With a new job and a few new vacations under my belt, life here finally feels like it’s picking up after a bit of stagnation.
A few weeks ago I interviewed at Khon Kaen University for a full-time lecturer position in the Department of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. I got the job, although I was the last to know. They (correctly) assumed that I would take the position and went ahead and scheduled me for classes and started my paperwork, but forgot to tell me. The department head came to me to verify the salary level they were going to hire me at, and I had to ask her, “So I have the job, right?” Just in case you’re wondering: I left my last position because I was lonely being the only foreigner on staff and I was mostly working with younger kids- not my preference- and KKU had this opening. I’m excited about the job because I will get to teach some of the best classes with English majors. I’ll write more about it after classes start in 2 weeks.
In the meantime, Joe and I have been taking advantage of the October break (equivalent to the winter break between semesters in the States) to do a bit of traveling and climbing. Our first adventure was a free tour of Korat (Nakhon Ratchasima). Some of the masters students in the faculty took a tourism class last semester, and as part of the class they had to actually organize a tour. The tour was excellent in many regards, particularly because the guide to tourist ratio was 2:1!
A few weeks ago I interviewed at Khon Kaen University for a full-time lecturer position in the Department of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. I got the job, although I was the last to know. They (correctly) assumed that I would take the position and went ahead and scheduled me for classes and started my paperwork, but forgot to tell me. The department head came to me to verify the salary level they were going to hire me at, and I had to ask her, “So I have the job, right?” Just in case you’re wondering: I left my last position because I was lonely being the only foreigner on staff and I was mostly working with younger kids- not my preference- and KKU had this opening. I’m excited about the job because I will get to teach some of the best classes with English majors. I’ll write more about it after classes start in 2 weeks.
In the meantime, Joe and I have been taking advantage of the October break (equivalent to the winter break between semesters in the States) to do a bit of traveling and climbing. Our first adventure was a free tour of Korat (Nakhon Ratchasima). Some of the masters students in the faculty took a tourism class last semester, and as part of the class they had to actually organize a tour. The tour was excellent in many regards, particularly because the guide to tourist ratio was 2:1!
We first stopped at Phimai, one of the old Khmer ruins. The original temple was built between the 11th and 12th centuries. This is the first Khmer ruin I have visited, although I hope to see the famous Angkor in Cambodia before I leave S.E. Asia. We also visited the nearby National Museum where many of the artifacts from the ruin are kept for security.
After a wonderful and very vegetarian friendly lunch, we stopped in Dan Kwian, a town famous for ceramics. Clay is gathered from the local riverbeds in order to create beautiful rust-colored pottery that is sold around the world. Since we were buying directly from the source, prices were very excellent. As much as Joe and I wanted to buy a life-size ceramic Thai-style lion, the thought of getting it back to Khon Kaen (not to mention America…), forced us to restrain ourselves.
Our final stop was at the Petrified Wood Park. Although I was expecting only to see old stone logs, we were surprised with a visit to a not-yet-open-to-the-public natural history museum. The Issan region of Thailand is famous for dinosaur bones found in the area, and this interactive museum provided animatronic dinosaur battles as well as the usual ancient animal skeleton reproductions.
After the sleepy bus ride home, Joe and I made final preparations for our trip to Krabi before leaving the next morning. More to come on that later.
1 comment:
Congrats, Jordan! Great pics too. Can't wait to hear about your Krabi trip :)
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