The War for the Oxford Comma

Being an English teacher has really changed the way I look at things. I have thought more about and begun to care more about grammar in the last few weeks than I ever have in my life. It's actually pretty interesting.

At my school, some of the textbooks are American, while the others are British. For the most part this isn't a problem, other than the hilariously awkward sounding British audio CD's I have to play in class, which almost always make me laugh. Some things can be a little confusing however.

Spelling isn't usually a big deal. I always tell my students that it's ok to spell it theater or theatre, color or colour. I actually kind of prefer the "our" spelling. Certain words really bother me though, like "practise". That just looks weird. Or "realise". Why would you even spell it like that, Britain?

Then there's the whole thing I have about the phrase "at the weekend"  instead of "on the weekend". That doesn't even make sense. I had marked it wrong in a whole stack of essays before I asked Geoffrey about it. We are always having to ask him if something is British or just a mistake on the part of our students.

The worst thing though is the lack of the Oxford Comma. I know, grammatically it's ok not to use it. The UK, Australia, and other places that use British English generally forgo the Oxford Comma. I just think that it's really essential, and I have been trying to get my students to use it all year. They haven't been taught it and always ask me why I write in that second comma in their writings.

The Oxford Comma, by the way, is when you use a comma to set apart the last two items on a list. We learn it in the US, and don't think anything of it.

Here are some reasons it's important:

"I like to eat apples, ice cream and chicken curry."

The above statement makes it look like I like ice cream with curry on top of it which is just gross. That comma is important.

Here's another one that I found online to illustrate my point. Imagine someone just won a big award and was making their acceptance speech.

"I would like to thank my parents, Bill Clinton and Oprah Winfrey."

He is trying to thank four people, not two. Bill and Oprah are not his parents.

You can see why this bothers me! It's become a crusade for me and Kelsey, one of the Prathom teachers. I think the other teachers kind of find it funny how much we care about this.

Mae Sot Part 2

Sorry for the confusion in the last post. Again, I didn't mean for it to sound so dramatic. It turns out that some folks read the end as "I went to bed and never turned on the air-conditioning because I WAS DEAD", when in fact it should have been read as "because I was a little cold". Sorry. I didn't realize how it sounded until I read over it later. Anyway, I'm not dead.

Also, I didn't mean for it to be a week between posts. School has been very busy lately, and I've been staying late to tutor and just haven't had much time lately.

And now back to Mae Sot...

I woke up Sunday morning feeling much better. My fever broke overnight, and while I still felt weak, I wasn't nearly as sick as I had been the day before. I woke up before my alarm, and met Geoffrey for breakfast at 7. We checked out of the Hotel Erawan and were back on the road by 8 (I remember this because the national anthem plays on the TV and radio every morning at 8 and every evening at 6).

On the way back over the mountains, we stopped in at a market on the side of the road and got some fresh fruit to take back to town. I got some apples and grapes.

at the market

We also stopped in at some hot springs. There were several Muslim families picnicking and celebrating the end of Ramadan. Thailand is too hot to really get in the hot springs, but it's really popular here to boil eggs in the water in nets.

We drove on a little ways, but after a while we pulled the car off the main road to a small temple.  It turns out that the temple is inhabited by monkeys, and for 10 baht you can buy a bag of food for them.

We got out of the car and tossed monkey food to them. There were some Thai families there feeding the monkeys too. They were so funny! They weren't aggressive or anything, but they would all race to get the food. Some of them had babies with them.

And one climbed on top of our car while we were parked!

a mountain behind the monkey temple... I've never seen mountains like the ones here in Thailand

We drove on a little ways longer, and around noon we stopped for lunch at a gas station/restaurant like the one we stopped at on the way home from Kanchanaburi a few weeks ago. Geoffrey and I were quite excited to see royal project honey for sale at the store!

As we were nearing Bangkok we stopped at one last site. Geoffrey drove up a small mountain to a big golden temple. It was a holy day, and there were people inside praying, and we didn't want to interrupt and go in. The view from the top was incredible though!

Geoffrey dropped me off at my apartment a little around 2 or 3 in the afternoon. I still wasn't feeling my best, and spent our Monday holiday resting. I ended up going into the school clinic on Tuesday, and was feeling fine again by Thursday.

I really can't describe how great and rewarding the weekend was. Even though we had a lot of fun and got to see some of the country, my experience at Mae Sot will always be defined by the village in the dump site.

Either that or the monkeys. 

(But seriously... the kids at the village).

I'm OK

Hey everybody,

I realize that my last blog post made it sound like I was dying. I wasn't actually that sick; I just had a fever which was made worse by heat and exhaustion. I felt much better after a good night's sleep!

I had to split my blog into two parts because it was so long. I guess I accidentally split it in the most dramatic way possible.

I'm really fine! Besides, that was over a week ago. I'm completely recovered.

Mae Sot Part 1

The alarm on my phone woke me up at 5 in the morning last Saturday, well before the sun. As I was getting dressed and prepared for my trip, I noticed that I felt really achy. I figured that I had just slept badly, and put it down to the hard mattress on my bed.

Geoffrey called me just before 5:30 to tell me he was on Lat Prao and heading towards Soi 46, so I grabbed my duffel bag and headed downstairs to meet him. He had hired a car from Thai Rent-a-Car. He offered to let me drive part of the way, but I'm too nervous to drive without a license on what he continually reminded me was the "correct" side of the street.

Geoffrey brought a Thai friend named Dek, who would help drive and guide us over the weekend. I settled comfortably in the back seat, Geoffrey took the wheel, and we headed off on our adventure, getting an early start.

... or so we thought. We actually got lost for about an hour in Bangkok, and crossed the Chao Phraya river two or three times before we finally got heading the right direction. Anyway, as the sun was beginning to rise over Bangkok, we left the city heading for the north-west of the country.

We stopped briefly to grab breakfast at a truck stop for breakfast (or the closest thing to what we consider breakfast - sweet Chinese sausage and fried eggs with rice). I wasn't super hungry, but I ate anyway (not a good sign).

just some elephants we passed

We stopped again after a few hours to get a coffee. We were driving through the mountains at this point, and the three of us stopped at a little mountaintop outdoor cafe and stretched our legs for a few minutes.

the view was outstanding - photos don't do it justice

We arrived in Mae Sot a little after noon. We had been delayed a bit due to getting lost in Bangkok and mist on the mountain roads that forced us to drive slowly. We checked into the Hotel Erawan and just dropped of our bags before getting back in the car to visit the school.

Visiting the school was the main point of our Mae Sot trip. Geoffrey has been really involved with Sky Blue School since moving to Bangkok 23 years ago. I think he became involved through his church. Every few months he delivers donated clothes, toys, and supplies to the school. He collects satang coins (1/2 and 1/4 baht... you rarely see them used since they're worth less than a penny) and saves them up to donate to the school. I was really happy and excited to be invited along for the weekend.

The school was just a few minutes drive from our hotel. It's a far cry from my school in downtown Bangkok. Sitting in the middle of a field, Sky Blue was a small, one-story building housing every subject taught at the school. Since it was Saturday, there weren't many students there. About 15 kids (orphaned refugees from Burma mostly) live at the school, and were eating lunch in the canteen. The canteen was a small room with a dirt floor and a cook fire in the corner. The kids were sitting on a rug watching some Thai comedy on an old black and white TV.

the school

We met up with the school's principal and I helped Geoffrey and Dek distribute clothes to the kids. It was a little tough trying to find something that fit each student, but in the end everyone got something. Then Geoffrey gave me a stack of 20 Baht notes to hand out. He told me to give one to each kid. 20 Baht is really nothing; around $0.60 US. It was amazing though how the kids faces lit up when they got that little green piece of paper. It's not much, but it's enough for them to buy some candy or something, and maybe make their day a little better. Geoffrey gave me a tour of the school. There were no classrooms, just partitions between different areas with chalkboards. It's so different from where I teach. We walked around and played football (soccer) with some kids for a few minutes. Then Geoffrey led me behind the school. He wanted to show me where most of the students live.

It turns out that they live in a literal garbage dump. The families, mostly Burmese refugees, have built huts in the dump site, and a little village has sort of sprung up there. We walked around for a while. The kids were running barefoot through the garbage, and since it had just rained, the entire place was muddy. We waded through mud and stagnant black water. I was really starting to feel upset, my shoes were practically ruined. Then I stopped and reevaluated things. Why was I complaining? My two year old running shoes were a little muddy? Most of these kids didn't even have shoes at all, and they were running and playing.

a hut at the dump site

Geoffrey and I both sunk into the mud a few times (I call it mud, but it was really probably garbage and sewage... best not to think about it), and both of us ruined our shoes. It didn't really matter though. Geoffrey continued to pass out 20 Baht notes to every kid we saw. I have to hand it to Geoffrey, he has quite a way with making them laugh, especially when he tried to get one little kid to give him a ride on the back of his bike; Geoffrey is not a small guy! The kids thought that was hilarious.

my boss trying to get a ride on the back of a bike

We waved goodbye as Dek drove the car down to meet us. You can't really tell in the pictures how bad the living conditions really were. I was pretty shocked, yet the kids seemed happy.

some kids seeing what we were doing

Our next stop was the actual Burmese border, the westernmost point in Thailand. As the day went on I was feeling progressively worse. When we got to the actual border, it was the hottest part of the day. I didn't know it at the time, but I probably had a fever. I'm not one to complain though, and I don't often get sick. I think the heat and probably some dehydration didn't help much. I was feeling pretty overheated, really achy, and very fatigued. I tried my best to keep up with Geoffrey though as he showed me the border.

Burma is a notoriously reclusive country, very closed off from the outside world. Until recently, American citizens weren't even allowed to enter. Along with North Korea, Burma was one of two countries on Earth where Coca-Cola wasn't sold.

Just last year the country began to open up. Burma is part of the ASEAN community, and has started to be more receptive to dialogue and trade with the outside world. It is still very difficult to visit, but no longer impossible. Even so, the border was a very strange one. The Thai side was raised up, and there was a sort of boardwalk overlooking a refugee camp on the Burmese side. Geoffrey and I walked along the boardwalk past Thai military police and raised kiosks where Burmese were trying to sell bottles of liquor tax free (since they were technically not in Thailand). It was a very strange experience. While the sun beat down on us and baked the parched ground, Geoffrey commented on how odd it was that the river seemed to have moved in the last month. This was especially strange, as we had heard reports of heavy flooding in the north just the week previously.

As we left the border, I was feeling really ill; my head was pounding, and my body was aching like crazy. I was determined not to let it slow me down though, and we started off to our last stop of the day. As we were driving, the sky began to darken, but it wouldn't rain just yet.

dark clouds gather over the mountains

Geoffrey took me to Thailand's largest refugee camp. It has been open for over 25 years now, ever since a bloody civil war in Burma. There is a whole generation of people, some even older than I am, who have never seen the world outside of the camp. We couldn't go inside, but Geoffrey told me a little about it as we drove past. He said that the camp is divided into three sections. The third section is for Christian refugees, and the only time he was ever able to go in was to visit a small church there.

Thailand's largest refugee camp; it goes on for miles

The camp was clean, and compared to what we had seen at the dump site, actually looked fairly livable. Still, I can't imagine living your entire life inside just a few square miles. It went back quite a ways though, I'm not sure how big it is or how many refugees it houses, but I imagine quite a lot.

It had been a long day and I was ready to crawl into bed because I was pretty sure that I was probably dying at this point. Geoffrey and Dek talked about dinner, and told me that they were going to take me to KFC. Fine... I was just really tired. I would eat anything.

As the car pulled into the parking lot and a valet opened the door, I was very confused. This wasn't like any KFC I had ever been to! Laughing, Geoffrey told me that he had tricked me. It wasn't Kentucky Fried Chicken, he had taken me to a restaurant called King's Food Center... KFC. It turns out that this KFC was like an incredibly upscale outdoor version of Rainforest Cafe, minus the animatronic jungle creatures. The atmosphere was very nice, and the designers had worked the landscape and nature features into the construction of the restaurant.

It's actually pretty famous. The wall showed newspaper clippings and photographs of Princess Sirindhorn's visit several years ago. Geoffrey encouraged me to walk around a bit while he ordered for us. The cool air coming off a little pond along with the shady trees and quiet atmosphere had made me feel a bit better, and I wandered around for a while before heading back to our table.

part of the restaurant where we sat overlooking a little stream

We got a few dishes to share family style, and three plates of rice. Everything in Thailand is served over rice (even omelets). We had a spicy fish dish and a chicken dish. Afterwards we had dessert while the sun went down.

It was pretty funny. We were sitting outside at this really nice restaurant covered up to our ankles in mud. After walking around in the heat all day we probably stank too. It didn't matter though. It was really nice to get a chance to rest for a while at dinner, and I really enjoyed it.

I don't know if I'm doing the restaurant justice. I'm not really sure how better to describe it, and the pictures aren't great. There is an NPR podcast I sometimes listen to called "How to do Everything". Lately, they feature a "toilet of the week" at the end of their show where they interview people about the nicest restrooms they have come across. If I ever get the chance I will submit the toilet at King's Food Center. That was one of the things that Geoffrey told me specifically to check out when I was walking around. The toilets are built into this little cave/grotto/thing behind a jungly garden. I'm sorry, I'm really not great at describing this.

You'll just have to go there if you ever happen to be in Mae Sot, Thailand.

"KFC"

the restaurant

The food was really good, and so was dessert. It was dark as we were leaving, and just starting to rain. As we were driving back to Hotel Erawan, I began shivering in the front seat. I thought it was probably the rain, although I'm not sure the rain was really that cold. We were almost to the hotel when we were stopped by traffic. The police had closed down the main street, and we were stuck at an intersection for about fifteen minutes while an official procession of nine police cars (we counted), eight identical white sedans, and five more police cars sped towards the border. We still don't know what was going on, but we figure it was someone important going to Burma for some sort of ASEAN meeting.

While we were stopped I was shivering pretty badly, and kept thinking about how nice a hot shower would feel. We finally got to the hotel, I said goodnight to Geoffrey and Dek, and went to my room. I had gotten wet walking from the car to the lobby, and I was freezing. I tried to take a hot shower, but the water felt tepid at best despite the tankless water heater (it was actually hot, I just had a fever, I realized later). Even though it was only a little past 8 o'clock, I wrapped up in every blanket I had and fell asleep. I never turned the AC on.

Mother's Day Weekend

Today (Monday, August 12) is Queen Sirikit's birthday. Her Majesty was born on a Friday, so her royal color is blue. Due to this, we are required to wear blue every day in August. It's not so bad for the guys; I've got a few blue ties to rotate between. The girls have a harder time though. Basically everything is blue; the palace and all government buildings are flying the queen's blue flag.

The queen's birthday is a national holiday here in Thailand. It's also Mother's Day. Mother's Day is a really big deal here, and the queen is seen as the mother of the country.

A few weeks ago, my British boss Geoffrey invited me to come with him to Mae Sot over the weekend. Geoffrey is really involved with helping support a small school and clinic there. Mae Sot is located in the far north-west of the country, past the foothills of the Himalayas. In fact, it's the westernmost point in Thailand, and at one point I stood literally inches away from the very odd Burmese border. I waded through a garbage dump, introduced Geoffrey to iced coffee, met some orphaned Burmese refugees at the school, and ate at the most amazingly unexpected KFC I've ever seen.

I got back on Sunday evening, and despite fighting a pretty bad fever, I feel really good. Getting to see Mae Sot, a very different image of Thailand than the one I see in Bangkok, was a very rewarding and humbling experience. I will be writing about it in two parts.

Happy Birthday to Queen Sirikit!

Happy Thai Mother's Day to my mom!

Thanks for the day off!

Speed Racer

Oh yeah,

I also promised that if I ever found the dorky Speed Racer photo of me on the scooter in Kanchanaburi, I would post it. Well, here it is!

That was at the guesthouse where we stayed in town on the first night. The scooter was really fun to ride. Luckily there wasn't much traffic; they drive in the left in Thailand, and it was very confusing!

Kanchanaburi Part 4: In the Countryside

Next we went to a historical battlefield where the Thai and Burmese armies had clashed in a bloody war hundreds of years ago. There was a huge memorial to the Thai general, the brother of King Rama I.

It was beginning to get really hot, and even with sunscreen we were beginning to burn. I'm outside quite a bit in Bangkok, but because of the pollution, I haven't been burnt. It was almost a little weird to see a blue sky! P'Ja asked if we were hungry, and drove us to a nearby guesthouse on the Kwai Noi (Little Kwai), an arm of the Kwai. After eating various Thai dishes, she took us to a really famous temple.

That tree is over 500 years old. It is said to house the ancient spirit of a girl who was wrongfully killed. The locals believe that if you pray at the shrine there and make a wish, the ghost will help it come true. If it does, they bring silks and girls clothes to leave as an offering at the shrine to thank her.

They were working on building a huge new temple. We got to sign our names on the back of one of the roof tiles!

Next, we drove to Erawan National Park to see the famous seven-tiered Erawan Waterfall. Unfortunately we were a little late, and only arrived in time to see the first and least impressive tier. Since it was a holiday weekend, there were tons of people swimming in the pool under the waterfall. It was quite a hike to get to each consecutive tier, and the park had already closed tiers two through seven to begin clearing people out for the evening. Again, we saw lots of obnoxious Russian tourists. They're everywhere, very obvious, and incredibly rude.

some cool scenery

After leaving the park, P'Ja took us to see the Kanchanaburi Dam. It's the second largest Dam in Thailand and provides hydroelectric power to much of the country. P'Ja's husband P'Chai is an engineer who helped construct the dam and worked there for twenty years.

some more cool scenery (at the reservoir)

again, cool scenery 

the dam

three farangs atop the dam

The sun was going down as we drove back to the bungalows to meet up with the rest of the family. We had a delicious Thai dinner.

And then it was time for the inevitable conclusion of any Thai gathering: Thai Karaoke. For some reason, the Thai families really love to sing karaoke. They're not very good, which is what makes it even more hilarious. Most of the songs were in Thai, but they found some songs by the Beatles and we were expected to sing. So I sang "Let it Be" and "Yesterday" with Kelsey and Katie. That was enough to satisfy the family, luckily!

I really like all of my female coworkers, but I think the men could tell that I had been missing guy time. They really enjoyed hanging out with me, and P'Chai began calling me "my son". He showed me pictures that his family had taken on vacations with farang teachers in previous years, and pointed out his other "sons". One of them was my friend, Grant who had welcomed me to Bangkok several weeks ago.

me with P'Joc (Uncle Jocky) to the left, and P'Chai in the middle

The next morning we ate rice porridge with chicken, and then headed out. On our way back to Bangkok, the family took us back to the temple. They wanted to get us Thai amulets. We met with a monk who said a blessing over the amulets. P'Ja told us that they are the most powerful type of Buddhist amulet, and are for "all the good things". In Thailand, an amulet is believed to have more power based on how old it is, and which monks have blessed it. Ours were blessed by a very old and supposedly famous (in Kanchanaburi) monk named Pla Tha Grada (spelling?). He also gave us delicious dragonfruit!

*I really can't believe that it took me so long to update this blog. Things have been super busy here lately, and there's been some weird political stuff which I'll write about soon, I'm sure. I did so much in one weekend in Kanchanaburi, that it was a little overwhelming! Work-wise, noting really notable has happened in the last few weeks. I'll try to continue catching up. This weekend is another holiday, and I'm going on another road trip. I'll let you all know how it goes!

Kanchanaburi Part 3: Mueng Singh

The next morning was an early one. P'Ja wanted to get an early start. Breakfast was at 7. It was simple, just toast and coffee. We all drove to the temple in the village. It was Sunday, and a pretty important day. The reason we had a holiday from school was to celebrate the beginning of the rainy season, and the three month period if fasting and prayer known as Buddhist Lent. Monks return to their home monestaries and can't travel during this period, so locals bring them food and supplies to see them through.

early morning

We sat cross-legged on the floor while the monks sang and chanted for a while, then our family brought plates with food forward for the monks to eat. We got lots of stares while we were there. Two or three people took pictures of us, and some even sent their kids forward to do it for them. P'Ja suggested that we might have been the first three westerners the younger kids had ever seen.

the monks eating their meal at the temple

After we left the temple, P'Jo and P'Chai went back to hang out at the bungalows. P'Ja and her son, Boom, drove us around to show us everything. We were pretty far out in the country at this point. The first place they took us was Mueng Singh Historical Park. Mueng Singh means "City of Lions", and was an old fortress hundreds of years ago. Now it's just a ruin, but we got to walk around and climb up over the crumbling walls.

It was sprinkling lightly, but not enough to cause any trouble. We spent an hour or two at Mueng Singh, and P'Ja bought us watermelon to share.