Rain and Pirate Preparations

Finally, the rainy season. It's been drizzly for the past couple of days which is a little dreary but a nice reprieve from the heat. Speaking of which, I have some sort of strange heat rash possibly caused by a combination of the humidity and dust. It's not really an ideal situation but luckily the nurse station at school can help me out. Yuck.

Well Hilary and I are busy preparing for our Pirate Party this weekend. A lot of people in town know about it and I think everyone's getting pretty excited. We've been having these art nights/potlucks on wednesdays and using that time to get people to help us make decorations. It's been hard to find anything with a pirate theme. So far we have: 1 ceramic parrot, 1 sword made from bamboo, 1 coconut and 1 jolly roger flag which I made. We've also painted some pirates and will hang them around. We started making one of the walls of the living room into an ocean by taping up strips of different colored blue and iridescent paper...this creates a watery effect. We're making aquatic life to put in our sea and ships to put at the top. Should be pretty cool.

The search for pirate clothes is quite futile. I believe I will end up making an eye patch out of construction paper and wearing a red and white striped shirt. It's kinda pirate-y I guess. Will post pictures next week. I suppose the rash is kind of relevant to pirates...what with all that scurvy,lice, etc. Oh and I can't forget to tell you that there will be a pirate quiz bowl. So if you know anything about pirates, please email me that information. The prize will be chocolate gold dubloons.

Our friend Kazu was over last night and he said, "Why pirates? Why now?" He seems pretty astounded/daunted by the idea of our party and informed us that he has been to very few costume/theme parties in Japan (not counting Halloween). At times, I think Lampang is not ready for Hilary and I. People are surprised when we tell them we're having art nights or that we like to hula hoop and do yoga. I don't know...to me it's not that strange but I guess I've just been this way for a long time. Regardless, I think most of our friends are excited/mystified by our ideas. Thank god for Hilary! I don't know what I would do without that girl. I'm so lucky that we are very similar and like to do the same things. Hilary, props to you.

I promise these are the last elephant pictures...

ELEPHANTS!

Luk Chang (Baby Elephants)

Alright, here are the two students (A and Nung) who brought me to the elephant center. We all rode there on one motorcycle! It was crazy. The baby elephants were so adorable. I was laughing so hard because my students were trying to take a picture and the one baby kept grabbing my arm with her trunk. They were really lovely and the center truly takes care of them.

The Elephant Show

Yay! I really really love these elephants. Hilary and I were worried about whether or not this place is humanitarian and it definitely is. We talked to some foreigners who are doing a "home stay" there which means they will stay there for a short time and learn how to be mahouts (elephant trainers). These people said that the workers here really love the elephants and want to take care of them. I also visited the elephant hospital which is the first of its kind in the world. They take care of injured elephants from all of Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia. Some of the elephants suffered from malnutrition or abuse from their owners. A couple of the elephants had stepped on land mines. It was very sad but I was glad to learn that there was such a place that took care of sick elephants. There was also an elephant retirement home! They take care of the old elephants and allow them to hang out together and relax. It was a beautiful experience.

Playing House

Sometimes my life here is so surreal and strange that I feel like I'm just playing house. I keep thinking of my life back home as my "real life" and my life here as my pretend life. Maybe it's the Thai mentality rubbing off on me. I just feel like a little kid again and it's very refreshing. It could also be that being a foreigner gives one a certain amount of impunity. I think the Thais give us a lot of slack since we're "farang" and they assume that we don't understand their customs or language. It can sometimes feel like living outside a culture rather than joining a new one. It's a weird balance of trying to retain your own culture while negotiating a new culture, trying things out. I've discovered that I really appreciate some Thai customs like eating with a big spoon and fork, taking my shoes off before entering a house and putting ice in my beer.

As much as I'm excited by some Thai customs, there are just as many that I don't understand or that are frustrating. For example, today I had to go home and change my pants because I was wearing these red linen pants which I used to wear to teach in America. One of the teachers informed me that women should mostly wear skirts to work and if we wear pants, they have to be black. I was frustrated not because I thought my pants were nice but because I've been working at the school for two months and no one ever bothered to mention this dress code rule. I feel a little embarrassed that I've been wearing different colored pants all this time and never knew that this is not the custom. The thing that's been the most difficult for me is that there is no directness here. Speaking one's opinions and debating are seen as being forceful or difficult. It's especially considered unattractive for women to do these things as well as laughing or speaking loudly. I swear that I've scared the crap out of people before just from suddenly starting to laugh. They look at me like I'm crazy. Anyways, at school it's hard for me because I never know what's expected of me and I can only find out by asking millions of questions (which is equally annoying). So sorry to vent but today the culture shock hit me hard. Oh well, I chalk it up to cultural differences and my unusual fashion sense.

On the other hand, I am learning to appreciate so many little things in my life that would not be important to me at home...like being able to watch a movie in English, getting a bicycle and having my own kitchen to cook in. These are luxuries here. I suppose it's making me more grateful for simple things. Realizing that most of the world lives without basic amenities is very humbling. Yeah so before this gets too sappy I'm going to go for a bike ride. Yay! By the way, our bike is a Crocodile..very old school, royal blue, equipped with a bell and a basket and has two seats. I love it!

A Simple Twist of Fate

It seems that suddenly the winds have blown away all the bad luck I was having. After making merit at the temple last week, I was still feeling a bit bummed out about having to teach extra classes. Lucky for me, one of the extra classes is at the local hospital. My students are nurses and doctors who genuinely want to study English and want to keep up their conversational skills. It was a very relaxing and interesting two hours of my Friday afternoon, especially since we could talk about more abstract and cultural things.

Saturday we moved. It was blazing hot and we had quite a bit of confusion with the landlord. Overall, it went off flawlessly and we are very happy with the place. Dave christened our place by burning three sticks of incense and some yellow candles in a wine bottle. I guess that's how you're supposed to clean out the house spirits. We had some friends over last night and everyone kept commenting on how nice and clean and new our place was. It made me feel happy. In memory of the Flora Family, I taught my friends how to play Writesy-Drawsy. They loved it! Sadly, we had to say goodbye to our friend Trudy who lives in India. She was here visiting some friends of ours for a few weeks. On the bright side, we have a free place to stay in India if we end up there.

It was such a simple thing, but it was really nice to be able to make our own breakfast this morning. American breakfast! We made veggie omelets and hashbrowns and toast. As we were walking back from the market I found a 20 ฿ note on the ground. It's not that much money but it definitely sealed the deal that my bad luck streak is over. Tonight we're going to the Chinese market and then gonna go home and watch some movies. We found the cheapest DVD player ever and it works! We also may or may not be getting two kittens for our house. I can't wait! It's so nice to be living close to everyone and to be able to hang out with folks on a week night. Right now I'm pretty ecstatic about everything in my life. Zing!

Lampang Nightlife

First picture is of Nadine, me, Karen and Sarah (who's lived in Thailand for 17 years!) Then there's Rick and Chan at their house. Next pic is of Karen, Hilary and I at the Riverside bar. Finally, two pictures of Noah being silly. That tennis racquet-looking object is a bug zapper. It weirded me out at first, but it's pretty helpful when there are swarms of gargantuan mosquitos all around. That wooden elephant is an instrument that can be played by blowing air through it's ass.(Insert your own dirty joke here). Noah really enjoyed it!

GRRLs and Noah's Goodbye

Hilary and I about 3 days before the cast came off. We were at a party at Rick and Chan's house. They're engaged and we're gonna see a Thai wedding! Chan can be seen in the hammock on the bottom picture. The two of them will actually be our neighbors soon. Yay! There are two pictures on Hilary, Noah and I on Noah's last day. He wanted to eat at the Riverside (of course) because it was always one of his favorite haunts.

Khao Phansa

These are a few pictures from Khao Phansa at the Wat Pra Sinhg which is one of the oldest and most revered temples in Chiang Mai. You can see the people kneeling in line and waiting to offer some food gifts to a monk. I also love this old woman who is preparing flower bouquets to put on the altar. I think the white chedi is very beautiful especially when wrapped in the ceremonial orange/yellow robes. It looks like a cake! The last picture is detail of a carving on a wooden door. The building was quite old and the style was heavily influenced by Burmese culture.

Goodbye Noah

This is gonna be a long post so i apologize in advance. so this weekend we said goodbye to noah who has been having medical problems. it was really hard but it was clear that he needed to go home and talk to his doctor. our school is now looking for another native english speaker to try to replace him but it's really difficult to get someone on demand. it's just a sad situation overall but not much can be done.

the weekend started out with a birthday party for our friend La who is married to a vibrant bostonian named nadine. La used to live down on the islands and worked as a fire dancer so during the party, he brought out his equipment and showed off his skills. he's amazing! i think this kind of dancing is called poi poi but it's just like a ball of fire at the end of a chain and you have one in each hand. some of the other guys were trying it but i passed since i've already had enough accidents here. there was also a dance competition but i didn't really compete in it since my foot wasn't fully healed.

sunday, the school car took us to chiang mai since noah had to bring all of his luggage. i could tell he was feeling very torn about leaving but he also seemed excited and ready to go. we went to the walking market which was just outside of our guesthouse and then after we dropped noah off at the airport, hilary and i went to see our first movie in thailand: Pirates of the Caribbean 2. yay i loved it! it was actually in english which we don't have in lampang (everything is dubbed). the most interesting thing was that before the movie played, everyone had to stand up and sing this song about the king while the screen showed images of the king doing lots of humanitarian work.

yesterday, was the anniversary of the buddha's first sermon, so everyone went to the temple to make merit. actually i really wanted to go cause i was feeling like i was on a bad luck streak and all the thais kept telling me that i needed to make merit. the temple was really crowded and we bought these packages that had 3 sticks of incense, one yellow candle and a lotus flower. we had to light the incense and candle and put in them in a certain place. then we prayed with the lotus flower in our hands and went up to the buddha statue and laid it at his feet. inside the main temple, the thais were giving offerings of food to the monks.

today was khao phansa or the beginning of buddhist lent which is like a time of more strenuous religious study and sacrifice for most buddhists. it also coincides with the rainy season. everyone wore white to the temple and last night they walked around the temple three times with a candle and then placed their candle on a table marked with the day they were born. i'm not exactly sure about the symbolism of this but everyone just says it's for good luck. they also released birds into the air and fish into the rivers and streams. again, i didn't really participate in this cause i didn't like the cages they kept the birds in. i'm very interested in buddhism but there is still so much i don't understand about it. i'm reading a book right now called The Gods Drink Whiskey and it's written by an american who is a buddhist professor at the first buddhist university to open up after pol put. it's a series of short essays about buddhist philosophy and practice spiced with stories about life in southeast asia. it's really good..thanks hilary!

so hilary and i bummed around the chiang mai university area yesterday. of course, there were lots of cute shops, cafes, chic clothing stores. i actually got my hair cut and i love it! even though it was hard to communicate what i wanted it was worth it in the end. we went to dinner at this amazing place called the Whole Earth Restaurant. it kinda reminds me of victory's banner in chicago. it was right in the middle of the city but it was tucked away in this immaculate garden. the building was a huge traditional thai teakwood house and the menu offered indian and thai food. it was a very serene eating experience. we bummed around the night market and had a beer at an english pub. met a british couple on their honeymoon and talked to them for awhile. it's so interesting to talk to people when they're still forming their impression of thailand. it's fun to see what interests them and catches their eye or how they interpret different experiences. we tried to go to a couple bars suggested to us by a friend, but they were closed because of the buddhist holiday. ended up back at the guesthouse which was literally like a log cabin. we went there because most of the other places were full because of the holiday and this place was really just a thai family's house which had a couple of extra rooms. it was cute and clean though noisy...there was constant construction going on right outside our window and lots of dogs barking incessantly. oh well.

getting ready to go back to lampang. i really love hanging out in chiang mai but i don't want to live here. i'm glad to be where i'm at.

A Not so Graceful freedom

In my rush to get my cast removed, i've discovered that i didn't exactly consider the fact that my foot would still need time to heal. i don't know what i expected to happen...that the cast would come off and i would throw my crutches to the roadside and start gleefully running? actually, it's more painful learning how to walk again then it was before the cast was on. i have very little muscle and it still hurts to put weight on it.

i have to admit that i was quite disappointed to miss out on the 4th of july picnic that some of our friends hosted at the park. instead, i stayed home and took a loooong nap then watched a movie. i guess i desperately needed a lesson in patience. it's been the hardest thing to watch everyone else go out exploring new places and trying new things while having to sit on the sidelines. i've tried to be gracious but it's pretty frustrating. it's like looking out of the window and seeing all of the beautiful things but not being able to get up and go outside. literally. i think that by this weekend i'll be able to get out and about and maybe i'll have learned to appreciate things a bit more.

yesterday i asked my students, "isn't this supposed to be rainy season? why isn't it raining very much?" they explained that the season officially starts on july 10th but that the weather this year has been very unusual. it rained a lot when we first got here (which was supposed to be the hot season) and then it went back to the hot season and postponed the rainy season. of course, after asking my students about it, i got home from school and the skies just opened up and poured out rain. it seemed like a relief. the night of the 4th of july, i was sitting in my room and looking out the window, wishing i could see some fireworks. all of the sudden, the sky was streaked with flashes of lightening which continued throughout the night. my own personal light show. i felt my furrowed brow relax and my face round into a smile. even though i had been feeling quite disappointed and overwhelmed by everything, the lightening hit me like a sign. everything will be alright.