Last week was finals week. Exams were Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Since I was leaving Friday and grades and record books are due on the 21st, I had to mark all nine of my exams and compute grades before I left. This kept me busy all week. I was quite exhausted by the end of the day Tuesday. My body isn’t used to sitting and doing paperwork all day. Fortunately, the boxes for attendance in the record books only went until September 20; so I was able to finish counting and computing the percentage of attendance two weeks ago. Students got two weeks of free attendance, but they don’t know that. It’s an interesting system. Part of computing grades was fixing grades of those who totaled 45-49 and making their totals 50 so they had a passing grade. Those below 45 have to have make-up work to do so they can “earn” a passing grade. Everyone has to pass, as the government wants all student to pass. In addition, parents pay a lot of money for the private school and the Intensive English Program; so the school wants them to think that their children are benefitting. After turning in my record books (I was the first one!) early Friday afternoon, I spent the rest of the day preparing the make-up work. My suggestion, which Khun Toom liked, was that they attend a mandatory special class after school for a week to do the work. That way they will have to do something and not just have their friends do it for them. We’ll see what happens next month.
We had a meeting with Sister Oranut on Tuesday so she could give us the work permit/visa reimbursement. She had Khun Toom join us and translate everything even though her English is good. This felt really strange, like she was playing a game with us. I later asked Khun Toom why Sister Oranut had her translate and told her how it felt. She said Sister Oranut doesn’t play games and cares about helping teachers and that, perhaps, she was there because she is the department head and is in charge of us. Sister Viphaporn had not asked her to attend meeting with us. At the meeting Sister Oranut told us—through Khun Toom—that she needed to see our work permits and said that there was a new contract she wanted us to look at and that after we looked at the contract we could have the money. Tony was livid and let them know how he feels. I knew that, if we had to wait until we read the new contract, it would be another month until we saw the money. When I understood that they had prepared the money, I asked if we could have it Wednesday if we brought in our work permits. Sister Oranut agreed to that. Looking at the new contract first was not mentioned again. So, Wednesday morning we met to receive the money. Sister Oranut started by saying that we had wondered why Khun Toom was translating. She explained that Khun Toom is the department head and we should take all of our concerns to her first. That hadn’t been totally clear; we knew that academic concerns are addressed to Khun Toom but did not know that everything should go to her first. Sister Oranut spoke English with us most of the time at that meeting. She also addressed the issue of the term break. It is understood by Thai teachers that they work the first week and have only one week off. The schedule we were given states that the number of working days in October is 10; I guess it should have said 15 to include the first week of the break. Since it was their mistake not to make this clear to us and I had plans, I was told that I could leave. Tony spoke up angrily about having to cancel his plans and it was decided that Kate and Lovely can go to school “because they live close” (and because they did not speak up or have plans) and that Tony and I can leave. This will be made clear for next term and next year. So this was settled and we were happy that the money issue was settled before the break.
Thursday was Foreign Language Camp. There were seven stations—six English and one Chinese—for students to attend. They ended out separating grades 1-4 and grades 5-7 into two separate groups, which was much better than the plan for everyone to be mixed together.
Angela was assigned to work with me, which was nice. The activity—three part riddles—was fun for the first three times. After that it was just work. The first several groups of students enjoyed it; then they were tired and many did not try to participate. We were tired at the end of the day but not exhausted like the first three days of the week.
Friday night I took a bus to Bangkok, since Jackie was arriving late Saturday night and I had a few things I wanted to do in the city. After checking into the hotel at 8:00 AM, having arrived in the city at 6:30, I rested in the lounge for a couple hours. Then I walked to the used book store that had agreed to exchange fifteen of my books. I found it online and sent a list of books I have read. That was convenient, as I knew which books to take with me and didn’t have to choose myself and have them rejected. It was a long walk to the book store and I enjoyed stopping along the way. I got into photographing the special city spirit houses.
I like spirit houses, and the variety and fanciness of them in the city is fascinating.
Many shops had sand bags in front of them for the flooding. I’d heard about the flooding but didn’t understand why it was happening so far from the river. One shop owner explained that the water comes from the nearby canal. She said they had to use the sand bags for only three more days. I heard an explanation on TV that the water backs up during high tide and then floods the canals. They are also opening the dams at night, which increases the flooding in the city.
Once at the book store, it didn’t take long to turn in my books and select seven to bring home. One stop on the way was a shop that had beautiful jade and bronze Buddhas. I made the mistake of asking to look at one and pricing it. The woman could see that I appreciate good quality and brought out a few more to show me and explained the high quality of the carving. So, on the way back I bought a beautifully carved jade Buddha. This is my special gift to myself.
A surprise stop was a fish spa. I have seen these several times and have had friends say they liked it or they didn’t like it. I’d decided that maybe I’d try it someday. Saturday was the day. There is a small tank that you put your feet into and little sucker fish nibble at the dead skin. It was really weird for the first fifteen seconds. Then I decided that I’d stick it out for the 15 minutes and got quite used to it. It was interesting that the fish were more interested in my left foot than my right foot. They’d nibble for a short time and then go to the other side of the tank; then more would come to my feet. When I returned to the hotel, I noticed that my feet were really soft.
I went to the vegetarian Italian restaurant that Peggy had introduced me to for lunch. After returning to the hotel for a few hours of rest, I went out to an Indian restaurant for dinner. One thing I enjoy about Bangkok is being able to eat food that is not available locally. After dinner, I walked down the street and went to the airport because it would be easier to wait there than to stay in the room and leave at 10:00 PM to go to the airport. All went well, and Jackie’s plane arrived on time.
Sunday we walked around the area near the hotel for a few hours. The area is frequented by Arabs who use the international hospital nearby. After returning to the hotel to rest for a few hours, we went to the mall that has an arts and crafts section. We had fun shopping for a couple hours, ate dinner, and returned to the hotel.
Monday we spent the day on a bus to Ubon. Khun Yindee and her husband met us when we arrived and took us to dinner. It was really good to be with her again. He looked good but tired after his angioplasty a few weeks ago. It was good to know that it went well for him and he is able to get around a bit now.
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