A Thai pantry

Things you won't find in a Thai pantry:
   - cheese
   - peanut butter
   - chocolate
   - a good hearty bread

Which means all of the above tend to be pretty pricey.  It also means the typical Thai doesn't have a lot of experience with those ingredients.  So my favorite place to get stir-fried vegetables with chicken and cashews, is NOT the place to order pizza.  We're talking a sauce that tastes like the sweet Thai version of ketchup, a creamy processed cheese, and pieces of some sort of seafood, all on what almost tasted like pita bread.  Not exactly Pizza Hut.

On the other hand, actual Thai food can be super cheap and quite good.  A large plate of the above-mentioned stir-fry is only 45 baht ($1.50).  A few blocks from my work there's a place called The Salad Concept, where huge salads are only 50 baht.  Five kinds of lettuce and five different toppings (bell pepper, tomatoes, pumpkin, carrots, olives, etc, etc) fill a bowl the size of a bowling ball cut in half.  I think the petite little side-salads at McDonalds cost about the same in the states.

Laura Hall

We've been watching old episodes of "Whose Line is it Anyway" and each time they'd introduce Laura Hall on the piano I'd have this sense of deja vu. What was it about those 3-5 seconds of holding a smile for the camera? It took me a few episodes, but it finally clicked - it's the exact same expression one of my students has when she doesn't know the answer.

K is an adorable 7 year-old little girl from Japan, who I work with for 2 hours each morning during the week. In what I'm sure is an effort to be polite and positive, when she doesn't know what to say she will look at me and just smile. She doesn't look away, she doesn't start to fidget, she puts on a smile and waits. And she has the same curved eyes and toothy smile as Laura Hall.  Which would be adorable if it weren't for the fact that it means I won't be getting an answer...

Working with kids

When I came to Thailand I figured I'd find a job teaching English to help pay for day-to-day things like going to see a movie, eating out, and gas for the motorcycle.  I wasn't sure how it would work though - how I'd go about finding people who were interested and where we would meet and how the learning would actually take place.  Making random conversation?  Having them read something to me?  Asking them to write about something?  Thankfully I was directed to The Language Corner by a friend of my moms.

The Language Corner is a medium-sized one-on-one English tutoring place.  I don't have to worry about finding my own students or scheduling times with them or arranging a place to meet.  There are nine classrooms and about 20 teachers who work there off and on.  I usually work 9-12, but they are open as late as 8pm on weekdays and 5pm on Saturday.  Class sessions are an hour each, with many students coming for two hours at a time.  With a fifth-grader, this works fine; with a 7 year-old, it can feel like an eternity!

Now, I've put in my time doing babysitting and working in the church nursery.  I've had to entertain and redirect and be patient with kids.  But there was never the expectation that they'd have learned something by the end of our time together.  With some kids, that expectation makes things easier - they know they're there to learn English and they pull out their workbooks and do what they're told.  With other kids, I feel like just keeping them in the room with out breaking anything or hurting themselves is asking a lot!  I had one little girl who couldn't seem to sit still.  At one point she was actually dancing on a coffee table while watching her reflection in the window. 

There's a definite battle of wills that goes on.  I ask them to write three sentences about what they're going to do this weekend.  And whether they're in first grade or fifth, I always hold my breath the first time.  Are they the type of student who will diligently put pencil to paper and scribble something down?  Or will they sit and stare at me?  And if they stare, is it because they can't think of the words or because they don't want to be stuck in this classroom doing work?  It's almost worse when they carefully write the sentences, using some great vocabulary and detail, and I have to figure out how to explain why the grammar isn't quite right.  That we don't say "some fever" we say "a fever" and it's not "on the bed" it's "in bed."  But great job!  Don't get discouraged!

I have nothing but respect for those brave souls who teach a full classroom of students everyday.  Every teacher deserves the $100,000 salary I hear the international schools in Dubai offer.  No, really.  That's the salary I heard from a teacher who's currently working at an international school in Shanghai.  Would almost make living in the desert worth it!

the last of Shanghai

Lunch at Kommune

Our two weeks are up!  Friday night we flew back to Chiang Mai, and the heat!  Well, the heat really hasn't been that bad, but it definitely feels like the hot season.


I've included a few parting shots.  Above is a picture from our lunch while shopping in the Taikang Lu area.  Very cute artsy neighborhood.  

view from the Shanghai
World Financial Center

The picture to the right was taken from the highest observation deck in the world, located at the top of one of the buildings in the downtown area.

We just got back on Friday and already there's another set of plane tickets ready to go - this time back to Seattle. :)  I'm counting down the days until June 8th! 

Until then, I'm going to enjoy the sunshine and time with family here in Chiang Mai.

Real Food

Looking at the food served in Asian cultures has shown me just how far from “home-grown” my diet truly is. In Thai (and Vietnamese) cultures they will sometimes have a large bowl of miscellaneous greens as part of the meal. Thin leaves, fat leaves, big and small, bitter and bland. They could have been plucked from the side of the road and I wouldn’t know the difference. Mushrooms are another food that escapes me – all sorts of different shapes and colors and textures.

Coming to China just ups the ante. I ordered lunch at a place where you select ingredients from a salad-bar-type set-up and they mix it all together and cook it for you in the back. I recognized maybe half of the options, only a handful of which appealed to me.

But moving from plants to animals is where things really get touchy. Fried chicken in the US comes in shapeless crispy batter-covered pieces. At the Yu Garden street markets in Shanghai, tiny birds are submerged in oil and served still intact – beaks and all. In Maine, grocery stores have tanks of live crabs and lobsters to take home and eat. In Pudong, there are tiny turtles and toads bigger than your fist.

Instead of the usual chicken, pork, or beef when ordering a dish at a restaurant, your choices are
expanded to include options like ox tripe, eel, and octopus. For the adventurous, there are fried honey bees, scorpion, and even live “drunken” shrimp swimming in wine.

In America, food is processed and shrink-wrapped in pretty packages kept at controlled temperatures. In an Asian open-air market, you can select from several squalking chickens, or ask the butcher for just the right cut of pork off the slabs on display under the fans keeping the flies away. Blood and guts aren’t Hollywood special effects creations used to get an R-rating, they’re in a bucket next to the counter, or used for delicacies like blood pudding or the tripe mentioned above. Death is so much more real. And maybe that’s really what it comes down to in the end. We don’t like to think about the messy parts of life, and about what people have been driven to try. Or maybe that’s my own interpretation. I’d like to think the situation was desperate when the first person decided to make a meal out of chicken feet or pull a frog out of the mud. But it may just be my own lack of imagination – too conditioned to think of larvae as gross and baby turtles as cute pets.

Shanghai

Have I died and gone to heaven?

That was my thought a week ago as I prepared for a 40 minute massage after an obscenely luxuriant shower.  My aunt and uncle not only have a shower head that feels like you're under a waterfall, they also have a masseuse who comes to their apartment once a week.  Breakfast was two slices of thick, hearty bread toasted and topped with blueberry jam and Nutella, respectively.  Lunch, at the Carrefour foodcourt across the street, highlighted some of the local dumplings, along with some chow mein and a slice of the chocolate indulgence cake at one of the Western-themed (and priced) bakeries.  I'd been introduced to the fitness room for the apartment complex and having put in some time and broken a sweat I felt a hot shower and a massage made a fitting end to the day.

It's now a week later and I've become quite accustomed to that bakery-made bread, the glorious showers, and many wonderful meals.  A few of the highlights:

• Annie whispering that our taxi driver sounded just like one of the creatures in Star Wars 
• Lunch at Shanghai Grandma near The Bund: sweet and sour shrimp, eggplant and roasted vegetables, and a noodle dish
• Annie getting red Converse-knockoffs for less than half the price the woman wanted (the fact that it was all the cash we had on-hand worked in our favor when it came to bargaining)
• The full-scale model of Shanghai on display at the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum

...and lowlights:

• walking along The Bund (the picturesque riverfront) on a cloudy day in the freezing wind
• getting a cold and staying home sniffling and feeling blah
• seeing people with little birds that had been deep-fried whole (this was in the crowded market streets and I didn't actually see how they went about eating them - it was just a shock seeing the little head and beak sticking up out of the paper tray!)

More stories to come...

Thailand IV

(not sure why this was never published...  continuation of my visit to Thailand in April 2009.  click on the "Thailand" category to the left for the earlier entries.)
 
An April gathering at Khun Tan is a tradition my mom was a part of more than 40 years ago. Schools are on break during April and the whole family would go up to the mountains to escape the heat. (I somehow missed the part about April being THE hottest month of the year when I was making my travel plans...) Back then they would take the train and walk up to the cabins from the train station.

We took a song taew instead, which dropped us off at Yaw 1, a kilometer up the mountain from the train station (Yaw is short for strategic military point, from their use during World War II). At Yaw 1 we had our bags loaded on the back of motorbikes to be taken up to the cabins. The motorbikes are able to traverse the hiking trail that winds up the mountain, although I'm sure the steep grade takes a toll on the engine and brakes. It's a 1-2 hour hike from Yaw 1 to Yaw 3 where the cabins are located. Another 30 min hike takes you up to Tip Top (Yaw 4) at the top of the mountain where there's a small stone lookout. You have to work for the view and cooler air!

41 people were there at one point during the 6 nights we spent on Doi Khun Tan (doi means mountain). Half of those were under 16, so Annie was in good company. 2 tire swings, badminton, soccer, lots of games and card, squirt guns, and water balloons made for a fun time.

Oddly enough there are no graham crackers to be had in Chiang Mai. The two boxes I brought at my mom's suggestion were very popular when it came time for a bonfire and s'mores.

The mosquitos were relentless! As the number of bites continued to rise I tried being more intentional about wearing long sleeves and pants. Woke up the next morning with a bite on the distal knuckle of my ring finger and another on the side of my little toe. I just couldn't win. =P

It's cooler up in the mountains, but it's still too hot for even a sheet until 2 or 3 in the morning. This leaves you with the dilemma of choosing between the cool breeze and protection from mosquitos. Another family brought a mosquito net, but I hear that blocks the breeze, so it's not a perfect solution.

There is constant noise! I remember getting out of the song taew and asking to make sure I wasn't the only one with a ringing in my ears. The cicada's lead the chorus of bugs and birds in a continual cacophany.

It was quite nice to return to the cool airconditioned luxury of the house in Chiang Mai. While the heat has been rather oppressive at times, I'm not sure I'm ready to come back and face weather that includes snow(?!!) in April. That'll be quite a change.

Thailand III

(not sure why this was never published...  continuation of my visit to Thailand in April 2009.  click on the "Thailand" category to the left for the first two entries.)

Wildlife is abundant. Not only do geckos, ginkos and ants make an appearance, there is a peacock family complete with five little babies, a few geese, and a very hungry orange cat.

The sun beats down as the beach and the pool beckon. Annie and I strike out for the open water and end up walking quite a ways on the shallow reef. Ended up with a cool picture of the two of us far from shore, but standing on the reef in such a way we look like we're walking on water. We may have passed some interesting underwater flora and fauna, but we didn't want to look too closely seeing as we were wading right through it. The water is like the wind. Patches of cooler water appear out of nowhere. The sand is coarse and new on the water's edge, with softer sand further up.

One day we rent motorbikes. It's a long way around the island and at one point we're caught in driving rain. The rain drops sting as they hit my arms and face at 40 km/hr, but the cool breeze is welcome. It pours and we're soaked. Then the hot sun comes back out to bake us dry. A very long side road takes us to Treetop Resort on Long Beach. The road alternates between a strip of pavement, dirt, and gravel, and rises and falls sharply. The Treetop has a lovely restaurant area overlooking the beach with hammocks and guests reading in the afternoon breeze. The rooms are only 100-300 baht per night (~$3-10), but the lack of airconditioning makes me tired just thinking about it.

Back on the bike, stopping to take pictures this time. Made the mistake of pulling into a ditch to make sure I was out of the way of traffic and couldn't get the bike back out. It was heavier than I expected and the sides of the ditch were steep. I tried giving it some gas but it just sputtered in the leaves. I cranked the gas some more and the bike shot up the side in an alarming burst of power I didn't feel capable of reigning in. I let go and tumbled to my left. My fall was surprisingly graceful and left me with only a few cuts and bruises. The bike's left mirror was knocked loose, but it seemed fine too. A kind passerby helped me right the bike and continue on my way. It wasn't until I caught up with my mom and Annie that I realized the camera had fallen out during my tumble. Thankfully the dry, weedchoked ditch provided a good cover and I was able to recover a hot, but otherwise unharmed camera.

The problem with cuts and abrasions is they don't mix well with salt water or chlorine. The next day being our last at the beach, I tried out the pool and was pleasantly surprised that it didn't sting. Swimming in the ocean awakened a cut on my shin, but wasn't too bad either. All of this leads me back to our disappointingly lengthened van ride home. You see, getting back at 5 am wouldn't have been such a big deal if not for the fact that we were leaving at 8 am that morning for Khun Tan (in the mountains)...

...to be continued...

Melancholy

I just read My Personality Tree, about the 4 humors (personality types).  I'm a strong Melancholy with a belief in a "right way" of doing things.  Which is fine, except for when it comes to things where there is no one right way, like choosing a job or how to relate to people.  I inevitably feel there's a "right way" to be doing those things and that my bumbling along is wrong more often than not.

But I'm starting to feel like life is going to pass me by as I sit fretting over what people will think and obsessing over finding that perfect path.  My 10 year high school reunion is this summer (...insert jokes about being old and rebuttals from those who are older here...).  And I'm more focused on what I haven't accomplished and whether I can face up to that than I am on seeing friends from high school.