When I think of...
I was sitting in an Indian restaurant on one of the main roads in Penang drinking teh tarik, an either Indian or Malaysian tea sweetened with condensed milk, when I realized that of all of the people in my life the one I wanted to share that particular moment with was Llamrei.
Llamrei is Sir Titus, my knight's, wife. And while I was a fan of tea before I started gaming with them, it was Llamrei who really started inducting me in to the cult of the leaf. We would always have at least one pot of tea with gaming, sometimes two pots of the same tea or two pots of different teas, and people would bring in exotic teas to drink and chocolates to eat with the teas. And as I was sitting drinking sweetened tea I thought that I would love to share that moment with Llamrei.
And it got me thinking about the situations that make me miss the people back home. There are certain things that will make me miss people at home, certain situations that will make me think of them. And I decided to try to list them. As I said, when I drink tea I think of Llamrei.
I probably miss Sean the most of anyone because when I'm dealing with my students I tend to think of Sean, especially the third graders, and especially the third grader named Freddy. Since I see Freddy every day, I end up thinking about Sean a lot.
While dealing with the students makes me think of Sean dealing with the teachers makes me think of Mom. While it isn't the exact same situations she has to deal with, when I get frustrated I think of the things she talks about at school.
Tuesdays and 3:30 PM every day make me think of Dad. Tuesdays make sense off hand since Tuesdays were the night that we would go play trivia. But the bells at school don't actually make the sounds of bells, they play little songs or make the generic grandfather clock noise. The ending bell, at 2:30 and 3:30 (when Homework Club ends), is the Jeopardy theme, which reminds me of watching Jeopardy with Dad.
The temples remind me of Spike (my step-dad), because of his interest in Buddhism. I remember almost fighting with him about how would get to keep the book on Buddhism from our hotel room in Hawaii. I think I won the fight in the long run not because I got to keep the book, but because I'm here lighting incense in Buddhist temples in Malaysia.
Tourists and bad movies make me think of Nathan, Andrew, Felix and Cory, because I don't have anyone here to make fun of either with. That actually saddened me greatly the other day when I realized I don't have anyone to willfully and knowingly go to bad movies with me, only to make fun of them. My embassy friends are close, but there was always something special about making fun of stupid people and stupid movies with the guys.
So I won't say that I don't miss people, a lot, or that there aren't times I'm not tempted to cash out and get on a plane to see a person. And sometimes it is hard, when the feeling is particularly strong; but that will make it even better when I do come home again. And I can go almost a whole day now in Bangkok without stopping to say '...I'm halfway around the world.'
Matt
Uji
Friday, February 27, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Greetings from Peninsular Malaysia!
Ok, so for those of you who knew, I made it to Malaysia just fine and am currently sipping coke in the cafe attached to my guest house. For those of you who didn't know: I went to Malaysia for a visa run. Had to leave the country to go to one with a Thai Consulate and get my work Visa, and the Thai Consulate in Malaysia is on the island of Penang. I was trying for the one year multiple entry but apparently for whatever reason I could only get the 3 month single entry, and have to extend it to a one year multiple back in Bangkok. I assume the people working at the Thai Consulate here know what they are doing, and if I have to do a trip to Laos within the next three months because they were full of crap...well, I'll do what I have to.
So far Malaysia is fascinating. I'll do some posts about it when I am more awake and can put pictures in it, as well as have some time to put my thoughts together. But so far I have been to three Buddhist temples, a Chinese spirit house, an Anglican Church and a Mosque while I'm here. Tomorrow or Sunday I am going to try to get up the hill to see the city and go to a light house. Yes, even though I find them boring because I want know certain members of my family will enjoy it I will go get some Hot Lighthouse Action.
Matt
Uji
Ok, so for those of you who knew, I made it to Malaysia just fine and am currently sipping coke in the cafe attached to my guest house. For those of you who didn't know: I went to Malaysia for a visa run. Had to leave the country to go to one with a Thai Consulate and get my work Visa, and the Thai Consulate in Malaysia is on the island of Penang. I was trying for the one year multiple entry but apparently for whatever reason I could only get the 3 month single entry, and have to extend it to a one year multiple back in Bangkok. I assume the people working at the Thai Consulate here know what they are doing, and if I have to do a trip to Laos within the next three months because they were full of crap...well, I'll do what I have to.
So far Malaysia is fascinating. I'll do some posts about it when I am more awake and can put pictures in it, as well as have some time to put my thoughts together. But so far I have been to three Buddhist temples, a Chinese spirit house, an Anglican Church and a Mosque while I'm here. Tomorrow or Sunday I am going to try to get up the hill to see the city and go to a light house. Yes, even though I find them boring because I want know certain members of my family will enjoy it I will go get some Hot Lighthouse Action.
Matt
Uji
Friday, February 13, 2009
The Semi-Legendary, Quasi-Mythical, Wholly Extraordinary Picture Post Part I: Hong Kong Nights. (LONG)
Alright, it is finally time for you all to see some of my travels. So we are going to travel back in time to December 29th to December 31st, as this first picture post concerns my time in Hong Kong, as well as a discussion of the plane flight over. December 28th was a Sunday and I had my final night at Mom's house before I left, which was fairly tear filled. I have to confess that I almost lost it as I walked out. That was the third of four times I almost lost it walking out of someone's home.
The first was when I left Titus and Llamrei's house a week before, the Sunday after my graduation. We had done a gaming session the night before, gone to brunch at a cool place in Ft. Collins, hung out and played games at their house before I got to leaving. One of the greatest honors and joys in my life is the time I have spent as a member of that household, gaming and making fun of Titus and drinking with Llamrei and hanging out with everybody. It was really hard to go get in my car and leave, knowing that I won't be able to do that for a year.
The second time was when I left Helene and Gabbie's house, Rose Manor. I have a number of very close friends and confidantes in the SCA both in and out of my households, for which I am incredibly thankful; but no other house has had as many wild plots or or evil schemes hatched at it then Rose Manor (simply for longevity, been going to RM longer than Titus' house ;) ). We went out for Mexican food and then hung out doing what we all are so good at, namely talking. And then I left, having to force myself to get in to the car and drive.
If I thought it was hard to leave Titus or Helene's house, leaving Mom's was worse than both. No offense to either Helene or Titus but I've known Mom longer. It was very emotional, and very difficult. I forced myself to get in to the car and drive on my way. Nathan and I had this plan of staying up all night and sleeping on the plane so we could maximize our time in Hong Kong, which we proceeded to execute. We left with Dad and Ann in the morning and drove to the Air Port where we had a nourishing breakfast of Burger King.
Finally we had to leave, as they couldn't come with us any further. And I almost lost it as I looked up at them standing on the bridge overlooking security. I've never wanted to abandon a plan and run away more in my life then right before those last few seconds before I went down the escalator and into the future.
I promised this would be a long post but we will get to the pictures. The plane flights went from great to awful. Out to San Francisco we were in an emergency row and had lots of leg room to stretch out and relax in. Of course this was the two-three hour flight, which meant that while nice we would have preferred to switch it as on the flight to Hong Kong we were in Cramp City. Way back of the plane right where it curves in so we had less room than normal on a 14 hour flight. We had three boring movies (a horrible romcom with the same premise as The Sixth Sense, a foreign film that was incomprehensibly art neuveau and The Duchess). So 14 hours of cramped, uncomfortable boredom with bad food.
And so finally we arrive in Hong Kong, and we come out expecting to see a brand new world, a gallery of different things and I am expecting it to be terribly Chinese. And we see...
Yeah, so much for that 'terribly Chinese' idea. That is sort of heartwarming in a way, I guess, a reminder of home. But come on, Starbucks? Totally deflating my sense of being in a foreign land here. So we wander through the airport, go through customs, get our stamps, and then head out in to the train system. As always click the pictures to see a larger version!
If you look very carefully at the map above you can see a familiar pair of mouse ears, which indicates how you get to the Disney World in Hong Kong. Had I had more time and more money I might have checked it out just to see what the differences are. We actually took a different train that runs in to the city directly from the air port, but I didn't get a picture of it except for an advertisement on it.
Hong Kong is fascinating because it has so little space, and that lack of space creates a very particular mindset. That mindset being that every single inch of everything should have something on it. If it isn't at least four stories tall it needs to be bigger, if it doesn't have a restaurant on there throw one on. It seems to be a particularly asian mindset, and I'll talk about Bangkok's version about it later, but it was fascinating. I couldn't get any good pictures of them but there are restaurants that exist only on the fourth or fifth floors of buildings. I know these things exist in the States, we even had one (the Tattered Cover's Restaurant) in Denver that I know of; but they are everywhere, on every building in Hong Kong. And the signs, we saw signs for Maseratis and BMWs and Aston Martins and everything was packed with shopping.
You could spend a month in Hong Kong and never hit 1/100th of all of the shops, or even eat on the ground floor. Everything is so big, and filled...
Except the room we stayed in, which is smaller than my 23 square feet apartment here in Bangkok. There are three beds in that room, the other one is out of the frame off to the right. Why there are three beds in this room I have no idea. Two would have seemed a little bit cramped, but three is silly. Especially since the one on the left is literally the hardest bed I have ever felt. Holy God that thing was like a sheet of rock with some set dressing. It wasn't too expensive though, which was nice.
We didn't spend a lot of time in the guest house because, you know, we were in Hong Kong for 12 hours and wanted to rock out. So we went out and wandered the streets. Like I said, Hong Kong doesn't go in for small except for my hotel room. Everything else is super sized. We passed this building...
Which is hardly even close to the tallest building in Hong Kong. It would be pretty awesome just sitting in downtown Denver, but in Hong Kong it is pretty much no big deal. A much bigger deal is the next building, which I have a fuzzy picture of here and then you can see better when I get to the skyline picture.
Movie fans may recognize that as the building Batman jumps off of in The Dark Knight, or at least the best picture of it my poor little cheapo camera could take. It is a very impressive building, jutting like a magnificent claw from the land scape. This is the building Shredder from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles should live in, or Wolverine should have a battle in front of. No wonder they picked it for the movie.
Hong Kong island sits at the base of a 'mountain' which overlooks the whole area, and offers visibility into mainland China; we're not talking Pike's Peak, but it is pretty impressive. Nathan didn't go up Mt. Victoria last time and I may not get a next time, so we went all the way to the top. At the top of Mt. Victoria is...a shopping center. I told you they put shopping on everything.
But at the top of this very tall mall, past all the restaurants and the shops and an EA game arcade (which was closed or Nathan would have been very angry at me) is an observation deck which offers you an unparallelled view of the island. And the view is absolutely, indescribably brilliantly amazing. Words can barely express how amazing the look out over the island of Hong Kong is. I have some pictures of the shore line which I will post in the next picture post, but the night time skyline is magnificent, and I'll leave off with that.
I love that skyline; that is the most amazing skyline in the world I think. It totally ruined me for Bangkok's which is impressive not because of its' height but because of its' width. Hong Kong is a forest of massive buildings growing on a tiny island, while Bangkok is moderately sized buildings but an ocean of city that stretches on far beyond what you can see from even the tallest building (and I've been on the tallest building).
That's Nathan in front of the skyline, in what I thought was a pretty damn good picture. It is hard to get the skyline properly on a low end consumer camera because any shake causes a lot of blur, and there is so much light. The one Nathan took on me didn't come out as well, which I claim is because I'm a better photographer than he is, but for some reason he doesn't agree with that assesment. Don't know why. He took one of me in return, where the buildings are less visible. But still...
That is me. In Hong Kong. Pretty wild, huh?
Matt
Uji
Alright, it is finally time for you all to see some of my travels. So we are going to travel back in time to December 29th to December 31st, as this first picture post concerns my time in Hong Kong, as well as a discussion of the plane flight over. December 28th was a Sunday and I had my final night at Mom's house before I left, which was fairly tear filled. I have to confess that I almost lost it as I walked out. That was the third of four times I almost lost it walking out of someone's home.
The first was when I left Titus and Llamrei's house a week before, the Sunday after my graduation. We had done a gaming session the night before, gone to brunch at a cool place in Ft. Collins, hung out and played games at their house before I got to leaving. One of the greatest honors and joys in my life is the time I have spent as a member of that household, gaming and making fun of Titus and drinking with Llamrei and hanging out with everybody. It was really hard to go get in my car and leave, knowing that I won't be able to do that for a year.
The second time was when I left Helene and Gabbie's house, Rose Manor. I have a number of very close friends and confidantes in the SCA both in and out of my households, for which I am incredibly thankful; but no other house has had as many wild plots or or evil schemes hatched at it then Rose Manor (simply for longevity, been going to RM longer than Titus' house ;) ). We went out for Mexican food and then hung out doing what we all are so good at, namely talking. And then I left, having to force myself to get in to the car and drive.
If I thought it was hard to leave Titus or Helene's house, leaving Mom's was worse than both. No offense to either Helene or Titus but I've known Mom longer. It was very emotional, and very difficult. I forced myself to get in to the car and drive on my way. Nathan and I had this plan of staying up all night and sleeping on the plane so we could maximize our time in Hong Kong, which we proceeded to execute. We left with Dad and Ann in the morning and drove to the Air Port where we had a nourishing breakfast of Burger King.
Finally we had to leave, as they couldn't come with us any further. And I almost lost it as I looked up at them standing on the bridge overlooking security. I've never wanted to abandon a plan and run away more in my life then right before those last few seconds before I went down the escalator and into the future.
I promised this would be a long post but we will get to the pictures. The plane flights went from great to awful. Out to San Francisco we were in an emergency row and had lots of leg room to stretch out and relax in. Of course this was the two-three hour flight, which meant that while nice we would have preferred to switch it as on the flight to Hong Kong we were in Cramp City. Way back of the plane right where it curves in so we had less room than normal on a 14 hour flight. We had three boring movies (a horrible romcom with the same premise as The Sixth Sense, a foreign film that was incomprehensibly art neuveau and The Duchess). So 14 hours of cramped, uncomfortable boredom with bad food.
And so finally we arrive in Hong Kong, and we come out expecting to see a brand new world, a gallery of different things and I am expecting it to be terribly Chinese. And we see...
Yeah, so much for that 'terribly Chinese' idea. That is sort of heartwarming in a way, I guess, a reminder of home. But come on, Starbucks? Totally deflating my sense of being in a foreign land here. So we wander through the airport, go through customs, get our stamps, and then head out in to the train system. As always click the pictures to see a larger version!
If you look very carefully at the map above you can see a familiar pair of mouse ears, which indicates how you get to the Disney World in Hong Kong. Had I had more time and more money I might have checked it out just to see what the differences are. We actually took a different train that runs in to the city directly from the air port, but I didn't get a picture of it except for an advertisement on it.
Hong Kong is fascinating because it has so little space, and that lack of space creates a very particular mindset. That mindset being that every single inch of everything should have something on it. If it isn't at least four stories tall it needs to be bigger, if it doesn't have a restaurant on there throw one on. It seems to be a particularly asian mindset, and I'll talk about Bangkok's version about it later, but it was fascinating. I couldn't get any good pictures of them but there are restaurants that exist only on the fourth or fifth floors of buildings. I know these things exist in the States, we even had one (the Tattered Cover's Restaurant) in Denver that I know of; but they are everywhere, on every building in Hong Kong. And the signs, we saw signs for Maseratis and BMWs and Aston Martins and everything was packed with shopping.
You could spend a month in Hong Kong and never hit 1/100th of all of the shops, or even eat on the ground floor. Everything is so big, and filled...
Except the room we stayed in, which is smaller than my 23 square feet apartment here in Bangkok. There are three beds in that room, the other one is out of the frame off to the right. Why there are three beds in this room I have no idea. Two would have seemed a little bit cramped, but three is silly. Especially since the one on the left is literally the hardest bed I have ever felt. Holy God that thing was like a sheet of rock with some set dressing. It wasn't too expensive though, which was nice.
We didn't spend a lot of time in the guest house because, you know, we were in Hong Kong for 12 hours and wanted to rock out. So we went out and wandered the streets. Like I said, Hong Kong doesn't go in for small except for my hotel room. Everything else is super sized. We passed this building...
Which is hardly even close to the tallest building in Hong Kong. It would be pretty awesome just sitting in downtown Denver, but in Hong Kong it is pretty much no big deal. A much bigger deal is the next building, which I have a fuzzy picture of here and then you can see better when I get to the skyline picture.
Movie fans may recognize that as the building Batman jumps off of in The Dark Knight, or at least the best picture of it my poor little cheapo camera could take. It is a very impressive building, jutting like a magnificent claw from the land scape. This is the building Shredder from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles should live in, or Wolverine should have a battle in front of. No wonder they picked it for the movie.
Hong Kong island sits at the base of a 'mountain' which overlooks the whole area, and offers visibility into mainland China; we're not talking Pike's Peak, but it is pretty impressive. Nathan didn't go up Mt. Victoria last time and I may not get a next time, so we went all the way to the top. At the top of Mt. Victoria is...a shopping center. I told you they put shopping on everything.
But at the top of this very tall mall, past all the restaurants and the shops and an EA game arcade (which was closed or Nathan would have been very angry at me) is an observation deck which offers you an unparallelled view of the island. And the view is absolutely, indescribably brilliantly amazing. Words can barely express how amazing the look out over the island of Hong Kong is. I have some pictures of the shore line which I will post in the next picture post, but the night time skyline is magnificent, and I'll leave off with that.
I love that skyline; that is the most amazing skyline in the world I think. It totally ruined me for Bangkok's which is impressive not because of its' height but because of its' width. Hong Kong is a forest of massive buildings growing on a tiny island, while Bangkok is moderately sized buildings but an ocean of city that stretches on far beyond what you can see from even the tallest building (and I've been on the tallest building).
That's Nathan in front of the skyline, in what I thought was a pretty damn good picture. It is hard to get the skyline properly on a low end consumer camera because any shake causes a lot of blur, and there is so much light. The one Nathan took on me didn't come out as well, which I claim is because I'm a better photographer than he is, but for some reason he doesn't agree with that assesment. Don't know why. He took one of me in return, where the buildings are less visible. But still...
That is me. In Hong Kong. Pretty wild, huh?
Matt
Uji
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Breaks, and the Honkies Who Can't Buy Them
Me and Doctor House are like this. Why, you ask? Why we're both cane wielding maniacs who like pain killers. Or at least will like pain killers as soon as I can get my hands on them. Yes, honky just can't buy a break this month as I move from being ill in the stomach to having my gout act up. Hopefully I'm using up my whole quotient as it is a pain to do all the walking I like to do here to lose weight when I'm limping, and cursing with every step.
Fortunately most of the teachers at my school are fairly well convinced that I can get not just alopurinol (anti-gout) but bloody Vicodin over the counter here in the Kingdom. Which I must say would be awesome. I mean easy to come by almost morphine in a Kingdom that really isn't thrilled with heroin just strikes me as delicious irony. And thus ends the Paragraph of Sentences That Will Concern my Mother. For now.
I'm hoping that this will conclude my period of suck and I can get back to having a relatively pain/sickness free existence here. Not that these things wouldn't happen in Denver, of course, but as long as I'm in a still new and exciting place I would prefer my thoughts not be solely concerned with where the nearest facilities are or how much pain I'm in.
Matt
Uji
Me and Doctor House are like this. Why, you ask? Why we're both cane wielding maniacs who like pain killers. Or at least will like pain killers as soon as I can get my hands on them. Yes, honky just can't buy a break this month as I move from being ill in the stomach to having my gout act up. Hopefully I'm using up my whole quotient as it is a pain to do all the walking I like to do here to lose weight when I'm limping, and cursing with every step.
Fortunately most of the teachers at my school are fairly well convinced that I can get not just alopurinol (anti-gout) but bloody Vicodin over the counter here in the Kingdom. Which I must say would be awesome. I mean easy to come by almost morphine in a Kingdom that really isn't thrilled with heroin just strikes me as delicious irony. And thus ends the Paragraph of Sentences That Will Concern my Mother. For now.
I'm hoping that this will conclude my period of suck and I can get back to having a relatively pain/sickness free existence here. Not that these things wouldn't happen in Denver, of course, but as long as I'm in a still new and exciting place I would prefer my thoughts not be solely concerned with where the nearest facilities are or how much pain I'm in.
Matt
Uji
Saturday, February 07, 2009
Strange, and Awesome
I'm really spoiling you all with three posts in 24 hours, but this one is too awesome to ignore. I was surfing tvtropes.org, which will ruin your life by making you surf it all your waking hours, and came across the trope of 'Everything's Better with Penguins', about the inclusion of Penguins in film and television media, etc. At the bottom is the 'Real Life' section. I follow a link, and bam:
Norwegian soldiers of the King's Guard at Edinburgh Zoo, saluting a Penguin. And you know what, you damn well better salute that penguin. That is Sir Nils Olav, who was made a knight by King Olav V. And that insignia on his arm: He's a Colonel.
As Wikipedia notes unironically: He is the first penguin to receive such an honour in the Norwegian Army.
So salute! You're viewing a Knight of Norway, Colonel-in-Chief of the King's Guards.
Also, for the SCA folks, you think he showed Knightly Quality? I think he's just a hot stick.
Matt
Uji
I'm really spoiling you all with three posts in 24 hours, but this one is too awesome to ignore. I was surfing tvtropes.org, which will ruin your life by making you surf it all your waking hours, and came across the trope of 'Everything's Better with Penguins', about the inclusion of Penguins in film and television media, etc. At the bottom is the 'Real Life' section. I follow a link, and bam:
Norwegian soldiers of the King's Guard at Edinburgh Zoo, saluting a Penguin. And you know what, you damn well better salute that penguin. That is Sir Nils Olav, who was made a knight by King Olav V. And that insignia on his arm: He's a Colonel.
As Wikipedia notes unironically: He is the first penguin to receive such an honour in the Norwegian Army.
So salute! You're viewing a Knight of Norway, Colonel-in-Chief of the King's Guards.
Also, for the SCA folks, you think he showed Knightly Quality? I think he's just a hot stick.
Matt
Uji
Monthiversary/Reflections
So I've been here over a month now. I've been thinking about the trip here recently and I was going to post this on the actual monthiversary, which is not a real word, but I was violently ill on the actual date and then catching back up with school and being sleep deprived still. So while it may have had some kernels of wisdom it would also have probably devolved into infantile crying and the mashing together of nonsense verbs and nouns in ways I would not accept from my students. A sort of Jackson Pollack approach to blogging which I tend to try to avoid.
In the end there are a lot of reasons that I came here, I think. But one of the major ones that I didn't think about until recently was Sean. Not the little, cute, loves Pokemon one. I had a friend named Sean, or rather a friend who named himself Sean, who committed suicide a year and a half ago. Most of you who follow this blog probably know this, as you knew him or heard me speak of it, but I do try to maintain the hope that more than the 10 people on the side of the screen read this.
Sean dying was very startling to me. He was the first person I knew well as an adult that died. I lost the only biological grandparent I knew when I was fairly young and even then she was not a part of my every day life. But I saw Sean at least once a month for a little over three years, and then he was gone. You think you have a handle on this whole mortality thing, but then it ups its' game. So yes, I had the inevitable 'life is short' wake up call and resolved myself to live a life of adventure, romance and mad science (www.girlgenius.net is a brilliantly funny webcomic, where that line comes from), celebrating Sean's life with a toast (and a wake months later that left me feeling like I had moved to the devil's colon).
But this is me, and so two months later I was back in the rut of life and doing things and desperately trying to get a handle on Chomskian Syntactics. And by get a handle I mean 'give enough of a crap to go to class'. And then I was almost done with classes, and scrambling to get in to Metro to get my stuff done, and then working full time and taking a full summer load of classes...and the dream of adventure, romance and witty one liners faded away in to the much more solid present of work, and sleep. That being largely it.
It's easy to get lost in a day to day life because routine really does create comfort. We like to have an ordered life where a follows b and c follows b and so on and so forth; we like to put our own little bit of order on the chaos of the universe. Of course down the road z leads to death (and anger leads to fear and fear leads to the dark side), but its' easy to ignore that when you're only at d and z feels so far away.
One of the other major reasons I came is because of Mr. Kirschling. My High School French teacher, who once came to Halloween dressed as a member of the Manson family (Charles, not Marilyn; and this is true, ask Cory or Nathan), had travelled through Europe and Africa working his way and having a merry time. He saw Africa with a Belgian Princess (which we forgive him for, even though he did associate with the godless Belgians) , and came back a wiser man with more stuff. And a penchant for dressing up like Manson guys, I guess. But that was very inspiring to me, and when I heard him talk about it I said that I wanted to do that, to have that adventure and see those things. I guess I was always drawn a little bit more to Asia than to Europe, however.
The final major reason is of course Nathan, and that is the sentence that will cause my mother's blood pressure to rise. My friend Nathan travelled like he was a rich man with a death sentence. He did semester at sea, he lived in Vietnam, and he lived in Thailand. His passport reads like a James Bond novel set in the Orient and parts of the Mediterranian (which would be a great idea, call me Mrs. Broccoli), and he was always texting or IM'ng with people in exotic foreign countries (or exotic local countries for me now). We talked about it, he pestered me about it, we argued about it like an old married couple (no, mom, don't worry) and eventually I remembered I had wanted to do this.
So now is the part where I say I have no regrets, and I'm living a life of Adventure and Romance and Face Meltingly Spicy Curry. But I don't have no regrets, because while life is about choices there is also the choice you didn't take. I don't know if this is ultimately better for me than if I had stayed home and kept trying to get in to the TIR program (Teacher in Residency, an alternative licensure program Denver Public Schools runs) or stayed home and just tried to get in to grad school. But life is for the living, as Mistress Leonora said in the comments section, and the die is cast as some guy said crossing some river (cue Titus aneurysm). So here I am, and Adventure, Romance and FMSC to follow.
Just kidding about the Godless Belgians, they're cool.
Matt
Uji
So I've been here over a month now. I've been thinking about the trip here recently and I was going to post this on the actual monthiversary, which is not a real word, but I was violently ill on the actual date and then catching back up with school and being sleep deprived still. So while it may have had some kernels of wisdom it would also have probably devolved into infantile crying and the mashing together of nonsense verbs and nouns in ways I would not accept from my students. A sort of Jackson Pollack approach to blogging which I tend to try to avoid.
In the end there are a lot of reasons that I came here, I think. But one of the major ones that I didn't think about until recently was Sean. Not the little, cute, loves Pokemon one. I had a friend named Sean, or rather a friend who named himself Sean, who committed suicide a year and a half ago. Most of you who follow this blog probably know this, as you knew him or heard me speak of it, but I do try to maintain the hope that more than the 10 people on the side of the screen read this.
Sean dying was very startling to me. He was the first person I knew well as an adult that died. I lost the only biological grandparent I knew when I was fairly young and even then she was not a part of my every day life. But I saw Sean at least once a month for a little over three years, and then he was gone. You think you have a handle on this whole mortality thing, but then it ups its' game. So yes, I had the inevitable 'life is short' wake up call and resolved myself to live a life of adventure, romance and mad science (www.girlgenius.net is a brilliantly funny webcomic, where that line comes from), celebrating Sean's life with a toast (and a wake months later that left me feeling like I had moved to the devil's colon).
But this is me, and so two months later I was back in the rut of life and doing things and desperately trying to get a handle on Chomskian Syntactics. And by get a handle I mean 'give enough of a crap to go to class'. And then I was almost done with classes, and scrambling to get in to Metro to get my stuff done, and then working full time and taking a full summer load of classes...and the dream of adventure, romance and witty one liners faded away in to the much more solid present of work, and sleep. That being largely it.
It's easy to get lost in a day to day life because routine really does create comfort. We like to have an ordered life where a follows b and c follows b and so on and so forth; we like to put our own little bit of order on the chaos of the universe. Of course down the road z leads to death (and anger leads to fear and fear leads to the dark side), but its' easy to ignore that when you're only at d and z feels so far away.
One of the other major reasons I came is because of Mr. Kirschling. My High School French teacher, who once came to Halloween dressed as a member of the Manson family (Charles, not Marilyn; and this is true, ask Cory or Nathan), had travelled through Europe and Africa working his way and having a merry time. He saw Africa with a Belgian Princess (which we forgive him for, even though he did associate with the godless Belgians) , and came back a wiser man with more stuff. And a penchant for dressing up like Manson guys, I guess. But that was very inspiring to me, and when I heard him talk about it I said that I wanted to do that, to have that adventure and see those things. I guess I was always drawn a little bit more to Asia than to Europe, however.
The final major reason is of course Nathan, and that is the sentence that will cause my mother's blood pressure to rise. My friend Nathan travelled like he was a rich man with a death sentence. He did semester at sea, he lived in Vietnam, and he lived in Thailand. His passport reads like a James Bond novel set in the Orient and parts of the Mediterranian (which would be a great idea, call me Mrs. Broccoli), and he was always texting or IM'ng with people in exotic foreign countries (or exotic local countries for me now). We talked about it, he pestered me about it, we argued about it like an old married couple (no, mom, don't worry) and eventually I remembered I had wanted to do this.
So now is the part where I say I have no regrets, and I'm living a life of Adventure and Romance and Face Meltingly Spicy Curry. But I don't have no regrets, because while life is about choices there is also the choice you didn't take. I don't know if this is ultimately better for me than if I had stayed home and kept trying to get in to the TIR program (Teacher in Residency, an alternative licensure program Denver Public Schools runs) or stayed home and just tried to get in to grad school. But life is for the living, as Mistress Leonora said in the comments section, and the die is cast as some guy said crossing some river (cue Titus aneurysm). So here I am, and Adventure, Romance and FMSC to follow.
Just kidding about the Godless Belgians, they're cool.
Matt
Uji
Things I'm Proud Of.
Mundane (non-SCA)
1. Moving to a foreign country.
2. Not having chickened out from doing so at the Airport in Denver.
3. Or San Francisco.
4. Or Hong Kong.
5. Or Bangkok.
6. Not having chickened out still.
7. Having graduated from college despite my best efforts.
8. Having graduated from High School despite my best efforts.
9. Having finally gotten a job that was both wholly on my own and related to a career I want (in a foreign country no less).
10. The sheer number of people I've defined the phrase 'tea-bagging' too.
11. Including my mom.
12. Who then had to know it for work. That was one of the funniest moments of my life.
13. That I have grown up enough that I can have fun with my family (extended).
14. That I have become the kind of person my parents are proud of, and would like even were I not related to them. I think.
15. That I currently have about 400 dollars in savings. For the first time like...ever.
16. That I have the courage and the intelligence to make this crazy stupid brilliant plan of mine for the next year+ work out. So far.
Much more.
SCA:
1. That when I entered the SCA I said it was going to be the one (and now the first of several) aspect of my life that I would have no regrets about. And I don't.
2. That having been in for under four full years I was a serious competitor for Baron of Unser Hafen.
3. That I watched the Barony I love beat itself up and helped, in a very small way, it pull itself back. And choose a great Baron and Baroness, not that there were any bad choices this time. The issues Unser Hafen faced are universal; its' success at them is not.
4. That at age 20 I was a councilor to people much older, and that my opinions were taken seriously in a group of much older and more successful people.
5. That when I got my Silver Tyne, the only person who got more applause was Mistress Bri being offered her Peilican. This is a greedy, selfish one, but I was genuinely shocked and honored by it.
6. That I'm the first (as far as I know) non-native Caer Galenite Dancing Monkey. And it got me on Youtube.
7. That I continually find myself in households and companies and Baronies of intelligent, honorable people who all come together not for any kind of plan or political benefit, but because we enjoy eachother's company. By last count I have the populace badge of four Baronies and now two Kingdoms, am at least an honorary member of four households, and have friends in six Kingdoms.
And much much more.
Matt
Uji
Mundane (non-SCA)
1. Moving to a foreign country.
2. Not having chickened out from doing so at the Airport in Denver.
3. Or San Francisco.
4. Or Hong Kong.
5. Or Bangkok.
6. Not having chickened out still.
7. Having graduated from college despite my best efforts.
8. Having graduated from High School despite my best efforts.
9. Having finally gotten a job that was both wholly on my own and related to a career I want (in a foreign country no less).
10. The sheer number of people I've defined the phrase 'tea-bagging' too.
11. Including my mom.
12. Who then had to know it for work. That was one of the funniest moments of my life.
13. That I have grown up enough that I can have fun with my family (extended).
14. That I have become the kind of person my parents are proud of, and would like even were I not related to them. I think.
15. That I currently have about 400 dollars in savings. For the first time like...ever.
16. That I have the courage and the intelligence to make this crazy stupid brilliant plan of mine for the next year+ work out. So far.
Much more.
SCA:
1. That when I entered the SCA I said it was going to be the one (and now the first of several) aspect of my life that I would have no regrets about. And I don't.
2. That having been in for under four full years I was a serious competitor for Baron of Unser Hafen.
3. That I watched the Barony I love beat itself up and helped, in a very small way, it pull itself back. And choose a great Baron and Baroness, not that there were any bad choices this time. The issues Unser Hafen faced are universal; its' success at them is not.
4. That at age 20 I was a councilor to people much older, and that my opinions were taken seriously in a group of much older and more successful people.
5. That when I got my Silver Tyne, the only person who got more applause was Mistress Bri being offered her Peilican. This is a greedy, selfish one, but I was genuinely shocked and honored by it.
6. That I'm the first (as far as I know) non-native Caer Galenite Dancing Monkey. And it got me on Youtube.
7. That I continually find myself in households and companies and Baronies of intelligent, honorable people who all come together not for any kind of plan or political benefit, but because we enjoy eachother's company. By last count I have the populace badge of four Baronies and now two Kingdoms, am at least an honorary member of four households, and have friends in six Kingdoms.
And much much more.
Matt
Uji
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Comprehension vs. Understanding
A popular book on education right now in Thailand is called 'Westerners understand, Thais comprehend', and highlights some of the differences in education between the two countries both procedurally and culturally. It looks pretty pop psychology so I haven't picked it up yet, although I may.
The biggest difference seems to be that in the U.S. the burden lies on the student to prove that they are learning, while in Thailand it seems to be on the teacher to prove that they are teaching. Now it seems to me in both cases a middle ground would be best; make the student prove that he is learning adequately while also periodically checking to make sure that the teacher isn't teaching that the earth is flat or Columbus, Ohio was discovered by Columbus, Christopher. But the U.S. tends to default to one side, and Thailand the other.
Most of my time at UNC was filled with truly delightful professors. Doctor Worley, Doctor Santos and Doctor Kleinfelter, for example, are three true scholars and deeply committed individuals. While most of the staff were more in their league there were, of course, those on the other side of the graph; and in my sophomore year I met the worst of them all. I cannot remember his name for the life of me, likely for the best, but he did seem to fully believe if we didn't do well it was because we were not paying attention. Not, say, due to the fact that he was vicodin addled most of the time and not in the awesome Dr. House way, interrupted students during presentations, and would not let students say they didn't think Emily Dickinson was a good poet. And yet some of the students who told their parents were assured they probably just needed to listen more or study harder. Not me, fortunately. I, uh, just didn't tell my parents. Until...now.
Now on the surface the other side, ateacher having to prove they are teaching sounds like a good idea, but what it does is change the job of an educator. I can't be concerned solely with guaranteeing my students understand, I have to prove it. Everything has to go in to their notebooks, even tests have to be stapled in, or else parents don't think I'm teaching. Never mind that their students can now speak twice as well as they could before, since they do not have a piece of paper I must not be doing my job. It is somewhat frustrating to have the burden of proof for a student's education fall entirely on what I staple in to their notebook, not their actual level of comprehension. Its like having to take the CSAT (the Colorado standardized test, if I have any out of towners) as a teacher. And maybe only a little frustrating because it means I don't yet get to put the burden back on my students. But that would be mean.
So its interesting to experience a difference in perception and expectation, something I probably wouldn't have experienced back home all things considered. I'm treating it as a benefit, the opportunity to expand my working style and learn other educational approaches; it is certainly not an expectation I would have worked with in the U.S., and I can see how this might help me watch myself from becoming complacent when I do teach in the states. So a benefit, at least until I get fed up with it.
Matt
Uji
A popular book on education right now in Thailand is called 'Westerners understand, Thais comprehend', and highlights some of the differences in education between the two countries both procedurally and culturally. It looks pretty pop psychology so I haven't picked it up yet, although I may.
The biggest difference seems to be that in the U.S. the burden lies on the student to prove that they are learning, while in Thailand it seems to be on the teacher to prove that they are teaching. Now it seems to me in both cases a middle ground would be best; make the student prove that he is learning adequately while also periodically checking to make sure that the teacher isn't teaching that the earth is flat or Columbus, Ohio was discovered by Columbus, Christopher. But the U.S. tends to default to one side, and Thailand the other.
Most of my time at UNC was filled with truly delightful professors. Doctor Worley, Doctor Santos and Doctor Kleinfelter, for example, are three true scholars and deeply committed individuals. While most of the staff were more in their league there were, of course, those on the other side of the graph; and in my sophomore year I met the worst of them all. I cannot remember his name for the life of me, likely for the best, but he did seem to fully believe if we didn't do well it was because we were not paying attention. Not, say, due to the fact that he was vicodin addled most of the time and not in the awesome Dr. House way, interrupted students during presentations, and would not let students say they didn't think Emily Dickinson was a good poet. And yet some of the students who told their parents were assured they probably just needed to listen more or study harder. Not me, fortunately. I, uh, just didn't tell my parents. Until...now.
Now on the surface the other side, ateacher having to prove they are teaching sounds like a good idea, but what it does is change the job of an educator. I can't be concerned solely with guaranteeing my students understand, I have to prove it. Everything has to go in to their notebooks, even tests have to be stapled in, or else parents don't think I'm teaching. Never mind that their students can now speak twice as well as they could before, since they do not have a piece of paper I must not be doing my job. It is somewhat frustrating to have the burden of proof for a student's education fall entirely on what I staple in to their notebook, not their actual level of comprehension. Its like having to take the CSAT (the Colorado standardized test, if I have any out of towners) as a teacher. And maybe only a little frustrating because it means I don't yet get to put the burden back on my students. But that would be mean.
So its interesting to experience a difference in perception and expectation, something I probably wouldn't have experienced back home all things considered. I'm treating it as a benefit, the opportunity to expand my working style and learn other educational approaches; it is certainly not an expectation I would have worked with in the U.S., and I can see how this might help me watch myself from becoming complacent when I do teach in the states. So a benefit, at least until I get fed up with it.
Matt
Uji
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Sir Addendum, and Linguistic (Ringuistic?) Issues
So I had another visitor. This time I was chilling out in my apartment (which we've ascertained is, of course, 23 square meters not 23 square feet. My bad) when I heard this rustling noise. Not something to pay much attention to as I did have the AC on and I have loose plastic bags in my room from 7-11 runs and the like...but this one was a little bit more insistent. So I go to investigate and bam! Across the floor runs a cockroach literally larger than my thumb. And I'm no slouch in the thumb size if you know what I mean. *suggestive eyebrow raise*
I have no idea what that meant. Anyway. This thing was of significant size and normally would have been cause for great alarm and unmanly activities. But, given I had been previously visited by Sir I was a little bit more zen and tried the same strategy: I opened the front door. No love. So I opened the /balcony/ door. Poof, out goes the cockroach, exploring away. I close the door and think we're done.
Then I hear a scurrying against the outside: The cockroach is trying to get back in. At this point Mom and Nathan are both telling me I have a new pet. And I have a history of anthropomorphizing (giving human characteristics to) creatures and things already, so at this point I'm involved in a mental tug of war. The rational half of me is saying that Carly, as Mom christened him after we discussed why calling him Cocky wouldn't work so well, wants food and shelter and a place to lay a thousand glistening eggs to overrun this feeble world of man.
But the part of me that has an almost girlish love for cute things (which I am shamed to admit and yet fairly obvious about) is saying he wants in and love and company. To which the other half of my brain is laughing its butt off and calling me a pansy. I resolved to wait until morning: If Carly had waited outside like a faithful hound then it was time to find a cage and figure out what cockroaches eat. If not, it was not meant to be.
Needless to say Carly was gone in the morning, flown off to adventure and newfound wisdom no doubt, and I'm sure there is a children's book in this somewhere if I can manage to rhyme cockroach. Yes I said flown, because this thing had huge freaking wings too. Yeah. Maybe Carly will fly back some day and we can be reunited...or more probably Carly is just an insect on a crazy bender who wanted a dark place to dislodge man from his throne through superior breeding and exo-skeletal technology.
As for the questions regarding L/R and how the students handle Mr. Parker and whether or not a nickname has been given to me, answers shall here come (I feel so biblical). Yes, many students have problems with Ls and Rs, the reverse of the stereotypical Japanese problem of turning ls into rs: They turn rs into ls, as I said. But in Thailand it is customary to refer to someone as Mr. not Mr. , so no one has a problem with Mr. Matthew. As to a nickname no, I do not have a nick name here (except for the people who call me Matt).
The Thai nickname is traditionally not even tangentially related to the real name. I do not have their real names written down but needless to say Ping Ping (one of my P3 students) does not have a birth certificate with that name. Nor do my other students Almond, Mint or Best. According to the school principal it is sometimes the parents who pick a nickname or sometimes the students, and a student may switch nicknames as they get older and pick one for themselves. This is a blessing to us poor farang (pronounced falang), or foreigners, who would stumble over some of the names.
For example, using streetnames. I live on Sukhumvit 101/1, Soi 18. Soi 18's name is Wachirathamasatit. Try saying that five times fast. The airport I flew in to is Suvarnabhumi airport, which is pronounced properly as Soo-wah-nah-poom. So students having nicknames helps make our lives easier so we don't call poor Soowahnahpoom Suevarnaboomey instead.
As for some language as requested by Baroness Rosalind: Never let it be said I do not heed my Baroness' wishes. Also if you could not mention to either Baroness Mary whom I lived under from May or the Baroness of the Far West that I still call Rosalind my Baroness, I'd appreciate it ;) Not that I'm worried about my mom telling Baroness Mary anything, although Mom is only two degrees seperated from her through mutual friends.
And obviously these are all my phonetical renderings as Thai does have its' own script.
Hello is sah-wat-dii-kop for a male and kaa for a female. More often rendered as sa-wat-dii. Thai ends differently depending on whether or not you are male or female (and are being polite). Kop (or kup, pronounced halfway between cop and cup most of the time, pick one and it'll be fine) is for males, and kha (pronounced like a bird's caw) for a female.
Thank you is kahp-koon (kup/kha).
Sabai means feeling good.
Sanuk is an interesting one (pronounced sah-nook). It means having fun but can also be used to indicate more of a mindset or general feeling than a specific instance. Something can be sanuk but a job should be sanuk, or at least have some, as well; so it can be specific or general.
Mak means extra, lots, more of or very. So sanuk mak means very fun; you can pile on maks, but it is generally only done in fun as it is not actually grammatically correct.
So there you have it. More info on the bugs of my life, and seriously Thailand must do a brisk business in nightmare fuel inducing insects, and some language things.
Excelsior,
Matt
Uji
So I had another visitor. This time I was chilling out in my apartment (which we've ascertained is, of course, 23 square meters not 23 square feet. My bad) when I heard this rustling noise. Not something to pay much attention to as I did have the AC on and I have loose plastic bags in my room from 7-11 runs and the like...but this one was a little bit more insistent. So I go to investigate and bam! Across the floor runs a cockroach literally larger than my thumb. And I'm no slouch in the thumb size if you know what I mean. *suggestive eyebrow raise*
I have no idea what that meant. Anyway. This thing was of significant size and normally would have been cause for great alarm and unmanly activities. But, given I had been previously visited by Sir I was a little bit more zen and tried the same strategy: I opened the front door. No love. So I opened the /balcony/ door. Poof, out goes the cockroach, exploring away. I close the door and think we're done.
Then I hear a scurrying against the outside: The cockroach is trying to get back in. At this point Mom and Nathan are both telling me I have a new pet. And I have a history of anthropomorphizing (giving human characteristics to) creatures and things already, so at this point I'm involved in a mental tug of war. The rational half of me is saying that Carly, as Mom christened him after we discussed why calling him Cocky wouldn't work so well, wants food and shelter and a place to lay a thousand glistening eggs to overrun this feeble world of man.
But the part of me that has an almost girlish love for cute things (which I am shamed to admit and yet fairly obvious about) is saying he wants in and love and company. To which the other half of my brain is laughing its butt off and calling me a pansy. I resolved to wait until morning: If Carly had waited outside like a faithful hound then it was time to find a cage and figure out what cockroaches eat. If not, it was not meant to be.
Needless to say Carly was gone in the morning, flown off to adventure and newfound wisdom no doubt, and I'm sure there is a children's book in this somewhere if I can manage to rhyme cockroach. Yes I said flown, because this thing had huge freaking wings too. Yeah. Maybe Carly will fly back some day and we can be reunited...or more probably Carly is just an insect on a crazy bender who wanted a dark place to dislodge man from his throne through superior breeding and exo-skeletal technology.
As for the questions regarding L/R and how the students handle Mr. Parker and whether or not a nickname has been given to me, answers shall here come (I feel so biblical). Yes, many students have problems with Ls and Rs, the reverse of the stereotypical Japanese problem of turning ls into rs: They turn rs into ls, as I said. But in Thailand it is customary to refer to someone as Mr.
The Thai nickname is traditionally not even tangentially related to the real name. I do not have their real names written down but needless to say Ping Ping (one of my P3 students) does not have a birth certificate with that name. Nor do my other students Almond, Mint or Best. According to the school principal it is sometimes the parents who pick a nickname or sometimes the students, and a student may switch nicknames as they get older and pick one for themselves. This is a blessing to us poor farang (pronounced falang), or foreigners, who would stumble over some of the names.
For example, using streetnames. I live on Sukhumvit 101/1, Soi 18. Soi 18's name is Wachirathamasatit. Try saying that five times fast. The airport I flew in to is Suvarnabhumi airport, which is pronounced properly as Soo-wah-nah-poom. So students having nicknames helps make our lives easier so we don't call poor Soowahnahpoom Suevarnaboomey instead.
As for some language as requested by Baroness Rosalind: Never let it be said I do not heed my Baroness' wishes. Also if you could not mention to either Baroness Mary whom I lived under from May or the Baroness of the Far West that I still call Rosalind my Baroness, I'd appreciate it ;) Not that I'm worried about my mom telling Baroness Mary anything, although Mom is only two degrees seperated from her through mutual friends.
And obviously these are all my phonetical renderings as Thai does have its' own script.
Hello is sah-wat-dii-kop for a male and kaa for a female. More often rendered as sa-wat-dii. Thai ends differently depending on whether or not you are male or female (and are being polite). Kop (or kup, pronounced halfway between cop and cup most of the time, pick one and it'll be fine) is for males, and kha (pronounced like a bird's caw) for a female.
Thank you is kahp-koon (kup/kha).
Sabai means feeling good.
Sanuk is an interesting one (pronounced sah-nook). It means having fun but can also be used to indicate more of a mindset or general feeling than a specific instance. Something can be sanuk but a job should be sanuk, or at least have some, as well; so it can be specific or general.
Mak means extra, lots, more of or very. So sanuk mak means very fun; you can pile on maks, but it is generally only done in fun as it is not actually grammatically correct.
So there you have it. More info on the bugs of my life, and seriously Thailand must do a brisk business in nightmare fuel inducing insects, and some language things.
Excelsior,
Matt
Uji
Friday, January 23, 2009
Holiday Greetings/And I Called him Sir...
So I've been sleeping with the balcony doors open because...well, I live in Bangkok now and it is hotter than the devil's colon from time to time (and we aren't even in the hot season yet). This has some downsides, of course. I was hanging out on the internet (since some things never change) yesterday when literally the largest wasp I have ever seen flew in to the room and landed on the wall. At which point he officially owned the room, since anyone here who knows me can tell you that I am terrified of wasps and bees. I would use the phrase 'scream like a little girl', but I know too many women who would magically slap me through the internet, so we'll settle for 'generally acted unmanly'. As in I waited in the hallway until his Highness the Insect flew out.
Yeah, so not sleeping with the doors open any more. Fun times.
As for the Holiday greetings part: Yes, it is once again party time here in Bangkok. It really does seem to me that the Thai people will really just take any excuse to party and run with it, which is fairly awesome. A happy Chinese New Year to all of you and a hearty nanny nanny boo boo since I get a four day weekend for it.
Here we have the entirety of my school (I did tell you it was small) lined up for the flag ceremony today, wearing red. Red is a color of prosperity and is worn on Chinese New Year; it is also the color of the anti-anti-Thaksin protestors and why I don't wear my red shirt out much. (The Yellow shirts took the airport, the red shirts tried to beat them up. Yay). Every day we all line up in the morning to raise the Thai flag, sing the National Anthem (which I just stand quietly and respectfully for rather than trying to butcher the words), and then have a child read in either English or Chinese. And then the exercising.
This is Ryan leading the exercise. Due to the Thai linguistic difficulty with the letter R he gets the second best name is school: Mr. Lion. The first best goes to a man who's official nickname is Mr. Hercules, of whom I will get a picture later. So yes, we do some exercising and stretching and generally get our funk on before we go to learn. It's...different, but interesting.
The students in the foreground are 'my' students. I teach English to all of the kids grades 1-3, but I'm the homeroom teacher for grade 3 and those are my 3 kids.
Meet (from left to right) Ploy, Freddie and Ping-Ping. Freddie is his real name, Ploy and Ping-Ping are nicknames since everyone here who is native has a nick name to spare us foreigners from embarassing ourselves on their real names. They do not always look that pissed off, as this was kind of a 'surprise *click*' photo opportunity.
Fridays are assembly days, when various classes put on various performances about various things. Today's was, of course, about the Chinese New Year and featured all of the classes speaking in Chinese and doing other things. Here is grades 1-3 dancing to Chinese pop music:
So yeah, we have fun. Happy Chinese New Year! (And click on the pictures for a larger more high resolution version than the thumbnails!)
Matt
Uji
So I've been sleeping with the balcony doors open because...well, I live in Bangkok now and it is hotter than the devil's colon from time to time (and we aren't even in the hot season yet). This has some downsides, of course. I was hanging out on the internet (since some things never change) yesterday when literally the largest wasp I have ever seen flew in to the room and landed on the wall. At which point he officially owned the room, since anyone here who knows me can tell you that I am terrified of wasps and bees. I would use the phrase 'scream like a little girl', but I know too many women who would magically slap me through the internet, so we'll settle for 'generally acted unmanly'. As in I waited in the hallway until his Highness the Insect flew out.
Yeah, so not sleeping with the doors open any more. Fun times.
As for the Holiday greetings part: Yes, it is once again party time here in Bangkok. It really does seem to me that the Thai people will really just take any excuse to party and run with it, which is fairly awesome. A happy Chinese New Year to all of you and a hearty nanny nanny boo boo since I get a four day weekend for it.
Here we have the entirety of my school (I did tell you it was small) lined up for the flag ceremony today, wearing red. Red is a color of prosperity and is worn on Chinese New Year; it is also the color of the anti-anti-Thaksin protestors and why I don't wear my red shirt out much. (The Yellow shirts took the airport, the red shirts tried to beat them up. Yay). Every day we all line up in the morning to raise the Thai flag, sing the National Anthem (which I just stand quietly and respectfully for rather than trying to butcher the words), and then have a child read in either English or Chinese. And then the exercising.
This is Ryan leading the exercise. Due to the Thai linguistic difficulty with the letter R he gets the second best name is school: Mr. Lion. The first best goes to a man who's official nickname is Mr. Hercules, of whom I will get a picture later. So yes, we do some exercising and stretching and generally get our funk on before we go to learn. It's...different, but interesting.The students in the foreground are 'my' students. I teach English to all of the kids grades 1-3, but I'm the homeroom teacher for grade 3 and those are my 3 kids.
Meet (from left to right) Ploy, Freddie and Ping-Ping. Freddie is his real name, Ploy and Ping-Ping are nicknames since everyone here who is native has a nick name to spare us foreigners from embarassing ourselves on their real names. They do not always look that pissed off, as this was kind of a 'surprise *click*' photo opportunity.
Fridays are assembly days, when various classes put on various performances about various things. Today's was, of course, about the Chinese New Year and featured all of the classes speaking in Chinese and doing other things. Here is grades 1-3 dancing to Chinese pop music:
So yeah, we have fun. Happy Chinese New Year! (And click on the pictures for a larger more high resolution version than the thumbnails!)
Matt
Uji
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
New Definitions of Cold/The First Days
My students are very cold, as they are quick to tell me while they pull on jackets during the morning outside time before school starts. They rub their arms and look forward to the led stretching to warm them up before we head inside. And they are not amused by my smiles at the sight of all of them in jackets, or when I tell them that it has been snowing in parts of the U.S.A. I could wear shorts.
The day starts at 7:30 AM with a quick trip to the office to sign in, which is made lengthier by the fact that I have to remove my shoes and put on flip flops to do it. Thirty minutes of students running around and then flag time, during which everyone else sings the Thai national anthem and I stand quietly and respectfully. Then some teacher led stretching, and its time for the 8 AM class that started twenty minutes ago. Thai time.
I have second graders from 8 until 9 every day, and then 1st graders from 9 until 10. Snack time is 10 until 10:30 and includes some recess. Every day but Wednesday and Friday I have 10:30 until 12:00 off, and 12:00 is lunch. Wednesday I have 1st grade computer class from 10:30 - 11:00. After lunch I have my three third graders, one of whom has been absent both days so far, from 12:30 until 1:30. Thursdays I then have a 2/3 Computer class for an hour. Homework club, where they come for extra learning (i.e. free tutoring) from 2:30 until 3:30.
Fridays are different, where I have first graders for the first hour, a combined 2/3 class for the next hour, then some computers with the first graders, then lunch and assembly...and then off until homework club.
Tuesdays and Thursdays I will be staying late after school to tutor, for extra pay, the school owner's two sons in creative writing; this extra work will net me either 2000 or 2500 baht per month (she proposed 2000, I'll be coming back with 2500 tomorrow) and free dinner twice a week at the school (worth maybe 400 baht per month). So all told about 2500 or 3000 extra baht (75-80 dollars maybe) for eight extra hours of work per month. Not too bad at all.
I live in an apartment building down two buildings across the street from the school, so my total commute from door to door is three minutes if the elevator starts at the bottom and I don't walk quickly; needless to say I haven't been late. My apartment is 23 square feet on the sixth floor and has a dresser, a closet, a desk, and a bed, plus the bathroom. No hot water, although I have someone coming out Sunday to install a hot water heater I bought. The showers have certainly woken me up in the morning, I will say.
The school is interesting, as it is tri-lingual. Students learn English, Chinese and Thai, but can only speak English in the hallways (not that it is always very strictly enforced). The students range from native (2 half-Thai half-English kids) and functionally fluent (a Thai girl and an Indian girl) to barely able to speak at all. And I was wrong, there are more than 12 in the whole school, that is just Grades 1 - 3. And the difference between the grades is huge; my P3 class runs like I was in any school in the States, minus that after me they learn Chinese. My P1 class is very definitely still learning.
The salary is currently 30,000 baht per month, but according to the Principal we can re-negotiate salary after my 3 month probationary period which will end in April. The school goes September to June, a US schedule as opposed to the Thai schedule of May to March, and is run largely by western educated 7th Day Adventists. There is a picture of Jesus on the Principal's wall, but given this is a Thai school the King's picture is bigger.
I'm supposed to give a lot of homework but I've taken it easy the first two nights given it is after break; lots of reading to do over the long weekend, however, and a lot of writing to do as well. Thai parents apparently fall in to the category of not believing it is a good school unless there is a lot of English being spoken and a lot of homework being given.
Sorry for not posting earlier, just a bit hectic adjusting to the new world I find myself in. I was struck, as I got dressed yesterday, by the arrogance of what I've done (some of you might say 'Finally!'). To come to a foreign country and presume that simply by dint of an English degree and a dream of teaching I can manage...well, I probably should have started having these doubts before I came, no?
But as the Rabbi at my cousin Parker's Bar Mitzvah said (and I will mangle this horrible): "If you dream it, then it's real." And here I am, for better or for worse a teacher.
Excelsior,
Matt
Uji
My students are very cold, as they are quick to tell me while they pull on jackets during the morning outside time before school starts. They rub their arms and look forward to the led stretching to warm them up before we head inside. And they are not amused by my smiles at the sight of all of them in jackets, or when I tell them that it has been snowing in parts of the U.S.A. I could wear shorts.
The day starts at 7:30 AM with a quick trip to the office to sign in, which is made lengthier by the fact that I have to remove my shoes and put on flip flops to do it. Thirty minutes of students running around and then flag time, during which everyone else sings the Thai national anthem and I stand quietly and respectfully. Then some teacher led stretching, and its time for the 8 AM class that started twenty minutes ago. Thai time.
I have second graders from 8 until 9 every day, and then 1st graders from 9 until 10. Snack time is 10 until 10:30 and includes some recess. Every day but Wednesday and Friday I have 10:30 until 12:00 off, and 12:00 is lunch. Wednesday I have 1st grade computer class from 10:30 - 11:00. After lunch I have my three third graders, one of whom has been absent both days so far, from 12:30 until 1:30. Thursdays I then have a 2/3 Computer class for an hour. Homework club, where they come for extra learning (i.e. free tutoring) from 2:30 until 3:30.
Fridays are different, where I have first graders for the first hour, a combined 2/3 class for the next hour, then some computers with the first graders, then lunch and assembly...and then off until homework club.
Tuesdays and Thursdays I will be staying late after school to tutor, for extra pay, the school owner's two sons in creative writing; this extra work will net me either 2000 or 2500 baht per month (she proposed 2000, I'll be coming back with 2500 tomorrow) and free dinner twice a week at the school (worth maybe 400 baht per month). So all told about 2500 or 3000 extra baht (75-80 dollars maybe) for eight extra hours of work per month. Not too bad at all.
I live in an apartment building down two buildings across the street from the school, so my total commute from door to door is three minutes if the elevator starts at the bottom and I don't walk quickly; needless to say I haven't been late. My apartment is 23 square feet on the sixth floor and has a dresser, a closet, a desk, and a bed, plus the bathroom. No hot water, although I have someone coming out Sunday to install a hot water heater I bought. The showers have certainly woken me up in the morning, I will say.
The school is interesting, as it is tri-lingual. Students learn English, Chinese and Thai, but can only speak English in the hallways (not that it is always very strictly enforced). The students range from native (2 half-Thai half-English kids) and functionally fluent (a Thai girl and an Indian girl) to barely able to speak at all. And I was wrong, there are more than 12 in the whole school, that is just Grades 1 - 3. And the difference between the grades is huge; my P3 class runs like I was in any school in the States, minus that after me they learn Chinese. My P1 class is very definitely still learning.
The salary is currently 30,000 baht per month, but according to the Principal we can re-negotiate salary after my 3 month probationary period which will end in April. The school goes September to June, a US schedule as opposed to the Thai schedule of May to March, and is run largely by western educated 7th Day Adventists. There is a picture of Jesus on the Principal's wall, but given this is a Thai school the King's picture is bigger.
I'm supposed to give a lot of homework but I've taken it easy the first two nights given it is after break; lots of reading to do over the long weekend, however, and a lot of writing to do as well. Thai parents apparently fall in to the category of not believing it is a good school unless there is a lot of English being spoken and a lot of homework being given.
Sorry for not posting earlier, just a bit hectic adjusting to the new world I find myself in. I was struck, as I got dressed yesterday, by the arrogance of what I've done (some of you might say 'Finally!'). To come to a foreign country and presume that simply by dint of an English degree and a dream of teaching I can manage...well, I probably should have started having these doubts before I came, no?
But as the Rabbi at my cousin Parker's Bar Mitzvah said (and I will mangle this horrible): "If you dream it, then it's real." And here I am, for better or for worse a teacher.
Excelsior,
Matt
Uji
Monday, January 12, 2009
Blogspot problems, and introduction
I don't know why but for some reason the blog keeps cutting out my mission accomplished post when I load up the page, which is fine for the people who know I got it but not fine if they missed the update. So if you missed it: Have job teaching grades 1-3. Click on '2009' on the left hand (currently) side to see the post. Stupid blogspot, but you get what you pay for.
As for something on the commentary: I have two Spikes in my life, and I think its time they meet. My step-dad goes by Spike, and a dear friend of mine goes by Spike as well (that being Mistress Leonora). Everybody who doesn't know one or the other, meet Spike my Step-dad and Spike the Laurel ;)
I hate blogspot sometimes.
I don't know why but for some reason the blog keeps cutting out my mission accomplished post when I load up the page, which is fine for the people who know I got it but not fine if they missed the update. So if you missed it: Have job teaching grades 1-3. Click on '2009' on the left hand (currently) side to see the post. Stupid blogspot, but you get what you pay for.
As for something on the commentary: I have two Spikes in my life, and I think its time they meet. My step-dad goes by Spike, and a dear friend of mine goes by Spike as well (that being Mistress Leonora). Everybody who doesn't know one or the other, meet Spike my Step-dad and Spike the Laurel ;)
I hate blogspot sometimes.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Mission Accomplished! (Heh)
As odd as it is to say it, it is the truth: I'm an Elementary School Teacher. I'll be teaching English to students grades 1, 2 and 3 at Glory International School in the Bangna community of Bangkok. Glory is a small International school run by 7th Day Adventists, and has been open for 9 months (we're approaching the end of the first school year since the Thai school year runs through March/April). My maximum class size? 6. We have 6 1st graders, 4 2nd graders and 2 3rd graders.
I'm really excited by the opportunity to work in a small class environment and really have an impact on my student's lives. The people running the school seem genuinely interested in making the school the best possible and not just making money. The starting salary is a little less than I would have liked, and I probably could have played hard ball to get more starting, but its hard to try to take advantage of a school I'm really looking forward to being a part of (that also only has 12 people). Salary is also going to be renegotiated at the end of my 3 month probationary period. So we'll see where that goes.
Along with that I also have...an apartment! And more importantly my apartment is not just within walking distance from the school, it is right across the street (literally). My commute is all of thirty seconds, door to door. And the cost is less than I had budgeted at about 4320 baht per month including water, internet and building maintenance but not including electricity (which is 7 baht per unit). And for those keeping track that comes to roughly 128 dollars per month at an exchange rate of 34 baht to the dollar, plus 21 cents per unit of electricity. And its right across the street from work.
The long awaited picture post will come later, I promise, but the news so far is good. Sweet!
Matt/Uji
As odd as it is to say it, it is the truth: I'm an Elementary School Teacher. I'll be teaching English to students grades 1, 2 and 3 at Glory International School in the Bangna community of Bangkok. Glory is a small International school run by 7th Day Adventists, and has been open for 9 months (we're approaching the end of the first school year since the Thai school year runs through March/April). My maximum class size? 6. We have 6 1st graders, 4 2nd graders and 2 3rd graders.
I'm really excited by the opportunity to work in a small class environment and really have an impact on my student's lives. The people running the school seem genuinely interested in making the school the best possible and not just making money. The starting salary is a little less than I would have liked, and I probably could have played hard ball to get more starting, but its hard to try to take advantage of a school I'm really looking forward to being a part of (that also only has 12 people). Salary is also going to be renegotiated at the end of my 3 month probationary period. So we'll see where that goes.
Along with that I also have...an apartment! And more importantly my apartment is not just within walking distance from the school, it is right across the street (literally). My commute is all of thirty seconds, door to door. And the cost is less than I had budgeted at about 4320 baht per month including water, internet and building maintenance but not including electricity (which is 7 baht per unit). And for those keeping track that comes to roughly 128 dollars per month at an exchange rate of 34 baht to the dollar, plus 21 cents per unit of electricity. And its right across the street from work.
The long awaited picture post will come later, I promise, but the news so far is good. Sweet!
Matt/Uji
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Uses of Time
What really gets me about the time difference is how much time you spend sleeping but don't even realize it. I'm fifteen hours ahead of Colorado so when I'm pondering bed at 11 PM it is 9 AM for most of you. And when I wake up at 7 then most of you are coming off of work or at home, having put in a full day's work.
It has really made me think about the budgeting of my time and how much of it I waste. One of my resolutions for the new year, thus, is to budget my time a little bit more effectively. Not lounge around and sleep until noon on the weekends; this won't be hard to stop during the week as I'm going to be working at 7:45 AM (as soon as I find a job). I want to make the most of my time, not just waste it away.
So we'll see how long that lasts, I did get up at 8 this morning to come down to the net cafe and hang out, so a good start. Pictures and trip commentary to follow.
What really gets me about the time difference is how much time you spend sleeping but don't even realize it. I'm fifteen hours ahead of Colorado so when I'm pondering bed at 11 PM it is 9 AM for most of you. And when I wake up at 7 then most of you are coming off of work or at home, having put in a full day's work.
It has really made me think about the budgeting of my time and how much of it I waste. One of my resolutions for the new year, thus, is to budget my time a little bit more effectively. Not lounge around and sleep until noon on the weekends; this won't be hard to stop during the week as I'm going to be working at 7:45 AM (as soon as I find a job). I want to make the most of my time, not just waste it away.
So we'll see how long that lasts, I did get up at 8 this morning to come down to the net cafe and hang out, so a good start. Pictures and trip commentary to follow.
Definitions of Big
A hectic few days to say the least. I'm sitting here in a net cafe in Bangkok writing this; my computer (and hence Blogspot) say it is 7:41 AM but for me its 9:41 PM, which is quite a change. We didn't have a Monday night, and I try not to think about the mechanics of that on my overall lifespan. Not that there are not other things to think about on that account, but more on that later.
This is not a picture post as I left the camera cord in my hotel room, so I'm just going to give a brief run down. Tuesday night we landed in Hong Kong and spent several amazing hours there wandering in the night and the next morning. Then Wednesday we flew in to Bangkok, checked in to the hotel and went wandering until we went to the New Years celebration.
Denver isn't small in the run of American cities; it isn't NY or LA but it isn't bad. But landing in Hong Kong I realized I needed a new definition of city size, because both Hong Kong and Bangkok are huge. I had known they were large going in, but I didn't realize how large they were or what that means. To get to work in Denver I would drive ten minutes on one street; going to Metro for my last semester I could do it in two streets.
To get to work Nathan used to have to take a bus, a canal boat and a sky train. The city just never ends (Bangkok at least). Even Hong Kong, which has a definite edge at the ocean, still seems to be more crammed with stuff than should be humanly possible.
Bangkok is so far pretty fascinating, and I'll have pictures of our tours of the temples and various other places in a following post or two, but what strikes me is how commercial it is. This is a great city if its 1 AM and you want something to eat, you can just go out on the street and find a food vendor real easy. Orange Juice, fresh squeezed and everything, for 20 baht (about 60 cents). Food ranging from the downright normal (fried meat on a stick is universal) to the downright horrifying (fried squid is not).
We went to about five malls in the first two hours after we checked in, and the smallest of them blew the top four malls in Colorado away no problem. The smallest was still like two Cherry Creek Shopping Centers on top of a Park Meadows Mall. And the largest, Central World? It makes the Mall of America look like it was designed by quiet people with no ambition. It has two Skyscrapers attached to it, and like 10 floors on the levels not in a skyscraper. I will never look at a mall the same way again. Sheesh.
And of course that night we were one decision away from likely death; there may be an alternate universe out there where I am dead, as a matter of fact. Which would make this blog /really/ boring. We went to Central World where there were four simultaneous concerts, streets closed off and filled with people, and a generally good time was had by all.
Across the city there was a nightclub fire that killed 60 people in a situation similar to the White Stripes fire a couple of years back; there was only one exit, some pyrotechnics from the band malfunctioned and 60 people died. That was our Plan B to go to, if Central World turned out to be lame.
So yeah, I'm trying not to think about that one too much.
Anyway, pictures in the not too distant future, and some exciting stories of beautiful temples.
Excelsior, and all that,
Matt Parker
Saito Takauji
A hectic few days to say the least. I'm sitting here in a net cafe in Bangkok writing this; my computer (and hence Blogspot) say it is 7:41 AM but for me its 9:41 PM, which is quite a change. We didn't have a Monday night, and I try not to think about the mechanics of that on my overall lifespan. Not that there are not other things to think about on that account, but more on that later.
This is not a picture post as I left the camera cord in my hotel room, so I'm just going to give a brief run down. Tuesday night we landed in Hong Kong and spent several amazing hours there wandering in the night and the next morning. Then Wednesday we flew in to Bangkok, checked in to the hotel and went wandering until we went to the New Years celebration.
Denver isn't small in the run of American cities; it isn't NY or LA but it isn't bad. But landing in Hong Kong I realized I needed a new definition of city size, because both Hong Kong and Bangkok are huge. I had known they were large going in, but I didn't realize how large they were or what that means. To get to work in Denver I would drive ten minutes on one street; going to Metro for my last semester I could do it in two streets.
To get to work Nathan used to have to take a bus, a canal boat and a sky train. The city just never ends (Bangkok at least). Even Hong Kong, which has a definite edge at the ocean, still seems to be more crammed with stuff than should be humanly possible.
Bangkok is so far pretty fascinating, and I'll have pictures of our tours of the temples and various other places in a following post or two, but what strikes me is how commercial it is. This is a great city if its 1 AM and you want something to eat, you can just go out on the street and find a food vendor real easy. Orange Juice, fresh squeezed and everything, for 20 baht (about 60 cents). Food ranging from the downright normal (fried meat on a stick is universal) to the downright horrifying (fried squid is not).
We went to about five malls in the first two hours after we checked in, and the smallest of them blew the top four malls in Colorado away no problem. The smallest was still like two Cherry Creek Shopping Centers on top of a Park Meadows Mall. And the largest, Central World? It makes the Mall of America look like it was designed by quiet people with no ambition. It has two Skyscrapers attached to it, and like 10 floors on the levels not in a skyscraper. I will never look at a mall the same way again. Sheesh.
And of course that night we were one decision away from likely death; there may be an alternate universe out there where I am dead, as a matter of fact. Which would make this blog /really/ boring. We went to Central World where there were four simultaneous concerts, streets closed off and filled with people, and a generally good time was had by all.
Across the city there was a nightclub fire that killed 60 people in a situation similar to the White Stripes fire a couple of years back; there was only one exit, some pyrotechnics from the band malfunctioned and 60 people died. That was our Plan B to go to, if Central World turned out to be lame.
So yeah, I'm trying not to think about that one too much.
Anyway, pictures in the not too distant future, and some exciting stories of beautiful temples.
Excelsior, and all that,
Matt Parker
Saito Takauji
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Mood: Anxious
At this point I am in the phase where I am pretty much just plowing forward toward my trip, because if I stop and think about what I'm doing I'll freak out. For those of you stumbling on this I'm moving to Bangkok, Thailand (my plane leaves in about 30 hours). I've been out of the country but never lived outside of Denver.
I said in High School that I wanted to travel abroad, see the world and all of that but I'm finding it is infinitely more terrifying to be faced with that prospect than to talk about it. Everyone I spoke to loved Thailand, or at least thought it was fascinating. But at the same time I'm leaving my family, my whole support network and everyone I know physically as well as distancing myself from all of my online friends temporally; Bangkok is 14 hours ahead of Mountain time, at least when we are not on DST.
Still there is little that I can do but go forward. If I stop now I'll probably regret it forever, and always wonder what would have happened if I'd tried it. If I end up back in a month or two broke but wiser then at least I can look myself in the eye later.
So welcome to the blog. As you can see I haven't posted much to it in the past (my prior comments to this are four years old). But this is your home for general Matt and Uji related news, updated frequently and (with hope) interestingly.
Matt/Uji
At this point I am in the phase where I am pretty much just plowing forward toward my trip, because if I stop and think about what I'm doing I'll freak out. For those of you stumbling on this I'm moving to Bangkok, Thailand (my plane leaves in about 30 hours). I've been out of the country but never lived outside of Denver.
I said in High School that I wanted to travel abroad, see the world and all of that but I'm finding it is infinitely more terrifying to be faced with that prospect than to talk about it. Everyone I spoke to loved Thailand, or at least thought it was fascinating. But at the same time I'm leaving my family, my whole support network and everyone I know physically as well as distancing myself from all of my online friends temporally; Bangkok is 14 hours ahead of Mountain time, at least when we are not on DST.
Still there is little that I can do but go forward. If I stop now I'll probably regret it forever, and always wonder what would have happened if I'd tried it. If I end up back in a month or two broke but wiser then at least I can look myself in the eye later.
So welcome to the blog. As you can see I haven't posted much to it in the past (my prior comments to this are four years old). But this is your home for general Matt and Uji related news, updated frequently and (with hope) interestingly.
Matt/Uji
Friday, August 13, 2004
Do you hear the people sing?
Do you hear the people sing,
Singing the songs of angry men,
It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again.
When the beating of your heart matches the beating of the drums,
There is a life about to dawn when tomorrow comes.
With these lines the freedom fighters in the musical adaptation of Victor Hugo's take up their arms to fight. They are a people who have suffered too much, had far more wrongs hoisted on their shoulders than their backs can take; with this rallying cry they struggle for justice and righteousness.
Here in America we are currently engaged in a struggle divided by those same battle lines; but our battle will come to head not on the crude but heroic barricade hastily wrought on a Paris street, it will be fought in curtain covered cloisters where we will strike blows of glorious Democracy.
And as we stoke the forge of Liberty, we have our own battle cry; it is a song deeply rooted in the song America, sung again during the Revolution in France. It is a prayer for change, a chant of liberte, fraternite, egalite, of Freedom equality and brotherhood.
It is the song of the Abu Ghraib prison, of torture, and of broken laws and false accountability.
It is the song of lies, of avarice and greed, of leading a country to war; of pride and arrogance and a hardly final end to combat; of doing what may be the right action for thousands of wrong reasons, and in thousands of wrong ways.
And it is the song of outrage at the trade-off spoken of in Franklin's wise words, of trading liberty for false security and receiving neither. It is the song of fury as the event we can never forget is held hostage to ambition we cannot deny; the song of a President who plays on fear and hate and fights for a God that must be unique to him alone.
It is a song being sung more and more by those on the left and on the right, a bubbling and broiling anger simmered over a fire of economics and stoked by the bellows of outrage at an America who believes God is on it's side while playing a game of might makes right.
It is a song of change in the fall, a song of hope and righteous anger, and a song finally being sung that cannot be ignored.
The question Mr. Bush is: Can you hear the people sing?
Do you hear the people sing,
Singing the songs of angry men,
It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again.
When the beating of your heart matches the beating of the drums,
There is a life about to dawn when tomorrow comes.
With these lines the freedom fighters in the musical adaptation of Victor Hugo's take up their arms to fight. They are a people who have suffered too much, had far more wrongs hoisted on their shoulders than their backs can take; with this rallying cry they struggle for justice and righteousness.
Here in America we are currently engaged in a struggle divided by those same battle lines; but our battle will come to head not on the crude but heroic barricade hastily wrought on a Paris street, it will be fought in curtain covered cloisters where we will strike blows of glorious Democracy.
And as we stoke the forge of Liberty, we have our own battle cry; it is a song deeply rooted in the song America, sung again during the Revolution in France. It is a prayer for change, a chant of liberte, fraternite, egalite, of Freedom equality and brotherhood.
It is the song of the Abu Ghraib prison, of torture, and of broken laws and false accountability.
It is the song of lies, of avarice and greed, of leading a country to war; of pride and arrogance and a hardly final end to combat; of doing what may be the right action for thousands of wrong reasons, and in thousands of wrong ways.
And it is the song of outrage at the trade-off spoken of in Franklin's wise words, of trading liberty for false security and receiving neither. It is the song of fury as the event we can never forget is held hostage to ambition we cannot deny; the song of a President who plays on fear and hate and fights for a God that must be unique to him alone.
It is a song being sung more and more by those on the left and on the right, a bubbling and broiling anger simmered over a fire of economics and stoked by the bellows of outrage at an America who believes God is on it's side while playing a game of might makes right.
It is a song of change in the fall, a song of hope and righteous anger, and a song finally being sung that cannot be ignored.
The question Mr. Bush is: Can you hear the people sing?
Thursday, August 12, 2004
Dulce et Decorum est…
A very wise man once told me that his litmus test for whether or not a war was truly and inevitable necessary was thus: Whether or not he would want to send his children to fight in the war. Being a loving parent, this is a hard test to pass indeed.
This is how we must look at the War in Iraq; with the critical eye of someone who may be sending their most precious people off to die. When the Congress of the United States of America voted to give President George W. Bush the authority to wage war in Iraq, only one Congressman had a child in the Military. Sexual discrimination in the military aside, no Alex or Vanessa Kerry’s were shipped out to fight on the front lines; Jenna Bush is not encamped in Falujah or in a Baghdad Shiyite ghetto, wondering if Al-Sadr is going to get her killed.
But there are a great many young men and women serving in Falujah, and in the Baghdad ghettoes. There are a great many sons and daughters who are putting their lives on the line for a war they may or may not have supported.
We have always made heroes of our military—there is a reason G.I. Joe is still around—but do so without looking at the real reasons for the fighting they do. Our children fight the War on Terror, and our children die fighting it. When they do, we hang our heads and pray for them.
But when we are done praying for them we give speeches; our leaders tell us that they fight for Freedom, and they fight for our Safety, and that they give their lives in the service of something greater. It is an old tune with new words: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.
The line, which literally means “It is sweet and right to die for your country,” is most famously used in the Wilfred Owen poem Dulce et Decorum est. The poem speaks of lies used to bring children in to War, to recruit for the army.
“If in some smothering dream you too could pace
Behind the wagon we flung him in
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin…
…My friend you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory
The old Lie: Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.”
If we were on the front lines of the War on Terror, if we were bent double like old beggars in a bunker waiting for a 15 year old with a Rocket Propelled Grenade launcher to come looking for us; if we lived in fear of the bullet that would do us in, of the boy our own age with an AK-47 with murder in his eyes, would we say the things we do?
If every day we lived in fear of another new militia army attacking our post, if we fought day by day against the people we had come to save, would we tell our children Dulce et Decorum est?
How can a Congress vote to go to war when only one man of hundreds has a child with a stake in the game?
And how can we, as Americans, sit by and watch our children and our friends die? With the election coming, with a chance to change and bring our family’s home, can we truly sit by and do nothing.
America, ask yourselves…is it truly Dulce et Decorum est pro patria mori?
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