Mob: 3 School: 0

UPDATE(Thursday 28 August): School is now canceled for the 3rd day and apparently arrest warrants have been issues for the core leaders of the PAD (the mob). Perhaps there is an end in sight, but who really knows?
*************************************************************************************************************
So, today is the second day that classes have been canceled due to the ongoing protest at the Government House.

I found a really good and concise ARTICLE on yahoo that summarizes the current situation.

If you're too much of a bum to read the article, this is the main scoop:

In 2006 there was a coup, run by the military and assisted by the PAD (the mob/protestors), the coup removed then Prime Minister Thaksin

January 2008 the current government was put in place.

Decisions were made since then that have convinced the PAD that the current PM Samak is really under the control of Thaksin.

Thus, the PAD is now trying to get Samak to resign and dissolve the government, so they have now taken siege of the Government house and broke into a TV station, taking control of it also.

In conclusion, the PAD maintain that they will not leave until Samak resigns and Samak maintains that he has no intention of doing so.

What does this mean for me? I have no idea. It is impossible for us to have school as long as the protesters remain there because I teach at the Palace which is located right next to the Government house. Furthermore, many of the students parents are involved with the Government that the mob is demanding to leave - so it's not the safest situation for them either.

So...I'm just trying to enjoy this holiday and ignore the sounds of impending doom because surely something's got to give - I just don't want to be around if/when it does.

Protest Part Deux

School. Canceled. Mob. Palace.

Refer back to a would-be-similar post for any possible questions.

Under Construction

"My road to success is under construction"

I was finishing up my usual stint on facebook when I came across this bumper sticker.

I paused.

Something about those seven words struck a nerve in me. Perhaps it's the fact that my facebook news-feed has been beseiged with recent news of my numerous friends beginning the next stage of their lives in medical school.

It's August and I am not there...where perhaps I ought to be...but instead I am 9,000 miles away in a country I don't understand, with people I've never known, working a job that I never prepared for.

I've justified it by saying that I'm on a great adventure - one that most of my peers will never be able to experience and one from which I will carry memories to last a lifetime. But everday, I am sieged with a fear - perhaps irrational - that those doors are closing for me. Every moment spent in Bangkok, I fear, is one that takes me further away from the future I so neatly planned out for myself at the age of 6.

In my heart of hearts I know that this is not true. I know that my life will be waiting for me whenever the time comes that I am ready to return to it. In all honesty, I think my heart is just breaking because I feel that I am just watching everyone else evolve into who they are to become, while I am here... wading in the kiddie pool entitled 'life experiences'.

There is a quote by Alan Cohen that I try to keep close to my heart when these moments of doubts and insecurities come (and they do come often...):

"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power."

The fact is I am afraid that I am just running away because I won't cut it in that world.

I am afraid of being the one that fails.