Kor toht

To all that are follow this blog, my apologies.  I have been negligent.  Writing these posts requires energy, time, and motivation.  Some how these haven't seemed to coincide as of late.  Please forgive me.  Settling in, the establishment of a new routine, and a general malaise have kept me occupied.
But the fact that my laundry froze on the spin cycle frees up time, as well as requiring me to stay up.  The tremendous amount of new experiences and thoughts/feelings coupled with the gentle haranguing of friends and family provides the motivation.
I have an apartment.  I decided to move into the building that my friends from training are living in.  While it would be considered small and sparse by Western standards, the living space is certainly as large as my first Chicago apartment.  While that was called an efficiency, this has that place beat hands down:
-A balcony where I can hang my clothes to dry (and a nice view)
-A built in wardrobe, shelf and desk with mirror
-A queen size bed (that was as hard as a rock until the addition of a pad)
-Mini fridge, microwave, TV
-Free Internet
-A one room bathroom/shower (There's a drain in the floor with a shower handle.  It even has a 'hot' shower, which is essentially a mini water heater.  You get used to the cold shower pretty quickly.)
-A pool
Unfortunately, it requires a commute of about an hour via river ferry every morning and afternoon.  Though as far as commutes go, traveling down the middle of the Chao Praya with Bangkok looming on either side as the sun hits it's stride is not too bad.  That's as long as there's a seat available and that' there’s not a torrential downpour.  Those things do diminish it slightly, but the Thais have been doing this for a while, so who am I to complain?
My school is wonderful.  I teach 21 hours every week.  It covers four grade levels (11-16 year olds) with class sizes of about 40 students.  Each grade is broken up into ten 'levels' based on their overall academic scores.  While these may correlate loosely to general interest in school, it doesn't necessarily translate into English ability.  The disparity within a given class can be huge.
I see one class twice a week for 50 minutes each time.  I also see one class for two periods in a row, but all of the others I see just once a week.  Given the huge variety in skill level and lesson plans required, this has been quite a time consuming undertaking.  The basic ideas for how to cover the material, and more importantly, keep the students engaged and occupied for the period is taxing in and of itself.  The additional requirement of actually grading nearly 800 students' work makes for full days.
Overall, however, I truly enjoy the teaching.  Many of my students are tremendously sweet, and no day is dull.  The interaction with the students is very rewarding, as is feeling that I'm actually making a difference in their English speaking skills.  The polite wais in the hallways and the ever present shouts of 'Mr. Matt!  Hello!'  as I move through the school put a smile on my face that seems to remain well after I leave.
It seems that my teaching style has sufficiently impressed one of my Thai co-teachers for her to go looking for outside work for me.  She approached me today with what seems to be a contact for daily two-hour private lessons with a man for after school.  Apparently, he has recently been promoted to a supervisory position and wishes to improve his English.  The stated figure is 500 Baht an hour, of which I believe she would like ten percent.
While part time work is a very common practice here for English teachers, this seems like an exceptional offer.  I will hopefully set it up tomorrow so that the 'driver' can start picking me up at 3:30 from school.  My Thai Madame at work.
I happened to meet a Thai woman who is an American citizen on Friday when I was returning school from lunch.  Vanee (my new friend) has lived in Fresno, California for 27 years where she runs a produce stand, bringing farmers’ bounty to the market.  She also grows some of her own fruits and vegetables.  She comes back to Thailand occasionally to take care of financial issues and see her family.  While her English isn't great, she loves me just for being an American who teaches at her Alma Matta.  As such, she insisted on taking me out Saturday with her sister to buy fruit and show me a wholesaler.
From what I can tell, Thais love three things above all else:  eating, shopping, and haggling.  When these three things are combined, look out.  The synergy produces some form of Super Thai, less mortal person than mythical creature.  I swear I saw these 5'2'' women grow six inches as they cornered a poor Thai Indian girl over the authenticity of some 'Indian made' shirts.  15 minutes later, Vanee had bought three and the girl had somehow managed not to burst into tears.  An hour and a half later, Vanee wanted to go get one more.
When I talk about shopping, you may be picturing some quaint open air, street-side vendor.  They do have those, lots of them.  But they also have more malls than you can imagine.  A few are what would be familiar in the West, perhaps a little bit more packed.  The majority, however, basically move those street side vendors indoors.  A 15 foot by 15 foot space filled with dress pants and slacks.  Next to that is another 15 by 15 stall full of belts, or sheets, or polo shirts, or you name it.  This goes on nearly infinitely until they have occupied ten stories of a building taking up a city block.  Add thousands of people milling about to your mental image, and you start to get an idea of the experience.
Sometimes the floors are segregated by merchandise:  electronics on three, men’s wear on five.  This can by no means be thought of as the rule of thumb.  Even with the 'streets' being numbered, I still find myself wanting a compass, a canteen, and sometimes a machete (maps are fairly useless in this country and the opinions of at least three independent people are required to verify the direction and distance to a desired destination).  The shops give out cards dictating their position as if fourth floor, at the intersection of streets 16 and 12, is an address.
This actually comes in tremendously handy though.  Shops must be revisited because apparently hiding among the piles of garments lurk seamstresses.  Pick out your pants; get measured for inseam and waist, pay, and come back in a half an hour to pick them up, freshly hemmed.  Sure, Brooks Brothers doesn't sell rayon/polyester blends, but these babies don't wrinkle.  Also, when I sweat through them, they dry in minutes.
The foray into the land of fruit buying with experienced guides was great too.  Not only did I pick up some knowledge about the myriad types of papaya here (don't even get me started on mangoes), I was introduced to a segmented, pitless cousin of the longan, and learned proper etiquette for eating on the go.  After being induced to try a fresh olive, I mastered the ever-important phrase 'I don't love it.'
While I am certain I could go on and on, it is getting late.  I will endeavor to not let so much time elapse between posts in the future.  But for now, goodnight.
P.S.:  While I was eating lunch yesterday, the television was on in the teacher's area.  The Thai teachers turned up the volume for me so that I could hear Barack Obama's acceptance speech.  As I sat listening, my throat got tight and tears welled in my eyes. Pride, vindication, joy, and hope for America are emotions that have lain dormant in me for too long.  I wished at that moment that I could share it with my fellow countrymen.  A new day is dawning.