I’m still busy at work. I only teach 13 hours a week (and 3.5 of those hours are “extra,” which I get paid extra for), which is light for a teacher. Additionally, I have two double lectures for the same class, and I teach four lab sections that are exactly the same. This means I only have to prepare for one double lecture, one lab, and two math lectures a week. Repeating the lecture and labs gets boring, though.

But since this is my first semester teaching, I’ve been running around doing extra work. I think I’m slowly figuring out how to do things faster. For example, instead of fighting with the copy ladies every day, I just have my students look at the instructions in the lab. No work for me.

I would actually be ahead this week, but we are supposed to have our midterm exams submitted tomorrow, which is silly, since midterms are a month away. Luckily, I can use Stuart’s exam for the computer class. No work for me. But I may rewrite it so it is all multiple-choice, so I won’t have to grade it. No work for me. Likewise, Stuart and I will have to write a math test, hopefully all multiple choice. No work for me.

“No work for me” is the attitude to have here. I could work my butt off grading short answers and essay questions, but when it comes down to it, nobody cares.

I’m still working too hard, though, since It’s 6:30 on Friday, and I am only getting a chance to post this now…

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I’ve still been busy at work (teaching, grading papers, and making two hour “fruit runs,”), so I haven’t had any time to write entries. I also haven’t had time to just sit and surf the web. It’s nice to have a job that doesn’t involve sitting at a computer all day, but I do miss all the web surfing time I used to have.

I keep mentioning how busy I am, but, while I could work round the clock, that would be a waste of effort, since nobody would care. So, I can pretty much put everything down at five o’clock, and my evenings have been totally free for my own pursuits. So, where are the updates?

The problem is I don’t have internet at home, and I don’t have time to use internet at work. The solution is ADSL, but I don’t know if I can get it. If I want to use dial-up internet in my apartment, I have to buy a card for $10, which is cheap, but then I have to pay my apartment $.75 an hour to use a direct phone line. It ends up coming out to around $35 a month, which is ridiculous for such a slow connection.

I’ll check into ADSL, but the lack of a direct phone line will probably preclude it.

Meanwhile, spam comments have become a massive problem. It’s actually only two people, but together they make about 50 posts a day. Upgrading Movabletype is my only hope.

So, continue to stand by, please.

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A friend just called to tell me he was walking down a sidewalk, and one of the dodgy manhole covers broke, and he fell in. He went in up to his knees before he caught himself. Apparently, the people on the bus stuck in traffic thought this was pretty funny. Just another reason Bangkok sidewalks are annoying and dangerous places.

Update

I would have been all caught up today, but I had to make a trip to Immigration. That killed half the day, but at least I have a one-year visa extension. I’ll have to go again for my work permit. Then I will be legit.

If it wasn’t for the trip to Immigration, I would have had time to upgrade and update my website. But now I will have to bring my laptop to Coffee Society again next week, and hope their network is working. This is the only option (besides sitting in an internet café), since I don’t have a direct line in my apartment. No DSL for me.

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I made the trip to Coffee Society on Silom, and their network is working again, so I can do a ton of geeky stuff, like updating Windows, and downloading the open source software that he suggests. I use non-Microsoft products every chance I get, so I'll be giving OpenOffice a try. I just wish Linux was a viable alternative to Windows.

But, the big priority is to upgrade MovableType. This should allow me to manage the massive amounts of spam comments being posted. Hopefully I will not destroy the website in the process.

This has been an easy week at work, as we wind down to midterms next week. My tests are written, and there is no more lesson planning. After the nightmare of proctoring for two week, I will get a week and a half of holiday. I am waiting for approval of two days of personal holiday, so I would get a full two weeks. If my anal-retentive weirdo bosses approve my leave, I will go somewhere interesting. But there is a good chance they will arbitrarily deny it, and never tell me. So I'm crossing my fingers.

Now, it's time to update...

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I only had one class today, so I thought I would have some time to work on the blog. Unfortunately, that one class is my epic double dose of “fundamental math.” I pity the poor students forced to sit though three boring hours of math. Even I am bored.

Since it’s such a long time, I normally only give 70 minutes of lecture, break, then let them work problems. When the finish the problems, I let them leave, so class has always ended early.

But today is the last lecture before the midterm (no lectures for four weeks!!!), so after the usual 70 minutes, I listed all the topics on the test, and gave them tips. It took most of the second session, so was two and a half hours of talking. I am exhausted.

We also had to finalize the exam. Stuart pointed out that the questions I wrote are hard, so I’m worried that all the students will fail.

Even though I don’t teach for four weeks, I will not be here to plan the first lecture, so tomorrow, I’ll be busy planning.

The good new is my boss, who doesn’t speak English, told me that my two day holiday request was approved, so after the hell of proctoring, I will have two full weeks of vacation. Maybe I’ll buy plane tickets tomorrow.

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The nightmare of proctoring began today. I can now look forward to two weeks of spending five hours a day standing around with nothing to do with Thai teachers who are bitter that I earn four times what they do, and think I'm lazy because I don't scurry around picking up papers every time a student leaves. It's amazing how tired doing nothing makes me. I am exhausted, and I did absolutely nothing today. What a today waste of time.

After this awful experience, I will be glad to get out of the country for two weeks. Which brings us to:

Terry's Trek in Vietnam

We only get two weeks holiday as semester break, which is barely enough time to go anywhere. But I was going to go on a super-intense whirlwind tour of China's Yunnan province. I bought my Lonely Planet, and had it all planned out. I hate making detailed itineraries, but with such a short amount of time, everything has to be planned, and flights must be booked between destinations.

I went to the travel agent, and kept them busy for an hour looking up the obscure cities I wanted to go, but no flights were available. Then I read in my Lonely Planet about how my vacation coincides with a big week-long national holiday, and warns that it would not be smart to come during this period. Just my luck. For the second time, I have been denied access to China. At least I didn't buy a visa this time.

So, plan B. I still haven't been to Vietnam, so I bought my ticket to Hanoi. I always thought Vietnam was pretty small, but when you're only going to be there for two weeks, it's pretty big. So I will only visit the North.

Stay tuned for daily journal updates from the road.

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Just to give you an idea about how ridiculously serious the waste-of-time that is proctoring is taken here, this is what just happened to me. A crisis came to a head involving that other great foundation of Thailand: bureaucracy.

I’m supposed to go to the Ministry of Labor tomorrow to get my work permit. In more reasonable times, the Work Permit Lady could just go and get this for you. But the current government’s policy is to make foreigners’ lives as difficult as possible, so now we have to do this in person.

I was supposed to do this tomorrow morning, but I am scheduled for an epic three hour proctoring session. I have to get it tomorrow, because next week I will have to send my passport out to get a Vietnam visa.

The Work Permit Lady called my boss and explained my situation, and that I would like to leave the proctoring one hour early. There are two other people, and minimal work, so in a normal country, where reason and logic apply, this would not be a problem. But, like most Thais in power, my boss likes to wield his authority, and refused.

So, I had to switch with somebody. The best I could do was get a two hour session, so we should get there just in time for lunch.

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Less than a week of procologic hell, and less than a week until I leave for Vietnam. I had to buy a few things, but I still have most necessary travel items stored away. One thing I splurged on was some expensive nylon travel pants. I remember before I left, I spent huge amounts of money on all sorts of synthetic clothes, from shirts to socks to underwear. It's only really necessary for pants (and underwear), because while cotton pants get dirty quickly, nylon pants stay clean. They are also better for walking around in jungles.

Expensive synthetic shirts are also unnecessary, ever since the Vagabond clued me in on Bangkok's ultimate travel outfit: the fake Lacost shirt. They look great, weather your crossing the Himalayas or are out clubbing all night, and they are so cheap, it doesn't matter if they get ruined. I picked up two more at MBK.

I also had to buy some dollars. Yes, Vietnam may have won the war, but they still spend our money, because their currency is worthless: one dollar equals 16,000 dong! After I pick up my passport from my travel agent, I'll buy some traveler's checks, so I won't have to carry hundreds of dollars in cash.

But, I still have to survive another miserable week of proctoring. Somebody needs to show the Thai teachers the section of Lonely Planet on sanuk:

The Thai word sanuk means "fun." In Thailand anything worth doing - even work - should have an element of sanuk, otherwise it automatically becomes drudgery. This doesn't mean Thais don't want to work or strive, just that they tend to approach tasks with a sense of playfulness. Nothing condemns an activity more than the description mai sanuk - "not fun..." The famous Thai smile comes partially out of this desire to make sanuk.

There is no playfulness or famous Thai smiles to be had from the super-serious, bitter, cynical, mai sanuk leei Thai teachers. Worst of all is the macabre pleasure they derive from shunning us farang. We are all supposed to meet in the pre-proctologic-planning room, and walk holding hands and skipping to the exam rooms. But they will usually leave without us, even if we are on time, standing in front of the envelopes, with our hands on them (they will just snatch them away and leave).

And then when we get to the room, "late," since they left us behind, they will totally ignore us. A colleague decided to fight fire with fire, and play on Thais' fear of confrontation. After being ignored repeatedly, he pointed a finger at each in turn, and asked "how are you?" until they answered!

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Today was the worst proctoring episode yet, and everything came to a head in a disastrous incident.

After being left behind and ignored by the head proctors for a week, I've been a bit on edge. So I knew today would be an issue, since the room I was assigned to was “SC,” the auditorium, which I've never been to, so I didn't know where to go. Of course at 8:27 my head proctor was already gone.

So I walked to the auditorium by myself, fuming. After trying to break the main door down, I determined it was locked, so headed to the side, where there was a secret door. Eight Thai proctors were passing out tests. The first guy I talked to was mine, whom I promptly thanked profusely for waiting for me, since I had no idea where to go.

Not only did he get my sarcasm, he fired back “I don't care.” I wasn't expecting this American response; he must have just gotten back from studying there. I asked him if he needed my help, or if I should just leave. So he pointed at the door and said to leave! Then I actually stormed out of the auditorium, as the other proctors watched!

I quickly realized that that wouldn't fly, so I had to swallow my pride and go back in. Of course all the other Thais took his side, and gave me a B.S. story about how they never wait for people in the auditorium, then I had to apologize. So exactly all I accomplished was making an ass of myself.

I had always heard about how you should never lose your temper with a Thai, because you will loose face, but this is the first time I tested it, and it's true.

After all this nonsense, it will be good to get out of the country for a couple of weeks. It's all starting to add up to make me feel a bit anti-Thai. Working here and traveling here are very different things. When you're traveling, you can put up with pretty much anything, because you know it's temporary. But when you are living and working in a place, you expect to be treated like a human being.

In all fairness, I don't think I 'm being discriminated against. Thais treat other Thais below them in the social hierarchy like crap. Farang don't fit into that hierarchy, so we are either treated like crap or like kings.

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