Vacation

This is the last of the blogs that I didn't have an opportunity to post while I was on vacation. Tomorrow back to the present.

Today is the first official day of vacation for spring term. This year, like most years, I’ll be spending about half of that time at the EARCOS conference in Bangkok. EARCOS is an organization for international teachers working in Asia. The conference last four days and is filled with workshops, lectures, speeches, and a few parties. It’s a venue for teachers to do some professional development, as well as catch up with old friends and colleagues. For some teachers who are planning to move to another school, it’s a time for networking. For administrators, it’s a chance to find some potential new faculty members. For me these days, I spend most of my time in the tech workshops, although occasionally I go to one of the math ones.

Last year’s conference was in Manila; the year before it was in Ho Chi Minh City. As it’s in Bangkok this year, I have made some plans besides just attending the conference since I’ve spent a fair amount of time in Bangkok over the past 17 years. I have a complete physical scheduled, as well as a visit to my dentist whom I greatly prefer over the dentists in Bali. There’s also some shopping, of course, for the family and myself. Being in Bangkok gives me a chance to visit Asia Books and stock up on books for another year. I’m also hoping to find some software for my iMac.

While I’m looking forward to the conference, I’m not looking forward to the travel to get there. I really enjoy living on a remote tropical island for the most part, but getting from one place to the other is not one of the benefits of living in Sumbawa. The itinerary for this year is: 6 am leave for the airport; 7 am take off for Mataram (the next island over) and wait for a 9 am flight to Bali: 9:30 arrive in Bali and hang around Kuta and Legian until 2:30 pm when I can check in for the flight to Bangkok; 5 pm leave for Bangkok; 8 pm arrive in Bangkok; 9 pm arrive at the hotel. So the whole trip will take15 hours. But, as many people have said to me over the years, including my teacher friends back in the States, what’s wrong with that, it sounds cool that you get to go to Bangkok for a conference and have most of it paid for by the school. And really that’s just really true. The whinging just means that I’ve gotten jaded a bit being over here, and that I’m getting old and tired of traveling. Well, this kind of traveling anyway. I actually still like the long, 15 hour drive from here to Bali when we have enough time to go. I think partially because I’m doing something for a lot of the time (with the exception of the five hour ferry to Bali), and I’m with my family and the kids’ excitement gets me jazzed up for the trip.

The key to the trip over to Bangkok will be occupying myself during the wait time. While I’m waiting at the company airport here in Sumbawa, I’ll have a few smokes and read a paper on archaeology. I’ll have about 90 minutes in Mataram which I’ll spend on the computer if no one is on it (the lounge only has one). When I get to Bali, I’ll stow my suitcase and take a taxi in to Kuta where I’ll go hang out at an internet café for a while and then probably stroll over to the Matahari department store to see what they have there now as it’s been a few years since I’ve been there. If I get really ambitious, I might go to the Ace Hardware store and check out what hardware I can buy in June when I’ll be in Bali for a few weeks when the kids and I have a vacation that coincides. I’ll check in at about 2:30 and buy a book and have a few drinks while waiting for the plane.

I’m staying at my old hotel from the Pakistan days – Tai Pan. It’s close to my dentist, the Asia Books outlet that I like, and the Robinson’s department store that I also like. Plus, I’m within walking distance of two restaurants that I like. I will be across town from the conference, but I can take the skytrain and take some photos of Bangkok. I’ve managed to lose all of my Bangkok photos over the years just like I lost a lot of my ones of Pakistan and India.

As I write all of this sitting here at my new iMac in what is commonly referred to as “The Big House”, it really is clear that the 18 years of teaching overseas has been good to me: a wonderful (well mostly) wife, four great kids, a few houses, a bunch of electronic toys, animals, an eclectic collection of friends (most of whom I rarely get to see unfortunately), a chance to live in Indonesia and Pakistan, and an interesting and generally gratifying career where I’ve been able to teach a wide variety of subjects: 2nd grade, computers, math, social studies, pe, high school anthropology, as well as spending almost four years being a principal.

There have been downsides as well, but that’s for another post.

And it’s a lovely day in paradise.