i really don't know what's going on (and that's the way i like it)
sometimes - daily, actually - things happen here that just seem to make no sense. now, i'm sure they really do make sense to someone, and that in the grand scheme of things in bangkok, they fit right in, but to me, as i walk by with taher, they seem very, very strange and i can do little more than point and shrug.
yesterday, for example, on the edge of campus, there was a fire. a very large fire. it was noisy and smelly and smoky, and it was taking place in the middle of a woody area. was this a deliberate fire? was it meant to clear the area? was it an accident? was this an emergency? i don't know. from our balcony, we could see the smoke billowing very high into the air. but nobody seemed concerned. there was a group of schoolchildren- they had come over from the neighboring school to use our track for practice- and they were walking literally ten feet from the fire, ignoring it completely. it went on into the night, this fire. what to do? point and shrug.
the list of anecdotes could go on and on, but my point in posting today isn't to relate them all. it just struck me yesterday how accustomed we have gotten to the unaccustomed. this is what i love about living abroad- everything is a surprise and i can't really expect anything. until we have actually experienced something here, we have no idea how it'll turn out. in short, it's all refreshingly foreign.
tomorrow we are off to Ayuthaya for a couple of days. i'm sure when we return i'll have a lot to blog about. i just hope the heat doesn't kill us- it's been terribly hot lately. stifling. the rainy season seems to be officially over, and we're left with 100 degree temperatures in the middle of november. a fellow teacher told me that every year, the cold winds from china cool things off considerably for about 20 days. that period of 20 days could start anytime. so now i spend a lot of time hoping today's the day it begins :) i just emailed a friend and said that i would be happy to arrange some sort of trade- give chicago one day of this beach-friendly heat in exchange for a little snow to soothe this land-on-fire...
sometimes - daily, actually - things happen here that just seem to make no sense. now, i'm sure they really do make sense to someone, and that in the grand scheme of things in bangkok, they fit right in, but to me, as i walk by with taher, they seem very, very strange and i can do little more than point and shrug.
yesterday, for example, on the edge of campus, there was a fire. a very large fire. it was noisy and smelly and smoky, and it was taking place in the middle of a woody area. was this a deliberate fire? was it meant to clear the area? was it an accident? was this an emergency? i don't know. from our balcony, we could see the smoke billowing very high into the air. but nobody seemed concerned. there was a group of schoolchildren- they had come over from the neighboring school to use our track for practice- and they were walking literally ten feet from the fire, ignoring it completely. it went on into the night, this fire. what to do? point and shrug.
the list of anecdotes could go on and on, but my point in posting today isn't to relate them all. it just struck me yesterday how accustomed we have gotten to the unaccustomed. this is what i love about living abroad- everything is a surprise and i can't really expect anything. until we have actually experienced something here, we have no idea how it'll turn out. in short, it's all refreshingly foreign.
tomorrow we are off to Ayuthaya for a couple of days. i'm sure when we return i'll have a lot to blog about. i just hope the heat doesn't kill us- it's been terribly hot lately. stifling. the rainy season seems to be officially over, and we're left with 100 degree temperatures in the middle of november. a fellow teacher told me that every year, the cold winds from china cool things off considerably for about 20 days. that period of 20 days could start anytime. so now i spend a lot of time hoping today's the day it begins :) i just emailed a friend and said that i would be happy to arrange some sort of trade- give chicago one day of this beach-friendly heat in exchange for a little snow to soothe this land-on-fire...
...Natural is the static
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