Three Year Milestone in Hatyai

Today marks the day I moved to Hatyai three years ago. Before then I was living in Papayom, Pattalung(ป่าพะยอม พัทลุง), a small town in the north of the province. At the small town, I was living without a job or any sort of income. I had some savings and my girlfriend at the time helped as well. So as my savings started to thin, I started to look for work. It was on April 19th that I came to Hatyai for an interview with the head teacher at Inlingua. After he gave me the green light, I made the move. And what's also interesting is that this date not only marks my three years of being in Hatyai but also three years of social media distancing, and a very special holiday I reveal at the end of the post.

The days leading up to the big move to Hatyai, I had made the decision to stop using Facebook at the rate I did. At the time it seemed normal that I spent time throughout my day scrolling and liking on the social media platform but now it just looks like a big waste of time. I would say that I reduced my usage by more than 99%. The remaining 1% is when I know a friend uploaded a picture of me and I go check it out. Oh and I sold a DVD player and soundystem on the Marketplace function of FB as well. Once in a while I go in for something in particular.

I'm quite happy to be social media distancing myself. I would say it has brought me closer to my true self. I've saved much time. All that time was used towards better things. I have no other social media platforms so this blog is my main online platform. I realize that makes it challenging as an artist in a world where social media rules the domain. I'm not fixed against the idea of using it. But I just realize that this is what I need right now. And someday looking back perhaps I'll say that I made it without social media. That would be cool.

Angel

Living in Hatyai was a big change from the small town life in Papayom. I made many more friends in Hatyai. And previously in Pattalung most of my friends, including girlfriend, were Philippinos. I love Philippinos but one thing you don't learn from hanging out with them is the Thai language. Even in my first few months of being in Hatyai, I could feel my usage of the Thai language hit the sky. I was now much more immersed in a Thai speaking environment. Pattalung is just as Thai speaking but not when your social circle consists of Pinoys. That was necessary in my growth as a Thai language learner. Being in Hatyai and having Thai friends and neighbours made all the difference. 

Also I was able to continue learning Thai with the same teacher I had back in Papayom. That's because she would spend Mondays to Fridays in Hatyai teaching. And previously in the small town, we were only able to meet up on weekends as she spent her Saturdays and Sundays there with her family. Actually I go into much greater detail on that part of the story in this post.

All of the photos taken in this current post are from April 23 2017. The girl in the following photo was actually a potential landlord for me. She was quite an ambitious landlord now that I look back. At the time we were impressed by her taking us around to see the town a little. She showed us her apartment for rent and then took us to the PSU campus. Since we had just arrived from a very small town, the campus looked amazing and special. We saw more people there by the running track than we would on most days in the small town.

"Oh really? The deposit is yay high you say?"

A New Landscape

Imagine having seen two very similar apartment rooms but one of the landlords won you over by taking you all around to see the town and showing the kind of hospitality a newcomer to a town needs. That landlord would easily win your business. Even though I was very happy with that potential landlord's hospitality and warm welcome, we had to decline. She asked for a bigger deposit than I was able to pull out of my wallet. Eventually, my ex-girlfriend and I walked around the Klongrien area and called the numbers on the Room For Rent signs. Eventually I found my new home in the middle of the market.

I refer to her as my ex-girlfriend because even at that time of moving to Hatyai we weren't together anymore. We had broken up as we had to go our own ways. Well, that's the easy way to explain the story. The longer aspect of the story consists of more heartache that I don't wish to get into. But to sum it up, we had been separate for some time and forced by the situation to continue living together. The move to Hatyai for me meant a move to another city for her where she had found another job. However, she came along to Hatyai to help me move.

Hatyai was the answer to many of my prayers and requests. I had been asking for a teaching position very much like the one I received here. I had been asking for a part-time schedule that would allow me to work on music as well. I had been asking for improvements in my Thai. I had been asking for growth and expansion. I found it all here in Hatyai. And so Hatyai is a place I can call home. I really appreciate the city. Many people have their own thoughts about the place but in my personal legend, I deem this place worthy. Hatyai has been a haven.

Hatyai Haven

It's funny how the guy who stopped to let us take this photo ended up being included in the photo itself. Perhaps the photographer was so moved by his gentle act that she decided to commemorate him.

All the people in this photo are already more than the number of people we would run into on most days in Papayom - unless we visited the market. Then we would see slightly more people than most days.

I have been living in Thailand for four years. My first year was spent mostly in Pattalung with a month or so near the Cambodian border. Nowhere was I more satisfied than here in Hatyai. Up until moving to Hatyai, I was constantly considering leaving the country. This was mostly due to the two jobs I had found until moving to Hatyai. They had felt like jobs - tiring and unsatisfying. In contrast, my current work feels like a teaching position. It feels like a place I am actually learning about teaching, getting lessons across, and enjoying my time doing so. It doesn't feel like a job. I appreciate that.

The most recent developments in my living situation was that I moved to a new home in a village on the outskirts of Hatyai. If you look at a satellite image of Hatyai and determine the place where the concrete ends and the green of nature starts, this village is right on the border. It's much quieter here than in the busy market I was living in before. That market stays open seven days a week. Even on holidays, many of the sellers show up. I like the quiet here and I intend to stay here until my time in Thailand is up and we finally make the big move to Germany. 

I am also curious as to who will be the first couchsurfers to come by to the new house. At my little room in the Klongrien market, I hosted over a hundred surfers. There were periods of high traffic when a surfer would leave and another one would come on the same day. Sometimes that kind of chain hosting lasted for two to three weeks. But more recently, I was getting one or two surfers per month. Here, our couch has been closed as a safety precaution from the global crisis at hand. This place is much better suited at hosting guests. But it's also far from the city and not convenient for some travellers who need easy access to the bus or train stations. Let's see what the future will bring.

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On a final note, I didn't realize until now that my Hatyai anniversary date coincides with the National Sovereignty and Children's Day in Turkey. It was a year after the War of Independence that Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the modern republic, devoted the holiday to all children. It was the day that the Grand National Assembly of Turkey was founded. They denounced the previous Ottoman government and established a modern state. This was exactly a hundred years ago on this day.

Also, here is a linguistic note. The National Sovereignty and Children's Day in Turkish translates to 23 Nisan Ulusal Egemenlik ve Çocuk Bayarmı. Egemenlik means Sovereignty and my name, Egemen, translates to Sovereign or Independent. 

I never realized that the date of my anniversary in Hatyai and Children's Day coincided because I had to dig deeper to find the exact day I moved here before writing this article. And also I haven't celebrated Children's Day in a long time since having left home but I would like to. Today is a day for all the world's children, not just Turkish children. I celebrate the inner child within everyone today! We are all children of the Universe.