Wednesday, February 02, 2005
So I am online now. It was simply a modem error that was easily rectified, but it was the fact that someone more knowledgeable than the broad (that’s the best word I can think of for her) that usually answered the phone picked up when we called to inquire yet again as to why we weren’t connected. In short, she had completely lied about why we couldn’t access the net on several occasions – the best being when she said no one in Khon Kaen was connected at the time. I am starting to learn the Thai penchant for lying versus admitting ignorance of something.
I forgot to mention my Sunday snake beheading. The little bugger slithered into our kitchen. He probably was able to slide under the screen door. I think I have fixed this problem now, but let me say that we have had rats, roaches and lizards in the kitchen and I thought I had every last crack and cranny duct-taped. So I go into the kitchen and the little thing scared the bejeezus out of me. I jumped onto the counter like an agile middle-aged housewife. I don’t know what species of snake it was, most likely harmless, but I ain’t gonna find out with a bite to me ankle, so we stood on kitchen chairs and tried to chase the thing outside. It got under the refrigerator and I gave it a good blast of roach killer. It didn’t take to that. It stuck out its little head and hissed, hissed, hissed. I swung my sword (don’t ask) and missed, missed, missed. Before I go the Dr. Seuss route anymore, in the end I managed to decapitate my angry belly-ambulating friend. Ha, take that. In truth, I hate snakes and even after it was without head the nerves kept it undulating. Plus, it was still lodged under the fridge and I had to pull it out. Nasty. We caught a rat earlier on and that was gross as well. Stuck on our glue trap the thing would occasionally try to raise its stuck head. Pocky had to dump it in the trash due to the fact that she bought the trap (I thought I could simply plug the hole and avoid the slaughter). I won’t bore you with roach stories, but we got all varieties of those too.

Friday, February 04, 2005
Well, it’s my last day off before I start my rigorous weekend of teaching. In fact, I think I am only working on Saturday. The national election is held on Sunday and everything is shutting down. Of course I wasn’t told about this by the school, so whether I am teaching or not we will find out – typical of Thailand, but who am I to complain. I don’t exactly have the tightest schedule in the world. So a whole five days have passed and the one task I had to complete remains uncompleted. That is going to a clinic for a medical certificate as part of my visa application. Anyone interested in a humorous take on the Thai Visa situation should check out my column at www.ajarn.com . In the job realm, I applied for a job at a Kindergarten and was promptly informed they were looking for someone with a degree in early childhood education. Fair enough. Sour grapes, but I wasn’t that keen on teaching that age group full-time, though I have certainly taught, and enjoyed, three, four and five year-olds. The thing that attracted me was a great salary package. I had to give it a shot. They were offering 10,000baht more than my current employer, plus insurance, airfare home and housing allowance. Here’s the question I ask myself, “Who are they going to find with desired degree?” Even in their ad they admit that Khon Kaen doesn’t have a lot to offer the foreigner in terms of free time activities. Basically, the person, most likely woman, would have to speak fluent Thai and like Khon Kaen or have a Thai partner. I have seen about one foreign woman to every twenty foreign men here. I don’t think it takes a genius to guess why. The point is Khon Kaen is not a place that someone without a lot of language skill and gumption is going to try on their own and that doesn’t really mesh with my image of a Kindergarten teacher. It will be interesting to see how long the ad runs.

Some pics of Khon Kaen at http://community.webshots.com/user/mattheweric