Yesterday my host aunt called me into the kitchen outside to help her cook. She handed me some garlic to unwrap and went about the kitchen doing kitchen-like things. I started unwrapping the garlic to get to the smelly center when I looked over at my aunt. She was wrestling with six or seven dead red crabs with a butchers knife. Then she looks up at me and asks if I'd even done this before. She wasn't talkie about the garlic, she was talking about the beastly crabs she was wrenching open. I obviously said no and asked if she ever had. She then started laughing and said that she never had either. We both started cracking up, threw all the crab bits and pieces that were on the counter in a pot and started walking to the market. I don't know what it is with this family and seafood but it sure does cause the market by my house to make more money.
Book: Finished remember me trilogy- oddest boom I've ever read.
Thai: plah..............................fish
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
UPDATE
Well, so much for blogging more often.
So here it goes! An update in five parts!
Part 1: Transcript
School is back in session! This means the city is bursting with students in neatly pressed blue uniforms and the buses are packed so much they almost fall over when they turn. And what does this mean for me? Short term, I went to school yesterday and today to get my transcript (which involved a lot of running around the school, some phone calls, and having to speak a little German?) and say goodbye to my teachers. But I mainly went back to school to meet the new farang teachers....eh...not what I was expecting. And in the long term, since I now have my transcript, and have no classes, I don't have to attend school. Although, school will still affect me because not only is there already traffic in the evening, there will now be traffic when school gets out, and in the morning, so my commute time to the city will now be around 2 and a half hours.
Part 2: Tradition
Sophie and I have a lot of little exchange traditions that we do about once a month. Drink starbucks and eat krispy kreme, eat doner kabobs whenever we see them, get the same snack at 711 every time......are you starting to see the pattern here? They all have to do with food. Well, except for one, once a month we will go get a massage at this spa where all the misuses are gay (we did not know this when we first went there, but once we figured this out- well, it became a tradition). Anyway, we started a new one! We go to this one restaurant right across from this ancient temple and have lunch and then after that we go sight seeing. Last week we had fried rice and went to a mosque. Tomorrow we are planning on going to the National Museum after we eat!
Part 3: Brownie
There is a farang couple in my housing community! Their names are Mary (American) and Pun (Thai) and they have five kids (all under 10) and one on the way! They invited me to have dinner with them, an American dinner. We had barbecue chicken, salad with bell peppers, homemade thyme and rosemary rolls and BROWNIES. I might have eaten three brownies because they are the first brownies I've had in nine months, and they were delicious!
Part 4: Parade
So on Sunday I was riding the bus through the market, and about 50 feet from the bus stop, the bus just randomly stoped. So I looked out my window to see that there was a huge traffic jam, so naturally I get off the bus and start walking to the bus stop so I can cross the street. But I couldn't cross the street because there were hundreds of Meshis (Buddhist nuns novice monks (mostly nuns though)) dressed all in white walking in my way! I looked down the street to find that there was indeed a Buddhist parade going on. It was fully outfitted with monks, soldiers, a picture of the King (as always), a huge Buddha on the back of a truck, horses, and even 10-12 elephants to finish it off! While I'm waiting for the parade to pass I spot 3 farangs in the middle of all the Meshis! Without a second thought, I plowed my way into the crowd and wiggled my way though all the white robed women to finally find the farangs! Turned out, guy #1 was a photographer from Spain who knew guy #2 who is an American and was a monk in Thailand a couple years ago and has now returned to learn Thai and will become ordained as an official monk later this month. Guy #2 is currently staying at the temple where everyone was marching too and where the guy #3 from Denmark is staying as well. The parade was to celebrate Buddha's birthday and so everyone was marching to this temple where they had some relics of Buddha. I ended up marching all the way with them to the temple. Half the time talking with my new acquaintances and half of the time chanting with the Meshis. Guy #2 asked my about my plans for the future (as all adults do since the age of 4) and for once in my life I sort of actually had a plan? I told him about how I hope to go to Georgetown and possibly work for the UN, I also mentioned how I'm not so sure if I will be accepted at Georgetown, to which he said,
"Sometimes, you have to take a lasso and pull those stars down to Earth."
This made me look at applying for college in a new way and throughout the evening Guy #2 kept on slyly mentioning phrases that were full of wisdom and kind ideas. And all I could think about was that if he isn't already enlightened now then he sure will be in his next life!
Part 5: Open
Guy #2 also told me something that his friend who now works for the UN who used to do street-art always tells young people this one quote. The quote is "the mind is like a parachute, it works best if it is open." And I think that explains what happens when you go on exchange. You free fall for a long time, make mistakes everyday and get confused all the time but then you decide to open up your parachute and then your mind is finally open so that you can find your place in a new culture.
Book: Page 637 of the third book of Remember Me by Chris P. These books are a bit strange and has a awkward plot but I'll just keep reading it anyway.
Thai: Bird............................................................nook
So here it goes! An update in five parts!
Part 1: Transcript
School is back in session! This means the city is bursting with students in neatly pressed blue uniforms and the buses are packed so much they almost fall over when they turn. And what does this mean for me? Short term, I went to school yesterday and today to get my transcript (which involved a lot of running around the school, some phone calls, and having to speak a little German?) and say goodbye to my teachers. But I mainly went back to school to meet the new farang teachers....eh...not what I was expecting. And in the long term, since I now have my transcript, and have no classes, I don't have to attend school. Although, school will still affect me because not only is there already traffic in the evening, there will now be traffic when school gets out, and in the morning, so my commute time to the city will now be around 2 and a half hours.
Part 2: Tradition
Sophie and I have a lot of little exchange traditions that we do about once a month. Drink starbucks and eat krispy kreme, eat doner kabobs whenever we see them, get the same snack at 711 every time......are you starting to see the pattern here? They all have to do with food. Well, except for one, once a month we will go get a massage at this spa where all the misuses are gay (we did not know this when we first went there, but once we figured this out- well, it became a tradition). Anyway, we started a new one! We go to this one restaurant right across from this ancient temple and have lunch and then after that we go sight seeing. Last week we had fried rice and went to a mosque. Tomorrow we are planning on going to the National Museum after we eat!
Part 3: Brownie
There is a farang couple in my housing community! Their names are Mary (American) and Pun (Thai) and they have five kids (all under 10) and one on the way! They invited me to have dinner with them, an American dinner. We had barbecue chicken, salad with bell peppers, homemade thyme and rosemary rolls and BROWNIES. I might have eaten three brownies because they are the first brownies I've had in nine months, and they were delicious!
Part 4: Parade
So on Sunday I was riding the bus through the market, and about 50 feet from the bus stop, the bus just randomly stoped. So I looked out my window to see that there was a huge traffic jam, so naturally I get off the bus and start walking to the bus stop so I can cross the street. But I couldn't cross the street because there were hundreds of Meshis (Buddhist nuns novice monks (mostly nuns though)) dressed all in white walking in my way! I looked down the street to find that there was indeed a Buddhist parade going on. It was fully outfitted with monks, soldiers, a picture of the King (as always), a huge Buddha on the back of a truck, horses, and even 10-12 elephants to finish it off! While I'm waiting for the parade to pass I spot 3 farangs in the middle of all the Meshis! Without a second thought, I plowed my way into the crowd and wiggled my way though all the white robed women to finally find the farangs! Turned out, guy #1 was a photographer from Spain who knew guy #2 who is an American and was a monk in Thailand a couple years ago and has now returned to learn Thai and will become ordained as an official monk later this month. Guy #2 is currently staying at the temple where everyone was marching too and where the guy #3 from Denmark is staying as well. The parade was to celebrate Buddha's birthday and so everyone was marching to this temple where they had some relics of Buddha. I ended up marching all the way with them to the temple. Half the time talking with my new acquaintances and half of the time chanting with the Meshis. Guy #2 asked my about my plans for the future (as all adults do since the age of 4) and for once in my life I sort of actually had a plan? I told him about how I hope to go to Georgetown and possibly work for the UN, I also mentioned how I'm not so sure if I will be accepted at Georgetown, to which he said,
"Sometimes, you have to take a lasso and pull those stars down to Earth."
This made me look at applying for college in a new way and throughout the evening Guy #2 kept on slyly mentioning phrases that were full of wisdom and kind ideas. And all I could think about was that if he isn't already enlightened now then he sure will be in his next life!
Part 5: Open
Guy #2 also told me something that his friend who now works for the UN who used to do street-art always tells young people this one quote. The quote is "the mind is like a parachute, it works best if it is open." And I think that explains what happens when you go on exchange. You free fall for a long time, make mistakes everyday and get confused all the time but then you decide to open up your parachute and then your mind is finally open so that you can find your place in a new culture.
Book: Page 637 of the third book of Remember Me by Chris P. These books are a bit strange and has a awkward plot but I'll just keep reading it anyway.
Thai: Bird............................................................nook
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