Tuesday, April 27

I woke up at 6:00am to get ready for a job interview at 8:30am in a different part of town.

Remember those large green tapioca pearls we bought in Chinatown? Well, we soaked and cooked them, with the intention of using some in iced coffee/tea drinks, but they never really got totally jellied—the very center of each pearl remained white and a little chalky. So instead, I heated them up for breakfast, with a little sugar, coconut milk, and mango, and they became perfectly jellied.

It was kind of breakfast for aliens.

Lumphini station was busy at 7:00am (though the train itself was not). There were more vendors out than usual, selling pre-made packaged meals—rice with eggs, rice with stir fried chicken, sandwiches cut on the diagonal. It was the same at the MRT station where I got off the train—and lots of people were picking up their breakfasts (or lunches?) to go.

After I got off the metro, I walked to a nearby bus stop. Within a few minutes, an old red bus rambled up and very briefly stopped while I hopped on. We were moving at a clip before I’d even climbed the stairs. The conductor came by, and I paid my 8 baht for the Non-AC bus, then settled in.

View of the bus

View from the bus--not all of Bangkok looks modern; there are a lot of squat, exhaust-
stained concrete buildings like this one

Riding the bus was pretty fun. There were plenty of open seats, the windows were wide open, and, at 7:30am, it wasn't too hot. We bounced along, barely rolling to a stop to let people on and off. When it was my turn, I just stepped onto the sidewalk before the bus roared off, and I felt a moment of vertigo before I got my bearings.

The school was a 10 minute walk from the bus stop, through a quiet, shady, upscale neighborhood.

The interview was with Thai Christian School, the school with an open Kindergarten Teacher position that I sent my Animals video to. I still have some reservations about teaching at a Christian school, but they seem a lot less formal or strict than the Catholic private school I applied to.

I think the interview went well. The campus looks nice—it’s fairly modern, with a large basketball court and several big buildings. I sat in an air-conditioned room, across a conference table from the school director, two Thai teachers, and an administrator. They had watched my teaching demo video and mentioned several times things they liked about it, which was of course nice and encouraging to hear. They told me they had pushed their start date to June 1 because they don’t teach kindergarten online (whew).

But...the Christian component. The school uses bible lessons in their teaching, the students pray at the start of the day, and a lot of their materials mention using Christian curriculum to create well-rounded, moral young people. And, I mean, that’s really not my thing. I don’t believe in it and I don’t particularly like the idea of teaching it. And I feel especially weird about Christianity in Thailand, since it’s a religion introduced by Western evangelists.

But I need a job. I started applying over three weeks ago and still haven't found anything—and for many schools, the semester begins in May. Which is a couple days away. I liked the overall vibe at TCS, they've been well-organized and communicative throughout the process, the job pays well, and I think it's cool that the Kindergarten uses the Montessori Method. I would take the job if they offered it. But I do feel like something of a hypocrite. For the record.

I took the bus back home, which was air-conditioned, but still only 17 baht. A crowded bus would suck and I don’t know how reliable they are, but for my return journey, it was a nice way to get from place to place.

View of the AC bus

Roman was feeling a little sick to his stomach (oh no!), so he relaxed while I picked up some supplies at 7-Eleven and some soda water, and worked on my teaching demo for tomorrow.

I also had my first homemade kombucha in Thailand! It was guava-cayenne flavored and delicious.

There's something magical about the fact that my six bottles of sparkling kombucha resulted from one 8-ounce store-bought bottle of kombucha, sweet tea, and time.

In the afternoon, the sky suddenly opened and began pouring rain. Like, sheets and sheets of unceasing rain. It rattled the windows and pooled on the kitchen floor. It soaked the floors of the upper bathroom (which has some holes in the ceiling), and it flooded the alley outside our door with at least five inches of rain.

Bathroom ceiling holes

When we opened the sliding doors to look out, we saw our neighbor, Willy, bailing water out of his living room with a bucket. A desperate cockroach was trying to swim across the alley, passing his deceased brethren along the way.

And apparently, none of this even touches on what it's like in the rainy season.

But slowly, the rain started to stop, and then the alley began to drain, and within a couple hours, everything was still damp but basically back to normal.

Before

After

Before

After