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