Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3

Again, I woke up around 6 am for no apparent reason. It was already getting warm outside – I could feel the heat emanating from the windows near my bed. I usually keep the curtains drawn because it helps to keep the heat out and the a/c in. I should mention that it is constantly on when I am at home because otherwise, it just gets a little difficult to breathe it’s so humid!

I call the number that Khun Kritt had given me last night and choose the English menu options. I troubleshoot with the operator for about 40 minutes before we determine that maybe a technician should come out. She informs me that there will be a charge of 300 baht if the problem was on my side of things as opposed to the company’s equipment. Fine, anything to just get this working! She tells me they’ll call me to schedule a time to come fix it. Do you think they’ll make it out today? Yes, probably. Great, I was going to head to the weekend market today at Chatuchak. I figured it was Sunday, so I wouldn’t be able to get service. Anyway, so I stayed close to the condo and walked around a bit. I stopped at the neighborhood McDonald’s because it was the only “restaurant” open at about 10 am. The street vendors were all business as usual, but I have yet to build up the courage to go order from them on my own.

Despite being advised that they were usually safe, I’m still a little concerned. As somebody who has worked in food service, many of these carts are a food handler’s nightmare! There was raw meat sitting out and about and cooked meat kept next to the uncooked meat. Of course, there was no running water and soap for them to wash their hands with, either. Yeah, it might be a little longer before I can confidently go up to one and order a stick of this and a bag of that. As I sat at the McDonald’s eating my chicken nuggets, I began to feel rather silly. Here I was in a fabulous city with fabulous food, and I’m eating at McDonald’s. Truthfully, I was feeling a little embarrassed because I had always thought of myself as a little daring and willing to chance it. After my little food poisoning episode in Manila though, I was a little less hesitant and untrusting of my digestive system being able to handle the food here (the ironic part of the experience in Manila was that I didn’t get sick from eating something made by the locals, it was a chicken sandwich I got at the KFC!!). Anyway, long story short, I received a call from the internet company, but the technician didn’t speak any English. How silly of them, you would think that if I had spoken to the operator in English, they would have set me up with an English speaking tech. All I heard was an “OK,” “sorry,” and click. I wondered if I would be getting a call back or not. When I got home, I put another call into the internet company but the answering system picked up and instructed me to leave a call back number. GRIEF! So I did, when I finally understood what it was asking me to do. I decided to take a short nap and was eventually awakened by a telephone call. It was a rep from the internet company – we agreed that he would be over at 9 am tomorrow. Great, I just wasted an entire day waiting for them to come and they weren’t even coming!

No sense in making it a complete waste! I headed down to MBK to take care of another item on my list – getting some business cards made. I went to one of the many print and copy centers available and instructed them to make some business cards that showed my affiliation with Fulbright, the Thailand-United States Educational Foundation (aka Fulbright Thailand), and Chulalongkorn University. I also asked them to have my local address in Thai with my phone numbers on one side and my contact information in Seattle on the other. Now I can just hand them out to people I meet! Also, it just feels more official that I have my affiliations/title in writing. Thai people take titles and status very seriously, it seems.