Just a day at the office

So today's blog will tell you all a bit about my working life. Which right now is the only life I have. So ABAC Poll does statistical research for many companies, both governmental and non-governmental agencies. We have about 50 employees on three floors.

This is our building... True Coffee is on the ground floor and a very nice shop that I like to read at on the weekends (free air conditioning!).

I work on the second floor in a room with 6 people. Cross is my go-to guy-- he speaks the best english and therefore can teach me the best thai. He is also my age, loves anything Korean (the language, the music, the women), loves America (mostly Virginia because he lived there three months, oh and all love ballads--Mariah, Whitney, Toni...he's got them down!), is totally a goofball and is my SAVING grace! My other roomies are P'Rat, P'George, P'Rin, and my awesome thai sister P'Boom. I also have to give a shout out to Oh, who is also a total goofball and Cross' partner in crime-- therefore, one of my close friends here in BKK.

(**side lesson: anyone who is older and you respect such as a coworker and family elders, you add a P in front of their names--for respect... So as you can see, remembering everyone's name has been a bit difficult cause it alll starts with the same letter!)

This is my office. I sit on the left side by the window (not really shown). P'Boom and P'Rin are in the back and P'George is in the middle--Cross and I sit up front where the green jackets are.

Also this is Cross teaching me Thai... sigh, so hard--but I am starting to get the hang of it. I just sound like a robot when I speak, but eventually I'll add the needed intonations to be understood!

And of course, my special shout out to Oh...I appreciate his silliness and most of all his motorbike, which he is reluctantly teaching me to drive :)

Well thats ABAC Poll--tomorrow, a new lesson on what the hell I'm doing, seeing, learning in the Land of Smiles!

B

PS: Btw, Mai pen rai means, Don't worry!! As a way to say your welcome, or don't mention it!

Practice out loud!

Just some basics...

Alright, so I think I'm just going to teach you guys some stuff about Thailand you can't really know until you get here-- you don't have to really live here for these lessons, but who knows, maybe I'll add some insight once I figure it out myself. As for now--some basics...

Thailand is about 198,000 sq. miles, or about two Oregons... I don't know, i just read that somewhere--I've never even been to Oregon. So the capital is Bangkok (duh) and I am living there. There is about 61 million people and something like 9 mil live in Bangkok. Not really that many-but it feels like everyone lives here.

The official language is Thai--which is a BITCH to learn--more on that later. Most people are Thai, but there are also a lot of Muslims in the South--mostly because it borders Malaysia and they have a HUGE Muslim population. There is a lot of political turmoil in the South. Probably more on that later too--as I figure it out myself.

So what else-- oh yeah, the weather. ITS FUCKING HOT. Its hot all the time. Unless you are inside a building--then its cold--really cold. But those first 2 minutes when you walk in is like heaven. A refrigeratored heaven. And it rains--and even when it rains it is hot. Luckily I will miss the monsoon season which is from May to September.

Now the time is GMT +7... the math works like this from California--add two hours (three in a week after DLST) and then change the AM/PM... so 8pm in Cali is 6am here. So on and so forth.

Now, I know I already mentioned I am working at Assumption University, but I added a little GMap just cause I was able to figure it out!

View ABAC in a larger map

So I leave you with all of that for now. I got some great stuff to share about my actual time here... but I thought it would be good to just set a bit of the principals for you...

Just some of B Mart's practical Thai.

Laaeo Phop Gan Mai! (See you later!!)

B

Sawadee Kah everyone!

So I figured if there can be a blog about cats with funny captions, and these dudes, then I can try and entertain some people with my accounts in a land far from my own--Bangkok, Thailand.

They love Buddha in Thailand... so many Buddha!

Let me introduce myself, I am B, better known as BMart and I am NOT a writer. I am a political scientist from San Francisco, USA who took up a pretty amazing opportunity to work for a professor in Thailand. For the next 8 months I will be working as a "Full-time Lecturer" at Assumption University, ABAC Poll Research Center.

"Wow B, you are a LECTURER?!", you might ask--well no, no I am not. I will mostly be a research assistant in public policies and surveys, and a mediocre English teacher (You will soon discover that my forte is NOT the english written word). My job duties are still kind of a mystery to me, so we'll be figuring that out together.

What I plan to use this blog for, I can not tell just yet-- but I have been here for 6 days and already I think I have a few things to teach you that you didn't know you wanted to know.

It's late here in BKK and this was just a test blog post thingie, so I will try and keep this up and not send this little page to blog heaven, like so many others out there.

from the other side,

B