A hop, skip, jump and 10% of the water in my body to the unforgiving furnace that is Bangkok later, I’m at the Fulbright office and meet Khun Siriporn Sornsiri (Program Officer) and Khun Porntip Khanjaniyot (Executive Director) for the first time. In Thai, the letters “p-o-r-n” together are pronounced like “pawn.” Just thought I’d clarify that for everyone =).
PK: Oh! Very nice to meet you. I was expecting somebody a little more…mature based on your emails. The way you write made you sound older; very professional!
HC:
They are very nice ladies and from meeting them, I could tell that they were very ambitious and driven women. No surprise, given the fact almost everyone is the office is a woman. One interesting factoid that I shared with Dr. Earenfight was that in reviewing some of the grants for the last few years, I found that the majority of them went to women whose subjects of study were centered upon issues surrounding women. I wish SOMEBODY would’ve told me THAT sooner! The other thing is, this may seem obvious to many of you, but not to me, is that the people in the Fulbright office have a good deal of influence in terms of the grants that are funded. Learn what they’re about and bam, you’re in. The only trouble is that it’s hard to find out before you actually get to know them. Hah hah! Also it’s not like their contact information is posted on the IIE website. A good resource for future scholars, if you are reading this, Dr. Earenfight, is maybe to try and get in touch with past scholars for the country in which the prospective grantee is interested. That way, you can ask them what sorts of people run the office and what sorts of projects might be more feasible than others or might not have been done before.
The reason I went today was to give them my bank account information so that they can do direct transfers for future grant disbursements and hand over my invaluable American passport so that they can get my visa extended for the length of my stay. Only I run into a snag because being the weird neat freak that I am, I pulled out my “Arrival/Departure Card” that I filled out at Customs and had been stapled to my visa page – I didn’t like it in there because it was sticking out of my passport – anyway, it’s needed to process the visa extension. So I told her I’d bring it in. Khun Siriporn invites me to come back tomorrow and go to lunch with her, Khun Porntip and a Senior Scholar who is arriving tonight, she says I should bring it the card then.
What time should I come in?
Noon.
I don’t recall how long it took me to get there from campus – so I guess I’ll have to leave early. I wouldn’t want to keep everyone waiting…so typically Thai ~
1 comment:
Oh my god. You pulled your arrival card out? I seriously gasped. I saw someone get hassled in Taipei because their card was taken out of their passport and the immigration guy seemed to be suspicious. Make sure and staple it back in the way it was and fold it so it doesn't stick out.
When I'm in BKK next, I'll show you what the faux-Embassy in Taipei did to my passport and why it's now in danger of falling apart :-P
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