Saying Goodbye

The following week was geared towards giving the students their finals. Overall the classes did fairly well on their exams and it was nice to finish them up.  The weekend of March 2nd we had English camp at school. It was a full day event on Saturday where the 6th graders came and practiced English through games and activities. There were a few other foreign teachers there including Rob and I, and all of us together had to do a few dances for the students. One was to the tune of I've Got a Feeling, and then we did the dance to YMCA.  Throughout the day the students were broken into different groups and participated in different games and dances to try and win contests or points. My team was the Sunbirds, and our song was: We are the sunbirds, Hot Hot Hot! Yellow golden rays, Hot Hot Hot! We are the sunbirds, Hot Hot Hot! Yellow golden rays, Hot Hot Hot! We are the sunbirds, We Are The Sunbirds, WE ARE THE SUNBIRDS, HOT! HOT! HOT!. My group of students were quite intelligent but they were not the most active students as they were all shy. This means we didn't win any of the dance competitions, and normally placed in the bottom half. Despite of our lack of ability in physical talents, the mental prowess of my team was not lacking. This led to us being runner ups for the overall competition throughout the day, not bad considering we did poorly in the dancing. This put very capacious smiles on their faces as they had been quite cheerless due to their placement in the earlier competitions. It made me feel happy that they did well. Being the first runner ups meant they each received two bags of chips and fruit flavored Mentos. Although they enjoyed the treats I think the recognition that they did well among their peers was much more rewarding.

The next day Amaris came to explore Phra Pradaeng. I took her for a walk behind the Big C to the Islamic enclave. I then showed her the park I frequent after which we went to the floating market and had some Thai lettuce wraps. The market was peaceful as usual and we sat in the jungle and had our food. Later in the day I also took her to the restaurant in my building and we had some dinner. Since I am getting close to moving out I gave her some things that were sitting around my apartment, such as toilet paper and half bottles of Sky Vodka and Bailey's and Cream that were sitting in my room unused. She had to start heading back as she wanted to catch the last boat to Khao San Road, which is around where she lives. She didn't want to take a taxi back so I rode with her on a song tao and the 20 bus to show her how to get to the BTS, after giving her a hug and saying farewell I hopped back on the bus and headed to my apartment.

During the school week of March 5th 2012, I had pretty much finished administering finals for the semester, since I needed to turn in grades in a week and a half. A few of the classes had been absent the previous week so I made up exams for them, but the rest we had a relaxing fun time. Since the course was more or less over at this point, I taught them about the solar system, Shakespeare, and allowed them to watch  The Power Puff Girls. They were quite fascinated with the solar system, much like they are fascinated with maps. I have come to the conclusion that Thai children are fascinated with maps because they are connected to the world media just like any other individual. There difference is for the average Thai child it will not be attainable for them to travel around the world to the level that it is for the youth of other nations. This causes them to be dreamers about the outside world and in turn they are fascinated with maps while hearing stories about other cultures and cities.
It was also very cute to hear young Thai children reciting Shakespeare in the front of the class. I can't say they fully understood the dialogue, but they certainly understood the meaning of it. It was an excerpt from Romeo and Juliet. Specifically it was when Juliet was telling Romeo that a rose by any other name is still a Rose. I don't believe they fully understood the concept of the phrase, but as stated before the understood the underlying meaning of it being about two young lovers.

On Saturday I headed into Bangkok for a day full of errands. First I went to Superrich, which is a currency exchanger that offers the best rates in Bangkok, in order to exchange the majority of my currency. It went over surprisingly smoothly and I was out of the exchange in 20 minutes. After that I headed up to JJ, the weekend market, in order to do some shopping to find presents for my nephews and niece. I ended up buying the boys a Thai slingshot each, and Caylee a really cute fish purse that will be almost as large as her. I am going to tell the boys that the slingshots are used in rural Thailand to hunt rodents, which are then cooked and ate--this isn't a deviation from the truth. Once done at the market I headed down to Dasa bookstore one last time to trade back in The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which was an amazing book. After this I headed back to Siam Discovery, which is a mall by MBK, to meet Devon. Devon had been at a CPR class all day in order to be certified to work in a summer program she is doing in Switzerland. The credit on my phone had expired by this point in time  so we had to make arrangements where and when to meet up the night before. We agreed to meet in the Starbucks at Siam Discovery. Unfortunately the Starbucks was under construction and closed, but when I arrived there was a coffee shop nearby that I waited for her in. When she arrived she saw me and it ended up working fine despite a lack of communication and our meeting place being closed. We decided to go to After Hours, which is a bar I like, in order to have a last couple of beers together. A friend of mine that I met in Berkeley, but who is from New Zealand was in Bangkok so he decided to come and meet us at the bar. Fortunately Devon still had a working phone so it was easy for him to find us. We caught up for a while over a few beers and then decided to go have some Indian food. After dinner we said goodbye to Chris and Devon headed halfway back to my apartment. When the bus we were on arrived at Rama II she jumped off to head home and I continued on to my apartment.

The next day Sunday was a fairly slow day as it was spent preparing more final grades for my students. By the end of Sunday I had all of my first, second, and sixth graders finished. I had three of my third grade classes done, one of my fourth, and none of my fifth done. All of my classes who I had on Monday were completed in order to allow me to show them their grades.

During the last week of school, I showed everyone of the classes their grades, I took a photo of most of the classes, and then we watched Ben 10. Some of my classes the goodbyes were very unceremonious, but then in other classes there was a lot of pomp and circumstance. Such as a second grader who refused to remove himself from my leg, meaning I had to walk around class like that for the remainder of the period.

On Wednesday Pook finally came to take me to get my work permit, it only took until three days before I left the country. We left after my last class and the immigration was actually quite empty according to Pook. We sat down and she told me stories about some former employees. I also learned that the amount I make, 30,000 Baht equal to 950 USD, is the same amount that a doctor makes in Thailand and similar to how much the head of my school makes--kind of crazy. After I got my work permit Pook bought me a drink and some fried bananas on the way home, which were awesome. Before we got back Pook offered me a semi-job offer which entails as follow. When I leave the country if I find anyone who wants to go and teach in Thailand, and if I recommend them to Pook she will give me 10000 Baht if they stay one semester and 20000 Baht if they stay two, not a bad deal! I told her that I would definantely keep that in mind and would send people her way if I met future Thai teachers. This was an easy agreement for me to make because I honestly would have sent anyone who asked me her ways even without her paying me, but since she offered.

Once we got back to my apartment Pook and my landlady came up to check me out of my apartment. I had to do it on Wednesday even though I wasn't moving out until Friday because I had no time after Wednesday. Everything went pretty smoothly and they gave me back my deposit, well most of it at least. They took out 700 Baht because they had to put the screen back up that I broke, and they charged a 500 baht fee to clean the apartment which is a standard fee no matter how clean you leave it. I do have to say I took advantage of my air-conditioning since I was now checked out.

Around 11:30 that night I couldn't find my passport and realized I must have left it in Pook's car from when I picked up my work permit. I decided since it was late I would instead call Pook first thing in the morning. When first thing in the morning came I called Pook and it turned out she was on her way to an English camp and wouldn't be back to her car in Ayutthaya until 4:30 on Friday and my plane to Dubai left at 7:15! She told me she would have her assistant look in her car to make sure it was actually there and would get back to me with what the game plan would be for me to get it.

In my 5th grade class before lunch on Thursdays I had a student named Pakkapon. With intonation being such a large part of the Thai language it turns out I had been calling him the wrong name all semester. Sassy was helping me with that class and she told me the name is pronounced pAkkAPon, I was pronouncing it with emphasis on the k, paKKapon. It turns out that I had been calling the poor kid red snapper all semester. The worst part about it is I would have never known as he was very polite and never made a fuss about it. Sassy thought it was pretty funny and laughed. I also had two girls in that class named Kittiya and Jaruwan who were telling me all about everyone's love life.

At lunch Pook hadn't called me yet, so I called her and she told me she wasn't positive my passport was even in the car, but she would send her assistant to go and look. This stressed me out because she said her husband had been looking through the car the previous night for something and never saw a passport. She told me she would call me back when her assistant reached the car. This information did put me on edge as I was leaving the next evening and I had no idea if my passport was lost or what. I decided that I would ask my boss from school if I could leave a little early in order to go and look one last time thoroughly through my apartment and then also find out what I would need to do to get an emergency passport issued by the US Embassy.

When I went to the office Sassy was in the office asking a question I asked her to ask earlier. Since I was going to have my bag fully packed and take it with me to school on Friday so I could leave right after, I wanted to know if I could wear jeans to work. Sassy told me she asked and it was fine, but I would have to take off my pants while in the classroom. She then went on to say that when I took my pants off I would have to tell the Thai teachers so they could come and watch, and remember the teacher ratio at my school is about 95% female. They were joking of course, but it was still pretty funny, well I think they were joking.... I laughed and told them okay I would and then asked if I could leave a little early to figure out my visa issue and they said yes. I was officially sexually harassed by old Thai women!

Around 8 PM that night Pook called me back and said my passport was in the car and asked if I could meet her husband in Nonthaburi at 3 PM on Friday to pick it up. I said yes of course and was relived to have found it.

The next day was the last day of school so throughout the day I was saying my goodbyes. One of my students who is in a Wednesday class named Wasawat had been asking for my Facebook and email throughout the semester and I had been telling him no. Since this was the last day of school I told one of my students at lunch to go and find him and tell him to come to my class. When he came I gave him a piece of paper with my Facebook and email written on it. He said thank you teacher, and walked outside. When I looked outside he was balling, it was very precious and endearing. After that I had my last class 6/4 which was my favorite class of the week. We had a very fun time and they asked me where I was going for summer and if I was going to come back. One of my 6th grade girls in that class had a crush on me and when I told them I wasn't coming back she looked distraught and said "teacher this will be the last time I ever see you?" Overall that class wasn't my most intelligent but they will definitely be the one I remember most.

After class I gave my keys to Ajarn Kajarn and said goodbye to all of the teachers in the office. Then Rob walked out with me to catch a taxi up to Nonthaburi. He also let me use his cellphone to call Pook's husband in order to let the taxi driver know where to take me. The taxi ride up to Nonthaburi was expensive, about 9 dollars, but was very quick and I ended up getting there a lot earlier then expected. I arrived at 2:30 meaning the ride only took 45 minutes. We were supposed to meet at 3 but Pook's husband thought I would call him when I got there, so with the mix-up we didn't end up meeting until 3:15, and I didn't end up heading back to Bangkok until 3:30. By that point in time there was bad traffic and I was taking a minivan back this time instead of a private taxi. We didn't get to Victory Monument, until 4:30, which left me 2.5 hours until my flight left the airport, and I still had to exchange my currency. I hopped on a motorbike taxi and told him I had to be taken to Central World as quickly as possible. Well he didn't disappoint and we flew through the busy streets of Bangkok and arrived at Central World in about ten minutes. After that I walked across the street and went to Superrich, the exchange place I use. Once finishing there I was actually slightly ahead of schedule as it was only 5 PM, but I decided it would still be best if  I took a taxi to the airport instead of chancing it on public transit. The taxi driver I had was nice until we go to the toll road. The toll was 25 Baht and I had exactly 25 Baht in change so I gave him that to pay for the toll. He got upset about that as he wanted me to give him a bigger bill and I told him no that was fine to use. Upset he told me the toll booth guy wouldn't accept, I told him he would so just use it. He ended up giving it to the toll booth guy and the toll booth man didn't even count it and we carried on. After that the taxi driver and I didn't talk any longer and the rest of the ride was in silence. Once I arrived at the airport I paid the driver and headed to check into my flight. It was 5:30 at this point giving me plenty of time to check in. When I got to the check-in counter I gave the lady my information and she asked me a host of questions. After about 30 minutes of waiting for her while she made phone calls and typed on her computer she told me I could not get on my flight. Once I debated with her for a bit I told/asked her, "I am getting on this flight, so tell me right now exactly what I have to do." She told me that I needed to book an onward flight from Dubai. At this point it was 6:10 and my flight left at 7:05. I ran to an internet cafe and bought 20 minutes of internet, it was all the Thai money I had left. The first ten minutes I tried to contact my mom, but it wasn't possible in the limited amount of time I had. The next 5 minutes I tried to find the cheapest possible ticket that five minutes of searching could fine, Kayake is awesome. At about 4.5 minutes of internet left the computer froze and wouldn't unfreeze. The lady came over and restored the computer for me but it continued to use up my minutes and by the time the internet was ready to use again I had exactly 1:00 minute to find and book a ticket. I ended up booking it with 7 seconds left to spare and ran back to the check-in counter. By this time it was 6:45 but fortunately my flight had been delayed until 7:50. The lady let me use her phone to show her I had an onward ticket, so she finally gave me my boarding pass and I was on my way. Immigration and security fortunately went very smoothly and I was through it by 7:10, I hurried to my gate and sent my mom an email saying I officially made it through security. I made it to my flight by 7:25 which means I arrived 10 minutes before they closed the gate.

I had two layovers and the first was in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka was quite easy. I had to slightly hurry because I had a connecting flight leaving shortly, but it was a drama free layover. At around 11:00 PM I hopped on my flight to my next stop in Mumbai. Once I arrived in Mumbai it was 2:00 AM, and Mumbai is a weird airport where you have to go to a special terminal to get your next boarding pass and then go through security again. Since I arrived at 2:00 AM and my next flight wasn't until 9:15 I wasn't allowed to get my boarding pass from the transit terminal. They had me wait with these other two travelers in a room that was infested with mosquitoes and a guy kept coming through pumping some kind of bug spray in an attempt to kill said mosquitoes. At around 4:30 AM they felt sorry for us so they gave us temporary transit passes, which allowed us to go through security and roam around the terminal until our flights. The gentleman who got us our passes told us to meet him at the coffee bean between 6:30 and 7:00 AM and he would get us our boarding passes for our flight. I ended up going and finding a comfortable chair to lay down on for a couple of hours to attempt to get some sleep. I decided to head to the coffee shop around 6:00 AM just to be sure I would be there when he arrived. 6:30 came and went I didn't think much of it. 7:00 came and went, and I figured people were just being slow like they usually are in this region. By the time 7:30 came and went I began getting nervous, and decided in ten minutes I would attempt to go find out what was happening. When 7:40 came I began asking different workers walking around what was happening. Unfortunately everyone told me I had to find a Sri Lankan Airlines representative to help me in getting my boarding pass. I asked them where I could find a Sri Lankan Airline representative and they told me at their check in counter. The only problem is the check in counter is outside of the terminal and since I didn't have an India visa I was not allowed to leave the terminal. They continued to tell me to just wait that someone would come to help me. I then asked some Indian soldiers to help me and they said no no we cannot just wait and a representative will come. I continued to ask and people continued to tell me to wait ten more minutes that someone would definitely come and help. By 8:20 I wasn't so sure as my plane was already beginning to board. I asked a soldier one last time but he ignored me and talked on his cellphone. I decided to go to the check in counter and ask them what I should do. At the check in counter they told me there was nothing they could do for me and I would have to find a representative of Sri Lankan Airways. I asked them if they could and they said no we are Jet Airways, I was switching airlines. I kept talking to them for a while and then they told me it was too late that the check in counter had been closed for the flight. I told them no this cannot be the case I had been waiting since 3 AM for this flight and I have been waiting since 6 AM for a representative to help me.  I asked them what I should do and they told me there was a flight leaving at 8:00 PM that night that I could take. I told them no that I had to be on this flight and I couldn't miss it. They told me sorry sir but there was nothing they could do. I said "no that is not acceptable there has to be something you can do. If you send me back upstairs you know the same exact thing will happen and I will miss the next flight as well. If I go back upstairs I am going to be in the same exact situation. I have asked for both of your help today you both know I was upstairs waiting for a representative. There was nothing else I could do as Sri Lankan's help desk is outside of the terminal where I can't go. You have to help me."

After that they said okay sir let us call our boss and we will see what we can do. They ended up telling me that they could reopen back up the flight and check me in, but they couldn't guarantee my checked bag would arrive. I decided that would have to be acceptable as I didn't want to miss my flight and be stuck in the airport without a flight, with no one willing to help me, and having no kind of documentation to get me out of the airport. So I told them okay I will still take the flight. I had to hurry up the stairs with one of the representatives in order to get my boarding pass. Once I was given my boarding pass I ran back down the stairs and headed toward the gate. The man downstairs apologized for the inconvenience. The plane was slightly away from the terminal so I had to take a bus to the terminal. Since I was so late for the flight I was the only one on this bus and they actually had to hold the flight 15 minutes so I could get on it. By the time I got on the flight everyone was seated and ready for take off. I hurried and stowed my bag and sat down. Despite all the things that could have and did go wrong with the day, I still some how made everyone of my flights and would still arrive in Dubai on time.

Once I arrived in Dubai everything was pretty easy. The immigration man was extremely nice, probably the nicest immigration person I have ever met. When he was taking my picture I had a straight face and he said, "My friend you should smile!" When I was at the baggage claim I had my doubts that my bag would be there and after waiting for it for 30 minutes I came to the final conclusion it wasn't there. I went outside to say hi to my mom who was waiting for me and then I told her I would have to go back in to file a claim. The lady who helped me file a claim was very friendly, and she was asking me all about my travels. I gave her my contact info and she said they would contact me as soon as they could. After that I left the airport and basked in the realization that despite the day I was officially in Dubai and had a new country to explore and get to know.

That is where I will leave off for now.