Opportunity Knocks in Many Ways

Recently I’ve been staying in a city just a few hours northeast of Bangkok.  I’ve had the opportunity to have nearly free lodging and meals from the generous hospitality of some old Thai friends who used to have a Thai restaurant across from my old church.  My friend is in a position here that carries a fair amount of authority and has also enabled me to get free transportation to and from Bangkok for any trips that I may need to take for getting stuff done for my school, as well as searching for a room there. 

Along with this opportunity came another unexpected one the other day.  I was asked if I could help with a voice over for a television ad that will be used for the international version of the ad.  The General Manager wanted to thank me for my help and during our lunch we had an interesting conversation regarding some of the tenets of Buddhism and those of Christianity.  This man is in a position where there are very few people who would be willing to tell him anything contrary to what he may want to hear or think and bend over backwards to please him and agree with whatever he says or wants.  Not that I needed to be contrary with him so much, but some would think that the gospel of Jesus Christ might come across this way to a committed Buddhist.  It may be contrary, but it doesn’t need to be offensive due to the person delivering the message.  We had as good of a talk as could be expected at my level of Thai speaking.  But when it comes to the basics of Christianity, one really doesn’t need to have a very extensive vocabulary at all.  It just takes some creative thinking sometimes on coming up with examples to explain what you would otherwise just rattle off without hardly even giving it a second thought. 

The General Manager has subsequently invited me to a huge Buddhist ceremony that he is organizing, along with the Buddha’s relics for veneration, that will be commemorating the 2,600th anniversary of the Buddha’s “enlightenment”.  They are expecting a couple hundred thousand visitors from all over to make a pilgrimage of sorts and make their merit paying respects (worshiping?) the Buddha’s relics and listening to the teachings of monks that will be representing a variety of different countries.  I’m sure the ceremony would bore me to tears, as have similar ceremonies that I’ve been to – particularly because I can’t understand much of what is being said or done, but I think I’ll probably go and hope for more conversational opportunity, who knows, maybe with a monk next time!  The gospel of Jesus Christ is something that they have no clue of whatsoever.  They just figure that Christianity is also pretty good because it also teaches some nice moral things that Buddhism does too.  That’s greatly simplifies things of course, but is generally the case I’ve found over the years.

In the meanwhile, I’ve also had the opportunity to find a room!  I’ll be moving in the coming week or so.  It is a nice place!  A brand new building, which sure is nice!  This brings a variety of perks that otherwise wouldn’t be available if I rented at an older place.  And all pretty much at the same price.  It is a studio with a “kitchen” and bathroom.  There is a pool!  A huge pool!  I’m looking forward to exercising via swimming.  I could use the exercise!  I’ll let you know more on this sometime later.  Maybe I’ll even get a pic or two for you to see!

Changeup, AKA Plan B

Ok, so I failed in my initial offering of non-TLDR (Too Long Didn’t Read) posts! hahaha Please bear with me as I feebly stumble along in the continuing saga of attempting to reduce the verbosity of my Too Long posts :p

Following what seemed like a breeze of an entrance exam, there was an interview with two of the ranking professors guiding the “Language and Culture” degree program. I wasn’t sure what to expect, and since they were calling it an Oral Examination/Interview, I was curious to see what it would entail. My appointment was for 9:30 on a Sunday morning. I arrived with plenty of time to spare. I soon found out that what I thought was plenty of time, was indeed PLENTY of time. My interview began at about 11:30. As could be expected were the usual inquiries as to why, at my age I would want to start these studies. After going about briefly with the normal kind of questions, they more or less stopped the interview in its tracks to express their concern that, with my scores on the various exams, combined with my life experience, I would find the study too easy and boring. They were afraid I’d quit part way through. Also expressed were the expected curiosities of whether or not I’d have a problem wearing a school uniform and how I’d deal with spending 4 years of my life studying with a bunch of “kids”. The comparison was drawn between a typical 18-22 year old Thai to an American high schooler or maybe even younger in some ways. Wow! These were things that I never thought would be an issue in order to get accepted… over qualified!? Are you kidding!? I was worried of quite the opposite! I was totally unprepared for this stunning turn of events and was praying like bananas for what to think and say! We discussed the above and I tried to allay their fears with various positive points. But a more important point was brought up that I didn’t have any answer with which to counter, other than, that’s just the way it is. The point being, I should try to get into a program that is more challenging and that will provide me with a better learning experience to build me up, rather than just spend 4 years studying things, much of which, they seemed to think I would already know just to get a bachelor’s degree so that I could move on to what I really need in the master’s degree program. I had already checked the listing of all of the international bachelor’s degreed programs available in Thailand, and this seemed to be the one that suited my interests the best. And, being at the best university in the country, I never dreamed that it might be easy! The graduates from this university go on to be in positions in this country much as an American would expect graduates from Harvard or Yale to attain. The professors were very generous with their time, eating into their lunch hour, spending nearly an hour with me, as compared to maybe 10 minutes with the other students. In the end, I asked them to still consider me as a candidate, even with their misgivings, while letting them know I would follow up on the advice they gave me, along with some leads that they also provided.

I immediately started following the leads they gave me. I also talked with a professor at another leading university here. Just so happens that he is a professor in one of the only other programs that I would consider. He also just so happens to be the father of one of Ben and Pook’s daughter’s (Rita) friends! I had already met his wife a number of times while dropping off and picking up Rita at her nursery school with Ben in the mornings. (For those who don’t know… I have been staying at Ben and Pook’s place until my school situation can be determined.) I had a good and long talk with this professor. It would be a fantastic program for people who do work with non-governmental organizations in helping refugees, but not as much so for the narrower field of linguistics.

During more of my more detailed research, I came across a program, that for some reason I had never seen before in any listing. A full bachelor’s program in the Thai language, for foreign speakers! It is also at one of the leading universities here, so the instruction should be decent. It is at a university that I never would have expected to see such a program, since this university is known mainly for its prowess in agricultural studies. The name of the university itself, translated, means “University of Agricultural Science”! It is a large university with 7 campuses throughout Thailand and has numerous other faculties now, as it has grown over the years.

I called one of my linguistics professors that taught me at the university up north last year to consult further on the assorted programs. After a lengthy talk about the various possibilities, it seemed that the Thai Language program would likely be the most beneficial.

So… off I go again into the maze of paperwork and exams :p Thankfully, this university doesn’t have nearly as many hoops to jump through and their obstacle course seems as though it will be very simple to navigate. After an interview with a professor and one of the officers of the faculty, they assured me that there wouldn’t be any problem for me to get into their program. So, I declined the acceptance to the Language and Culture program, which was proffered a couple of days ago from the original university to which I was applying. There are still a few more hoops to jump through, but they aren’t flaming ones, so I am pretty relaxed and just waiting for the schedule to get confirmed.

By the way, a few other benefits to studying here will be:
- A reduced tuition burden – just less than half of the other school!
- A bit outside of the city center, thus a cheaper area to find accommodations
- School colors that are easier to stomach, green instead of pink! hahaha

Coming soon…

You’ve probably heard that from me before!

Whenever I feel like nothing that would interest people much is happening, I have a tendency to fade away from my blog. Sorry about that.

There are a variety of things that would be fun to write about, but I don’t want to overload the email inboxes of subscribers if I post all the time!
Or maybe I need to get a clue and catch up with the times and post away!? I know that I have a hard enough time keeping up with emails, so I don’t want to put a burden on others. If I ever do post away and you are a subscriber, I apologize in advance for loading up your inbox!
I’ll also try a bit more to avoid the acronym that I was told about just before I left home. If I remember correctly, it’s TLDR -> Too Long Didn’t Read! hahahaha That would probably apply to many of my posts :p I definitely have not come to appreciate the online life I see so often of one or two line emails. It just feels too cold and it’s hard for me to do that kind of thing. But, I guess it could be argued that one or two lines are better than none! I sure can appreciate that too.

I’ll add the latest activity bit by bit in the next few posts/days and let you know what I’m up to.

Entrance Exams & Other Papers

I passed the written portion of the Entrance Examination well enough to be invited to the Oral Exam/Interview. They only slashed about 15% of the candidates after the written exam. They have to cut another 62% out of the remaining candidates.

My appointed time is 9:30 a.m., 1 April. I had some thoughts for April Fools, but then had second thoughts that perhaps the examiners might not appreciate the humor :p Then again, maybe I’m the one that needs to be on the lookout!

I still haven’t gotten the results back yet from the Test of English Proficiency that they also required me to take. My English isn’t of any particular grand quality, but I think I passed. Actually I was thinking that I’d like to talk with them about a couple of mistakes on their test! But I don’t want them to think I’m insulting them, so I’m going to just let it go. They are extremely proud of their University and take everything very seriously, as they should, but sometimes pride can cloud issues that need more clarity of thought. At any rate, it was an enjoyable and slightly challenging test.

I am also waiting on the Ministry of Education’s issuance of a “Certificate of Equivalency”, which ostensibly shows that my High School education is equal to a Thai High School, thereby meeting one of the requirements for entry to the University. They required all of the requisite piles of paperwork and carbon copies of stuff (yes, they still use real carbon copies here! Remember that little blue sheet of paper you used to have to put between copies to transfer information on forms?), photos, and, of course, yet another fee, just as any government office would have. By the way, I was also told that I’d only need to show them my official/original High School transcripts. Thank God that he had me bring along passport size photos, my passport, copies of my passport, a copy of my University application acceptance paper, and copies of my High School transcripts because I needed all of that too! It was such a pleasure to take the 5 or 6 hours out of the day (life with no car… otherwise about 2 hours) to travel across the city and up the river and walk along the hot pavement to then find a mass of government buildings, of which had no intelligible way for a foreigner to grasp what was where, and try talking with a variety of people who had no idea where the office was that I needed… and after I found the office, and jumped through a couple of other hoops, I came to learn that they still needed another paper from America. Well… I can’t get this paper because in America we don’t use such a paper as they do and one can’t be issued… so they said, just get an official letter stating such and it will be fine. In other words, we don’t really need that paper after all, but need a paper to fill the slot nonetheless, policy is policy and must be followed. Once that paper arrives, which in my mind could have been done with a phone call or an email… I wait another month or so (“or so” can sometimes be a long time!), and I need to start making phone calls to them until I learn that the “Certificate of Equivalency” has been issued. Then I need to make the trek back to their maze of government buildings to pick it up! They said that they wouldn’t mail it to me because I am staying in Bangkok! It doesn’t seem to matter how huge Bangkok is and how far away you might be. I think they just figure that I’m an American (i.e. rich) and have my own transportation or can just hop in a taxi and pay for the ride. Anyway, I don’t know how the thinking works. I even offered to buy an envelope and stamp, but it was a no-go, putting it lightly. It came to the point that if I asked another question or tried to find an easier way to do things, they were going to get irritated and maybe make things more difficult for me. So I just said, thank you for your kind assistance in helping me figure out how to do these things and sorry for the trouble of making you wait for the paper from America. Then I made my trek back out of there.

I think I lost about 2 pounds from sweating that day! hahaha What would life be without these kinds of fun experiences to look back on?

“Life in the Fast Lane” – Nope, not here! :p
Slow and easy. Which, actually, is often much better! It just requires some adjustment

Yes, that’s right… it’s hot.

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By the way, I use the heat index for a measure of reality.
It was 107 today…. now at 11 p.m. it’s chilled off to 95 degrees. I better get out the down comforter! I wonder if I could even buy one in this country if I wanted one!

I’m planning to be outside most of the day tomorrow… I hope it will “cool” off at least a couple of degrees! If the forecast is accurate, I’ll get my wish, down to 104, yippeeee! AND with a forecast of a 100% chance of rain!! ughhh

You win some, you lose some.

Karenni – Burma Ceasefire Signed!

A Ceasefire agreement has been signed between the Karenni and Burmese governments! Please pray that it will hold and that real progress can be made. Burma has proven MANY times over the decades to use these times to gear up for more attacks and to have been less than genuine in their agreements.

For those of you who don’t know the situation between the Karenni and Burma, they have been at war for about 64 years. Karenni has been attempting to keep or regain their formerly recognized sovereignty and has been attempting to defend themselves from the Burmese annexation. I don’t know the details of the ceasefire yet, but just the idea that they were able to sit down at a table together taking the initial steps toward peace is a great praise to God for the relief of many in Karenni. There are many years of harm done and I don’t imagine anything will be any sort of a quick fix, and I’m sure there will still be some oppression for some time to come. But at least the average villager doesn’t have to worry quite as much now about getting shot or raped or decapitated for no reason other than being Karenni and being on their own land, but against the will of the Burmese army.

Off to Thailand! :)

I’ll be boarding my plane in about 10 minutes!
I hope to keep in touch with many of you, if not all of you! Although, I may not even know you are reading my blog… unless you leave me a comment and say hello sometime. I’d be glad to hear from you.
I’ll be posting more often than in the past and I hope it doesn’t become too much for you, I’ll also try to keep my posts shorter than the past. I’ve heard that there is an acronym that is suitable for people who write like me! I think it was something like TLDR = Too Long Didn’t Read! hahahaha Well… I hope that even if I write too long sometimes that maybe at least the first few lines might be ok to read!? :p

Enjoy your winter in California, or wherever you are that is probably colder than Thailand! The weather service says Bangkok is 100 degrees today! Wow! That will be a bit of a transition. I hope the humidity won’t be too much to bear. But it also says there is a chance of thunderstorms on Monday… maybe that’ll bring the temperature down a degree or two! I hope so…