Aug 28
Satudarday was a relax at the house day. Rew woke me up, and I was sure that I couldn’t get out of bed. My back and insides ached with fatigue, it felt like getting up back in high school. But I thought about all getting the full experience, and didn’t want to miss Saturday breakfast with Mae and so I stumbled out of bed and into the shower, and then I was O.K.
Breakfast was phenomenal. Since I discovered it, I have been going nuts over Tom Yum ramen in the states. Mae cooked, what I have now discovered to be her famous, Tom Yum Gung. (shrimp tom yum) for breakfast. Needless to say, it was great and she shrimp still had squishy black eyes. We had fish chips – not fish and chips, but thin thin thin slices of fish deep fried into crunchy flakes. We had pork sausage fried in little disks, and some curries besides. Don’t forget every breakfast’s big mug of Ovaltine. Colin, you would have LOVED this breakfast, it made me think of you.
After playing for awhile Rew led me down the hill to the institute warehouse where Pi La was working. We wandered into his office to use his computer where the internet was working. (it constantly won’t connect at the house). Rew looked up all kinds of fish and asked me how much they would cost in the states, and I would google a price. He would laugh and laugh when I told him. It was usually about 5 times as much.
I did laundry, and only made a few mistakes this time. In Thaland you never give someone your socks or underwear to do, or throw them in a load, you wash them by hand separately, they you dry them in a secrete discreet place. However, my family doesn’t seem to follow that generalization. Their undies were just hanging out for the world to see on big racks in the back yard. So I put my load in the washer and did my uniforms (light purple and white) by hand and those personal items. Paw kept popping out and watching me, or telling me to scrub harder, and since it was obvious that he didn’t care I tried not to care he was watching me scrub my undies. I was all done and getting up to get hangers when paw comes over and says, “soap” and dumps a load of liquid soap into my rinse water basin where all my rinsed clothes were sitting! So I ,er, washed them again, rather quicker, in the second soapy tub. (I think the second soap may have been fabric softener.)
On the back porch-kitchen Rew got his hands all soapy and blue bubbles through a ring in his fingers. It was so fun! He blew one so big he had to use his other hand to support it, it was bigger than a basket ball. Then we got straws and popped little bubbles out of the tips of the straws and finally he froathed up a cup of bubble soap to look like pink bubbling soda until it poured over the side into the grass. Meinwhile, we had picked some stalks of what turned out to be lemon grass, pounded the so they cracked with a stone mallet, and then boiled them into a golden tea. “Beer” says Rew, as he pours it into two glass mugs. Doused with sugar, it was amazing, I loved it hot and sweet, but he put his in the freezer to cool off so I followed suit.
Paw left to go visit the hospital and I took an non-voluntary nap. Rew, missing the attention pestered me for a bit, then realized it was hopeless and went to play computer “game zombie’ with lep. When I got up I was sort of cranky for a bit, and had a glimps of my brothers annoying side as he jabbed me in the ribs and threw a giant stuffed bunny (larger than him) at me. However, as usually, Rew had a pretty good sense of when I wasn’t enjoying something and quick switched to be more enjoyable. (seriously, this kid is so good that way). He made a fort and crawled in and I would say an animal name and he would come out and pretend to be that animal. It was a blast. Somehow, he would make the animal “bite” me, but it was gentle and usually my arm or foot so I quickly got into the game and forgot about benig annoyed. The ants were tiny pinches, the penguin would smack me with a flipper, ext… Some animals, like the raccoon, were adorable. He climbed up on a rickety blanket stand and peered around with big eyes while pretending to eat everything. I had a big atlas with animal pictures, so if I didn’t know a name Lep would say it in Thai, or try to read the name if he didn’t know, which didn’t usually work out too well.
When we ran out of animals, Rew got the red blanket out again, and became the … shot shot shot I forgot the name again… m… m… er I’ll try to remember and put int in. The long wiggly snout animal. Only this time he was a m____- in distress. He would say “help me” “helpme” and “I’m hungrey” and I would pretend to give him delicious food, or give a pillow when he was “sleepy” and the red fuxxy creature would snuggle up with my foot and “nussle my foot with its fuzzy snout. I would gently rub his/its back. It was almost breath takingly sweet. It was like the blanket/assumed identity gave permission for a kind of physical closeness I don’t think a tweleve year old boy usually gets. It sort of challenging to figure out my role here, what relationships will develop as, what is O.K. but it’s also kind of fun, and very exciting. Alli, you were spot on with the boys being a great way to integrate and not have to worry about cultural mess ups. Lep and Rew are always pulling on my ears, grabing my face, or feeling my nose – which by the way they find extremely interesting/alarming to feel.
Despite being continually bombarded with delicious food, and being full and keeping eating because it is so delicious, or I still have more on my plate, I think I am loosing a bit of weight. The cause might be the culture shock, or the shock to my digestive system of eating basically rice and meat, with a tiny bit of fruit and veg, or maybe its sweating constantly all day long.
Also people here do not hesitate to call themselves, and others fat. Even when their like, no fat really at all, just curvy. Seriously, three people, Mae, Paw and Bahh May Pen, have all taught me the Thai adjective for fat and skinny. It makes me sort of uncomfortable because they are like “I’m fat” in thai and trying to get me to say it in thai too, and I’m like “mai oh-um” not fat! Or in Paws case, I’m skinny, Mae is fat! Eventually, I went along with it. Eep!
mmm. and I am craving sugar. I guess I must have eaten so much more sugar back in the states, because cookies, pocky (which is 45 cents here, yay), ice cream, all taste unbelievable. Desert here is, when we have it, fruit (Yay) or thin, fish jerky (at first not so much yay when eaten along with fruit, but I’m getting to like it now).
Dinner was a big affair with lots of family. Let see there was Dawng M, Bah May Pen, Bah la, Bah (don’t remember, but is pregnant, as acted out by May Pen), Pi Boon, and a few others too. Rew got my Set cards and started a game, he/we taught Dawng M to play and Pi Boon and Paw Wat watched from the sides and helped Lep out so he could keep up with the older kids. It was great, just like back home, the adults having a good time ‘playing’ through the kids. Like the red blanket I guess. I was proud when Paw started dong this. I felt like a great facilitator of a good time, and a good baby-sitter (super good game for your brain!). I would give Lep a card that was in a set to get him on the right track and he would find the second nd Rew would finish it, after a few times I looked at Rew and said, English, “stop taking your brother’s sets, you can find your own dude, I know you can.” And this he totally seemed to understand and gave the set back and at the same time started working with dawng M so that they worked together and each time he found a set he would give her one card and each time she found one she would give him one card.
Mae is very conscious of giving me space, and reins in Rew to make sure I can relax and not have to go to the fish market with him tomorrow, which is kind of her, but I really want to go and hang out with him, anyway. After dinner we went to the hospital to visit Ta, grandpa. The hospital was super nice. I met my cousin Duk (duke?), who is twenty.
Ohhh I forgot!
In the afternoon we picked up Lin! My sister (19). She can speak English pretty well, but doesn’t talk much, I’m not sure what our relationship will be yet.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Rockclimbing, Spalunking, Adventure.
Aug 28
So tired .
We went rock climbing today (adventure Friday!) . The place was a lime stone buttress rising out of a mountainside bamboo jungle. We took four taxi Rut Dang, (red pick up trucks, with benches in back and hoods over them) up the mountain side.
Climbing was super fun. They had us do this mixing excersize at the beginning, that was a bit awkward. It was to try to make us feel more comfortable making mistakes, and loosen up and have a good time. It worked a bit, although giving ourselves a hand was still a bit funny.
There were six climbing ropes, laid down this cliff that just roared up out of the jungle. As they were explaining instructions we heard monkeys running through the trees behind us. (didn’t see). I climbed four of the six, before we went. The”chiminy” was the first one I climbed, and it was the hardest, when I was standing at the bottom I didn’t think that I would be able to do it. It was a crack between parallel slabs of stone, and you had to lean against both sides. It didn’t take a lot of strength, but creativity, form and attentiveness to find the right tiny ledges and hand holds. I was super proud to finish. From the top you could just see the mountains on the other side of the valley. Another I did looked easy, but was tricky to get going on. I had to rely on the advice of my bellayer (who had seen other people do it) so I swing around and grab for a tiny hand hold as I moved. There was a good lesson in the climbs for handling our time in Thailand.
We ate lunch on these raised platforms with grass roof. My Mae packed me a cute little lunch with a juice box, sandwitch and dried durian chips (yum yum), also a bag of Lang Dang (the sweet jelly yummy fruit) which I shared with my Rut Dang (mini-bus taxi) on the way back later.
We went caving in the afternoon. We each had a card and we read/told the group about what was on our card, so it was interactive lecture, not just one person talking. There were pretty bamboo gates/arches at the entrance to the cave. There were giant ‘snot like’ formations of flow stone, tiny ten year old soda straws, sweeping caverns, and small smaces to slip through. No cave went back far but we explored several. Some had buddah statues because monks could come and mediate there. We asked about bats, ur guide told us there were not many bats because the locals liked to eat grilled bat. These pretty bamboo structure were actuall frames to hang micronet over the cave mouth. The bats got trapped in the micronet and the locals grilled them on sticks. The problem was the insects of the cave eat bat guano to stay alive. The animals that ventured in to eat insects didn’t come in anymore. With the bats gone, the cave died.
We did a tiny rapel, and it started to pour rain part way through. Huddling and grinning under our colorful rainjackets we hurried back up the steep mountain to another gave. We felt bad for the other group, which were climbing in the afternoon. Surly, they couldn’t climb on the wet stone.
We went into another cave and passed through some winding passages, the suddenly up a 4 meter ledge we saw ropes and other students. We had arrived at the best part of the day. We climbed up the ledge (hooked into a line) and they immediately hooked us into another because we were sitting on a ledge overlooking a massive, gaint, huge, cave. A open corner at the top spilled sunlight into the cathedral chamber. There was flow stone, and porous pockmarked rock everywhere. We were on a tiny ledge, and from where we were tied in we couldn’t see the bottom. There were voices jingling up from way down below. There was a zip line rope stretched between our ledge and the wall on the other side of the cavern (bottomless pit)!!!! One by one we slid and then pulled ourselves, hand over hand across the line, then we free repelled straight down all the way to the cave floor. It was unbelievable. It was so so so so scarry when we were sitting waiting on the ledge and couldn’t see the bottom. Once we were hooked in, it was super fun. Pi pee our guide told us the ropes and caribeners ext were equipt to hold several tons each, and we were double hooked in on everything, two lines, ext. we would slide down half way then turn around and pull ourselves the rest of the way. It was actually pretty tough to pull ourselves up, and right when I realized it was hard it got scary again, for a moment, because I went from being a passive recipient of my situation (hanging over an abyss) to actively being responsible for getting across. Whew!
The voices down below, were the other group, which had come inside and were climbing in the cave!!!
That night Rew Lep and I played zombie. We turned out thelights and Rew would try to grab/bite/tickle us. It was so fun. Lep was schrieking in laughter. I would used the flash of my camera to ‘bliind’ the zombie and get him to let go. Eventually Rew turned the lights on and used a red blanket to wrap up in a certain way so his arms were in pockets, he held them, palms together over his heat, elbows bent, and he became this scary, amazingly convincing, red blanket creature. It had a wiggly pink snout made from the rolled end of blanket. He would crawl run across the room towards oru voices, and we would try to get away. Picture didn’t come out, I’ll have to draw what the creature looked like some time.
When I got tired of this / felt rew was getting a bit too rough, I taught them to play set. It was so fun to try to teach with no words. I had to figure out what strategies worked and didn’t Rew got frustrated mai khaw jai! I don’t understand. Eventually I would take two cards and start a set and have them look for the third. They liked this a lot and got really into it. Khaw Jai! Exclaimed Rew at one point, and he did.
So tired .
We went rock climbing today (adventure Friday!) . The place was a lime stone buttress rising out of a mountainside bamboo jungle. We took four taxi Rut Dang, (red pick up trucks, with benches in back and hoods over them) up the mountain side.
Climbing was super fun. They had us do this mixing excersize at the beginning, that was a bit awkward. It was to try to make us feel more comfortable making mistakes, and loosen up and have a good time. It worked a bit, although giving ourselves a hand was still a bit funny.
There were six climbing ropes, laid down this cliff that just roared up out of the jungle. As they were explaining instructions we heard monkeys running through the trees behind us. (didn’t see). I climbed four of the six, before we went. The”chiminy” was the first one I climbed, and it was the hardest, when I was standing at the bottom I didn’t think that I would be able to do it. It was a crack between parallel slabs of stone, and you had to lean against both sides. It didn’t take a lot of strength, but creativity, form and attentiveness to find the right tiny ledges and hand holds. I was super proud to finish. From the top you could just see the mountains on the other side of the valley. Another I did looked easy, but was tricky to get going on. I had to rely on the advice of my bellayer (who had seen other people do it) so I swing around and grab for a tiny hand hold as I moved. There was a good lesson in the climbs for handling our time in Thailand.
We ate lunch on these raised platforms with grass roof. My Mae packed me a cute little lunch with a juice box, sandwitch and dried durian chips (yum yum), also a bag of Lang Dang (the sweet jelly yummy fruit) which I shared with my Rut Dang (mini-bus taxi) on the way back later.
We went caving in the afternoon. We each had a card and we read/told the group about what was on our card, so it was interactive lecture, not just one person talking. There were pretty bamboo gates/arches at the entrance to the cave. There were giant ‘snot like’ formations of flow stone, tiny ten year old soda straws, sweeping caverns, and small smaces to slip through. No cave went back far but we explored several. Some had buddah statues because monks could come and mediate there. We asked about bats, ur guide told us there were not many bats because the locals liked to eat grilled bat. These pretty bamboo structure were actuall frames to hang micronet over the cave mouth. The bats got trapped in the micronet and the locals grilled them on sticks. The problem was the insects of the cave eat bat guano to stay alive. The animals that ventured in to eat insects didn’t come in anymore. With the bats gone, the cave died.
We did a tiny rapel, and it started to pour rain part way through. Huddling and grinning under our colorful rainjackets we hurried back up the steep mountain to another gave. We felt bad for the other group, which were climbing in the afternoon. Surly, they couldn’t climb on the wet stone.
We went into another cave and passed through some winding passages, the suddenly up a 4 meter ledge we saw ropes and other students. We had arrived at the best part of the day. We climbed up the ledge (hooked into a line) and they immediately hooked us into another because we were sitting on a ledge overlooking a massive, gaint, huge, cave. A open corner at the top spilled sunlight into the cathedral chamber. There was flow stone, and porous pockmarked rock everywhere. We were on a tiny ledge, and from where we were tied in we couldn’t see the bottom. There were voices jingling up from way down below. There was a zip line rope stretched between our ledge and the wall on the other side of the cavern (bottomless pit)!!!! One by one we slid and then pulled ourselves, hand over hand across the line, then we free repelled straight down all the way to the cave floor. It was unbelievable. It was so so so so scarry when we were sitting waiting on the ledge and couldn’t see the bottom. Once we were hooked in, it was super fun. Pi pee our guide told us the ropes and caribeners ext were equipt to hold several tons each, and we were double hooked in on everything, two lines, ext. we would slide down half way then turn around and pull ourselves the rest of the way. It was actually pretty tough to pull ourselves up, and right when I realized it was hard it got scary again, for a moment, because I went from being a passive recipient of my situation (hanging over an abyss) to actively being responsible for getting across. Whew!
The voices down below, were the other group, which had come inside and were climbing in the cave!!!
That night Rew Lep and I played zombie. We turned out thelights and Rew would try to grab/bite/tickle us. It was so fun. Lep was schrieking in laughter. I would used the flash of my camera to ‘bliind’ the zombie and get him to let go. Eventually Rew turned the lights on and used a red blanket to wrap up in a certain way so his arms were in pockets, he held them, palms together over his heat, elbows bent, and he became this scary, amazingly convincing, red blanket creature. It had a wiggly pink snout made from the rolled end of blanket. He would crawl run across the room towards oru voices, and we would try to get away. Picture didn’t come out, I’ll have to draw what the creature looked like some time.
When I got tired of this / felt rew was getting a bit too rough, I taught them to play set. It was so fun to try to teach with no words. I had to figure out what strategies worked and didn’t Rew got frustrated mai khaw jai! I don’t understand. Eventually I would take two cards and start a set and have them look for the third. They liked this a lot and got really into it. Khaw Jai! Exclaimed Rew at one point, and he did.
Aug 27
I met my Aunt yesterday! She was so fun! She came over and made sure I knew the names of all of my host family. She had me stand up and introduce myself and my family until I could do it very fluidly. I was congratulated exuberantly when I could do it. Her name is Bahh (Aunt) May Pen. And my dad is called Paw Wat. News flash! My dad does actually drive a chocolate truck for a living!! He came to the house with the truck yesterday! No wonder that’s what I thought he was saying when I asked. Lep put on music and suddenly Bahh May Pen and I were dancing. She motioned for me so dance from the hips, which I did, and she said I was ready for Chiang Mai.
The third day in a row Paw Wat asked me what day I was and I couldn’t remember any days of the week at all. (except Friday won su) But we sat down and wet throught them slowly, doing tones and exact spelling and suddenly it clicked and I could remember all of them!
In class yesterday we went to the market pon luang, and had a scavenger hunt of foods and items to find in the market. Marcia and I were partners, and we had a great, albeit embaressing time, sluring toneless guesses at how to pronounce the phonetic spelling of words on the list and being pointed and urshered around the super-mall market plaza. I had a deep fried caterpillar it was crunchy and very salty, and I felt very adventurous eating it, but also a little ill.
At first Thai class was very difficult for me today. I did a conversation scenario with Pong Soi and I had to try really hard not to cry. He was introducing a new word in the conversation and I couldn’t hang on to the sound, and since I was upset about making so many other mistakes I couldn’t think of several words. We had a break and did some review and our first attempts at spelling in Thai after that and I felt much much better. I would like if we went 20% slower, but I’m hanging on by my finger tips. Its cool to be among such smart kids. It’s also neet that everything is like a game, a riddle, that we have to figure out. Its very engaging. We are not told what “you tee” means we just have to guess from context it means something like “where is?”. Sometimes I think about how much we have to learn, and that days like this will just keep pilling up for five weeks and its really overwhelming, but if I think of it as a game I feel a bit better.
--
Oh man! So many stories from today. We went to the mall after gear check and I was suppose to buy a swim suit, (ger should have asked what full coverage was, a bikini counts!) the first one I looked at was cool… until I found it it was 4,450 bhat!!! That’s like 70 bucks! I found one for a little under 20 but it had this skirt with it and I only liked the top so I didn’t get naything. I’ll have to get something in the next week, mer, I don’t like stressing about it.
The girls I was shopping with were delighted and enchanted by a tiny shoe store, they got some pretty cool shoes, which is saying a lot from me because usually I don’t really notice shoes. We got ice cream and I got cantaloupe that actually tasted like a real juicy fresh cantaloupe right in my mouth! We walked back to school along the road.
[[ and Emma asked me about Tor and I’s open relationship. ]]
Right in the middle of the city, there was a pasture full of cows.
Starbucks was in front of the mall, with the exact same lamps as in the US, only you could get jelly balls in your coffee.
I got picked up from school by Pi La, he said Pi Boon’s wife was sick and at the hospital so he couldn’t come because he was with her. later that night he stopped by the house which a bunch of people were home but I didn’t get a chance to try to ask about her.
Pi La and I went to a market together to buy food for dinner. It was a giant warehouse looking building. Inside are rows upon rows of stalls. Fluorescent tube lights hang down in rows over pots and bowls and trays of sweets, meats, vegetables and fruits. Most booths had mechanical spinners, that swung inflated plastic bags in circles to keep the flies away. We bought fried shrimp cakes, (entire shrimps, packed together and deep fried, like the soft shell fried crab in suchi) and lots of curries, fried eggs, that were just hard boiled eggs fried on the outside, a curry with potatoes (yay). There was an entire pig head at one booth. Then we popped out of the market to a side booth, and Pi La bought what looked like a large extremely heavy flower pot. He asked me how to say in English, and I told him. When we got back to the car, he asked me to write it down. I drew a picture and wrote it down… it almost got left at that, but somehow we sensed something was amiss. I started pointing at flower pots outside the car, and trying to explain. It turns out it wasn’t a flower pot, it was a bar-b-q grill/oven!!!! Haha. We laughed a good lot about that.
When I got home Rew was sitting behind the water spount in the front yard with peace sign hands waiting. I heartally thanked Pi La for the ride, and good company, as Rew pulled me out of the car by the wrist. Yanked and urged into the front yard Rew points up at the roof and makes a flinging motion. Sure enough, there is the Aeobie. Securly lodged half way up the red clay tiles of the second story roof. He explains I should climb up and get it. (this is clearly impossible and thus quite cute). We try throwing a tennis ball at it. Pi La says hope for rain.
Rew and I go around back and look at the lower roof over the open kitchen/ back porch area. Then we go up to my room and crawl out the window. We have to tip toe over the tiles because there is a hive of bees hanging out one of the windows.
A whole bunch of people came over for dinner, my other aunt Pi (forgot her name although I successfully introduced myself) and her daughter (shy) Nawng em. Her mum Mae who was adorable and smiled very kindly at me, came over on the back of a motorcycle. Baah May Pen came and danced with me again… There was a dance show on TV…
Soon, Paw, Rew, Lep and I left for the airport to pick up Mae K. the ride was fun, with Paw and Rew trying to ask me about America and me not understanding the questions, and Rew continually unbuckling my seatbelt (no one seems to wear seat belts here except me and I assume the other students). We picked up Mae, she is so kind and beautiful! I was very proud to show her all the Thai I had learned since she left. She asked if I had taken Thai before I arrived and said I had very good thai. We drove to a little market, aka a few stands and plastics tables beside the super highway in front of a 7 Eleven. Although I affirmed I was both Mai Hue and Eem Lao “not hungry and full” they bought me a little bowl of creamy dessert. Mae told me to just try a little so I did and it was yummy. It was full of tapioca bubbles! And in the center a big white ball, which turned out to be a soft boiled egg.
Thai culture, and my family, are very concerned with making sure a person is happy and comfortable. They ask constantly if I am happy, full, good, ext. its very nice to know someone cares, here they show it be feeding you. Especially if they feed you such Arroy (delicious) things!
At home Mae opened a box from the plane and it was full of snacks and delicious goodies. We sat on the living room floor and ate a wonderful brown shelled white jelly filled fruit that looks like cloves of garlic on the inside of the shell. We had durian chips (carina, they are amazing!!!) and fish jerky! Rew pretened to be an anaconda. Paw taught me the colors in Thai. Upstairs rew put on my backpacking pack, It was so big on him, it hung to his knees and over his head. Wing Wing, he “run run”ed around the upstairs, hunched over, grinning, his bare feet slapping on the wood floor.
So tired, must sleep, love, gigi
loving my family, feeling blest (and beat),
p.s. My host mom works for/maybe runs a foundation for giving handicapped prosthetic limbs. We live at the foundation. There is a hospital? Building, housing for the patients, and think housing for the staff.) my back yard is about the size of a sports field and full of trees and a bit of standing water. It is fenced in with a giant fence(surrounds the whole compound). Can’t figure why. Backs up on jungle, I’d love to explore sometime.
I met my Aunt yesterday! She was so fun! She came over and made sure I knew the names of all of my host family. She had me stand up and introduce myself and my family until I could do it very fluidly. I was congratulated exuberantly when I could do it. Her name is Bahh (Aunt) May Pen. And my dad is called Paw Wat. News flash! My dad does actually drive a chocolate truck for a living!! He came to the house with the truck yesterday! No wonder that’s what I thought he was saying when I asked. Lep put on music and suddenly Bahh May Pen and I were dancing. She motioned for me so dance from the hips, which I did, and she said I was ready for Chiang Mai.
The third day in a row Paw Wat asked me what day I was and I couldn’t remember any days of the week at all. (except Friday won su) But we sat down and wet throught them slowly, doing tones and exact spelling and suddenly it clicked and I could remember all of them!
In class yesterday we went to the market pon luang, and had a scavenger hunt of foods and items to find in the market. Marcia and I were partners, and we had a great, albeit embaressing time, sluring toneless guesses at how to pronounce the phonetic spelling of words on the list and being pointed and urshered around the super-mall market plaza. I had a deep fried caterpillar it was crunchy and very salty, and I felt very adventurous eating it, but also a little ill.
At first Thai class was very difficult for me today. I did a conversation scenario with Pong Soi and I had to try really hard not to cry. He was introducing a new word in the conversation and I couldn’t hang on to the sound, and since I was upset about making so many other mistakes I couldn’t think of several words. We had a break and did some review and our first attempts at spelling in Thai after that and I felt much much better. I would like if we went 20% slower, but I’m hanging on by my finger tips. Its cool to be among such smart kids. It’s also neet that everything is like a game, a riddle, that we have to figure out. Its very engaging. We are not told what “you tee” means we just have to guess from context it means something like “where is?”. Sometimes I think about how much we have to learn, and that days like this will just keep pilling up for five weeks and its really overwhelming, but if I think of it as a game I feel a bit better.
--
Oh man! So many stories from today. We went to the mall after gear check and I was suppose to buy a swim suit, (ger should have asked what full coverage was, a bikini counts!) the first one I looked at was cool… until I found it it was 4,450 bhat!!! That’s like 70 bucks! I found one for a little under 20 but it had this skirt with it and I only liked the top so I didn’t get naything. I’ll have to get something in the next week, mer, I don’t like stressing about it.
The girls I was shopping with were delighted and enchanted by a tiny shoe store, they got some pretty cool shoes, which is saying a lot from me because usually I don’t really notice shoes. We got ice cream and I got cantaloupe that actually tasted like a real juicy fresh cantaloupe right in my mouth! We walked back to school along the road.
[[ and Emma asked me about Tor and I’s open relationship. ]]
Right in the middle of the city, there was a pasture full of cows.
Starbucks was in front of the mall, with the exact same lamps as in the US, only you could get jelly balls in your coffee.
I got picked up from school by Pi La, he said Pi Boon’s wife was sick and at the hospital so he couldn’t come because he was with her. later that night he stopped by the house which a bunch of people were home but I didn’t get a chance to try to ask about her.
Pi La and I went to a market together to buy food for dinner. It was a giant warehouse looking building. Inside are rows upon rows of stalls. Fluorescent tube lights hang down in rows over pots and bowls and trays of sweets, meats, vegetables and fruits. Most booths had mechanical spinners, that swung inflated plastic bags in circles to keep the flies away. We bought fried shrimp cakes, (entire shrimps, packed together and deep fried, like the soft shell fried crab in suchi) and lots of curries, fried eggs, that were just hard boiled eggs fried on the outside, a curry with potatoes (yay). There was an entire pig head at one booth. Then we popped out of the market to a side booth, and Pi La bought what looked like a large extremely heavy flower pot. He asked me how to say in English, and I told him. When we got back to the car, he asked me to write it down. I drew a picture and wrote it down… it almost got left at that, but somehow we sensed something was amiss. I started pointing at flower pots outside the car, and trying to explain. It turns out it wasn’t a flower pot, it was a bar-b-q grill/oven!!!! Haha. We laughed a good lot about that.
When I got home Rew was sitting behind the water spount in the front yard with peace sign hands waiting. I heartally thanked Pi La for the ride, and good company, as Rew pulled me out of the car by the wrist. Yanked and urged into the front yard Rew points up at the roof and makes a flinging motion. Sure enough, there is the Aeobie. Securly lodged half way up the red clay tiles of the second story roof. He explains I should climb up and get it. (this is clearly impossible and thus quite cute). We try throwing a tennis ball at it. Pi La says hope for rain.
Rew and I go around back and look at the lower roof over the open kitchen/ back porch area. Then we go up to my room and crawl out the window. We have to tip toe over the tiles because there is a hive of bees hanging out one of the windows.
A whole bunch of people came over for dinner, my other aunt Pi (forgot her name although I successfully introduced myself) and her daughter (shy) Nawng em. Her mum Mae who was adorable and smiled very kindly at me, came over on the back of a motorcycle. Baah May Pen came and danced with me again… There was a dance show on TV…
Soon, Paw, Rew, Lep and I left for the airport to pick up Mae K. the ride was fun, with Paw and Rew trying to ask me about America and me not understanding the questions, and Rew continually unbuckling my seatbelt (no one seems to wear seat belts here except me and I assume the other students). We picked up Mae, she is so kind and beautiful! I was very proud to show her all the Thai I had learned since she left. She asked if I had taken Thai before I arrived and said I had very good thai. We drove to a little market, aka a few stands and plastics tables beside the super highway in front of a 7 Eleven. Although I affirmed I was both Mai Hue and Eem Lao “not hungry and full” they bought me a little bowl of creamy dessert. Mae told me to just try a little so I did and it was yummy. It was full of tapioca bubbles! And in the center a big white ball, which turned out to be a soft boiled egg.
Thai culture, and my family, are very concerned with making sure a person is happy and comfortable. They ask constantly if I am happy, full, good, ext. its very nice to know someone cares, here they show it be feeding you. Especially if they feed you such Arroy (delicious) things!
At home Mae opened a box from the plane and it was full of snacks and delicious goodies. We sat on the living room floor and ate a wonderful brown shelled white jelly filled fruit that looks like cloves of garlic on the inside of the shell. We had durian chips (carina, they are amazing!!!) and fish jerky! Rew pretened to be an anaconda. Paw taught me the colors in Thai. Upstairs rew put on my backpacking pack, It was so big on him, it hung to his knees and over his head. Wing Wing, he “run run”ed around the upstairs, hunched over, grinning, his bare feet slapping on the wood floor.
So tired, must sleep, love, gigi
loving my family, feeling blest (and beat),
p.s. My host mom works for/maybe runs a foundation for giving handicapped prosthetic limbs. We live at the foundation. There is a hospital? Building, housing for the patients, and think housing for the staff.) my back yard is about the size of a sports field and full of trees and a bit of standing water. It is fenced in with a giant fence(surrounds the whole compound). Can’t figure why. Backs up on jungle, I’d love to explore sometime.
Aug 24
Aug 24
After spending the evening with Paw, I almost forget we don’t speak eachother’s languages. He knows enough English for most of our simple conversations to work out. Mostly he teaches me Thai. I hope he is enjoying teaching me, and I bet he is hoping I enjoy learning! I sure do enjoy the practice, but sometimes its just too many words, and then I cant remember anything. That’s how I feel with intensive Thai class. The first dozen words are great, the next dozen O.K. and after that I just can’t fit any more. It’s like the first ones push the others out of my short term memory’s and they plummet to their death in the foggy land of forgetfulness.
Today I understood someone really speaking Thai for the first time. Not just a phrase repeated a lot, or key words. Our teacher was saying how beef in Thailand is expensive because it comes from New Zealand or Australia, but beef in the US is inexpensive. (I’d say that’s pretty good for four days in the country!). I keep fluctuating between loving our Thai class and thinking its was too insane and my head might explode from the number of words we learn but I can’t recall at all.
At lunch Martha, Philip, Ellen and I had one of those great conversations about the env. movement. I’m really starting to enjoy the frequency of these conversations in my life. One of the things it touched on was that realistically, its too late so stop all consequences of humans on the env. global warming ext. There has already been, and will continue to be extensive damage, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do our best to curb the effects and protect what we can. The Thai have a word, Sanuk, which means roughly fun, joyful, enjoyable, and Sabai, which means relaxed. It’s interesting to think about how to maintain Sabai and Sanuk in the face of such an urgent and overwhelming set of problems. Urgency is important, but I believe that bridging the gap between knowing and caring to action could definitely use some attention to the fun, relaxing, and enjoyable. After all isn’t that sometime were all looking for.
Its also very interesting, Today Ajaan Mark said that in Thai culture, “social harmony” is the most important thing, even more important than truth, or success. It will be interesting to examine what I define as success (a core value of mine, being the American that I am), and see how my time in Thailand affects either the weight of that value, or it’s definition. In a place where success is valued it’s hard for both sides of a conflict, deal ext to come out happy, there is always the next thing to worry about. (its like the fact that most people, who make enough money that their needs are met, say they would be making enough money to be happy if they only had about 20% higher salaries). Success may be a hard to achieve goal but then, no place is ever totally socially harmonious either.
Today Lep and I played badminton in the front yard and we counted score in Thai. It was good practice for my numbers. I’ve got them down, just takes a minute sometimes. After setting the table, but before we ate Rew and I played a game where you hold hands and spin in a circle then let go and leap away at the same time. One person jumps towards the other and than the other person can jump forward and tries to tag them (while their opponent leaps back) you take turns jumping forward and back until oneperson is tagged. Once I was finally able to figure out how to play (lots of tries and pointing and nodding and head shaking), It was quite fun. \
Today “Pi Boon” picked me up from rom rayem (school). Lep was with him. We went to 7 11. I successfully communicated (in thai) that I was cool with going, but I failed at understanding why we were there or what Lep wanted me to do. So I just bought so pocky (yesterday he got some so I knew he liked them, and I like them). We shared the pocky in the car.
My watch says 22:00. I almost instantly translate that into 10:00. I wonder if my 6 months out I will stop translating it and just have an intuitive sense for what time 22:00 is. I hope so!
Thinking fondly of home, my friends, and fam,
Love
Gigi
After spending the evening with Paw, I almost forget we don’t speak eachother’s languages. He knows enough English for most of our simple conversations to work out. Mostly he teaches me Thai. I hope he is enjoying teaching me, and I bet he is hoping I enjoy learning! I sure do enjoy the practice, but sometimes its just too many words, and then I cant remember anything. That’s how I feel with intensive Thai class. The first dozen words are great, the next dozen O.K. and after that I just can’t fit any more. It’s like the first ones push the others out of my short term memory’s and they plummet to their death in the foggy land of forgetfulness.
Today I understood someone really speaking Thai for the first time. Not just a phrase repeated a lot, or key words. Our teacher was saying how beef in Thailand is expensive because it comes from New Zealand or Australia, but beef in the US is inexpensive. (I’d say that’s pretty good for four days in the country!). I keep fluctuating between loving our Thai class and thinking its was too insane and my head might explode from the number of words we learn but I can’t recall at all.
At lunch Martha, Philip, Ellen and I had one of those great conversations about the env. movement. I’m really starting to enjoy the frequency of these conversations in my life. One of the things it touched on was that realistically, its too late so stop all consequences of humans on the env. global warming ext. There has already been, and will continue to be extensive damage, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do our best to curb the effects and protect what we can. The Thai have a word, Sanuk, which means roughly fun, joyful, enjoyable, and Sabai, which means relaxed. It’s interesting to think about how to maintain Sabai and Sanuk in the face of such an urgent and overwhelming set of problems. Urgency is important, but I believe that bridging the gap between knowing and caring to action could definitely use some attention to the fun, relaxing, and enjoyable. After all isn’t that sometime were all looking for.
Its also very interesting, Today Ajaan Mark said that in Thai culture, “social harmony” is the most important thing, even more important than truth, or success. It will be interesting to examine what I define as success (a core value of mine, being the American that I am), and see how my time in Thailand affects either the weight of that value, or it’s definition. In a place where success is valued it’s hard for both sides of a conflict, deal ext to come out happy, there is always the next thing to worry about. (its like the fact that most people, who make enough money that their needs are met, say they would be making enough money to be happy if they only had about 20% higher salaries). Success may be a hard to achieve goal but then, no place is ever totally socially harmonious either.
Today Lep and I played badminton in the front yard and we counted score in Thai. It was good practice for my numbers. I’ve got them down, just takes a minute sometimes. After setting the table, but before we ate Rew and I played a game where you hold hands and spin in a circle then let go and leap away at the same time. One person jumps towards the other and than the other person can jump forward and tries to tag them (while their opponent leaps back) you take turns jumping forward and back until oneperson is tagged. Once I was finally able to figure out how to play (lots of tries and pointing and nodding and head shaking), It was quite fun. \
Today “Pi Boon” picked me up from rom rayem (school). Lep was with him. We went to 7 11. I successfully communicated (in thai) that I was cool with going, but I failed at understanding why we were there or what Lep wanted me to do. So I just bought so pocky (yesterday he got some so I knew he liked them, and I like them). We shared the pocky in the car.
My watch says 22:00. I almost instantly translate that into 10:00. I wonder if my 6 months out I will stop translating it and just have an intuitive sense for what time 22:00 is. I hope so!
Thinking fondly of home, my friends, and fam,
Love
Gigi
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
First Day of School at International Sustainible Development
Hi All!
Yesterday was my first day at school. We started the day off with a group Thai lesson. The teaching style is very interesting. Thai is taught like it would be taught to kids, it is very interactive and involves lots of moving around, pictures, ext, as well as repeating and answering questions. No english is used at all. Class if very fast paced, and extremely intesnse. They told us we would probably want to cry, which was true. The first day we did numbers and for the first hour of our four hour lesson I felt like crying. However, it is quickly getting easier, and the teacher i had today used more picture and repeating and it was very easy~ As long as i can jot down a phonetic spelling in the begining (visual learner) its great! i can't believe how quickly i'm picking up Thai! I can already order all sorts of food, talk about where i'm from, introduce myself, ask how people are, do numbers to a million.... two days of class and four in the contry and its like i've been taking spanish in high school for a month!
We had lunch together on the veranda. The afternoon was the "scary stuff we should know" and the philosophy of the program. I already deeply respect Ajaan Mark, the director, he is funny, personable, and deeply understand env. issues and alternative education philosophy. The session was kind of like a re-cap of open school, kalamzoo colllege, Wilderness house, landsea, and basically my whole life in four hours. This program is clearly a great fit for my interests, and learning style beliefs.
My host mom is out of town till friday, she calls every morning and night to say hello and check in. It's lovley. Last night Paw helped me study and practice what i had learned in class that day. I met a friend of his and sucessfully introduced myself.
When i arrived i bought two purple shirts on the advice of a past participant, Kelsy, but i'm the only one here in a non-white shirt. It's a bit embaressing, but also kind of funny. All the Thai kids wear wpurple, but of course the other ISDSI students don't because no one told them they could.
Happy and wearing purple,
Gigi
Yesterday was my first day at school. We started the day off with a group Thai lesson. The teaching style is very interesting. Thai is taught like it would be taught to kids, it is very interactive and involves lots of moving around, pictures, ext, as well as repeating and answering questions. No english is used at all. Class if very fast paced, and extremely intesnse. They told us we would probably want to cry, which was true. The first day we did numbers and for the first hour of our four hour lesson I felt like crying. However, it is quickly getting easier, and the teacher i had today used more picture and repeating and it was very easy~ As long as i can jot down a phonetic spelling in the begining (visual learner) its great! i can't believe how quickly i'm picking up Thai! I can already order all sorts of food, talk about where i'm from, introduce myself, ask how people are, do numbers to a million.... two days of class and four in the contry and its like i've been taking spanish in high school for a month!
We had lunch together on the veranda. The afternoon was the "scary stuff we should know" and the philosophy of the program. I already deeply respect Ajaan Mark, the director, he is funny, personable, and deeply understand env. issues and alternative education philosophy. The session was kind of like a re-cap of open school, kalamzoo colllege, Wilderness house, landsea, and basically my whole life in four hours. This program is clearly a great fit for my interests, and learning style beliefs.
My host mom is out of town till friday, she calls every morning and night to say hello and check in. It's lovley. Last night Paw helped me study and practice what i had learned in class that day. I met a friend of his and sucessfully introduced myself.
When i arrived i bought two purple shirts on the advice of a past participant, Kelsy, but i'm the only one here in a non-white shirt. It's a bit embaressing, but also kind of funny. All the Thai kids wear wpurple, but of course the other ISDSI students don't because no one told them they could.
Happy and wearing purple,
Gigi
Monday, August 24, 2009
First weekend, meeting host family
Aug X “The deposit day”
Today is the day we pay up front. National Insurance. We get our deposit back if we ever make it back to the U.S.
breakfast was amazing. Rice and prawns. We had some of the granola I brought from home.
I think I’ll start taking the battery out of the EPC to save it, since it runs 5% even when its “0ff” (Thanks for the info Cal!)
Aug 23 (second day in Thailand, and first real day with host family)
My family! I really like all of them. It did quite start out how I expected, but there are so many wonderful things that I didin’t expect. I was picked up from school by a man called “Pi La”, since my family was visiting the hospital. What I could make out was someone (uncle?) had a head ache.
Customs at the airport was a man and a woman standing next to the door.
The two young representatives of the program greeted our flock with lays (which was a bit touristy) and open back bus/cab rides through the streets which was awesome! There are gigantic billboards amid crumbling ancient walls, tin houses, canals.
Our school is like, a house, in a garden. Its so small! Our main classroom is wall-less, there are four tiny (10 person max) “language rooms”, theres gardens and a small sports area, a tiny “library” (aka sitting room) and, tellingly, a rock climing wall.. It made me a tiny bit sad to realize there won’t be other Thai students here. But its also like being apprentices or something.
We were given a one hour crash course on Thai customs and language. Enough to learn the taboos, and about three words, and about toilets. I’d say most of the time was spent on toilets. We were recommended to completely remove our pants to use the toilet. Then we were picked up by our families.
Well… I was picked up by Pi La. One girl walked away with a giant bundle of flowers!
The language barrier. OMG. Omg omg omg. I WISH they spoke Spanish here. My brain has figured out that English just wont work, so it has reverted to Spanish. I’m –thinking- in Spanish. Which is frustrating since Spanish is even more useless than English is! The first meal I had out with Pi La was in a great little café off a boulevard but worried me a bit because of the language thing. He spoke some English but it was hard to think of what to say, and I kept saying things that were too complicated. I’m used to being the one with the small vocab, and you never know how much the other person knows so most of the time I feel like I;m not understood or I’m sounding condescending. We met with his student from last year, who is currently teaching at a ISDSI like program, and we went to a huge modern mall and bought me a cell phone. Apparently its mandatory for every Thai person everywhere to have a cell with them at all times. The only thing that made it different from a US mall was the Japanese-fan students in costumes of animals singing on a small stage, and a huge market full of fruit and entire fried fish and noodle stands on the bottom floor.
Eventually, after going to an open market out to dinner ext. we got home. The house is spacous and beautiful, open to the air, mountains, banana trees, and grasshoppers. (By the way Thailand is exactly 12 hours different than Michigan time.)
I have two brothers, Rew,12, (sounds like Leo) and Life,6, sounds like (Lep). They are the best. Rew ran right away, and then ran back with a note book. You don’t need language to tic-tac-toe! We drew animals, chattered, looked at atlases for a few hours. Paw (don’t remember his real name yet) was nice, but it was hard to communicate. Mae (mum) K speaks sentence engligh but she has been gone almost all the time so far.
[phew! Just caught myself starting to put my feet on the coffee table!!]
Anyway, I went to bed a bit worried/stressed. I was positive the hardest thing would be dealing with the lack of attention. However, after today I see that things are warming up nicely and i’m feeling better about it.
I showered (three a day is totally reasonable here, it’s like being in a steamy bathroom everywhere.) and came down for b-fast with the family. Spend the whole day hanging out with the boys. I brought out the juggling balls. We played hide and go seek. We made paper airplanes, colored them with patterns and stood on front porch/patio and threw them out across the lawn, many times. We folded little “cars”, lay on our stomachs, and puff-air powered them in races. It was sooo fun! They are charming, patient, and easy to do things with even when you can only get a few words across. Sometimes Rew will pretend shoot me, (he made a origami hand gun, for a game of zombies, in which he was the zombie – but i didn’t feel comfortable shooting my host parents son)
Almost all communication is through English. i mean. That;s since as all communication is a few key words here and there… I guess my point is. Langage barrier reality! Woah! Tor and Tov you are so lucky to be able to talk to your families! I act so differently than I did/would in latin America. Much more shy, less polite, and generally more confused than optimistic and cheerful and thankful as I feel more comfortable being.
Today was so wonderful. In the afternoon Paw drove us to the fish market. [Pet fish!] Rew and Life would tap my shoulder and drag me all around the Market. There were huge cememt tanks with giant pond carp to tiny Nemos in wiggling anemones. There were tanks made with garden scenes in stone, complete with underwater rivers of white pebbles with little ceramic dolphins. Oh, and there were Sharks for sale! Two foot long super scary sharks in waist high cemet tanks. We took off our shoes and walked on a beautiful deck/board walk beside the biggeswt tanks. Life would “U U” me (might mean look? Seams to substituted as hey and my name) and point at various object and jabber in thai. I love how the boys engage me constantly, I’ve never been around a kids that are so comfortable around me. We tumb war, pretend to be zombies, poke eachother when the others not looking.
I want to connect more with Paw so I sand or walk next to him. I can’t think of anything to say, so I just stand there a smile a lot. Once in a while he will point at a random object, say the English word, and then the Thai word, and I’ll repeat the Thai word a bunch and smile really big (kind of like an idiot) and then forget the word two minuets later.
They love the airobie. Life(Lep) walks around with it on his neck. Mom or dad please send two (different colored) arobie Frisbees to me here. We played badmitton on the front driveway (overlooking roof tops and moutian tops). Mae, leaning over the second story balcony, laughed and cheered when Life and I played. It filled me up with a stomach ache of happiness. Paw had seen me taking pictures and thoughtfully took some of me and the boys. Life tried to take a picture of Rew, who tisted and twisted away. In the tussle, the six year old fell and scrapped his knee(barly bled). He cried like a siren. After what felt like an eventually for me, who was sitting by him, not sure what to do, he eventually limped inside and his parents wandred over and cleaned it for him. “shhh shhh shh” his mom says sternly. Paw rubs in a ointment that Life acts like stings terribly. He talks to him in a voice that seems to be talking about how life is overreacting, and then there was this amazing moment. Life was on his back, cradling his knee, and Paw sitting, leaning by him. And paw starts smiling/ laughing and joking with him.. While this is happening, life keeps swinging his feet up, right under his father’s nose. Paw flinches and sort of glances at me each time. (it is offensive to point your feet at anyone in thai culture.) I felt very culturally, in the loop. Life(Lep) scoots across the room like his leg is a unmovable v of steal, scooting up the steps, butt first, one by one.
Rew and I go for a jog/walk/tag/puddle-jumping trip down a countyside road to the “stadium” which is 700 years old. It a public park, pool, fields, tennis and badmitten courts. He buys us two small coconuts which the vender pops open with a machete. We punch straws through the thin crust of meat (like straws throught the film over bubble tea) and sip cold coconut juice on a park bench. I could have died of happy. I can’t even remember the word for delicious so I just give up on trying to communicate and sit with him, poking holes in our coconut and sipping juice.
Did I mention the park is flanked by low, blue mountains?
Paw and Life meet us there. Life has the aerobie on his head like a crown. We start to toss it around. Paw comes over with racquets, and beckons me. It feels like a mix of getting picked in gym class and getting a hug. We play bad mitten volleys. For the first half dozen volleys I’m balls aweful and each miss is really embarrassing for some reason and then we get it. We had a volley that I think lasted the full length of my life and the history of the universe, and then many, long exciting volleys after that. I realize I’ve stopped speaking any language. I just make emotional “oooh! And ah, Ah, Wheyt,” noises instead. By the end I feel exactly like how I would feel if I took a shower and put my clothes on without drying. Life gets the birdie stuck in a tree and Paw climbs the tennis court fence to get it down. The birdie is made with real, white feathers.
When we drive home, Rew dangles the arerobie out the window and pretends to drop it. Paw asks how much it cost (first Rew does) but he tanslates (it takes abou two minutes for me to figure out what they are saying). I tell them 10-15 dollars and try to compute that into bhat. This is a bit of a downer to the car. Please send Frisbees!
P.S. oh yeah. One of the dishes at dinner was a crunchy mixture of greens and tiny, entire, shrimp heads.
Today is the day we pay up front. National Insurance. We get our deposit back if we ever make it back to the U.S.
breakfast was amazing. Rice and prawns. We had some of the granola I brought from home.
I think I’ll start taking the battery out of the EPC to save it, since it runs 5% even when its “0ff” (Thanks for the info Cal!)
Aug 23 (second day in Thailand, and first real day with host family)
My family! I really like all of them. It did quite start out how I expected, but there are so many wonderful things that I didin’t expect. I was picked up from school by a man called “Pi La”, since my family was visiting the hospital. What I could make out was someone (uncle?) had a head ache.
Customs at the airport was a man and a woman standing next to the door.
The two young representatives of the program greeted our flock with lays (which was a bit touristy) and open back bus/cab rides through the streets which was awesome! There are gigantic billboards amid crumbling ancient walls, tin houses, canals.
Our school is like, a house, in a garden. Its so small! Our main classroom is wall-less, there are four tiny (10 person max) “language rooms”, theres gardens and a small sports area, a tiny “library” (aka sitting room) and, tellingly, a rock climing wall.. It made me a tiny bit sad to realize there won’t be other Thai students here. But its also like being apprentices or something.
We were given a one hour crash course on Thai customs and language. Enough to learn the taboos, and about three words, and about toilets. I’d say most of the time was spent on toilets. We were recommended to completely remove our pants to use the toilet. Then we were picked up by our families.
Well… I was picked up by Pi La. One girl walked away with a giant bundle of flowers!
The language barrier. OMG. Omg omg omg. I WISH they spoke Spanish here. My brain has figured out that English just wont work, so it has reverted to Spanish. I’m –thinking- in Spanish. Which is frustrating since Spanish is even more useless than English is! The first meal I had out with Pi La was in a great little café off a boulevard but worried me a bit because of the language thing. He spoke some English but it was hard to think of what to say, and I kept saying things that were too complicated. I’m used to being the one with the small vocab, and you never know how much the other person knows so most of the time I feel like I;m not understood or I’m sounding condescending. We met with his student from last year, who is currently teaching at a ISDSI like program, and we went to a huge modern mall and bought me a cell phone. Apparently its mandatory for every Thai person everywhere to have a cell with them at all times. The only thing that made it different from a US mall was the Japanese-fan students in costumes of animals singing on a small stage, and a huge market full of fruit and entire fried fish and noodle stands on the bottom floor.
Eventually, after going to an open market out to dinner ext. we got home. The house is spacous and beautiful, open to the air, mountains, banana trees, and grasshoppers. (By the way Thailand is exactly 12 hours different than Michigan time.)
I have two brothers, Rew,12, (sounds like Leo) and Life,6, sounds like (Lep). They are the best. Rew ran right away, and then ran back with a note book. You don’t need language to tic-tac-toe! We drew animals, chattered, looked at atlases for a few hours. Paw (don’t remember his real name yet) was nice, but it was hard to communicate. Mae (mum) K speaks sentence engligh but she has been gone almost all the time so far.
[phew! Just caught myself starting to put my feet on the coffee table!!]
Anyway, I went to bed a bit worried/stressed. I was positive the hardest thing would be dealing with the lack of attention. However, after today I see that things are warming up nicely and i’m feeling better about it.
I showered (three a day is totally reasonable here, it’s like being in a steamy bathroom everywhere.) and came down for b-fast with the family. Spend the whole day hanging out with the boys. I brought out the juggling balls. We played hide and go seek. We made paper airplanes, colored them with patterns and stood on front porch/patio and threw them out across the lawn, many times. We folded little “cars”, lay on our stomachs, and puff-air powered them in races. It was sooo fun! They are charming, patient, and easy to do things with even when you can only get a few words across. Sometimes Rew will pretend shoot me, (he made a origami hand gun, for a game of zombies, in which he was the zombie – but i didn’t feel comfortable shooting my host parents son)
Almost all communication is through English. i mean. That;s since as all communication is a few key words here and there… I guess my point is. Langage barrier reality! Woah! Tor and Tov you are so lucky to be able to talk to your families! I act so differently than I did/would in latin America. Much more shy, less polite, and generally more confused than optimistic and cheerful and thankful as I feel more comfortable being.
Today was so wonderful. In the afternoon Paw drove us to the fish market. [Pet fish!] Rew and Life would tap my shoulder and drag me all around the Market. There were huge cememt tanks with giant pond carp to tiny Nemos in wiggling anemones. There were tanks made with garden scenes in stone, complete with underwater rivers of white pebbles with little ceramic dolphins. Oh, and there were Sharks for sale! Two foot long super scary sharks in waist high cemet tanks. We took off our shoes and walked on a beautiful deck/board walk beside the biggeswt tanks. Life would “U U” me (might mean look? Seams to substituted as hey and my name) and point at various object and jabber in thai. I love how the boys engage me constantly, I’ve never been around a kids that are so comfortable around me. We tumb war, pretend to be zombies, poke eachother when the others not looking.
I want to connect more with Paw so I sand or walk next to him. I can’t think of anything to say, so I just stand there a smile a lot. Once in a while he will point at a random object, say the English word, and then the Thai word, and I’ll repeat the Thai word a bunch and smile really big (kind of like an idiot) and then forget the word two minuets later.
They love the airobie. Life(Lep) walks around with it on his neck. Mom or dad please send two (different colored) arobie Frisbees to me here. We played badmitton on the front driveway (overlooking roof tops and moutian tops). Mae, leaning over the second story balcony, laughed and cheered when Life and I played. It filled me up with a stomach ache of happiness. Paw had seen me taking pictures and thoughtfully took some of me and the boys. Life tried to take a picture of Rew, who tisted and twisted away. In the tussle, the six year old fell and scrapped his knee(barly bled). He cried like a siren. After what felt like an eventually for me, who was sitting by him, not sure what to do, he eventually limped inside and his parents wandred over and cleaned it for him. “shhh shhh shh” his mom says sternly. Paw rubs in a ointment that Life acts like stings terribly. He talks to him in a voice that seems to be talking about how life is overreacting, and then there was this amazing moment. Life was on his back, cradling his knee, and Paw sitting, leaning by him. And paw starts smiling/ laughing and joking with him.. While this is happening, life keeps swinging his feet up, right under his father’s nose. Paw flinches and sort of glances at me each time. (it is offensive to point your feet at anyone in thai culture.) I felt very culturally, in the loop. Life(Lep) scoots across the room like his leg is a unmovable v of steal, scooting up the steps, butt first, one by one.
Rew and I go for a jog/walk/tag/puddle-jumping trip down a countyside road to the “stadium” which is 700 years old. It a public park, pool, fields, tennis and badmitten courts. He buys us two small coconuts which the vender pops open with a machete. We punch straws through the thin crust of meat (like straws throught the film over bubble tea) and sip cold coconut juice on a park bench. I could have died of happy. I can’t even remember the word for delicious so I just give up on trying to communicate and sit with him, poking holes in our coconut and sipping juice.
Did I mention the park is flanked by low, blue mountains?
Paw and Life meet us there. Life has the aerobie on his head like a crown. We start to toss it around. Paw comes over with racquets, and beckons me. It feels like a mix of getting picked in gym class and getting a hug. We play bad mitten volleys. For the first half dozen volleys I’m balls aweful and each miss is really embarrassing for some reason and then we get it. We had a volley that I think lasted the full length of my life and the history of the universe, and then many, long exciting volleys after that. I realize I’ve stopped speaking any language. I just make emotional “oooh! And ah, Ah, Wheyt,” noises instead. By the end I feel exactly like how I would feel if I took a shower and put my clothes on without drying. Life gets the birdie stuck in a tree and Paw climbs the tennis court fence to get it down. The birdie is made with real, white feathers.
When we drive home, Rew dangles the arerobie out the window and pretends to drop it. Paw asks how much it cost (first Rew does) but he tanslates (it takes abou two minutes for me to figure out what they are saying). I tell them 10-15 dollars and try to compute that into bhat. This is a bit of a downer to the car. Please send Frisbees!
P.S. oh yeah. One of the dishes at dinner was a crunchy mixture of greens and tiny, entire, shrimp heads.
Thai Air
The plane smells good. Boarding was like walking into a dream sequence. I’ve never felt more like I was dreaming. There was pleasant music flowing out into the under construction boarding gate way. The wide airy plane was filled with color – orange, lavender and fuchsia seats for a start, each bedecked with colorful throws, paper head rest covers emblazoned with small designs, blue T.V.s glowing from the back of every seat. Next, we saw that there were actually paintings on the plane. The flight assistants were stunning – the ladies dressed I what in my overwhelming ignorance I will call dresses or trip robes – canary, lime, tangerine, and burgundy.
It is a bit touristy, but also very nice. There are menus, and live video feeding from a camera in the cock-pit [we stream take off], there are little purple purses (with ear phones inside) that say “take me home” on the back. [they just brought by hot towels! Hot towels!]
The flight will be 16.5 hours long. We are crossing the pacific ocean by means of the kodiac islands. Erin and I are the first two players to log into “multi-player Tetris” and she promptly wins as I try to figure out the controls to realize- I was looking at the wrong screen. Xavier, I’m thinking of you!
Our good-byes wisk away with the pale smudge of California. Mom, as it’s night, the pacific is black. We chase the sun around the globe until it is chasing us.
Riding with Erin has been lovely. I’m so glad to have my flying buddy, who doesn’t complain when I bite her shoulder now and again in a fit of excitement. I think I packed the least of anyone here. Which means I have lots of room to buy things there! We met Ellen at the airport and by some freak chance she was right next to us on the first plane to O’hare.
I am walking into a culture I know almost nothing about. I am walking into a families arms and I speak quite honestly two words in the language ( which I will now attempt to spell) So Wa Ri Ka = hello and My Pet = Not spicy. Rather the most important two words if you ask me, followed closely by what ever thank you is. I am walking into so much that I am so utterly unprepared for an d its… liberating… I have nothing to hold me back. I have only possibly to learn more and to develop understanding. I have complete confidence that the program will teach me Thai at a pace, and in a way, that I will learn. I am confident I can smile my way into… well… I’m a bit nervous about meeting the family. But not much.
We just had dinner. Woot. The main dish was really good. Pork. Just a tiny tiny tiny bit spicy. Tea with dinner was a God-send. Its 3:56 AM Eastern Time.
I have been anticipating, and talking about, and planning for, this trip so long that there is this huge build-up of action just waiting to happen. I feel like I am watching a very long preview before the show.
I wore my hair in a French braid, it’s like all parts of me want to try something new.
[Erin agrees it feels really good to drink something warm]
It is a bit touristy, but also very nice. There are menus, and live video feeding from a camera in the cock-pit [we stream take off], there are little purple purses (with ear phones inside) that say “take me home” on the back. [they just brought by hot towels! Hot towels!]
The flight will be 16.5 hours long. We are crossing the pacific ocean by means of the kodiac islands. Erin and I are the first two players to log into “multi-player Tetris” and she promptly wins as I try to figure out the controls to realize- I was looking at the wrong screen. Xavier, I’m thinking of you!
Our good-byes wisk away with the pale smudge of California. Mom, as it’s night, the pacific is black. We chase the sun around the globe until it is chasing us.
Riding with Erin has been lovely. I’m so glad to have my flying buddy, who doesn’t complain when I bite her shoulder now and again in a fit of excitement. I think I packed the least of anyone here. Which means I have lots of room to buy things there! We met Ellen at the airport and by some freak chance she was right next to us on the first plane to O’hare.
I am walking into a culture I know almost nothing about. I am walking into a families arms and I speak quite honestly two words in the language ( which I will now attempt to spell) So Wa Ri Ka = hello and My Pet = Not spicy. Rather the most important two words if you ask me, followed closely by what ever thank you is. I am walking into so much that I am so utterly unprepared for an d its… liberating… I have nothing to hold me back. I have only possibly to learn more and to develop understanding. I have complete confidence that the program will teach me Thai at a pace, and in a way, that I will learn. I am confident I can smile my way into… well… I’m a bit nervous about meeting the family. But not much.
We just had dinner. Woot. The main dish was really good. Pork. Just a tiny tiny tiny bit spicy. Tea with dinner was a God-send. Its 3:56 AM Eastern Time.
I have been anticipating, and talking about, and planning for, this trip so long that there is this huge build-up of action just waiting to happen. I feel like I am watching a very long preview before the show.
I wore my hair in a French braid, it’s like all parts of me want to try something new.
[Erin agrees it feels really good to drink something warm]
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Hey,
I've finished packing, so now there are only good-byes to say, and i'm off! Since Tor and Tova left for Ecuador, my anticipation and excitement have only grown. Seeing them off to the airport renforced my conviction that going to sperate programs was best as it will alow us to focus on our experiences and not be distracted by eachother. For a large part study aboad is about learning to live on your own in a new environment, without the crutches or your old life: family, friends, and teachers who all supprt you - and expect you to be a certian person. On study abroad you have a chance to truly self examine, and determine/decide how you act and who you are without the habits and expectation of old relationships influencing your character. The fact that in a handful of days i'll be packed and getting on a plane is very real to me, but the fact that i won't be coming home for 6 months is very, very sureal.
Some of the things i antcipate will be "edge-work" for me durring the program are:
- low goal orrientation (Achievement is one of my core values, defining realistic and flexible goals, and finding ways to "get the most out of every moment" without "doing the most" may be a great stretch!)
- adapting to less physical affection in my life (mmm. not looking forward to this!)
- being able to hear and speak in tones
Somethings i anticipate with glee:
- making connections despite the language barrier with my host family. (as of yet i have no information on who i will be living with, it's all part of the surprise!)
- the WOW factor
- the week-long days: As it always does in a unfamiliar situation, for time to "slow down" as i take in so many new and exciting things.
In a few dayss, we'll see how acurate these predictions are!
I've finished packing, so now there are only good-byes to say, and i'm off! Since Tor and Tova left for Ecuador, my anticipation and excitement have only grown. Seeing them off to the airport renforced my conviction that going to sperate programs was best as it will alow us to focus on our experiences and not be distracted by eachother. For a large part study aboad is about learning to live on your own in a new environment, without the crutches or your old life: family, friends, and teachers who all supprt you - and expect you to be a certian person. On study abroad you have a chance to truly self examine, and determine/decide how you act and who you are without the habits and expectation of old relationships influencing your character. The fact that in a handful of days i'll be packed and getting on a plane is very real to me, but the fact that i won't be coming home for 6 months is very, very sureal.
Some of the things i antcipate will be "edge-work" for me durring the program are:
- low goal orrientation (Achievement is one of my core values, defining realistic and flexible goals, and finding ways to "get the most out of every moment" without "doing the most" may be a great stretch!)
- adapting to less physical affection in my life (mmm. not looking forward to this!)
- being able to hear and speak in tones
Somethings i anticipate with glee:
- making connections despite the language barrier with my host family. (as of yet i have no information on who i will be living with, it's all part of the surprise!)
- the WOW factor
- the week-long days: As it always does in a unfamiliar situation, for time to "slow down" as i take in so many new and exciting things.
In a few dayss, we'll see how acurate these predictions are!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Preparing to Leave
Hey All~
Alli, Cal and Colin just helped me create this blog. Keep checking it and i'll try to keep you updated with all of my adventures in Chaing Mai and beyond!
much love,
Gigi
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