Khon Kaen Christmas

Most people would agree that it’s nice to be all warm and toasty in the middle of winter, but usually that vision involves snuggling, sweaters, and a significant difference in temperature between inside and the out-of-doors. This Christmas certainly was hot, but it had more to do with the sizzling sun than a crackling fire. This November brought temperatures so balmy that I occasionally found myself donning a light jacket in the evenings, but the past few weeks have been back to sweltering with daily highs in the mid-nineties. Luckily, this type of weather necessitates turning the a/c down to frigid; fostering a certain kindred feeling (at least in my mind) with those of you suffering through what I hear is a pretty serious winter back home.

It’s not only been the weather that’s a change for me from last year. Since less than 1% of Thailand’s population is Christian, there’s not a lot of hoopla here celebrating the birth of Jesus. Actually, I’m fairly certain that most Thai people don’t think the holiday has anything to do with Jesus, but they do understand Santa Claus since he visits all the children of the world. I did make it a point not to mention to any of the small Thai children I know the fact than in other countries children don’t have to go to school on Christmas and Santa brings you more than a handful of candy.

Come to think of it, there was a certain similarity this year between the events surrounding the coming of the Messiah and last weekend in Thailand. Just as Mary and Joseph were returning to their birthplace for the census, Thai people completed a pilgrimage of sorts to their own hometowns to vote in Sunday’s election. However, I’m not sure they were under the same kind of divine guidance since they voted back the same party that was coup’d out at the end of 2005.

There was also some visual splendor in KK, several organizations did put up lights, but they are more to celebrate the New Year, and a few foreign-owned franchises had trees, but nothing on the scale of what you might see in your average US town. The Sofitel even had a papier-mâché Santa, even if he was being led by a water buffalo. Mara and Joe made a small effort at our house with one lonely strand of lights on the stairs and a small hanging tree-like decoration that we put our presents under.

Luckily, the yuletide gods were smiling on us in one way this year because this week is midterms at KKU, and university policy forbids foreigners from proctoring exams, which means we don’t have to be at school. This is a great improvement for Joe from last year when midterms were the week before Christmas, and everyone returned to work on the 25^th. This year we go back on January 2^nd, Joe’s birthday.

In search of a greater dose of holiday splendor, we jumped town early on Friday, bussed south to Bangkok and landed in a room near the consumer pantheon of Paragon Mall where we could oooh and aahhh at almost as many festive decorations as one could hope to find anywhere in Asia. After our fill of big screen English language movies, bagels, and book shopping, we headed back to Khon Kaen just in time for Christmas. Although peppermint mochas at Starbucks with Joe was not quite the same as dinner with all twenty-some members of my family, all in all we had a lovely holiday.

Holiday Season

It’s not only you back at home that are currently enjoying an abundance of festivities. Here in Khon Kaen, we also just kicked off a “holiday season” of sorts, both Thai and American.

It all began last Thursday at the Sofitel. For the past year, Joe has been reminiscing about their Thanksgiving dinner. Some of the promised vegetarian offerings included real cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes (western style potatoes are relatively rare here), and PUMPKIN PIE. As you can imagine, we’ve been dreaming about this for weeks. Come November 22, my mouth was literally salivating all day, especially for that pie. We left school as soon as both of use were finished with classes and rode the motorbike straight to the hotel to meet a few of our friends. As we rushed past the giant 3-D cardboard turkey in the lobby, the hostess didn’t even need to ask “ThanksgiVING, mai ka?” She took one look at eager eyes and led us to the nearest table. Alas, after a short perusal of the buffet, a sinking feeling came over me. Where’s the cranberry sauce? I do see potatoes, but they’re roasted. There’s pie, but that’s way too yellow to be pumpkin. The only change from their normal extravagant buffet was the addition of Turkey. Great. Turkey. Making the best of situation, we ordered extremely overpriced wine (the first we’ve had since March when we ate with my parents at an Italian restaurant in Chiang Mai) and I attacked the cheese and bread. I suppose I can’t complain too much, there was enough western food to fill me up, if not overstuff me. And nothing tempers food-disappointment like good conversation with friends.

Later in the week, the Loi Kratong festival gave us the Thai version of Thanksgiving; thanks to the water as we give it lots of Kratong boats. Loi Kratong marks the end of the rainy season, when the waterways are at their fullest. It is also the most beautiful time of year since all of the freshly watered plants are in full-color bloom. The festival is celebrated by building small boats out of leaves (palm, banana), flowers, incense, and candles. Sometime between sunset and midnight, everyone lights candles and incense, makes a wish, and releases their boat into the nearest waterway. If your boat stays afloat (hopefully moving toward the center of the lake) and your candle stays lit, your wish will come true. The effect overwhelms your senses. As you approach the water, you are crammed together with so many other people, but it is wonderful because the air is thick with sweet incense and the water is so breathtaking with all of the tiny pricks of light illuminating the flowers covering the lake.

The floating of the Kratong is just one part of the festival. There is a parade, which is the first Thai parade I’ve seen since. The main part of the festival is run by university students and takes place on campus, and we recognized a lot of our students in the parade. Most of the groups in the parade were various faculties or departments from the university performing Thai dances. It was beautiful, but I didn’t envy the groups that decided to go the traditional route and forgo shoes. Each group paraded with its own huge Kratong to enter in the University competition. Most departments also had their own booth at the festival where participants could play games for charity. There was also the usual abundance of street food and night-market type booths selling everything you can imagine.

The entire experience was more breathtaking and emotional than I could have ever imagined, and although I can’t wait to be back for the typical tofurky American Thanksgiving next year, this year’s festivities were definitely an experience I’ll never forget.

Pink is the New Yellow

Every Monday, hoards of Thai people leave their houses and head to work. This is probably true for most countries around the world; however, in Thailand, about 90% of the population will be wearing yellow. It’s actually quite disconcerting and a little too cheerful that early in the week for my taste.

Monday is the day of the week on which the current King of Thailand was born and ever since the 60th anniversary of the his ascension to the throne (June 2006), Thai people have been honoring him by wearing yellow “king shirts” every Monday. Some people actually wear them every day, although I’m not entirely convinced they just don’t like deciding what to wear in the mornings.

But now, a new trend is spreading. Pink is the new yellow. This recent fashion development started recently when pink was declared an auspicious color for the King’s 80th year on Earth, which begins this December 5th. (Wait, does that mean he became king at age 11? I never put that together before.) As if the declaration of an astrologer were not enough to sway the Thai psyche, last week the King was released from the hospital wearing a pink shirt. Now he technically should have been wearing green (every day of the week has an official color: Mon-yellow, Tues-pink, Wed-green, Thurs-orange, Fri-Blue, Sat-purple, Sun-red), but his choice of hue was seen as a clear message to the people: WEAR PINK!

So now everyone in the country is running out to buy a new pink king shirt to replace the billion other yellow shirts they already own. Secret marketing deal between the monarchy and clothing manufactures, or a discreet message to the Thai people that not everyone looks good in yellow? You be the judge.

Spice of Life

One thing that friends always ask me about in emails is...What do you eat? This was something I worried a lot about before I came, and the anxiety increased as my bus on the way to Khon Kaen for the first time passed nothing but meat stalls (meatballs-on-a-string, meatballs-on-a-stick, links of meat on a string/stick, various pieces of meat drying on a string in the sun, entire cow legs and pig heads...I could go on). Luckily, Thailand does have vegetarians (even if most of them only practice for nine days a year--but I’ll get to that later) and Khon Kaen has several vegetarian restaurants.

The initial challenge became not whether I could find meatless food, but rather whether I could find a dinner that would not leave me literally crying with huge swollen lips. Thai food is spicy, and Issan (NE Thailand--where I live) is spicier--supposedly the spiciest in Thailand. In order to enjoy all of the culinary delights of my temporary homeland, I needed to acclimate. Every day I ate something that was a little spicier than the day before, pushing myself a little closer to the point where I was certain my head would explode. I’m really not exaggerating, all of the face on your skin pulsates and you feel like oxygen isn’t getting where it should. Try holding your breath for as long as you can and you kind of get the same sensation (without the burning pain in your mouth and the tears, of course). At home, this food is liable. Karl, a teacher we know who’s been living here for more than 10 years and goes back to the U.S. for a visit almost every year, cannot get anyone to make him food that is a spicy as he gets here. They are actually afraid he will sue them.

I wince recalling those first few months, but all that pain has paid off because I now enjoy, with great preasure (spelling intentional), SOM TOM. The spiciest of spicy Thai food, som tom is a staple of the Issan diet. Traditionally, it is made of shredded, unripe, green papaya tossed into a mortar and pedestal with several handfuls of tiny deadly chilies (their name, translated, is “mouse shit”), fish sauce, spicy sauce and several other ingredients and pounded together to make sure there is a little chili in every bite. I actually wake up to this sound almost every morning since I can hear a woman next door pounding her som tom for the day at 7:00am. This concoction is eaten with sticky rice, scooping up each bite with your hand. I eat the vegetarian version, which is no less spicy.

Speaking of vegetarians, there was a festival celebrating no-meat-meals last month. The Vegetarian Festival is celebrated by Thai-Chinese and mandates that participants eat no meat for NINE WHOLE DAYS (rough, I know). Down in southern Thailand, the festival is an even bigger deal with lots of merit-making at temples that escalates to self-mortification as participants do things like pierce their faces with any available sharp object and climb ladders made of swords. I don’t really understand this since one of the reasons I’m a vegetarian is that I’m against pain in general, but if piercing your cheek with a sharpened golf club makes you feel better about eating animals 356 days a year, be my guest. Strangely, they don’t have this festival in China. Only Thai decedents of Chinese people are this crazy.

Up here the festival was really just a pain for those of us that practice all year since the veggie restaurants were overflowing with people and they switched to buffet-style instead of order off the menu to make sure they could keep up. After the festival, all of the restaurant owners took a week or two of vacation to recover, leaving us without anywhere to eat.

Since food is one of the few things that is really, truly different in Thailand, it’s my intention to highlight some of the specialties in future blogs. That is, if I can remember to bring my camera to dinner.

Krabi

Lately Joe and I have been reminiscing a lot about what we were doing last year at this time, and many of those memories have a lot to do with rock climbing. Although there weren’t many things to climb in Kansas City, there are basically none where we live now. Luckily Raialy in Krabi province, one of the premier climbing destinations in the world, is in Thailand and we saw this semester break as an opportunity to head on down south and warm up those long neglected muscles.







Krabi province and much of the south of Thailand (excluding the very far south) is famous for its beautiful and relaxing beaches with many of the activities that usually come with such scenery: scuba diving, kayaking, getting harassed by locals selling cheap jewelry. What makes the location we chose different are the giant limestone cliffs that separate the peninsula of Railay from the rest of the mainland province. Railay is not an island, but it might as well be since the cliffs make it impossible to reach any way but by boat. Other than rocks, beach, expensive yucky food, and accommodation, there’s literally nothing there, but what else does one really need for an excellent climbing vacation?

After almost 24 hours on a buss and a choppy long-tail early morning boat ride, we spent lots of time finding the perfect place to stay. In other words, we asked around everywhere and settled down in the cheapest shack we could find. Shack is not an exaggeration; the place stood on stilts and the floor was made of slabs of wood with about an inch of space in between them. On one hand we had a private bathroom, on the other it consisted of just a toilet and a triple-function hose (shower/sink/toilet flusher). The bed took up literally 2/3 of the room and there were no shelves, drawers, or any place to store our stuff other than a few nails in the wall. But for $3 a night, I can’t complain (any more than I already have).

To start the vacation off right, Joe and I decided to sign up for a few climbing classes with a local climbing school to ensure we would be safe and hopefully gain a few pointers. We chose Wee’s Rock Climbing School because they literally wrote the guidebook on the area and discovered many of the routs themselves. Since it was the off season, many of the regular guides were out of town so we were taught by the best, the owners Wee (a local Thai climber) and his partner Elke (a German climber whose climbed all over the world). They were excellent, but not kind. They chose extremely challenging climbs that basically kicked our butts. They were always encouraging, but had no problem berating us if we didn’t meet their expectations (and both of us frequently didn’t). At one point Wee had me doing pull-ups on the rock in-between climbs.

One class we took was to teach us how to lead/belay climbs safely. Since Joe and I have always climbed with more experienced climbers, we’ve never really had to do this together by ourselves. However, my objective for the course was only really to learn how to belay a leader. I didn’t really feel like I was ready to lead myself. Elke had a different idea. She made it clear in no uncertain terms that I was going to lead—and lead I did. Here is a picture of me standing next to my first lead climb!

After the courses, Joe and I felt comfortable to set out on our own, and grateful that we could choose routs at our level instead of 3 or 4 grades higher. We don’t have very many pictures because it takes two people to climb; you need a third if you want pictures. One morning we did meet a girl who was volunteering in the area who wanted to climb, but didn’t have her own rope or a partner. We gratefully traded her photography skills for a few climbs.

As I said earlier, Krabi is famous for climbing, so we often had to compete with people from all over the world for space to climb. At times it was maddening, but it was also really cool to be in one place with so many different people who love doing the same thing. And nothing beats the satisfaction of getting to the top of a climb to be greeted by a gorgeous ocean view.
What did we do other than climb? Not much. When we were too sore (post Wee and Elke) we would just lay on the beach and relax or watch others climb. At night we would often grab a beer and watch Premier League Football or a movie at an outdoor bar. Simple, but perfect before a hectic return to the second semester.

P.S. Sorry about the delay in posting, I haven’t had internet at home for the past week and I’m not sure when it’s coming back. For now I’ll just have to steal a few moments to write at work when I can.

Moving On

With a new job and a few new vacations under my belt, life here finally feels like it’s picking up after a bit of stagnation.

A few weeks ago I interviewed at Khon Kaen University for a full-time lecturer position in the Department of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. I got the job, although I was the last to know. They (correctly) assumed that I would take the position and went ahead and scheduled me for classes and started my paperwork, but forgot to tell me. The department head came to me to verify the salary level they were going to hire me at, and I had to ask her, “So I have the job, right?” Just in case you’re wondering: I left my last position because I was lonely being the only foreigner on staff and I was mostly working with younger kids- not my preference- and KKU had this opening. I’m excited about the job because I will get to teach some of the best classes with English majors. I’ll write more about it after classes start in 2 weeks.

In the meantime, Joe and I have been taking advantage of the October break (equivalent to the winter break between semesters in the States) to do a bit of traveling and climbing. Our first adventure was a free tour of Korat (Nakhon Ratchasima). Some of the masters students in the faculty took a tourism class last semester, and as part of the class they had to actually organize a tour. The tour was excellent in many regards, particularly because the guide to tourist ratio was 2:1!

We first stopped at Phimai, one of the old Khmer ruins. The original temple was built between the 11th and 12th centuries. This is the first Khmer ruin I have visited, although I hope to see the famous Angkor in Cambodia before I leave S.E. Asia. We also visited the nearby National Museum where many of the artifacts from the ruin are kept for security.

After a wonderful and very vegetarian friendly lunch, we stopped in Dan Kwian, a town famous for ceramics. Clay is gathered from the local riverbeds in order to create beautiful rust-colored pottery that is sold around the world. Since we were buying directly from the source, prices were very excellent. As much as Joe and I wanted to buy a life-size ceramic Thai-style lion, the thought of getting it back to Khon Kaen (not to mention America…), forced us to restrain ourselves.

Our final stop was at the Petrified Wood Park. Although I was expecting only to see old stone logs, we were surprised with a visit to a not-yet-open-to-the-public natural history museum. The Issan region of Thailand is famous for dinosaur bones found in the area, and this interactive museum provided animatronic dinosaur battles as well as the usual ancient animal skeleton reproductions.

After the sleepy bus ride home, Joe and I made final preparations for our trip to Krabi before leaving the next morning. More to come on that later.

Cheu Leh

Lately it’s been a lot of stress surrounding work and my visa that allows me to stay in the country, so there hasn’t been a lot of downtime to think about the blog. Luckily the NYT keeps Thailand in the news often enough that I no longer have to think of my own topics.

This week: Cheu Leh *

All Thai people that I have met have a cheu leh (nickname). I think this is because in general their names come from Sanskrit and are quite long- 4 or 5 syllables. The nicknames are usually playful and given at birth, although sometimes changed to reflect the physique or personality of their namesake. One of the managers I used to work with was named Goong (meaning shrimp- and she was pretty small) and another friend is named Pinn (a Thai harp-like instrument). However the trend, as the article points out, is to give babies English names.

As might be expected, sports names are quite common. I know of a recent newborn christened Soccer, even though here it is known as footbun (his father had spent a significant amount of time in the USA). Another one of my former students is named Putter. At first I thought it was because he liked to putter around, but then one day he drew a picture of a golf putter and pointed to himself.

Family themes also seem to be quite common. I know 2 sets of brothers named Sea and Sun. It was actually a problem when I had both Seas in the same class, but one preferred to be called Ocean. Another girl named Sax has 4 brothers and sisters; all named after musical instruments although none of them play their namesakes.

Regular English names also make appearances (Jennifer and Wendy) as do cartoon characters (Mickey and Minnie—both girls). One of my funniest students is named Yoyo, which makes for some pretty funny conversation—Is Yoyo coming to class today?

*Notice the shout out to KK about 2/3 of the way through the article

Khao Yai

Joe and I headed north to Khao Yai a day later than planned after one final breakfast at le bon pain. Sometime in the middle of the day we arrived at the far southern tip of the Issan region in a small town called Pak Chong just outside the park. We settled into our room, had a yummy soup lunch and then just read and relaxed all afternoon in preparation for our trek through the park the following day.

The next morning we started out toward the park at 7:30am in the back of a songthaew with a family of four from Denmark (mother, father, and two daughters ages about 18 and 7). They were very lovely people with excellent English and we couldn’t have asked for better company. Our guide was also amazing at spotting wildlife even as our truck wound its way on the main paved road through the jungle.

Our first stop yielded a few giant black squirrels high up in the trees. They really do mean giant-although you can’t tell from the photo, these suckers are about a meter long! Nearby we also saw some mini brown squirrels, but we were not fast enough with the camera.

Several times throughout the day we also saw macaques, although they weren’t difficult to spot since they like to sit near (or sometimes even on) the main road.

Another animal that we twice caught in the act of crossing the road was this monitor lizard.

Much more elusive were these white-handed gibbons. Our guide saw them way off in the distance and quickly set up a small telescope so we could glimpse some more detail. This photo was taken through the telescope.

We next stopped at the visitor center where our guide gave us a little bit of history about the park and a choice between two treks to take before lunch: one that was fairly long and quite well traveled or another that only he used and was about an hour shorter but more interesting. Of course we chose the second and were not disappointed. All of the trails through the park were originally elephant trails. (There are many elephants in the park, although they are difficult to spot during the rainy season. There are also tigers, but they are almost never seen.) You would think that this would make the paths wide and easy to walk, but elephants are actually quite nimble, and the trail we took was very narrow at times and required a decent bit of climbing and scrambling, most of it through the rainy-season mud.

Throughout our hike there was one creature that we truly experienced first hand: the leech. The forest was brimming with tiny black leeches about as thin as a piece of spaghetti and an inch long. They stand on one end on the forest floor while the other end reaches upwards; ready to attach itself to anything tasty that crosses its path. For this reason, we wore leech socks over our regular socks and pants in order to prevent getting bitten. The socks, however, did not prevent the leeches from trying and we were constantly flicking the little critters off of ourselves and each other as we walked. I pilfered a this picture off the 'net because I didn't want to stand in one place long enough to take a picture.

Luckily the next creature we encountered was not as forward as the leaches. Our guide noticed a green pit viper sitting curled up on a too-close-for comfort branch. The snake was very obliging and we took several pictures as our guide informed us that if it were to bite we would have 4 hours to get to a hospital before there would certainly be permanent damage and a possibility of death.

Our trek next brought us to two beautiful waterfalls, the second of which was featured in the movie The Beach. It was here that we took a break at ate our lunch on the rocks at the foot of the fall.

The afternoon was spent in pursuit of the Great Hornbill, and our patience finally paid off when we spotted about 10 of them flying over our lookout (this was not an official lookout, just a spot in the road where our guide had seen the birds lately). Again, this was not something I wanted to miss fumbling with the camera. In fact there were several other animals throughout the day that were either too fast, too far, or too fascinating to capture good photos of including barking deer (which we actually heard bark), a fox, giant black squirrels (a meter long!), mini brown squirrels, and quite a few beautiful species of tropical birds.

After the cool ride back to headquarters, Joe and I were happy to just relax with good food and beer before cruising back to KK the next day.

Na Rak as Punishment

This article was too good to pass up. So Thailand.

To Punish Thai Police, a Hello Kitty Armband

by Seth Mydans in NYT on August 7, 2007

Serendipity

This past week Joe and I both had vacation and we thankfully got a chance to spend some much needed time together (he works days and I work nights and weekends). First on our agenda was to go to Bangkok to see the new Harry Potter movie in IMAX 3D and then immediately head to Khao Yai National Park to spend some time in the woods.

After a rough start- we barely made it out of Khon Kaen due to over-crowded busses at the end of a holiday weekend- we arrived in the capital at about midnight and quickly found a cheap hotel near the movie theater to crash.

In the morning we ate a leisurely breakfast at le bon pain. I thoroughly enjoyed a bagel sandwich, the likes of which I hadn’t feasted upon since I left the states. We then headed to the top floor of the swanky Siam Paragon Mall to purchase our tickets for the much-anticipated spectacle.

We were devastated to learn that the IMAX machine was broken and that there would be no 3D Harry that day or the next. Thankfully the regular theater was still showing the film so we purchased tickets for the next show. The awesome movie immediately lifted our somewhat defeated spirits and erased any ill-will I was feeling toward IMAX theaters and/or Thailand.

After discussing the film over pizza in the basement of Paragon, Joe and I headed to Khaosan road, the acclaimed backpackers haven of Bangkok. I wasn’t that impressed, most of the place consisted of overpriced cheap clothing and expensive beer. I was able to unearth some really cool yarn made out of recycled silk, a find that’s even sweeter considering the fact that I can only find really wimpy acrylic stuff in KK. We ate dinner at May Khaidee’s vegetarian restaurant (the initial draw to Khaosan) and discovered a little soi of vegetarian restaurants that I’m sure we will visit on subsequent Bangkok visits.

The highlight of the day (other than the movie- of course) was the tuk-tuk ride home where Joe and I held a very decent conversation with the driver. About 85% was in Thai, and this despite the loud noises of the tuk-tuk and the general bedlam of Bangkok. We went to sleep with the idea that we would get up early and catch a bus to Khao Yai. Luckily, things did not go according to plan.

After our alarm went off, Joe was suddenly struck with the idea that we should stay in Bangkok for another day (did he just want to sleep in or were there greater forces at work?). I’m not normally one to break from the decided course, but I figured we had nothing to lose since we didn’t yet have reservations at Khao Yai. Without any real plans we headed back to le bon pain for breakfast again (chocolate croissants-mmm…) and decided to visit Jim Thompson’s house which just happened to be a short walk away.

Jim Thompson is an American famous for revitalizing the Thai silk industry (and for disappearing without a trace on Easter Sunday in 1967), and his house is a prime example of a traditional Thai-style dwelling (that's where we are in the picture). We took a tour of the beautiful house and settled down in the café there for some sodas with lime juice to people-watch the other tourists.

Just looking around a particular middle-aged man caught my eye and I thought to myself, “He definitely looks French,” followed by, “He looks really familiar,” and then, “I think that’s my host father from Paris.” After I got a look at his wife and children I became even more convinced this was the family I stayed with 5 years ago in France. You might think that I would more readily recognize them, but their sons had aged considerably and it was simply unbelievable that we would run into each other in such a random place. I ran out of the café and confirmed my suspicions. We caught up for a few minutes (in a very broken mixture of French and English) and then went our separate ways, they on their tour of the house and me shaking my head in bewilderment.

Without any further plans for the day, Joe and I guiltily decided to see Harry Potter again only to discover that the IMAX was fixed- after the worker assured me yesterday that there was no chance of this! The movie was even better on the huge screen, although the 3D portion was somewhat disappointing.

We spent the rest of the day wandering around the streets surrounding Siam Square (where you can find much cooler shopping at competitive prices than at Khosan road in case anyone is planning a visit) and ate a nice dinner at a Thai restaurant. The Thai food in Bangkok is very different from the extra-spicy Issan food in Khon Kaen where it’s hard to get a good peanut sauce.

All in all the decision to stay an extra day couldn’t have been better or more serendipitous.

Details on Khao Yai to come.

Na Rak?

Na Rak passaat Thai means “cute,” and is quite an important concept to grasp living here. However, cute in Thailand is not the same as cute in other places. Thailand takes it to the extreme—we’re talking grown men jumping around in pink bunny suits during a music video kind of cute, and there’s not even the tiniest hint of irony. I’ve been proud of how long I’ve maintained my American style sensibilities, but lately a little of the na rak Thai has surreptitiously found its way into my daily existence.

It all started with me wanting to learn Thai. Joe, in an attempt to encourage, bought me some Hamtaro exercise books meant for small children. I was already familiar with Hamtaro (a Japanese animated cartoon) since a few years ago Joe bought me a Hamtaro video game for my birthday (side note: the point of the video game was to help little hamster couples find their lost hamster loves, it was almost unbearably cute). I therefore didn’t worry about this first bit of cute, it was just because it was meant for small children, and after all I didn’t buy it myself.

My next moment of weakness was a cell phone charm. I don’t know if this concept exists at home yet, but everyone here has cell phone charms- just a way to make your phone cute and original. When Mara moved in, she bought the exact same cell phone I have, so I rationalized that I needed a cell phone charm in order to tell our phones apart. At least mine (a jade Chinese fish) is tasteful. Joe bought a crocheted little Doremon (another cartoon character—this one a cat like robot).

I can find no excuse for the next two acquisitions. They were cute, I gave in. And as an added Thai bonus, both contain English language errors.

The first is a t-shirt, two giraffes, a big one sharing its food with a small one. The lettering says Sharing and underneath, in small letters, Design by No Proplem. It’s cute and I like it. But would I like it if I was still living in the U.S?

The other is a bag, and this is the purchase that is starting to worry me. It’s a print, with various people and creatures including: a girl with pink hair dressed as a cactus, a smiling pink she-devil carrying a steaming pie, smiling flowers of various colors (some with fangs), a carton and a bottle of milk with legs, eyes, and cow horns, a monkey with an Italian flag helmet riding a blue Vespa-style scooter, a skull and cross-bones from what appears to have been a cute cartoon character, an orange faced boy dressed up in a cow suit carrying a machine gun…etc. Mixed in with the various characters are the phrases “Nice?” and “Flower’spring.” Is it Nice? I don’t know, I seem to be losing my judgment, but I do know that I really like it (with a healthy dose of irony, of course). But if anyone sees me in a pink bunny suit, it’s time to stage an intervention.

Whybrarian

After TFA I did a lot of thinking about what kind of job I wanted, what I would enjoy and what I could stand to do for 40 hours a week. After lots of thinking and research (which in itself should have been a hint), I decided I wanted to get my MSLIS (that's Master of Science in Library and Information Science, in case you were wondering- we like to sneak the word "science" in as much as possible). This week in the NYTimes there was an article that pretty much sums up why I made my choice. Here it is if you're interested.

A Hipper Crowd of Shushers by Kara Jesella

Thaiglish

Many things are amusing when living in a foreign country (dogs without owners waiting patiently at crosswalks immediately springs to mind), and one of my favorite sources of hilarity is the Thai adaptation of the English language. Living here it is necessary to learn these modifications, because otherwise you are not likely to be understood, even when speaking English.

Rule 1

When there is an “l” at the end of a word, it is pronounced “n”

Appun--Thai for apple

Check-Bin--Thai for I want the bill (get it, check-bill)

Footbun—Thai for Soccer (or Football, depending on your English country of origin)

And my favorite…

Exambun—This is how Thai people speaking English say “for example,” very funny in the middle of a conversation

Rule 2

Similar to Japanese English, “l” is substituted for “r”

Fright- Thai English for flight, as in “How was your fright?”

Crapped- Thai English for clapped,

Ree-ree- Thai English for really

Rule 3

There is no “v” in Thai English, just use a “w”

Wary- Thai English for very

Wiolin- Thai English for violin

In combination, the above can be down right hilarious.

Exampun: Was your fright wary rong?

Even better is when you’re at a restaurant and the live band sings English songs. The following is from a recent night on the town.

“Like a wirgin, touched for the wary (sometimes sounded like merry) first time….”

The namesake of this blog comes from just such and incident; although this is not one I witnessed myself. Joe heard a live band attempting Simon and Garfunkel’s “Sounds of Silence,” and what came out was Sound of Sirens. It was too good to pass up.

Pad Thai

I’ve been promising pictures of our house since I moved in (February), and last week I delivered- with pictures of our toilets. Here’s a tour of the rest of the house.

Here's the front of the house (photo from Mara). We live on a very narrow street, so you can't really back up to take a better picture. It's a pretty normal townhouse in Khon Kaen. Those are our motorbikes in the driveway.

This is what you see when you walk in the house. On the left there is a small seating area with a TV, and on the right are our desks. Towards the back of the house is the kitchen. It's indoors, which is nice since many Thai kitchens are not, but the windows are only screens and not glass, so it's more like a screen porch.

Here's the same room standing in front of the kitchen. Note the three fans, there's no air-conditioning downstairs, so fans are a must.

This is our bedroom with a HUGE bed. It does have air-con.

This is our desk in the bedroom and a half-vanity/half-closet. There are no built-in closets that I've seen in Thailand (although I'm sure they exist). Most places just have small wardrobes.

Here is our other wardrobe, and a table and chair at the foot of the bed. Not very exciting, I know.





Other than the bathrooms, that's pretty much it (other than Mara's bedroom). It's comfortable, and relatively nice. Here's one final picture looking up the street from our house.