Today, Monday, I was invited to take a trip out to the school in Bangkhonthii for a special event that they were having.  A senior monk was coming to the school to instruct the students on the Dharma, or teachings of Buddhism. 

The ajarn yai (Principal) thought this would be very interesting for me and told me I should come out to see it.  I told her that I would make a point of being there.  The last time we spoke about it was two weeks ago, as she wasn’t there last week when I was teaching.

Last night as I was going to bed, I had my alarm set early so I could drive down to Bangkhonthii.  But I was feeling like the amount of work on my plate was too much to justify being down there twice this week.  When I went to bed, I made a note that I’d send ajarn yai a text message in the morning letting her know I wouldn’t make it.

Of course, come this morning I forgot about sending the text message.  Actually, honestly, I did remember but chose not to send it at 7:00.  By the time I remembered again, about 8:30, I figured that school was already getting underway so it was too late to bother sending the message.  At the back of my head, something told me that I probably should go ahead and send it, but I dismissed that voice.

About 10:30 I received a call from ajarn yai, wondering where I was.  If I understood her correctly, and perhaps I didn’t as her English is about as good as my Thai, but they had been waiting for me!  Yikes!

I apologized and said I would not be making it because of the work I had and assured her I would be there to teach on Wednesday.  Her response was a very Thai, “oh, mai pen rai” (“not a problem”) but it didn’t sound like that was exactly what she was thinking.

So now I feel bad that I didn’t let her know if advance.  Hopefully they weren’t literally waiting for me… that would do wonders to create a bad impression.  We’ll see on Wednesday.  Perhaps Emily Post has a suggestion for how I should handle the situation now?  Flowers?  Cookies?

Another extraordinarily busy weekend centered around the plans for a surprise birthday party for Tawn, scheduled for Sunday evening.  You know how these types of events become all-consuming, making them even more difficult to keep hidden from the guest of honor.

Last weekend we had dinner with a group of Tawn’s friends at Basillico on Sukhumvit Soi 33, and Tawn mentioned his upcoming birthday.  Since one of that group of friends is having her wedding in Phuket the weekend of Tawn’s birthday, it seemed that we would not have an opportunity to celebrate until the week afterwards.

While Tawn went outside to help Pim’s husband with a mechanical issue on his car (moral support, not technical), I proposed to Tawn’s friends that we have a surprise party for him this Sunday evening.  Everyone agreed, and Dao offered to help me with the logistics.  Since she works the next building over from our apartment, we met on Monday afternoon at Starbucks to hammer out the details.

As all the arrangements came together – invitations, reservations, cake – the one piece that was missing was the reason to get Tawn to the restaurant on Sunday evening.  This was compounded by a number of factors:

• Tawn had visited his parents the day before and felt like he was coming down with the cold that they both had;
• We had a farewell lunch Sunday afternoon at The Deck for Detlev, Markus’ cousin who had been visiting for three weeks; and
• We’ve been eating out a lot recently, so another trip to a nice restaurant would seem excessive.

Trying to figure out what was the least likely way to raise suspiciouns while getting Tawn to Pan Pan restaurant, I text messaged Tod and asked him to call Tawn Sunday morning and suggest dinner.  It was still on the edge since Tawn was feeling under the weather, but when he asked if I thought we should go, I insisted it would be fun.

We returned home about 3:30 Sunday afternoon after a long, liesurely lunch at The Deck, overlooking Wat Arun on the banks of the Chao Praya River.  Tawn took a nap and then, at my suggestion, did a half hour of yoga to help stimulate his immune system and help him get over his cold.

At about 6:50 Tawn called out from the shower and asked me to call Tod to confirm which location of the restaurant we were meeting at.  The timing was good because everyone was told to be at the restaurant by 7:00 and I asked Tod to suggest 7:30 as a dinner time so we’d arrive after everyone was there.  So I placed a faux call to Tod, pretending to have a conversation with him.

“Yes, oh you’re already nearby?  Yeah, I think we could get there earlier…. hang on… Tawn, Tod’s already near the restaurant, do you think we could make it there a bit earlier?  Yes?  Okay…”

So we arrived at the restaurant at about 7:15 and Tawn walked upstairs to the second floor and saw Markus and Tam and then saw they were sitting at a large table with most of his other friends.  Shock.  Surprise.  Then, “I didn’t dress appropriately for this occassion!”

Pictures from the event:

From left to right: Dao, Sa, Job, Pim, Arm, Pune, Tawn, Tod, Tam, Markus, David, Jack, Ble, Eddy, and Ja (barely in the picture)

From left to right: David, Jack, Chris, and Tawn as Tawn blows out his candles.  Tawn, Ble, and Eddy with a nice candle holder.  Tawn, Sa and Job – they are getting married in December.  Jack and Tawn laugh at what Tawn first thought was an oven mit, but turns out to be a body scrub glove. 

Chris, Tawn, Markus, Pune and Tam with their birthday gift to Tawn, a handmade vase from one of their friend’s shops at Jatujak Market.

When we arrived home, the first birthday card of the year was waiting, one from my parents.

Happy birthday Tawn!

In my first few months living here, I drew the conclusion that Khrungthep did not have much of an arts scene.  Now with nearly a year’s experience, I have erased and redrawn a different conclusion: there is a notable arts scene, although it is less supported and accessible to locals than it could be.

One of the showcase events is the month-long Bangkok International Festival of Dance and Music, now in its eighth year.  This year in celebration of the King’s 60th Anniversary on the Throne, part of the festival was held in June.  There are a few dozen different events, five of which we will attend:

The Nutcracker

Date: Sat 9 and Sun 10 September, 2006
Performed by: Belarussian National Ballet Theatre

We arrived for our first in a series of events at this year’s Bangkok International Festival of Dance and Music, excited to see a full audience composed of an unusually high number of Thais and – particularly impressive – ten to fifteen percent of them were children!  Mostly young girls, along with some boys, I was very happy that the event was not only receiving more support from the local population but that they are exposing their children to the performing arts.

Without a doubt, the girls were all ballet students: some were dressed up in outfits perhaps chosen for their “princess and fairy tale” theme; others pirouetted and jetéed about.

Also adding to the evening’s excitement was the presence of Her Royal Highness, Princess Galyani Vadhana Krom Luang Naradhiwas Rajnagarindra.  The Princess, the King’s older sister, is in her early eighties and has long been the designated patron of the classical arts.  A box was set aside for her at the front-center of the first balcony, a lovely chair with a side table and individual trash can placed a lonely distance away from everyone else on a red-carpetted, raised dais.

Shortly before the performance commenced, the audience stood and the Princess’ royal anthem was played.  She was escorted in and at the conclusion of the anthem, was seated.  At the conlcusion of the show – although not also at the interval as I had expected – the King’s anthem was played, followed by the Princess’ as she made her way out of the building.

And the show, the show, the show… it was really fantastic.  The Belarussian National Ballet and the Belarus Opera Symphony Orchestra are both world-class.  The choreography was beautifully creative and the audience was enraptured, most of all the young boys and girls in attendance.

We look forward to the continuation of the series this Wednesday. 

Aida

Date: Tue 12 and Wed 13 September, 2006
Performed by: National Opera House of Belarus

Inaki Urlezaga Tango Group, Argentina

Date: Friday 29 September, 2006

Ramayana by Kalakshetra Theatre, India

Date: Sun 1 October, 2006

Carmen

Date: Fri 6 and Sat 7 October, 2006
Performed By: Aida Gomez Flamenco Ballet, Spain

Friday night in the Big Mango.  Paul is in town, visiting from San Francisco.  I’ve been meaning to introduce him to Markus and Tam, figuring that if Paul enjoyed meeting Bruce and Howie, he’ll enjoy Markus and Tam just as much – similar dynamics, you know.  His girlfriend Aori, whose birthday we celebrated on Monday night, was out with friends so Paul came alone.

So Markus kindly agreed to host if I’d agree to cook, and I’m always willing to go play in someone else’s kitchen, even if their kitchen is no larger than the tiny cramped one I have.  It is all about organization, right?

The menu for dinner – thanks to Tawn and Tam for helping – was light and we were able to eat by about 8:30 or so:

• Apperitifs of Skyy Vodka Cape Cods
• Appetizers of freshly-made humus with pita bread dippers, and pan fried paneer cheese with fresh thyme
• A main course of fusilli pasta with a ragout of Italian sausage, shitake mushroom, and spinach, accompanied by two bottles of Trivento 2004 Shiraz/Malbec blend
• Dessert of fresh fruit and a selection of cheeses
• Digestif of Sandeman’s Port to follow

It was a lot of fun and we visited until late in the evening with Markus and Tam, Paul, Pune, and Detlev. 

Received news that Ken from Chicago, the first of several people who have contacted me for information about moving to the Big Mango for their boyfriends/partners/friends, or just because they want to move there, will be making the move on September 26th.

Very exciting.  Maybe he and his partner can become part of these dinner parties.

This news snippet reports in Air Transport World’s webiste: www.atwonline.com:

Nok Air of Thailand will cancel 30 flights on Sept. 28 to avoid the expected chaos surrounding the opening of Bangkok’s new Suvarnabhumi Airport.

Remind me not to fly on September 28th or for several weeks afterwards!

I left a little early for school, travelling solo this week since Tod was swamped with a translation project, and arrived early enough to watch the entire pre-study ritual.  Of course, my presence with a camera was hugely distracting.  A discreet ethnographer I’m not!  But I made every effort to be unobtrusive as I shot some footage showing what a typical country school morning looks like.

Wednesdays are scouting day so everyone is in their Boy Scout and Girl Scout uniforms.  The pre-class ritual is mostly student-led with the older students taking turns preparing for and then running individual sections.  We begin with the raising of the flag and the singing of the national anthem.

This is followed by prayers for the Monarchy, the Kingdom, and the People.  Everyone is then seated to listed to a brief lesson, delivered by one of the older students, on Thai values, manners, or customs.  This is where restlessness sets in.  Left: Pre-schoolers wearing their school-specific smocks, making clean-up easier!

The principal or another teacher then makes announcements and admonishes the students about whatever recent behavior is worthy of a lecture.  In this case it was students failing to exhibit proper politeness to their English teacher (me).  More on that later.  Right: Khruu Somchai lectures the children.

Left: Bored and restless, one of the school’s mascots walks through for some attention. 

Finally, it is time to stand again for a little exercise.  There is a routine of movements, based on Thai kickboxing, that all the students go through more or less in unison.  Right: Kickboxing as part of the morning exercise ritual.

Having burnt off a little energy, the youngest students – pre-school age – go to their classroom and the students in the first through six grades go to the porch area to sit and do some Buddhist chanting.  I’m not clear how any Muslim students would be handled.  Presumably they would be allowed not to participate.

As that concludes, having taken about thirty minutes, there is still a half-hour or so before classes begin.  Students have various chores and tasks they are assigned around the school: they work in pairs or small groups to sweep, clean, and tidy up.There is a certain “pride in ownership” because this is their school, in their community.  In some cases, literally next to their homes.

Video of the morning rituals:

Left: Chris and the four teachers.  The Ajarn Yai (Principal) is away at conferences.

As the 75-year old school house in Bangkhonthii undergoes updating for its electrical wiring, including the replacement of all the antiquated light fixtures with modern industrial flourescent ones, the faa (electricity) had to be disconnected at the main line down by the khlong.  This meant that the fans in the classroom were not working for almost the entire day.  Despite the favourable design of the classrooms – a design that promotes effective natural cross-ventilation – the weather today was very hot and mostly still.

With the heat and still air, the mood for learning was dampened.  Especially when I was trying to teach the younger children the vocabulary for the family.  In Thai, brothers and sisters (actually, all people, not just family) are distinguished by an additional word to distinguish their position relative to you: Pi for those older and Nong for those younger.  Trying to explain that in English we merely say “brother” or “sister” and don’t add a prefix for older or younger, was causing confusion. 

So we moved to the porch and played bingo, while calling out vocabularly (this is body part bingo, following on the heels of the wildly successful animal bingo and fruit bingo) and fanning the children a laminated bingo card.  Left and Right: Bingo on the porch.

About thirty minutes before the end of class, power was restored and we turned the fans on.  Just in time to assign gaanbaan – homework!

As for the lack of politeness Khruu Somchai was lecturing the students about, Thai society is highly hierarchical as well as highly suphaap – polite.  Students wai – the prayer-like greeting with hands folded to the chest or low face and the head bowed slightly – teachers when they walk past and are also to ask permission to enter and exit the classroom.  And of course, a Thai student would never call a teacher by only his name, but always with the honorific Khruu (teacher) beforehand.

Last week, Tod confirmed an observation I had made that students were sometimes a bit familiar, just referring to us by our names instead of with the honorific. 

For me, it doesn’t make much of a difference, especially since in English we don’t normally refer to our teachers as “Teacher So-and-so.”  At the same time, we do refer to them in English as Mister or Missus followed by their last name.  In Thai, people are referred to by their first name, so Khruu Somchai’s first name is Somchai.  Leaving off the honorific results in a tremendous amount of over-familiarity.

As I said, it doesn’t particularly matter to me, but the grease that lubricates the wheels of Thai society is the ritualized good manners, so I need to help reinforce it if for no other reason than to respect the norms of the cultural which I teach and the children and I both live.

So from now on, Khruu Chris it is.

The pre-school and kindergarten aged children have been terrified of me for weeks, not daring to approach too close to this farang.  After five weeks teaching, they have become more brave, Liliputians daring to confront the giant.  Their older brothers or sisters started bringing them up to me before class today to introduce them.  The little ones would wai and then stick out their hands to shake – this Western style of greeting seems to carry a cache of cool especially among my youngest students, who all insist on shaking my hand on the way out of the classroom; I feel like a politician casting about for votes from the Barney set with all the hand-shaking!

During lunch, several of the pre-schoolers were playing with the instruments, especially enjoying banging on the drum.  So I went to see what was happening and they all came over as soon as they saw my camera, hams that they are.

In the past five days, I’ve watched two movies that were both very well-made and very much cause to stop and think afterwards – something that I think characterizes a good movie.

An Inconvenient Truth

This is a passionate look at former Vice President Al Gore’s fervent crusade to halt global warming’s deadly progress in its tracks by exposing the myths and misconceptions that surround it.  In the wake of defeat in the 2000 election, Gore re-set the course of his life to focus on an all-out effort to help save the planet from irrevocalbe change.

In this portrait of Gore and his global warming road show, Gore proves himself to be one of the most misunderstood characters in modern American life.  Here he is seen as never before: funny, engaging, passionate, open and downright on fire about geting the surprisingly stirring truth about what he calls our “planetary emergency” out to ordinary citizens.

One thing that the film does very effectively is to deconstruct the myths about global warming that have been perpetuated by those who have the most to gain by not changing course – particularly those in big business and those in the current US Presidential administration.  He does this using solid scientific data, which is startling in its unanimity.

The slide shown here is one of a series that compare present-day photos of various glaciers and ice shelves with pictures taken decades ago: each shows the radical reduction in the amount of ice that exists in these places, associated with the increasing global temperature.

Perhaps the most compelling evidence provided came from ice core samples taken from Antartica.  These samples have allowed scientists to take readings of air composition (from air bubbles trapped in the ice) going back 650,000 years – reading the annual layers from snow fall the same way the rings of a tree can be read.  Graphing out the carbon dioxide content of the air, as well as the average temperature for the year when the snow fell, scientists show a parallel rise and fall of these two measurements.

What is startling though is that while there are natural cycles (critics of the science behind global warming routinely claim that what we are experiencing is just part of a natural cycle) indicating each of the previous six ice ages, the carbon dioxide and temperature readings for the past forty years have climbed off the chart, many times over the highest levels ever recorded in 650,000 years!

I watched the film with Tawn, Markus, Pune, Tam, and Markus’ cousin Detlev.  It was very sobering and gave us lots to discuss afterwards, especially living in a city where recycling occurs (or doesn’t) invisibly somewhere further down the waste-handling chain, hundreds thousands of cars sit for hours a day idling in traffic jams, and the King is espousing a theory called the “Sufficiency Economy” which would dovetail very nicely with the ideas of reduce, reuse, recycle and live within your means.

United 93

This second movie I saw alone and it was another deeply disturbing, thought-provoking film.  Director Paul Greengrass follows the doomed airliner’s flight in a narrative style but with near-documentary accuracy.  There is no historical context.  Instead, each person – passenger, crew, and terrorist alike – is shown as a real person involved in an inexorable march toward fate.  We do not have any of the benefit of nearly five years of history afterwards, which has helped us understand what happened.

What was tremendously effective was that it felt very much like the audience was there observing, in the moment.  We were just as confused as the air traffic controllers who didn’t see a pattern in the unfolding events; we are just as frustrated as the military commanders who cannot get permission to take any action and cannot even get armed fighter jets aloft; we are just a terrified as the passengers who do not initially understand what is happening but as they make phone calls to loved ones, realize that they are doomed, caught up in a series of attacks.

When some of the passengers make plans to charge the terrorists, suspecting that the “bomb” one has may be fake, there are no heroes.  There are no speeches, no grandstanding, and no patriotism.  Just real people about whom we know almost nothing – just as we would about fellow passengers on a plane – taking the action they think is necessary to fight for their lives.

Greengrass made a very good choice to work largely from available transcripts, using unknown actors and in many cases, actual people who had been involved in the events that day – including the man who was running the FAA’s national center that day (coincidentally, his first day after a promotion to the position) and made the brave call to shut down the nation’s air traffic as he began to grasp what was happening.

This movie is disturbing, to be certain.  But it is very much worth seeing.

Perhaps one of the advantages of living in Khrungthep is that since foreign and art films are delayed in arriving here, I have the time to sort through more reviews and more personal opinions before choosing which ones to see!

Normally, Tawn and I travel frequently enough that I meet my visa requirements – exit/re-enter the country or go to the immigration office every 90 days – without making any special effort.  However, it has been almost ninety days since I was last out of the country and we have no potential trips planned until mid-October.  So I had to cave in and do a visa run.

Sure, I could have gone to the immigration office but that isn’t any fun.  In fact, I’ve heard that it really isn’t any fun at all.

One option was to do a visa bus run to the Cambodian border.  This involves waking up super early and getting on a large tour bus with a bunch of other expats, driving four hours to Cambodia, crossing the border and being faced by numeous beggards, victims or landmines and attrocities, and other people who would like your pity or, even better, some money, and then spending about an hour eating a questionable hotel buffet before you cross back over into Thailand and spend another four hours driving back to Khrungthep.

This didn’t sound like a fun time, so I searched the internet to see which low cost Southeast Asian airline would like to fly me somewhere international for not too much money.  Fortunately, Thai Air Asia had a very nice round trip price of 3700 baht, US$100, roundtrip to Penang.  I’d never been to Malaysia and Penang sounded interesting, so I booked a day trip there.

What I didn’t realize is that I had booked to travel on Malaysia’s National Day!  So when I arrived in central Georgetown, the main city on Penang Island, at about 10:30 am I found things largely deserted.

Right: View from the KOMTAR tower, the tallest building in the city, looking towards the historic district. 

The city shows its colonial influence as well as its mixed salad cultural heritage (ethnic Malay, Chinese, and Indian are the major groups) through its food and its architecture.  The older portion of the city is very walkable so I spent the better part of the day wandering around, taking pictures and visiting some of the notable sights according to the Lonely Planet Guide.

Clockwise from top left: 1) Old sign along Campbell Street; 2) brightly painted colonial building in Chiantown; 3) a row of concrete shop houses nearby 4) Khoo Khongsi (Khoo family clan hosue) interior on 5) exterior; 6) Masjid Kapitan Keiling – the mosque built by Penang’s first Indian Muslim settlers in 1801.

By around 2:00 I was very hungry and after having passed more hawker centers than I could count, I finally decided to go into one and see what the famed cusines of Penang had to offer.  Sadly, as a solo traveller, my options for trying a variety of dishes were limited.  Poking around, I asked several people what the various types of food were.  Everyone spoke more than enough English to make it easy for me and all were frienly.  One guy helped guide me through the selection process and I settled on a local version of fried rice that had small mounds of different ingredients ringing the main dish.  Very tasty.  He turned out to be very curious about a solo traveller from Bangkok, and we struck up a good conversation.  Of course, all his recommendations about the other types of food I should try were for naught, since I had a 5:30 flight back to Thailand.

After a little more exploring I headed to the airport, checking in about 90 minutes before my flight.  Penang Airport is this cute 13-gate airport, with the International and Domestic gates mixed together, but with different entrance and exit areas based on your ticket. 

About five minutes before boarding for the flight was to begin, they gate agent announced that the flight – true to Air Asia reputation – would be delayed for an hour because the plane was still en route.  I can’t believe that they didn’t realize that just a little further in advance, since the plane was coming from Khrunthep, a full 100 minutes away.

This gave me a little time to shop – wine has a much smaller duty than in Thailand and so the prices are much, much more reasonable. 

I also struck up a conversation with another passenger who was on his way up to Khrungthep to visit friends.  With the low fares on Thai Air Asia, I think a lot of people in Southeast Asia can make frequent visits to other places very easily.  A nice guy, we exchanged contact information and Tawn and I subsequently met him for lunch at Central Food Loft on Saturday afternoon.

The flight back was uneventful and I was home in time for dinner with another 90-day stamp in my passport.

Interesting to note from the US Metric Association:

The National Mathematics Advisory Panel was established within the U.S. Department of Education by President Bush in April 2006.  His Executive Order creating the Panel declares: “To help keep America competitive, support American talent and creativity, encourage innovation throughout the American economy, and help State, local, territorial, and tribal governments give the Nation’s children and youth the education they need to succeed, it shall be the policy of the United States to foster greater knowledge of and improved performance in mathematics among American students.”

A critical question: will it take a position on teaching the metric system?

The Panel will schedule several public meetings, and you can submit comments in writing if you’d like to express your opinions regarding education in the metric system (USMA President Lorelle Young attended the first meeting, but reports that the topic did not arise at that meeting). Metric-literate workers are essential to improving our competitiveness, so points you might want to address include two main areas: The need for education in the metric system, and the question of how much time to spend teaching the inch-pound system.

In 2000 the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) issued a position statement encouraging the more widespread use of the metric system in schools: “With the globalization of commerce and information, our students also need to be competent with the metric system.” On the other hand, the NCTM position also recommends that “pre-K-12 curricula include both the well-established customary system and the metric system.”

Although students do, of course, need to know the basics of a small subset of the inch-pound system, schools can end up spending a lot of time teaching the intricacies of that system, much of which is wasted on skills needed only for that system. Consider arithmetic involving mixed numbers and combinations of units—6 feet 5³⁄₈ inches times 8 feet 10³⁄₄ inches, or even merely adding those two lengths—that you rarely need to do except with feet and inches and which, for that matter, can’t even be done easily on an ordinary calculator.

Having lived overseas for almost a year, I’ve found it very easy to become accustomed to the metric system.  Best of all, it makes so much more sense than the imperial system.

Various studies done over the past several decades (dating back to 1960!) reach the same general conclusion: mathematics teachers in elementary school spend around 20 percent of their class time driving home the details of adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing common fractions.

As Thomas Friedman points out in his latest book, The World is Flat, the biggest challenge facing America in this century is not the “War on Terrorism,” but our ability to remain competitive in a global marketplace where the playing field is increasingly being leveled. 

Our children will find it harder and harder to compete globally for good jobs, and are handicapped in this competition by our continued use of archaic standards such as the imperial measuring system.

Yes, but what can I do about it?

1. Visit the National Mathematics Advisory Panel website for more information about the public hearings that are being held.
2. Send your comments to the Executive Director of the Panel, Mr. Tyrrell Flawn.  His email address is tyrrel.flawn@ed.gov. 

Living in the United States, we tend to have a myopic view that the world: that it is basically an extension of the United States.  Because Baywatch is watched around the world, we reason, we must be doing things right.  But increasingly, we’re the odd man out when it comes to politics, education, culture, and global competitiveness.

We may not be able to recognize it yet, since we’re still the largest economy.  But unless we wake up and get on the same page with the rest of the world, we will be looking at the back of the cart as it leaves us behind.