Capsule

A friend of mine is visiting Thailand soon for a couple weeks.

It hurts.

Well, it doesn’t hurt. it’s a yearning feeling.

I forget in which language it is but the translation to miss something, is actually to have it missing from you.

That is what Thailand is to me.

Not just a nation, but my true self is there somehow. I know that nostalgia has kicked in in a way that I am different person from my Thai self. And if I visited now, it would an utterly different experience as I would do different things and react differently.

Everything would be different.

In my memory though, Thailand is a time capsule of tough lessons learned the hard way, and waking up every morning to sun in my sheets knowing I was happy.

I’m yearning to open up that time capsule for myself.

Maybe, I just need to create another instead.

Grumpy

I have become a grumpy old man.

And like most old men, I don’t know when or how this happened.

Fatigue, idiots, and being surrounded by other old men are probably to blame.

This semester I have enrolled in an EMT class because I generally am really interested in emergency care and helping people whilst being at a university that has a great school of medicine. It really did work it quite nicely. With this though, I dedicate four hours every Tuesday and every Thursday to EMT lecture and lab.On Tuesdays, I have EMT lecture from 6:30pm to 10:30pm.

This Tuesday I arrived in the building at 6:28 and was walking down the correct hall at 6:29 and at 6:29.30 was asking two girls if the seat behind them was taken or not.

The seats in the classroom are on rollers and are not in orderly rows, so it’s hard to tell what seats are still open.

At 6:29.45 I was done with them debating about seats and just sat down as it was rightly now my chair for the next four hours and fifteen seconds.

Throughout the evening, lecture was going well and I was listening and trying my gosh darn best to spell weird terms that I actually might have to know to help some imaginary person in my imaginary future.

The thing that is neat about this course is that it is completely voluntary. It does not count for pre-med or physical health major students whatsoever. This course is all about becoming an EMT just to become an EMT.

That said, throughout the class I happened to be sitting next to Ms. Blurts-A Lot- The-Answers and behind a girl doing homework on her laptop.

I couldn’t help but think about the drastic differences in people I was surrounded by.

Next to me, I found someone that I would probably want as an EMT if I was in trouble- at least, if I had some obscure thing happened to me.

And in front of me, I found someone doing their biology and econ homework whilst we were discussing the difference between cardiac arrest and cardiac failure.

This reminded me of my grandfather’s college lab story of his instructor killing a rabbit during a surgical demonstration- and how he never wanted him to conduct surgery on him.

The same applies to EMTs as to engineers, architects etc.

Before class, I was grumbling because of my own tardiness. During class I was grumbling because of the lowering standard of appreciation of education. And after class I was grumbling because the snow from Jonas the blizzard had turned to brown mushy slush and they ran out of old fashion donuts at Whole Foods.

I think I have come to the right conclusion.

I am a grumpy old man.

But if being a grumpy old man helps me motivate myself to pay attention in class, raise my grades, avoid slush, and eat more donuts, then a grumpy man I am.

Perhaps

1. As I sat white-ing out the answers written in pen from the used workbook I bought, advertised as  

“like new,” I couldn’t help but wonder when I started to become a push-over. 

2. Now as I write this, I am sitting on my bed eating challah bread that ironically reminds me of the communion bread my sister and I gutted every Sunday morning of our childhood.

These are two actions that I know have stories. Perhaps connected, perhaps not. But I don’t know what they are yet.

I often think about starting this blog up again. To be used as a journal for myself that is polished enough for it to be sent out into the world. I get busy, and it falls to the wayside. However, I believe that now, more than in the past, I need to start writing again. And, that’s that. 

Healy

So actually....even though I work in Denali....I live in a town called Healy which is about a 20 minute bus ride away. However, sometimes or a lot of the time there is construction on the one road that links Anchorage to Fairbanks and thus the ride becomes much longer. It's strange having to depend on this shuttle to get to work each day because it runs every hour.
I have become used to public transportation in Thailand where it could come every five minutes or just never. I have become used to public transportation in DC where fifteen long minutes is the worst that could happen. But this hourly shuttle is more like the public transportation I took to Tacoma Community College each day for school. I was either a half hour late or an hour and a half early to class.
Everyone who works for the McKinley Chalet Resort (like me) or Denali Princess Lodge lives in huge dorms that when we move into cause the population in Healy to nearly triple.
There are three possible dorms.
The Homestead which I live in, composed of three floors.
The Shire which has four people per room but their own bathroom....but no wifi.
Cabins which only those working at the photography stand called Sourdough Studio live in....but without running water.....so a cabin and an outhouse.

In the Homestead and in building in back of the resort there are employee dining halls.
There you get what is served and when you can- because if you miss a shuttle- there goes your lunch time too.
It's pretty good food but then again it reminds me of the dinning hall in MASH where the coffee is oil and you take whatever you can get?
In other words, it makes my cafeteria at American look superb.

For instance, on my first day here, there were hamburgers for lunch and hamburgers for dinner as it was memorial day.
Yesterday there was fish and chips...with warm coleslaw- but still I was pumped for fish and chips!

I've lived in dorms since August. Only living in a home during Thanksgiving when I stayed with my friend Maura, winter break, spring break, and the two weeks I just spent at home before coming here. I'm thankful for having a home to come home to, pets, heavy blankets, waffles, and not one ply toilet paper.
This dorm life is worth living in for the adventures I have taken thus far and to come. So I will wait til August to have the ability to choose what I eat again.

Narration

I have completed my first full day in Alaska here in Denali. Far far from civilization- the closest grocery store is a two and a half hour drive to Fairbanks. This is wilderness. I am surrounded by beauty and spectacle but I have lived in cities- major world cities and small towns too. But not small enough towns that the population doubles when the summer workers came into town.
This is different.
The midnight sun is confusing and although days are long and weary, I'm not tired. Even after a full day of plane, taxi, and bus rides yesterday, when it came to 11pm I wasn't wishing to sleep a wink.
Yesterday my five hour bus ride from Anchorage to Denali felt shorter than my three hour flight- probably because it was guided and narrated. And listening to that narration and information I learned quite a bit, which I will share with you all now.
1. The five types of salmon, by common and specific name in size order and how to remember them.
2. How to react to moose and bear attacks.
3. Who Mary Carey was- and met her daughter.
4. The strategy behind the placement of huskies in dog mushing.
5. The story behind why the Iditrarod ends in Nome.
6. How to model the shape of Alaska with my hand.
7. How northern lights are created and when and why we can see them.
8. The two types of spruce trees in Alaska.
9. The watershed that causes rivers to run North or South in Alaska because of the continental divide.
10. How to make a latte.
11. That Houston, AK tied to old oil Houston, TX.
12. A man's fascination with doll goats basically created the Denali National Park.
13. 1 in 6 people in Alaska has a personal pilot's license
14. Ne means land, and na means flowing water in an old native Alaskan tribe.
15. The identification stickers on whether something was Alaskan grown, made, or made by an Alaskan native.

.One day in, spent a lot of time in HR. I have my first shift tomorrow- with a nine hour shift out of the 41 I was scheduled this week.

Oh and I already saw three moose today.

Others

Stretching all our limbs like a soccer mom does to save seats at a sporting event, we roll ourselves out of the car we had been sitting in for three or so hours. Passing through Olympia, Aberdeen, and Humptulips, we finally made the trek to Kalaloch. A Pacific Ocean beach that greeted us with a sign reading “Beach log kills,” turned out to be a beautiful locale. The beach was filled with hundreds of dried Velella jellyfish and huge sandstone rocks that looked like they belonged on the moon. There were caverns, arches, and trees that the ground had fallen out from them, but they stood nonetheless with their roots perched perfectly strong against the sides of fallout.

Upon walking the shore, Ryan mentioned my last “moody little blog post” which I couldn’t help but agree that I should’ve signed “xoxo” in true gossip girl fashion. Alas, I stand by it.

All day long, “Come as you are” by Nirvana was stuck in my head because it was imprinted on the welcome sign to Aberdeen in honor of Kurt Cobain. The whole day I couldn’t help but think of if Kurt had been where I had or if he went to the beaches often at all. Traveling through the city with boarded up windows that intermixed with coffee huts- I tried to fit this all together with what I knew about Nirvana. And it didn’t really mesh- which I guess is what “Come as you are” is about anyway.

Also in Aberdeen, we stopped for coffee.

After an obscurely long wait, we pulled up to the kitschy coffee hut to look at what they offered. There were teas, coffee, extras, and “others”? And that is where it all started.

Under coffee there was the category “Blended” which I assumed in Starbucks terminology meant Frappuccino, hence sounding lovely as I was melting in my seat, pinned down through the windshield by the penetrating sun. Therefore, I ordered a blended coffee. The peppy barista asked me a series of questions as to if I wanted it iced, with espresso shots, what flavor I wanted, if I wanted it chocolatey, if I wanted a Frappuccino thing, etc. It was an ordeal. I just wanted a latte blended together with ice. That’s it. Finally, we both came to a consensus and I was looking forward to be melting alongside my frozen drink in the front seat of Ryan’s car. The barista then was asking her next customer a series of questions on what “iced” entailed.

I suddenly realized that I would soon be in the peppy barista’s position in Alaska.

And also totally clueless.

As much as I love coffee. I don’t know anything about how to make it. I am the classic Seattle hypocrite who’s not from Seattle, claims they are, drinks their coffee, critiques it, and is completely ignorant. BUT! I hope to soon be educated about the topic by becoming a barista….and asking probably a longer series of questions than I was asked that day.

So I will come to Alaska as I did Aberdeen, as I am- a clueless, peppy, and questioning barista that will take ten minutes just to start your order.

Alaska, come as you are, as a friend, as a known enemy- see you in three days.

5/19/15

This morning I woke up angry.

A mood I rarely come across and don't know how to deal with. I felt betrayed and hurt- and thus pissed off.

So I did what I thought was best: to pour myself a cup of coffee bountiful with milk and brown sugar, sit down and write my long abandoned blog.

And here we are.

Part One: President

My friend Mitch and I have determined that we are members of the “Care Too Much Club” which means that we will never turn our friends down. We will always drop everything and be there for whomever, whenever. This however takes a toll that I was unaware of until this morning when I woke up in a twist. So, I would like to formally step down from my post of President of this club and join the “Mutual Caring Society” that is pretty difficult to get into.

Part Two: Frontier

In just five days I will be moving to the great state that is Alaska! There I will be a barista for the McKinley Chalet Resort in Denali until August. I am so incredibly excited and over the moon for the adventures I plan on taking.

Part Three: Un-American

I have had an amazing year in DC and at American University trying out crew and joining a sorority. Oh, and also my classes and professors were the best I could have ever wished for. Even with all my activities, I still felt out of place. Thus, I have applied to transfer schools but will not hear back until late this month.

Part Four: Truth

Sometimes it’s hard to say “They’re missing out” or “Their loss” and actually mean it. I fully intent and logically agree with myself each time I find myself saying these phrases. However, believing in them is a challenge.

Part Five: Apology

This morning I was standing in line at the local pharmacy waiting for a prescription. The woman standing in front of me, who also had parked next to me, wore a lacy cream dress past her knees, ruby pointy flats, a new, navy, Michael Kors handbag, and clean cut blonde bob. After chatting with the pharmacist she turned around to those of us behind her in line chuckling and said, “Sorry, it usually doesn't take this long!”

But I was no fool.

I knew that she asked for probiotics, which needed to be chilled- and that she asked for ice. Her mentioning forgetting her cooler is what lengthened the time of her endeavor. Don’t blame the pharmacy now. I knew the insignificant truth behind her polite and courteous apology. I brushed off the minute of two that I waiting in line while the pharmacist grabbed ice.

This leads me back to waking up so mad this morning. Recently, I've found that I know more than people assume I do. I’m not going to burn bridges but some may mysteriously fall down without a guaranteed explanation.

A note:

Basically this post can be summed up in one sentence from the film, Network (1976) which I watched this year in my cinema course:"I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore."

Character

Two days ago I was talking with Mariah about just that and I was curious as to what other people thought about me joining crew. After all, did they really expect the girl who successfully got out of going to high school while still graduating, the person who lived for some time in a temple and meditated for eight hours a day, and skipped class to grab milkshakes and donuts with her best friends to join one the most intense sports? Nope, probably not.

This epiphany of course occurred to me on yet another oar run during practice this morning. Every weekday morning at 5:00am, 4 girls carrying and running with 2 oars for 1 mile. I wake up at 4:00 every morning when I really am not a morning person. I'm running miles and did 1000 push-ups in a day when I never used my free membership even though I work at a gym. And when crew went through ROTC boot camp for a day the lieutenant said, "In the army, you either become strong or smart." Immediately I thought smart- I would rather be smart. I'm really not built for crew at all.

And then I thought about why I joined crew. And I didn't think much of it at the time, I just signed up at an activity faire and then that was that. Why not?

And that's how I realized I have made most of my decisions in life.....through the use of "Why not?"

I didn't think I would live in Thailand or DC.

I didn't think I would get a role in the musical or one-acts last year.

I didn't think I would actually be ok at impromptu speaking.

I didn't think I would like TCC or hiking as much as I do.

And I didn't think that I would be as close to the people who I am today.

Many of experiences that have helped me to become who I am, have always been out of "character" and out of the box.

So even though this slightly more athletic Turi is pretty ridiculous and amusing, don't think for a second that I thought this through.

Update

It has been a while since my last blog post and thus an update is due!

Part 1: Student
On paperwork it usually asks what your occupation is and as a young adult I write "student." However, I have never really felt that was completely true until now. I have never in my entire life spent so much time studying or sitting in frumpy library seats. I was talking to one of my professors about this to which he responded "well, that's how you know you are going to a good school." Alas.

Part 2: Rotation
The girls on the crew team have decided that our day to day routine goes like this.
         Rowing
         Omelette
         Study
         Sleep
         Repeat
There is an omelette station in the cafeteria and because we get back from practice around 7:40ish, there is only us and the ROTC kids in line. And i must make a confession, I've never had an omelette before I came to AU but nothing tastes better after practice than an omelette, potatoes, and chocolate milk.

Part 3: Monumenting
Here in DC, the monuments on the mall are open all day and night. Mainly because you can't really close them....but doesn't matter. The point is that at night the monuments are beautifully lit and there aren't any tourists. Thus going to see the monuments in the middle of the night is called monumenting- I've been twice so far and this last time my friends and I ran into two people who worked for NYU at the Washington Memorial. They were both here for a conference in DC and only had the weekend to see the city and thus we decided to combine our groups and walk to the LIncoln Memorial. They were both extremely interesting ladies and upon crossing a crosswalk one pulled me aside from the group. She told me that she could tell I was really intelligent and recommended that I never stop or let anything get in my way. I'm incredibly flattered and it caught me off guard. This is because we met as all of my friends and I were singing Africa by Toto while our legs and feet resting on the memorial to star gaze.

Part 4: NYC
This past Saturday I had the opportunity to spend the day in New York City! About 50 kids in the UC program including hopped on a bus to ride 4.5 hours there and then in the evening ride 4.5 hours back. I spent the day with my friend from crew and we did quite a bit.
Found a street fair and ate gyros.
Walked to MoMA- only to figure out that museums in New York are not like DC museums and cost a lot to get into.
Walked through central park to climb a boulder, lye in the sun, and accidentally took a nap.
Visited the met.
Took the subway.
Ate some cheesecake and a diner.
Walked along the Highline in Chelsea which is brand spanking new. It's old railroad tracks that have been renovated to be an outdoor walking path above the city. They still have some of the old tracks, plenty of sitting room with lawns to picnic in. The whole path is surrounded by different greenery and later on the path turns next to the Hudson River. It's beautiful and one of my most favorite spaces ever.
Got chocolate milkshakes.
Met my friend's French Jewish grandmother who was a doctor in Switzerland and went through the Holocaust. She lives on the Upper West Side in a building that Garrison Keiller lives and Alec Baldwin used to. We went to dinner at a Turkish restaurant on Broadway and the food was divine.

This being only the second time in New York, it was an adventure but I found myself remembering the grid of the city just fine from my previous visit and overall it just felt like a bigger Seattle.

Athlete

My mom has always told my sister and I that we were athletes.
Granted, we were competitive swimmers since around the age of 5 in my mom's eyes, but realistically we joined a club team when we were 7.

Through the years I have participated in a lot of different sports. I was a swimmer, soccer player, runner, hiker, went to tennis and diving camps, danced for a year or two, did gymnastics for a few months, attempting to play volleyball, beat my Thai classmates at badminton, but all of that was before I went into high school. I have tried it all and loved every moment but to revise what my mom told me, I was a great kid athlete.

But, oh how that has changed in a week.

I found myself the school's involvement fair last Wednesday. About 90% of the booths reflected some humanitarian effort or a very effective labeled sorority I should join. 10% were basic clubs like frisbee, the Jewish Frat houses that gave out free falafel, and vegetarian clubs.

I had been looking for some sort of dance club the whole day. Waltzing? Swing dance? Salsa? Nada. So I went on to find something physical and active. The tennis club turned out to be super competitive and not for the beginners. And besides I don't actually own a racquet so...I moved on. Eventually, I made my way to the Crew Club. Not stage crew, the rowing type of crew. Knowing that it was an intense, prestigious, and sometimes the only way to get into an ivy league type of sport- I knew I would probably get shot down faster than the tennis club did to me earlier.

To my surprise, crew has a very high learning curb and novices are highly encouraged to join!
And thus I immediately signed up.

Practice started that Saturday where we learned how to use the rowing machines (they called them ergs, probably because whenever you erg, you say "erg" as everyone hates ergs (or it's short for ergometer (either or really)). We got in the eight person boat with the varsity coxswain and off we went...clumsily.
.
Practices have been three days a week so far, starting at 4:25am. Tuesday I couldn't really feel half my legs. Today two people threw up after the fitness test. Crew is very tough. But has it's rewards. I'm already developing friends through crew, once we were out on the water a second time I got the hang of it, I can actually do push-ups now, and I get to be out on the water all the time!
This means I am now qualified as a (one week experienced) college athlete which is a little strange. I always assumed that "college athletes" were gigantic football players, recruited volleyball players, and national champions. But here I am- my butt getting kicked at 4am with no experience of butt-kicking practices in a long time-standing among them.
And thus another revision must be made to my mother's statement, "I am a (one week so far!) college athlete."

On another note, please feel free to suggest any topics that I should write about! Anything about DC, college, my life, opinions on underwater basket weaving, whatever your heart desires!

College

Alright, so I'm traveling again and hence the blog must be a thing again!
What has happened since my return back home?
1. Graduated from high school while talking community college credits which sorta didn't at all transfer to my school now. And got heavily involved in theatre.
2. I went to Stanford for a debate tournament, and don't particularly think San Fran is all that jazz.
3. Kearney vistited right after Thanksgiving and it was just divine.
4. Sophie visited for two weeks where we went to Canada (oh I went to Canada a lot this year), Seattle, Mt. Rainier, and even down to Portland to visit Alex for a couple days.
5. My family hosted an exchange student from Italy named Francesca and we had a blast teaching her that you can't steal food out of the "serve yourself" organic bins at Fred Meyer.
6. Mariah, Tasha, Emma, and I officially created a title for out friendship called "The Circle of Trust." Yes, we are intimidating. Yes, we are incredibly silly. And no, you can not be in it.

And now I'm in college!
I currently am attending American University in Northwest DC and loving it, however the east coast is strange. A gap year was very very tempting however, 1. education is important, 2. I had no money to go abraod and frolic and backpack, and 3. the school gave me money to go here so, why not?

Classes are good, professors are good, I just got a job which is good.
However, just like I did in Thailand, I will probably mainly focus on cultural aspects of my life here at school instead of more scholarly content. And just like I did in Thailand, here are a list of things that are different over here in DC.

1. No hipsters or indie kids- everyone here looks like they can be pinned on a pintrest board rather than placed in a Nirvana concert.
2. Flat- no hills. I'm not sure how I feel about this yet.
3. New chain restaurants- there is a kid on my floor who goes to this Mediterranean restaurant called "Cava" all the time. It is set up subway style except with rice, pita, and felafel. I call him Cavakid, appropriately.
4. Iced black coffee- I mean, why?
5. Boating shoes- with no boats to be seen.
6. Monogramming- I previously just thought this could be found in Land's End catalogs until I realized that the east coast is just Land's End in real life. There is a brand called Vineyard Vines which is kinda a mix between Gap and American Apparel that is popular here?
7. No thrift stores- I honestly don't know what to do.
8. Grassy plains to relax upon- I miss the forests and rocky beaches but there is nothing like a good plain of green grass to stretch out upon.
9. Important people- I got lost in the International Service building during the first week of classes because I wrote my classroom down wrong and asked a man walking in the hall for some help. He helped me find my class but then I realized that I could've just met someone very important that works closely with I don't know the UN and they could've turned me into an ambassador and I totally missed that opportunity because I wrote down a three instead of a five on my schedule. Or it could've been the president of the school and I would have been equally oblivious. It pays to recognize people here and it is a bit stressful.
10. Business- one of the first things I noticed while in DC and the short half hour I spent in Philly with my sister, Anikka, is that people are not especially polite. They aren't rude. They just aren't gregarious. Which is kind of sad. But alas, business as usual.

And that has been kind of what is going on so far in DC but more updates will follow!

Kick

So recently I have started to study Muay Thai (Thai Boxing). And because I haven't really exercised since like Sophomore PE....these Muay Thai sessions are kicking my butt. Sure I've been jogging and have worked out a bit but not since I've been in Thailand.

I've only gone to two sessions so far, but the sessions are two hours long and with a personal coach. His name is Jom and he is a Muay Thai Lumphini Champion. Lumphini is a name of an area in Bangkok and is also the name of the National Muay Thai Boxing Stadium here. So, he's a pretty good coach. And, like everything I have done on exchange, Sophie goes with me.

To continue, yesterday about an hour in to our practice, a little girl comes in to watch Sophie and I fail at hitting our teacher in the right way. Then Jom sends me off to go practice on a punching bag while he works with Sophie. Naturally, I start practicing and immediately hurt my shin while trying to kick this bag of what seems like pure lead. Then, the little girl who was innocently watching us earlier decides to come up and show me how to properly kick in a Muay Thai fashion.

The Kung Fu Kid would have been impressed.

This little Thai kid, about half my height, continues to consecutively kick the punching bag about ten times, turning the seemingly lead bag into jelly.

At the end of the practice Sophie and I finally realize that the Thai kid is Jom's daughter. We meet the rest of his family and they all turn out to be like crazy good in Muay Thai. Even the five year old could probably knock me out!
But for now, I'll just keep going to my practices and hope that I never get on the bad side of this Thai family.

Book: I broke down and bought a book, I have The Cartographer and I'm on page 46 because I'm trying to save it for my train ride next week. So, far I enjoy the humor that the main character has!
Thai: kick................................tip

Crab

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

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

Normal

Before I went on exchange I talked to as Thailand rebounds(people who went on exchange) as possible to try to figure out what my life would be like this year. And I was always shocked at what they had to say.
For example, they would say stuff like "Yeah, it's about 40C outside but you wear pants anyway."
And they would say it like it was a completely normal action. Like they had been doing it their whole life.
But the thing is, on exchange, things do become normal, and the strange thing is that you don't even notice it happening.
For instance...
1. Elephants in the street.
2. Dog fights outside my house.
3. Getting lost on the bus.
4. Getting lost on the street.
5. Getting lost on a boat.
6. Eating rice during every meal.
7. Showering more than twice a day.
8. Wearing pants when it's 40C outside.
9. Drinking soda out of a bag.
10. Always drinking from water bottles with a straw.
11. Always using a fork and spoon to eat everything.
12. Calling something more than $1 expensive.
13. Forgetting English words and how to use proper grammar.
14. Finding holes in the floorboards on the buses.
15. Eating foods and not knowing the contents of the food.
16. Lizards, spiders, flies and mosquitoes in my room.
17. Saying Thai words instead of English words.
18. Eating just fruit for a day.
19. Not knowing the date/time/location I am in.
20. Eating when I'm not hungry and not eating when I am hungry.
21. All my friends here are from different countries/states.
22. My worst and only fear is being deported.
23. The outdoors being hotter than the indoors.
24. Buying everything from 711.
25. Spending hours a day on public transportation.

And then there are things that used to be normal, that I now find bizarre.
For example.....
1. Finding a bathroom that has a western toilet/toilet paper/soap/a sink.
2. Eating western food for every meal.
3. Driving instead of walking places.
4. Places that are super clean.
5. Drinking tap water.
6. Taking warm showers.
7. People enforcing safety rules/laws.
8. Speaking in English all the time.

There are more things but I am just so used to life here that life in America seems so foreign to me.
I guess I am slowly becoming Thai and so far, it's not so bad.

Book: Finished where the Red Fern Grows, The Da Vinci Code, Someone Like You by Roald Dahl (it's his book of short stories) and another book of short stories of which I forgot the name. And now I'm reading Remember me- its a murder mystery/sci-fi thing? I'm not really sure but so far it's pretty good!
Thai: Kit kum........................................................................................................................Belt

Shrimp

I successfully switched host families!

And so far I like it.
The house is smaller and doesn't have air conditioning but the living room is full of antiques and I have two big windows in my room. I now have five ginormous pet goldfish and A DOG! The dog is named Look Joop, it's the name of a Thai desert. I have a host mom, Mae Gai and a host aunt (she's a relative but I don't know how my host mom is related to her), Pee Ju, and a host sister who is already out of college and working, so she doesn't live in the house anymore. They are all so nice and they speak Thai to me! But probably the best part about living here so far is that there is a....
a.....
A WASHING MACHINE!

Those seven months of washing my own clothes has finally paid off! I can now just throw in all my clothes into the giant glorious metal machine, and stand by while it brightens my whites and removes stains. No more scrubbing or stretching, pulling or rinsing! Ah, how I love washing machines.

Another nice thing about my new family here is that Pee Ju can cook! So I get to eat home cooked meals again!
They told me that breakfast is around 8:30 to 9ish but if I oversleep they will put some aside for me so I can eat it when I wake up. How nice, right?
So I set my alarm for eight o'clock, determined not to miss my home cooked breakfast with my new family.

I woke up at 9:30.
Humbug.

So I slumped down the stairs and slid into the kitchen and long behold breakfast was not served yet! I made it in time! Because this is Thailand, 8 actually means 9:30, no matter what family you live with.

But this was no ordinary Thai breakfast. I see the usually things on the table: rice, vegetables fried in oil so that they are limp and no longer green, pork- always pork and wait a second....
I see a full sized, bright orange, face and all- SHRIMP.
My host mom comes into the kitchen already dressed for work and looking professional, a juxtaposition of what I looked like this morning. I was fashioning a bed head, a fabulously frumpy bright orange t-shirt from a much needed English camp I went to, black floral boxer shorts and thanks to Thai weather- I was sweaty all over.
"You can eat," she said, as she motions to all the food on the table.
So I start scooping some rice on my plate and some limp veggies when she takes THE SHRIMP and places it in front of my face. She sets it down on the table, scooting my plate over so THE SHRIMP is front and center.
"You can eat," she said, as I sat there gawking at the orange beast.

I manage to mutter "How?".

I have seen plenty of people rip open shrimps in my life, but I still don't really know how to go about ripping a head off of a crustacean.
She starts laughing at me, and takes THE SHRIMP and calmly breaks it open for me and sets it on my plate. Luckily I got the tail and she took the top half.

Next thing I knew, she was asking if I wanted to go to work with her today.
YES YES YES!
It's been so long since anyone has offered to take me anywhere that I was so excited!
I had thirty minutes to get ready and then we were out the door.
We dropped Pee Ju off at her office and then Mae Gai and I went to a hair dresser where she got her hair curled for work. I asked her if she went there a lot and non nonchalantly responded with "about twice a week."

While in the car, sitting in traffic, she turned on the radio to 105.5. Which happened to be the international hits station so we tapped our toes to the beat and bobbed our heads along. Then my host mom asked if I liked Japanese food and I of course said yes.
We then picked up her friend and drove to this fancy hotel right across from Lumphini park. I pass this hotel every time I go to the park and think "That is one fancy place."
So here's the thing about hotels in big cities, it's super easy to sneak into them. Just walk right in, go to the elevators and pick your floor and you're golden. Now I don't sneak into hotels to do anything bad, I just try to get to the top floor so I can see the view of the city or figure out if they have a nice pool. But this hotel is different, you walk in and they ask if you need anything and where you are going. So I don't recommend sneaking into this hotel, but I do recommend staying there if you ever do come to the city.
Anyway, so I figure that we are just parking at this hotel and then walking to a restaurant to market.
Nope.
We are eating at the hotel restaurant.
My host mom leads us through the huge luxurious lobby and to a fancy Japanese restaurant where met another man for lunch. It turns out he was a Rotarian, who was Japanese and I assume he is living in Thailand because he can speak Thai.
All the waitresses were wearing Kimonos with white socks and wooden flip flops. I checked if any of them are dead.
Thanks to my lovely Japanese friend, I found out this funny fact: When wearing a Kimono or any other traditional Japanese robe thingy, cross the left side over the right side panel. If you cross the right over then you're dead. Whenever Japanese people bury their dead in the traditional robes, they place the right side of the robe over the left to signify that they're dead.
None of the waitresses were dead.
So I'm skimming the menu, looking at all the funny words that I can't pronounce when I come across what I wanted- raw tuna on rice. Yum. But then I see something I didn't think I would ever see in Thailand.
UNI
Uni are sea urchins.
Uni is also a name that my mother wanted to name either my sister or me.
My father saved us from that tragedy.
I asked me host mom if i could have either the tuna or the uni, she ordered the tuna for me, unfortunately. Although she was concerned about me eating raw fish. Which I kind of understand but you should see some of the things Thai people eat.
After this she actually went to work on the 21st floor of one of the skyscrapers in the city. I waited by the front desk. Then we went to a mall where Pee Ju, Mae Gai and I got facials- which was really REALLY nice. And went to a market where we ate Pad Thai for dinner.
The next morning I woke up and alas, no shrimp.

Book: Page 196 of Where The Red Fern Grows, Lydia lent it to me and so far it's a very sweet book.
Thai: shrimp..........................................goon

Switch

Tomorrow I switch host families.

Switching host families from my first family to my current (second) host family was hard.
During the last month of staying with my first host family, I got really close to them. I felt like they knew me and I was comfortable. I was finally fitting in.
And then I switched host families.
That's what exchange does to you, it never gives you a chance to settle or to be emotional stable. But that also means that you don't get cocky and you learn not to presume things. It's a fair trade off, or at least I think so.

It was a Sunday when I moved. I spent the day before hanging out with my exchange friends.
I slept in and woke up to the glaring Thai sun peeking into my window. I took a shower, got dressed and started packing up the last of my things. And I packed the only way a teenager with way too much stuff for the size of her suitcase could pack. Throw everything in, close the lid, sit on it and pray that you can close the zipper without tearing the fabric.
I hear a knock on my door. The way my host dad has always knocked on my door.
knock knock "Too-ree!" knock knock "Too- ree!"
I open the door and see my host parents waiting. They ask if they can help me with my things and we all take multiple, MULTIPLE trips down the old uneven wooden staircase that's just big enough for one Thai person. My host parents of course laugh at me and all my stuff.
Then we go and take pictures with the old gals at the shop next to my house. These funny ladies at what I called the "Bingo Shed" always smiled and wai-ed to me when I walked to and from school.
And we drove over to my second host families' house.
We pull up to the house and my host dad hops out of the car. I have my hand on the car door handle, ready to get this meet and greet over with, when my host mom turns around and looks at me.
She doesn't speak English that well, I think she is just shy. And that made what she said next, all the more special.
"Turi, I love you like a daughter."

Now, how am I supposed to leave.
How does Rotary expect me to get out of the car, the car that picked me up my very first day in Thailand, say goodbye to people who love my like family and move into this new orange house in a gated community in the middle of no where and try to become apart of another family just so I can move in another three months?
Rotary expects this because they know you can do it. You decided to sign up for exchange knowing this, filled out applications knowing this, said goodbye to everything you knew knowing this and finally got on a plane to go live halfway across the world knowing this.
So, yeah, they expect that you can change host families.
And so I hauled my heavy heart out of that comfortable car and moved into my current host families house.
I said goodbye to my first host parents and gave them a hug.

And so I have been living here for three months now. I don't feel like I really fit in with my current host family. We had some problems when I first started living here with them but now its ok. I'm just ready to move on. To start something new. I don't have any nostalgia, I'm just kinda over it. Give me something new!

So I have a bright outlook for my third host family.
You could say that the class is half full. But you could also say that it is half empty. Why?
PACKING.
I have so much stuff. A ridiculous amount and I have no idea how I got all of it. Half of it I don't use but need- like warmer clothes that I can't wear here but I still need them back in Washington. I have a ton of books that I will probably have to ship back, which will be expensive and I already have to pay for an extra bag, great.
It's a new optimistic Turi, but she comes with a lot of stuff.

Book: Finished The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo and it was really really good and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series. I knew the book was going to be dark, but it took me by surprise. I also noticed how both the Swedish mysteries I have read take on the same plot points. Follow one character with special talent to figure unusual things out, follow another character, solve crime even thought the case is more than five years old, one character strangely enough saves the other characters' life just in time in a underground steel holding cell?, perpetrator dies in accident? and the end.Strange. But they both turned out to be good books.
Thai: backpack/purse...............................grup- pao

Sterotypes

There are a lot of stereotypes about farangs in Thailand. Thailand put Americans and Europeans together. Actually they put anyone not from Thailand in one group. But that’s beside the point. And I sort of wonder what stereotypical things I do as an American.

My first host dad noticed how I read a lot. And later mentioned how he always sees foreigners reading books, especially on public transportation.

I haven’t seen any foreigners reading on transportation.

Until yesterday, that is.

I have spent the last five days in the monkey filled town of Lopburi. It was a vacation away from my current vacation from school. I spent it swimming in lakes under a sunset by the moments, playing with monkeys at the temple, eating corndog balls at the King Narai festival, drinking smoothies at Noom’s, sleeping with Meow the cat and creating funny stories with my exchange buds.

So yesterday when it was time to come back home to the city, Sophie and I were going to take the train at 12:30, but since Thailand is never on time, our train was delayed an hour. So Sophie took a van back, I gave Sophie my sweater to take with her because van air conditioning is like the tundra winds on crack. I decided to wait with my friend Lydia (Rhode Island) until the train came. We took turns reading from this silly book of short stories about animals as we sat by some old temple ruins. To be specific we read a story about a particularly sassy fly who eats vomit, and another one about a motherless circus bear. Yeah the book was a little strange.

So I get on the train. And the train is so small, too small. Only about three or four cars and there were so many people that many had to stand- including me. Luckily this was the rapid train so it only stopped every half hour or so. I stood for the first two hours which wasn’t a big deal- I’ve done that so many times before on the bus.

So I’m standing on the train, leaning against a pole, reading a story about a mediatating raven, when these two old ladies over me a seat. Because that’s what old ladies do on trains and buses in Thailand. And so I squeeze myself between this two frail ladies and continue reading. I start speaking to them in Thai and they say “Put Thai die gang mak!”, which literally translates to “Speak Thai can clever very.” And that’s just what old Thai ladies say on trains and buses.

The lady on my right looked like one from an animated film. Ya know the old Gammy who is hunched over, has a sassy mouth and is the tiniest thing ever. Yup, I sat next to one of those.

The lady on my right was kind and spoke really fast and quietly. And since we were sitting on an open train car- I could not understand a word she said. And so I did what all farangs do- smile and nod.

And one point, the lady sitting to my right asked me if these two other foreigners on the train were my parents. I explained that they weren’t my parents and that I came to Thailand on my own.

The couple in question looked like they could have been my parents, I guess. They were both tall, they lady had blondish brown hair like me and they also were speaking in English.

They were also both reading novels.

And I thought to myself. Oooooooooohhhh, that’s how these stereotypes start.

Book: Read and finished Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris, which was a bit strange but cute. Now I’m on page 151 of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and so far love it. It’s strange though because this is the third book this read that I've read that was originally published in Swedish.

Thai: nung……………………...sit

2/15/13

Today was my last day at school. I will go back sometime around mid May for the new school year.
It was a good day.
I ate my regular PBOT, had a doughnut (it was one of my friends' birthday), studied a little Thai, studied a little Tagalog, finished my art project, and gave the teachers that were leaving the school a letter I wrote to thank them.
I also got locked outside of the art room for a half hour, my Thai teacher had a meeting and couldn't teach me Thai, a Thai teacher told me that I have a big American accent, and my Tagalog teacher told me that he finally had a real, normal conversation in Thai where he understood everything for the first time. He's lived here ten years.
Just another average day.
I finished it up laughing with Sophie and Saeko over our ridiculous Exchange Student eating habits.

Sometimes I've had a hard time going to my school. There are some weeks where I just wanted to come home crying but then this past month has been really good.

Here's the problem. I'm not a very good 'leaver'. Even if I hate a place, even if I feel miserable being there, when I leave it, it turns into the best, most magical place ever. Backwards, I know. I don't think its a great quality but I can't seem to get rid of that characteristic and honestly I don't think I want to. I think it's one of those imperfections that makes me, me.
But luckily I don't have to leave just yet. I have five more months to get even more nostalgic.

Book: Finished Footnotes by Tommy Tune and it was really interesting and a delight to read! I think I was a dancer in a previously life, or at least I pretend to be, so it was fun to read about his time on stage.
Thai: Khon Diow......................................................................by myself, alone

Pig

I have been learning Chinese at school. I love my Chinese classes- but more on that later.
Today I was reviewing food.
My teacher taught me the word pig.
So she asked me:
Ni shi zhu ma?
But I thought she asked:
Ni chi zhu ma?
So I stupidly responded:
Wo shi zhu.
And then she started laughing at me.

So, she asked me if I was a pig.
I thought she asked if I ate pig.
I said I was a pig.

Lost in translation, yet again.
I laugh at myself as well.

Book: tommy tune page 159- an autobiography which is surprisingly good!
Thai: mow.......... Pig