The Year 2020 as Told in Screenshots

 

There are many ways of telling a story. There are always numerous perspectives and various narratives involved. Here, I intend to tell the story of 2020 through the screenshots I took on my phone that year. Of course, this approach may omit many different events and happenings of the year. If I told the story of 2020 through the lens of my teacher aspect or my music producer aspect, the results would differ. However, I'll do my best to touch upon the key events and important takeaways of the year as best as I can.

The first screenshot of the year was taken on Ko Yo. I took the screenshot to show my mom our current location. I happened to be chatting with her on Messenger and had told her that we were on an island near the city of Hatyai. The island of Yo was a good location to rest as my girlfriend went into Songkla town to complete her chef course by taking a test. I go deeper into the various things we did and tried in this post about Ko Yo which also features a dance video created on the same visit. This other post features the music track, titled Animalia Faria, that was used in the dance video. 

The screenshot was taken at 5:33pm on the 6th of February. 2020 was a year in which my life had newly merged with my girlfriend. When I first met her, she was already enrolled in the chef course in Songkla. Shortly after we became a couple, she had problems with her roommates in Songkla. Well actually, her roommates, who were also her classmates in the course, had problems of their own and had started arguing and not getting along. In an effort to escape the drama, she moved in with me. Of course, I invited her to as soon as I heard about the drama. At first she didn't jump on my offer based on her idea that it may be seen as improper for a couple to be living together before marriage. This is a view that's shared by most traditional Thais. However, she needed a place to stay and I provided that for her. We've been living together and moving from house to house ever since.

On our first night on the island, we were looking around for a place to eat. We came upon this little restaurant on the side of the road and hoped that they would be open as many places were already closed. The aunt and uncle team running the place told us that they too were closed. However, they were kind enough to make us some fried rice with minimal ingredients. They used whatever ingredients were still remaining to fry up some rice. That really had an impact on us. Kindness goes a long way. Whenever people go out of their way to help others out, that restores our belief in humanity. It acts as a beacon of guiding light. And it reminds us to do the same. 

When I used to work at Naples Pizza in Windsor, sometimes we would get orders just a few minutes before or even 5-10 minutes after closing time. Our boss at the time would always take those orders even though it was late in the night. Sometimes when we weren't closing with our boss, we wouldn't take the orders or we would take them with a heavy heart and a tired mind. Looking back, I understand that taking those orders isn't just good for business but it's also an act of surrender. You surrender to what the present moment brings you without rejecting it. You take it in and let life take you there. Moreover, you help fulfill someone's desire for pizza at 2am.

The kind aunt and uncle's willingness to help us out brought us back to the same restaurant on many more occasions during our trip to the island. That screenshot was taken at 2:20pm on February 8. The GPS position makes it look like we're floating in the water. That's because, by then we had started sitting at a special table they had at the back which was right on the water. It had a serene vibe as the calm Songkla Lake waters ebbed gently. It's not like the Andaman coast or the Gulf of Thailand which have full on waves. The gentle ebbing and flowing of the waters created a meditative atmosphere after our meals. We would look at the water and see the reflection of our life.

Meditation has played an important role throughout the pandemic that occupied 2020. Being stuck in a house can be maddening at times but meditation helps to soothe that. With meditation, there's greater guidance in our lives. We allow the compass of the universal intelligence to centre us and nourish us with the cosmic rhythm. Meditation connects us with the whole universe. We were never meant to be separate entities from the universe. Of course, we are individual and unique but we're also meant to be in tune with nature, with other beings, and with All-That-Is.

This screenshot perfectly captures the four major hotspots of my life in Hatyai in 2020. The first is the current position of the GPS. The blue dot marks the position of our new house in Ban Nai Rai. Up until that point, I had only ever lived in my little apartment in Klongrien Market - which is just one block north of Greenway Night Market as shown in the map. To the south, there's the shopping centre where my tutorial school is located, Central Festival Mall. Gallery K marks the location where I used to learn Thai with my teacher.

This screenshot was taken at 3:40pm on the 21st of February. We hadn't moved to the new house just yet. We made the move on the 5th of March. I go into greater depth about the particulars of the move in this post about the new house. This event is key to understanding the underlying changes in my life at the time. Up until that point, I hadn't considered the possibility of moving to another place in Hatyai at all. This is because of my thoughts at the time. I kept thinking that there was no point to moving around because I'd be moving to Germany in a few years, or next year, or this year. I always had the thought of moving to Germany in mind and so it didn't seem worth it to upgrade my little apartment. 

Ying came into my life and changed all that. She convinced me that by paying just a little bit more than I was at my market apartment, I could be getting a whole house. Plus, she wanted to live in greater comfort than the little apartment could provide. I was skeptical and she started to think that I wasn't willing enough. However, a gust of inspiration struck me one night. I felt uplifted as I thought of leaving behind the old and taking on the new. Now, I was into it. I left behind my old apartment which was full of memories with Couchsurfers. We moved into the new house. In less than two weeks after the move, Songkla went into lockdown. What used to be news of a raging pandemic from other countries stepped into our own backyard. We used to talk about how Hatyai was a safe haven until the first cases started appearing. Within a short time, about 50 cases were reported in the province leading us into a lockdown.

The move had already paid off greatly. Instead of facing lockdown conditions and the risk of getting the virus in the busy and crowded marketplace, we faced it in the outskirts of town. Our location was wedged in between where the concrete jungle came to an end and the lush green of forests began. For this we were more than blessed. We were quite happy to be far away from the hustle and bustle of the market, away from busy bodies and crowded sidewalks. That put our mind at ease. 

This screenshot, taken at 3:06pm on February 24, shows the self-reflective nature of this article. It's also an example of me staying in tune with my inner child throughout these trying times.

2020 was also an important year for my Thai language acquisition. Two to three months before I was scheduled to go to Bangkok to write a Thai test, my teacher moved to another town. We continued classes online as she helped to prepare me for the grade 6 level Thai test, the only level offered to internationals learning Thai. It was in November that I went out to Bangkok to take the test. My highest mark was in my speaking and my lowest mark was in my listening. The listening component of the test felt too short and so I had to guess answers on the multiple-choice answer sheet, hoping some of them would come out correctly.

My speaking was pretty good apparently as the test facilitators even told me so during their interview with me. All my efforts at integration in the Land of Smiles had paid off. I had done my best to always try to speak with people. After coming to Hatyai in 2017, I had even made a new resolution not to have any expat friends. Previously in Phattalung, all my friends were Filipinos and other westerners. We always spoke English and not everyone was as eager to learn Thai as I was. Actually, I can think of very few of the people from that time who had an active interest to learn. And so, in Hatyai I sought out Thai friends. That wasn't hard as over 99% of the population is Thai and that most Thai people are easy-going and friendly.

I finally got my Thai language certificate. I think of Germany and how it's not only common but also expected of immigrants to learn the German language. This is so they adjust to life in Germany and integrate easily. It still boggles me to this day why it's not the same in Thailand for the immigrants living here. For example, not only am I the only foreign teacher at my school who has a Thai language certificate, but I'm also the only one who has made an effort to learn the language. The idea of learning Thai was brushed aside by so many foreign teachers living here even if some of them have been here for 10-20 years. I find it arrogant of people to expect locals to learn English. And their reasons for thinking so? Because it's the international language. What part of daily life in Hatyai is so international that you expect mechanics and restaurant staff to speak perfect English?

After I got my certificate, I didn't continue Thai lessons with my teacher. I wasn't a fan of learning online at the time. And shortly after that, she moved to Korea with her new husband, who happened to be one of her old students. Ever since then, learning Thai has taken on new forms for me. Instead of studying different things with my teacher, I just read books now. We also watch Thai series. I'm upgrading my Thai linguistic software one book and one episode at a time. Talking to my girlfriend is another source of learning as well.

Here is a post from February of 2020. The photo is from the year before, as the title of the post indicates. 2020 was the last time I saw Arul, shown in the picture holding a guitar. He returned to Indonesia along with some of the other Indonesian exchange students in the photo. Others went to different countries to study like Uli who went to Denmark. Edina had long returned to Hungary by the time this photo was posted in 2020. That year marked an end to my friendship with this little community of international students at PSU. This was due to two reasons. One was that many of the students began returning and the second reason was that the pandemic really limited our chances of meeting. 

This screenshot was taken at 12:18pm on February 28 to share it on WhatsApp. There were big changes happening in my life. Some of the changes were social in nature. Even though I had a resolution to only have Thai speaking friends in Hatyai, I bent my own rules when I met the Indonesians. There were multiple reasons for this. One was that, I had already spent many years in Hatyai with only Thai friends. I felt fulfilled in that area already. Secondly, I met Arul through Couchsurfing and I was happy to befriend him. And when he introduced me to his friends, there was no reason to hold myself back from that kind of environment. They were all nice people and we got along. And the final reason I allowed it was because I didn't want to stay stuck on a fixated old ideal. I let it go and let things change.

This screenshot was taken at 3:51pm on July 4.

Last year saw the BLM movement rise up around the world in the face of certain injustices seen by the African-American community. Many people flooded the streets and started protesting. Up until that point, I had newly reread The Kybalion. In this ancient text, I read about the Law of Polarity and how one doesn't shovel out the darkness in a room to bring in the light. One simply opens the curtains or switches on a light. No amount of pushing against the darkness can help make it a bright room full of light.

Perhaps I made the mistake of thinking that we can use this formula to talk about the protests at the time. I probably wouldn't participate in a protest if it were to take place even today. However, I realize now that the protests were the result of hundreds of years of persecution and racism in the United States. The people expressed their anger and frustration over recent events which are way too familiar to those living in America. 

My effort to talk about the Law of Polarity was to suggest an alternative. I realize that you can't tell people not to protest. They take it as a threat against their freedom and individual choice. I don't want to tell people what to do but I do want to inform, spread knowledge, and raise the vibration of the planet. There are many instances of people expressing themselves through creativity, art, stories and books. That's what I want to see in the world. The protests just reaffirm that the world is run by certain people in power and that we need them to do something about it. I'm a fan of doing something of my own about the problem. Shortly after that article was posted here, I uploaded a track called Insights Love and Friends (BLM Mix) which can be found in this post. An army of protestors can wreak havoc and get people in power to make changes but an army of creators can change the entire paradigm.

I stand in solidarity with trees.

On July 8 at 12:42am, I took the screenshot above and took the one below 24 minutes later at 1:06am. It's interesting how only a few screenshots taken here and there throughout the year can paint a picture that explains the whole year pretty well. Other developments that took place in 2020 were that we moved yet again to our old house in Ban Pru. We moved there at the end of July and stayed there until we came to Chiang Mai at the end of May in 2021. Various trips were taken throughout the year including a new year's celebration in Ko Lanta, a trip to Pakpanang, Satun, Phattalung, various places in Songkla, and a failed mission for music on Ko Samui.  I also got my first motorcycle in Thailand in 2020 after moving to the house in Ban Nai Rai. I posted about it here. 

All of these trips were done safely, avoiding crowded places and wearing masks wherever there were people. In fact, we chose to go to places not many people would go to. As for Samui, we took the risk and went anyway because of my involvement with a music project that didn't work out. I wrote about the story in this painful post. However, the island was nothing like it's past self. There were whole parts of it which were deserted. The usual crowds of tourists weren't there. There were only a few Thai tourists here and there.

On a relevant note, the 5 Years in Thailand video-series had to come to an end due to technical difficulties. iMovie stopped working and I actually made a post about it last month. I had made the video for Part 3. It was all ready for upload but an unexpected glitch made the program shut down after every attempt to export the file. I've cleaned up my computer ever since. That involved deleting my iMovie Library as well, ironically. Also, it's on my mind to use the old video footage in future projects. For now, this post also acts to serve as an article documenting my 5 years in Thailand. Thanks for reading and please post any comments or questions you may have. 

To conclude, I'd like to express my thankfulness for the positive aspects of 2020. I appreciate having moved to different houses in different parts of the city. I appreciate having let things go and let things change. I appreciate having experienced new things thanks to following the direction of my girlfriend. I appreciate all the music I've created and the developments in my music that took place. I appreciate all the online learning I did throughout 2020. And finally, I appreciate all the lessons 2020 provided. For now, 2020 is in the past. It's over. I'm not holding on to it. I've let it go. Right now, I appreciate the present moment. I appreciate where I am. We couldn't have gotten here without 2020 but from here on out, it's 2021. Peace.