The Unknown Cynic

May 29, 2017 Chiang Mai, Thailand I'm in a love-hate relationship. Not with an individual, but with a group. Actually nine groups. Nine groups of 32 - 35 little individuals that are in my charge for one hour each twice a week. I'm supposed to be teaching them how to speak, read, and write English, but at least half of those hours are spent being a cop, judge, and prison warden. It's exhausting. My job as a teacher at the local government school started on May 16. That was the day that approximately 1500 students, ranging from Kindergarten to 6th grade, began walking onto the school grounds through the front gate at 7:15am. Each day, they queue up single file into small groups of perhaps 10 or 12 before the Thai teacher who has gate duty stops the line. They are then directed to wai* in the direction of the teacher as they greet her (usually a her) with the standard "sawaddee ka/krub", then turn around and repeat the formal gesture in the direction of ...

May 27, 2017 Chiang Mai, Thailand As I mentioned previously, I have an addictive personality. Unfortunately, I'm not as addicted to writing as I am to other things that are less rewarding. It's taken me a long time to force myself to sit down and tell more of this story. Looking back, I sincerely regret the times that I sat in front of my desktop computer in the home office making conversations with people who weren't actually in front of me while my kids asked me to come outside and play with them. That is time that I can never ever get back. That's a very heavy realization. But those conversations were becoming my life, what I existed for. The prevailing view of online dialogue has long been one of suspicion. The image of a sweaty, fat, bald guy wearing a grubby white wife-beater pretending to be a cute 15-year-old high school sophomore to gain the trust of other cute 15-year-old girls has always been the poster for "don't talk to strangers on ...

May 27, 2017 Chiang Mai, Thailand Rain hurts. Butterflies hurt. Pretty much any normally harmless small object hurts when it hits your face at 50kph. The motorcycle helmet that I have been using does not have a face visor. Most times, that is preferable to me, as I enjoy feeling the wind cooling my face (and the rest of me) as I ride along on the far left side of the roadway. Sometimes, if I'm not going on the big highway, and there are unlikely to be police checkpoints out, I don't even wear a helmet. Foolish? Yes, of course. My mother would tell you that even sitting on a motorcycle itself is foolish. But that's how most people in southeast Asia get from place to place. And sometimes it's the entire family on one motorbike. Smallest child in front, standing on the footpads, father or mother operating the bike, and the next child and/or spouse sitting behind. And most of the time, none is wearing a helmet. It's a way of life here. Of course, I don't ...

May 14, 2017 Chiang Mai, Thailand (Some of this post was already written to my Facebook page.  I had to cut some parts for length, and for information that I didn't want to post to the general public. I've thought long and hard about whether to post this type of content about myself. I hope it's the right decision.  I'll try to write more about my Laos trip later. And finish my social media story) Finally on my way back home. And by "home", I mean Chiang Mai, Thailand. It's funny how I now think of it that way. It's not the new apartment into where I moved my belongings on May 1, right before I started this 11-day trip to Laos. I haven't even slept there yet. But I can't wait to get back and throw myself across the bed and just bask in the beauty of contentment of not living out of a backpack. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy living out of my backpack when I'm t raveling. It's a good backpack. A great one. The...

April 7, 2017 Chiang Mai, Thailand I hate Facebook. Facebook is ruining my life. Not because of something Facebook did, or because of something someone posted on the site, but because I am an addict. You wonder why I don't post to my blog on a regular basis? Facebook addiction. Why haven't I seen more of Chiang Mai and the surrounding area? Facebook addiction. Sometimes I'm not as prepared for my teaching classes as I really should be. Why? Facebook addiction. Social media is a cool and wonderful thing, if kept in its place. But to so many of us with addictive personalities, it can be a cruel trap.  I have never used drugs, save the three times I tried marijuana (last year) and didn't really care for its effects. I don't drink much, except socially. There was a period of time when I was viewing a fair amount of pornography, but I don't really need it or crave it. (Told you I was going to be brutally honest, didn't I?) So you wouldn't think t...

March 16, 2017 Chiang Mai, Thailand Juggling has never been one of my talents. I'm good with one ball in the air. Not three, not five. One. So if I try to put more balls in the air than I can deal with, inevitably, some get dropped. Hence my 15-day hiatus from posting here in my blog. (Narrator's voice): "When we last left Bob, he was still looking for work, bribing traffic cops, and about to go out on a date. How did he do? Let's peek in and find out." My job search has borne some fruit. In a rather indirect way, I might add. A few weeks ago, I walked to a government school on the west edge of the old part of the city in Chiang Mai. The woman whom I met at the first building seemed interested in talking to me about my plans, and made a couple of calls to the English Department and made them come down and bring me up to talk with them. I was surprised that she would bother to put forth that kind of effort, but I didn't complain. Everything see...

March 1, 2017 Chiang Mai, Thailand I was racially profiled today. Looking for a job here in Chiang Mai is interesting. It's not like I can look at the want ads for teaching positions that are open. Rather, I have to find out where the schools stand, and then go there in person and apply. And wherever I go, I have to fill out the dreaded application. It's not that filling one out is difficult, it just seems redundant. Even back in the States, the questions are repetitive and don't really tell much useful information. Anything that is asked in an application can quickly be covered in a brief interview or by reading the resume that most people would bring with them. Okay, so maybe if you are trying to get a job at McDonald's, you won't be bringing a CV or a resume, but you know what I mean. Anything else on the application that isn't covered will be filled out in the eventuality of you getting hired. Such as emergency contact. Why on earth would someon...