So today a friend posted a couple articles on his Facebook page about Thai education reform movements. As you know, this has been a topic of interest for me, and also one of great frustration. As much as I love working with some students here, I am equally depressed by the systematic "passing" of other students. No matter what a student does, they are guaranteed to pass. This creates a system with no sense of personal responsibility and limited motivation. The only true motivation is in those students who want to achieve grade 4 and pursue higher education after high school. But that leaves a lot of other students just sitting back with the expectation of "success" no matter what they do. This frustrates me to no end.
Now I know this is a problem in the U.S. too. I am very familiar with the practice of passing students on to the next grade even when it is clear that they have not mastered the material for their current grade level. But it is not as institutionalized back home as it is here. In the U.S., it is at least possible to fail a test--here if a student fails a test, the get retested until they pass. Back home, you can give failing performance reviews--here I would get reported to the director if I did so. And in the U.S., a student can be held back--it may not happen as often as it should, but it does happen. Here there is nothing built into the system to be held back, the concept simply doesn't exist. You always go to the next grade, no matter what.
I find it interesting to read about the Thai educational reforms. It seems that they attempted a huge overhaul of the system back in 1999 to counter the culture of rote memorization/regurgitation that is the hallmark of Thai education. Needless to say, the changes didn't really do much--rote learning is still the modus operandi here in Thailand. Well, it seems that education reform is once again a hot topic, with politicians wondering how best to prepare Thai students for success in an international economy. P.S. Maybe cut down on all of the classes missed for random events like camps, science days, parades--while these may be a lot of fun, I have lost about half of my teaching time to these activities that don't do much to further the students' educational goals. Not saying eliminate all of these activities, but it might be time to pick and choose which are the most important!
Anyway, here are the articles that my friend posted. Worth a read if you have the time, brings up interesting points. I don't agree with everything, but at least talking about it is a start. Oh, and my friend is about to leave for Taiwan--it seems that the work environment here in the Thai school system does not mesh well with his personality (no surprises there), so he applied for Taiwan for next term. Best of luck in your new school!
http://livinghour.org/blog/isaan_thai_university/thailand-education-reform-teacher-training-more/
http://tdri.or.th/en/tdri-insight/standardised-tests-the-right-option-for-thai-education-reform/
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Trip to Phrae/Patron of the Arts
So it has been a long time since I last posted. The short explanation is that I have been exceptionally busy. The proverbial shit has hit the fan. Basically I got a ton of work piled on me at once, and then there were a bunch of unreasonable expectations. We're working on that one. Also, I suddenly discovered (through a passing conversation with a coworker) that the dates of our October break had been changed. Now this was a big issue, since I had gotten the dates for the break months ago and confirmed/reconfirmed several times. The reason for this is that Andrew's job requires a detailed itinerary (including hotels) 2 months in advance of any travel, meaning that everything was booked and paid for over a month ago. Which means that changing the dates of the vacation with 5 weeks to go is sort of a problem.
And I lost it. Keeping your cool under pressure is highly valued in Thai culture, but everyone who knows me will realize that this is something that I struggle with. Combined with the random other crap that had been thrown my way, this sudden change in vacation schedule (and they shortened it too, by the way) made me totally lose my shit. When I brought up the fact that I had already planned my vacation based on the old dates, my coordinator was like "Well, can't you just reschedule it?" I was downright livid. In the end I said no, I can't. And she said well, ok, then go with your original plan.
This turned out to be a smaller issue than originally anticipated. I will only actually miss one day of classes by staying with Andrew through the end of our planned trip. However, I had also planned to do a dive trip after he left (he leaves on a Tuesday morning, and I wasn't supposed to go back to work until the following Monday). That plan is obviously now gone, and since they changed the break and shortened it, it isn't even possible to do the dive trip at the beginning of the break. So ridiculous.
Anyway, enough with the bitching. To get away from all this nonsense, my friends and I decided to take a short weekend trip out of town. So Lydia, Danielle, Abby, and I went to Phrae this past Saturday and Sunday. Phrae is handy because it is just a 2 hour bus ride away, and buses leave about every half hour. So we just showed up at the bus station and grabbed a bus. Once in Phrae we found a nice little guesthouse in a big old teak building--Phrae is known for its teak. The place was simple, but it was clean, cheap, and had A/C. What more can you ask for?
We spent Saturday morning just wandering around the old town. We saw a few of the random wat and perused the town. There was supposed to be a museum, but it was closed apparently. Not much to see in town, it is smaller than Nan and definitely not as busy (if you can call Nan busy). Kind of peaceful. Definitely not many foreigners in town!
Our big trip was out to Wat Phra That Cho Hae, a beautiful temple on a hill about 10 km outside of town. My friend Ping Pong had told us to visit, so we got a songtaew to drive us out to the temple. It was spectacular. Honestly, it is easily one of the most beautiful temples I have seen in Thailand. While I have enjoyed most of the temples I have seen, this one was amazing partially because it was understated. Many Thai wat are decorated so much that they almost become gaudy--not so in this case. The temple actually had white space, areas left empty. And instead of seeming bare, this made the decorated areas seem all the more stunning. I was very impressed.
As a side note, the wat is rumored to have a relic of the Buddha--I think some hair. Unfortunately, I don't know where the relic was supposed to be located. Interesting anyway.
Our trip out to the wat was lovely, but our trip back turned out to be slightly more eventful. We had planned to get a songtaew back and head to a national park with odd geological formations in the shape of mushrooms. However, there were no songtaew to be found. Upon asking, we were directed to the main road, so we decided to wait there for a bit. After 10 minutes with no luck, the executive decision was to begin walking back to town and if we found a songtaew along the way we would grab it. That way we would at least be making some progress in the right direction if a ride never came along.
So we began the long walk back. And believe me, it was long. We had already walked about 5 km earlier that morning around town, and this was another 10 km back to town. We walked and walked, but no luck finding a songtaew. Luckily, the views along the way were nice--lots of verdant rice fields with mountains in the background. So at least it was pretty to look at. But I was getting some pretty bad blisters from not having worn those particular shoes in many months, and Danielle was breaking in a new pair of Chacos--we hadn't anticipated such a long walk. So it was a bit rough.
As it turns out, we did eventually find a songtaew, but Abby and Lydia wanted to keep walking, so we did. We stopped for a drink at one of the cafes, then finished our long walk. All I can say is that we definitely earned our dinner that night! As for dinner, we ended up going to Phrae's night market. The cool thing about their market is that they set up along one of the main streets and have a big area set up for seating and a lot of cooked food. We shared a few dishes, the highlight of which was oysters battered with egg and fried. Yum!
After dinner we stumbled back to our hotel and passed out after a very long day. A very good night's sleep! The next morning our plan was to go to the national park we had missed the day before, but later we decided that we would rather just spend the morning in Phrae and head back to Nan a bit early. So the first part of our morning was spent buying mua hom shirts. These are indigo colored shirts, which are famous for being made in Phrae. We spent quite some time shopping for them--like everywhere else in Thailand, finding appropriate Western sizes was an issue. However, I think we all found shirts we were happy with (pictures to come later), so that is a plus.
We also stopped by an art gallery. We saw it the day before, and went first thing in the morning on Sunday. It was quite lovely, and we found much of the artwork to be very interesting. I was instantly drawn to a pen/ink drawing of an elephant. Although hesitant to leave, I decided that if I still loved it after buying my shirt then I would get it. Well, after getting my shirt I did still love it, so we returned to the gallery and I am the proud new owner of an elephant drawing. Maybe a bit extravagant, but at $50 I felt I couldn't say no.
After our gallery trip, we made the bus trip home--it was long, and I was ready to be back. But we got back early enough for me to get some chores done, so that was nice.
And now we are back to school again. It is a busy week, but a lot of classes are cancelled this week for various camps so I have some time to catch up on grading...a definite plus! I also have started an art class as of today. Danielle and Lydia go to it each week (Lydia only once a week, Danielle about 3 times a week). It is near school, and encompasses drawing, watercolor, and oil paintings. As the teacher puts it, 1500 baht until you can "draw everything!" So basically it's $50 for lessons between now and when I leave Thailand. I am terrible at art, but I felt that I needed to do something different and find some creative outlet. And at $50, even with being terrible I can just do it as much as I want!
So today was the first class. I had no clue what I was doing, but Arjan Kong had me copy a still life (sort of). He had me draw a few fruits and then practice shading. Then he would grab the pencil from me and do parts of it. The girls weren't lying when they said that the efforts were 70/30--70% him and 30% them. As time passes he begins to trust them more, so hopefully my skills will develop enough that I can do some on my own in the future too.
Anyway, that is all for today. I have some big blog posts I am working on (uggh, I still haven't finished the one about the flood, and then I have Science Day), so hopefully those will be up soon. Plus all the work. Hope everything is going well for you guys back at home!
And I lost it. Keeping your cool under pressure is highly valued in Thai culture, but everyone who knows me will realize that this is something that I struggle with. Combined with the random other crap that had been thrown my way, this sudden change in vacation schedule (and they shortened it too, by the way) made me totally lose my shit. When I brought up the fact that I had already planned my vacation based on the old dates, my coordinator was like "Well, can't you just reschedule it?" I was downright livid. In the end I said no, I can't. And she said well, ok, then go with your original plan.
This turned out to be a smaller issue than originally anticipated. I will only actually miss one day of classes by staying with Andrew through the end of our planned trip. However, I had also planned to do a dive trip after he left (he leaves on a Tuesday morning, and I wasn't supposed to go back to work until the following Monday). That plan is obviously now gone, and since they changed the break and shortened it, it isn't even possible to do the dive trip at the beginning of the break. So ridiculous.
Anyway, enough with the bitching. To get away from all this nonsense, my friends and I decided to take a short weekend trip out of town. So Lydia, Danielle, Abby, and I went to Phrae this past Saturday and Sunday. Phrae is handy because it is just a 2 hour bus ride away, and buses leave about every half hour. So we just showed up at the bus station and grabbed a bus. Once in Phrae we found a nice little guesthouse in a big old teak building--Phrae is known for its teak. The place was simple, but it was clean, cheap, and had A/C. What more can you ask for?
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| Our hotel |
We spent Saturday morning just wandering around the old town. We saw a few of the random wat and perused the town. There was supposed to be a museum, but it was closed apparently. Not much to see in town, it is smaller than Nan and definitely not as busy (if you can call Nan busy). Kind of peaceful. Definitely not many foreigners in town!
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| Wat Luang--built back in 829! |
Our big trip was out to Wat Phra That Cho Hae, a beautiful temple on a hill about 10 km outside of town. My friend Ping Pong had told us to visit, so we got a songtaew to drive us out to the temple. It was spectacular. Honestly, it is easily one of the most beautiful temples I have seen in Thailand. While I have enjoyed most of the temples I have seen, this one was amazing partially because it was understated. Many Thai wat are decorated so much that they almost become gaudy--not so in this case. The temple actually had white space, areas left empty. And instead of seeming bare, this made the decorated areas seem all the more stunning. I was very impressed.
As a side note, the wat is rumored to have a relic of the Buddha--I think some hair. Unfortunately, I don't know where the relic was supposed to be located. Interesting anyway.
Our trip out to the wat was lovely, but our trip back turned out to be slightly more eventful. We had planned to get a songtaew back and head to a national park with odd geological formations in the shape of mushrooms. However, there were no songtaew to be found. Upon asking, we were directed to the main road, so we decided to wait there for a bit. After 10 minutes with no luck, the executive decision was to begin walking back to town and if we found a songtaew along the way we would grab it. That way we would at least be making some progress in the right direction if a ride never came along.
So we began the long walk back. And believe me, it was long. We had already walked about 5 km earlier that morning around town, and this was another 10 km back to town. We walked and walked, but no luck finding a songtaew. Luckily, the views along the way were nice--lots of verdant rice fields with mountains in the background. So at least it was pretty to look at. But I was getting some pretty bad blisters from not having worn those particular shoes in many months, and Danielle was breaking in a new pair of Chacos--we hadn't anticipated such a long walk. So it was a bit rough.
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| Oyster man |
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| Delicious oysters! |
After dinner we stumbled back to our hotel and passed out after a very long day. A very good night's sleep! The next morning our plan was to go to the national park we had missed the day before, but later we decided that we would rather just spend the morning in Phrae and head back to Nan a bit early. So the first part of our morning was spent buying mua hom shirts. These are indigo colored shirts, which are famous for being made in Phrae. We spent quite some time shopping for them--like everywhere else in Thailand, finding appropriate Western sizes was an issue. However, I think we all found shirts we were happy with (pictures to come later), so that is a plus.
We also stopped by an art gallery. We saw it the day before, and went first thing in the morning on Sunday. It was quite lovely, and we found much of the artwork to be very interesting. I was instantly drawn to a pen/ink drawing of an elephant. Although hesitant to leave, I decided that if I still loved it after buying my shirt then I would get it. Well, after getting my shirt I did still love it, so we returned to the gallery and I am the proud new owner of an elephant drawing. Maybe a bit extravagant, but at $50 I felt I couldn't say no.
After our gallery trip, we made the bus trip home--it was long, and I was ready to be back. But we got back early enough for me to get some chores done, so that was nice.
And now we are back to school again. It is a busy week, but a lot of classes are cancelled this week for various camps so I have some time to catch up on grading...a definite plus! I also have started an art class as of today. Danielle and Lydia go to it each week (Lydia only once a week, Danielle about 3 times a week). It is near school, and encompasses drawing, watercolor, and oil paintings. As the teacher puts it, 1500 baht until you can "draw everything!" So basically it's $50 for lessons between now and when I leave Thailand. I am terrible at art, but I felt that I needed to do something different and find some creative outlet. And at $50, even with being terrible I can just do it as much as I want!
So today was the first class. I had no clue what I was doing, but Arjan Kong had me copy a still life (sort of). He had me draw a few fruits and then practice shading. Then he would grab the pencil from me and do parts of it. The girls weren't lying when they said that the efforts were 70/30--70% him and 30% them. As time passes he begins to trust them more, so hopefully my skills will develop enough that I can do some on my own in the future too.
Anyway, that is all for today. I have some big blog posts I am working on (uggh, I still haven't finished the one about the flood, and then I have Science Day), so hopefully those will be up soon. Plus all the work. Hope everything is going well for you guys back at home!
Saturday, August 17, 2013
A solution to all my worries!!!
Courtesy of Josh, a solution to my cheating problems...the anti-cheating hat! It recently made its debut in a Bangkok university, and for a moment I seriously considered employing it in my classroom. In the end I will refrain, but what a concept!
See the article here: http://metro.co.uk/2013/08/17/a-tearable-idea-anti-cheating-hats-cause-storm-in-thai-university-3927662/
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| So epic! |
See the article here: http://metro.co.uk/2013/08/17/a-tearable-idea-anti-cheating-hats-cause-storm-in-thai-university-3927662/
Thursday, August 15, 2013
The sin of serious
I have to admit that this is one cultural aspect I find very difficult to adjust to. Basically, if you are ever not jumping up and down, super energetic, and smiling, someone will come up to you with a concerned look on your face and ask you if you are "serious."
It all stems from the basic idea of sanuk, a word deeply entrenched in the Thai mentality. There is no one way to describe sanuk, but the essence of the word is fun. It is incorporating fun, happiness, and lightheartedness into all parts of your daily life. For foreigners, this can be extremely frustrating. This is why "Thai time" exists--and yes, it certainly rivals "island time." Nobody is in much of a hurry to get things done, and if there are any issues, you just laugh them off. Oh, you just got told that you have to teach a class on a new topic, and you have 5 minutes to prepare? Isn't that hilarious!
So the laughing/smiling culture is intimately connected to sanuk. The issue for me is when I don't feel in a smiley or giggly mood. Sometimes I think this is totally justified. Like last week after grandpa died, I looked like shit, and many times I was told I looked "serious." And while in our culture "serious" would be ok, here it is sort of an accusation--I should look happy...always. Luckily, they understood why I was "serious" last week, and let it slide.
But then there are days like today. I am stressed out with work, just having a long day. My coworker gives me a bunch of crap to do (she should have told me about it at the beginning of the semester, but never did, so now I have hours of "catch up" work to do and she is demanding it ASAP). I am tired. In general, it is not the best day. And it shows. But then I am accosted with many people asking if I am "serious." And even if they meant you-look-focused-on-your-work-serious, this still is considered rude and borderline unacceptable.
I understand the cultural differences, and I do strive to meet the local expectations. I smile, I wave, I giggle, etc. I try to control myself when I catch my students cheating (even then to be "serious" is not ok--you have to smile and pretend there is no problem). I keep my energy as high as I can manage.
But at the end of the day, I wish that there was some allowance for me to be me, rather than the Stepford version of me.
It all stems from the basic idea of sanuk, a word deeply entrenched in the Thai mentality. There is no one way to describe sanuk, but the essence of the word is fun. It is incorporating fun, happiness, and lightheartedness into all parts of your daily life. For foreigners, this can be extremely frustrating. This is why "Thai time" exists--and yes, it certainly rivals "island time." Nobody is in much of a hurry to get things done, and if there are any issues, you just laugh them off. Oh, you just got told that you have to teach a class on a new topic, and you have 5 minutes to prepare? Isn't that hilarious!
So the laughing/smiling culture is intimately connected to sanuk. The issue for me is when I don't feel in a smiley or giggly mood. Sometimes I think this is totally justified. Like last week after grandpa died, I looked like shit, and many times I was told I looked "serious." And while in our culture "serious" would be ok, here it is sort of an accusation--I should look happy...always. Luckily, they understood why I was "serious" last week, and let it slide.
But then there are days like today. I am stressed out with work, just having a long day. My coworker gives me a bunch of crap to do (she should have told me about it at the beginning of the semester, but never did, so now I have hours of "catch up" work to do and she is demanding it ASAP). I am tired. In general, it is not the best day. And it shows. But then I am accosted with many people asking if I am "serious." And even if they meant you-look-focused-on-your-work-serious, this still is considered rude and borderline unacceptable.
I understand the cultural differences, and I do strive to meet the local expectations. I smile, I wave, I giggle, etc. I try to control myself when I catch my students cheating (even then to be "serious" is not ok--you have to smile and pretend there is no problem). I keep my energy as high as I can manage.
But at the end of the day, I wish that there was some allowance for me to be me, rather than the Stepford version of me.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
The Cheater Games
Today had been a major blow to my patience. I came in today expecting to teach one class and give a midterm exam to my M 1.3 class. I then was told by my 5.3 students that they were ready for their midterm today too. And so the day began.
Now I have written about the issues with cheating before. My first week here I proctored a test for Pee Mam that ended with me slamming my hand on the desk to stop the constant chatter. And my first exam with 5.3 had 7 students accused of cheating by their peers--some were just chatting, others peeking at their neighbors' papers, and still others putting their heads on the desks only to look inside the desks at their notes. But I had come to expect, if not accept, this level of academic dishonesty.
Today was a different story. Now due to my past experiences with cheating I have gotten in the habit of making 2 versions of every exam. They are very similar--almost all of the questions are the same, just arranged in a different order. However, I don't tell my students that there are multiple versions. So about 20 minutes into the exam I see a girl talking to her neighbor. So I go over to see what's up. She looks at me for a moment, then points at get neighbor's exam and says something in Thai. I ask again what the problem is, and a word emerges... "different." She then repeats, explaining to me that her test us not the same as his.
Wow. No shit Sherlock, of course it's different. I know it's different, but you shouldn't know because you should only be looking at your own test! This is exactly why I make more than one version!
It was infuriating. Especially the way she said it...she was actually irritated with me for having multiple versions of the test. I didn't even know how to respond. So I told her that yes, there were in fact 2 tests, but that she shouldn't even know that because she should only be looking at her own paper. It took all my energy not to lose my composure. I did pull her aside after the test and have a "chat" with her. I asked why she was looking and said that if she ever did it again I would be speaking with her parents. She was very visibly shaken...I think I got the message through. (Yes, ideally she should have just failed, but remember the Thai no-fail policy. Also I have to re-test the entire class because the test was so difficult for them.)
Fast forward to the afternoon. I am supposed to meet my 5.3 class for their midterm, but I get a warning from a student as I walk in: check everybody's hands. Uggh, not something new! And how am I supposed to check everyone's hands quickly, without them being able to get rid of the evidence? So I end up getting their desks moved, papers put away, and then have them put their hands up in the air and keep them there until I check them. I search the class and come across a girl with ink smeared on her hand. "It's for mathematics!" she pleads. I look at her, disgusted, but with the ink smeared I can't do anything about her, but she can't use it to cheat on my exam either. I guess that will have to work. All other hands seem clean, so I let them take the test.
Now I don't know if I missed any others or if there was just the one girl (she is the one who scored 4/25 on the last exam), but it just adds to my mistrust. I spent the entire class period staring intently at my students taking their exams, periodically glaring at individuals who seemed to have overly wandering eyes. My next order of business is to buy a box of pencils for them to use for exams--as is the students all keep a pencil box on their desks. I am not waiting for a cheat-sheet to show up in one of these.
When I mentioned the hand trick to some of my fellow teachers, they laughed. They also said that I needed to check their thighs. "Have the girls lift up their skirts!" said one teacher, laughing. I was appalled--this seemed beyond inappropriate to me. But when I mentioned that, the teachers reassured me that it was totally normal in Thailand. If you think your students are cheating, have them lift their skirts, because they very well might have cheats written on their thighs. I don't know if I can do that, but thankfully my students were wearing their P.E. uniforms today--pants make this particular trick considerably more difficult.
So today was a challenging day. I just need to get used to the fact that people will always be trying to game the system, and I need to do my best to keep them from succeeding. But lifting my students' skirts? Well, we will have to cross that bridge when we get to it!
Now I have written about the issues with cheating before. My first week here I proctored a test for Pee Mam that ended with me slamming my hand on the desk to stop the constant chatter. And my first exam with 5.3 had 7 students accused of cheating by their peers--some were just chatting, others peeking at their neighbors' papers, and still others putting their heads on the desks only to look inside the desks at their notes. But I had come to expect, if not accept, this level of academic dishonesty.
Today was a different story. Now due to my past experiences with cheating I have gotten in the habit of making 2 versions of every exam. They are very similar--almost all of the questions are the same, just arranged in a different order. However, I don't tell my students that there are multiple versions. So about 20 minutes into the exam I see a girl talking to her neighbor. So I go over to see what's up. She looks at me for a moment, then points at get neighbor's exam and says something in Thai. I ask again what the problem is, and a word emerges... "different." She then repeats, explaining to me that her test us not the same as his.
Wow. No shit Sherlock, of course it's different. I know it's different, but you shouldn't know because you should only be looking at your own test! This is exactly why I make more than one version!
It was infuriating. Especially the way she said it...she was actually irritated with me for having multiple versions of the test. I didn't even know how to respond. So I told her that yes, there were in fact 2 tests, but that she shouldn't even know that because she should only be looking at her own paper. It took all my energy not to lose my composure. I did pull her aside after the test and have a "chat" with her. I asked why she was looking and said that if she ever did it again I would be speaking with her parents. She was very visibly shaken...I think I got the message through. (Yes, ideally she should have just failed, but remember the Thai no-fail policy. Also I have to re-test the entire class because the test was so difficult for them.)
Fast forward to the afternoon. I am supposed to meet my 5.3 class for their midterm, but I get a warning from a student as I walk in: check everybody's hands. Uggh, not something new! And how am I supposed to check everyone's hands quickly, without them being able to get rid of the evidence? So I end up getting their desks moved, papers put away, and then have them put their hands up in the air and keep them there until I check them. I search the class and come across a girl with ink smeared on her hand. "It's for mathematics!" she pleads. I look at her, disgusted, but with the ink smeared I can't do anything about her, but she can't use it to cheat on my exam either. I guess that will have to work. All other hands seem clean, so I let them take the test.
Now I don't know if I missed any others or if there was just the one girl (she is the one who scored 4/25 on the last exam), but it just adds to my mistrust. I spent the entire class period staring intently at my students taking their exams, periodically glaring at individuals who seemed to have overly wandering eyes. My next order of business is to buy a box of pencils for them to use for exams--as is the students all keep a pencil box on their desks. I am not waiting for a cheat-sheet to show up in one of these.
When I mentioned the hand trick to some of my fellow teachers, they laughed. They also said that I needed to check their thighs. "Have the girls lift up their skirts!" said one teacher, laughing. I was appalled--this seemed beyond inappropriate to me. But when I mentioned that, the teachers reassured me that it was totally normal in Thailand. If you think your students are cheating, have them lift their skirts, because they very well might have cheats written on their thighs. I don't know if I can do that, but thankfully my students were wearing their P.E. uniforms today--pants make this particular trick considerably more difficult.
So today was a challenging day. I just need to get used to the fact that people will always be trying to game the system, and I need to do my best to keep them from succeeding. But lifting my students' skirts? Well, we will have to cross that bridge when we get to it!
Monday, August 12, 2013
Success!
They asked if I wanted it spicy--I said yes. And it was delicious. It did make my nose run a little bit, but no pain. So apparently now when Thais ask if I like spicy food, I can honestly (and enthusiastically) reply "yes!"
P.S. I am sure that it was toned down a bit because I am farang, but they still seemed shocked when they asked if it was too spicy for me and I told them it was perfect.
P.S. I am sure that it was toned down a bit because I am farang, but they still seemed shocked when they asked if it was too spicy for me and I told them it was perfect.
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Map of town
In case anyone was interested, here is a map of town--a couple years outdated, but it still gives a decent idea of what there is here. Funny note: the road I walk down every day to the market is called Cheetabut. Now I will have to laugh every time. (http://hobomaps.com/NanCentralMap.gif)
In other news, I have been a bit sick the last week or so--traveller's stomach finally hit me. Despite a few rounds of antibiotics it wasn't going away, so yesterday I endeavored to see a doctor. Easier said than done, since this is the queen's birthday weekend. So I ended up going to the hospital. Side note: the nurses totally still wear the little hats! Seemed like a flashback to the 50's. The hospital was a bit weird--not what I would call "modern", but it worked for me. Translation: if I were in an accident or really sick, I would definitely be headed to Chiang Mai or Bangkok. All that being said, I was able to see an English (sort of) speaking doctor pretty quickly who got me more antibiotics (longer treatment period) and some rehydration salts, since my blood pressure was pretty low. So the trip turned out pretty well.
Anyway, that is all for now. I have a big blog post in the works updating you on the floods form a couple weeks ago, but that will have to wait until I have a bit more energy. See you soon!
Anyway, that is all for now. I have a big blog post in the works updating you on the floods form a couple weeks ago, but that will have to wait until I have a bit more energy. See you soon!
A sad week
So as some of you already know, this Monday morning my grandpa Ray died. He had been very sick for quite some time, having been diagnosed with prostate cancer over a decade ago. He was in remission for years, but recently the cancer had come back and things got bad. It is shocking he managed to hang on as long as he did. During his final days/weeks he was extremely weak, to the point of being unable to talk. When he was able to communicate (a nod, or a yes/no), he did say that he was not in pain, so that is good. I think everyone had time to say their goodbyes.
So the week has been a bit rough. To be honest, it is kind of a relief in some ways. We were just in a holding pattern, waiting for him to die. He had become so weak and hadn't really "lived" in a long time. In some ways this was for the best. I am just worn out by all of it.
Warning: morbid humor ahead
When we actually got the call, it had to be the most awkward thing ever. The conversation went a bit like this:
Nursing home: So I'm sorry to inform you that your father has taken a turn for the worse and we've called the hospital.
Dad: Ok. Is he alive?
Nursing home: ...No.
Dad: ...Oh.
A turn for the worse? Seriously, how much more of a turn for the worse can you get? Don't judge me too much for finding this quite amusing in a very twisted way.
So the week has been a bit rough. To be honest, it is kind of a relief in some ways. We were just in a holding pattern, waiting for him to die. He had become so weak and hadn't really "lived" in a long time. In some ways this was for the best. I am just worn out by all of it.
Warning: morbid humor ahead
When we actually got the call, it had to be the most awkward thing ever. The conversation went a bit like this:
Nursing home: So I'm sorry to inform you that your father has taken a turn for the worse and we've called the hospital.
Dad: Ok. Is he alive?
Nursing home: ...No.
Dad: ...Oh.
A turn for the worse? Seriously, how much more of a turn for the worse can you get? Don't judge me too much for finding this quite amusing in a very twisted way.
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