A Bunch of Stuff!!

Last night I had my first remembered dream about Thailand. Something, as usual about flying up through many phone wires and cutting my way through some kind of plastic wrap to allow me to fly. Actually it was a pretty cool dream. I sort of look at dreams as information as to my state of mind. I was definitely responding to the challenge.

We went to STOU for a 2:00 meeting with the staff of the Counseling section of the Office of Educational Services. I will be working with them for awhile. The meeting went well, I have many new names, and nicknames, to remember. For me remembering means to write it down! I might be working on creating some documentation for new computer users, but we are still discussing this idea. The computer that I am using at STOU is running Windows 98!

Before we left, one of our neighbors was biking by the house, she went too slow, lost momentum and fell into the canal. It all worked out, nobody was hurt and it was handled with good grace and good humor.

I have been working on learning Thai. I have made some flash cards with English on one side and Thai on the other. I carry them with me and sort through the words that I recognize and those that I do not. Again to remember I need to write it down. I also am using the Rosetta Stone CD. I have asked Richard Barrow to bring some Thai learning materials from his store Sunday when he visits.

At STOU there is a wonderful coffee shop that is run by a young couple. They both speak some English. When we are waiting for meetings or appointments Jit and I hang out there. It is relaxing and the coffee drinks, iced, are excellent. The best part of the place though is watching the grace and joy of the couple. Sometimes seeing happy, healthy people is a contagious experience. When we were leaving STOU today they were leaving on their motorbike also.

I absolutely depend on Jit when I am in Thailand. When we were going to STOU this morning the cab got lost, we ended over by the Impact Center and the cab driver needed to get instructions. Going back to the Klong Toey dock the cab driver took an alternate route because of traffic. I am going to need to travel alone, but language is such a difficulty. Most places I go and visit the people are not English speakers.

I worry about imposing at STOU. I know I have a lot to offer, and I am confident that I will be of value, but sometimes it feels that I am imposing on peoples time. Nednapa is so courteous . I am thankful for her. After the meeting we spent about an hour talking about advising and education. My next goal at STOU is to learn more about the academic and curriculum process. I am curious and using the concept of "same and different" I am sure I will learn a lot.

With talking with Nednapa about community colleges she mentioned that there is some exploration of that area. The problems is that the four year college and universities might not accept the credit. I think I am being diplomatic, the actual impression that I got is that the colleges would not accept the credit. Some things in the United States, that we take for granted, we really should be thankful for.

At STOU there is no mandatory advising and I do not believe that the faculty has a formal advising responsibility. I need to explore this in more detail. Again I am thankful for UAF's mandatory advising requirement.

In Thailand the government is heavily involved in setting curriculum. My impression that the constant pressure to improve curriculum and to revise courses is not a part of the normal Thai curriculum. This is just an impression and I will be exploring it further. In Alaska we are under some pressure for control of the curriculum from the statewide administration, the state of Alaska, and the Federal Government. If we want a creative adaptive curriculum that is revised to meet the needs of the community and the students we need to keep the faculty role in curriculum creation and approval. There is a tension between standards and creativity. The tension is valuable.

Next week I will get to go to see a STOU regional center at Petchaburi. I also will be at STOU three days to work with the counseling center. After the next two weeks we will evaluate the next step. I am still working on my original sabbatical goals.

I sure am gaining empathy for students on this sabbatical. I feel like an ignorant child sometimes. I think beginning students depend upon their teachers. I know I am sure required to depend on people in Thailand. Living for a long time in a different culture, with a different language, is an order of magnitude more challenging then being a tourist. It sure is a growth experience.

Yesterday I got to do some computer support. Nuk's computer was hanging at the welcome screen. With Jit translating I finally figured out that she had attempted to install an anti-virus program. The problem was that the Trend Micro Virus program was already installed. I finally got the computer to go into Safe-Mode after multiple attempts and used MSConfig to turn off the new virus checker. It booted once and then it started looping again. Sometimes it wanted to scan the disk and other times it just kept re-booting. I finally gave up for the night because I did not have a Windows XP disk. I went over tonight, the computer booted, I got into safe mode and turned off the Trend Micro Virus Checker. The computer booted and seemed to work, but when I restarted it still wanted to scan the disk. I think there are still problems with corrupted files, I also told them they need to re-install the Trend Micro Virus Checker. The way I understand it is that the school where Juke works has a Microcomputer center that will provide support. There is a waiting period. The computer had a good set of software and even had the Microsoft Anti-Spy ware utility. The operating system was Windows Service Pack 2. I am glad I did not have to mess with the XP disk because of all the updates and very slow Internet access. The computer configuration and software installation looked very well done. The reason that I knew what to do with msconfig is that my daughter did the same thing to her computer and Dave helped me correct the problem. Sometimes experience is a great teacher.

Coming back from Bangkok I saw a young man with a little boy riding his motorcycle cooking cart to the dock. He was going to sell sausages that he cooks on the cart. I saw him on Sunday at the market selling his sausages also. I wonder if he is a single parent. He sure seems to be including his young boy in his activities. He is also very young.

Almost everyday, when we go through the Klong Toey dock I see the devastated women in the black filthy dress. She is not old, but she seems very intense. She is always wearing the same thing. I sometimes wished I could ask her how she got so lost. What happened? Her intensity scares me. I watch for her each day.

There is American professional wrestling on TV! There is Thai commentary, but I can also hear the American original. How depressing!!!!