but I can’t just sell it to the current renter wondering if it’s really worth $30,000 to $70,000 more than he’s offering. He offered $30,000 less than it was listed for last summer. I also am looking into moving my furniture out of the house and into storage. All of this house stuff has been weighing heavy on me lately and I try to not let it bother me, but it does. I know it’s stupid because something will happen and it will be fine. Even if it doesn’t sell and I try again next summer or move back in, it will be fine. After talking to both of them, I feel so much better. I’m not sure if I’ve really started to let it go or if this is a lull in the worrying. My next door neighbor is the one who recommended the real estate agent and I like him. Yay – a real estate agent I like for a change!
It’s been much cooler lately which is a relief. It’s very humid which almost undoes the benefit of cooler. But, at least it’s not hot and humid. Instead it’s very warm and humid. One advantage of the daily rains is that there are more lemon yellow butterflies. There are more butterflies than I’ve ever seen – more than the butterfly pavilion in Denver or the butterfly garden in Singapore. Everywhere you look the sky is moving with yellow.
Friday Noi wanted to take me to lunch outside of school. We left early and the place she wanted to go was closed. There was a cone with a big light on it in the road so we couldn’t turn on it. As we drove by she said someone was dead. That was why the place was closed. How did she know that? She said she saw the tent. I saw a big awning coming from a house and covering most of the street in front of the house. I guess it’s like a reception where people come to pay respects to the family. We went to another place to eat. As with most Thai restaurants, it’s a covered area in front of a house with an outdoor kitchen. The lady that owned this one was real nice and quite happy to have us there. She had chickens and roosters running around everywhere. I had a hard time eating because I just wanted to watch the chickens. I didn’t have my phone with me so I didn’t get any pictures. I’ve never seen so many in one place. They were pecking at my feet. The roosters that would fight were in cages. Some of the roosters were huge. I asked if she raised the roosters for fighting. Noi said she didn’t. She didn’t mind if they died for people to eat, but would not have her roosters die for fighting. She could make a small fortune if she sold them for fighting. The health department in the US would fall over and die if they saw Thai restaurants. Yet, I haven’t gotten sick from any restaurant in Sam Ngao and the food has always been good. Maybe we are over cautious in the US.
Friday night I had dinner with Tip and did a reading lesson for her daughter. I wasn’t sure how to teach reading to someone that never read before, but I found some beginner reading lessons on line and Tip printed them. Fai did pretty good. I had hoped Ging would come over with her daughter too, but the timing didn’t work out.
My printer stopped printing even though I got the ink refilled. Maybe refilling the ink cartridges doesn’t work. I tried to get stuff printed at school, but it seems like a huge imposition to print color at school and I can only print black and white when I can find Noi in her office. Otherwise her office is locked. I feel frustration and a small amount of panic. This took me out of the state of indifference and has consumed most of my thoughts. I asked Noi if she would take me to Tak to get new ink. She took me yesterday and insisted that I bring the printer. I didn’t understand why I needed to bring the printer since I just needed to buy new cartridges. She kept asking about the ink tank. I kept saying that it didn’t have an ink tank and I didn’t see how the ink would get in the cartridges if they put a tank on it. Well, color me stupid. The printer shop in Tak put an ink tank on the printer and a thin cord that goes to the cartridges. Take that Cannon. Serves you right for trying to create a printer that goes through ink so fast and thinking we would have to buy expensive cartridges every month. This morning, I printed the rest of my lesson plans for this week. I keep getting the message that the printer is low on ink, but the prints came out fine. So, fingers crossed that this will continue to work. I relaxed a little.
My plan for this weekend was to get a week ahead on lesson planning, but the trip to Tak took all day so, I’m ready for this week’s lessons, but not ahead. We went to breakfast which was a delicious soup and chicken with ginger. Then we went to the morning market to buy more plants for Noi. I like the market in Tak. Then we went a few other places. One of them had tiny pineapple. Noi bought some and told me they were the most delicious pineapple. They come from Chiang Rai. They are the most sweet and juicy of the pineapple. There are pineapple that come from somewhere else in Thailand and they are bigger, just as sweet, but not as juicy. Then there are pineapple that come from Phuket. They taste good, but are so fibrous that you can’t eat too many. If you eat too many, they will destroy your tongue. The pineapple that will destroy your tongue. I enjoyed the non tongue destroying pineapple very much.
Then to Tesco to do the printer. Ice cream at Dairy Queen and the bank. I should have bought food in Tesco, but by that time of the day I was exhausted and just standing around was more my speed. The meat department has bins and bins of meat just sitting out and you grab tongs and a bag and pick what you want. Then they weight it and put a price on the bag. I was mesmerized watching people pick through bins of raw meat. I couldn’t even move to go look at the veggies. After Tesco we went for lunch at a noodle shop Noi has been wanting to try. The ladies working there were real nice and excited to learn about why Noi was with a Westerner. This was one of the first Thai meals that I didn’t like. The meat had a strange consistency and it was too spicy. I didn’t eat the whole thing because it just got hotter and hotter until I felt like my lips might melt off. It hurt for at least 30 minutes after. Am I allergic to chili? How do people find this enjoyable? How did the first person to try a chili think that this was a good idea to eat twice?
The subjects of conversation were religion (as usual) and politics. She has been told that the US has great welfare and that the government pays to take care of all old people and poor people. There are no poor people and no beggars in the US. In the US when people get old, their children do not help them. Thai children always help their parents. I tried to explain that some do and some don’t. This was difficult for her to understand. Americans are not helpful to other people. She wanted to know if Thailand or America had more charities. I have no idea. I find that most of what Thais think of the US is black and white. We are all one way or another. There is no concept of how huge our country is and how diverse it’s people are. There’s no concept that maybe it’s not that much different from Thailand and other countries. Everything that is a Thai way belongs only to Thais. For instance, Thai people are very nice. This is true, but I have met some not nice ones too. It is also true that I have met just as many nice Americans. Is it possible that a more true statement is people are nice? Then she asked what I was going to do later. I told her I was going to get a massage. She told me if I go once a week for massage I am addicted to massage. That made me laugh. I tried to explain why I thought it was important, but I just couldn’t. She asked about the lady who does massage. I told her sometimes it’s a man and sometimes his wife. Men should only do massage for men, don’t you think? I told her I was so glad that wasn’t true since he’s better than she is. She asked why I thought he was better and I told her he was more present. She didn’t understand. To her presence is the fact of being in the room and someone can’t be more or less present. They are present or not. I tried to explain presence from an energetic and spiritual sense, but I’m sure I didn’t do a good job of it. It’s too late in the day and my brain is already fried. Then that led to “Do you believe in heaven?” I swear we’ve had this conversation before. I said I didn’t. She proceeded to tell me about heaven and hell and doing good deeds in order to have a better life next time. Maybe I just don’t know the facts and that’s why I don’t believe. There was also an aspect where I’m from America so I must be Christian and I explained that I’m not Christian and not all of Americans are. There was also a conversation about fortune tellers. I said I didn’t believe in their predictions. I don’t think anyone really knows the future, educated guesses can be made, but no one knows. She educated me on fortune tellers, again, because I must not know about them or I’d believe. I find her questions so challenging, but also fascinating as well. With each conversation I become more and more sure that everything is just one. There is no good or bad and no right answer. There is no future to worry about and the past can no longer hurt me.
Then house and car stuff comes up and I lose the belief in no good or bad and no future for a little bit. The guy living in my house wants to buy it, but for $40,000 less than I think it’s worth. He want’s to buy my furniture, but isn’t willing to pay what I think it’s worth. So, I’m looking into moving my furniture out and now I’m contacting realtors. Money represents safety for me and thinking about it actually upsets me. In a lot of areas of my life I no longer fear for my safety or worry about how things are going to turn out, but with money issues, I still do. Maybe that’s why this appears to be so difficult right now. So, I can learn to release my need for money to safety. I remember childishly asking for life to provide me with some surprise money that would get me out of debt. Then I will believe that everything is ok. Of course that hasn’t happened. Still, last week I got a bunch of checks in the mail that I had forgotten Jay mailed to me. I was able to deposit them through an app on my phone. It was around $300 which won’t even make a dent in my debt, but the timing of it sure made me laugh. Of course, if surprise money in the amount of $30,000 comes my way, that will be ok too.
So, if you add it all up, I think I’ve had every critter possible in my house. I can’t even think of what else there could be. Here’s one category of critters that never came to mind: worms that fall from trees. Yes, that is a thing. So, now is the season of worms that fall from trees. Thankfully, there are only a few in the house and I think they came in on my clothes or shoes. There are at least 20 to 100 on my door and on the wall next to the door at all times. I sweep them away and five minutes later it looks like I never swept. I drove under a tree today with about 30 of them just hanging in mid air from tiny cords. I find them kind of fun to watch as they inch along, but I’m not too fond of their ability to hang from trees and then try to catch a ride on you. I also saw a giant (about 1′ long) yellow centipede last night zipping down the road. It was quite alarming in the light of my headlamp as I walked up to my house, but since he was not in my house, I don’t think he counts as a horror. Still, he is burned into my memory and I can’t get him out so I thought I’d share (picture from internet).
Today everyone wore yellow in support of the King who is very sick. I had heard rumors that he died months ago, but what do I know. I didn’t question it since there are serious consequences if anyone were to take that as disrespectful towards the King. It was quite cool to see a sea of yellow at morning assembly though.
Not sure if I ever talked about this before, but the amount of sweeping that happens at school is amazing. Every morning students are sweeping the driveways and sidewalks at school. They sweep the sports court. They sweep the classrooms when needed. Just about every surface is swept. There is trash thrown off to the sides of roads, but the school surfaces are swept. I wonder how they decide who’s turn it is to sweep or do they just do it automatically? They don’t use store bought brooms like we do. They are all made out plants, bamboo poles and sticks. I can’t even find a broom like we have in the US in a store. They are all these natural material brooms. They are very short too. I have to bend over to use a broom.
I’ve been noticing that the students are more comfortable with me. There are more and more students saying Good Morning, Hello Teacher or Good Afternoon than there use to be. In fact, by the end of the day the words Good Morning and Good Afternoon no longer make sense to me because I’ve said them so many times in a day that they just sound like gibberish. This is a good thing and it’s mind numbing at the same time.
I never use to have any reaction to coffee. I think I’m starting to notice it now though. Or more, I notice the absence of it. I still don’t drink it and feel more awake. I can still drink it in the evening and have no problem going to sleep. What I am noticing is a craving when I haven’t had it in a day or two. Then, I feel my system relax a little when I do have it. I’ve had this calming reaction with sugar my whole life – no sugar high, but a calming of the whole nervous system after I eat sugar. I’m wondering what this is all about. I’ll fill you in later if I figure it out.
At lunch, Noi asked if I believed in ghosts. I wasn’t sure how to answer. I don’t know that I do believe in ghosts. I’m not sure I don’t. I hadn’t really thought about it. So, I told her I didn’t believe one way or another and I didn’t much care if they were real or not. She went on to tell me all about ghosts and that they were beings that most of us can’t see and that they live on different plane than we do (she didn’t use those words). Since most of us can’t see them, we could be bumping into them right now. Some people can see them so they have to be real. She told me all this with the energy I didn’t know what ghosts were and if I knew, then I would understand that they are real. It was interesting that the question started off if I believed in ghosts like there was a choice and ended as if there is no question – they are real, I just don’t understand. I still don’t care if they exist or not.
After school, I threw my laundry in the washer and headed to get coffee. The weather was delightful today – warm but not hot and dry. So, I went to the outdoor coffee shop that serves better coffee and is cheaper because I wanted to sit outside anyway. They were closed. So, I went to the other coffee shop which I like, but not as much. Just before I was going to leave, Tip and her daughter came in. Fai was so excited to see Aunt Rraine and came to sit with me and draw pictures for me. Tip told me that just before they got to the coffee shop, Fai asked when she could see me. Completely adorable. It was nice to have coffee with them. Well, Fai had ice cream, not coffee.
When I woke up this morning, my first though was “no I don’t want to”. But after I got up and was more awake, I went back into the state of indifference. I’m hoping this becoming a more natural state for me to be in instead of something that happens once in awhile.
Today my alarm woke me. It was way too early and I wasn’t ready. But, this is the first morning in a long time that I wasn’t awake at dawn. Usually I the birds wake me at dawn even though I have ear plugs and white noise. I don’t get up, when I hear them, but I grumble and try to go back to sleep. I’m not actually sure if I have slept until my alarm once since I moved here. Today, I slept until my alarm went off. I assume indifference is conducive for sleeping.
One of the biggest causes of motorbike accidents in Thailand is due to dogs. There are so many stray dogs here. I am very observant anytime I go anywhere, looking off to the side for any surprise dogs. I never thought that one of those sweet lemon yellow butterflies my be my end. Yesterday, I hit one while going to get printer ink. Or it hit me, I’m not sure. It hit me on the cheek and it’s wing hit my eyeball. For a few seconds I couldn’t see and was stunned. I swerved, but managed to keep the swerve minimal and regain my focus on the road. I thought, really? All these terrifying critters and my undoing would be a lemon yellow butterfly? Not today.
I mailed a package from Vietnam in March. It got to Colorado last week. Wow.
School was ok today. I was exhausted by the end of the day, but had my monk class tonight. I really just wanted to come home and crash instead of teach. Still, the class went by fairly quickly. I spent most of the day in the indifference place.
A week or so ago, I decided it was time to try some high tech pest control measures. I stuffed plastic bags in some of the suspect holes in the house. It seems like a useless attempt, but I have no other ideas. Then, I wasn’t sure if I was trapping critters in or out because I didn’t know where they were at the time. Tonight, I noticed that there seems to be a lot less rat poop on the floors (or is it tokay poop?). The bags have not moved. So maybe it’s actually working.
The school just hired a Chinese language teacher. He is now sharing and office with me, Mae, and the screaming cat. He’s real nice and is excited to practice English with me. I know they put us all in the same office because they aren’t quite sure what to do with us, but I enjoy having office mates. I got so much gift fruit today. I got two guavas, some mystery goo made from a fruit I’ve never seen before, dragon fruit, lychee flavored yogurt and 5 mangos.
Today Tip told me her daughter has lice. Oh lovely, do I have lice again? I used the straight iron tonight just in case – fry those eggs before they can hatch. My hair is finally getting longer. It’s hard to tell when it’s curly, but after I straightened it, it looks so long.
(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
High Tech plastic bag pest controlLook – longer hair
Yesterday I decided I had to get at least one lesson plan done and set an unrealistic goal of three. I had some free time during school and got 4 lesson plans 90% done. I consider that a win! Maybe this lesson planning thing is possible after all. I decided Today would be a day off from lesson planning since I have only one hour of free time during the day. Tomorrow I set the goal to finish at least two and get at least a start on the rest. Maybe I could get ahead by this weekend……
Today I had all the M2s and the Thai teacher wasn’t there. M2 is 13 to 14 year olds. It was so difficult to keep their attention for more than two seconds. By the time I was done with three different M2 classes, I was exhausted. The last class was so bad that when they asked to play a game, I wrote on the board “Class was not good = no game”. Some got it, the rest didn’t even notice I had written something on the board. I was exhausted, but I left for lunch with nothing but indifference. I have experienced this a lot over the years. It sounds like a negative thing, but it’s not. I actually enjoy it, if you can say enjoy and indifference in the same sentence. A lot of times we think of indifference as flippant or as a lack of good feelings. Actually, it’s a lack of judgement either way. There is no good or bad. I didn’t withhold a game because I was upset or frustrated with the kids. It just seemed like the correct consequence for their actions. I didn’t much care if we played a game or not, learned English or not, or just stood there doing nothing. It doesn’t matter, anything is fine.
I went to the canteen for lunch yesterday and today. It still feels very uncomfortable to me. Yesterday was quite scary. I have no idea why it’s scary. Maybe because I’m not sure if what I decide to eat will try to kill me with spice or not. Maybe because I know it will be awkward not being able to talk to most of the teachers. Of course, today was less scary because I was already in the indifference place.
For club today Pat had a game where there were questions in English on pieces of paper and the students had to pick one out of a bag and answer the question. Then they had to ask each other and answer each other. The questions were things like “What is your favorite color” or “How old are you”? I thought they would hate the game. They didn’t. Who knew?
When I tried to buy a printer when I first moved here, Pat told me I could print anything I needed at school. It has turned out to be so difficult. They don’t seem to understand that I have to print stuff every week for classes. It is a huge hassle to print stuff. So, I bought a printer last month anyway. It’s already out of ink. My big task of the day was to attempt to find printer cartridges after school. There is a shop with office supplies so I thought I would start there. I find this scary, but I can do this. Tip knew I was going to look for printer ink and she found me on my way there. She was riding in her little golf cart thing and flagged me down. She suggested a different store. They put ink in my non refillable cartridges. They seem to be working fine even though the printer keeps saying it’s low on ink.
Ton is a guy in my class with the monk. He is the assistant to the Chinese medicine doctor at the hospital and is friends with Tip. Last week Tip made the point of telling me that Ton is single and if I needed anything I could ask him. She also made the point of telling me that Ton is not a man. I think it’s very common in Thailand and very accepted that some people identify with the sexuality different from what they were born with. I find it very interesting how not a big deal it is here when it’s such a topic of controversy in America right now. I don’t see why it’s a big deal. Unfortunately, I’m not attracted to Ton, male or female. Tip made the point of telling me again today that Ton is single.
I have had a few conversations lately about the fact that I’m leaving at the end of the semester to go home. I never said I was going home, but that’s the word on the street. I am so touched as they are truly confused as to why I am leaving and sad to hear I’m going. I’ve been texting with Noi all night about it. She said she was shocked and sad to hear I was leaving and wanted to know if I was unhappy here. I feel guilty and then remind myself that it’s not my job to make everyone happy. I also remind myself that I never planned on staying here forever. They are a communal culture and we are an independent culture. Of course, it’s difficult to understand why I would want something else or how I could come in, get to know them and then leave. They don’t live like that. I feel loved and cared for.
(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
One of my classroomsMy favorite coffee shop if it’s not too hot outMaking salad
Friday night I tried to work on lesson plans, but by 7:30pm I couldn’t keep my eyes open and I was real dizzy so I went to bed. I slept for 12 hours. And by sleep, I mean toss and turn, but that’s normal for me. Wow, I never knew giving blood would put me down for days.
I did laundry and mopped the house Saturday morning. I find that I have to mop every 3 or 4 days since there is all kinds of dead bugs, mouse and lizzard poop everywhere. I hadn’t cleaned up after the termite invasion so it was good to mop. I went to the coffee shop and worked on lesson plans all day. I promised I myself I would leave by 4:00pm even if I wasn’t done with lesson plans. I tried to leave at 4:00pm but it kept raining and it wasn’t a light rain, but a downpour. So, I didn’t leave until 5:00pm. It was still raining, but not bad. I rode up to the massage place and the guy was in! I’ve had massages from him and his wife. She’s good, but he’s better so I was glad she wasn’t there. Two hours of pain. Everything hurts. I really need this as part of my daily routine right now, but I just don’t have the time. I feel like bodywork is an important part of working through some of the stuff that I’m trying to work through. I’ve been doing conscious movement every day as well and trying to get my body to stop holding all this stuff it’s holding. It feels like it’s holding more than usual, but I don’t think it’s actually more. I think it’s just different stuff, stuff that can’t be worked through cognitively. I wonder too, what taking blood and forcing my body to make a lot of new blood is doing. It kind of feels like I had described before when I got sick and lost a lot of muscle weight. I had felt I was at muscle zero and rebuilding from there was a good thing. What if this is a rebuilding of the blood system?
Today, I went to the Sunday market. I didn’t walk around for long, but long enough to run into the really nice guy that is always excited to talk to me. He sells veggies. He said he had missed seeing me at the market and was glad I was back. I was going to cook today, but didn’t. I spent the entire rest of the day getting all the lesson plans for this week in order. I was hoping to get ahead of lesson planning today. So, I’m a bit disappointed. I’m also concerned that I will never be ahead and that I will spend all my free time doing lesson plans. I’m also concerned that I might get behind at some point. On one hand, I don’t have a ton else to do. But, this isn’t how I want to spend the next 4 months either. Everyone that offers me advice says stuff like just play more games. But, I have to come up with the game and how does it teach English? How does it teach English that isn’t too easy or too hard? Half the games I’ve tried were a total fail. Then people offer ideas that seem like they would be a ton more work and not actually make things easier. Plus, people forget that the game has to be easy enough to explain with out using Thai. One person suggested I just go to Bangkok and buy some books. With what money? Bangkok is a 9-12 bus ride from here. There is an overwhelming amount of information on line. Half of it would work for kindergartners and the other half would work for university students. The in between stuff is not useful. I just hope that I get faster/better at this soon so that I can get ahead. Or maybe sports week will happen again and I’ll have a whole week with no classes and I can get ahead.
Rraine Drops 