My state of gruntlement with this current teaching caper is fragile.

It’s starting to look like I might have jumped through all the hoops necessary to stay on in the job til March next year. But it’s looking a little more like I’ve won not the Jackpot, but the Booby prize.

Below is a list of the latest in the Office Politics games which dominate my tiny corner of the world lately.

Plus

I feared that with the departure of my Thai co-teacher, Film, that the school might try to load me with extra teaching hours. That hasn’t happened, and they appear to be hard on the heels of a replacement for Film.

Minus

Today I was asked to sign an amended contract. Different from the original terms, of course. The original said I would be reimbursed Visa fees ( so far 3800 ฿ ). The amended contract said not. I didn’t sign.

Plus

Monday I am scheduled to visit the Immigration Office with Her Som-ness, the High Priestess of all things bureaucratic. I will pay 5000 ฿ for Visa and Work Permit.

Minus

This week Film demanded that I schedule exams immediately for students who recently failed. He also told me that he has already entered a pass mark for those who failed. Making these make-up tests a fiasco for the sake of placating fee-paying parents who would not be please that their wee treasures should not be learning computers. Or English.

I asked him about printing them out, a mysterious Byzantium process which requires sign-offs for Africa. He told me to do it myself. Wonderful. When I tried there was almost a shoot-out over access to printing paper.

I discovered that no NES teacher, or Philippine teacher, or Thai teacher, has more classroom hours than I do. Of a total of around 20+ teachers in the English Programme, only 2 others have the same number of contact ( classroom ) hours. All others have significantly ( 16 – 19 hours vs. my 22 ) less.

On a personal note, many of the Thai & Philippine teachers are just plain bad-mannered. It may be that my Western sensibilities about personal spaces is different. But spreading books and computers all over the lunch table, for example, is just bad manners. Desks are for one thing, tables for another, I woulda thought.

So given the fragile state of affairs, it may have been .. impolitic for me not to have buckled and signed the amended contract.

It’s probably a fight I can’t win. Maybe I should just put my head down, say ‘yessir’,’nossir’ and survive until March, when the contract ends.

Or mnaybe I’m just over-thinking the whole game, and the HOD doesn’t give a damn about whether I sign or not.

The balls is in the his court for now.

The  weasel is well among the chickens with the news that my Thai co-teacher  ‘Film’ , left,  is leaving RayongWit.

And it may be gunning for this particular rooster – me, not him.

It  seems likely that my  teaching workload will now crank up beyond a manageable 22 teaching hours a week classtime * ( schedule ) .

Officially, Film and I are sharing teaching duties, with him in the class alongside me teaching. Unofficially, I teach nearly all my classes alone, and he takes two or three of the younger classes by himself.

Reports from other teachers suggest that the school will want me to fill the extra hours.  Its track record thus far with me suggests that I’m unlikely to be offered more money.

So I’ve been girding my loins. It happens that I updated my CV anyway, and now I’ll be sending it hither and yon. Fore-arming myself against “trouble at mill” if and when it comes to that.

Film – who as with many Thais uses his nickname bestowed at birth, as opposed to ‘Tranwit’ in his case – leaves on August 26 for another teaching job in Chonburi.

I found this out not because he told me but via ‘Som’ ( Her Who Must Be Feared ) late on Friday afternoon. I guess I will soon find out how the school plans to fill his boots.

Pros and Cons

Without knowing that, an upside of Film’s departure is that I no longer have to share a teaching station. All our classes are in the same room ( 7209 ), and the desk is officially Film’s.

I may also escape  being so closely … policed. Although a young guy, Film is totally dedicated to rule-following. He’s 100% by the book .

At a recent gala day, he seriously expected me to be in the classroom ‘supervising’ along with him and his wife while students played video games. No other NES teachers were assigned jobs.

An additional class needed scheduling recently for students to sit exams. Film  expected me to start work at 7am ( i.e. be there at 6.30 or so ) to accommodate students. OK, I said, but that will mean I leave work an hour earlier than the regular 8am – 4.30 timetable. No dice.

If there is more than one way of doing something, he’ll always plump for the most time-consuming method. The one which involves time-consuming or  mind-numbing repetition, rather than  an alternative using better technology.

Another area of difficulty is that Film’s English is not as good as some other Thai teachers. It’s way better than my Thai, but I’m not employed as a Thai speaker.

A downside is I’ll miss out on his teaching experience. Two or three times, he has suggested good lesson plans when I’ve been stuck. A handful of times in the early days, he rescued me when I’d exhausted my lesson material.

He also has a good sense of when students are struggling, and occasionally  summarises a lesson in Thai.

He is well liked in the office. He’ll be missed, but more by some than others. Ahem.

*

That’s actual contact time, in the classroom. I’m doing at least 50 hours a week. That includes 40 hours where I’m obliged to be at at the school. Then at least another 10 hours a week outside school hours in class preparation, and marking assignments.

The Coffee

Served black, in all its full-strength, muddy, bitter glory. Ideally topped up with a dollop of creamy New Zealand butter.

And what would you know but the sap is rising and all ( ok, many ) things seem possible on  a toasty South-East Asian morning.

Last month I was riding 5 minutes to a local eatery, and fidgeting while the Help took its sweet time brewing up the elixir. One morning, I finally decided that 20 minutes’ wait was beyond the pale. There had to be a better way.

And there was. My brother in NZ, a bit of an aficianado, gave me some advice about finding the Good Beans, and even found a local shop which ground their own beans. Imported no less from Myanmar, and Chiang Mai, and cheap at about 150 ฿ . That worked.

But my equipment, I suspect, was letting me down. A cheapo coffee maker from Tesco Lotus ( ‘low-TAR’ in the local lingo ), which does the trick, but doesn’t quite have the same kick. Or the same taste.

After a few words with the other NES teachers, one suggested the 7-11s, many of which contain an ALLCafe. They brew surprisingly good coffee, only 25฿, and delivered fast and hot. See above.

So the weekday morning routine is now one with the Good Beans, and the shoddy coffee-maker, above, and one from the 7-11, further above.

On a weekend, I’ll travel to a locally-owned and run cafe ( mother and son I assume ) where they make spectacular coffee. As no doubt do many cafes around town.

Trouble is, none of them open til 7 am, which is way past twitching time.

Monday at work was such a day.

The school hosted something they called an ‘Expo’, bascially a free-for-all where students played computer games, peddled merchandise, or just danced. As below.

Details of the reason and thinking behind the whole caper are sketchy, because – as I’m learning is standard practice – we get told sod-all.

We did, however, have a Monday’s worth of no lessons, so I wasn’t making a fuss.

My Thai co-teacher, however, was. He seems to have made it his mission in life to create as much work as possible for me. In line with that, he insisted I ‘supervise’ a roomful of students playing video games. He and his wife ( also a teacher ) were in the room emjoying a cosy chat. The rest of the Foreign English teachers were in the teachers’ office doing their own thing.

I followed suit.

After three months here, I’ve finally got a loose grasp on a major drain on the pocket – power costs.

It’s finally dawned on me – years after everyone else – that running air-conditioning overnight, and during most of the day, is sky-rocketing expenses.

In my defence, it’s set up as a rort, because apartment owners are making a killing by retailing electricity at a profit. So they’re hardly likely to have a word on the ear of power-hogging tenants.

The wholesale rate, which they pay the Government, is 3 baht / unit. They then typically retail it at 5 – 8 baht / unit. At a typical 300 – 500 units / month, that’s anywhere from ฿600 ( baht ) –  ฿2500  for whistling dixie.

Being a little slow to catch on, I’ve spent around ฿8,500  per month in the last two apartments. The first, ฿5500 + ฿3000 in power, and the second, ฿5000 + ฿3500 in power. It seemed there was no escape.

But on grilling a fellow NES teacher ( Scott, a quiet but wily Californian ), he pointed out the obvious – it’s the air-conditioning, you marnis.

Experiments have proven this hypothesis – below is an example of the Monkey Brain taking over shows power usage here at the Wiang Walee. Enlightenment happened on July 29.

Power Usage at the Wiang Walee

How have I coped with this given the 30+°C heat? I’ve started wearing damp t-shirts and neckerchiefs inside, and I’ve turned the air-conditioning off when I’m out, and during the day.

It’s still too hot to sleep without the air-conditioner. But I’m finding ( from reading, and since confirmed ) that the unit set for about 26° cools enough, and uses way less power.

An awful eating out experience last night reminded me what not do in Thailand.

That would be to travel to a country offering a smorgasbord of what has to be among the best cuisine in the world – and eat pizza. And ice cream.

That’s what happened when I took a diet regime ( “listen to the Sisson” ) swerve for the sake of a social outing with some fellow NES teachers.

I should have seen the writing on the menu when the group agreed to meet at Passione, a major shopping mall in Rayong. It glitters, but it’s not gold. The lights are over-powering , and most of it is so .. uniform that dithery middle-aged guys are apt to lose themselves. On the upside, there are some stalls cooking real food, served up hot, and delicious, so all was not lost.

We agreed to decide on an eatery when we got there, but when I arrived ( on time ), the rest were all parked up at a small franchise pizzeria. Ugh. But I decided to ditch the food zealotry, and enjoy the social occasion and indulge.

We all ordered, er, pizza. OK. I got an allsorts bacon topping, thin crust. It was OK ( bland, no spices ), but didn’t come anywhere near satisfying. Everyone else either has their appetites better trained, or ate in advance, because it seemed to do them.

Not so bad, but when it was time to fix up the bill, taking five separate paymnent was totally beyond the staff, or the system, or both. Result – a 20-minute drama. Unbelievable.

The others trundled off to a dessert shop to eat ice-cream. I made my excuses, and went searching for some real food – I ate – a fatty pork sausage, a pork chop, finished off with cocoa and coconut cream with cinnamon and Goji berries. Mmmm.

I paid 220 baht for a pizza which didn’t satisfy. I then paid only 70 baht for the sausage and chop, and maybe 20 baht for the cocoa. If I could have found a nearby market in my frenzy, I could have had a good, and filling, meal for 60 baht. With perfectly good outdoor seating.

Aside from all that, it’s beyond me why one would travel to Thailand to eat crap American-style food. It’s expensive, in unpleasant surroundings, and dull or unpalatable.

OK, some things haven’t changed for me in this new residence. I watch similar videos, for example.

But when it comes to a really easily accessible part of the Thai culture – the food – it’s almost criminal to let that chance pass by.