I Feel Awful, But I Feel Great

As Charles Dickens penned, “It was the best of times.  It was the worst of times.”, so goes life for me.  For the first time in over three months in Thailand, I am sick.  I woke up yesterday (Wednesday) morning congested and was “foggy-headed” for much of the day.  Last night was awful.  I think I only got about one hour sleep and that was courtesy of all of the shots of NyQuil I took.  I have less than half left of the only bottle of medicine that I brought with me from the US, so hopefully that will last for the remainder of my time here.  But feeling dizzy, feeling warm, feeling cold, and not getting any sleep no matter what position I tried sleeping in was just plain exhausting.  I hope that I am able to get a cat-nap in during lunch as I have class tonight.  Jet has told me to go see a doctor, but how would I go about doing that?  I supposed if I asked the department secretary that she would get me where I would need to go, but why see a doctor over a cold?  That’s something I wouldn’t do back in the US.  Just stubborn, I guess.

Sticking with the bad, the Brewers are going through a bit of a tough spell.  Hopefully they can break out of this funk in short order.  Where is the offense?  Speaking of offense, the Brett Favre situation is just continuing to drag on and on.  Who knows how this saga will all end.  I suppose sooner than later as the season is quickly approaching.

So what about some good news?  The one positive thing was that I did go to dinner last night with a few of the priests (Father Bipin [Indian], Father Joesph [Vietnamese], and Father Kelly [American]) at a place called “Grandmas”.  Excluding the few times I went out to lunch with my executive MBA students and Sup, this what I consider to be the first time that I had gone out to eat with someone else during my time here in Bangkok.  I have been here over three months.  We had a good time just talking, which was certainly a change of pace from the hermit life I have been living here at ABAC.  The place where we ate is run by an older, white-haired Thai woman affectionately known as “Grandma”.  I guess this is a main hang-out place to eat for the American exchange students at ABAC and I could easily see why.  “Grandma” could speak English very well, her menus were in both Thai and English, and the items on the menu included many “American” dishes.  Even more, “Grandmas” has got to be the cleanest restaurant that I have been to while here in Thailand.  At almost every restaurant that you go do, the walls are dingy, the lighting is poor, and the floors are dirty after having had hundreds of people walk through.  Though the food almost always is safe and tasty, the ambiance certainly does not promote an image of cleanliness.  “Grandmas” was nothing like this.  It looked as if the place was just scrubbed down with bleach and the lighting was great.  Being my first time there, I just ordered what Father Kelly (who suggested we eat there) ordered.  Everyone else followed suit.  Out came some fried chicken with mashed potatoes and sauteed onions.  The food was good and perhaps was the first “American” meal that I have had, besides pizza, since arriving in Thailand.  I think I will be eating there much more often in the next few weeks.

Chiang Rai

After doing another load of laundry Saturday morning, I had an ABAC van ready to pick me up at 11:00am and take me to the Bangkok airport for my 1:25pm flight to Chiang Rai.  The drive was only about 15 minutes so I was actually quite early for my flight.  The dean of the school of IT booked my ticket for me ($100 for the ticket plus another $60 in airport fees and taxes), so I simply walked up to the Thai airways desk, showed them my passport, and they printed out my boarding pass and I was on my way.  When it was time to board, I was surprised by how large the airplane was that was taking us to Chiang Rai – about 250 people!  I expected it to be a small plane with only 50 people on it.  The flight itself was great as it was only 1 hour from takeoff to landing, and being such a large plane, the flight was a pretty smooth ride.  Once I walked out of the Chiang Rai airport, there was a MFLU van waiting to take me to the university resort that were also booked by the dean of the school of IT for me.  As it turns out, the van was “assigned” to me for my three-day (two-night) trip, that is, anywhere I wanted to go, the van would take me.  Once I arrived at the university resort, Wanasom, I waited for Jet, her Mom, and Ben to arrive as they were driving from Phitsanulok and only about a half hour away.  Once they did arrive, we took a brief rest giving Ben a chance to nap, and then headed off for dinner and shopping at the night bazaar at around 6:00pm.  We ate some tasty chicken, BBQ pork, and fried fish with some rice soup and then walked the bazaar for about an hour and a half.  Jet was anxious to stop at one particular shop that sold curtains because she wanted to buy them during our last visit there, but for some reason decided against it.  She did not want to make the same mistake twice as Jet could not find similar looking curtains anywhere in Thailand.  We ended up calling Donald and Linda and talking to them for about 60 seconds simply to confirm what size the windows in our living room were so that we could get curtains that were the right size.  The curtains are nice, more of a tan color with an almost burlap feel to them with some simple design patterns near the bottom.  Jet bought five of these curtains for 1500 Baht (about $45), which was quite expensive, but surely worth it as Jet was relived to get the curtains she wanted.  We walked around for a bit more, Jet got her nails done for 5 Baht each (50 Baht or $1.50 total), and we headed back to relax and get some sleep.

Breakfast was included at the resort, either fried rice or eggs with sausage (although the “sausage” was more like hot-dogs).  We all had the eggs with sausage.  We left for Mae Sai (Thai-Burma border) at around 10:00am and it only took 30 minutes to arrive.  We had to rush our trip to Chiang Rai because my 90-day visa was ready to expire on July 30 and I would have had to pay a 500 Baht fine for each day I stayed beyond my visa.  So after a quick trip over to Burma and back into Thailand, I was able to get my passport stamped and give me another 30 days with a regular tourist visa to stay in Thailand.  It cost either $10 US or 500 Baht (almost $15) to get a day pass into Burma.  Naturally I went for the $10 bill as it was cheaper, but the bill I had was one of the “older” $10 bills, so the Burmese immigration officials would not accept it.  Once inside Burma, the shopping was as I recalled five years ago when I went there with Dad.  Shops everywhere along a few crammed streets that flanked the border bridge and unbelievable deals to match.  We shopped for about three hours going into most stores that were selling knock-off purses.  While I only walked away with a new leather Armani wallet for about $15, Jet walked away with about two dozen purses and wallets for prices that were about half of what she could find in Thailand, which Jet has informed me that she has already sold to the workers at Jet’s Mom’s business for a handsome profit.  Now Jet was regretting that she did not buy enough purses, but there is talk about possibly making a return trip there as part of Jet’s Mom’s birthday in two weeks.

While the shopping was amazing and the deals unbelievable, walking around these few busy streets thrusts you into some of the most shocking and jarring sights that you might also see as well.  As you are crossing the bridge into Burma, there are several guides that try to sell you tours around the area.  We weren’t interested in this as I suspect many of these “personal guided tours”, which can be found at many tourist traps in Thailand as well, are scams where you get much less than what you are promised for too great a price, so we continued on across the bridge and down the steep flight of concrete steps (about 20-30 feet in height) down to where all of the shopping action took place.  The very moment you hit the last step, you have at least a dozen people rush up to you selling all sorts of things out of a small crate that they walk around with, namely cartons of cigarettes, but also playing cards (tough to find in Thailand as gambling is illegal), toys that were continually shoved into Ben’s face to get his attention, and even all sorts of pills, most notably “Viagra” which some appealed to me saying that it would make me “Superman”.  You try your best to ignore these sellers, but a few of them follow you around everywhere you walk shouting out, “Hey, Brother” in broken English trying to capture your attention.  When you walk into a side store to get away from the small crowd of followers, they simply wait outside for you to come back out, perhaps thinking that by being persistent, you might just flash some cash to them just for them to go away.  I had no intention of giving them any money, but their tactic must be successful to many as they did keep this up for some time.  What was sad was that at least half of the people that walked around peddling these goods to me were children no older than 10 years of age.  Continuing to walk around, you come across people with badly deformed limbs or injured individuals begging for money.  They are just as persistent to follow you around, but giving them a few coins is enough for them to go after someone else.  Perhaps the most shocking sight of all was one that made me even gasp aloud.  It is not uncommon for parents to send their young children (aged 3 and above) out to beg for money, which is a sight that you can also see played out at many street bazaar’s in Thailand.  There are commercials on TV in Thailand that highlight these activities and encourage people not to give these children money as the commercial says that their parents just use the money to buy alcohol and drugs.  But to see a young girl of about 3 or 4 with a small sleeping baby strapped to her back begging for money is a sight that was just impossible to ignore or avoid and is now even more difficult to forget.  I can’t imagine a more sadder sight than that.

After visiting Mae Sai, we took a brief trip over to the Golden Traingle, which is a place where the opium trade once flourished.  It is the location where Burma, Laos, and Thailand all connect to each other, and just up the Mekong river is China.  We only stayed for about an hour to do some sightseeing and to take some pictures, and after some dinner, we headed back to MFLU.  We had plans for visiting the night bazaar again, but after a brief rainfall, we got lazy and stayed in for the evening.  Once we did return, about a half hour before the rain began, there was a double rainbow that ended just on the other side of the lake from the resort.  I took a few pictures as it was a pretty cool sight to see.  Hopefully the pictures turn out and at least give you a sense of how neat it was to see.

On Monday morning, after breakfast, Jet, her Mom, and Ben headed back to Phitsanulok while I stayed behind and met with the dean of the school of IT as well as several faculty members to discuss partnerships between JSU and MFLU.  My meeting lasted nearly two hours and there was a lot that we accomplished and possibly some interesting things that will happen in the future (read my other blog to find out more about those details).  But we will have to wait and see if anything does materialize.  We had lunch at a small outdoor restaurant just outside of the campus and all that they ordered was seafood!  I snacked on a few of the things that were ordered to be polite (fried fish, boiled fish, stir-fried fish, etc.), but next time I will have to speak up and say that I prefer chicken and pork instead.  After lunch it was off to the airport to return back to Bangkok, and after arriving in Bangkok, back to ABAC where I spent the rest of the evening getting work done before I fell asleep.

Right now I am at the ABAC undergraduate campus (Bang Na) to meet with one of the faculty members with one of my students.  I was told in advance that this faculty member was someone that had a role in drafting copyright policies here in Thailand, but not until on our van ride today did my student tell me that he is also considered the “father of the Internet” here in Thailand and the building where we would meet the faculty member is named after him.  Hopefully things work out well and I can get some good information that will help with the research I am working on.

MFLU Bound

Surprise!  I just found out last night that I had a flight booked for me today (Friday) for Chiang Rai which I will be leaving for in just a few hours.  Jet did HEAPS of leg work to find a time where we could visit before my visa expired and also fit everyone’s schedule (mine, Jet’s Mom, Jet’s Uncle, and the dean of the school of IT) and also coordinate everything I need while there.  Jet and I went back and forth over the phone about a two dozen times in the last 24 hours working on some arrangement and it turns out that this weekend fit best for us all.  So I will have a van from ABAC take me to the Bangkok airport at 11:00am for my 1:25pm flight to Chiang Rai where someone from Mae Fah Luang University (MFLU) will meet me and give me a ride to the university resort, Wanasom, where I will meet up with Jet and the gang who are driving to Chiang Rai from Phitsanulok this morning.  I don’t quite know what will happen after that until Monday, but I will need to visit Mae Sai (Thai-Burma border) so that I can get my passport stamped and get my 30 day extension to stay in Thailand.  I will be meeting with the dean of the school of IT on Monday to talk about partnerships with JSU and then catch my flight back to Bangkok at 3:30pm.  I am pretty excited about this trip because I could use a nice break and spend time with Jet and Ben after this busy week.

It occurred to me in the past day or so that one thing that I have neglected to do while here in Thailand is really build any friendships with people over here.  I can’t believe that I have made this oversight as I should still have found the time to “hang out” with people despite my busy schedule of working and traveling.  With now only one month to go (that’s right, just one month now!), I am planning to address that.  The most sensible option for me is to spend more time with the priests at ABAC that I have gotten to know while here.  That may sound strange, but the few that I have spoken to are kind, young (30’s-40’s), and likely have similar interests as me – that is, much more closely aligned interests (more mature) than the students and visitors that I play basketball with every night.  After speaking with one priest a little bit last night after class while walking back to my room (he and other priests stay in the building just next to mine), I was able to tentatively plan lunch with him and some others next week once I return back from Chiang Rai.  Perhaps it is because he is a man of God, but the priest that I spoke to (Father Bipin) just had a way to make it seem like the smallest act of kindness (offering to help him and his classmates study) was a truly significant event.  Now I freely admit that I am more sinner than saint, but I always leave in a good mood after speaking with one of these priests.

Update: I just found out from Jet that my flight will be leaving TOMORROW (Saturday).  Well, it’s good that I find out now before I was just about to head off to the airport.

Hectic Day

Things have been busy as usual around here today, but today there have been a few challenges to go along with the daily routine.  I wanted to get my laundry done this morning before my 11:00am meeting with the President of ABAC so I left at 8:30am and started two loads of laundry.  When I returned 45 minutes later, 1 load was almost done and the other load was stopped, stuck on the first wash cycle.  I reset the machine and it started to work again.  I figured it had been fixed.  Nope.  For another 30 minutes, it continued to stay on the first cycle until it stopped, stuck again.  There was no one there to help and I didn’t have the time to wait to see if I could get the washing machine working as I still had to shower and dress for my morning meeting, so I simply took each piece of clothing out, tried to wring out as much water as possible, then rushed back to my room with a bag leaking pretty badly with wet clothes.  At least my meeting with the President went well.

After my meeting, I get a call from Jet letting me know that our planned visit to MFLU on Monday, August 4, which I fly to Chiang Rai and Jet, her Mom, and Ben drive there to meet me, will no longer work as her Mom has an important meeting in Bangkok on the same day.  Nuts.  So after several phone calls back and forth, a lot of leg work done by Jet, and headaches for both of us, we are tentatively planning the visit for Friday, August 1 instead.  If this plan falls through, I will have to fly to Chiang Rai and be there by myself.  Unfortunately I can’t be flexible with this schedule as my 90-day visa expires on August 5 and the best way to renew it is by crossing the border to Myanmar (Burma) and getting my passport stamped, thereby giving me another 30 days with a tourist visa.

Come to think about it, I guess things started getting a little hectic last night while I was playing basketball.  In just my second pick-up game, I felt a pain in my right shoulder that is still with me today.  The pain only happens when I raise my right arm and kinda feels like a pulled muscle, but it is not something that would keep me from playing again tonight.  After only an hour of playing last night, however, it started to slightly rain.  At that very moment, as if it was a coordinated event, every single person left the basketball court except the two “farang’s” (white people), that is, me and the 6′8″ guy from Holland.  We both looked at each other somewhat confused why they were leaving when it had hardly began to rain.  It might have been because it looked like the rain wasn’t just going to blow over and be done in a few minutes, though it didn’t start to really “rain” until another 30 minutes or so later.  I also had the thought that they might have been afraid of the rain.  It sounds silly (at least to me), but for Jet, even when we were in Alabama, one of the things that got her worried was being caught outside in the rain with Ben.  Even if it would be barely raining, Jet would say, “Ben could get sick”.   Maybe there is some perception in Thailand that if you are caught in the rain, you will get sick.  I don’t know if this is true, though, as I find it hard to believe that people in a country where they have a ‘rainy’ season fear the rain.  Then again, Jet (and other Thai people I know) also has fears of cats, dogs, worms, and caterpillars.  Cats and dogs, perhaps because they are roaming everywhere in Thailand and are dirty, worms and caterpillars perhaps because they can be dangerous in Thailand.

One final thought, I find it interesting that the first sister of mine to comment on the possible resemblance of ‘baby’ Jet with ‘baby’ Ben is from my sister-in-law, Pook.  Great to finally hear from you Pookie!

He’s A Maniac, Maniac …

There’s not much to report here from the past few days.  I have structured my days in Bangkok recently very well to ensure that I can get the most work done and still stay sane being away from Jet and Ben.  For the past three days, I have run 5 miles in the morning, done work during the day with a 1:00pm lunch break, gone to church at 5:00pm (10:00am on Sunday morning), and played basketball for at least 2 hours in the evening/night.  I am quite pleased with the progress I have made (so far), but I fear that I might be pushing myself a little to aggressively with exercise after only periodic workouts for the past month.  I have felt good running/playing basketball until my run this morning.  For some reason it was just a struggle to set a really good pace and so it took me almost 5 extra minutes to complete my run (about 45 minutes).  When I got back to my room and after I showered, I just felt beat, so I rested for about a half hour.  When I was ready to get going again, a strange thing happened.  One toe on my left foot (I guess it would be my “index” toe) out of nowhere cramped up and pointed in an odd direction (down and to the right) without my control.  It happened twice, but only for about 5 seconds each time.  Perhaps I will have to cut down my morning runs to every other day.

Jet’s Mom put a lot of pressure on her not to take the hair-cutting classes with my barber because she thought that he was overcharging her.  Since Jet has to deal with her Mom in person every day, I understandably could not convince Jet to visit my barber yesterday morning.  Instead, Jet went to her baking class as usual and while there (classes are taught at a local school) found out that they offer lessons on how to cut hair in the evening for free.  So that is what Jet ended up doing instead.  Jet told me that her first day cutting hair went well and that one of the things that she learned was how to ‘thin out’ hair.  Well, as long as Jet is staying busy and is learning something new, that is good.

Something new that I have tried the past few days is eating food at places that I have never been to before.  On Sunday, many stores and street vendors around ABAC were not out so I walked a few blocks over to the street just across from Ramkhamhaeng University where there are always (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) dozens of street vendors selling food.  I ended up getting a bunch of food ‘to-go’, fried pork at one spot (35 Baht or $1 for about a quarter to half pound worth), sticky rice at another (10 Baht or 30 cents for two small bags), and a package of rice-coconut custard for dessert (12 Baht or 35cents).  Yesterday, I ended up getting 3 deep fried chicken drumsticks and two bags of sticky rice (to go) from one vendor by ABAC for 45 Baht.  For both meals, I had almost more than I could eat.  Almost.

The only other thing happening around here is that I am working to schedule meetings with both ABAC and MFLU to really get things moving on partnerships with JSU.  I have a meeting with the president of ABAC tomorrow (Wednesday) at 11:00am, which is simply to introduce myself (again) because after two previous visits to him, apparently he still doesn’t remember me – at least that is what he told Jet’s uncle.  I do have some ‘buzz’ going on about me here at ABAC, at least that is what I am being told.  My study session with the priest that took place yesterday (was rescheduled after being cancelled on Sunday) turned out to be a group study session as 5 students from the section of the MBA class that I don’t teach attended. 5 students … that’s nearly half of that class!  They told me afterwards that students in my Thursday evening class make fun of them because they don’t have me as a professor, that they have spoken to other students and administrators about me, and that they all want to sit-in my Thursday evening class for the rest of the semester.  I was a bit embarrassed to hear their praise of me, even though I was not their teacher, but it did feel good to be appreciated.  I’ll try and not let it get to my head, though, after all, I’m not superman … or superteacher.

“Ben Looks More Like _____”

This is a statement that I get often, as I am sure most parents do.  Who does Ben look more like?  Me or Jet?  For the overwhelming majority of the time, people answer me, not Jet.  This is even more so in Thailand as almost all Thai people that Jet runs into with Ben in tow clearly recognize him to be “half and half”, that is, half Thai, half “farang” or “white”.  I was never fooled by such claims as I have always felt (and still do believe) that Ben looks a lot like his Grandma.  For those of you on the fence, I present to you exhibit A, some childhood pictures of Jet included in this post.  It is striking to me how similar they looked at about the same age.  Case closed, well, at least in my opinion.

I ended up catching the 9:00pm Saturday bus to Bangkok as all buses are completely filled due to the holiday weekend.  I actually didn’t get any sleep on the bus and not much after I arrived in my room at ABAC at 2:00am, so I am pretty much running on fumes right now.  At 10:00am I will be heading to church and directly afterwards, I have scheduled a meeting with the priest (Father Bipin) to help him with his MBA computer class.  Hopefully I will make it through without dozing off.  I will try the spend the rest of the day catching up on work, but we will see how that goes.  It has been raining pretty much on and off all morning, so I doubt that there will be much that I will want to do outside, which is good considering the work I need to complete.

I got another haircut yesterday morning as it might be over a week before I head back to Phitsanulok since I am initially planning on spending the entire week and weekend here in Bangkok.  Looking back on my stay here so far, it is pretty amazing to me that this is only going to be my second Sunday (out of twelve so far) that I have been here on campus at ABAC and even more remarkable to think that in the past month, I have been on campus here for a complete day (24 hour span) only about 4 or 5 times.  That is much more traveling than I would have expected at the outset of our trip to Thailand.  I don’t regret spending so much time with Jet and Ben, though, as that has really allowed me to enjoy my time here.  Ben has been feeling much better over the past 48 hours or so, which is great news, and upon further inspection, now has a few molars coming in his mouth.

The reason I bring up getting a haircut yesterday (my third with the same barber in Phitsanulok) is that I insisted Jet stick around this time as everytime he gives me a trim, he gives me a ‘crew cut’.  Everything else about the experience (e.g., the sides, the back, the shaving, the cost … just over $1) is terrific.  I was hoping that it would be different with Jet around to talk to him, but unfortunately, the result came out the same.  Jet actually got into a good conversation with the barber (probably in his 60’s) and I noticed that he had a “Rotary International” clock for the first time.  It turns out that the barber spends a lot of his spare time helping disadvantaged children.  In their conversation, the barber offered to teach Jet how to cut hair in a 5-day intensive session every day for the coming week for 5,000 Baht (about $170).  That seemed kinda pricey, but after only a few trims of cutting Ben’s hair back in the US it would likely pay for itself pretty quickly.  Jet was also excited because learning how to cut hair could also come in handy back home as she could cut all of the neighbor’s (e.g., Donald, Danny, etc.) and nephew’s hair, that is, if they would be willing.  Besides, this would give something for Jet to do that would take up a full week of her time and keep her busy.  As part of the training, on Wednesday, they would visit a large group of disadvantaged Thai children (well over 100) and cut their hair for free.  The barber said that they would be good to train on because they “don’t complain”.  Let’s just see what happens.

Plus One?

We ended up going to Phu Hin Rongkla National Park, which is about two hours from Phitsanulok in the mountains, instead of Laos for the past two days.  I am glad that we did.  I didn’t really feel like going on another long drive and Jet told me after we had arrived that this was a place that she traveled to with her family every year when she was young.  For some reason that made the visit just that more interesting to me, perhaps thinking back to all of those camping outings in Tomahawk, WI or those day trips to Pike Lake when we were young.  That really does say something that I enjoyed the trip considering that the conditions were not optimal.  First, Ben came down with a fever the morning we were about to leave.  I figured it was due to teething as I noticed that he had been drooling a bit the past few days beforehand.  We ended up stopping off at the clinic to get Ben some medicine which he absolutely hated and was torture for both him and us to give it to him.  I actually don’t know what was worse, Ben dry heaving at the mere sight of the medicine, Ben gargling/choking on the medicine as he spits it back into our faces, or keeping Ben pinned down so that we could give him his medicine despite his desperate cries.  Torture.  In addition to this joy, it rained the entire first day we arrived and it surprised me by how cool it was (50’s – 60’s), which was likely the coldest temperatures I had ever experienced in Thailand.  We stayed in a bungalow that didn’t have a lot of bells and whistles, but it was dry.  There was a possibility that I could have pitched a tent and stayed outside underneath the stars, but since it rained the entire evening, I had no interest in doing this.  The next morning the weather was much better (80’s and sunny) and we went out for some of the sightseeing that we missed on the first day.  Phu Hin Rongkla National Park is known for both its beauty and interesting history.  About 35 years ago, communists from Laos invaded and made the current location of the park the headquarters for the Thai Communist Party (TCP).  There were battles fought there against the Thai military and on display were a few old weapons, ammunition shells, and even the remains of a US helicopter that was shot down.  Hence the name of the park, Phu Hin Rongkla, which literally translated means “Rock Broken Brave”, or “Broken Rock” to describe the unique cracked rocks that make up the mountain and “Bravery” for those lives lost fighting there.  When the communists finally gave up and left the mountain in 1983, the Thai government made it a National Park.  Also in 1983, Jet’s aunt opened up a restaurant there (where we ate during our stay) and for the past several years operates historic tours to the park, mostly for Thais that want to visit, but occasionally for Westerners as well.  While there, we met two girls from Holland and a guy from New Zealand with his girlfriend that was originally from California.  We stopped off at the former camp of the TCP, a nice waterfall that was nearby, and also took a nice walk to get to the edge of the mountain for some nice pictures.  It was a very interesting trip indeed and one I won’t forget anytime soon.  On the drive back, since it was not raining, we were able to see the river that ran alongside not far from the road and several white-water rafting tours that were taking place.  Jet’s cousin (“Bolly”), who is the son of the aunt that owns the restaurant and tourism business, said that there are many other things like mountain biking, rock climbing, and hiking that are available to do there as well.  Perhaps the next time I return to Thailand I will add that of my things to do.

I am just in the library now in Phitsanulok while Ben is catching his morning nap.  We will visit Jet’s aunt (the one that owns the restaurant and tourism business) at the hospital across the street for lunch.  She is in the hospital because she fell out of bed yesterday morning at Phu Hin Rongkla because she misjudged the height of the bed she was sleeping in.  She had her arm in a sling the entire day yesterday while her wrist began to swell and returned to Phitsanulok with us in the evening.  It turns out that she had her wrist broken.  Ouch!  Let’s hope for a speedy recovery.  Her son (“Bolly”) stayed behind so that he could run the business for the weekend (busy due to the holiday) while she was attended to.  So why the “Plus One” title?  It turns out that Jet’s aunt would like her son to stay with us in Alabama to take English classes at JSU and perhaps continue on for his MBA to help prepare him as one day he will take over the family businesses.  Bolly is a nice guy, I think is in his younger 20’s, and is also excited about the opportunity of coming to America.  We’ll see how the time-line works out, but there is a slight chance that he could come back to the US with us.  We’ll just have to wait and see what happens as there is paperwork that needs to be completed and documents that need to be processed so that he can get a visa to study in the US.

I will be returning back to Bangkok tomorrow (Sunday), which is a few days earlier than I anticipated, but I just have so much work to do that I can’t put off returning any longer.  I already have meetings scheduled with some of my students on Monday and I have a whole checklist of other things I need to accomplish – and soon.  It looks like Jet and I will be making a return trip to Mae Fah Luang University in Chiang Rai sometime in the first few days of August – we’re just waiting to hear back from the dean of the School of Information Technology for the details.  It will only be for a one night stay, but it will give us a chance to see the university in much greater detail than we have had the chance before (this is important as I might return to teach there sometime in the future) and also stop back at Mae Sai at the Thai-Burma border for some shopping, but more importantly, to renew my visa as my 90 day pass is set to expire at around the same time as our tentatively planned visit.  We’ll see how this all goes as it comes closer.

(Another) Change Of Plans

It is Tuesday and I am still in Phitsanulok but Jet is in Bangkok.  How did that happen?  Well, after hearing from a few others questioning why I didn’t cancel class on Thursday, I decided to do just that yesterday (Monday).  I called the secretary and sent an e-mail to my students informing them of my decision.  So that was that.  That throws a bit of a wrench into the remaining weeks of my class’s schedule, but I think that they will appreciate the extra-long weekend.  So Jet ended up driving with her sister to Bangkok yesterday to drop her off at the airport.  Jet is in Bangkok today doing some shopping with her friend before she will head back up to Phitsanulok by bus at around 2:00pm with an ETA of 7:00pm.  In the meantime, I stayed behind and plan to stick around here for about another week.

Last night I attended a local Rotary International meeting that one of Jet’s aunts is a member of.  We arrived at 6:30pm but by the time the meeting had officially started at 8:00pm, Jet’s Mom and I were about ready to return back home as it was getting close to Ben’s bedtime.  Ben is still on a regular two-nap schedule, waking up at around 7:00am, first nap at 9:00am, waking up from first nap at 11:00am, second nap at 3:00pm, waking up from second nap at 5:00pm, going to sleep at 8:30pm.  I think this schedule has been similar since we arrived here in Thailand and probably is similar to the sleeping schedule Ben had back in Alabama.  There were about 40 people at the meeting and I spoke at length with just a handful of those members.  There was a group of 4 girls (17, 16, 13, and 13 years old) that I also spent time speaking to and I was surprised at how well they spoke English.  One of the girls (16 years old) had mentioned that she would be interested in spending a year in America on a Rotary visit so I gave her some advice on what to consider while living in the US if she was selected.  Jet had mentioned briefly that she might consider hosting a student like this sometime in the future, if anything, to have another Thai person in the house to speak with.  This girl seemed very nice and who knows, could spend time with us in the future.

So what will I do with another week in Phitsanulok?  How about travel?  That is the plan now as we are considering renting a minivan and traveling with relatives to the capital city of Laos, Vientiane, which is about a 6 hour drive away.  It is a communist country and actually a pretty small city (about 200,000), so I suspect that we will just do some sightseeing of temples and other locations if we do go.  I think Jet is leading the push for a trip to Laos as this is a country that she has not been to before.  As for renting the minivan, another of Jet’s aunt’s runs a travel/sightseeing business where you can hire a driver and a minivan for relatively cheap.  From what I recall, you can rent the minivan and driver for as long as you wish for only 1,500 Baht/day (about $45) plus gas.  Speaking of gas, the price right now is around 45 Baht/Litre (about $1.32) and making the conversion to gallons, it comes out to just over $5 per gallon of gas!  I see that gas prices are just over $4 per gallon in Milwaukee and just under $4 per gallon in Anniston.  Considering the difference in cost of living in Thailand compared to the US, $5 per gallon of gas is extremely expensive.  Jet’s Mom just filled up her car with gas on Sunday and the bill was over $100.  Ouch!  Well, who knows what we will do when it comes to traveling in the next few days.  It wouldn’t surprise me at all to have our plans change once again.

Quick Update

Just a quick update since I only have a few minutes to use the Internet before dinner.  We ended up not going to Sukhothai yesterday, which was probably for the best since it was so hot outside (mid 90’s) and there are no places for shade at the ruins.  For dinner last night (Saturday), one of Jet’s uncles took us out to eat at a restaurant on the river.  They mostly served seafood, which I am sure was delicious, so I just manged eating rice and some fried pork.  You had to walk down several stairs along the side of the Nan river to get to the restaurant, which was actually floating on the river.  We ate on a large (100 foot or so) platform boat that was adjacent to the restaurant and once we finished eating, the boat started up and took us on a 45 minute trip along the Nan river.  There were a few locals that lived in some pretty rough conditions on some house boats on the river that waved ‘hello’ as we went by, some asking (in jest) if they could come along for the ride.  It was quite the experience.

Tomorrow afternoon we will all be driving to Bangkok to drop me off at ABAC and Jet’s sister at the airport whose flight leaves at midnight.  Jet and her Mom tried talking me into being a contestant on another Thai game show in Bangkok, which I was told was a combination of ‘deal or no deal’ and ‘let’s make a deal’.  I gave my same objections, I didn’t want to look like a fool on a Thai TV show when I don’t speak much Thai at all.  Apparently one of Jet’s Mom’s new friends has to recruit contestants for these game shows.

Gatta run!  Bye.

Another Weekend

Another weekend in Phitsanulok.  It was actually a pretty interesting bus ride on Thursday night.  My class ended at 9:30pm and I rushed from the classroom to get my things, catch a quick shower, and take a cab to the bus station in time for one of the final buses that night.  I arrived at the bus station at 10:30pm, and to my horror, all of the tickets for the last bus at 11:00pm had already been sold out.  Perhaps it was fate, but just as I felt awful and was just about to catch a taxi ride back to ABAC, a man carrying a bag of snacks was walking by and of all the buses (there are dozens leaving at any given time there to destinations all throughout Thailand), he was heading for the last bus leaving for Phitsanulok and he motioned to follow him.  I did.  Once I arrived at the bus, there was one seat remaining sitting right next to the bus driver and another person in the same situation as me.  They asked for 300 baht cash (around $ and I literally had a front-row seat to Phitsanulok.  The seat was very uncomfortable and cramped which made it difficult to sleep, so I ended up staying awake for the entire drive (arrived in Phitsanulok at 4:00am) talking to the bus driver, the bus attendant, and the other passenger sitting next to me – his name was “Art”, 24 years old, a student in Bangkok, and could speak a little English so he translated everything that was said to and from me to everyone else.  I was glad that it didn’t rain during the drive as there were no seat belts and I knew that if anything bad happened, it likely would have been the end of the road for me as there was nothing that would have stopped me going through the front window.  I guess it was good that we were talking so much as it kept my mind off of everything else (e.g., safety, uncomfortable seat, tiredness).

Jet’s cousin that was married last weekend just arrived in town last night (Friday) and they have invited us to travel with them to Sukhothai for some sightseeing later today.  I am not sure yet if we will go or not as Jet’s sister is actually supposed to arrive back in town today.  Sukhothai is one of the original capitals of Thailand around 800 years ago and is only about a 1 hour drive away, but is mainly just a historical park now as much of the original city is in ’ruins’ now as the capital of Thailand was next moved to Phitsanulok.  Also ahead, the plan is now to return back to Bangkok on Monday, but we’ll see if it is just me and Jet’s sister or a few more of the gang.

This coming week Thursday and Friday is a holiday here in Thailand.  I was asked earlier in the week by the ABAC secretary whether or not I will be having class.  Since I have a pretty structured class and still much material left to cover, in addition to the fact that I have already moved the class ahead 1 week as I will be returning home before the final class, I said “no”.  The secretary said that it was no problem and that she would contact all of the students and let them know.  I also let the students know that there will be class next week on Thursday night.  Although there are many holidays here in Thailand, Jet told me when I arrived in Thailand that she was surprised that I didn’t cancel class as this was like a “Thanksgiving” holiday in Thailand.  Gosh.  If I had know it was that important of a holiday, I may have adjusted my schedule to accommodate.  I hope that my students don’t hate me for this.

Here are those pictures that I promised from Pattaya and from the Thai picture studio that Jet just had taken.  I also included a couple more of Ben wearing a Thai school uniform.  All students in Thailand wear school uniforms.  Enjoy!