Here I go again

The whirlwind has finally settled down, or perhaps it’s just the calm before the storm. Either way, I am currently enjoying a brief period of relative inactivity which is quite blissful. Coming back to Bangkok has been exhausting, crazy, frenetic—and loud. In some ways I feel like the mute button was on for the five weeks that I was home in Virginia. I think at times I could literally hear the grass growing it was so quiet in Williamsburg (yes, even living with Stefanie, Diesel, Daniel, and Lizam) but now the volume is back on at full blast.
My first day and a half back in Thailand I spent adjusting to the time change and schlepping my stuff to my new apartment downtown. Then the new teachers arrived. We have about thirty new teachers this year and most of them had to find housing. For two days, four other returning teachers and I showed the newbies various housing options. This was a bigger task than I had imagined. When I arrived last year, I had already picked out a place on-line and moved right in. I knew that I did not want to have to haggle with a Thai landlord about whether or not they would replace a brown plaid couch with a solid green one before I moved in while at the same time fighting jet lag, acclimating to the intense heat, and struggling with the language. There were a few teachers who made this same decision but it still left twenty five or so people who needed new pads and fast.
Since we are not real estate agents, all we could do was show the new teachers the places that we know about. Places that we live, places where our friends live, that sort of thing. The housing possibilities in Bangkok are endless, but the affordable housing options with all the western amenities are a little more finite. We get a 13,000 baht housing allowance (about $370) which is plenty for a modest Thai studio or one bedroom apartment near school or downtown. Some of our teachers even pay as little as $171 a month for an apartment.
I guess I had imagined that most of the new teachers would just be ready to settle in anywhere, figured that many of them would be flexible and understand that living in Thailand is not going to be like living stateside. This would probably explain my surprise-which-quickly-turned-to-annoyance when I heard a myriad of complaints and demands. I want something bigger. There isn’t a pool. I need a bathtub. There isn’t enough light. I want a separate living area. They don’t allow pets. There isn’t an oven. We want two bedrooms for when guests come and visit. This is too far from the skytrain. This place is really noisy. This one feels too much like a hotel. I want to live in a brand new apartment because I don’t like other people’s germs (believe it or not, I’m not making this up). After two days of this, I decided they didn’t need my services anymore.
The next week was spent in meetings and setting up my classroom by day and dinners catching up with old friends and making new friends by night. It has been fascinating meeting the new teachers, hearing their stories, listening to their initial reactions about life in Bangkok. I have enjoyed being the semi-seasoned expat and giving helpful hints to the new residents on where to eat, where to shop, what to try, what not to try. Another benefit to helping with the new teacher orientation is that now I know all of their names.
Tomorrow is the first day of school for the students. I think I am ready (or will be after a few more hours of planning at home this evening). Wish me luck!