#21 - And They Call This The Cold Season

I'm sitting here at B-Floor watching rehearsal at eight minutes to nine at night. We're all sweating despite the fans blowing and they say this is the cold season.

The official poster for the play.  Before you laugh, no I did not choose the title.

I finished my second week at the new job and thanks to the new schedule I've been participating in the rehearsals with B-Floor. Participating is a bit of a strong word, maybe it's really just observing and advising.. I've definitely helped in the writing but the majority of the total performance is created by the directors and the company as a whole. Nana rightfully so keeps pushing for a more contiguous story than B-Floor usually puts together. Rather than a series of loosely connected theatrical dance scenes she wants to convey a real story and I'm her main tool in getting that done.

A promo shot I've been working on for the play.

The new job has been a roller-coaster affair. One day I'm certain we're going to accomplish amazing beautiful exciting things and the next I'm convinced we're headed towards failure. It's all a challenge though and I'm thankful that I trust and respect my new boss. I usually work about ten hours a day and though some days I have to be creative for nine of those hours there are other days where I deal almost completely with administrative tasks. Over the next two months I should be cranking out a number of films including but not limited to, a vacation/tourism video, a music video or two, a documentary on the Binumi staff, a comic film short, an EFL lesson for young learners, a couple of business promos, a video book report and the list goes on and on. On some of the films I'm actually the writer and creative force but on others I take on the role of a producer. Needless to say ten hours a day is hardly enough time when you consider I'm also charged with getting an entire years worth of educational curriculum ready for sale by the end of January.

My girlfriend is awesome.  She brought me beer back from Cambodia.

A cute bathroom sign.

 The flooding in the apartment was just as I expected, pissed off girl friend left the faucet running and hit the road while the husband was on a business trip. I'm pretty sure the official story is still that a pipe burst but at the end of the day the damage doesn't affect us so really what do we care...as long as it doesn't happen again.

Can you tell which ones my student drew and which
one I drew?

As one of my final lessons at Wall Street I had to do a directions lesson. I made this city complete with Sam's Bank, Fern's Garden, Murray's Concert Hall, Max Sound, Lia's Studio and so on and so on.

Nana cares quite a lot about Christmas and it just so happens her entire family is going to be in Thailand during the holiday. We are all planning a little island get away and with my new job I'll be able to make it. If I was working at Wall Street still there's no way I could've gotten the time off so she's very happy about the new job. After toiling away at things that are only half worth working at but necessary I finally have a place and a purpose that feels vital.

Adios mi familia, I love you all.

They got me birthday cake at Wall Street.

-Adam   

#20 - Curve Balls and Watermelons

Sometimes life throws you curve balls and sometimes it throws you giant ripe watermelons that you shatter with a baseball bat. As the little black seeds peck at my skin and the red pulpiness spits through the air I realize that perhaps things just can’t get any better, and then they do.

I started off my work this time around in Thailand with a series of job offers that provided me with the opportunity of picking a very full schedule that yielded a good amount of money and a rigorous work schedule. Then I was brought on as the co-writer for the play Nana is directing and that made my full schedule nearly overflowing. The work was good though and I continued.

After much deliberation we also decided to move into a new apartment as Nana’s studio was just a little too cute and quaint for the both of us.

The view from our bedroom window to the left.

The bedroom window.

The view to the right.

Luckily we moved about one hundred yards down the road into a one bedroom with half a kitchen and a gorgeous view. I thought things were going pretty well with life. Nana and I were happy to be living together and the transition back into Thai life had been rather smooth for me. Then things got crazy.

Casually after football one day someone asked me what I did here in Thailand. I gave my usual response but thanks to working on Nana’s play I added a little something extra. I said that my “day job” was teaching. So then they asked what my night job was. I told them that I write. The guy who asked me was one of the only people I play football with that I really don’t like so my responses became curt and short after that. The guy sitting next to me during this conversation was a regular patron of Nana’s theater and took an interest in my involvement as a writer. He said he might have a job for me. Two weeks later I was in a meeting with he and another football buddy discussing a side job of writing two minute scripts for this internet start up they’ve been working on for the last four years. I explained to them how busy I was but that I’d love to help out if even in only a small way and so we set a couple of small goals. Two weeks later I produced a single one hundred and thirty-three word script. They had asked me for four and the one I gave them wasn’t even on the subject they asked for. The head guy emailed me and told me he’d like to have lunch with me and discuss the script. We set up a meeting for early on in the next week and while I casually thought about it from time to time I tried to put it far from my daily thoughts as I had a new and very important job to focus on. Little did I know the coming week would provide me with many distractions.

I wish things had been all sunshine and roses. My working hours are noon to nine in the evening so it’s not unusual for me to be drifting off to sleep around two in the morning. On one such night I heard dripping water. I checked the faucets and there was nothing, I opened the glass door to the balcony and there was nothing. I flipped the lights on in the bedroom and there were some water lines coming down the wall of our new apartment, but still no dripping. I walked into the living room and water was splashing down from the window sill and soaking our couch and floor. By four the water had saturated a number of towels and had spread to two other walls. The building security guards were helping us to clean up but no one could get in contact with the owners of the upstairs apartment and they were obviously not home as water was streaming out from under their door. My first instinct was that some stupid farang had pissed off his Thai girlfriend and while he was away on a trip she’d turned on all the faucets and hit the road. When I left for work I didn’t know why but the water had stopped flowing and the apartment was starting to dry out.

When I arrived at my meeting with Anthony, the head of the web startup, we began discussing my script. Now, he’d mentioned more than once some sort of compensation and my “deal” as he called it but we’d never agreed on any numbers or even discussed the ball park figures. I assumed I had pretty much let him down by not producing at the rate we had discussed but to be fair I was working about fifty-two hours per week. I sat down in his office and we briefly went over my script and some other ideas. I thought the script was good even if it wasn’t exactly what he asked for but he thought it was really good. Additionally I’d put him in touch with a few artists and a very technically gifted curriculum writer who could help him with the creation of educational videos for his website. He was happy with the way things were going and he said that it was unfortunate I was so busy because I could never manage the story bucket section of his website and get it ready by the January launch date that they were shooting for.

“Wait a second, you want me to manage the story bucket project?” We’d previously discussed this project but never in more than a conceptual way.

“Yeah, but you can’t do it with how many hours you’re working for all these other people.”

“That’s true.”

“Let’s say I offered you a job and paid you a little bit more than you’re making now.”

I told him I’d consider it and talk with Nana about it but basically I just didn’t want to seem too eager. I called him that evening and accepted the job and in two weeks I will be working for www.binumi.com as a script writer, project manager, copy editor and all around creative idea man.

So let’s recap. I got to Thailand and managed to get almost a sixty percent raise from my previous job albeit working two jobs and about fifty or so hours a week. I also got back into teaching which is infinitely better than restaurant work. Then I consolidated that into one job working about forty hours per week and making slightly more and not only making more but getting to do it as a writer.

Sometimes life throws you curve balls and sometimes you hit ‘em for home runs.

-Adam

Happy birthday Me!

The view from a temple near the old city.

The first in a series of poorly translated menu items.

Can we say google translator?

This is the only one that makes sense.  Who doesn't cook habitually drunk?

A shot from the photo shoot we did to promote the play Nana is directing and I'm co-writing.

Another shot from the play's photo shoot.

...and another.

#19 - A Letter Home

I was grounded for three hours inside a metal alloy tube known as an airplane. A name which was rather ironic since I spent more time inside of it while it was on the ground and not in the air. Apparently this whole South China Sea fiasco that's been going on in South East Asia is for real.  Look it up if you don't know what's what.  Guangzhou has historically been called Canton which you might recognize from Cantonese as a language or a cuisine. It's population is roughly three times that of Los Angeles although it's population density is approximately half that of Los Angeles. Needless to say I was surrounded by the Cantons and they sure were ready to fly.

Eventually we got up and down and waiting for me for three hours was Nana who's plans for the day had been thrown out the window. She was wearing a shirt that was very cute and reminded me of a girls dress up doll and our excitement at reuniting was overpowering. We headed straight down to the street food soi and I sunk my teeth into some down home Thai cooking. She was very concerned that I might be tired after such a long journey and the time change and the filtered air and the elevation and, and, and, and, but once all was said and done I can tell you that there was zero transition time to get back to Thai time. I slept for eighty percent of my flights and I arrived in the morning and now nearly one week later I'm still on a perfect schedule. I guess it was just meant to be.

Speaking of meant to be I have had wonderful fortune with job hunting. I've already secured one part time job and am in the hunt for one very well paying full time job. Within the first week I've had four interviews set up. It's difficult for me to understand why in a city so aptly suited to our skills she is so desperate to move to New York. Of course I am not a woman nor do I look Thai so that certainly plays a roll in things. However I also do not have a wonderful theater company that allows me to express my artistic energies in such a wonderful environment.

Nana has also recently completed a course to certify her as a Cambridge Examiner. This lofty title means that she's bankrolled. As a test examiner it's a very good wage but the private students she could get as a tutor would pay well over her hourly wage and they would probably be plentiful. Aside from this the theater is doing well and the budget for the new show is completed and there's all this money left over. So the theater is going to pay for knee operations for two of its members who were injured during the course of performance and then donate a hefty sum to the theater's future as well as perhaps find a couple baht to give to Nana the girl who secured them the biggest budget they've ever had...ever...in their history.

One of the boys came to the opening night of one of the theater's shows this last week and enjoyed it. They're all doing pretty well and though some of them will be departing soon quite a few of them are staying and of course we got a good game of Aqua Fives in. Then I went and played soccer with all the Brits and Slavs and Malaysians and so on and so on. If I had to sum up my first week back I'd probably have to say fucking radical.

Be well my people.

-Adam

Nana's Shirt

#18 - Koh Chang

A swing that hung from the tree in the back of our guest house

Rise at six fifty, the sun has been up for less than half an hour. Gather my laptop and all its chords as well as, my camera and iPod before laying them all in my suitcase. Out the door and at the bus station twenty minutes early when a taxi out front asks me where I'm going. Where am I going? Koh Chang, and no I don't want a taxi ride there, I don't care how fast you can drive. Then it occurs to me that I may not have a choice as I realize I have left the bus tickets for my companion and I back at the house. I grab a taxi back to the house telling him to go fast while I try and communicate that I've forgotten my bus ticket even though I don't know the word for ticket. I make it back to the bus, my friend waiting out front and they don't even want to see our tickets they just want us on the bus. We pull away, the last passengers to board and in five hours we'll be sitting on a ferry as it trudges across the thin channel of water that separates the mainland and Koh Chang.

A three headed elephant that stands thirty meters high and has, literally, a museum in it

Chang is the Thai word for Elephant thus the meaning of Koh Chang is elephant island, the name of the island comes from the distinctive shape of the rock at the head of the island. Elephants themselves are not native to the island although while I was on the island I did see elephants and had a dream about elephants swimming, which by the way they can.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpD40ewOyC4

The island's size is roughly that of San Francisco although it is markedly longer and more narrow. The residential population is next to nothing as everyone on the island is employed in some fashion by the tourist industry. It's easy to see the quickly developing resorts and spas but there are still so many plots of land and jungle that are nearly untouched. Who knows how long it will stay that way?

We bounced along the road in a song tao, it's a pickup truck that someone put a cage on the back of with two benches in it. Song tao literally means two bench. The staff at the beach side resort looked to be just getting over their hang overs as we rocked up to the counter of the bar/restaurant. They didn't know who we were they didn't have a room ready and they didn't appear to be too concerned with any of this. They gave us a room but asked us with a surprising amount of politeness if we wouldn't mind switching rooms later in the evening as someone else had reserved a room that specifically had air-con. I drank a beer and did some reading and writing as I looked out over the rocky beach that was Gu Bay. gu is a word that means my, mine, or ours. The locals actually do use the English word for Bay. As it turns out gu is a rather rude word to use with someone you're not very close to. As is the word for you, yours or theirs, which is mung. However amongst friends it is the choice word to use when describing ownership and is not taken rudely. The staff at this shabby little resort that boasted fourteen guesthouses made out of cinder blocks and plastic roofing seemed to take the word to heart and so they listed the rules of the resort un-apologetically on the wall of the restaurant.

1. The owner and manager are always right.
2. If owner and manager do anything wrong please go back to the No. 1 rule.
3. If you are not happy with us, pay everything and get the fuck off.
4. Look after your own shit.
5. You can get crazy but do not make any trouble.
6. All guests should speak English when the manager is around. :)

Additional rules that were written near the bar read, Bar is self service, pick up your own drinks. Please pay and order at the bar. No bar and kitchen tabs. Open 8:00 to 21:00. Bar opens and closes when I say.

Nana and I nearly breaking the branch of the tree the swing hung from

Despite these rules the staff was exceedingly nice to us and kept a tab for us and often brought us our drinks as well as being willing to come to us and take our order. However the fact that I was traveling with an exceedingly polite and well mannered half Thai girl probably aided us in our cause. There were also many examples all around us of why the staff held so closely to the rude connotations of the word gu. They prepared a drink for a girl, a banana shake and when they announced it was finished she motioned for them to bring it to her. They ignored her and announced once more that it was ready. Then she motioned again and said I want to taste it and make sure it's good. The girl was British and the staff gave no response, they left it on the counter and then threw out the remainder of the shake which they usually would use to refill the drink after it had been drank down a small way. This sort of behavior was distressing and since the rules were posted it was inexcusable.

The first night we remained at the guesthouse and got to know the staff. A very cool collection of people. Kim-Chi, Boy, and Sun, who respectively made up a management team for boy who was an aspiring musician with some considerable talent in the Thai style of indie-rock. The second night we danced like maniacs at a club on the ironically named Lonely Beach. It was a full moon and all the islands throw a big party every full moon. The the third day was the most exciting.

Kim-Chi casually and half jokingly asked my companion if I could climb a tree to get them a coconut. She said yes and then having understood them I stood up and began to walk out to the lawn where there were a host of coconut trees surrounding the pool. I began to climb one much to everyone's surprise but when I was halfway up, about fifteen feet, Kim-Chi told me to climb a different tree because it was thinner around. I debated this logic but trusted in his experience. I know realize the error of my ways in following his logic as his gut alone would exclude him from ever climbing one of these long thin trees. I began up the second try, already rather tired and with some scrapes on my forearms and chest. In two minutes I'd ascended to the top of this tree, probably twenty five feet and locked my legs around the trunk so that I could wrestle with the coconuts that hung upon it. I was not completely confident in the security of my legs to support me twenty-five feet up this thin tree so I could only use one hand to turn the coconut. Kim-Chi just kept saying turn it turn it and I kept turning it and at some point I realized that I was nearing that stage of exhaustion where muscle failure was a serious concern. Not wanting to break anything I relented and began sliding down the trunk of this tree and in the process managed to scrape off most of the skin on the arches of my feet as well as add significantly to the cuts on the insides of my forearms. I gingerly walked over to the outdoor shower next to the pool and rinsed off. The tree had defeated me and as I watched a thin stream of blood flow from my feet into the drain, washed away by the clear stream of water I realized that all of the Thai people around were huddled in pairs staring at me and their phones with which they had taken photos of the crazy farang who climbed the palm tree. Kim-Chi bought me a beer and my companion bought me a shot and I cleaned my wounds.

At least it's still not infected!

guest only

#17 - Goodbye

Bee and I before a Christmas lesson.

Every destination has many routes, but for each route there is only one destination. In life we call these routes journeys and though we may try and predict the destination we are rarely correct in totality. As I say goodbye to my kids one class at a time I realize that they don't spend too much of their time thinking about the destination, for them there is only a journey. I've had a hundred plans over the last year, different ideas, dashed red lines that snake through the junctions and interchanges of life. I tried to buy a better road map, I tried asking for directions, I even thought about getting out and hitchhiking. At the end of the year of heat and juvenility and early mornings I've come to few conclusions. I can at least say that I know one more highway better than I did before and it wasn't the same old route to the destination I knew so well, it was something completely different.   

They wanted Bendy to play Santa.  He tore a hole in his pants about five seconds after this was taken.

Porjai, one of my favorite kids.

Sinyi, another awesome lad.

I-Ice wanted to wear my shades.  He's cooler than me.

Moji!!!!

I was not consulted before this change to one of my classrooms was made.  I just wonder how exactly I am supposed to please the door.

Taken while on the back of a motorbike taxi heading home.

At a private lesson the kids knew all the vocabulary so we made a beach and they got to come up with their own vocab.

Can you tell Zack is drunk?

Apparently this is how eleven and twelve year old boys do their class work in Thailand.

This is apparently how you dress for court in Thailand.