Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Dear Jane..


"I know I've been a super awesome boyfriend, and have been nothing but sweet and caring for the last six months, but I don't want to wait for you anymore. I don't want to see you next month, and I'm going to ignore you for a week to help reality set in. I know it sucks to have all our hopes and plans vanish overnight, but I don't have the patience to wait and discuss this like respectable adults in March. I'm sorry, but I'm doing this for me."

Flo




That's not exactly what it said, but it's what I got out of it. And by "it" I mean the email attachment I received Monday morning from him. And by received I mean, I woke up still miserable after being feverish and sick all weekend to email my boss that I couldn't come in to work, and found it in my inbox. And by found, I mean I spent 4 hours typing every. single. french. word. into my translator because the document was 'read-only,' and I couldn't copy and paste it; it was like rubbing salt in the wound.

And Flo, if you read this and think you wanna bitch about how I'm "posting your business for the world to see," maybe you should have thought of that before you threw all tact out the window and attached a Dear Jane letter to an email instead of looking me in the eye and saying it like a man.

You're a coward. It hurts me to say it, but it's true. I always knew there was a chance this would happen, and maybe that's why I'm not as distraught as I might have been, but I really thought this would happen(if it did) between May and October when I would have 5 months of no vacation. You were really a wonderful guy, and I'm sorry that now all my friends will only think of you as the douchebag who broke my heart instead of the sweet, genuine person that I know you to be.

I WILL be taking my trip to Europe next month, and I WILL enjoy myself. Just not with you, apparently. I miss you, and you have really hurt me, but I'll be damned if I let you ruin my vacation. Someday soon you'll regret what you've done, and you'll wish you'd kept me close. You thought you missed me before? Just you wait.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Don't Worry, I'm Still Alive


I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, but I have been a bit overwhelmed lately. Maybe overwhelmed isn't the right word....but I've had other things to occupy my time, and haven't gotten around to blogging much. What with six day work weeks and a seemingly never-ending pile of exams to grade, all the days seem to blur together. That and Flo and I are 7 hours apart(as far as time zones), so I spend most of my nights skyping with him. Thank God for coffee.
I've already booked my flights to see him in March, and am counting down the days, but until then, our quality time looks something like this:


I miss that boy like crazy.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Since they usually draw gruesome things anyway..

I had my students draw "crocodiles eating a bear" in their notebooks while I gave retests last week. As usual, they didn't disappoint.






I also had my classes draw "kangaroos flying airplanes" while I did bookchecks...



and when Diamond showed me this drawing he'd done, I asked what had happened and he said very matter-of-factly, "Yes, it's very violent." XD hahahaha

Friday, February 3, 2012

All Good Things Must Come to an End


A few weeks after I arrived in Thailand two years ago, Bauj and I went to sign up for internet with TOT(Telecommunications Of Thailand). All fine and dandy, only when we finally got it up and running, we realized that they had switched our names on the accounts, so my name was on her apt's account, and vice versa, so we received each other's bills. We thought it would be easier to just pay each other's bills than try to get the Thais to fix it, so that's what we did. It worked smoothly for the first year. Then last April my apt got termites, so I moved to a different building, but took my internet with me, still in Bauj's name. When Bauj went home in May, Stephanie took over her internet, which was still in my name. Then Stephanie left in October, and Bob took Steph's internet that used to be Bauj's with my name on it, but was able to get it changed over to his name, and I still have my internet with Bauj's name on it. So my name was....nowhere. And after moving buildings, I stopped receiving bills every month. The other account continued to receive bills regardless of apt number, but mine stopped.

Now, if you don't pay your bill for 3 months, they shut your internet off until you pay. So that's what happened last July - I called my landlord(who incidentally WORKS for TOT, so this shouldn't have been an issue in the first place), and after a week of them trying to figure out what the problem was, they gave me the amount I owed, I paid it, and my internet was back in under 10 minutes. But I continued to receive no bills.

I assumed the same thing would happen in another 3 months, but October came, and November, and December, and then January, and my internet was still going strong. I thought I had achieved the impossible - free internet! I thought since my name ceased to exist in their system that my account had somehow flown under the radar, and they'd forgotten to shut it off or bill me, and was beginning to get excited about the idea of free internet for the remainder of my stay in Thailand.

But then I came home Wednesday. Something felt wrong..and I looked down at my router to see that horrid little red light, mocking me from behind the couch.


It's now been 6 months since I last paid for any internet, and I'm not only dreading dealing with TOT, but I'm irritated that this is still a problem. I TOLD my landlord that I wasn't receiving bills, and now they're going to want 6 months worth of late payments, which should total around 5000B. Having already budgeted out my cash for this month(booking flights and trains for March), I'm not in a place to be throwing that kind of cash at something that isn't my fault.

"Well why didn't you call them sooner?" you might ask. Really? Would you have? "Hello, TOT? Did you know I'm getting free internet from you? You didn't? Could you start charging me again? Because I really miss paying.."

Yeah, right. I don't think so. And don't lie. You know you would've milked it for as long as possible just like I have. So don't judge.

Needless to say, I now have no internet, and the internet cafe in our apt complex seems to have disappeared. I hope to have this all straightened out by next week sometime, but no promises. Sunny told me I should just call TOT and throw a fit so they'll make a deal with me(such as paying just two months worth instead of 6 months worth for THEIR mistake), and that it should work because, as a foreigner, I pose a huge threat for a massive confrontation, and not only is Thai culture extremely NONconfrontational, but they just simply wouldn't want to deal with me. I'm hoping it works.

Fingers crossed.