Arrived at Payap University Chiang Mai

We are ensconsed at the Convenient Resort, so aptly named because it's close to the new Bangkok Airport, the scene of the recent sit-in and countrywide close down, after a long 30 hour travel experience that was even tolerable. We're still dizzingly tired, disoriented, yet befriended by kind Thais, and 11000 miles closer to Chiang Mai; two planes, one 12 hours, the second 7 hours in flight from Detroit to Tokyo to Bangkok. Dianne is sleeping breakfast off while I'm teaching our friendly bellhop to create his own blog. The temp is wonderfully damp and mid 70s; the flowers, mostly cannas, in this nowhere place nr the new airport are splendid; and we have two days to do nothing but see wats / temples, get massages, meet Aussies and Brits, and wander the small town and cafes, which is the wrong word because they're little more than assembled tables organized around ducks, tofu, chicken, various curries and lots of red peppers.

Spent a wonderful day on Sky Train discovering some of the wonders of Bangkok, its wats (temples), its sushi and noodles, China Town and the closed gate at the National Museum (holiday!). But we filled the last day in Bangkok with tuk-tuk rides, taxis, and trains, and a vivid sense of a huge city with a government in captivity.

But that didn't stop us. We flew to Chiang Mai this morning, and we're now comfortably housed at International House, Payap U. After being picked up at the Chiang Mai Airport by a Payap staff member, who spoke no English, we traveled abt 20 minutes north of the city to a wonderfully new and large campus, surrounded by hills and mountains, and the residence hall. We have a suite of three rooms, two bedrooms and a living room between. Before we had time to unpack, Dr. Pearl Wattanakul, my supervisor and chair of MA TESOL here, called, picked us up and took around campus, the university 38 years old but most buildings looking brand new, the res hall right next to the Law School and a mile or two away from main campus. Then it was onto Carrefour Mall where Pearl treated us to lunch (we ordered my curry chicken with noodles "not too hot" and it took a mere 12 seconds before my forehead and scalp were drenched in sweat).

Dr. Pearl outlined some of her hopes and expectations for my time here, and even gave a wink to Dianne whose expertise in arts education fit well with some goals Pearl and the U. has. She would like me to develop some new directions at Payap, for both English and TESOL, as well as to teach both grad and undergrad courses. Back in our room, I fell exhausted and overexcited into bed where sleep would not come. I have my work cut our for me. Dianne says, Tom, do you know what you got yourself into?

ChiangMaiTrek--TheEarliestOfDays

The ice storm over, I'm here overlooking our yard's icy palace and thinking of Dianne's and my upcoming trip to northern Thailand.  We traveled down the Mekong River a year ago with Road Scholar/Elder Hostel, into the heart of Indochina, and were deeply affected by what we saw and experienced in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.  We knew we had to return.  

On our third day in Thailand, in the northern city of Chiang Rai, I said Thailand is the place we must spend more time in.  God knows where that urge came from...I've had a year to puzzle over it.  Many sources surely:  the vitality of the people and the culture and the land; the need to travel, the wish to extend my working and teaching skills, the fantasy of living in a Buddhist culture, my own exhausted work in the US, my interfaith and glass journeys, come to an apparent end.  The other side of this trip...my being away from wife and family for an extended period, only mitigated by the plan for both Dianne and me to commute.  And of course for lots of friends to visit often.

For what may be a more palatable explanation, to some, Stephen Dedalus has been haunting me; and since literature has been such a major force in my life, I must give Stephen some space. Two passages near the end of Portrait of the Artist come to mind:

"I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defence the only arms I allow myself to use--silence, exile and cunning."
And, "(Mother) prays now, she says, that I may learn in my own life and away from home and friends what the heart is and what it feels. Amen. So be it. Welcome O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race."

To find a way to settle in SE Asia, I started tapping my connections in Thailand, the most welcoming and hospitable of the four countries we had traveled in, and the place where we felt we could both give to and take the most from the culture.  We had traveled to more than 20 countries in the last two years, on major trips with Semester at Sea through Asia and Europe, and on our own to Africa, Indochina, and Puerto Rico (the latter trip was with Paul Haas and not Dianne).

Surprisingly, after contacting an ex-graduate student of mine, Supattra, in Chiang Mai, who just happens to hold a high position in the US Consulate there, I wrote to both Chiang Mai University and Payap U.  Supattra had given me names of persons in their English Departments.  I had to send college and grad school transcripts, get letters of rec from key persons at BGSU, my employer for almost four decades, fill out endless forms, get clearance from the FBI, banks, and it never seemed to end til I got the email saying that I had a job.  And I had other Chiang Mai contacts, including John Butt and Tawee TwLay, whom I had met on my interfaith travels.  Funny how destiny works.

The job is in the MA TESOL Depertment in the Faculty of Arts at Payap U.  I haven't seen my contract, but I am confident that they will treat me well.  This blog will tell that story. I will be teaching a course called Language in Literature, an ESL modification of my Teaching Literature courses I taught for years at BGSU.

Dianne and I will spend a few travel recovery nights in Bangkok and then fly up to Chiang Mai.  We'll be staying at the International House residence hall for a week while we look for rental housing.  I look forward to telling you the rest of our story here.

After the snow and ice-capped bridge above (these open spaces one advantage of living in rural Ohio) comes a picture of the Baan Lorcha Akha Hill Tribe Village, where we spent a wonderful afternoon meeting the people last January.  This village has been part of an experiment run by the Population and Community Development Association, the NGO that is helping the people to benefit from the growing tourism, not be devastated by it.  We saw a village dance, metal working, weaving, rice pounding and traditional Akha games.  The next picture is of an orphanage in Laos where we met the director, his aides and his wonderful students. O, see if you can find the small picture of James Joyce.

If you're blog-starved, check out Dianne's and my earlier effort based on our Semester at Sea travels in fall of 2006.  Find the blog at semsea.blogspot.com

The last picture, below, is of Toledo's ESOL class I taught at the JCC. It was a short stint, about six months, but it did give me a sign, that I would like teaching English to non-native speakers and writers.