Traveling Man

Not much to report today as my meeting was canceled this morning (the person from the undergraduate school of business had a family emergency to attend to) and my afternoon working on research with Sup was also cancelled as he had an exam to proctor.  So today I got about as much work as I could done at my room, finished my laundry and ironing (so I don’t have to lug a large back back with me to Phitsanulok), and now I am just checking e-mail and the latest world news at ABAC.  I almost regret giving updates about my plans for this weekend because it seems that every time I speak to Jet, they change – and I speak to Jet about a dozen times each day!  The latest plan I got is that I will be taking the bus to Phitsanulok tomorrow evening after class and on Sunday morning we will be headed to Mae Sot, Myanmar (Burma) which is just due West about 4 hours from Phitsanulok and  is a different location than where I visited Myanmar in the far North of Thailand five years ago (in Mae Sai).  Apparently, Jet simply wants to go across the border to get her passport stamped and return back.  I actually have quite a few reservations about this as I don’t know if this will allow her to extend her visa in Thailand (apparently she is not using her Thai passport, but her US passport – it’s all news to me).  Further, and more of a greater concern to me, she only wants to cross (with her Aunt) and thinks that she will not run into any problems because she is Thai … but she is using a US passport, and the Myanmar – US relations are not very good at this point in time.  Finally, I actually think the Mae Sot is very close to the region that was devastated by cyclone Nargis and I fear that the area might be somewhat unstable.  I will have to talk to Jet a bit more about my reservations and discuss possible alternatives, so who knows, our plans might change once again.  Seeing a report that the Mae Sot border crossing might be closed right now could be enough to sway Jet’s thinking.  If anything, I am sure that I will have some stories to tell in my next posting when I return back to Bangkok, perhaps either on Tuesday or Wednesday next week.  Jet has said that if we don’t go to Burma, she would have to travel to Bangkok by Tuesday (30 days after her arrival in Thailand) so that she could extend her visa or else she faces a 500 baht (about $15) fine per day, which is pretty expensive penalty here.  Also looking ahead, I have asked Jet to speak with her uncle about arranging a possible visit to his university (Mae Fah Luang University – in the far Northof Thailand) at the end of next month (around Monday, June 30th, after I give the final exam to the executive MBA students on Saturday, June 28th).  I recently visited his university’s Website and saw that they will have some sort of celebration of 175 years of Thai-US relations and will have a couple of bluegrass singers from Oklahoma performing there.  I don’t know how (or why) that was arranged, but I thought it might be interesting to see and I also thought it could be a good idea for Jet’s uncle to give a visiting lecture on some of my research as a part of the Thai-US events.  Jet had mentioned when we first arrived in Thailand that her uncle had some interest in giving a lecture at his university.  It’s just a thought, but we will see what happens with it.

Technology Woes

My meeting went well with the ABAC director of International Affairs yesterday and I have another meeting scheduled for tomorrow (Friday) morning with him and a chair from the undergraduate business school to discuss partnerships with JSU further.  The director came off as a person with a tremendous amount of creativity and appeal, which I write about a bit more in my other blog, but he could also be a bit of a salesman too.  I guess we will see in the coming days whether he turns out to be a man of action or just a man of ideas.  My bet (and hope) is that he is the former rather than the latter.

I finally ate Pud Thai yesterday, which is a basic noodle dish that is a Thai equivalent of a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich (or a hot-dog or a hamburger) in America as it is traditional favorite in Thailand.  I decided to order it at the restaurant that I have begun to frequent quite a bit more often and is the restaurant where I ate Pud See Eew with Jet for the first time while in Thailand.  I have eaten Pud See Eew at a few other locations, but the other places charged nearly twice as much and gave me about half as much food, so I guess I have become a loyal customer of theirs.  The noodle dishes are not spectacular (I have yet to have a noodle dish that has been as good as Jet makes it), but they give me a huge plate full for only $1 - food that would very easily cost 10 times as much in the US. Jet didn’t really like this restaurant as there were four white cats walking around freely there, and since the restaurant is like an opening into the side of a building and has bad ventilation, it smells like a litter box.  Maybe that’s why there are usually not many customers there.  Oh well, the food suits me well and I haven’t really had any complaints yet about the food I have eaten here in Thailand … so far (knock on wood).

I was up at 5:00am this morning because Sup told me that he was a no-show for yesterday morning’s run was because it was too warm out already at 7:00am.  I agreed as the sun was out bright and early, which caused me to sweat like a fool.  Those that know me know that I am not a big ’sweater’, but with the heat and humidity, at times I find sweat just pouring off me as if I was in a sauna.  Regardless, Sup and I agreed to meet at 6:00am this morning to run.  Unfortunately, Sup stood me up again.  It was not a total loss as I was able to get another good hour of running in, but I wonder what excuse he will give me this time as the weather was just perfect this morning after storms we had last night.  That is one good thing about my room being on the 12th floor and its particular location, I get a terrific view of the weather crawling in across the city and on nights like last night, I get quite a show from all of the lightning strikes.  With as much lighting as there was, it really seemed like a 4th of July fireworks display.  Right now I am just biding my time working on my research ideas and making final preparations for class tonight.  I had hoped to get much of this work done from my room this morning, but I noticed that the charger/adapter was no longer charging my laptop this morning.  I remember when Jet’s cousin first gave me the laptop to borrow she told me that the charger was not original to the computer.  I just wonder now if it has failed.  I hope not or else I will be back in the stone ages having to rely on computers all around ABAC to get work done.  What an inconvenience that is.  This problem with the computer comes as my new cell phone (Samsung Beat) that I got before I went to Thailand has now become about as useless as any bit of technology that I have ever owned.  I first gave the cell phone to Jet’s Mom to use, and when she first heard my ring-tone (Buck Owens “My Heart Skips a Beat”), she fell in love with it and wanted to keep it.  When I last saw her two weeks ago, she couldn’t wait to give it back to me as she claimed it had problems.  That was no problem for me as I had yet to experience any problems with the phone back in the US and I simply switched phones with Jet’s Mom.  Now I see why Jet’s Mom was so eager to get rid of the phone.  The phone will simply freeze-up on you without warning, forcing you to take out the battery to re-set it, and will also occasionally just turn off on its own.  What a couple of great features to have on a phone.  Yeah, right.

I am glad that Alabama has finally gotten its fair share of rain as it is well overdue.  Of course it is not good if it all comes at once (did anyone complain of water damage in the neighborhood, Linda?), but it is a lot better than we fared last year.  How is the garden coming along?  Will there be cantaloupes and watermelon this year?  If I had known that we would be getting good rain, I might have planted pumpkins again this year, hopefully with better results.  I don’t know if I would call my time here feeling “like at home”, though.  Perhaps “adjusting” to living here would be more appropriate as it really is difficult staying away from Jet and Ben and this really is a world unlike the city of Milwaukee nor like the Southern charm I have grown oh so fond of in Alabama.  I know in my heart that I just “fit” living in a place like Milwaukee and I knew almost instantly that was also the case in Oxford, but I really can’t say the same for living here just yet.  I am exploring more and more everyday, trying new foods, trying new things, but this is not the lifestyle that suits me.  And it’s just funny how simple things that you say just makes me miss the things I really enjoyed back in the US.  For example, Kristin said when describing the May birthday’s and graduation party, “The food was outstanding, everything you could ever want at a cookout.” and all I could do was think of the countless gatherings we would have at Dad’s house just to grill some brats and burgers soaked in beer.  Or when Linda simply spoke of eating at the “Porterhouse” cafe, I could just remember so vividly all of the fun times Jet, Ben, and I would join Donald and Linda to eat for lunch or dinner.  To help battle the bits of homesickness I get, I can simply turn on my iPod and listen to my music.  I usually love listening to Alabama the most as it really does capture my time living in the South so well, but it also reminds me of my visits back to Milwaukee when Josh and Ty would play an Alabama CD and sing along with it just for me.  Oh well, I hope the snake is gone before we get back home at least.  I don’t know what I would have done if we would have been there for that – and having just seen the Indiana Jones movie too.

Jet has now said this morning that they may come here on Saturday and drive me back to Phitsanulok to spend a few days with them there instead.  Jet did make a good point that we usually have a much better time back in her home town, but I am just wondering also if Jet just doesn’t want to miss any of her baking classes next week.  I have also contacted my other former colleague from UWM, Nitipan, and he has agreed to show me around the undergraduate campus either on Tuesday or Friday next week, which will depend on whether I will travel to Phitsanulok or not this weekend.  The pictures of the campus are just amazing and I really do want to see how nice the facilities are there.  I was actually invited to a Freshman retreat for graduate students this weekend in Pattaya, which probably would have been really fun, but I had to tell both people that offered me to go (the department secretary Jenny and the director of International Affairs) that I could not because I had class on Saturday.  What amazed me was that I heard the suggestion made so casually, “Well, why don’t you just cancel the class?”  I don’t know if that is a common thing to do here as cancelling a class is just unthinkable for me.  This is something that I will try to explore because it might just be another Thai-US culture difference.  Just one last thing to note, I did get paid for the first time yesterday as I was reimbursed for my airline ticket.  I will get paid for each course that I teach after I submit final grades.  The thing that was unusual about this was that I had to pick up my payment at the financial aid office, which was waiting for me in envelope, and they paid me in US dollars.  How bizarre to pull out a bunch of dollar bills after having only seen Thai money for the past few weeks.

Indiana Jones

I met Sup yesterday evening (4:30pm) at his university and we walked along the street to find a place to eat dinner.  We ended up eating rice and chicken and liver soup, a very simple dinner, at a restaurant that one of his students worked at.  I gave all of my liver to Sup to eat – I’m not a big fan.  Once we finished eating, Sup asked if I wanted to see a movie with him at the nearby mall.  Having nothing to do that evening, I said “sure” and we walked for about 30 minutes until we reached the mall.  We had originally planned to see Ironman, but there weren’t any showings that evening, so we ended up seeing the latest Indiana Jones movie.  On our way to the theater, we actually passed three different vendors selling the pirated movie for a little less than $5.  Before we walked in, we took a quick pass outside to grab a snack to eat (quarter-sized chicken and beef meatballs covered in sweet and sour sauce) and a bottle of water.  There were about 30 other people in the large theater with us, which Sup said was because the movie was in English with Thai subtitles.  Sup said that there would be many more people at the other showing of the movie that had Thai voice overs.  Like any theater in the US, there were tons of previews of all the upcoming summer blockbuster movies, however, there were equally as many commercials, so the movie didn’t actually start until 30 minutes after the showing time.  Right before the movie began, as I was told happens at every movie shown in Thailand, there is a video tribute to the King of Thailand to which everyone must stand for.  In fact, there was a recent controversy in Thailand for a Thai person that refused to stand for the video tribute.  The movie itself was fine, but a bit boring.  The most exciting part was near the end as Sup could barely control himself after drinking a full bottle of Pepsi and water at dinner, then another bottle of water before entering the theater, he had to use the bathroom very badly.  Near the end, there is a scene with water and waterfalls and I swear I heard Sup give out a “yelp”.  Once the movie ended, he ran from his seat to the bathroom.  Funny stuff.  Afterwards, Sup mentioned that he wanted to join me in my morning run and agreed to meet me at the stadium at 7:00am.  It was a good run this morning, but Sup stood me up.  Oh well, maybe it was just too early in the morning for him.

I met with ABAC’s president yesterday morning and the meeting went very well.  It took him a minute to realize who I was, that is, that I was the person that Jet’s uncle kept telling him about, but he was very kind and said that he had heard many good things about me from Jet’s uncle.  He also gave the impression, much like the dean of the graduate school, that I would be welcome to come back and teach in the future.  So who knows, perhaps next year or the year after I may do this again.  We’ll just see how well this semester turns out first.  I also took the opportunity to discuss my interest in establishing a relationship between JSU and ABAC, to which he was very receptive and recommended that I speak with the director of International Affairs at ABAC.  I have a meeting scheduled with him at 3:00pm today.  So there is progress being made there.

I spoke briefly with Jet today and it appears that Jet’s Mom, Jet, and Ben will be driving down to Jet’s Mom’s condo in Bangkok on Thursday (tomorrow) so that Jet can complete whatever paperwork she needs to do in Bangkok on Friday.  The plan then will be for me to meet up with them after my class on Saturday, do some traveling and sight-seeing with them on Sunday and Monday, then return back to ABAC on Tuesday.  We also spoke briefly about traveling to Chiang Rai (most northern part of Thailand) where Jet’s uncle is the president of the university there (Mae Fah Luang University), which I visited with Dad back in 2003 and the campus was literally a school located in the middle of paradise – the scenery and architecture is absolutely beautiful.  Jet said that we can still wait a few weeks until after my Saturday class finishes so that we would have more time to spend up there.  Another reason for taking the trip up there is because it is right next to the “Golden Triangle“, which is where Thailand borders both Myanmar (Burma) and Laos.  The idea is to cross the border there so that we could have our visas renewed, but I am not sure if it would be so easy to get into Burma as it was when we traveled with Dad there in 2003.  We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

An Evening Of Firsts

I spent the morning yesterday finalizing Saturday’s midterm exam and printing out copies. There was concern from the secretary (and also from the students) that they would only have 1 hour to take the exam, which consists of 20 multiple choice, 20 true/false, and 5 short answer. That should be plenty of time for the students as many students in the US complete my exams of the format in a little more than half that time. The students told me that in their previous semester, the exam they took was 160 multiple choice questions to complete in 3 hours. They told me that it was more of an exercise of being able to ‘read’ than answer questions as most students have to guess on questions they don’t have enough time to get to.

I am getting more and more bold for my choices to eat at lunch. I guess you could say that is the one thing I can point to where I am making measurable progress in while over here. Before I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to eat except in locations where the food was on display and I could simply point to what I wanted. That was originally at 1 restaurant, but now I have stopped my more and more places to eat (still pointing out what I want) and I have even requested “Pud See Eew Gai” (wide rice noodles with chicken – my favorite) from a restaurant that simply had a large wok. Bold, perhaps from me, but Jet told me that this is something I should try to do. Speaking of my favorite foods, my favorite fruit has always been pineapple, particularly when it is very sweet and not bitter. That alone is one of the best things about Thailand now that the pineapple season is approaching. For 50 cents, I can have a full pineapple that is carved up and sliced into bite-site bits by hand. 50 cents! What a deal. For the past 3 days I have eaten a pineapple a day. Delicious.

I walked over to the restaurants by Ram university yesterday with the intention of getting some lunch and a new ironing board. No problem getting food as there seemed to be at least twice as many options of where to eat than by ABAC, and only about 4 blocks away walking distance. The ironing board, on the other hand, there were not many options. In fact, there was only one small shop that was selling them. I needed a new ironing board because the one that I am borrowing from Jet’s Mom is just too small and it literally takes me nearly 30 minutes to do one shirt. Since there was only one shop selling ironing boards, I didn’t have many options for what to buy. There were two boards, one pink with flowers, the other dark blue with cartoon animals on it. I chose the cartoon animals and walked all the way back to my room (about 15-20 minutes through the heart of campus and all of the students) proudly carrying my new purchase.

I decided to go to church again yesterday (Monday) evening and I don’t ever recall going to church so much before. Perhaps it’s because it is so convenient as the service is held in the school of business building or that it is just now becoming part of my daily routine, but also it gives me a chance to clear my thoughts and reflect on all of the things that I am so thankful and fortunate to have. All along the drive anywhere through Bangkok it is very easy to see people with almost nothing, living in makeshift shantys along the roadside. If there is one thing that does amaze me is that these people are always smiling, working, and never have a look of despair on their faces no matter how dire their circumstance is. Yesterday’s service was a little different as once I arrived, the priest approached the girl sitting next to me and asked her to give the reading from the Bible and the responsorial psalm, to which she said no way in not so few words. The priest then looked to me and asked if I would be willing and I said “sure”. I can’t even remember now what passage I read, but it was the first time that I had ever been given the opportunity to give a reading during a mass, with the exception to Grandma and Grandpa’s funerals. And to think that yesterday was the celebration of the feast of St. Philip Neri. Maybe it was fate. After mass had ended, I was walking back to my room and passed the basketball courts on the way when an Indian student asked if I wanted to get a pick-up game with them. I said “sure” and went to my room and changed into a t-shirt, shorts, and tennis shoes and returned to play basketball for two straight hours. My JSU shirt was soaked with sweat by the time I finished playing as it was pretty humid and I did get a good workout. I mainly played against and with Indian and Chinese students and only a handful of them were as tall as I was, so I had a lot of shots that were uncontested. I don’t think I have ever shot the basketball that well in the US as I made about 3 of every 4 jump shots I took. When I had enough, a couple of the Indian students introduced themselves as freshman students and wondered what year student I was. They were quite surprised and embarrassed to find out that I was an “adjarn” or professor at ABAC and they immediately apologized for the cursing they said during the games. That was pretty funny to me. Well, at least I know now that I have the option of playing basketball in the evening.

Today I have a meeting scheduled with the President of the university at 10:30am. Jet’s uncle, the President of a university up in the very north of Thailand, knows him and is the individual responsible for getting me this job this semester in Thailand. Jet’s uncle had asked that I introduce myself to him and thank him for this opportunity, but I just haven’t been around enough to schedule a meeting and I didn’t know how to arrange such a meeting. It turns out it was quite simple, just stop by his office and work something out with his secretary, which I did yesterday. Hopefully I will have nothing but good things to report on that meeting. Jet has also spoken to a few more people in Phitsanulok about Ben’s visa, including a former immigration official, and they have all said that they do not enforce visa regulations on children. That being said, Jet will continue going through the steps this week to complete all necessary paperwork for Ben’s visa, but I suspect if she runs into any problems, that she will just give up as it is becoming apparent that it is all not necessary. I don’t blame her as it has been a lot of time, effort, and money getting everything done. Jet mentioned that they might be traveling to Bangkok on Friday and returning back home on Saturday evening so that I can come back with them after my class finishes. I do look forward to spending time with them this coming weekend.

Laundry Day

I finished class yesterday (Saturday) and I still find it hard to believe that next week is the midterm exam and I only had three classes with them.  There have been improvements from the students and myself, that is, more students are participating in the class discussion (though I suspect few are reading the text) and I have both become more comfortable with starting a few minutes late (about a 10 minute delay to the start of the class and return from each break) and speaking at a pace that students are able to follow – at least one student has confirmed this.  I have also had no complaints about problems with the class Website this week, which I may have mentioned in my other blog, so that was a real plus.  The students have also opened up a bit more to me, expressing their frustration with the executive MBA program here, namely that when they signed up for it, it was promised to be a 2-year program.  However, with 4-8 week classes a semester and 3 semesters a year, it is really a one and a half year program.  What really bothers the students is that they work full time during the week and have classes all day Saturday and Sunday … and that goes on for a full year and a half as there are no breaks between semesters.  I can see why they would be frustrated.

I spent about an hour this morning doing laundry – the first time that I have had to do laundry in Thailand as every weekend someone has done it for me in Jet’s hometown.  There are multiple washing machines sitting on the sidewalk in front of 7/11-like stores, so it was no trouble locating one.  The trouble was with learning how to operate one.  I had two loads to do, one light and one dark, so I simply entered two 10 baht coins in each machine (a little over 50 cents total), put some laundry detergent in, pushed a few buttons in no particular order, and both machines started to work.  After about 10 minutes, I noticed that the machines were on different settings; the light load was on ‘economy’ with 17 minutes remaining while the dark load was on ‘fuzzy’ with 31 minutes remaining.  In 17 minutes, the light load ended and came out looking (and smelling) great.  The dark load, however, still said that it had 25 minutes remaining.  After another 35 minutes and very frustrated that its timer didn’t match reality, the dark load finished.  But wait … the machine still had all of the clothes still soaking in water.  I simply took out the soppy clothes and put them into the machine that I did my light clothes in, put in another 20 baht in change, and worked the settings to ’spin’ mode and let it fly for 6 minutes until it finished.  What a silly adventure that turned out to be.  There are no dryers here in Thailand (at least none that I have ever seen) as everyone air drys their clothes.  Since I don’t have a clothes rack to hang my clothes out to dry (and I couldn’t find one at any of the five 7/11 stores I stopped in), I simply just put all of my clothes on hangers and have them hanging from every which place possible in my room right now, hoping that they will dry.

As for eating, before my last visit to Phitsanulok last weekend, I was into a routine where I would simply eat lunch and dinner each day, with perhaps a granola bar for dessert at night.  I was always full after eating and have felt great, so I never cared for eating any more.  I weighed myself once I arrived in Phitsanulok out of curiosity and it turns out that I was a trim 174!  Well, my eating routine got all messed up last weekend as we ended up eating 5 times a day (again) and stopping a few times to eat at an all-you-can-eat buffet – and unfortunately I did just that.  In retrospect, I also shouldn’t have brought back all of those snacks (cookies and crackers) with me to Bangkok as I find myself nibbling on those all of the time anytime that I am around my room.  I am not sure how much I weigh now, but it likely isn’t 174 any longer.  I am still running in the morning, so at least I still have that going for me.

I spoke to Jet this morning and it really has been tough talking to her for the past day or so.  All day yesterday when I spoke to her she kept trying to convince me to take the bus back to Phitsanulok to visit for a few days again, and I almost did.  Unfortunately, I just have far too much work to do here and I have found it to be useless bringing any work with me to Jet’s hometown as I always lose any interest in doing any research or work when I am around them.  Jet gave the phone to Ben a few times this morning and each time I had to go and I said “good-bye”, Jet told me that Ben would wave to the phone and he gave the phone a big kiss each time.  What a sport that kid is.

Well, I will try to wake-up early tomorrow morning (I will set the alarm on my cell phone) so that I can call and wish everyone in Milwaukee either a happy birthday or a happy graduation.  I remember it rained for the birthdays last year, which was right before I drove back home to Alabama, but it still was a great time at Renee’s house.  Hopefully there won’t be rain again this year, but despite Kristin’s glowing forecasts of a few days ago (maybe jinxed?), I notice the strong chance for rain staring at 1:00pm tomorrow.  Oh well, what can you do about the weather?

Day On The Town

Jet ended up taking a bus to Bangkok last night and arrived at ABAC just a few minutes after my class had ended.  Unfortunately for us, it had just started to pour, so we had to scurry first to find a place to eat, and from there, scurry to my building (I only had 1 umbrella with me) to get out of the rain.  We woke up early this morning and headed off at 6:30am to the American Embassy in Bangkok, about a 30 minute drive away by taxi, so that we could be early in line as it opened at 7:30am.  Fortunately we were not there for a visa as that line wrapped around the building, instead, we were first in line and really were in and out after only about 45 minutes or so – much better than the ‘hours’ that we were possibly prepared for.  We were at the American Embassy simply to have them certify an affidavit that Jet wrote that Ben was our son.  After that, we headed off to a Thai government office about 45 minutes drive away to both certify the Thai translation of Ben’s birth certificate (that Jet and her aunt did) and the Thai translation of the affidavit that Jet just had certified (that Jet had just typed and translated at the Thai government office).  We had to pay double (about $25) to have them expedite the process and have them complete it by today as Jet wanted to have these documents in hand when she returned back to Phitsanulok.  Since we had finished submitting all required paperwork by 11:00am and they expected to return them to us by 4:00pm or 5:00pm, we decided to spend a day on the town and stopped at one of the shopping malls in Bangkok.  We did a bit of walking around, but the only items we bought were two pairs of dress pants and 3 dress shirts for me and a pair of new shoes for Jet.  Those shoes were quite a memorable purchase, however, as she had only taken a few steps in them when one shoe fell apart on her.  She promptly returned the shoes and they happily replaced them, promising that it would not happen again.  Jet walked a few more steps this time (literally about 50 feet) when one of those shoes fell apart.  Flabbergasted, she returned the shoes again and decided to get a different style of shoe.  She has yet to report any problems with that pair.  At around 3:00pm, we decided to part ways as I took a taxi back to ABAC and Jet took a taxi back to the Thai government office to pick up our documents.  After some deliberation, Jet decided to take the bus back to Phitsanulok from there and is currently on her way there now – spending about a whole 20 hours in Bangkok, but at least many of those hours were shared with me.  From here, Jet will take those documents to a government office nearby her home to continue the process of getting Ben’s visa extended.  Jet did hear from some Thai government officials that Ben didn’t have to have his visa extended because they don’t really enforce that policy on children under the age of 16.  Regardless, one thing running through all of these hoops is affording us is peace of mind and knowing that we could be avoiding the unpleasant experience we faced at the Atlanta airport on the way here.

Jet’s Mom has reported that Ben was doing well today and was having a good time with her.  Jet told me that he threw up once two nights ago which got me concerned, but Jet has said that Ben was doing just fine all day yesterday, so that made me feel a little better.  Ben is still learning new words to say and is becoming quite the terror.  One thing I am trying to emphasize to Jet is to not show him any bad habits to pick up.  For example, when Ben had done something bad, Jet would give him a little slap on the wrist and tell him no.  Well, Ben’s new thing is giving a nice slap to someone when they get close to him.  There are other things, though, that sound pretty amusing.  Jet’s Mom yawned one time recently Jet told me, and Ben was instantly mimicking her over and over again, giving both Jet and her Mom a good laugh.  As for words, there is one Thai word that he can say flawlessly, “nam” or “water”.  When Ben’s thirsty, “nam”.  When we pass a bridge over a river, “nam”.  I guess “nam” is much easier to say for him than “water”.  Jet has also told me that Ben has been putting on the weight.  To help encourage Ben to start drinking again (and taking his medicine with it) after he had presumably ingested some poison, Jet’s Mom pulled out a bottle for him to drink from.  After not having had a bottle in a few months now, I hear that Jet’s Mom loves giving him milk from the bottle now.  Oh boy.  I just wonder how easy it will be to take him off the bottle again and even when that will be – when we get back to the US?  If that is the case, there will surely be a few things that we will have to adjust to (e.g., time change, food, crib, etc.) when we get back home.

Rainy Season

Although we have been having nice weather during much of the day and temperatures at around 90 degrees, every evening we have been having some strong rain showers – which makes sense as this is the start of the rainy season in Thailand. I saw on CNN today, as it was covering the rains in the cyclone-affected region in Burma, that the rainy season begins now and will end in September. Looks like I will be seeing a lot of rain during my stay here. The thing that is real neat about my room is that I get a real nice view of the approaching rain – and rain it does as it seems to come down in buckets. Last night there was quite a bit of wind that came along with the rain, so much so that it got me to stop reading and just watch the wind and rain pass on through for the past 30 minutes or so.

The thing that is great about having Internet access now is that I am able to listen to morning radio programs from Oxford, AL (Jim and Rufus T. on WTDR) and Milwaukee, WI (Bob and Brian on WHQG, Charlie Sykes on WTMJ) in the evenings so that I can keep up with the local events back in the US and still get a taste of home. What is not great is that although most TV stations have full video of all shows available to watch for free on their Websites, they only allow you to view those shows in the US. Nuts. That would have been great.  The only thing I can get are the video clip downloads (e.g., ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption, American Idol performances, etc.) from YouTube or other sources.

Jet is planning on visiting me on Friday in Bangkok so that we can take care of Ben’s paperwork so that he can legally stay in Thailand. From what Jet has said, she will need to bring Ben’s birth certificate, our wedding certificate, and our passports to be officially translated into Thai, then bring it to the government office to take care of extending Ben’s visa. Jet mentioned that she will either take a Bus to Bangkok (as I have done) or get a ride from her father, we will meet up to take care of all the paperwork, have lunch and then spend a little part of the day together. Jet will leave Ben with her Mom while she will be away, which really will be the first time that Ben will be away from either of us for an extended period of time. That has gotten me concerned, but I guess I really shouldn’t be as I know that he will be in good hands. I’ll keep you posted as things progress.

Drinking From A Straw

Well, I am back from my trip to Phitsanulok and it was great seeing everyone once again. I am also getting better traveling on my own as I was able to take a Taxi from ABAC to the bus station and buy a bus ticket to Phitsanulok, then catch a taxi from the bus station (back in Bangkok) to ABAC all on my own. And by speaking very little Thai. The taxi trip from the bus station to ABAC this time around went much better as I did not get sucked in by the dozen or so guys trying to lure me to their waiting taxis. Instead, I simply walked about 50 yards to the location of the bus station labeled “Metered Taxis” and caught a taxi from there. Last time I paid 360 baht or about $11. This time, 120 baht or less than $3 and it only took 20 minutes as I instructed the driver to take the highway (a 40 baht toll that I had to pay) instead of the local route that the taxi driver took me on last time. So in sum, I paid less than half and arrived in less than half the time. What an improvement!

My first day in Phitsanulok was a rocky one, but it ended well. We had planned a day long trip at a resort in the mountains, which was about an hour and a half drive away, and planned to leave after Ben woke up from his morning nap. About mid-way through Ben’s morning nap, he began to throw-up and didn’t stop until after he saw the doctor about an hour and a half later. He must have thrown-up about two dozen times, the poor little guy. What we suspect happened is that Ben ingested a poison of some sort. With Ben recovering, we decided against going on a long trip far away from a hospital, just in case his condition didn’t improve. After Ben’s afternoon nap (Ben is still on a two nap-a-day routine), he seemed to be doing just fine and when we went out to eat, I have never seen Ben eat so much in my life. He was eating everything in sight, fruits, vegetables, meats, rice … he was like a human garbage can. I would not be surprised if he had eaten more than some of the adults at the restaurant that we visited.

The second day in Phitsanulok (and my last day) we did a bit of shopping for snacks that I could bring back to Bangkok with me. I could not find any granola in any store that we visited, so I settled on stocking up on coconut and vanilla cookies. We also stopped to a salon that gave me a very nice haircut for about $2. Ben also got a trim to ‘thin out’ his thick hair, which was his second cut since he has been here. Hey, anything to help Ben against the heat. That evening, since it was a national holiday (Visakha Bucha Day), we stopped by a nearby temple to see a celebration that was going on. In essence, people took candles and had flowers in hand as they walked three times around the temple, and then left. This Website has a little more information on the holiday.  After that, we headed back to Jet’s house to play cards for the second night in a row. The game that we play is what Jet’s Mom calls “blackjack”, but is played a little differently than “21″. What you do is add up the face value of the two cards you are dealt, and having a “9″ hand is the best (e.g., a “4″ and a “5″ or a “10″ and a “9″). You can also draw a third card to improve your hand against the dealer. To make it even more interesting, there are bonuses if your cards are the same number (e.g., a “4″ and a “4″) or are of the same suit. We would usually only play for 5 baht or 15 cents a hand, but the games would always get very entertaining and exciting.

I arrived back at ABAC at about 2:00pm today (Tuesday) after taking the 8:30am bus from Phitsanulok. I don’t have anything planned for the next few days besides class and a few meetings, so I should have time to get a bit of research done. Jet had mentioned that her Mom, Ben, and herself might visit me in Bangkok again this weekend and that I visit Phitsanulok in two weeks. We’ll see how that goes. While in Phitsanulok over the weekend, I did get a chance to meet another of Jet’s cousins (“Bali”) who works for his parents travel agency in town. Bali told me that he could take me on whatever trip I would like in the coming weeks, for example, a nature hike and camping, or white-water rafting, or whatever. Also looking ahead, we are starting to think about taking a major trip in mid-July after Jet’s cousin’s wedding on July 5 and after my Saturday class ends (June 28). We are thinking Hong Kong right now, but if that proves too expensive, we might just stay in Thailand and visit either some of the beaches in the south or the mountains in the north. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes.

I also wanted to share some interesting things I have experienced/noticed since I have been here on this trip. The first thing is that everyone loves drinking from a straw. No matter what it is, a cup of water or bottled water, you are always given a straw to drink from. Nothing unusual about drinking water with a straw, but on my bus trip to Phitsanulok, the man sitting next to me was drinking a couple of cans of beer from a straw. That is something I haven’t seen before. Another thing I noticed was that I haven’t learned any new Thai words or phrases since I have been here in Thailand. In fact, I have barely spoken any Thai at all. I had thought (like in my previous visits to Thailand) that by being here, it would be very easy to just “pick-up” the language. Although being able to speak Thai would help, I don’t really have to as I am teaching at an International school that teaches in English and most everywhere in Thailand has signs that are both in Thai and in English. Something else to comment on are the mosquitoes. I may have spoken about them years ago during my past trips to Thailand, but in case you don’t remember, the mosquitoes here are smaller than those in the US, they are quicker and love going after your feet and ankles, and they are very clever. I have even seen mosquitoes “play dead”. Over the weekend in Phitsanulok, Jet’s Mom got a new “toy” to get the mosquitoes. It looks just like a tennis racket, but it is a rechargeable device to electrocute mosquitoes that you are able to swat. I call it a “toy” because it became a pretty fun thing to do as I passed the time. Finally, I never did mention the name of the bus station here in Bangkok – and with good reason. The name is “Morchit” and when you pronounce it, the “r” is silent so it sounds like “Mo ****”. I can’t tell you how awkward it is to say that name when I either talked to the taxi driver or told someone at ABAC where I was taking a bus from. Even worse, however, is the province (like a county in the US) that you pass through just before you reach Phitsanulok. That province’s name is “Phichit” and pronounced sounds like “Pee ****”. Don’t try saying those in class, Lori!

Like I promised, here are the first batch of pictures taken from Thailand, with some comments for the first time! My favorites are the ones of Ben eating pork. Enjoy!

Two Posts in One Day?

Remember the time when I would only post once a week or so? Well, here’s a first – two posts in one day! Since I will be leaving for Phitsanulok tomorrow (Saturday) until Tuesday, I don’t know how often (if at all) I will post when I am there. I am committed, however, to getting pictures uploaded to the Website so that you have something to see next week. In the meantime, I was able to get my Webcam hooked up and I have recorded a quick tour of my room here at ABAC. I hope this gives you a good idea of the accommodations that I have been given while teaching in Thailand.

The only item of significance that happened today was me covering Sup’s English class at Ram university. Man, that was a tough three hours. About half of the 60 students were there at the start of class and most everyone was there 10 minutes later, but the real challenge I faced was that there was only a select few that could speak English. There were a few students that did answer the questions I had, but when I approached students one-on-one and asked them questions, they only had blank expressions on their faces and looked at me as if I were an alien. The first few students I approached couldn’t even answer the question “Is this an English class?” to find out if I was in the right room. Oh well. I ended up showing video clips of businesses using technology (the same ones that I show for my students) and asking questions afterwards about what they saw, namely, “Why did this business use IT?”, “What problem did IT solve?”, or “What benefits did the business get from using IT?”. It was a tough three hours.

The other big news of the day was that as I was walking to Ram university, just before I passed the restaurant that I eat at several times a day, I passed another restaurant that was serving chicken and rice the way I love it served. Just plain, boiled chicken, chopped into strips, served with rice that has been cooked with the chicken stock, some spicy sauce on the side, and a small bowl of chicken stock on the side. I stopped by there to check it out at dinner time (5:00pm) and the meal cost about $1, but I gladly would have paid $10 as it tasted exactly the same way like Jet cooks it. How delicious that was. I was also quite proud of myself as it was another restaurant that I was able to eat at and order food on my own. I think that might be the only dish that they serve there, but hey, I’m getting more options for places to eat.

I have class from 9:00am until 4:00pm tomorrow, and directly after class, I will stop back to my room, grab a quick shower, grab my stuff, and then grab a taxi to the bus depot. From the bus depot, I will (hopefully) be right on a bus bound for Phitsanulok. It takes about an hour to get to the bus depot by taxi and another five hours by bus to Phitsanulok, so I don’t expect to arrive there until midnight or so. Perhaps I will give a call or two back home to see how everyone is doing.

Old Friend

About an hour before my class last night I was walking past the computer lab in the business building and I saw a familiar face.  My first reaction was to think back to how Sup explained why so many Thai people thought that I looked like Tom Cruise, “all American people look alike to Thai people just like all Thai people look alike to American people”.  Perhaps it was someone that “looked” like my old friend.  When he stopped and gave me a surprised look, I knew that it was indeed him.  The old friend was “Nittipan” or “P’Ka”, a former classmate of mine about 5 years ago in the Ph.D. program at UW-Milwaukee.  It turns out that Nittipan has been teaching marketing courses full time (4 classes) for 1 year now at Assumption University.  It’s just funny to think how I have been able to connect with the only 2 Thai classmates of mine in the Ph.D. program while here in Thailand.  It was also funny to hear that both Sup and Nittipan had no idea that the other were in Thailand, let alone teaching so close to each other.  I guess there it was just fate (something Thai people believe strongly in) that brought us all together.

The class went well last night, not great, but well.  10 of the 32 students were present when class officially started at 6:30pm so I decided to wait 10 minutes before I began my discussion.  By 6:40pm, over 20 students were there and in the minutes that followed, students trickled in one-by-one.  Just as my other class on Saturday, only a handful of students participated in the discussions and the majority remained silent the entire class.  I’ll just assume for now that this was only because it was the first class.  Hopefully there will be a different result next week.  One of my students last night had worked for Citibank for over 6 years and said that he would be interested in assisting me in my research on security regulations, so that was certainly something promising that resulted from the evening.

One other bit of news to mention, I am writing this post from the comfort of my own room!  After spending a bit of time trying to figure out why I could not get Internet access, I enlisted the support of the building manager, who sent someone up to my room to check it out.  After a few minutes of looking at the computer and getting on the phone with one of his colleagues, I had Internet access!  The person that made it happen explained it as my computer needed to be configured to work with the campus network.  Oh well, at least I can access the Internet much more conveniently now.