Back to Work (9-20)

It was good to arrive back on campus. I met the three new teachers: Kasey, the new Peace Corps Volunteer, Sean, and Ian. All are recent graduates. We now have seven foreign teachers, and two of us are female. We each teach six or seven classes and have two days without classes. Not a difficult schedule. My two free days are Friday and Monday.

Three of my classes are English education majors, which will be a bit easier because I taught that class last year and have a syllabus already. The class went well; so I don’t think I’ll make many changes. Two classes are business English majors. I taught that class during my first semester here, but the first semester is new to me. The last class is from the automotive engineering department. For non-English majors we will use the syllabus Dale put together in June. I recently learned from Paul that it correlates with the textbook students use with their Chinese teacher. This will make the program more relevant to students.

I had a good reception on campus. When I entered the building, the building guards and staff gave me big smiles and waves. One of the first things I did was go to the shopping street to buy boiled soy beans, one of my favorites. When she saw me, the vendor light up with a big smile. It was nice to be welcomed back so warmly.

I’ve encountered several former students who have spoken to me. The English education sophomores have Kasey as their teacher. When they saw that they have oral English again, they thought I would be their teacher again and were disappointed when I told them that they have a new teacher. Part of me wanted to continue with them, as we got along well and I could start them off where we left off and continue their progress. On the other hand, I knew it would be good for them to experience a different teacher. I hope that their shy time with Kasey will be less because they had me last year. It will be interesting to see if the girls continue to come to my office hours sometimes. And it’s fun to have new freshmen who are excited to improve their oral English and to have a foreign teacher.

When I did my first walk around campus, two girls spoke to me. They are freshmen who speak very little English. They don’t know what they are studying in English, and one girl used her fingers to count when I said a number. But they were very sweet. They walked me back to my building and told me they love me.

At home, I returned to find a lot of mold in the bedroom. I’d left the closet doors open; so it wasn’t as bad as last year in the closet. But the desk was a mess with white mold, especially on the underside. I spent most of the first evening cleaning the wood surfaces. Over the next few days I washed the few clothes that had spots of mold and the bedding. The pillow was covered with black mold. It was good to get everything clean and get the room set up again. I’ve become a fan of bleach, which I’ve seldom used and never purchased. It really cleaned up the pillow case and the white sofa covers.

Classes started this week. I saw only three of mine, as two were having their medical checks. The three classes I saw gave me small gifts. The first class gave it to me at the beginning of class. I thought they were trying to be my favorite class. Their gift was a water/tea bottle. The next class gave me their gift—a small cactus in a cute pot—after class. 

The third class gave me a gorilla—stuffed, of course. It’s big and black. I’m still getting used to it when I see it in my apartment. I named it “Garky.” It is the English name of a student I had last year. I always liked and was amused by the name and I like the boy. And Garky the Gorilla is alliterative.

English Corner also started. All English majors are told to attend the first one as well as all of us foreign teachers. When I arrived, one of my classes was standing together waiting and called me over. 

When it was my turn to introduce myself, my classes cheered. That was heart-warming. Many photos were taken. Some of the sophomores who attended pretty regularly also came this first week. It will be interesting to see if they continue to come. They are very busy this year. I remember this from the sophomores last year.

When I stopped at the fitness center to say “hello” to Rick, I saw the changes he had told me about. The room was expanded by combining with the yoga room and there are more treadmills and a few other machines. Yoga will be in the new gymnasium. I learned that there is also a room with exercise bicycles, which I will use. I’ve also decided to use the other fitness machines this year, not to just think about using them. I had Rick give me a lesson on how to use three of the machines.

I went to the bank to cancel the old account with the lost ATM card and open a new account. The good news was that there was still a lot of money in the account.

On Friday Michelle and another young woman took me to the immigration office in Chengdu to apply for my visa change and extension. It was easier than I had thought it would be. The woman had said she would only extend it for 90 days, which isn’t enough. They called someone at the university who talked to the woman, and she gave me 180 days. The visa cost 950 RMB/$155, which is more than my first one cost ($140). When it was time to pay, of course no one had enough money, and we didn’t have enough cash among us. Michelle used her bank card. She will get reimbursed eventually. I enjoyed the car trip with Michelle, as I seldom have the opportunity to talk to her alone and personally. I usually see her in the office and have just a brief greeting and chat.

  

Thursday evening Yienfanh and I got together. I took Kasey to introduce them. We had a good time catching up. It's always good to see him.

Friday Peggie and her husband took me to dinner to thank me for my wedding gift (cash). We ate at a reception hall, one they had tried to book but couldn’t because it was already booked. I think the dinner cost more than half of what I gave them. That wasn’t the idea, but it was good to meet him and chat with them both. He understands more English than he speaks, which is common.

Saturday Diao Min to me to our favorite eggplant restaurant to thank me for everything. I think that included revising her friend’s cover letter and introducing her to Kasey. Since I won’t continue formal Chinese lessons, I’ll miss seeing her regularly.

Now that I’ve had a break with good travels and good times with my friends, I’m ready to be here and teaching again. I’m enjoying the new students and the new teachers as well as the continuing teachers and my former student friends. This is good.

Remembering Things Thai (9-8)

Remembering things Thai: an incomplete list in no particular order

Beautiful Thai silk and cotton

Foods: 

som tom/papaya salad—normal, sweet and with balah, 

pad Thai, 

grilled chicken, gang keow wan/green curry, sticky rice, salted fish, noodle soup, 

mok naw mai/bamboo steamed in banana leaf, 

foods wrapped in banana leaves, 

blah toom, 













duck noodle soup

bamboo soup

Eating leaves and herbs; cooking with leaves

The funny way papayas grow on the trees.

Spirit houses at houses and special, old trees

Beautiful rice fields

Wearing white clothes to the wat

People chanting/praying at the wat every day for 2.5 hours during the three-month rainy season

Sleeping at the wat on Buddha days during the rainy season

Inflated plastic bags for everything. Thais are great at spinning them around so they are inflated.

Special way rubber bands are used to seal plastic bags

Taking your own towel when visiting friends

Eating with a spoon, with a fork to assist 

Fresh coconut juice in the coconut

No top sheets. Using a blanket instead.

Condensed milk—in cold tea, in shakes, as a dip for fried dough

Flattening the back of shoes so they slip off and on easily

National anthem at 8:00 AM and 6:00 PM. All stand.

Phone calls before 6:00 AM

Colorful shirts often with cute characters

Memorizing speeches for the impromptu speech contest

Bucket showers

Sinks that drain onto the floor

The Thai years. It is now 2557.

Old calendars hanging on walls because they have the king’s picture

Clocks that have stopped but no one changes the batteries

Dogs lying in the middle of the road and barely moving away when cars come

Cars double parked

Feet: don’t point towards the Buddha, monks, other people

Return Part 3 (9-7)

Since Wednesday was my birthday, Khun Toy and Khun Dakom had said I should take something to give to the monks in the morning for good luck in/blessings for the coming year. 

After returning home, she and I started cooking for my party at noon. This was a small party just for me because I would miss the big party for the September birthdays: Khun Toy, Khun Teamjan, their friend Khun Tam—and me when I was here. Since we were going to the wat in the evening, my birthday meal/party was lunch rather than dinner. Khun Dakom had two chickens ready to be cooked and Khun Toy had purchased a fish. 

My jobs were to cut the ginger and take leaves off the stems. Later I chopped a papaya for somtom. Other than that, my job was to watch, which I did happily.

At 10:00 we took the food to Khun Suwit’s farm where we finished cooking. Khun Tongbai also joined us and brought bamboo. While they prepared the bamboo, I rubbed the leaves to make the green sauce for bamboo soup. Lunch was delicious, of course. 

After eating, Khun Toy presented me with a moon cake from Malaysia and we all shared it for dessert. Then Khun Dakom had everyone say a special wish for me. After he started this, I remembered that it is a tradition he always starts.

After a relaxing afternoon, Khun Toy and I went to the wat for the evening service. So the events of the day were pray, eat, pray. It was good. Vanessa sent several messages on Khun Toy’s Line, the final one being a voice message with her and her daughter singing “Happy birthday.” Tuk called me at night, and it was good to chat with her again, too. A good birthday all in all.

On the way home, we stopped at a new small market in the village where a few women sell food. One gave me a bag of passion fruit, from which Khun Toy made juice on Thursday.

Thursday we skipped the morning service, which surprised me. Khun Toy took me to Nam Tuam School so I could say “hello” to the teachers there. I was greeted with big smiles and lots of hugs from the kindergarten teacher who especially likes me. I met the new English teacher and was pleased to learn that she speaks English well and may stay at the school for a long time, as her husband also teaches there and they live nearby. 

She had me speak to the assembled students and had a few boys come to the front to have a conversation with me. They did a good job. After asking each question, which I answered and then asked them, they conferred to plan the next question. It was nice. Like Chumchong Puai Hua Dong School, I always felt comfortable at this school. It, too, has a good atmosphere. I was really glad I went. Before leaving, a teacher who wasn’t there before gave me a bag of longans, probably from his tree. The rest of the day was mostly for relaxing for me. Khun Toy prepared food but told me to sleep. We went to my last evening service at the wat. Although I had learned to use it as meditation time, I was tired of sitting on the floor, which had become more difficult for my knees every day. So I was happy to be finished with this activity. I enjoy being there but not on a daily basis.

Back at the house, Khun Toy cooked dinner for me to take to Khun Yindee’s house in the evening: fried chicken, fried fish pieces, sticky rice, and mok naw mai/bamboo steamed in banana leaves. She’s so generous and giving.

Friday was my last day with Khun Toy and Khun Dakom. We began the day by going to a wat I’d not been to before. It’s a very small wat in a very small village near Lue Amnat. We gave food to the monks along the road on the way in. 









Then a man took us to the three buildings that house altars to three former monks. Each building looks like a small house, which I hadn’t seen before. The man placed flowers on each altar. Afterwards, we joined the villages to pray while the monks began their breakfast. They gave me some fish and sticky rice to take home.

Later in the morning we went to a traditional Isaan music contest in Lue Amnat where we met Khun Wasana. When we arrived, the contestants, many of whom were students, were playing a traditional stringed instrument that is now electrified. This made it too loud and acoustic for my taste, and I didn’t especially enjoy it. One of the instruments had been modernized in style, thus the old and the new. Khun Toy had tried to buy a small papaya to make somtom for me, but the only ones at the market and store were really big. So she bought some from a vendor, and the three of us went to a café for lunch. (In Thailand it’s OK to take food from elsewhere into a café where you are going to purchase something else to eat.) My last somtom. 

After lunch, the contestants were playing the traditional bamboo flute, which I enjoyed more.

At 4:45, the van Khun Yindee takes to Ubon stopped at the driveway to pick me up. It was hard leaving these wonderful friends, but now they are on Facebook; so we can keep in touch a bit, which we couldn’t do before.

Saturday I just hung out with Khun Yindee. Since she’d been so busy with many projects at school, I hadn’t seen much of her. We went out for lunch and I had my last pad Thai and roast duck. Hanging out at her house is like being at home.

Sunday it was time to leave, which is always hard. Khun Yindee cooked fish I like and three kinds of mushrooms (for good luck) for breakfast. Then they took me to the airport. It’s always hard to say “good-bye” to her, too. But the time had come.

I flew to Bangkok and stayed at a hotel for the day and night. There’s not much near the hotel, but I noticed a sign for massage and decided that a Thai massage would be a good treat before leaving. It was.

Leaving Thailand is always hard, but it was time to return to China and teaching. As the time has drawn near, I’ve started to feel like I’m ready to return and start teaching again. One of my girls wrote that about her summer. She had shown her friends at home a photo with me and reported that her friends think I am adorable. It’s been a long time—if ever—since I’ve been called adorable. One reason I stayed at the university is my groups of girls. I know they will be sophomores now and will be very busy and won’t have much time to meet with me, but they will remain my special friends and I’ll be happy to see them whenever they want to and can meet. And there will be a new crop of freshmen to get to know. Now I’m ready for them.

Return Part 2 (9-2)

Thursday I went to school with Khun Samaporn to hang out with her for the day. She now teaches English to kindergarten to 6^th grade students in a small, rural school that has 200 students. Since the school has only 9 teachers, she also teaches some science and social studies. Two teachers will retire in September; so there will be only 7 teachers and she will have more classes. After lunch with the teachers, we went to the bank to deposit the students’ money that they save each week. Then she decided to go to Amnat Charoen to buy a shirt for me. I had made the mistake of commenting on a teacher’s ASEAN shirt and saying I liked it when Khun Samaporn asked; so she decided to buy me one. However, we found only one that I liked enough to let her buy and it was too large. Not greatly disappointed, as I liked the teacher’s shirt but didn’t really want one.

While I was at the school, I played my favorite game with some of the boys after school. They were coming down from Scouts and wanted to go out the door I was standing beside. I said “hello” to each one and wouldn’t let them out till they responded. I always enjoyed doing that, and I think students enjoy it after they get started. They certainly wait to make sure everyone says “hello.”

I returned to Khun Toy’s house just in time to leave for the wat for the afternoon chanting/prayer session that is held during the three month rainy season, also called Buddhist Lent. I used to do this once a week when I lived here, and Khun Toy didn’t do it because she was still teaching. Now that she is retired, she goes every evening and most mornings; so that’s what I did, too. Khun Toy made sure I was appropriately dressed by lending me some clothes—skirt and white blouse for morning and white clothes for evening. The evening white clothes include the white scarf that I gave her when I left. I’m pretty sure it hadn’t been used.

The evening services last 2.5 hours. Everyone chants/prays from the book for half an hour. Then there is a silent meditation for 30 minutes. This is followed by more chanting/praying for an hour and a talk from a monk for half an hour. It’s a bit long for me to sit still on the floor. After two days, I could hardly sit with my legs bent under me, as it hurt my knees after two minutes. I changed positions every half hour. The old women don’t need to do this. I enjoy an hour of chanting and silent meditation. An hour and a half is OK. But the last hour gets long, especially the monk’s talk since I don’. After the first two times, I settled into it and was able to use the whole time to meditate in some way. It was good to be there among the community. Several of the women make sure to greet me, and it was good to see them. My presence was noted. The abbot posts a lot of photos on Facebook, and I have enjoyed seeing them in the photos. Friday’s post included special mention and photos of the American visitor. Other posts also included me. Tuk called one night and mentioned having seen my photos at the wat on Facebook. When the abbot announced the attendance from each neighborhood, he included on person from America.

The services are now being held upstairs. Each person has a padded seating mat and a small table with a book stand. Before they were held downstairs and everyone took their own mat and read from books on the floor or in their hands. The upstairs room is air conditioned, which is nice. 

The central feature of the altar is a new case with a pot and some small Buddha images in it. Khun Dakom told me that they are about a thousand years old. 

They were discovered about twenty years ago when digging for a new building. The twenty Buddha images were in the pot.

Friday I got to sleep late and woke up at 7:30. It felt good to sleep until I was ready to waken. The morning was for relaxing. I sat on the porch and enjoyed the view of the pond. Then we went to Amnat Charoen to take care of some business and have lunch—duck noodle soup, which they know is one of my favorites. I’d been thinking about it. Khun Teamjan, Khun Suwit and their grandson joined us for lunch. In the evening, we returned to the wat for the evening chanting/praying.

Saturday we returned to Wat Hua Don for two days and nights. This was the leave at 5:00 AM trip to get there for the morning feeding of the monks. When we arrived, I helped arrange snacks and fruit on the trays. The nun told me in English that the people in the village like the food to be arranged beautifully for the monks. After breakfast, Khun Toy told me that we would stay Monday night, too, because they will do the evening chanting/praying. I wasn’t very happy about that, as I had thought about visiting Aemmie that day and sleeping on the tile floor for three nights seemed like a bit much. So I suggested that I visit Aemmie on Saturday, which worked for her, too, as her husband was planning to come to Ubon on Monday. We ended out not having a lot of time together, since she had plans in the afternoon and ended out having to take Maysia to the clinic to check her cough in the evening, but it was good to see her and have a little time together with her and her daughter. And I enjoyed the bed. I enjoyed meeting Maysia in person. Her personality shows on Facebook photos, but it was fun to see it in action.

Sunday morning Khun Teamjan picked me up and took me to Wat Hua Don. I was refreshed and ready for two days there. The first event was a special ceremony for Phra Kong, since he had had an operation and returned from the hospital. I remember doing this for someone when I was here before. Because he’s a monk, instead of tying string around his wrists, women often dropped it across his wrists to avoid possibly touching him. 

After the ceremony, many photos of various groups were taken.

The Malaysian family who were coming to see Phra Kong after his surgery arrived at 9:30. This was their fourth visit to the wat. They have visited a number of wats in Thailand over the years and met Phra Kong through a Malaysian monk in Thailand whom they had visited. He recently spent two months in Malaysia, and they spent time with him there. Khun Toy said they have donated a lot of money to the wat. Vanessa’s name is on the fence that Chinese Malaysians donated money for. She and Khun Toy and Khun Dakom have been Facebook and Line, a chatting app, friends for about a month. They chat in English every day at least twice but hadn’t met in person yet. So Khun Toy and Khun Dakom were excited about their arrival. With limited English, not a lot of conversation took place, but gifts were exchanged, food was shared, and photos were taken. I chatted with their daughter (age 16) quite a bit, as her English is pretty good. They left at 12:30 to fly back to Bangkok and on to Malaysia. So they made the trip to be there for only three hours. I guess it was important to them to see Phra Kong after his surgery. Before they left, Phra Kong called the son over and put his hand on his head and said a blessing. The son beamed as he walked away. This was very nice of him to do, but I couldn’t help but be reminded of the subordinate status of women, as he did not give a blessing to the daughter. Maybe there was another reason for his selecting the son, but this is what went through my mind.

I was happy to notice that the two nuns sit among the villagers now. When I was here before, the nun didn’t attend services. If she did, she sat off to the side, not as part of the group.

I enjoyed the two days at the wat now that I was mentally prepared for them. Each day I walked through the forest at least twice. We relaxed in our cabin. Each morning we helped get the donated food ready to present to the monks. I enjoyed helping with this. Monday was a Buddha day, which was the reason we stayed there the extra day. At 9:00 Khun Toy, two other women, and I went to the old temple to meditate for an hour. They also chanted/prayed for half an hour before and after the meditation. It’s a good place for meditation. At 2:00 it was cleaning time. We swept leaves from the trails. At 6:00 it was time for the evening chanting/praying and meditation. I arrived after Khun Toy did because I’d forgotten my sitting mat. When nothing was happening and few people were there, I decided to do walking meditation while waiting for the service to start. After half an hour I joined Khun Toy and realized that everyone seated was meditating, not just waiting for the service to start. While we meditated for another ha-2lf hour, more people and the monks arrived. After the hour of chanting/praying, I thought we were finished, but it was only a short break. Then Phra Kong talked for 45 minutes. When we finished at 9:00, Khun Toy announced that we would wake up at 3:00. That took me by surprise, but I later remembered that this is what we did when we slept at the wat on Buddha days. The difference was that I hadn’t realized this is what we were doing because the other people went home. So at 3:00 we woke up and went to the building with the relics from a previous monk. We started with half an hour of meditation followed by chanting/praying for an hour. We were back in our cabin at 4:30, which also surprised me because the services I had participated in before lasted until 5:00. But then I remembered that we started them with sweeping. After a brief rest in the cabin, it was time to go to the kitchen to organize the food.

Tuesday morning after breakfast Khun Toy went looking for wild mushrooms and found quite a few. Since it rained every day, there were usually new mushrooms to be found. I took my last forest walk, as we leaving that morning and I wouldn’t be returning again this trip. 

A highlight was one of the most beautiful and unusual spider webs I’ve ever seen. I was glad to have had so much time there, as it is a special place that I really enjoy.