Thursday, April 22

Today Roman and I checked out Suan Phlu, the park nearest the house. We usually only walk down the road that cuts through the park, but this time we exited, turned the corner, and then entered into a different part of the park (again, some exits and entrances are closed because they have to staff them due to Covid precautions—entering the park usually wouldn't take so much maneuvering).

But the park is much larger and lovelier than we'd realized from the road. We walked all around, admiring the flowers and the views. 

We also had lunch nearby—on the street that leads to the park, there are two long skinny chain-link cages with a few food carts and some seating set up inside. We sat inside, which was shaded from the midday sun and surprisingly cool, and ordered bowls of soup with pork loin, ground pork, bean sprouts, and rice noodles.

I got an email from another school I applied to, for a Kindergarten teacher position with a June 1 start date. They asked me to fill out an application form and create a video of a 10-15 minute teaching demo on the topic of animals.

So I spent most of the afternoon researching lesson plans using the Montessori Method (which they use for Kindergarten at this school), sample lessons for Kindergarten students, and online ESL lessons for young learners. Ooh, I'm gonna have to be animated! There may also be some animal noises happening. This video will be prime blackmail material. I'll have to destroy it afterwards.

The application also had like eight interview-style questions, such as How do students learn? So, yeah, that pretty much became my whole afternoon. Trying to get a job really is like its own (unpaid) job.

In the early evening, I met up with another American I'd connected with, an ex-pat named Sean. We met at Lumphini Park just as the sun was starting to go down.

And the park was so busy! It was full of runners, fast walkers, and the Tai Chi set.

We chatted about Thailand, travel and—especially—Covid. I think when I first arrived here, the crowds of people on the street and the low number of Covid cases & deaths made me underestimate the impact the pandemic has had on everyday life (and not just for people in the tourism industry). But at this point, I've talked to several people about their experiences, and they sound in some ways similar to many people in the US. There's the same fear for one's health and the health of one's loved ones, the isolation, the loss of social connections, and the restrictions on travel (including travel within the country to see family).

Even though I think a lot fewer people here know anyone who's had Covid, let alone anyone who's died from Covid, their lives have still been effected enormously. And the very slow vaccine rollout means it's probably going to go on like this for some time.

I arrived back at Lumphini station around 7:45pm, where everything was shutting down for the night. I grabbed some salad rolls from the last open street cart and headed home for a late dinner.

When I sat down at the table and opened the plastic container, I was a little surprised. I hadn't realized the salad rolls would be so...hotdoggy?

As it turned out, the salad rolls were filled with either hot dog, ultra-processed ham, krab, or what looked to be ground pork. They were served with a sweet creamy sauce that reminded me of bottled salad dressing. I saved the ground pork for the last, assuming it would be the best, and it turned out to be canned tuna. It was a pretty funny, pretty bad meal.

For the last couple days, I have been emailing with the school that I have an interview with tomorrow. On the job posting, it said that one of the requirements was “having a valid tourist or non-immigrant visa (Non-O or Non-B visa is preferable).” I have a tourist visa that's neither Non-O nor Non-B. They emailed me a quick question about my visa last night, and I replied. Then when I got home, I had this email from them:

According to the announcement on (the job posting site), one of the required documents is a non B visa. Because we need to have those documents when we sign the contract and ask for the waiver of a teaching license from the Teacher's Council of Thailand. However, let's have a teaching demonstration as we have made an arrangement.

I was annoyed. I mean, the persnickety part of me was annoyed because, like, they actually said a Non-B visa was preferable, not required. But of course I was more annoyed because it sounds like I'm maybe not eligible for the job, but they wanna go ahead with the interview because they made an arrangement? Also, as I've prepared this job demo, I've become increasingly aware that I don't really want to teach English to middle & high school age students who are already pretty proficient with the language. It will require me to teach them a lot more complex grammar, and I just don't think I'd be that good at it, especially for my first job. Let's just say, I would much rather teach a lesson on animals than the present perfect continuous.

Anyway, I sent a polite email back, saying that I understand if I am not eligible for the position...but that if I am not in fact eligible for the position, I'd prefer to cancel the interview. Please advise, etc, etc.

So, we will see. I still have my Animals lesson that I plan to complete and send tomorrow, and my first choice school finally got back to me today, apologizing for the delay and letting me know that they extended their Songkran holiday due to the latest Covid stuff, but that should have an answer for me tomorrow. So the search continues...