Back From Singapore, Life Changes and a Bit of a Rest

It’s been a long week, and I’m back from the hospital to pick up from where I left off. SOS had a few problems coordinating my leaving home, but all in all, I was very pleased with the way that they handled the whole medical evacuation.

The trip back wasn’t quite as dramatic – no doctor escort, no wheelchair, no special consideration at customs and immigration – but, it was wonderful to be back on my own power. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to do any shopping in Singapore as I had just enough time to get to the airport and check-in once I was informed that I had a ticket to go home. Oh well, I’ll be back in December when I retire again, and I’m thinking of staying a few days while I get my new non-working visa.

I actually arrived back Tuesday morning, and co-taught a double biology class. By the time that I was done, I had a terrible headache and went home for the rest of the day. I came back to teach on Wednesday, but had a headache within an hour. I stopped by the clinic to see the doctor, and we discussed the headaches as well as the results of all the tests done on me in Singapore. After a long discussion, we came up with three likely causes of the headaches as it was clear from the scans and blood tests that the headaches weren’t caused by any problems with my brain: stress from trying to adapt to my new realities, a reaction to the medicines that I’m taking, or a reaction to nicotine withdrawal. The doctor told me to take the rest of the week off, and I’m on the last day of my rest period. The headaches have stopped since I’ve modified the amount of medicine that I’m taking, so that’s a good thing for me.

I’ve been thinking about the stress factor a lot during this rest period. At first I discounted it, but after a few days at home, it started to make sense to me. Lots of changes in a short period of time- turning 60, having a new granddaughter, oldest daughter turning 18, wife moving one year closer to being 50, working on my last contract, learning to live without cigarettes, and then a stroke. Yes, it does make sense to me now that I’m probably growing through a bit of stress as I enter another stage of the life cycle. Well, just going to have to deal with it.

Tomorrow back to work once again.

Randomness

Random is a phrase that my students use all the time, especially the middle school students. More than a few times my homeroom will say to me “that was random” in response to some remark that intrudes upon my discussions of world economics or the wonders of algebra. “Random” is actually one of those remarks that they use that I actually like (unlike “sweet”) and use myself occasionally when one of the little darlings goes off on some tangent. So here are some random thoughts for the day.

Why is it that so many expat websites about Thailand use really garish colors on their sites? I’m thinking particularly of the ones with the black backgrounds and the electric blue (and unreadable) links and bright yellow fonts. Does it have something to do with them spending too much time in the bars of Soi Cowboy or Nana or Patpong?

If you live on the sea with a nice sea breeze constantly cooling you, you should put lots of paper down on the tiles if you’re outside on the balcony spray painting or rust proofing some fittings for your doors or windows (I didn’t and I have lots of outlines now on my balcony tiles of metal fittings.

Why is it that you can go just about anywhere in Southeast Asia and hear expats whine about the same things – the way we’re treated by locals, getting cheated by a girl/boyfriend/ wife or significant other, being made to feel unwelcome by the government, driving practices, and relatives? Are we the same? Are they the same?

Why is it that expats who have no understanding of and no interest in Islam move to countries that are predominately Muslim and then complain about it (almost always secretly) incessantly? I have a number of issues about the interpretation of the Qu’ran and the practices that are justified by referring to the Qu’ran, but I always make them publically.

Why don’t they sell Gouda cheese in Singaraja?

A Long Weekend

This is Indonesian Independence Day. It’s a national holiday, and I have the day off. The kids had to get up early for ceremonies at their schools, but then they were able to come home after that and take the rest of the day off. This is my only long weekend for the term so I’m intent on enjoying it. The only school work that I have for the weekend is grading some social studies exams, and setting up a hardware database for the merger of the international and national schools in January. Other than that I plan on enjoying myself, relaxing, playing with the puppies, and doing some cement work on the house.

Another Anniversary

This is also my 18th anniversary of living in Indonesia (I do have the four years that I lived in Pakistan during this 18 years, but the family was still here, and I thought of Bali as home so…). When I left San Francisco for Indonesia, I never thought that I was leaving for good; the move was pretty much a change of scenery for a year to clear my head and then get back to life in the Bay Area. I had everything I owned stored and fully expected to pick up where I left off. But, here I am 18 years, four kids, three houses, and a wife later. My life is one of those strange hybrids that you find over in Asia of the Western guy married to the Asian girl along with their kids and quite often some of her relatives somewhere around. I know guys who live basically an American life with their Asian wife in Asia; then I’ve met a few who have pretty much gone native, and then there’s the ones like me. I tend to by located on the gone native end of the continuum although just a little way over. Food is basically a fusion of the east and the west; entertainment is more or less the same – I like traditional dance and music here, but I also like Western movies and tv, and I read a lot which sets me off from most Indonesians that I know. Hmm…

Baseball

I’ve been a St. Louis Cardinals fan my whole life. As a kid, I also rooted for the Red Sox (Ted Williams was still playing then along with Jackie Jensen) and the Yankees (it was the era of the great Yankee teams of the 50s and early 60s with Mantle and Ford and Berra and Howard). For most of the last 18 years, I haven’t had much of a chance to follow baseball, but the last four years here in Sumbawa I’ve been able to watch games on the weekend on ESPN. As I’ve noted before most of the games are Yankee games so I’ve decided to make the Yankees my second team since they’re really the only team that I get to watch regularly, and I hate just watching baseball without supporting a team so I’m now a Yankee fan (St. Louis as well). And for my first day as a Yankee fan? They lost to the Tigers.