Just one of those days...

Today was kind of rough.

It was one of those days where you wake up and you just know that every waking hour is going to make it hard on you.  It was the kind of day where all the little pieces of the world you live in are varying shades of black and white, you can't help it, of course, because who'd rather watch only the first part of The Wizard of Oz knowing how much better the second part is?  It's just the way it is and all day you have these little moments where you tell yourself, "You made it to the light at the end of the tunnel, this day wasn't as bad as you thought" and then your internet goes out and you think, "Internet is a luxury anyway what do I need it for?" but your coteacher sees you struggling and then kind of hijacks your computer to "fix" the problem and 2 hours later the problem isn't fixed but all the tabs you've been carefully hoarding for months are definitely deleted and the screen looked a little different and you can't figure out how and you definitely can't be mad about it because she was trying to help.

It's the kind of day where you are taking attendance and you notice that one of your students keeps raising her hand for several similar sounding names in a row and that she is very confused about who she is or what her number is and you come to find out that you've been working with an attendance sheet that is not up to date so even the kids don't know what you are talking about and not only is your entire attendance record for the semester ruined (it's been 7 weeks) but the test you gave them might be trash as well because you'll never be totally sure whose is whose.

It's the kind of day where your last class is 15 minutes late so you're sitting outside waiting and a Thai teachers breezes over to you and tells you, "You can't sit like that" and you are so surprised and affronted and, yea, mad too because, 1. In YOUR culture it's not ok to just tell a coworker how to be, and 2. You honestly didn't know there was a more polite way to sit than "legs crossed."  And you try and be like, "Wait, what? Why?" but your students show up at that exact moment (to save you?) so you let yourself get swept into the classroom leaving her outside, and you think you could have maybe hurt her feelings and most of you cares about that but a small little Benedict Arnold part of you doesn't because she hurt yours first and you know it's petty and elementary school but does she know what kind of day you've had?

It's the kind of day where you go to buy another GB on your phone (no internet at work, remember?) and you tell the lady 200 baht and you know you said it right because the same thing that always happens when you ask for 200 baht happened- she says something in Thai which you have come to decide means, "There's a promotion" and she shows you that she will be charging you only 150, lucky you!  But then she tries to give you 300 baht change for your 500 and instead of thinking you misunderstood how much the 200 baht top-up cost (it's obviously not 150 baht for a 200 baht phone plan) you try to tell her that you need 350 back.  So what she does instead is CHARGE you 350 for your phone instead of the 150 you thought you were paying.

It's just one of those days.

But then again...

...you didn't ask for help with the internet but your friend not only recognized that you were frustrated about something, she figured out what about and went out of her way to try and turn it around for you.  Who cares if she didn't succeed?  Isn't there still such a thing as "it's the thought that counts"?

...the attendance thing was certainly annoying, but one student randomly (and thankfully) just happened to have a copy of the updated version for you.  Then, all the girls in the class spent the last few minutes filling in all of the nicknames for you in English so that the next time you came to class you wouldn't be woefully unprepared without even realizing it.

...yea, god we're all adults, but bottom line about the inappropriate sitting thing is you definitely don't have Thai faux pas radar yet.  In fact, that's probably not something you can ever achieve (did you ever figure it out 100% in Mexico?), so it's probably possible that you got told in the sweetest possible way that you were offending everyone in the world (your feet were showing after all and aren't those incredibly undesirable in Thailand) and now you know for next time.

...are you gonna use 350 baht on your phone eventually?  Oh, god yes.  You've already spent 300 baht more than you thought you should this month, you just saved yourself a trip to the store for the next time you burn through a G in a super short amount of time (but whose counting and keeping track, really?).  So must we complain about a simple little miscommunication?  I mean... you never claimed to speak Thai but you clearly spoke more than that woman spoke English and you kinda achieved your goal anyway.  Let's take a win on this one.

Oh.  Huh.  Maybe my day wasn't so bad after all.