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The end is near!

Monday, September 8th, 2008

The end of teaching, that is!

Gabe and I have both pretty much exhausted our list of ways to pass time in Bangkok, hence the lack of blog updates. Additionally, I agreed to write a paper for a friend who is remotely attending a university in Sydney and that has taken over my life for the past few days – not only do I now know everything there is to know about The Truman Show, but am also 5000 baht richer. I also learned that paper-writing (even when I’m trying to write like a C student) is a lot more difficult after a three year hiatus!

The political situation hasn’t been resolved at all, but is at a standstill. Samak refuses to step down and the PAD refuses to negotiate until he does, so things are more or less stuck. There still hasn’t really been any violence (I can only imagine the chaos that would ensue if a massive anti-government group decided to take over the White House for three weeks…), though there is no shortage of debate and controversy circulating.

It’s hard to know what is really going on, however; the articles that I’ve read on CNN and BBC sound really sensationalized, yet a condition of the ‘state of emergency’ here in Thailand is the prohibition of any news report that may “cause panic.” That said, the stories in the paper are rather bland and you honestly would have no idea that anything is going on unless you’re in the protest area. I had to come back to school last Thursday, but there is now talk of resorting to a coup, which would probably result in cancelling the end of the term. We shall see…

Speaking of school, things are wrapping up! Once this week is complete I will have a week of review (though review of what, I don’t know – last week was shot and even today I’ve had two classes not bother to show up!) and then exams for the final few days. I am officially done on the 26th and we’ll be leaving Bangkok on the 30th, which is when my work permit and visa expire. I cannot leave until that day and I must leave on that day – Gabe and I are plotting ways to make it out of the country in time! I can’t believe that departure day is officially in sight – back in the beginning, I honestly did not think that I would be able to finish it out.

I’m certain that teaching is not my calling, and I’m certain that an Asian city with 15 million people is not where I need to settle down. I don’t, however, have any regrets and am so glad that I tried it. Though challenging, teaching has been a great growing experience for me and it is pretty neat to know the ropes so well in a crazy place like Bangkok!

Yesterday while walking down Sukhumvit, on the opposite side of the city, Gabe and I got a phone call from a friend who was sitting in a pub that we’d passed. We turned around and joined the group of friends for a few afternoon beers and I couldn’t help but think how nice it is to randomly run into friends on the street in such a huge, chaotic place. I can’t say that I ever imagined it would happen!

All but about three people from my original training group are staying for at least another school term, and many are planning to be here indefinitely. They’ve all interviewed, accepted higher salaries and found nice apartments. We’ve all made friends, learned survival Thai, found our hangouts and feel really comfortable here; the foreign community is pretty amazing. There is alway something to learn, someone to meet and political debates to be had (especially with the Aussies)! 

I personally am not up for another semester, but there’s no way that I’d be ready to leave Asia in a few weeks! I certainly miss friends and family, but five months would be far too short of an experience and I’m so glad that Gabe and I have the opportunity to take off and really explore for a solid amount of time.

I’ll keep this updated with our travel plans as they develop. We’re still weighing our options in terms of which direction we will head, but Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, more of Thailand and (if money allows) Malaysia are all in the plans. It’s going to be an adventure, as Thailand (which is not exactly stable) is far more developed and far less corrupt than any of the surrounding countries. I can only imagine what lies ahead – this will bear no resemblance to my tour of Europe, that’s for sure!

Escalation!

Monday, September 1st, 2008

Friday protests

For anyone who is interested, I thought that I would write a short update on the situation here in Bangkok…

The weekend was a bit of an uncertain one; while there were hints that something big would go down, aside from a tear-gassing episode things remained largely peaceful on the surface. On Saturday morning Gabe and I had gone out to the protest area to check it out – it was bizarre and could have easily been mistaken for a festival were it not for all of the helmet-wearing and stick-wielding. We didn’t stay too long – there were definite tensions just under the surface and we were told by some ‘tourist police,’ in no uncertain terms, to get away. We decided it was best not to stick around and left.

On the way home I received a text message from my boss saying that school would be canceled on Monday due to the protests and uncertainty over what would happen during scheduled government meetings on Sunday, so Gabe and I immediately decided to jump on a bus and head back to Khao Yai for some quiet, some nature and some pool time!

We boarded a bus on Sunday morning and enjoyed an extremely peaceful 24 hours; we didn’t bother going back to the park or anything, just read and relaxed and basked in the solitude and scenery. Between the internet and the television translations from Tommy (see my older post about Khao Yai), we were able to follow what was going on back in Bangkok.

Trains were still disabled, the meeting on Sunday produced no results (the PAD refused to acknowledge it and Samak refused to resign, even at the government’s recommendation) and there was talk of strikes at various municipalities, including the electricity and water companies. I kept hoping for another message from Aron that would let us stay one more day, but no message came and we reluctantly headed back to Bangkok yesterday evening.

There wasn’t too much new news as of last night (Monday), although the strike threats had turned into a very real plan of 200,000 water/electric workers going on strike as of 9 a.m. on Wednesday. They claim that it would only affect police stations, government agencies and the residences of select government officials, but I couldn’t help imagining how miserable our little box would be with no electricity or water!

Just as I was leaving for work this morning, I got a call from my friend Raina saying that her school was closed for the day and to check on ours. I hadn’t gotten any messages from Aron and my coworkers were waiting downstairs for our ride, so we all assumed that it would be a normal workday for us; Raina’s school is very near the protest area and had been closed several days last week. My internet wasn’t working so I wasn’t able to check on the latest news…

We came to school a few hours ago and things were quiet, though there were some students here along with all of the teachers. I was finally able to read the news and found out that a PAD protester was killed early this morning by a government supporter, a state of emergency has been declared for Bangkok (meaning that the military will now step in, override the constitution and censor some media) and that the strikes are still planned for tomorrow unless Samak resigns. There will be selective electric and water shutoffs and whereas trains have resumed service (the executives all resigned yesterday), as of tomorrow there will be no buses.

We got a call about an hour ago saying that the school decided to cancel classes and was sending back the students who had shown up, as they don’t want to be responsible should anything happen. Unfortunately teachers are not allowed to leave, so I will be killing time here until 4:00. I don’t foresee there being classes tomorrow if these strikes actually occur (no buses = no students!), so I’m prepared for a week of reading and catching up on various projects! With any luck, I won’t actually have to show up…

It seems like things will get interesting, though hopefully not violent. I’ll keep this updated and, if you are interested in learning/reading more, http://www.bangkokpost.com will have info for you. Until next time…

Head of the class

Thursday, August 14th, 2008
 Or maybe joke of the class? It's hard to tell when you don't speak Thai!  My teaching experience hasn't received much press time on this blog, but considering that I spend 40 hours each week immersed in it, I think that the ... [Continue reading this entry]

Spicy food and other delights!

Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
Cyclone? Tornado? Independence Day? There is a giant cloud outside that looks like it may spawn 10 or 12 tornadoes (see photos), so I decided to spend some time commenting on a few ... [Continue reading this entry]