Not Yet a Flood

It's been raining for the past three days straight. There are worries of flooding. The Wang River is overflowing but most of Lampang is on high enough ground that we don't have to worry. It's the fields and rice paddies surrounding Lampang that will really get flooded. I've never in my life heard it rain so hard. Last night it actually woke me up...I stood out on my balcony and watched it pour down for awhile. It's been very calming though everything feels so wet all the time from the humidity. Even when I sleep at night, I feel like I'm sleeping in water cause my blankets are damp. My incense won't light cause it's wet and the papers I give my students are far from crisp.

The rain has done wonders for my sleep and my dreams. I was having problems sleeping last week possibly because I was stressed out. It also helps that I took a day off this week. I needed it bad. I slept in, drank lattes at the coffeeshop, checked my email, watched movies and got my hair washed. It was glorious. The rain has washed me clear into the weekend. After teaching my hospital class tonight, I'm going out for Japanese food with some friends and then checking out this new bar that serves fruit shakes with a twist. Tomorrow is Adam's birthday. Adam is our friend Michael's 2-year old son. Hilary and I got him a hula hoop for his birthday. Should be good times playing darts and kicking it with our pals.

Am I the only person in Thailand who doesn't have a gik?

So last weekend i was teaching a bunch of creepy old male principals (not by choice, mind you) and I asked them if they visit with their family on the weekends. They all said, "Oh yes, I visit my parents, my children, my gik." I was like, "What's a gik?" Apparently it's someone's girlfriend/boyfriend on the side. But it's not like a secret mistress cause everyone knows about your gik. Lots of married Thai men have young boyfriends or girlfriends on the side and I guess some Thai women have giks though it's not as common. I haven't really gotten to talk to a lot of Thai people about this topic. I just wonder if it's really accepted, looked down on or what. I don't necessarily think it's wrong but I think it's interesting. And the minute i learned about giks, I started hearing the word everywhere I went. I think that one of the problems is that this country has such a problem with AIDS and a lot of tThai men get AIDS from their giks and pass it on to their wives. I'm thinking about volunteering to work with some of my friends who teach classes about AIDS to people in hill tribes.

Crawling towards a better mindset

Well, i just finished my extra teaching (all day Saturday) and i'm feeling quite elated that my hell week is over. plus, i just made ฿1250 in one day! woo-hoo. i've been making extra money left and right but i don't even feel that happy about it cause all i want is time to free time to spend with my friends and travel. i'm feeling particularly sad today because it's my cousin's wedding. i really wanted to be there but had already signed my contract. i feel pretty guilty about it and couldn't stop crying as i wrote her a "wedding email." how lame is that? i'm planning to send a gift home with my parents in october but it's just not the same. it seems like nothing ever happens when i'm at home but when i decide to leave, there are so many special occassions. boo.

on a lighter note, there is a party planned for all the "farangs" tonight. this cool bar we hang out at (More Tao) is having it's 1-year anniversary. it's the place with the biker band and when they heard that we wouldn't be able to make the actual anniversay party (it's on a school night), they switched it to a weekend. good thing karen's such good friends with the band :)
so that's tonight and i'm looking forward to a sunday full of absolutely nothing...making a big breakfast, watching DVDs and getting lots of sleep. i can't believe this semester is almost over! have i really been in Thailand for 4 months? i feel like i've learned so much but that so many things still preplex me. whoa, traveling is getting to be the norm. i love it!

in the last week, i've been going through this incredibly fertile time...painting and writing and having lots of crazy dreams. hilary and i still try to have art nights though only 1 or 2 people show up. i made salsa this week! it was damn spicy but good. i had to buy tortilla chips in chiang mai. oh and the yoga sessions are going strong. we've been doing it twice a week and everyone seems to really enjoy it. if anything, it's making me saner and able to cope with the craziness. well, got to go eat and get ready for the soiree. thanks to everyone who reads this! it means a lot to me.

Questions about Thai Culture

Okay so these are the classic symptoms of culture shock. I've gone through my "honeymoon period" where I think everything about Thailand is so cool and interesting and now I'm in this weird frustration where all I can see is what's different about this culture than my own. I know that after a month or so I will start to feel more comfortable but now all I can think about are the following questions:
(Please don't think I'm being too harsh. I truly want to know the answers to these questions.)

1. If you constantly have to maintain "face", that is keep up the appearance that everything is fine and dandy, how can you ever really get close to people?

2. Why is appearance so much more important than content?

3. Why is directness equated with anger or rudeness?

4. Why does the "mai pen rai" philosophy only apply in certain situations? In other words, how can I tell when something is important versus when something is unimportant?

5. Why are people allowed to drive their babies around on motorcycles without helmets?

Alright well I feel a bit better after venting. Thankfully this week is almost over and next week won't be so bad. Only a month left in the semester! Then it's a month-long vacation for me. Woo-hoo! I get to see my family...who I miss....a lot...

Misty Mountain High

Last week is over. It was a shitty, shitty week and this one is going to be as well. Our school is overloading us with work and I'm getting pretty upset/fed up. However, knowing me, I was very vocal about my opinion and basically told the school that I'm not going to take any more outside work. I really value my students at LCCT and they're the ones who are getting screwed over every time I'm whisked off to show my pretty little white face to a crowd of people I'll never see again. I'm trying to be accepting of cultural differences but I just can't be so exhausted and have no time to prepare lessons. Blah so that's my rant but I'm sure it will get better.

So in summary, last week and the current week: bad. Last weekend: perfect. We were invited to a birthday party out in the Mae Rim which is to the north of Chiang Mai and in the mountains. Laura (the professor and home owner) has this amazing house that is literally in the misty mountains. It's a new house but it was built in the old Lanna Thai style and almost all of the outside walls are glass doors so you have a constant view of the mountainside. Saturday was Laura's birthday party and many of her guests prepared songs or scenes from plays to perform. I met a lot of cool young people living in Chiang Mai and I can't wait to see them again. We danced a lot and ate some delicious food. (Hilary and I brought vegetarian som tum which is a spicy papaya salad). As the evening wore on, we were settled into some interesting
conversations when we heard some chanting coming out of the mountains. Apparently Laura lives really close to a temple and the monks were chanting to signify a death in the community. The chanting went on for hours and was still going when I went to sleep in Laura's living room.

Sunday morning we had an amazing breakfast and then went swimming in Laura's pool. We spent a lot of time in that pool in the misty mountains. Hilary kept saying, "I'm living the dream!" There were lots of fun water attachments and toys. It's so fun to see everyone become so childish the minute they enter the pool. It's like we're all given permission to just have fun and act silly. I can't believe how hard we were laughing and the stupid games we were making up and the sing-alongs we were having. It was a perfect afternoon followed by a nice couple of hours shopping in a store that imports international foods. Was it expensive? Yes. Was it worth it? Definitely. I got some good cheese, bread, tofu, wine (which is exhorbitant here) and yummy ginger candy. Hilary and I rode back to Lampang in the back of Nadine and La's truck and had a relaxing evening watching Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 5 which our friend John just brought back from China. Yay it was a lovely weekend. Unfortunately back to the grind. Oh well, I have lots more travelling and adventuring in the future. For now, work.

3 Sukothai Pics I Love

1. The Buddha's foot. Actually, I read a lot about the Buddha's footprint at the museum and I thought it was very interesting. Before people actually made Buddha statues/images called "phra" they made symbols to represent where the Buddha had travelled. They liked to make huge Buddha footprints on the side of the mountains or at any sacred place. It represented that Buddhist thought and ideas had travelled to that part of the world.

2. I like this picture, well, because it's one of the only pictures of Hila and I together in Sukothai but also because we got to climb up on the ruins and look out over most of the old city. Lots of people were making merit and there was a fog of incense as this cute old man took our picture. I just felt really happy at that moment.

3. The temple cat. This cat was very gaunt and possibly sick. She barely even acknowledged us when we walked by. After we left the temple, we found some food stands outside and bought some meat to feed to this cat who was ravenous. That was our merit-making for the day. The lady didn't charge us for the food which was very kind. We told her in Thai, "The cat says thank you." She laughed and I think we all earned some good karma at that moment. Maybe those folks will start feeding the cat everyday.

Old Sukothai at Night

Oh, old Sukothai, you are so amazing. Hilary and I spent the day riding bikes among the ruins, getting lost in the mountains/jungles/rice paddies, hanging out with random cows and generally working up a sweat. We stumbled upon these ruins that were lit up and lovely. Then we got lost a bit cause it was too dark to get our bearings. It was a bit spooky among the ruins in the pitch black but it was exciting. I also had a scare earlier in the day when I asked a monk where we were and he told me, "Everyone here, they died. Even the Americans." I thought it was a death threat and then I got all creeped out until I figured out that he was trying to say that we were at a cemetery. A simple misunderstanding. Honestly, I felt a little mytstical and disoriented all day. I think there must have been some crazy energy among those ruins. At one point, Hilary and I were riding our bikes and it was getting pretty dark but we were trying to figure out where this traditional Thai music was coming from and I just felt like the forrest was so magical. Hilary and I had a picnic at this temple out on an island and later ended up going out to this place called Chopper Bar. Lots of foreigners there and we played the longest game of Jenga ever. We met up with some guys from UC Davis who just finished taking the bar. They were really fun and we might try to meet up with them again in Chiang Mai next weekend. Besides the hassle of waiting for buses and standing up in the aisle during most of the journey, I would say it was a very good trip. Oh yeah, Hil and I drank these crazy herbal tinctures at a place called the Dream Cafe. It certainly was dreamy as it was like being in a tree house and surrounded by lots of Thai antiques and stones. Lovely.

Welcome to the Jungle

These pictures were inspired by a conversation Hilary and I often have. We were on a bus out in the country, when I looked over at Hilary and asked, "Is that really the jungle out there?" I mean it still surprises me. I keep expecting a tiger to jump out or to see monkeys or snakes. I know they're in there somewhere. So this weekend we were at this huge garden that was started by the king's mother when she was quite old. N0t only did she make this gigantic and amazing garden, but she also helped teach all the hill tribes and people in northern thailand about deforestation. They've reforested an immense amount of land which I think is really cool. Anywho, these are our cheesy pictures pretending like we're in the jungle. I think I look like a lion crouching behind that rock. And Hilary looks like she's in a murder mystery movie when she's peeking around the corner. More of these jungle photos to come! Believe it or not, they got more and more ridiculous but they're fun.

The ART Temple!

Wow! This is definitely the most amazing temple i've been to yet. It's just outside of Chiang Rai and it was built by a current artist who saved the proceeds from his art to build the temple. The pictures you see here are of the entrance to the temple which is supposed to make you feel like you are going through hell. Unfortunately, I could not take any pictures of the heaven inside the temple. I was just blown away by this place. It looked like a wintery wonderland in the middle of the jungle.

CoCoNuTs!

So these are the infamous coconuts! Really only Hilary, Dave and I were amazed by them as you can see from the pictures. Hilary and I decided to both wear red and white stripes as a sign of our solidarity. We called ourselves Pirates for Peace and Hilary wrote a message in a bottle and attached it to our ocean wall.

Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Sangsom

Okay so this is only the first batch in an on-going series cause my camera keeps running out of juice. Top picture is Nadine, Selina(from China) and I. Then there's a view of all the folks hanging out in our carport. This is the little area right outside our door where we keep the bike, the hoop and leave our shoes before we go inside. It's a nice little space. Then there a pic of Nadine, Hilary and I and then a pic of a Thai pirate. She wasn't really dressed up but we gave her a bunch of props to pose with. The last pic is Nadine and La who are a very cute couple. They really got into the theme!

Frozen

Twice a day, there are these times when practically everyone stops what they're doing and just listens to the king's song. It happens at 8 AM and at 6 PM. Today, as I was walking through campus, I heard the beginning of the song and everyone just stopped...the motorcycles stopped, people stopped walking and talking and the flag was raised. It's amazing how extremely orderly it is considering how chaotic and unorganized most life seems here. One night I was at the market and there was a TV blaring somewhere. Suddenly everything in the market just stopped. I realized that I was the only person moving and so I stopped as well. I could barely hear strains of the song, but everyone was facing in the direction of the TV which showed images of the king helping Thai people. When the song ended, everyone just snapped back into motion. It was like a scene in a movie or a music video because it looked so choreographed.

The other time this song really interested me was when we had to listen to it before watching a movie at the cinema. Before the song even played, there was a little clip featuring a little Thai boy and a little foreign boy. The Thai boy gave some instructions in Thai and then the farang boy said, "Please stand and be respectful of the king." It was pretty cute especially since the boys were so young and both dressed in traditional Lanna clothes and holding hands. We all stood up and some of the Thais sang along as we watched these god-like images of the king floating in the clouds with the sun making a halo around his head. It was almost too much for me, considering the healthy distrust that most Americans harbor about their leaders. Even though it seems a bit extreme, sometimes I almost feel jealous because the king genuinely cares about his people and the people really love him. It is, I think, exactly how leadership should be. And I'm glad to know it still exists somewhere in the world.

Pirate Party!

Well, i'm happy to say that the pirate party went off without a hitch. Hilary and I really went to town on the decorations...fake palm trees with real coconuts on the ground, our ocean wall including quotes about the ocean from songs and poems, pirate sayings, a pirate wall of shame, jolly roger flag and a pirate trivia contest. surprisingly, almost everyone who showed up was dressed up. we had guests ranging from 2 years old to 70 years old. it's nice to have such a range of people. there were two little boys, alex and adam, who were particularly adorable in their costumes. they also had fun with my hula hoop which i made by combining two hula hoop sets i bought. actually, i think the adults had just as much fun with it. the trivia contest was really fun and everyone seemed to get into it. we gave gold/chocolate dubloons to anyone who answered a question right. later on in the evening we cracked into some of the coconuts and enjoyed the coconut milk and meat. it was hilary's first real coconut experience (and only my second ever) so we really had a lot of fun with it. of course, there will be pictures to come! after he success of this party, hilary and i have decided that we're only going to have theme parties from now on.