Exam Exaltation

Lost in the land of grading exams. After a week, I've finally found my way out. It's a lonely world in the land of poorly constructed sentences, verb conjugations and plagiarism. I started to fear that my own English skills were being degraded with each exam I corrected. Never mind the paper cuts and adding skills I've accumulated over the last week. (I'm a human calculator slash Edward Band-Aid Hands.) I had to document my efforts; notice the pens to show the scale. I am starting the 'Mia Raises Funds for CMU to Purchase a Freaking Scantron Machine Foundation.' I've started it using my own salary. For those who don't know Scantron, it's a beautiful machine in which you feed bubbled-in answer sheets into it and it will count the correct answers in less than a second. I will even provide all the #2 pencils the school would need for the next 10 years. And sharpen them.

Not to mention that the teachers are provided with sets of blank printed Excel grids that we must record our students' grades by hand. Then we submit these grade sheets to a person who will enter them (by typing every last number and decimal point) into an Excel file. I had actually made a suggestion to the department on how to make this process more efficient, but the department said that chiseling the grades onto a slab of stone would be too expensive. Oh and don't let me forget, when I submitted my grade sheet, I explained that I switched two of the columns by accident, but made a note on the paper. I was handed a bottle of white-out and told that it would 'confuse the typist' if I didn't fix it. Holy archaic system, sometimes I wonder if this is a sick joke.

Taxes

Yes, I did my taxes like a good girl. It was actually an enjoyable experience. A couple of other ajarns and myself went over to city hall with our paperwork (which consisted of a piece of paper from the university, our passports and our work permits.) We showed up at city hall, where there are several buildings and everything is in Thai. We just happened to walk into the right building and directly to the right office. I don't know how it happened but we stood outside the office door when all of a sudden a parade of pink came out with gifts and food and smiling office workers. No, the parade was not for us, but we worried that because the party was leaving the office, that no one would be there to help us. A few people stayed behind and explained that the party was for their boss who was being promoted, yet they helped us anyway. They took care of us and sent us on our way. Now that we had our official documents and tax card, we had one of two options to actually pay our taxes. We could go into the city to another office where we could wait in a short line and pay cash (which is what we ultimately ended up doing), or the more hilarious option: filing our taxes online, waiting 5 days, and then bringing our papers into....you'll never guess....7-11. In Thailand you can pay your taxes at 7-11! I love it. I can get some hot dogs, big gulps, and pay my taxes all in 5 minutes. How much were taxes you ask? Under $15 for the year; they would have been less if I went to 7-11 and used all of my 7-11 sticker coupons. Ha.

Busy tonight?

This was my highlight of the day: I was treating myself to an early dinner at a nice Italian restaurant after I finished class. I say 'nice' because they actually had heavy silverware and cloth napkins. I come in the restaurant and smile and nod when the young animated host says, "Just one?" He gave a quick pity frown, then put a big smile back on. He was overly helpful and friendly, perhaps because I was the only one in the restaurant at 4:30. He kept coming back to check on me, gave me a free dessert, and brought me the check. Then he says to me, "Happy Valentine's Day." I said, "Thank you. You too. Will you be busy tonight?" He replies, "Oh... you are very beautiful but I must work tonight." I almost said, "No, no, I meant will the restaurant be busy tonight?" but I didn't want the sweet kid to be embarrassed for turning down a (seemingly desperate) American girl when he's clearly not into women so I simply handed him the bill and said, "Ok. The meal was delicious, thank you."

One Academic Year Down

Today was the last day of class for my second semester at Chiang Mai University. I can't believe I have a whole academic year under my belt already. I thought I just got here. A day like today makes me think about my first day teaching here. What is different now? It doesn't seem like a lot until I think about the fact that I didn't know what the hell I was doing when I got here. Now I still don't know what I'm doing, but at least I'm used to it. I didn't like spicy food, now I have it for breakfast. I couldn't speak Thai when I got here, now I still can't speak Thai, but I certainly know how to repeat phrases I hear just to get a laugh. Upon arrival I was simply a part-time lecturer at the university, now I have a bunch of fun jobs. I teach at an American University Language Center. I teach one-on-one private students, preparing three different Thais for their post-grad English studies in Australia, UK, and Bangkok. I write travel articles. I do consulting for a woman writing and preparing to defend her post-doctorate dissertation about a care program for premature infants. And that's just what I am up to this week. I am taking education to nerdy heights. I never knew I had it in me.

What makes the teaching gig worth every grammar correction, every explanatory charade, every chalk dust sneeze? I would say the class evaluation that says, "You calm. I love you, my teacher, Mia. See you next term."

For those who don't know, I am on board for another year in Chiang Mai. That's the plan for now. By the way, the weekend forecast looks pretty solid:
Can you blame me for sticking around?

Chiang Mai Flower Festival

We felt pretty dumb when we showed up a day late to the festival, but it actually worked out better that we went the day after it was over for two reasons: no crowds and flower giveaways. So maybe we were actually the smart ones. Granted, it was heartbreaking to see these beautiful displays being torn down and taken apart like a bitter early morning cleanup after a party. Except they weren't chucking empty beer bottles into bags on the back of a truck, but orchids! and roses! At least we could appreciate them before they were tossed away. Some of the good ones were salvaged, including our small purchases. I got two orchid plants for about $3. I explained to my Thai friend how expensive orchid plants can be in the states and her jaw hit the floor when I said 2500 baht (or around $75). A nice man clipped a couple of giant roses for us. Turns out those roses were the biggest darn things I've ever seen in my life. It was a lovely morning and we drove out of Chiang Mai to a wood carving village and a ceramics village and she showed me where she gets her favorite wonton soup. She actually drives a half hour out of the city for this soup. It was so good I had two bowls. I am very pleased with how my pictures turned out. You can see more in the link on the left.

Eating:1, Work:0

Hands down best way to spend a Friday night is getting a phone call while getting changed to go to the gym and dropping the workout for a foot massage and all-you-can-eat sushi. I came home and realized that I ate all three meals today (plus coffee) with the same person. We have similar tastes in activities (like eating and getting our feet rubbed). Now that I think about it, we spent more time enjoying food than we spent at work. Not bad. I've also reaffirmed my love for ahi tuna. Any day you reaffirm a love is a productive day if you ask me.

My Dic

I was having coffee with my good Thai friend before our 1pm class today. Actually we were having coffee and sharing a Belgian waffle, because we felt like some sugar for lunch. We also had spicy noodle soup together for breakfast. (There is no such thing as 'breakfast food' and 'lunch food' here.) That is neither here nor there. Now, she teaches me something new everyday and today's lesson I found pretty unbelievable.

"Oh! My dic!" she says.
"Your what?"
"I forgot my dic back in the office, but, it's ok. I don't need it today."
"What are you talking about?"
"My talking dic."

At this point I am laughing because I think I know what she's talking about, but I seriously can't believe it yet. But it is true. Thai people abbreviate the word dictionary. So Thai teachers will ask their students, "Do you have a dic? Uh oh. You forgot your dic? You left your dic at home? No one has a dic today? That's too bad."

Unreal.

Hmm, what do I miss?

Feeling under the weather this last weekend, and I've been fortunate to not have been sick hardly at all while in Asia. A solid immune system is something to be proud of. Anyway, being sick makes me miss certain comforts from home and the fact that I can't curl up with the dog on the couch with a good movie and a box of wheat thins gets me a little down. The best solution I could come up with yesterday was making a little trip to the farang grocery store and picking up a few items that I didn't realize I missed so much. I filled my basket with the following: a little bottle of olive oil, pepper, a few ounces of powdery Parmesan cheese, a small loaf of ciabatta, and a bag of sour gummy candy. Granted this cost a fortune for Thai standards, but oh let me tell you it was worth it. The only downside to it was that I realized when I got home that the fresh pepper I bought did not come with a grinder in the cap. I looked a little closer at the label and there was a picture of a mortar and pestle. I didn't anticipate having to grind my own spices by hand, but I can live without a few modern conveniences I suppose.

Back home on an under-the-weather-day like this, I would make it an M.I.A. day (not a self-centered ego day, not the hip hop band, and not like I would go missing-in-action or anything)... I mean the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Unfortunately there is not a lot of art to see in Chiang Mai unless you are in the market for a painting with either an elephant or a Buddha image. I really miss having that quiet open space to wander around in, and I especially miss the paintings. So as a lame attempt, I browsed internet collections of paintings and it nowhere near does any justice, but it kept me satisfied for now. Don't you love when you find a painting that makes you sit back and say, "Yes. That is exactly it." And you feel like it was painted only for you in that exact moment, and you'd probably feel differently on any other day. Here's mine.