Big Apple

I’ve been writing a lot more recently and I’ve really enjoyed that. I have continued to journal since coming back to the US, but it hasn’t taken up the same amount of my time and energy that it did before. My blog, and this is one reason for the resurrection, suffered the most and until yesterdays post hadn’t been touched since April, 2008. This misses my trip to Cambodia and my return home not to mention the past year. Again, this is what I’m trying to remedy the next month or so.

My first morning in NY was uneventful. I spent the morning taking care of business and catching up on sleep. My meeting was at 12 uptown at Columbia so I made sure to give myself plenty of time to get there. I grabbed my copy of Rolling Stone magazine and grabbed a seat on the subway and was on my way. I arrive with plenty of time to spare and so I found a quaint little coffee shop nearby and indulged in a croissant and a cup-a-joe. The wondrous thing that is summer vacation is often enjoyed most in these simple moments. The moments between “planned” events. The time that otherwise would have been spent fretting over things undone or things needing your attention. Rarely is the simple fact that you are early and have nothing to do mean it is time to grab a coffee and read. Unencumbered by the stress of life and work, I enjoyed that coffee and damned if it wasn’t a great cup.

Once the clock stuck twelve I was sitting outside the office of the School for International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. I sat down with the program director and spent about an hour chatting with her before I headed over to one of their classrooms and sat in on a class. The program is intense. It’s a three semester program and is very rigorous. It’s designed to prepare the students for careers in public policy and is focused on environmental policy. In many ways the program is a great fit – it combines environmental science with economics and international studies. My background and interests seems to dovetail perfectly with the program and the director herself said that I’m am ideal candidate. But I have my hesitations. I sat in on the class and one of the students was a prick. Very arrogant and cocky, he told me off as I explained to the girl he was sitting next to who I was and what it was I was doing. The professor, on the other hand, was very nice. The material was, while being a bit mundane and not very challenging, was interesting. The class focused on memo writing at first and ended with a look at a case study examining the emergence of environmental policy and coordinated governmental action to address environmental problems in the Pacific Northwest. So, while I’m glad I went, I think that visit left me with more questions than answers. While I was there I also went to the School of Journalism and spoke with them briefly about their dual degree program in Journalism and Environmental Science. I hadn’t thought about going this route, but think that it could be interesting.

After grabbing something to eat from a street vendor, I headed to the Guggenheim. I had never been and was excited to simply see the building. As I walked in I noticed that the exhibit was a showcase of Frank Lloyd Wright and his work, who, if you didn’t know, designed the Guggenheim itself. I’ve always loved his work and have several books of his work. The exhibit was fantastic as was the building. The spiral concept was evident in several of his earlier works, none of which actually ever came to fruition. He had this great design which played off of his love of the automobile which was essentially a ramp up and a ramp down spiraling around a half sphere which was an planetarium. It was such a cool concept. The Guggenheim is essential this inverted and for people not cars. There were also the “great” works there. There were some paintings by Picasso, Rembrandt, Pissarro, Monet etc. I looked, but with the exception of some of the more contemporary stuff, was more interesting in the Wright designs.

I then began the trek back to the hotel. I walked from 86th all the way down to 42nd via Rockefeller Center. It was a great walk – stimulating, great for people watching, and cool (rain clouds were moving in). I saluted Liz Lemon as I passed by 30 Rock and headed off to grab a beer and do some writing. Now, there is nothing much of note to speak of, save the fact that after six years and all my laptop and I have been through, I finally split something on it. I was sitting at the table and had just taken the first sip of my beer and sure enough I knocked the table and a good bit of beer splashed onto the keyboard. I sopped it up and did my best to clean it up and for all my efforts I was rewarded. The computer still works. The only residual effect is that the keys in that corner are a bit sticky underneath. All’s well that ends well.

And then the fun started. I ended up meeting my good friend Alex later that night and went out to drinks just around the corner from the hotel. It was great to see him and chat. It’s interesting to think that there are quite a few people out there who are in similar positions in life to me. We had a great heart-to-heart over a few beers. One fun fact though – he works in DUMBO. Now, this is an actual place and is an acronym for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. Coolest thing ever. I wish I worked in DUMBO.

The following day I went to the Museum of Natural History and wasn’t even able to see all of the first floor. They had a great exhibit on trees, more specifically tree rings and age, which included information about the reasons rings grew faster or slower. And I know that Peter is shaking his head and calling me an ecologist now, and while I’m okay with that, this was a really cool exhibit. I also ended up spending a good bit of time in the section on gems and minerals, fascinated by the crystals and the structure of the exhibit. I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how to change up my curriculum and think themes are the way to go and I got the feeling that crystals could provide a neat theme for one of my thematic units. I took notes on the exhibit. It was cool. I’m cool. And then I hoped the bus to New Jersey. Over and out.

Resurrection

As the relative calm of summer vacation sets in, I find myself saddled with time and energy that had previously been required for other more productive tasks. The past year stretches our behind me. The collection of experiences, events, lessons and moments seems to exceed in quantity the fixed amount of time that is bottled into any given year. Despite my own failure to grasp the passing of time with any measurable success, I am going to try to organize these thoughts back into my blog which, for so long, had gone neglected. This is, in parts, a way for me to reflect on the past year. This year has brought with it so many changes and personal mountains to climb, as well as many success and moments to be catalogued. These next few entries will also document my return to Thailand and my travels throughout this very special country as I visit old friends and favorite places. I will also be sojourning to northern Vietnam in an effort to balance old and new and will share my experiences there. Finally, I will try to utilize this forum and opportunity to attempt to bring closure to this blog, and in doing so, bring a degree of closure to my tenure teaching abroad in Thailand.

And so it begins. The end of the year came not too long ago. As with most charter schools our year is one of extended length. The days are longer and the students spend more days in our presence that other students their age. Wrapping up the year, we host the Summer Bash, an event organized by the homeowners association on the last day of school. As I sit atop a platform suspended over a tub of water, the Summer Bash is cancelled due to rain and lighting. But this was not before one lucky student, on his first ball – one of three chances – hit the target sending me rear-end-first into the tub of cool water. Needless to say, I had no need for an umbrella as the rain started falling. And so it was, as I walked dripping wet – drenched from head to toe – that I parted ways with the students and colleagues that I had spent the past year with. In many ways, this dunk tank is an apt metaphor for my time spent teaching in Colorado this past year. As I sat atop the platform, I had thoughts of regret. Had I made the right choice? There was risk involved, but it made the people in my life happy and satisfied their wishes. Was it what I wanted? And the thrill of falling was obviously there – the suspense and the not knowing what was going to happen was exhilarating. There was a complete release of expectations and I simply allowed myself to experience the moment, however fleeting. This was followed closely by the enveloping water. It surrounded me and took over – it dominated all my senses and left me wishing for what I had only just had. Then the moments spent sitting atop the platform, freezing and wet, pondering the future. What will come next? Will the thrill outweigh the costs? There is the feeling that you don’t have control of your future and what happens next. And I feel I need to end this metaphor before it becomes too cheesy and I stretch the situation more than I already have. I’ll touch on these thoughts later, but for now I’ll focus in on the adventures that followed, and have preceded this moment.

After a few busy days in Denver, I boarded a United Airlines flight to New York City. I was going to New York under the guise of visiting Columbia University. I had seen and researched several interesting programs they offered and I wanted to try to get a better feel for the school and the programs. Not less significantly, I wanted to try to assess my own desire to go back to school. For sometime now, that has been the next step. When I left Thailand my “excuse” was simple – I was going to return home to spend time with my family and go back to graduate school. I took the GRE and had done some research. However, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was simply looking at schools as a way to move forward without actually having to make any decisions. I’ll be the first to admit that the concept of going back to school leaves little to chance. There is little risk in that. It’s a safe choice. And it’s a choice that would be respected by those in my life. In all honesty, this thought of going back to school is only in my head because when I told my Thai acquaintances the “real” reason I was going back to school, they couldn’t understand me. My reasons were vague. They were obtuse. I was looking for something that was hard to verbalize. And that’s a difficult concept to explain in English much less Thai. So, I changed my strategy. I told them I was going to get a Master’s degree. No one questioned my motives. No one tried to convince me otherwise. Some offered to set me up with their daughters and friends so that I would stay and students told me that they wanted me to stay, but they all understood. They just didn’t want me to go.

Anyway, coming back to the point. I landed in LaGuardia Airport at about 10pm. My parents had kindly offered to put me up in the Westin in Times Square for my birthday so I had a destination. I simply had to get there. After all, how hard could navigating NYC be? I hopped a shuttle bus that took me into the city and dropped me off at Grand Central Station. GCS is about six blocks from Times Square so I decided to hoof it. And you have to love NYC because a teacher from Colorado can walk down 42^nd with his backpacking bag on his back and another smaller bag on his chest and not be looked at twice. That is until I stroll in the front door of the Westin. The journey was uneventful- a few wrong turns and a few ponderous looks in several directions and at several street signs. Nothing out of the ordinary. A point of note – while walking I walked under a banner on the street which was a part of the marketing campaign for Times Square. It said “Welcome” in Thai. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Thai language it reads like this “ยินดีต้อนรับ”. And without delay or hesitation I strolled into the Westin. Now, I’ve had this experience before (Cambodia and Brunei) and I cherish the moments. Here I come walking through the door of a fancy hotel – my bags on my shoulders and a grin on my face more often than not streaming with sweat and I tell them I’m here to check in. More likely than not, this is all in my head and they don’t take a second glance at me. But I like the contradiction of images. It amuses me.

And I’m going to stop there. My battery is dying, but I’ll be back. And now I know the exact situation of the reference. I hadn’t seen The Terminator until this trip. If ever I decide to drive a car into a building, I’ll walk in and say, “I’ll be back” before I do.