700 km in two days

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Sometimes I can't figure out why I did what appeared to be quite insane.  I just drove 350 km to Chaiyaphum on Saturday afternoon and another 350 km back on the following afternoon.  The purpose of the trip was to get students to talk to people and get data for their senior projects.  Because they just confirmed me that they'd do the projects that I proposed on Thursday, I had to totally change my plan for the weekend. 

Our 4th-year students are required to do individual senior projects to graduate.  Many of them get their topics from their summer internships while lots of them don't, for a number of reasons: companies don't like to expose their data or having their staff spending time with students.  Almost all of the senior projects that I've seen do not amount to anything useful.  And I'd like them to work on something that, while getting them to learn handy skills, can be put into actual use or having real benefits.

I thought of some data that I saw at Wat Pa Sukato, initially the Young Bird's Watcher Club (ชมรมเด็กรักนก).  My first thought was to incorporate it into GPS maps.  But that sounded too complicated to my students, and I myself don't know how to do it.  I just know that it can be done.

I didn't sleep too well on Friday night because of too much coffee.  My class in the morning didn't go too well as I felt I rushed to get it over with.  Just about when we were going to leave for Chaiyaphum, it poured.  Thank goodness, it dried up when we reached Ayuddhaya; otherwise, it'd take us much longer to get there.

I didn't know these students that well as I don't teach undergraduate classes (too many faculty members want to).  I just pitched out my idea and did hope that my life would be easier if they didn't take it.  Because they accepted my proposals, I had to match them with our data sources.  These students turned out to be very easy going: no complaints or whining.  They are 15 years younger than me and I'm curious to know what they think so we had interesting conversations (at least to me).

In Thailand, drivers are not supposed to remain on the "fast lane" which is for taking over.  I was pulled over for not obliging that.  The police asked for my driver's license.  As I was searching for it while answering his questions (where we're heading; what we're going to do there...), I accidentally gave him my university ID card that showed that I am a college professor.  He said, oh,,,so you are teaching, please drive more slowly next time.  And he let me go without issuing a ticket!  Such is a privilege of teachers in Thailand....

I informed a nun at Wat Pa Sukato about our arrival and that we'd get there in the evening.  When we reached there, it was already dark and too late for the evening chant.  Mangoes that I mailed just arrived that day (I already sent them out in morning and we'd decided to go in the afternoon).  I was proud of my packing skill as all of them got there in perfect conditions.  After dinner of instant noodles, we went to our kuti.  Luckily, all of us take showers quickly; else, it'd drive me nuts as we have only one toilet+bathroom.  They agreed to get up at 3.30 AM for the morning chant. 

I felt kind of bad for them as teenagers are often late nighters.  They generally go to bed at midnight or after.  Our alarm roosters woke us at 3.15AM.  After the morning chant, we followed monks for their alm's round.  Quite refreshing though we were a bit brain dead.

Sukato holds a 40-day intense silent meditation retreat every year (for "hard-core" practitioners).  Now, it gets towards the end of the event, and there were lots of laypersons there.  I didn't talk to the people I generally talk to as I was busy and I wasn't sure if they were keeping their silent vows or not.  I used to fancy the idea of living on a monastery, as a layperson or whatever.  This time, I wasn't sure if living so is too shielded, too "sanitized."   Well, I guess, monks have monks' problems, and laypersons have laypersons' problems.

Anyhow, I just love going to Sukato. It fits into my dream of having a countryside house.

We talked to Phra Ajahn Tum after the morning chant and Ajahn Note after breakfast.  We didn't see him anywhere, but I decided to call him to ask if he wanted to talk to us.  It turned out that he is our gold mine: gigabytes of data that we need for our projects are with him.  While copying files, we waited for P'Jul and others.  I eavesdropped him teaching/discussing dhamma with his visitors.  Basic problems of human beings are not that different...

The timing was good; they arrived when I was about done.  P'Jul brought us some paper reports (precious records as their electronic files were gone with the hard drive).  Khun Kung and P'Chart also came.  Our meeting was short as they didn't ask much and my students were still clueless about what to do.

Our last stop was at P'Chart's house to get reports on the homeopathy research that they've done for TRF.  They have compiled their data in a doc file, but it is yet to be put in an electronic database and uploaded onto the web.  P'Chart and Khun Kung were not Chaiyaphum natives.  Their kids were brought up in a very free-spirit way: they were allowed to crawl around their house with their cats or lying on the ground outside.  Even their names were romantic: ต้้นน้ำ and ธารใส (both names were related to water as their house and fruit orchard sit on the river bank).

Having been an insomniac for ten years helped in long-distance driving.  I was tired but I'd never fall asleep behind the wheel.  Bangkok greeted us with heavy rain again as we were reaching the outer suburb.

What surprised me about taking on this responsibility was that I wasn't worried at all if we'd succeed.   I myself have never done a database.  But I don't think it can be that complicated: plenty of books and websites to read, user-friendly software and tons of people to ask in the computer science department.  Perhaps, ignorance is indeed bliss.