The apartment is beautiful. The family dropped me off and i was really sad to leave them, but next weekend we are all going camping together, so i will get to see them again soon. Leaving my host familyw as like growing up 10 years in a day. I realized, since coming to Thailand i have been living in the mentality of a ten year old. My biggest responsiblities have been walking home from the bus stop alone, or doing the dishes, andplaying with my bros, and suddenly we were living with our peers, going grocery shopping, and going out to dance bars. In some ways it is like mvoing into a competley new city.
My roomates are so so so much fun, and i feel super close to them already. I can't wait for our adventure to come. The aparment is quite nice, as well. The floor is blue tile, there is a bathroom, two betrooms a sitting room and a balcony. Cody and Emma share one room, and erin and I share the one huge bed in the other. The balcondy looks out over the city of chaing mai (8th floor) and on huge blue and green mountinas, practically a stones throw away. On the top of one of the mountians we can see the temple of Doi Sutep that we hilked to last weekend. In the night, it is lit up ang glows like a golden castle. Because the moutinas are so dark and close, in the evenings the temple looks like a it is floating in the clouds.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Apartment Life
9-29 2009
Today was a basic unit in my life since moving into the apartments. I got up, was huntrey, got ready for school and bagan our road side journey down the busy streamts, and then the supper highway to get to school. I stooped and bought breakfast from the roadside stand. It was lots of rice, a bit of Tom Yum soup (lots o muscles yum, and fish balls, not so fum) and also a fried egg. This was supplemented with buns and a pulled pork sandwitch from “7” (eleven). Thai class was its usual wmotinol roller coasted with a few high moments being talking about different kinds of iwld animals and a low part being when pongsowet would just repeat the same sentence, faster and faster, when it was apparent that no one besides Angela understood. There was also a moment when Mike was trying to understand theuse of thee word boy. “ofen” in a sentence and Ajaan (clearly frustrated with our not understanding repeatedly) quipped “you don’t understand often”. I was schoked and angry at this, but I took a moment to remember that in Thai culture it is much more O.K. to state things that are abvious, even if those things aren’t very nice. It reminded me of the my host family teaching me the word fat, and shamelessly and repeatedly calling people in the family fat. After Thai, I ate lunch with Binney and family which was lovely as always, and lSeminar was very interesting. We talked about the “Green Revolution” and why it came about, tis pros and cons, ext. I like how in our agroecology course we always look at both the pros and cons of every issue. So often, in the environmental circles I’m part of things (ext. GMOs Genetically modified Organisms) are always attacked as terrible horrible things. This approach is neigher as valied nor as effective as examining the good and bad, and aknoleging where the “Ifs” lie. Like “if” we could make a crop that was more efficient and drought resisent, it could be env beneficial by cutting back on the expansion of agriculture into wild areas that lie in airable places, and “if” a genetically modified strain of a plant were to escape it could “contaminate” native strains and create a new kind of super invasive plant – and/o bring down genetic variation.
After School Cody, Emma and I chilled out for a bit in our room, goofed around, talked, and cooled off , (in our bras …not Rip Roy) while getting a start on the HUGE amount of homework we have each day. We did a work out, including runningthe stiars, abs ext. which was quite sweaty. And showered. We went out to a cheap and DELISIOUC sushi place for dinner, just across from our apartment. I had the BEST tempura udon, it was so sweet and flavorful. Then we went to the gocery store in the basement of the mall and bought some breakfast and snack food, and came back and workedon finishing the reading. Although I had read all through Emma and Cody’s naps, they caught up with me! Darn social studies people and their super reading skills! Near the end Erin made us some wonderful pear-sprite, other wise known as throat warming- candy drinks, and we had a grea evening laughing and joking until (not too long later) we were all too exhausted to continue and had to head to bed.
Nearly all my time, is take up eating, sleeping, showering, excersizing, homeowrking, walking, or schooling. I barely have time to finish my school work, and not nearly as much time as I would like to study Thai language or journal and reflect. There are bits of time the girls and I hang out, but they are usually double tasking , and I just need that time to decompress and –live- a bit. By the end of the day I am so exhausted there I sno way I could go down to the bars in the evening, and socialize with the locals or other students there. Oh, how many good things and how little time….Wishing there were about twice as many hours in a day (only those assigning homework didn’t realize this)
Gigi
Today was a basic unit in my life since moving into the apartments. I got up, was huntrey, got ready for school and bagan our road side journey down the busy streamts, and then the supper highway to get to school. I stooped and bought breakfast from the roadside stand. It was lots of rice, a bit of Tom Yum soup (lots o muscles yum, and fish balls, not so fum) and also a fried egg. This was supplemented with buns and a pulled pork sandwitch from “7” (eleven). Thai class was its usual wmotinol roller coasted with a few high moments being talking about different kinds of iwld animals and a low part being when pongsowet would just repeat the same sentence, faster and faster, when it was apparent that no one besides Angela understood. There was also a moment when Mike was trying to understand theuse of thee word boy. “ofen” in a sentence and Ajaan (clearly frustrated with our not understanding repeatedly) quipped “you don’t understand often”. I was schoked and angry at this, but I took a moment to remember that in Thai culture it is much more O.K. to state things that are abvious, even if those things aren’t very nice. It reminded me of the my host family teaching me the word fat, and shamelessly and repeatedly calling people in the family fat. After Thai, I ate lunch with Binney and family which was lovely as always, and lSeminar was very interesting. We talked about the “Green Revolution” and why it came about, tis pros and cons, ext. I like how in our agroecology course we always look at both the pros and cons of every issue. So often, in the environmental circles I’m part of things (ext. GMOs Genetically modified Organisms) are always attacked as terrible horrible things. This approach is neigher as valied nor as effective as examining the good and bad, and aknoleging where the “Ifs” lie. Like “if” we could make a crop that was more efficient and drought resisent, it could be env beneficial by cutting back on the expansion of agriculture into wild areas that lie in airable places, and “if” a genetically modified strain of a plant were to escape it could “contaminate” native strains and create a new kind of super invasive plant – and/o bring down genetic variation.
After School Cody, Emma and I chilled out for a bit in our room, goofed around, talked, and cooled off , (in our bras …not Rip Roy) while getting a start on the HUGE amount of homework we have each day. We did a work out, including runningthe stiars, abs ext. which was quite sweaty. And showered. We went out to a cheap and DELISIOUC sushi place for dinner, just across from our apartment. I had the BEST tempura udon, it was so sweet and flavorful. Then we went to the gocery store in the basement of the mall and bought some breakfast and snack food, and came back and workedon finishing the reading. Although I had read all through Emma and Cody’s naps, they caught up with me! Darn social studies people and their super reading skills! Near the end Erin made us some wonderful pear-sprite, other wise known as throat warming- candy drinks, and we had a grea evening laughing and joking until (not too long later) we were all too exhausted to continue and had to head to bed.
Nearly all my time, is take up eating, sleeping, showering, excersizing, homeowrking, walking, or schooling. I barely have time to finish my school work, and not nearly as much time as I would like to study Thai language or journal and reflect. There are bits of time the girls and I hang out, but they are usually double tasking , and I just need that time to decompress and –live- a bit. By the end of the day I am so exhausted there I sno way I could go down to the bars in the evening, and socialize with the locals or other students there. Oh, how many good things and how little time….Wishing there were about twice as many hours in a day (only those assigning homework didn’t realize this)
Gigi
Sanam Key La Jet Roy Be
After school Rew and Leaf picked me up and we went to the swimming pool at the stadium. It was a blast! Rew jumped off the high dive (lowest jump, about a meter and a half) for what I think was the first time. I watched, and was safety and encouragement, and he had a great time. He told me after his parents wouldn’t let him do it because they would be afraid he would drowned, so not ot tell them. I felt good I could safely empower him to be brave, and do such a cool thing. Sometimes its parents jobs to be too safe, and friends jobs to help with taking risks and growing. I dived and jumped off the first and the second (10 feet?) and it was so fun. I had one great feeling dive of the higher one and then stopped while I was ahead. Leaf consideratly bought me a coke. We sat pool side and drank them together. I wouldn’t take it in the pool (I figured that was a global rule,) so he passed me a cap full while I was treding, which was adorable! Paw came, as the sun was going down over the mountains, and Rew showed him he could jump. We jumped “duigan” together.
One of the best things about going to the pool has been that I have gone three times in maybe as many weeks, and each time I can clearly remember how much (little) I could communicated compared to the last time we went. The first time I didn’t even know “swim”. Or “good job”. This time we were making jumping plans, and leaf offered to go buy m a soda and give it to me, and we talked aobut what kind, how much it was, ext.
Paw came to pick us up after and we (all four of us) rode the montercycle home together.
Love, Gigi
p.s. did I ever mention yet my aunts keep bringin home Rhinocerous beetles? They attach them to sticks of sugar cane by tying strings around their horns. A few days ago there were about 10 in our living room. My brothers put them on eahcother to make them fight or make the two backed beetle. Or they swing them in circles by the string attached to their horns until they fly. It’s the kind of pet every thai kid has a least once. Even my Khun Boo (grandfather – super frial) held one no problem.
One of the best things about going to the pool has been that I have gone three times in maybe as many weeks, and each time I can clearly remember how much (little) I could communicated compared to the last time we went. The first time I didn’t even know “swim”. Or “good job”. This time we were making jumping plans, and leaf offered to go buy m a soda and give it to me, and we talked aobut what kind, how much it was, ext.
Paw came to pick us up after and we (all four of us) rode the montercycle home together.
Love, Gigi
p.s. did I ever mention yet my aunts keep bringin home Rhinocerous beetles? They attach them to sticks of sugar cane by tying strings around their horns. A few days ago there were about 10 in our living room. My brothers put them on eahcother to make them fight or make the two backed beetle. Or they swing them in circles by the string attached to their horns until they fly. It’s the kind of pet every thai kid has a least once. Even my Khun Boo (grandfather – super frial) held one no problem.
Sustinability Indicators
for seminar we had to design a "field study" on "sustinability indicators" for Chiang Mai. Our group was assigned to study Traffic as an indicator of sustainability. We spent a long time trying to narrow and thinking about alternatives and then i said "x y z too long too type" and they were like "WOW yeah! where did that come from! thats perfect!" and i felt quite smart.
...
Today we did half the data collection for ou field project. In short we are assessing the change in traffic as you move from the primary roads on the premiter of a neighborhood to the residential ones into its center. We are analyzing traffic through qualitative observations, total flow (vec / time), flow composition, and volume. Total flow is # vec. That pass a transect in 5 minuites. Composition is broken into human powered, two wheel, and four wheel vehicles. Volumembient noise we got by playing a song on an ipod, and holding the headphones at arms length while slowing cranking down the volume. The bare mimmum volume where the song could be heard was the “noise level” or the area. We are taking four data points on each of three sizes of roads (enough to average them and come up with average flow levels ext. for each raod size!). We will then compare the three areas! The plan seems to be working PERFECTLY. I can’t even tell you how geeked out I am about our project. Not only is it perfect timing (exactly on for the time we have to collect data) it also provides the exact project experience we want, makes sense, works scientifically (at least mostly) and best of all its also useful and real! The neighborhood is a historic cultural area in Chiang Mai, and the two “intermediate’ and ‘large’ roads we are using in our study are charted for expansion under a new city plan. (This plan would mean bulldozing hundreds of homes and reformatting the city – basically damaging the cities culture and displacing many people in the name of development but for the gain of “selfish” high ups – as a local movement leader put it). Our study would provided data on what might be projected to happen to the character(istics) of those roads if they were expanded to the “primary artery” road size – as the plan indicates! It –shows- what it means to be a “neighborhood” and what it means to be on the edge of a high traffic street.
The findings of our study, in summery, are posted up on the ISDSI website.
...
Today we did half the data collection for ou field project. In short we are assessing the change in traffic as you move from the primary roads on the premiter of a neighborhood to the residential ones into its center. We are analyzing traffic through qualitative observations, total flow (vec / time), flow composition, and volume. Total flow is # vec. That pass a transect in 5 minuites. Composition is broken into human powered, two wheel, and four wheel vehicles. Volumembient noise we got by playing a song on an ipod, and holding the headphones at arms length while slowing cranking down the volume. The bare mimmum volume where the song could be heard was the “noise level” or the area. We are taking four data points on each of three sizes of roads (enough to average them and come up with average flow levels ext. for each raod size!). We will then compare the three areas! The plan seems to be working PERFECTLY. I can’t even tell you how geeked out I am about our project. Not only is it perfect timing (exactly on for the time we have to collect data) it also provides the exact project experience we want, makes sense, works scientifically (at least mostly) and best of all its also useful and real! The neighborhood is a historic cultural area in Chiang Mai, and the two “intermediate’ and ‘large’ roads we are using in our study are charted for expansion under a new city plan. (This plan would mean bulldozing hundreds of homes and reformatting the city – basically damaging the cities culture and displacing many people in the name of development but for the gain of “selfish” high ups – as a local movement leader put it). Our study would provided data on what might be projected to happen to the character(istics) of those roads if they were expanded to the “primary artery” road size – as the plan indicates! It –shows- what it means to be a “neighborhood” and what it means to be on the edge of a high traffic street.
The findings of our study, in summery, are posted up on the ISDSI website.
Moving Out
I would love to keep living with my family, but I don’t feel awful leaving them because I know I will try to see them as often as possible, maybe even all the time once I move out. I feel so comfortable and connected here that there is no way I would not come back and hang out with them when I can. At least once between each course, defiantly. Julian Kingman said to me once, when I was so sad we would be heading separate ways – maybe forever. We had a great time didn’t we? So why would you feel bad. What we had was amazing and time won’t change that. Arg. I can’t capture it in words.it was a way of fully capturing the potential of what had been, and then letting go for the next wonderful thing to come along. To say, just because it ends in time, does not diminish its value.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Heat Seeking Land Leaches!!!!
I am so exhausted. Today we climbed Doi Sutep. The temple at the top is one of the two most important religious places in Thailand. The hike up was really really really great. We got to do our first bit of ecology, and I continue to really love Pi Aaron’s teaching. We stopped several places along the way at did, “site descriptions” where we spent 15 minuits sitting in one place and observing/describing/recording the location: this was mostly in terms of ecology; meaning abiotic factors (like climate, topography, soil, sun light ext), and biotic factors (like animals and plants) but we were also encouraged to make it valuable to ourselves – to draw, to write notes, to talk about how we felt there, or basically just take the time to make something worthwhile of the description, if we felt we had fully dictated everything that was there.
The hike was so beautiful. It was real jungle, like in Vietnam films – forest banana trees with leaves larger than a person, and mist, and rivers pouring down the mountain in staggered waterfalls, and brown streams.It was raining part of the time, so that cooled things a bit athough there was 100% humidity. There was the sound of rain smacking the massive leaves. Although we only saw a fea dragonflies or heard a distant bird singing there was a feeling of denseness and fullness that let you know there was probably so much that was still concealed from you.
At the top of the moutian we came out at the back of the national park – and we were not greated by a well-manicured park but by the “waste management station” which were stacks burst open garbage bags and a few half outdoor buildings. I was shocked to see a hole in the ground filled with the bags – about to be buried on the side of the path. I thought “omg. They are just burying it!” and it was really sad and disturbing then I thought “oh wait. That’s what we do back in the states. We just put it in a box of cement first and then burry it!”. It was a great moment for really internalizing what happens with our waste. It’s one thing to know –abstractly- that –somewhere- your trash is just being put in the ground, and quite another to get emotionally attached to a place, value it, look forward to being there, and see that peoples trash is just dumped there. What if it resurfaces with a bit of rain and erosion!? And that hole was pretty big, but it only held maybe 20 bags? Think how many bags one family makes, or one national park, or one city!
At the top of the mountain were also the coolest trees I have ever seen in my entire life. I’ll post pictures on Monday, because there is just no point in describing too much. They were naturally multi-colored. They looked painted.
On the way up we stopped at a river side wat on the side of the moutian it was amazing. There was such a rich integraiton of art and cultlure into every structure. I would love to live with so much art surrounding me.(And so close to nature!)
Rew is laughing at how fast I can type, he enver ceases to find it funny and amazing. Every once in a while he will just hit a button to try to get my attention.
AND...
We had our first heat-seeking land leach experience. Yup. Heat seeking. Land Leaches. They don't need to be in water, and they sense your body heat and come hunt you down. They crawl up your pants (which i partly why we wear gaitors) and you porbably won't even feel them crawling. One girl described it as thinking there was a big drop of water rolling down her leg. Pi Ben and Pi Aaron had them in the their armpits. Then at the top, on girl found one on her thigh – headed where your really really don’t want them to be headed.
On the way back, in the Rot Dang, pick-up with a covered back with benches in it, we found one wiggling on the floor (full of blood) that had fallen off someone during the ride. It was about the size of a rolly-polly. Its rubbery body stretched and swelled as it inched along. (it moved just like an inch worm) But then we got back to school…one boy found one in his pants. I think the situation whent somehtign like this:
“ahhhh! Pi Ben! What do I do?! ahhh! There’s a giant leach on my balls!”
The first leaches were about the size of a rolly polly. this one was three inches long. It drank so much blood it had litterally exploded. Everyone was in a state of half panic, half laughing until we could breath, half deciding never to set foot into the jungle again. Luckily, this is the first time in ten years that anything this...er...dramatic has happened with leaches.
The hike was so beautiful. It was real jungle, like in Vietnam films – forest banana trees with leaves larger than a person, and mist, and rivers pouring down the mountain in staggered waterfalls, and brown streams.It was raining part of the time, so that cooled things a bit athough there was 100% humidity. There was the sound of rain smacking the massive leaves. Although we only saw a fea dragonflies or heard a distant bird singing there was a feeling of denseness and fullness that let you know there was probably so much that was still concealed from you.
At the top of the moutian we came out at the back of the national park – and we were not greated by a well-manicured park but by the “waste management station” which were stacks burst open garbage bags and a few half outdoor buildings. I was shocked to see a hole in the ground filled with the bags – about to be buried on the side of the path. I thought “omg. They are just burying it!” and it was really sad and disturbing then I thought “oh wait. That’s what we do back in the states. We just put it in a box of cement first and then burry it!”. It was a great moment for really internalizing what happens with our waste. It’s one thing to know –abstractly- that –somewhere- your trash is just being put in the ground, and quite another to get emotionally attached to a place, value it, look forward to being there, and see that peoples trash is just dumped there. What if it resurfaces with a bit of rain and erosion!? And that hole was pretty big, but it only held maybe 20 bags? Think how many bags one family makes, or one national park, or one city!
At the top of the mountain were also the coolest trees I have ever seen in my entire life. I’ll post pictures on Monday, because there is just no point in describing too much. They were naturally multi-colored. They looked painted.
On the way up we stopped at a river side wat on the side of the moutian it was amazing. There was such a rich integraiton of art and cultlure into every structure. I would love to live with so much art surrounding me.(And so close to nature!)
Rew is laughing at how fast I can type, he enver ceases to find it funny and amazing. Every once in a while he will just hit a button to try to get my attention.
AND...
We had our first heat-seeking land leach experience. Yup. Heat seeking. Land Leaches. They don't need to be in water, and they sense your body heat and come hunt you down. They crawl up your pants (which i partly why we wear gaitors) and you porbably won't even feel them crawling. One girl described it as thinking there was a big drop of water rolling down her leg. Pi Ben and Pi Aaron had them in the their armpits. Then at the top, on girl found one on her thigh – headed where your really really don’t want them to be headed.
On the way back, in the Rot Dang, pick-up with a covered back with benches in it, we found one wiggling on the floor (full of blood) that had fallen off someone during the ride. It was about the size of a rolly-polly. Its rubbery body stretched and swelled as it inched along. (it moved just like an inch worm) But then we got back to school…one boy found one in his pants. I think the situation whent somehtign like this:
“ahhhh! Pi Ben! What do I do?! ahhh! There’s a giant leach on my balls!”
The first leaches were about the size of a rolly polly. this one was three inches long. It drank so much blood it had litterally exploded. Everyone was in a state of half panic, half laughing until we could breath, half deciding never to set foot into the jungle again. Luckily, this is the first time in ten years that anything this...er...dramatic has happened with leaches.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Photos
Photos uploaded to picassa. Best 100 of 600. You can get to them by going to GenevieveLeet.com and following the link to picassa. :)!
Thursday, September 17, 2009
I love science.
Thusday Week 4
I thoroughly enjoyed our first class with our instructor Pi Aaron. He is an undergrad graduate, in ecology, and past participant, that for a while was holding down the ecology side of the program. Durring his year there were only three hard scientists on the program, our year there are 20. I’m finding I like ecology more and more, and I’m surprised by how, personally, I find it even more engaging than I thought I would. I love science.
Today, Pi Aaron led a discussion on the reading, which involved the philosophy of the deep ecology, and this history of ecology or rather, science, as it led to the formation of first ecology, and, as the author seemed to see it, the leading of ecology to deep ecology.
...
O.K. so cody and I just ahd a great little synopsis conversation about the education so far at ISDSI. I wish I could just project it into this journal.
We talked about how this program brings together people of such interesting backgrounds of expertiece, and how excited we are to start engaging in conversations where we can all bring in our areas of knowledge, and engage in formulating rich understandings of these issues.
The education so far has been over-arching (drawing the key points out of whole fields), Cody summed it up well by saying something like “its amazing, that in a two hour exercise we summed up all of the key points of that 11 week course I took on social science research”. The lectures, in ecology, philosophy of ecology, climate change, Thailand culture and political history, burma, social science research, gender relations, ext, have been designed to give us a clear understanding of the overarching structure of these areas, and the most necessary take home points. This review is very valuable because very often in my acadmic experience people get so tied up in learning about, or teaching about the details they loose tract of the context that makes them relevant. This structure is useful so that we have a place to store our tid-bits of knowledge, philosophies ext, and so we are all on the same page when we dive into the details. It has been interesting to have lectures on social science research (which I’ve never encountered before) to ecology (where I participated in actual research this summer) all the way to climate change (after coming home from the National Udall Scholarship Conference). Side note: the more I knew, the more interesting I found the lecture (even though it was review). This is extremely fortifying in my passion for those areas, and my drive to pursue them further.
Rew just showed up. Got to go walk to the market with him! And ride home on a motorcycle!
I thoroughly enjoyed our first class with our instructor Pi Aaron. He is an undergrad graduate, in ecology, and past participant, that for a while was holding down the ecology side of the program. Durring his year there were only three hard scientists on the program, our year there are 20. I’m finding I like ecology more and more, and I’m surprised by how, personally, I find it even more engaging than I thought I would. I love science.
Today, Pi Aaron led a discussion on the reading, which involved the philosophy of the deep ecology, and this history of ecology or rather, science, as it led to the formation of first ecology, and, as the author seemed to see it, the leading of ecology to deep ecology.
...
O.K. so cody and I just ahd a great little synopsis conversation about the education so far at ISDSI. I wish I could just project it into this journal.
We talked about how this program brings together people of such interesting backgrounds of expertiece, and how excited we are to start engaging in conversations where we can all bring in our areas of knowledge, and engage in formulating rich understandings of these issues.
The education so far has been over-arching (drawing the key points out of whole fields), Cody summed it up well by saying something like “its amazing, that in a two hour exercise we summed up all of the key points of that 11 week course I took on social science research”. The lectures, in ecology, philosophy of ecology, climate change, Thailand culture and political history, burma, social science research, gender relations, ext, have been designed to give us a clear understanding of the overarching structure of these areas, and the most necessary take home points. This review is very valuable because very often in my acadmic experience people get so tied up in learning about, or teaching about the details they loose tract of the context that makes them relevant. This structure is useful so that we have a place to store our tid-bits of knowledge, philosophies ext, and so we are all on the same page when we dive into the details. It has been interesting to have lectures on social science research (which I’ve never encountered before) to ecology (where I participated in actual research this summer) all the way to climate change (after coming home from the National Udall Scholarship Conference). Side note: the more I knew, the more interesting I found the lecture (even though it was review). This is extremely fortifying in my passion for those areas, and my drive to pursue them further.
Rew just showed up. Got to go walk to the market with him! And ride home on a motorcycle!
Rot Motorsike
Life is roaring by, so fast I can barely believe it. Routine, + tons of work, have created a vortex of speeding time and events. Class remains an emotional roller coaster, but my class started getting together for study sessions after school, and those are totally helping out. I’ve also started using my family time to study, and although I would love to pay more attention to my host siblings, I do want to stay on point with class, and be able to start actually reading Thai. For some parts of studying, I also get to spent good time with my father, like today he taught me the names of the letters and what words they are associated with. (Each letter has a word association that uses it like Yah Yak – Yah being Y and Yak being a “spirit-being described as a giant vampire-fanged spirit.”
Today Rew asked me if I had fed Tom Yum, and I said Dawn Chow Gung Keen Lao” which I meant to be this morning, Gung ate already.” But actually ment “this morning I ate all of Gung”.
Afterschool, I went to Bah May Pens “house” which was mostly a restaurant. It was made of wood, tin, pastic, and tarps and the house part of it, was a back area with a couch, T.V. and curtain that I presume closed off a bedroom. It was connected to to a (garage-like) building with a pool table in it, and a store, and there were many booths around, (one that sold fried dough and milk – which May Pen comes home with everyday). There was a lot of chatting and socializing and gift giving between the neighbors, and it was cool to see the community. One guy, Rew described as “no good” because he “drank alcohol” and apparently he “liked me” which I was not too keen about, so I mostly just hung with Mae Pen while Rew attacked this guy (who provoked him by calling him gay) with first his plastic ninja sword-knife-boomarang and then with the plastic club-stick he bought at the nearby market.
There was a very nice looking gay bar across the street.
We rode a motorcycle home, My bag, then May Pen, the Rew then Me. It was so fun to race through the traffic, and see the mountains, and dilapidated buildings, and huge huge billboards, in the open air.
“asdfvbnmnvdfhfddghfqsdbdsdv h
gurrghurughrurghruhgrhgurughruhg ggggggggguuuuiiiigggiiiiirrrrr’;lkljhgfdsazxcvbnm,./sfhgnsrjhsgjrbjefhtfhghgrujghfjwnrikfw3huiwrjghreghreughurhgujerugeurhytue = mayanmar” – Rew
Today Rew asked me if I had fed Tom Yum, and I said Dawn Chow Gung Keen Lao” which I meant to be this morning, Gung ate already.” But actually ment “this morning I ate all of Gung”.
Afterschool, I went to Bah May Pens “house” which was mostly a restaurant. It was made of wood, tin, pastic, and tarps and the house part of it, was a back area with a couch, T.V. and curtain that I presume closed off a bedroom. It was connected to to a (garage-like) building with a pool table in it, and a store, and there were many booths around, (one that sold fried dough and milk – which May Pen comes home with everyday). There was a lot of chatting and socializing and gift giving between the neighbors, and it was cool to see the community. One guy, Rew described as “no good” because he “drank alcohol” and apparently he “liked me” which I was not too keen about, so I mostly just hung with Mae Pen while Rew attacked this guy (who provoked him by calling him gay) with first his plastic ninja sword-knife-boomarang and then with the plastic club-stick he bought at the nearby market.
There was a very nice looking gay bar across the street.
We rode a motorcycle home, My bag, then May Pen, the Rew then Me. It was so fun to race through the traffic, and see the mountains, and dilapidated buildings, and huge huge billboards, in the open air.
“asdfvbnmnvdfhfddghfqsdbdsdv h
gurrghurughrurghruhgrhgurughruhg ggggggggguuuuiiiigggiiiiirrrrr’;lkljhgfdsazxcvbnm,./sfhgnsrjhsgjrbjefhtfhghgrujghfjwnrikfw3huiwrjghreghreughurhgujerugeurhytue = mayanmar” – Rew
Monday, September 14, 2009
Shrimp Named Tom Yum
Yesterday i asked Khun Paw if we could "go somewhere", which confused him a bit because i didnt knwo the word for somewhere. He asked if i wantted to go to a Wat and i said "yes!" s we went to visit a wat. (Wats = Temples) It was beautiful, cultural, and spiritual. There were Monks chanting, and at one point my host dad got a wistful smile, and started chanting along with them I kenw the, in the abstract that all boys become monks for a certain time in thier life (to earn religious merit for thier parents) but i had never extended that abstract knowlegde to thinking about my father’s time as a monk. I asked him about it, in the car back, he said he was a monk for four years! Boys are monks, often for just three weeks, or a few months, while girls are have a much more long term expectations, such as taking care of their parents in their age. While all men are required to be monks for a period of time, some get more into it, are more interested in englightenment, self editing, the teachings, ext, while for others it is a right of passage. I’m sure the experience varies quite a bit. Some are monks for their whole lives. I was surprised and excited to hear my father had been a monk for so long, it gave me a small glinmps into his person, besides the patient, helpful, care-taker, father figure.
The Wat was beautiful, the part that surprised me were a small system of tunnels, underneath a golden topped pyramid that reminded me of the structures of the people of the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico. The tunnels were full of nooks with statues, shrines, and incense offerings. We fed fish in, cat fish with stiff bristling wiskers, bottom suckers with patterning like brain coral, turtles, ext. We got ice cream, which came in sandwitches of white bread instead of cones. I saw another Farang there, and felt… he reflected my out of placeness, and gave me a glimps at myself in all the complicated systems that my understanding was just beginning to brush the surface of. At the same time I felt very protected by my place within a Thai family, and was once again very greatful for the homestay, and happy and proud to be learning the Thai language and culture.
At other points this weekend, particularly during the long car ride with my family, I was overwhelmed by a feeling of sameness. Study abroad! I thought. What did I think would be different? I’ve come half way across the world and I’m with a family just like mine at home. If I had a little brother at home, this is how we would be. We are all so exactly the same… so we eat food with a different spice in it, so what! Before I left, I put all of this emphesis on how Thailand was so abroad, so different, so foreign, and really its just the same. People, families, a few things on top that look different, different words, the same ideas and people underneath. I had a huge feeling, not of being underwhelmed, but a moment of truly understanding “space ship earth” in a cultural sense.
So. Sunday, after the Wat we went to “sur blah” Buy Fish! I had though, oh I’ll just get a little gold fish and add him to the family tank, but I started an aalance on that plan by picking up a small tank in sight of A) a sales woman and B) my brothers. One goldfish quickly grew to three goldfish, and when I found out the tank was too small for gold fish, and I didn’t really like any of the tiny tiny fish, tiny fish turned into a 2.5 inch pet shrimp!
Shrimp, tank, rocks, bubbler, tube, and food cost me about 10$.
My host brothers are son jai (crazy about) fish, and I am starting to get the feavor. We took our new pets home and set up tanks, (tree little ones, one for each of us) on my desk in my room. We watched them, fed them, played with them, scooped them up, got pinced by the shrimp, wrestled for a bit, had a pillow fight, and watched them more. The shrimp fought with his bubbler. (I pinched the hose for the bubbler mostly shut with those close pins you gave me mom! Otherwise it rushes air like crazy)
The shrimp is adorable, he eats food by scooping it up with the many many tiny fingerlike legs on his stomach and spins it around and around while pinching his tiny pincers and glancing about with his beedy black eyes. He is bright orange-red. I wrote his name in Thai and engliish on a piece of althletic tape and stuck in to the tank. His name is Tom Yum. In honor of Tom Yum Gung, my favorite food here, Maes specialty dish, (what we had for dinner that night actually) and the joke we all made a hundred times to eachother about making him into soup for dinner.
I now feel, truly, a part of the family, and settled in Thailand.
The Wat was beautiful, the part that surprised me were a small system of tunnels, underneath a golden topped pyramid that reminded me of the structures of the people of the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico. The tunnels were full of nooks with statues, shrines, and incense offerings. We fed fish in, cat fish with stiff bristling wiskers, bottom suckers with patterning like brain coral, turtles, ext. We got ice cream, which came in sandwitches of white bread instead of cones. I saw another Farang there, and felt… he reflected my out of placeness, and gave me a glimps at myself in all the complicated systems that my understanding was just beginning to brush the surface of. At the same time I felt very protected by my place within a Thai family, and was once again very greatful for the homestay, and happy and proud to be learning the Thai language and culture.
At other points this weekend, particularly during the long car ride with my family, I was overwhelmed by a feeling of sameness. Study abroad! I thought. What did I think would be different? I’ve come half way across the world and I’m with a family just like mine at home. If I had a little brother at home, this is how we would be. We are all so exactly the same… so we eat food with a different spice in it, so what! Before I left, I put all of this emphesis on how Thailand was so abroad, so different, so foreign, and really its just the same. People, families, a few things on top that look different, different words, the same ideas and people underneath. I had a huge feeling, not of being underwhelmed, but a moment of truly understanding “space ship earth” in a cultural sense.
So. Sunday, after the Wat we went to “sur blah” Buy Fish! I had though, oh I’ll just get a little gold fish and add him to the family tank, but I started an aalance on that plan by picking up a small tank in sight of A) a sales woman and B) my brothers. One goldfish quickly grew to three goldfish, and when I found out the tank was too small for gold fish, and I didn’t really like any of the tiny tiny fish, tiny fish turned into a 2.5 inch pet shrimp!
Shrimp, tank, rocks, bubbler, tube, and food cost me about 10$.
My host brothers are son jai (crazy about) fish, and I am starting to get the feavor. We took our new pets home and set up tanks, (tree little ones, one for each of us) on my desk in my room. We watched them, fed them, played with them, scooped them up, got pinced by the shrimp, wrestled for a bit, had a pillow fight, and watched them more. The shrimp fought with his bubbler. (I pinched the hose for the bubbler mostly shut with those close pins you gave me mom! Otherwise it rushes air like crazy)
The shrimp is adorable, he eats food by scooping it up with the many many tiny fingerlike legs on his stomach and spins it around and around while pinching his tiny pincers and glancing about with his beedy black eyes. He is bright orange-red. I wrote his name in Thai and engliish on a piece of althletic tape and stuck in to the tank. His name is Tom Yum. In honor of Tom Yum Gung, my favorite food here, Maes specialty dish, (what we had for dinner that night actually) and the joke we all made a hundred times to eachother about making him into soup for dinner.
I now feel, truly, a part of the family, and settled in Thailand.
The foundation
Beth,
The Prostheses Foundation of H.R.H. The Princess Mother
is the name of the foundation where i live. It is amazing.
The Prostheses Foundation of H.R.H. The Princess Mother
is the name of the foundation where i live. It is amazing.
Chiang Rai
I woke up this morning, at about 4 am, and thought groggily this weekend has been a joy, before remembering that there had even been anything i had en disappointed about just a day ago. I had just woken up from another dream about Obama. In the dream, Roxanne and I were going to see him repeat his speech on health care, and Obama was theatric, dancing his way into the teatere, (he rode into the building on a goat), before taking up his normal speaking abilities. At somepoint, Xane turned into a grown up version of Rew, who was playing the guitar, so I woke up to music.
The two things I dream of (with astonishing frequency) here, are Barak Obama and Tor. I think they are two things I love, and also subconsciously took for granted back home.
On Saturday, was got up early to go to Chiang Rai, a city a few hours north of Chaing Mai, where my host sister Lin, 19, goes to school. I found out I had successfully understood Pi Boon, when he did indeed come with us, but in a separate car (his pickup) with a moctercycle in the back, that we were delivering to Lin at school. We packed up (Rew, Leap (who I found out from learning to write his name the other day, I should really be writing more life Leaf) and I were in the back seat, me in my customary sibling mediating, middle seat position. Yai (grandma) and Mae in the front. There are five mountain ranges in Thailand that run N. to S. kind of like the five fingers of a hand. (The Thai version of the Michigan mitten is to point to one of the vallies between fingers. )
To get to Chiang Rai we crossed over one of these ranges, which was beautiful, if not epic like Colorado, the landscape was rolling, blue and green, farmed and unfarmed, jungley, with a high density of shanties, oxen, and rice fields.
We got to Chaing Rai around lunch, and met up a with Lin. Her university, she told me, is the number one most beautiful university in southeast Asia. The buildings were certiantly very modern, and quite sculpted. The Chinese language building looked like a garden temple-school hybrid. We only spend a few muintes on campus, while Lin tested out her motorbike, and Rew and Lep tried (unsuccessfully) to get me to got fetch Lin from somewhere inside the “girls only” dorm, and then go over to what I think was part of a water treatment tank/filter thing. I was particularly, Faranged out, (feeling awkward about being a Farang) as university girls were giggling at me.
We quickly took off to go to lunch, which was delicious and included spicy papaya salad that was too spicy for Rew but I thought was so delicious I just plowed through it, nose dripping, and tongue tinglinly dogged. Then we all pilled back into the cars (Paw and Boon and Lin in Boon’s pickup) and drove until we passed a wat, into a tiny streeted neighbor hood, and pulled into the drive way of a compound with three little tiny houses in it. Everyone got out of the cars, walked through the small garden, past cement barrels which Rew and Lep quickly showed me had fish in them, and into one of the tiny houses. It had a bed-spread identical to mine at home, and so I deduced this was actually their place somewhat permenantly.
It was very pretty, and I was yerning to go explore, but the first thing my Aunt, Sister, and Grandma and Mom did was plop down on the one, large, only, bed and start watching television. I went outside, and Paw was sitting on the porch watching Rew and Leaf play with the fish, by which I mean, lifting the fish out of the water with cupped hands- the fist I must say, were much calmer about this whole “no oxygen process” than our fish at home are.
Then, Paw, suggested we go for a walk, and we wandered down a road and into dirt track through a rice patty. We walked down the field-road, Rew and Leaf trying to catch dragonflies by sneaking up and trying to pinch their abdomens. A one point a pretty white bird took off from the field, and majestically …pooped as it flew away. Rew found this very very very funny, especially once I commented, jokingly, Soi Soi (beautiful beauful)…ugh. We saw some farmers, farming pineapple, at the other side of the rice field but we didn’t get too close. Then my family said it was going to rain, so we went back to the house and Paw showed his experience at catching dragonflies by the abdomn, and Rew collected them in a plastic grocery bad. He even put grass in there, and I failed at explaining that I think dragonflies are carnivorous.
The only other expedition we made outside the garden was to walk through the neighborhood and buy icecreams at a tiny little shop. At one point a dog came down a drive way, and Rew and Leaf grabbed my hands and tried to get me to run away with them but I was able to test out my very very good advice about dogs which was A) from Greg: stay the #%$@% away from them and B) Ajaan Mark) Stay the (#$%# away from them and if they come near you, chuck stones at them as hard as you can. This is how everybody deals with them. When he was new to Thailand, Mark was visiting a village and noticed that all the dogs left the village granny completely alone. He asked her one day, Village Granny, why do all the dogs leave you alone, and she says, oh oh, easy easy, throw stones, throw stones, and proceeded to make sure he knew exactly what she meant by making him pick up stones and chuck them with her. As it turns out, you don’t actually have to throw stones… all you have to do is turn to face the dog and bend down like your about to pick up an inmaginary stone and the dog will high tail it in the other direction. This I found out, was quite satisfyingly true, and made me feel much much safer in Thailand. (Every few years, and ISDSI students needs rabies shots. However, it is never from dog bites- it has always been the cute little kitty cat. Usually the adorable little kitten, that has reqired back country evac, and emergency shots).
I was still unbelievably beat from Friday night, so I was have trouble even hanging out in the yard without getting woosy, so I took a nap, and when I woke up a bit later at 6 everyone was packed up and getting back in the car, to go back to Chiang Mai O.K.? so I said O.k. and got my stuff, but inside I was sad. On the way back, my family stopped by the most beautiful building I have ever seen in my whole life. It was a Wat (temple) made entirely out of white-icing and glitter. It was dark by now, and the whole thing was luminous and sparkling, like it was made out of 100,000 million glued-together-stars. Unfortunatly, the Wat was closed at dark, so we drove on.
I asked when we were going back to Chiang Mai, today, and not tomorrow, and my parents seamed concerned (paw was riding with us now, in the back seat with Leaf on his lap). (I was proud of my use of the word, why, which we just learned in class the other day, but not so proud that it took me quite a while to get the courage up to ask, and by that time it was pretty much point of no return for going back). Mae explained there wasn’t enough space at the Chiang Rai house, and I really hope they weren’t going home, for my comfort, because I really really really wouldn’t have minded sleeping on the floor. I wouldn’t have minded sleeping in the garden, under my raincoat, in a monsoon. I mean, that basically what I’m paying K tuition to do, and was a large contributing factor to me choosing the Thailand program.
I’m struggling not to take it too hard on myself that I didn’t try earlier and harder, to communicate I was like way more than O.K. with staying in Chiang Rai, because on one hand I want to take responsibility for my experience in Thailand, and everyday. I don’t want to be a passive recipient of my experience here. On the other hand, I’m trying to remaine flexible, find humor in failure, allow myself to fail, and have what the Center for Internatinal Programs calls “low goal orientation”. (I.E. be ok with not accomplishing a lot, setting small goals, wasting time ext). Although, it didn’t erase the deep feeling of failure, and sadness for not seeing Chiang Rai (other than for a few sleepy hours in a garden) and not being able to go back to the icing-Wat in the morning… *cough cough*. Although we went back to Chaing Mai, a day early, I’m staying pretty positive about the whole thing. Really, everyday I spend with my family here is great, no matter where we are. It’s more about being with them, than seeing the courty, especially during the homestay part of my journey here. And the fact that they came home a day early, possibly just so I would sleep more comfortably, is touching, and indicative of their huge hearts, and concern for my well being.
Plus, the car ride back was really really nice. When we dropped Lin off, Rew was riding on my lap, and Leaf on Paws. After Lin got out of the car, Rew kept riding on my knees; Paw called him out on this, and told him to give me space and sit in the middle, the family laughed, and teased Rew lovinly. I was touched: Both by Paws consideration of for my comfort, and my Rews affection. His comfort with me, gave me to confidence to put my arm around him for the ride back, he curled up and slept, hugging my arm the whole way back.
I had my first communication with Yai, too, which was to ask her where she was from, and Mae helped translate/explain. I feel a bit embaressed that my functional Thai is still so far behind my class Thai, but then maybe I’m just being hard on myself again. I think my goal is to try to make relationships, and if I use waving, and fractured thai, or just smiling, that’s ok. Its hard to feel like I don’t have to impress anyone.
p.s. the second thing I thought when I work up was: is it possible my bed has bed bugs?! As I’ve been waking up with large, itchy, “mosquito bits” all over my legs, although I close and lock all the windows into my room because I use A.C. at night. I’ve heard, from a friend in Entomology, that if you have bed bugs, you know you have bed bugs. Maybe I just aquired some little bed fellows… I’m going to start sleeping with full length sleaves and pants, and putting on Deet to get into bed, for a start.
The two things I dream of (with astonishing frequency) here, are Barak Obama and Tor. I think they are two things I love, and also subconsciously took for granted back home.
On Saturday, was got up early to go to Chiang Rai, a city a few hours north of Chaing Mai, where my host sister Lin, 19, goes to school. I found out I had successfully understood Pi Boon, when he did indeed come with us, but in a separate car (his pickup) with a moctercycle in the back, that we were delivering to Lin at school. We packed up (Rew, Leap (who I found out from learning to write his name the other day, I should really be writing more life Leaf) and I were in the back seat, me in my customary sibling mediating, middle seat position. Yai (grandma) and Mae in the front. There are five mountain ranges in Thailand that run N. to S. kind of like the five fingers of a hand. (The Thai version of the Michigan mitten is to point to one of the vallies between fingers. )
To get to Chiang Rai we crossed over one of these ranges, which was beautiful, if not epic like Colorado, the landscape was rolling, blue and green, farmed and unfarmed, jungley, with a high density of shanties, oxen, and rice fields.
We got to Chaing Rai around lunch, and met up a with Lin. Her university, she told me, is the number one most beautiful university in southeast Asia. The buildings were certiantly very modern, and quite sculpted. The Chinese language building looked like a garden temple-school hybrid. We only spend a few muintes on campus, while Lin tested out her motorbike, and Rew and Lep tried (unsuccessfully) to get me to got fetch Lin from somewhere inside the “girls only” dorm, and then go over to what I think was part of a water treatment tank/filter thing. I was particularly, Faranged out, (feeling awkward about being a Farang) as university girls were giggling at me.
We quickly took off to go to lunch, which was delicious and included spicy papaya salad that was too spicy for Rew but I thought was so delicious I just plowed through it, nose dripping, and tongue tinglinly dogged. Then we all pilled back into the cars (Paw and Boon and Lin in Boon’s pickup) and drove until we passed a wat, into a tiny streeted neighbor hood, and pulled into the drive way of a compound with three little tiny houses in it. Everyone got out of the cars, walked through the small garden, past cement barrels which Rew and Lep quickly showed me had fish in them, and into one of the tiny houses. It had a bed-spread identical to mine at home, and so I deduced this was actually their place somewhat permenantly.
It was very pretty, and I was yerning to go explore, but the first thing my Aunt, Sister, and Grandma and Mom did was plop down on the one, large, only, bed and start watching television. I went outside, and Paw was sitting on the porch watching Rew and Leaf play with the fish, by which I mean, lifting the fish out of the water with cupped hands- the fist I must say, were much calmer about this whole “no oxygen process” than our fish at home are.
Then, Paw, suggested we go for a walk, and we wandered down a road and into dirt track through a rice patty. We walked down the field-road, Rew and Leaf trying to catch dragonflies by sneaking up and trying to pinch their abdomens. A one point a pretty white bird took off from the field, and majestically …pooped as it flew away. Rew found this very very very funny, especially once I commented, jokingly, Soi Soi (beautiful beauful)…ugh. We saw some farmers, farming pineapple, at the other side of the rice field but we didn’t get too close. Then my family said it was going to rain, so we went back to the house and Paw showed his experience at catching dragonflies by the abdomn, and Rew collected them in a plastic grocery bad. He even put grass in there, and I failed at explaining that I think dragonflies are carnivorous.
The only other expedition we made outside the garden was to walk through the neighborhood and buy icecreams at a tiny little shop. At one point a dog came down a drive way, and Rew and Leaf grabbed my hands and tried to get me to run away with them but I was able to test out my very very good advice about dogs which was A) from Greg: stay the #%$@% away from them and B) Ajaan Mark) Stay the (#$%# away from them and if they come near you, chuck stones at them as hard as you can. This is how everybody deals with them. When he was new to Thailand, Mark was visiting a village and noticed that all the dogs left the village granny completely alone. He asked her one day, Village Granny, why do all the dogs leave you alone, and she says, oh oh, easy easy, throw stones, throw stones, and proceeded to make sure he knew exactly what she meant by making him pick up stones and chuck them with her. As it turns out, you don’t actually have to throw stones… all you have to do is turn to face the dog and bend down like your about to pick up an inmaginary stone and the dog will high tail it in the other direction. This I found out, was quite satisfyingly true, and made me feel much much safer in Thailand. (Every few years, and ISDSI students needs rabies shots. However, it is never from dog bites- it has always been the cute little kitty cat. Usually the adorable little kitten, that has reqired back country evac, and emergency shots).
I was still unbelievably beat from Friday night, so I was have trouble even hanging out in the yard without getting woosy, so I took a nap, and when I woke up a bit later at 6 everyone was packed up and getting back in the car, to go back to Chiang Mai O.K.? so I said O.k. and got my stuff, but inside I was sad. On the way back, my family stopped by the most beautiful building I have ever seen in my whole life. It was a Wat (temple) made entirely out of white-icing and glitter. It was dark by now, and the whole thing was luminous and sparkling, like it was made out of 100,000 million glued-together-stars. Unfortunatly, the Wat was closed at dark, so we drove on.
I asked when we were going back to Chiang Mai, today, and not tomorrow, and my parents seamed concerned (paw was riding with us now, in the back seat with Leaf on his lap). (I was proud of my use of the word, why, which we just learned in class the other day, but not so proud that it took me quite a while to get the courage up to ask, and by that time it was pretty much point of no return for going back). Mae explained there wasn’t enough space at the Chiang Rai house, and I really hope they weren’t going home, for my comfort, because I really really really wouldn’t have minded sleeping on the floor. I wouldn’t have minded sleeping in the garden, under my raincoat, in a monsoon. I mean, that basically what I’m paying K tuition to do, and was a large contributing factor to me choosing the Thailand program.
I’m struggling not to take it too hard on myself that I didn’t try earlier and harder, to communicate I was like way more than O.K. with staying in Chiang Rai, because on one hand I want to take responsibility for my experience in Thailand, and everyday. I don’t want to be a passive recipient of my experience here. On the other hand, I’m trying to remaine flexible, find humor in failure, allow myself to fail, and have what the Center for Internatinal Programs calls “low goal orientation”. (I.E. be ok with not accomplishing a lot, setting small goals, wasting time ext). Although, it didn’t erase the deep feeling of failure, and sadness for not seeing Chiang Rai (other than for a few sleepy hours in a garden) and not being able to go back to the icing-Wat in the morning… *cough cough*. Although we went back to Chaing Mai, a day early, I’m staying pretty positive about the whole thing. Really, everyday I spend with my family here is great, no matter where we are. It’s more about being with them, than seeing the courty, especially during the homestay part of my journey here. And the fact that they came home a day early, possibly just so I would sleep more comfortably, is touching, and indicative of their huge hearts, and concern for my well being.
Plus, the car ride back was really really nice. When we dropped Lin off, Rew was riding on my lap, and Leaf on Paws. After Lin got out of the car, Rew kept riding on my knees; Paw called him out on this, and told him to give me space and sit in the middle, the family laughed, and teased Rew lovinly. I was touched: Both by Paws consideration of for my comfort, and my Rews affection. His comfort with me, gave me to confidence to put my arm around him for the ride back, he curled up and slept, hugging my arm the whole way back.
I had my first communication with Yai, too, which was to ask her where she was from, and Mae helped translate/explain. I feel a bit embaressed that my functional Thai is still so far behind my class Thai, but then maybe I’m just being hard on myself again. I think my goal is to try to make relationships, and if I use waving, and fractured thai, or just smiling, that’s ok. Its hard to feel like I don’t have to impress anyone.
p.s. the second thing I thought when I work up was: is it possible my bed has bed bugs?! As I’ve been waking up with large, itchy, “mosquito bits” all over my legs, although I close and lock all the windows into my room because I use A.C. at night. I’ve heard, from a friend in Entomology, that if you have bed bugs, you know you have bed bugs. Maybe I just aquired some little bed fellows… I’m going to start sleeping with full length sleaves and pants, and putting on Deet to get into bed, for a start.
The hardest thing i've done in Thailand
Friday:
Mae and her friend took me out to a party! I was so happy to get invited and go. I dressed up nice, and wore the lip stick Mae gave me. We went to a bar called the Good View. It was next to a cannal and full of lanterns and live music. We met some of her friends, who were super nice and friendly. However my feeling of wonder and delight quickly turned into nearly insurmountable exhaustion. Mae and her friends talked enthusiastically, there was, from the beginning, no hope of me understanding, but it got harder and harder for me too catch any words here and there. The beer didn’t help my sleepy condition, and it was passed my normal bed-time 9:30 at about the same time we arrived, so I rapidly decended into a groggy trance-like-state of desperate awareness. I had agreed to go, and Mae and her friend had both come in one car with me, so I wasn’t about to make them go home right after they got there. Just when I thought I couldn’t take it any longer, Mae got a call and said her Boss was coming to join us. Now we really couldn’t leave. I probably did the worst job of meeting anyone, and I met her boss, who was a older gentle man with a wonderfully kind smile, who said, Mae translated, Mae was like his daughter, and so I would be like a daughter. I played the Farang card, and just tried to smile huge, and not pass out face first onto the table. Mae whispered half and hour in my ear, and I started counting songs up to ten, to wait for the time to pass. It passed, they kept talking. They kept talking. 14,15,16 songs. It was now over an hour. They kept talking.
At one point, Maes friend asked if I was drunk and because I thought she said sleepy I said yes, and every one laughed and Mae translated and I said NO NO! just sleepy! and I don’t know if that got across or I just looked more like a drung Farang. I think falling asleep in my chair, which was my final, desperate act, might have gotten the it across though.
I crawled into the back bench of the car, and fell asleep intantly, I only woke up when the car stopped, only we weren’t home, we were at another restaurant. Mae asked if I couldn’t sleep in the car, while they went in and I said ok. When I woke up again it was after 1 am and we were arrived back home. Also we were locked out of the house. I sat on the step and smiled at Maes friend Pi Kim, until I was able to b line it to my bed.
The night was actually one of the hardest moments I’ve had in Thailand. And I never would have thought it would have come from exhaustion. Not even counting, finding joy in where I was for those three and some hours (successful), and not be culturally offensize(maybe successful), and not care about looking like the Farang I was(not very successful), not even counting those. Just staying awake, was one of the hardest things I have ever done.
Mae and her friend took me out to a party! I was so happy to get invited and go. I dressed up nice, and wore the lip stick Mae gave me. We went to a bar called the Good View. It was next to a cannal and full of lanterns and live music. We met some of her friends, who were super nice and friendly. However my feeling of wonder and delight quickly turned into nearly insurmountable exhaustion. Mae and her friends talked enthusiastically, there was, from the beginning, no hope of me understanding, but it got harder and harder for me too catch any words here and there. The beer didn’t help my sleepy condition, and it was passed my normal bed-time 9:30 at about the same time we arrived, so I rapidly decended into a groggy trance-like-state of desperate awareness. I had agreed to go, and Mae and her friend had both come in one car with me, so I wasn’t about to make them go home right after they got there. Just when I thought I couldn’t take it any longer, Mae got a call and said her Boss was coming to join us. Now we really couldn’t leave. I probably did the worst job of meeting anyone, and I met her boss, who was a older gentle man with a wonderfully kind smile, who said, Mae translated, Mae was like his daughter, and so I would be like a daughter. I played the Farang card, and just tried to smile huge, and not pass out face first onto the table. Mae whispered half and hour in my ear, and I started counting songs up to ten, to wait for the time to pass. It passed, they kept talking. They kept talking. 14,15,16 songs. It was now over an hour. They kept talking.
At one point, Maes friend asked if I was drunk and because I thought she said sleepy I said yes, and every one laughed and Mae translated and I said NO NO! just sleepy! and I don’t know if that got across or I just looked more like a drung Farang. I think falling asleep in my chair, which was my final, desperate act, might have gotten the it across though.
I crawled into the back bench of the car, and fell asleep intantly, I only woke up when the car stopped, only we weren’t home, we were at another restaurant. Mae asked if I couldn’t sleep in the car, while they went in and I said ok. When I woke up again it was after 1 am and we were arrived back home. Also we were locked out of the house. I sat on the step and smiled at Maes friend Pi Kim, until I was able to b line it to my bed.
The night was actually one of the hardest moments I’ve had in Thailand. And I never would have thought it would have come from exhaustion. Not even counting, finding joy in where I was for those three and some hours (successful), and not be culturally offensize(maybe successful), and not care about looking like the Farang I was(not very successful), not even counting those. Just staying awake, was one of the hardest things I have ever done.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Thai lantern
I can’t believe the homestay is over half over! I feel like I am just starting to get to know my family, and I would be happy to spend the next six months here.
This morning I had a really hard time eating breakfast, it was once again meat and rice, only this time the meat didn’t have a scauce, so it was just meat and rice, but despite my efforts to hide it, my paw noticed and made me some of the buttery green-toast as well, which as quite kind.
Last night Bah May Pen came home with a beautiful school uniform for me. The shirt was a silky soft material, and the pencil skirt was gorgeous and comfy. Bah Ley, Rew and I played catch in the afternoon, and I understood a few words that Yai John said to me in the afternoon. Namely “take a shower” which the Thai say, not to tell you that you’re a sticky frang (exactly) but that they want you to be comfortable.
Last night Rew, Lep and I lit a Thai giant paper lantern, and let it sail away into the night sky. It was a chest high paper tube, with a candle holder at the bottom, when the candle is lit the hot air fills the paper ballon. It glowed bright orange and yellow, and rose into the air gently, before floating up and out towards the mountains.
This morning I had a really hard time eating breakfast, it was once again meat and rice, only this time the meat didn’t have a scauce, so it was just meat and rice, but despite my efforts to hide it, my paw noticed and made me some of the buttery green-toast as well, which as quite kind.
Last night Bah May Pen came home with a beautiful school uniform for me. The shirt was a silky soft material, and the pencil skirt was gorgeous and comfy. Bah Ley, Rew and I played catch in the afternoon, and I understood a few words that Yai John said to me in the afternoon. Namely “take a shower” which the Thai say, not to tell you that you’re a sticky frang (exactly) but that they want you to be comfortable.
Last night Rew, Lep and I lit a Thai giant paper lantern, and let it sail away into the night sky. It was a chest high paper tube, with a candle holder at the bottom, when the candle is lit the hot air fills the paper ballon. It glowed bright orange and yellow, and rose into the air gently, before floating up and out towards the mountains.
Tilapia Hatchery
Today we went on field trips to visit and help out at local NGOs. I went to a fish hatchery, where they raise tiny fish to stock farmers ponds. It was quite the sanuk (fun) hands on experience. The farm has about thirty employees, and is run my a crisitan missionary from minesota with a degree in aquaculture. He was very interesting and fun. I enjoyed hearing about the applied science of the hatchery like how they use tiny doses of testosterone in the feed of the young fish so that all the fish they raise to sell will be male. This helps out the farmers because they don’t have to deal with the fish in their pond breeding (which might sound good at first) only it means the little babies compete with the adults for resources and the farmer will end up with lots of fish of all different sizes and fewer “top dollar” plate sized tilapia when they harvest. Since the carrying capacity of the pond dosnt change all of the babies take away from the volume of sellable-fish that can be supported.
The fish they primarly farmed was Tilapia. It is not native to Thailand, but it is not too bad as an invasive species because it feed off algae and aquatic plants, and is not a predator. (it is now common all over Thailand). It is a great fish for eating, and grows to full size in about half a year! After males fertilize the females eggs, the females carry their brood of eggs around in their mouth!
The farm was made of about a dozen or more, square ponds, with blue net pens holding sometimes up to 30,000 fish. We saw where they raise the tiny fish from eggs they harvest from the breeder adults. They sort the babies into batches that will all be of even size, and sell those batches out to locals who have their own raising ponds. In these ponds, the riase the fish from tiny specks to “fingerlings” and sell the “fingerlings” back to the hatchery, and the hatchery sells them to people who raise them in river baskets, or farm ponds.
We got to help harvest eggs from the adult tilapia. We waded out into the pond, fighting a continual battle of shoe tug-of-war with the deep muck, and took up positions at the corner of one of the pens. The net was pulled across the pen so that all the fish were together in one corner. Then we dipped in with scooping nets and grabbed hold of the trashing fish and checked to see if they had eggs in their mouths. This, while it sounds simple, was truly a feat of speed, and will power. They lept, thrashed, slipped, squirmed, jumped, and generally made slippery havoc. By the end we were bold grabbers, soaked and poked. It was unbelievably fun. Sometimes they had snails, or smaller fish in their mouths. Only a few of the fish had eggs, but when they did the eggs slipped out like orange b-bs.
They raised a pair of farmed-wild-boars in a hut on the edge of the property. We had snake fish for lunch, the meat was so soft and tasty.
The fish they primarly farmed was Tilapia. It is not native to Thailand, but it is not too bad as an invasive species because it feed off algae and aquatic plants, and is not a predator. (it is now common all over Thailand). It is a great fish for eating, and grows to full size in about half a year! After males fertilize the females eggs, the females carry their brood of eggs around in their mouth!
The farm was made of about a dozen or more, square ponds, with blue net pens holding sometimes up to 30,000 fish. We saw where they raise the tiny fish from eggs they harvest from the breeder adults. They sort the babies into batches that will all be of even size, and sell those batches out to locals who have their own raising ponds. In these ponds, the riase the fish from tiny specks to “fingerlings” and sell the “fingerlings” back to the hatchery, and the hatchery sells them to people who raise them in river baskets, or farm ponds.
We got to help harvest eggs from the adult tilapia. We waded out into the pond, fighting a continual battle of shoe tug-of-war with the deep muck, and took up positions at the corner of one of the pens. The net was pulled across the pen so that all the fish were together in one corner. Then we dipped in with scooping nets and grabbed hold of the trashing fish and checked to see if they had eggs in their mouths. This, while it sounds simple, was truly a feat of speed, and will power. They lept, thrashed, slipped, squirmed, jumped, and generally made slippery havoc. By the end we were bold grabbers, soaked and poked. It was unbelievably fun. Sometimes they had snails, or smaller fish in their mouths. Only a few of the fish had eggs, but when they did the eggs slipped out like orange b-bs.
They raised a pair of farmed-wild-boars in a hut on the edge of the property. We had snake fish for lunch, the meat was so soft and tasty.
Wednesday September 9, 2009 Bedtime company
While life has fallen into a smooth, and quick moving, routine there are a coupld details and events i want to mention. Most recently, I wanted to mention I fall asleep each night to the company of the mummified anole stuck in my overhead light fixture.
The other night i woke up to a pack of dogs, or wolves, or something else canine howling from the woods behind my house.
Also, once I finished my reading about Burma for seminar, I looked up and Bah May Pen and Bah Lye were lying on the floor in front of the T.V.s and Leap and Rew were walking on their backs. They were giggling and giggling and I heard my Paw, who walked in the room say 50 years old, but I don’t think he could possibly be talking about himself. I came over, and May Pen said something to me that I couldn’t understand so I lay down next to her thinking it might be lay down and the whole family laughed and laughed. We tried to encourage Leap to walk on my back but he would barely put his toes on my calf before getting shy and jumping away. Then to my surprise, and quickly delight, May Pen started to massage my calves, which to the famillies laughter, turned into a body length Thai massage. It was one of the most welcome massages i've ever recieved, since because every moment has been either high intensity in action or high emotional energy (even in inaction) since I got here. Also feeling included, and being surrounded by laughter wasn’t too bad either.
I feel like my vocab and ability to communicate with my extended family is about a tenth of my abilty to communicate diwht my inner family, but maybe that also a lot because we can’t use Thai-lish, and also I think because I’m not so used to them. They don’t know what words I know, and I don’t feel as comfortable trying to speak yet ext.
Also at one point tonight Rew made us eggs by whipping them furiously with a fork adding something called “flavor” which when I looked on the label was only water, sugar, and salt, and adding chicken bolien powerder and then putting the bowl in the microwave!
Omg and this wonderful woman, Pi M, who came over. She works for the foundation and speaks absolutely great English and I finally got to ask lots of questions about the foundation. Its so much larger, and so much cooler than I expected! First of all they a have five mobile units that travel all over Thailand, and all over south east Asia, helping the handicapped. All of their prosthetics are free. Since they were founded they have helped over 25,000 people! More than a thousand a year! They made the money to do this primarily through donations. They just made prosthetic legs for two elephants!!! A adult and a baby, who lost legs by stepping on land mines! When I asked my they started helping animals too, Pi M told me that they “ were already helping so many people, why not help these animals who were also suffering. After all, humans made the landmines which caused these injuries.” She also said the adult had learned to walk using its trunk as a cruch for it’s missing front leg, and was slowly beinging to trust and use its new leg. The first thing the baby did when it got its new leg was run! Run! Run! And kick it around in the sand.
I asked what I could do to help and she said, give money, collect the put tabs from aluminum cans (the metal is very high quality, and is melted down and made into tibias and fibias) She also said I have to ask Mae, but wouldn’t it be nice if I could go out with one of the mobile units for one of their week long trips, and help out. Definite possibility for the break. :) :)
Today was another emotional rollercoaster during Thai class. I’ve started studying in my free time at school outside of class too, which is helping a bit.
The other night i woke up to a pack of dogs, or wolves, or something else canine howling from the woods behind my house.
Also, once I finished my reading about Burma for seminar, I looked up and Bah May Pen and Bah Lye were lying on the floor in front of the T.V.s and Leap and Rew were walking on their backs. They were giggling and giggling and I heard my Paw, who walked in the room say 50 years old, but I don’t think he could possibly be talking about himself. I came over, and May Pen said something to me that I couldn’t understand so I lay down next to her thinking it might be lay down and the whole family laughed and laughed. We tried to encourage Leap to walk on my back but he would barely put his toes on my calf before getting shy and jumping away. Then to my surprise, and quickly delight, May Pen started to massage my calves, which to the famillies laughter, turned into a body length Thai massage. It was one of the most welcome massages i've ever recieved, since because every moment has been either high intensity in action or high emotional energy (even in inaction) since I got here. Also feeling included, and being surrounded by laughter wasn’t too bad either.
I feel like my vocab and ability to communicate with my extended family is about a tenth of my abilty to communicate diwht my inner family, but maybe that also a lot because we can’t use Thai-lish, and also I think because I’m not so used to them. They don’t know what words I know, and I don’t feel as comfortable trying to speak yet ext.
Also at one point tonight Rew made us eggs by whipping them furiously with a fork adding something called “flavor” which when I looked on the label was only water, sugar, and salt, and adding chicken bolien powerder and then putting the bowl in the microwave!
Omg and this wonderful woman, Pi M, who came over. She works for the foundation and speaks absolutely great English and I finally got to ask lots of questions about the foundation. Its so much larger, and so much cooler than I expected! First of all they a have five mobile units that travel all over Thailand, and all over south east Asia, helping the handicapped. All of their prosthetics are free. Since they were founded they have helped over 25,000 people! More than a thousand a year! They made the money to do this primarily through donations. They just made prosthetic legs for two elephants!!! A adult and a baby, who lost legs by stepping on land mines! When I asked my they started helping animals too, Pi M told me that they “ were already helping so many people, why not help these animals who were also suffering. After all, humans made the landmines which caused these injuries.” She also said the adult had learned to walk using its trunk as a cruch for it’s missing front leg, and was slowly beinging to trust and use its new leg. The first thing the baby did when it got its new leg was run! Run! Run! And kick it around in the sand.
I asked what I could do to help and she said, give money, collect the put tabs from aluminum cans (the metal is very high quality, and is melted down and made into tibias and fibias) She also said I have to ask Mae, but wouldn’t it be nice if I could go out with one of the mobile units for one of their week long trips, and help out. Definite possibility for the break. :) :)
Today was another emotional rollercoaster during Thai class. I’ve started studying in my free time at school outside of class too, which is helping a bit.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
“Happiness is a how, not a what. A talent, not an object.”
Seminar today was AMAZING. We did an overview of globalization, global warming, and NGOs. Yippee! I love this stuff. I love this stuff. I love this stuff. Although, it was basically all review (except for the NGO stuff) it was very well done and Damn. I. Love. It. Its soooo important. Sooo interesting. Sooo relevant. So important. So real. So ahhosifwieg! Global warming is my # 1 issue. 100%
Thai class was quite difficult for me today. I have been feeling overwhelmed by the language, and i've been slipping towards disengagement. Oih. I know I’ve got to switch into leaping in and totally engaging when I start feeling this way, as that is the easiest way to get back on track. The more I withdraw the harder it is to get back onboard the Thai Train. The more I just in, and fail, and jump in, the better things get. At lunch, Marcia’s notebook gave me just the right sound advice. It says:
“Happiness is a how, not a what. A talent, not an object.”
The vivid dreams continue. I love falling asleep and waking up because of the dreams. Last night i had a blond, blue eyed son, named Damian, and i kept wondering how it happened i hadn't noticed i was pregnant! Also every morning i wake up at 6:13 exactly, although i have no alarm set.
My host grandpa has come home from the hospital and him and Yai (grandma) are living with us. Even though they only use a few simple words, I can't understand Yai, or Blah Lye (aunt whos staying too). This makes haning out with the family stressful and discouraging when they try to communicate with me, and its equally stressful and sicoruaging when they don't try. However, we do smile at eachother semi-awkwardly a lot. Last night, the family watched a T.V. show that included magic vampires that tturned into smoke, tried to lure people into elevators, and were terrified of guinie pigs. in the middle of the show, a girl feel into a river as a boy was trying to seduce her (i think) and i looked up from my homework a shouted "Y-nom! Y-nom" swim swim! and the whole family laughed.
Mae asked me to go with her to Chiang Rai to visit sister Lin. I'm very happy to go and get to spend some time with Mae. Maybe Rew will agree to go too, but he is hesitant.
Best,
Gigi
Thai class was quite difficult for me today. I have been feeling overwhelmed by the language, and i've been slipping towards disengagement. Oih. I know I’ve got to switch into leaping in and totally engaging when I start feeling this way, as that is the easiest way to get back on track. The more I withdraw the harder it is to get back onboard the Thai Train. The more I just in, and fail, and jump in, the better things get. At lunch, Marcia’s notebook gave me just the right sound advice. It says:
“Happiness is a how, not a what. A talent, not an object.”
The vivid dreams continue. I love falling asleep and waking up because of the dreams. Last night i had a blond, blue eyed son, named Damian, and i kept wondering how it happened i hadn't noticed i was pregnant! Also every morning i wake up at 6:13 exactly, although i have no alarm set.
My host grandpa has come home from the hospital and him and Yai (grandma) are living with us. Even though they only use a few simple words, I can't understand Yai, or Blah Lye (aunt whos staying too). This makes haning out with the family stressful and discouraging when they try to communicate with me, and its equally stressful and sicoruaging when they don't try. However, we do smile at eachother semi-awkwardly a lot. Last night, the family watched a T.V. show that included magic vampires that tturned into smoke, tried to lure people into elevators, and were terrified of guinie pigs. in the middle of the show, a girl feel into a river as a boy was trying to seduce her (i think) and i looked up from my homework a shouted "Y-nom! Y-nom" swim swim! and the whole family laughed.
Mae asked me to go with her to Chiang Rai to visit sister Lin. I'm very happy to go and get to spend some time with Mae. Maybe Rew will agree to go too, but he is hesitant.
Best,
Gigi
Monday, September 7, 2009
Jungle Rescue
We did a little first aid training stuff today, which was a wonderful refresher for Woofer. (Wilderness First Responder). It reminded me just how much I –love- this stuff, the creative problem solving, the leadership, the practicality, the adrenaline, to team work. Oih! So cool! We did a practice rescue. Our subject, Ellen “A.K.A. Chris”, was up a steap slippery rocky hill in the jungle. We found her splinted her arm and leg and had to get her down the mountain across a stream, through a meadow, over a small river and to the “helicopter pad” (fire circle) in about an hour and a half. My group did very well. For parts of it i preformed as a woofer (great practice), and for others I asked the group to do what they though best so that would get a chance to creative problem solve ext. (since they weren’t also woofers and this was their first rescue). They made an excellent leg split. We thought about making a litter (back woods stretcher) but we knew that they took a long time, and there was only 45 min before flash floods carried us away and made helicopter landing impossible. So we BEAMed her (carried her across our arms as a team) all the way there. It was exhausting, and exhilarating. In the humidity, we were literally dripping sweat like small waterfalls off our chins. But if I do say so myself, we did marvelously as a team. Decisions were swift and consensus based, we had a flow of leadership and ideas, we scouted ext.. We arrived on time, first, (9 min before flash floods). 2 of the 4 groups just BEAMed intead of building a litter (we weren’t told about how to build litters or spints or anyting – but a few of us knew from previous training). We got the Burly Award. Aparently no one has ever done that before. Haha. Actualy though, my team agreed it was the right choice considering the situation and constraints. We knew we could carry her, (it wasn’t far all in all for a recue) and we were tight on time. Wilderness medicine is so amazing!
Lime Shrimp - Waterfall
Monday Week 3
Over the last weekend, the ISDSI students and staff went on a “relaxing” retreat. To get our first peek at ecology (i.e. the jungle), and get to know eachother better, and get a rest from what can be an “exhausting experience” being with our host families all the time. (mine aren’t exhausting, but I can see how it could be tiering to be social, in a foreign language, constantly.)
The night before we left I was a bit confused, because my family told me I could sleep in, but we had to be at school early – at 7:00 AM. Finally, I realized my family was going to drop me off at the lake where we were all traveling to from school, because it is just a little bit down the road from my house.
The lake was amazing. Thai people, with an ideal of pale skin, think that the American “sun tanning” and “hanging at the beach” is nuts! Instead the lake (actually a resivour) was lined with lots of thatched roof sun houses, (not to mention rolling forested hills/”mountains”). The water was warm and pale brown, like watered down creamy coffee. We did our swim test, which was easy, (swimming 300 M and back and 15 minunits treding water) but very pleasant. Across the river was a giant golden statue of a Buddha. We sat in some of the hutched houses and had the best food I have had in Thailand so far.
For appetizers there were shrimp in a lime chili sauce. Tiny, grey, live, popping, jumping shrimp in a lime chili sauce. It was pretty hard to eat the first one, mostly because it was the most lively and kept popping out of the jar. Also because it was alive. I was reminded of a passage from the book about a girl who survived the Khomer Rougue in Cambodia. At one point her mum fed her a handful of live shrimp from the stream when no one was looking. It talked about them crunching in her mouth. It might also have mentioned the tickling, filamentous antennae.
We also had Tom Yum Guy (Chicken Tom Yum Soup), and lots of other great dishes, like spice papaya salad.
Cody and I took a kayak out in the water and did successful spot switching by crawling over one another in the boat like we practiced in water-safety at land sea. There was a huge black spire rising out of one end of the lake. On closer inspection is was the towering trunk of a dead tree – blacked and burned. With a colorful sash wrapped around it. In one reading, we heard about monks ordaining trees to protect them, by wrapping like such. It was a very spiritual tree, or skeleton of one. We also climbed up the bank of the resivour and peaked over into the meandering stream and meadows (and wild banana trees ) on the other side.
From the resivour we rode for an hour into the Pu How (mountinas) to a national park called “Mok Fah” (Mork Fah), or maybe Doi Sutep (not the temple). It was famous for its waterfall.
So there was this guy, Plato, who thought that everything had this perfect, unworly, ideal version that all the worldy version were trying to aspire to.
This was the perfect waterfall. I’ve seen a lot of waterfalls in my life. And somewhere deep in yy mind ther’s always this tiny feeling of disappointment, like there is something not quite right. It’s like I’ve been looking for this one.
I’ve never felt so much like a place needed a name – because of the living spirit of it. Not knowing what the waterfall was named, at the time, was like not knowing the name of a crush.
What can I tell you about it? Being there was like being in the most dramatic moments of a super-good movie. One of those times when the background noise, or the music stop, and there is just one huge rushing noise. Everything seemed to slow down, and time sort of warped around a bit. Detail blinked in and out. It was so bright, looking back I think there were echos.
< My heels sinking into the pillowed sand and gravel at the edge of the fall, the trees all lime against the light blue and white sky, Philip and his freckled shoulders, his eyes and mouth gasping, or was it laughing. Water droplets flew every which way, - gravity-less - like fairies. The wind roaring out from the falls, ripping agaistn my rashguard and thigh length shorts. Prying my fingers into the slippery, dark rock, behind the falls. >
The falls were split, two long drapes of water, jumping a few times on spurs of rock. There was an oval pool full of sand, drinfted so at times it was ancle deep, and in other places you had to swim. From within the pool you could barley look straight at the falls. The sprah ruhed out, flew against your face. The water came down so hard you could bare stand to come near it. First we explored the edges, got to know the water, the strength. Only a few (those with a thirst for adventure close to their heart), made it all the way under the torrential water. It hurt. It was religious. You could barely stand. It almost pushed one down. It smacked my arms and face, stinging, and cleansing.
For those of you who know me, I was so entranced I didn’t even get cold. Two hours there, the first in and the last out, and I didn’t get cold at all.
The best spot was just behind the right had falls. Although the two falls had pilled sand between them, so you could stand calf deep between the two, to get behind the right had fall you had to swim there. Erin and I rock climbed up the wall behind the falls, so only our ankles were in the water. The fall poured down in front of us, over us. It was a narrow space, I could reach out and touch the fall.– when you looked up, it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. The water lept out over the dark rock, the rocketing fairy droplets wizzed which and every which way. There was such a scale to it all, a grand scale and an intimacy. I want my whole life to be like that – grand and intimate. Breathing each moment, with a cool rush, powerful.
When we climbed up and stood there, the rock at our back, nothing but the fall and all that noise, and the wet stone we stood our backs against, toes and fingers wedged into handhold and fissures. The water was deep enough that when we slipped, while trying to climb up we just plunged into the cool rushing water. I got this feeling all inside, and knowing the depth and the character of the falls better after an afternoon there…We dived off the wall and under the falls. It was sooo fun. It doesn’t pound you down there – it’s just brown. And there is a light with a quality Alli once described as “shining from no where in particular but what feels like everywhere at once”. It was like passing through magic.
After that I helped my friends dive climb the wall and dive through. It was exciting to see them swoop into the tumultuous water. I went half a dozen times, sliding through the curtain of water. Of brown and noise that is silent and light.
Pi carrie arrived and said as program policy there was no diving, which was totally o.k. and fine. So we just hung on the wall and watched the water.
I liked to float away from the falls on my back and look up at them, the water jumping off the rocks high up, and the pounding mist. I can’t say it was more real than normal life, or as real, it wasn’t real. It was just wonderful.
Over the last weekend, the ISDSI students and staff went on a “relaxing” retreat. To get our first peek at ecology (i.e. the jungle), and get to know eachother better, and get a rest from what can be an “exhausting experience” being with our host families all the time. (mine aren’t exhausting, but I can see how it could be tiering to be social, in a foreign language, constantly.)
The night before we left I was a bit confused, because my family told me I could sleep in, but we had to be at school early – at 7:00 AM. Finally, I realized my family was going to drop me off at the lake where we were all traveling to from school, because it is just a little bit down the road from my house.
The lake was amazing. Thai people, with an ideal of pale skin, think that the American “sun tanning” and “hanging at the beach” is nuts! Instead the lake (actually a resivour) was lined with lots of thatched roof sun houses, (not to mention rolling forested hills/”mountains”). The water was warm and pale brown, like watered down creamy coffee. We did our swim test, which was easy, (swimming 300 M and back and 15 minunits treding water) but very pleasant. Across the river was a giant golden statue of a Buddha. We sat in some of the hutched houses and had the best food I have had in Thailand so far.
For appetizers there were shrimp in a lime chili sauce. Tiny, grey, live, popping, jumping shrimp in a lime chili sauce. It was pretty hard to eat the first one, mostly because it was the most lively and kept popping out of the jar. Also because it was alive. I was reminded of a passage from the book about a girl who survived the Khomer Rougue in Cambodia. At one point her mum fed her a handful of live shrimp from the stream when no one was looking. It talked about them crunching in her mouth. It might also have mentioned the tickling, filamentous antennae.
We also had Tom Yum Guy (Chicken Tom Yum Soup), and lots of other great dishes, like spice papaya salad.
Cody and I took a kayak out in the water and did successful spot switching by crawling over one another in the boat like we practiced in water-safety at land sea. There was a huge black spire rising out of one end of the lake. On closer inspection is was the towering trunk of a dead tree – blacked and burned. With a colorful sash wrapped around it. In one reading, we heard about monks ordaining trees to protect them, by wrapping like such. It was a very spiritual tree, or skeleton of one. We also climbed up the bank of the resivour and peaked over into the meandering stream and meadows (and wild banana trees ) on the other side.
From the resivour we rode for an hour into the Pu How (mountinas) to a national park called “Mok Fah” (Mork Fah), or maybe Doi Sutep (not the temple). It was famous for its waterfall.
So there was this guy, Plato, who thought that everything had this perfect, unworly, ideal version that all the worldy version were trying to aspire to.
This was the perfect waterfall. I’ve seen a lot of waterfalls in my life. And somewhere deep in yy mind ther’s always this tiny feeling of disappointment, like there is something not quite right. It’s like I’ve been looking for this one.
I’ve never felt so much like a place needed a name – because of the living spirit of it. Not knowing what the waterfall was named, at the time, was like not knowing the name of a crush.
What can I tell you about it? Being there was like being in the most dramatic moments of a super-good movie. One of those times when the background noise, or the music stop, and there is just one huge rushing noise. Everything seemed to slow down, and time sort of warped around a bit. Detail blinked in and out. It was so bright, looking back I think there were echos.
< My heels sinking into the pillowed sand and gravel at the edge of the fall, the trees all lime against the light blue and white sky, Philip and his freckled shoulders, his eyes and mouth gasping, or was it laughing. Water droplets flew every which way, - gravity-less - like fairies. The wind roaring out from the falls, ripping agaistn my rashguard and thigh length shorts. Prying my fingers into the slippery, dark rock, behind the falls. >
The falls were split, two long drapes of water, jumping a few times on spurs of rock. There was an oval pool full of sand, drinfted so at times it was ancle deep, and in other places you had to swim. From within the pool you could barley look straight at the falls. The sprah ruhed out, flew against your face. The water came down so hard you could bare stand to come near it. First we explored the edges, got to know the water, the strength. Only a few (those with a thirst for adventure close to their heart), made it all the way under the torrential water. It hurt. It was religious. You could barely stand. It almost pushed one down. It smacked my arms and face, stinging, and cleansing.
For those of you who know me, I was so entranced I didn’t even get cold. Two hours there, the first in and the last out, and I didn’t get cold at all.
The best spot was just behind the right had falls. Although the two falls had pilled sand between them, so you could stand calf deep between the two, to get behind the right had fall you had to swim there. Erin and I rock climbed up the wall behind the falls, so only our ankles were in the water. The fall poured down in front of us, over us. It was a narrow space, I could reach out and touch the fall.– when you looked up, it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. The water lept out over the dark rock, the rocketing fairy droplets wizzed which and every which way. There was such a scale to it all, a grand scale and an intimacy. I want my whole life to be like that – grand and intimate. Breathing each moment, with a cool rush, powerful.
When we climbed up and stood there, the rock at our back, nothing but the fall and all that noise, and the wet stone we stood our backs against, toes and fingers wedged into handhold and fissures. The water was deep enough that when we slipped, while trying to climb up we just plunged into the cool rushing water. I got this feeling all inside, and knowing the depth and the character of the falls better after an afternoon there…We dived off the wall and under the falls. It was sooo fun. It doesn’t pound you down there – it’s just brown. And there is a light with a quality Alli once described as “shining from no where in particular but what feels like everywhere at once”. It was like passing through magic.
After that I helped my friends dive climb the wall and dive through. It was exciting to see them swoop into the tumultuous water. I went half a dozen times, sliding through the curtain of water. Of brown and noise that is silent and light.
Pi carrie arrived and said as program policy there was no diving, which was totally o.k. and fine. So we just hung on the wall and watched the water.
I liked to float away from the falls on my back and look up at them, the water jumping off the rocks high up, and the pounding mist. I can’t say it was more real than normal life, or as real, it wasn’t real. It was just wonderful.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Figuring out how laughing is how to learn a language.
I’m alone in the house now, which is very nice for a change. It may be one of the few moments I have been along besides when I was asleep. Thai people do not like to be alone. In fact, until about thirty years ago, they did not have a word for “privacy”.
Sunday I went to the super market with the family. It was exactly like an American Meijer only it had “Shampuroo” – a land of pink and hello kitty, just after the check out. Also lots of instant coffee, better flavors of yogurt, and more things favored shrimp.
Thai class recently has been great! I had a blast the whole time. I think I figured out how to handle it: smile and laugh. It actually works for me! When I don’t get it smiling or laughing and saying “I don’t get it” again and again until someone is able to make it clear, seem to instantly cancel frusteration. I also can’t believe how many words they are trying to teach us each day…. Dozens. Maybe, well, lets count how many…65 words in class. (that’s including a few words that are totally new concepts, not just nouns and adj. and how to use them!) then for homework were learned parts of the body, and clothes from our host families. After dinner paw taught me 32 body parts and 9 pieces of clothing. Whoowe! I’d say I can pronounce 75% well enough to be understood, and I have memorized, at the moment around 45%... all in one day! I very much like the other 6 students in my class, they are bright and fun. I’m very glad I got Ajaan PongSoi as my Ajaan. He pushes us hard, but everything is like a riddle to be solved. He is fun and funny, too. Ajaan Pongsoi is a good leader from behind. He will explain grammar using colored blocks for words, or introduce a concept with an example and a drawing, and if some of us don’t get it, he turns it over to those who do get it to teach the others. Sometimes when we are frustrated, he just finds a way to make us laugh. He is patient and doesn’t give away freebies. Ajaan Pongsoi would make a good Landsea leader.
I’m starting to settle into the routine of life here.
I can’t believe how comfortable I am with my host family. It sounds like all the students are feeling varying shades of awkward at home, but I am lucky enough to have no problems that interfere with my life. (if i were a shade of awkward it would be white with thin yellow and green stripes). I play, or learn Thai from Paw, or meet relatives, or entertain myself with juggling balls, or do homework, or greet Mae as she comes and goes. Even if I make a cultural mistake, I feel foolish for a moment, but it doesn’t last on my feelings with the family. Like today paw gave me a bowl of rice but no silverware, and went into the kitchen and I thought, oh hes bringin some, and handed me a bowl of soup with a soup spoon (serving) and I started eating with that instead of the customary knife and fork. No no! he took it away and brought a new serving spoon and real silverware, oops, but mai pen rai, (roll with it, nevermind, or its cool).
**
Last night i had the best dream ever! The obamas came to school and they needed our students to come with them to cincinati to help with "something big" something that was going to "be on every news channel". At one point in the dream Barak called my phone, at another Micheal and i were traveling through a forest to get to tiny train platform. The dream incorportaed all of these cultural aspects we have been learning about...
Today for class we cooked thai food. We went to the market and bought ingrediants, which was much easier now we know words like "do you have" and "where is" and we had the tones as well as the phonetics. I bought section of a durrian fruit, The King of Fruits, and sorry Carina, i barely had a nibble before it made me sick to my stomach. uuuggghhh. i passed it all around, so lots of people got to try it. Or rather Erin did mostly, since being near the smell made me sick. About a third could eat it.
Then we learned to cook following Thai directions and between the five groups made quite a wonderful meal. We all hung out in the back yard or school, a grassy garden, with those cement "flower pot" grills, and chopped garlic, mint, and peppers. We made a stir fry noodle, pork, veggi dish, quite good.
In seminar we talked about societal trends - differences in how people interact on a society level, between the USA and Thailand. I love when i have a lecture where i am continually joting down personal connections, insights, short paragraphs, and stories, in scrawling blocks through out my normal notes.
Heres a condensed quote from Ajaan Mark, talking about what makes the ISDSI program so unique, powerful, and and effective:
"We [ISDSI] are a part of all the communities where we teach. ISDSI is umprecedented in that we collaborate with the ommunities to help them design the courses... When we first arrive the community members ask us what we want them to with the students, and when I [Ajaan Mark] ask them for thier opinion, they will try to guess what they think that i would want them to do and say that. but by now the communities have realized we trust them. They get so excited. Often, these people have never been given room to think on thier own in such a context. We invert the power heirarchy."
In the USA there is a sense of "the common good" we treat basically everyone outisde of our families with waht is considered "common courtesy". We operate under the belief that society is egalitarian, that each person is fundamentally equal (we play down rank) and interact based on laws. In thailand people are deeply connected to family (thier families are larger and more flexible in definition that the nuclear USA family) and outside thier family is a circle of realtionships, which Ajaan Mark called the "circle of concern". The "rules" of politeness/manners, concern, social leverage, and obligation fall on this circle. Outside that circle is every one else, those of disregard. They are often not treated with universal respect. Laws, often fall to the side when the trump of social relationships are brought into play. People outside the circle of concern are not innately trusted. (This is why being a Farang (foreigner) in thailand can be dangerous, since you have no soical relaitonships. By putting us in homestay families, they are placing us right at the center of these concentric circles. Although we may lost some freedom (be treated like a young child, having to call home if we will be 15 min late ((i totally don't mind this at all))) not only are we shielded from the distance, or dangers of being non-connected we recieve the wonderful benefits of being within the circle of concern (and in the family!). We are very well taken care of.
its super cool to look at the huge fundamental differneces between Thailandand the USA in some areas, like common good, womans rights, respect of family (especially mothers), Fate v. agency. For one, i get an amazing and new (more proud than i expected) outside perspective on what it is to be an american, relatedly i get a sense of where my values are, and what they are, not just mine but mine culturally. Secondly, its really mind stretching to let go of gut reactions and begin to examine and analize theses values, think of why thier here, how they are balanced, how the complexity of their layers play out, what the effects (on pyscological state, sense of identity ext) play out in either culture. some, like womens rights, i find myself reacting strongly too, and it a wonderful test of the highest kinds of learning: to fully learn and undersand, to analyze, to think emphatically and raitonally, and to come out with useful applicaple conclusions and act on them. This is all a bit abstract, it so hard to fit such big issues into a blog paragraph, i could proably right a large chapter on each, right now, if i had infinate time. So i guess just: the program has really got me thinking big, thinking why, how, +/-, and thinking about myself.
One value i already appreciate in Thai culture, and would like to self edit to renforce, is the respect of mothers, (and fathers) for the work they have done to bring one up. I think mothers can be rather poorly treated in the US and just want to send home a quick Thanks Mom and Dad! home to Cindy and Dale.
haha. Also people dont say thanks here. Only when its a special favor outside of the normal social relations of Pi's providing for thier Nongs(younger, less status), and nongs respecting and helping out thier Pis, or for things in the normal line of work (thier jobs social, or physcial). For instance no thank for for a nice dinner, or a Rot Dang driver. Amricans say Thank You about 100 times a day as thier way to be polite-so this was a bit alarming for us to learn after bombarding our families with a continual torrent of thankyous for the last week. :) However, the bright side of this sudden feeling of defenseless in showing politeness, is a great way of rainsing my awareness of using other means to show my gratitued, like complimenting the cooking, asking how one slept, sitting with good posture, ext.
i'd love to write more, but then there is so much to say. I'll just try to post bits an pieces of insight with enough background to make them somewhat coherent. Hope it illuminates a bit. Its so exciting to be thinking and learning, and around others who are too... had a two hour conversation about this stuff with Cody, Marcia, Erin, and Ellen, and a few others after school. Ya'll know how into this stuff i get, and how much i love to discuess... ;-P
enthused, thinking, analyzing, and connecting
Gigi
Sunday I went to the super market with the family. It was exactly like an American Meijer only it had “Shampuroo” – a land of pink and hello kitty, just after the check out. Also lots of instant coffee, better flavors of yogurt, and more things favored shrimp.
Thai class recently has been great! I had a blast the whole time. I think I figured out how to handle it: smile and laugh. It actually works for me! When I don’t get it smiling or laughing and saying “I don’t get it” again and again until someone is able to make it clear, seem to instantly cancel frusteration. I also can’t believe how many words they are trying to teach us each day…. Dozens. Maybe, well, lets count how many…65 words in class. (that’s including a few words that are totally new concepts, not just nouns and adj. and how to use them!) then for homework were learned parts of the body, and clothes from our host families. After dinner paw taught me 32 body parts and 9 pieces of clothing. Whoowe! I’d say I can pronounce 75% well enough to be understood, and I have memorized, at the moment around 45%... all in one day! I very much like the other 6 students in my class, they are bright and fun. I’m very glad I got Ajaan PongSoi as my Ajaan. He pushes us hard, but everything is like a riddle to be solved. He is fun and funny, too. Ajaan Pongsoi is a good leader from behind. He will explain grammar using colored blocks for words, or introduce a concept with an example and a drawing, and if some of us don’t get it, he turns it over to those who do get it to teach the others. Sometimes when we are frustrated, he just finds a way to make us laugh. He is patient and doesn’t give away freebies. Ajaan Pongsoi would make a good Landsea leader.
I’m starting to settle into the routine of life here.
I can’t believe how comfortable I am with my host family. It sounds like all the students are feeling varying shades of awkward at home, but I am lucky enough to have no problems that interfere with my life. (if i were a shade of awkward it would be white with thin yellow and green stripes). I play, or learn Thai from Paw, or meet relatives, or entertain myself with juggling balls, or do homework, or greet Mae as she comes and goes. Even if I make a cultural mistake, I feel foolish for a moment, but it doesn’t last on my feelings with the family. Like today paw gave me a bowl of rice but no silverware, and went into the kitchen and I thought, oh hes bringin some, and handed me a bowl of soup with a soup spoon (serving) and I started eating with that instead of the customary knife and fork. No no! he took it away and brought a new serving spoon and real silverware, oops, but mai pen rai, (roll with it, nevermind, or its cool).
**
Last night i had the best dream ever! The obamas came to school and they needed our students to come with them to cincinati to help with "something big" something that was going to "be on every news channel". At one point in the dream Barak called my phone, at another Micheal and i were traveling through a forest to get to tiny train platform. The dream incorportaed all of these cultural aspects we have been learning about...
Today for class we cooked thai food. We went to the market and bought ingrediants, which was much easier now we know words like "do you have" and "where is" and we had the tones as well as the phonetics. I bought section of a durrian fruit, The King of Fruits, and sorry Carina, i barely had a nibble before it made me sick to my stomach. uuuggghhh. i passed it all around, so lots of people got to try it. Or rather Erin did mostly, since being near the smell made me sick. About a third could eat it.
Then we learned to cook following Thai directions and between the five groups made quite a wonderful meal. We all hung out in the back yard or school, a grassy garden, with those cement "flower pot" grills, and chopped garlic, mint, and peppers. We made a stir fry noodle, pork, veggi dish, quite good.
In seminar we talked about societal trends - differences in how people interact on a society level, between the USA and Thailand. I love when i have a lecture where i am continually joting down personal connections, insights, short paragraphs, and stories, in scrawling blocks through out my normal notes.
Heres a condensed quote from Ajaan Mark, talking about what makes the ISDSI program so unique, powerful, and and effective:
"We [ISDSI] are a part of all the communities where we teach. ISDSI is umprecedented in that we collaborate with the ommunities to help them design the courses... When we first arrive the community members ask us what we want them to with the students, and when I [Ajaan Mark] ask them for thier opinion, they will try to guess what they think that i would want them to do and say that. but by now the communities have realized we trust them. They get so excited. Often, these people have never been given room to think on thier own in such a context. We invert the power heirarchy."
In the USA there is a sense of "the common good" we treat basically everyone outisde of our families with waht is considered "common courtesy". We operate under the belief that society is egalitarian, that each person is fundamentally equal (we play down rank) and interact based on laws. In thailand people are deeply connected to family (thier families are larger and more flexible in definition that the nuclear USA family) and outside thier family is a circle of realtionships, which Ajaan Mark called the "circle of concern". The "rules" of politeness/manners, concern, social leverage, and obligation fall on this circle. Outside that circle is every one else, those of disregard. They are often not treated with universal respect. Laws, often fall to the side when the trump of social relationships are brought into play. People outside the circle of concern are not innately trusted. (This is why being a Farang (foreigner) in thailand can be dangerous, since you have no soical relaitonships. By putting us in homestay families, they are placing us right at the center of these concentric circles. Although we may lost some freedom (be treated like a young child, having to call home if we will be 15 min late ((i totally don't mind this at all))) not only are we shielded from the distance, or dangers of being non-connected we recieve the wonderful benefits of being within the circle of concern (and in the family!). We are very well taken care of.
its super cool to look at the huge fundamental differneces between Thailandand the USA in some areas, like common good, womans rights, respect of family (especially mothers), Fate v. agency. For one, i get an amazing and new (more proud than i expected) outside perspective on what it is to be an american, relatedly i get a sense of where my values are, and what they are, not just mine but mine culturally. Secondly, its really mind stretching to let go of gut reactions and begin to examine and analize theses values, think of why thier here, how they are balanced, how the complexity of their layers play out, what the effects (on pyscological state, sense of identity ext) play out in either culture. some, like womens rights, i find myself reacting strongly too, and it a wonderful test of the highest kinds of learning: to fully learn and undersand, to analyze, to think emphatically and raitonally, and to come out with useful applicaple conclusions and act on them. This is all a bit abstract, it so hard to fit such big issues into a blog paragraph, i could proably right a large chapter on each, right now, if i had infinate time. So i guess just: the program has really got me thinking big, thinking why, how, +/-, and thinking about myself.
One value i already appreciate in Thai culture, and would like to self edit to renforce, is the respect of mothers, (and fathers) for the work they have done to bring one up. I think mothers can be rather poorly treated in the US and just want to send home a quick Thanks Mom and Dad! home to Cindy and Dale.
haha. Also people dont say thanks here. Only when its a special favor outside of the normal social relations of Pi's providing for thier Nongs(younger, less status), and nongs respecting and helping out thier Pis, or for things in the normal line of work (thier jobs social, or physcial). For instance no thank for for a nice dinner, or a Rot Dang driver. Amricans say Thank You about 100 times a day as thier way to be polite-so this was a bit alarming for us to learn after bombarding our families with a continual torrent of thankyous for the last week. :) However, the bright side of this sudden feeling of defenseless in showing politeness, is a great way of rainsing my awareness of using other means to show my gratitued, like complimenting the cooking, asking how one slept, sitting with good posture, ext.
i'd love to write more, but then there is so much to say. I'll just try to post bits an pieces of insight with enough background to make them somewhat coherent. Hope it illuminates a bit. Its so exciting to be thinking and learning, and around others who are too... had a two hour conversation about this stuff with Cody, Marcia, Erin, and Ellen, and a few others after school. Ya'll know how into this stuff i get, and how much i love to discuess... ;-P
enthused, thinking, analyzing, and connecting
Gigi
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