Surprise!

The good news is, I don't have pinkeye. Something got on my contact the other day and I think I scratched my cornea or something like that. So all Sunday I freaked out thinking I had pink eye, but the next day it was not as red and it hadn't been teary at all so it was decided that it wasn't pink eye. Today it is almost back to normal but I've been super self-conscious about it all week. I already stand out enough without being the girl with pinkeye.

While I can't say I've been swamped with work since coming here, I have been busy. Friday is International Day and the GV's and CV's are doing a performance together. It's not really cultural, it's more of a promotion for English tutoring - our job. So we are doing a dance/skit to Michael Jackson's "ABC." It's one of those moments where I think: I wouldn't have been caught dead doing this several years ago. In order to meet up with the others, which I pretty much have to do every day for one reason or another, I have to get to the other campus which is not within walking distance. Chiang Mai doesn't really have public transport outside of something called a "song-tao" (that's not the proper spelling but I think you'll get closer with the pronunciation). These are very expensive. It's kind of a racket. I won't go into it. So instead Ozzie and Anisha have been ferrying me back and forth on their motorbikes, which is getting tiresome. I wasn't expecting a motorcycle ride the first time around, and it was a bit scary weaving in and out of traffic. Today I had to go in a skirt which was even more difficult because I had to sit  side-saddle.

In addition to prepping for International Day, I've had a variety of errands to run so I can become a registered employee with Payap. Today I finally found the time to open a bank account, which was a bit of a struggle. They spoke English, but only just, so communication was difficult. My teller kept asking me "four, second number?" and holding up four fingers. "Second number of what?" I wondered. She finally motioned to the keypad and I realized she needed me to enter a four-digit pin number. Then she kept asking me something I couldn't make out. It sounded like "activate." What she really wanted was my address. But it got done in the end and they gave me a free umbrella!

In many ways Thailand is reminding me of Mexico. Thais are very neat and appearance is very important. Time, however, is not so important and being late is not a big deal it seems like. Apparently we will be reading a book that compares "hot climate cultures" with "cold climate cultures" and I am interested to see what it says. Speaking of hot climates, I am going to die here. If I don't die from food poisoning or insane traffic, I'm going to die of heat stroke. It is their "cold season" and it is like our summer. "We have three months of really nice weather, and then comes the really hot season," Ozzie tells me. Excuse me?

The high point of this week so far has been our "surprise" discovery. Yesterday after dance practice the Granell girls had a meeting with the head of the foreign language center. Sarah had the idea that we should come along to see where it is and meet her. Sarah's initiative and prior experience with Thailand is becoming invaluable because it turns out we're teaching a two week course in conversational English with no training or preparation. We walked into the center and the lady who is in charge was so happy to see three extra people (Anisha came with us) and immediately started giving us handouts and explaining the course to us. We weren't even told to come to the meeting! Suddenly we were responsible for five sections of a two week course that Thai seniors have to take in order to graduate. We each get a section of 25 students, although apparently attendance will not be 100% every day because, here is another cultural discovery, apparently Thai students are not very motivated. The Granell Volunteers are in charge of teaching the Chinese students who are apparently "very diligent" while we were told to "just keep teaching no matter what happens." Okay.

So I don't get this. A teacher is a respected member of society in Thailand, and education is valued highly, but Thai students don't work at their education. Another thing I've discovered is it's considered disrespectful to throw books on the floor (we were trying different choreography for our dance) but Thai students don't really care about studying. But appearance is more important than function, or so I was told when I admired the campus buildings. It all seems a bit nonsensical to someone who is firmly rooted in a cold climate culture.

But back to my surprise class. I'm not really bothered. In fact I'm quite pleased to have some extra responsibility because initially our responsibilities seemed pretty light. 12 hours of English tutoring a week and helping to lead chapel once a week. That's it? But if things like this keep coming up then it should be an eventful year. We still have no word on when we start TESOL training. Next week perhaps, which is also when the conversational English classes start. The tentative schedule for TESOL looks pretty rigorous so November is going to be a busy month.

Oh, one last thing that reminded me of Mexico. We found a cockroach in our bathroom the other day. It ran down the drain. Sarah covered the drain with a bowl.