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.

Currently on hiatus...

...in California.  Cruising around visiting friends and family.  Enjoying the 60+ degree weather. :)

Plan to resume sometime after Monday, November 16th...

*sigh*

It's been one of those days. 

Discovered my work voicemail has been hoarding messages and only triggered the light once it hit the dubious magical number of 13.  Not a great feeling to realize you have unanswered messages from July.  And that a supervisor-type called back in September (twice) and must now think you're either a flake or ignoring her on purpose.

Completed my rental car reservation for my time down in California, after several hours, a wrong number, and two calls to disgruntled customer service employees.  ...I thought I was suppose to be the disgruntled one.

Sent a Facebook message out to some of the individuals I'll be visiting, after one blank message and a failed send attempt that was only discovered a few hours later and required a total rewrite.

Tomorrow's a new day - I think I may need to use the free Top Pot doughnut coupon my roommate handed me.  Thank goodness for the flexibility of working from home!

The Mr. in my apartment

...being cute.

Where the Wild Things Are

A review on IMDB claims

"You will never see boyhood captured as truthfully on film as it is in the film's first 20 minutes."

  Maybe this is the idea that disturbed me most about the film.  Max is all over the place!  I've often said I don't think I'd be up for the challenge of raising boys.  I can think of a handful of my friends who all have little boys (who of course are all doing a wonderful job), so I think it's fair for me to plan for girls to help even out the ratio...  Genetics seem to be in my favor - there are only 2 boys among my 13 cousins.  I'll take gossip and pouting over fights and destruction any day.

The actor who plays Max is adorable and I think they did a decent job of making the monsters.  It was the desctruction and violence and angst they added that I didn't like.  It's no longer a fanciful journey to a place where it's always party time, now it's a story about an angry young boy surrounded by unpredictable, immature, emotionally volatile creatures who will hug you one minute and rip another's arm off the next.  I didn't leave the theater wanting to frolic and play, I left disturbed by the many ways people can hurt each other (physically and emotionally).  Reading articles about the film you come across the statement that this isn't a children's film, it's a film about children.  As another review on IMDB explains,

"These beasts are the manifestations of our sorrow, our frustration, and our demons; they are the voices living within us, kept down by self-control and overcome by happiness and love. However, when those emotions are brought to life, unchecked, the end result can be nothing short of war, retribution, and malice."

  How is this a recipe for anything but a rather dark movie?

In short, I'd have to agree with the following reviewer:

"It's an interesting concept, turning a children's book into Freud 101, but is seems dark and oppressive. I realize Sendak's book was visually dark, but emotionally is was vibrant and happy, much like the melody to "Wake Up" by Arcade Fire that was used in the trailer. Unfortunately, this film desperately fails to be vibrant and happy, and for a movie based on a children's book that many parents will take their children to see, it's a major flaw. "

Bit of wisdom

"The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease." - Voltaire

I read about people reaching a point in adolescence when they realize their parents are not infallible.  And the shock that comes with this.  While I don't recall having such a moment myself, I do remember my shock at discovering physicians are not infallible.

"It is easy to get a thousand prescriptions but hard to get one single remedy." - Chinese Proverb

It's tempting to think if you can just explain things the right way, or if they could just feel it for themselves, the diagnosis and appropriate treatment would be obvious.

"Despite all our toil and progress, the art of medicine still falls somewhere between trout casting and spook writing." - Ben Hecht, Miracle of the Fifteen Murderers

Alas, we are all limited by our own senses and experiences.  And the body still manages to hide its secrets and evade the simple answer, no matter how much technology we throw at it.  And so it goes.

"Doctors think a lot of patients are cured who have simply quit in disgust." - Don Herold

Fall is here!

Just in the last two weeks or so the temperature has dropped along with a healthy dose of leaves, confirming that it is indeed officially fall.  I've pulled out my down comforter and have been eying the thermostat, stubbornly refusing to start turning on the heat quite yet.  Sweaters are now useful outside of my office, as well as in it, and the rains have returned.

As a warm-up for Thanksgiving, here are a couple of things I'm thankful for not having:

• Classes starting
• Lawn maintenance
• A job outside

Literature

Picked up Catcher in the Rye a few weeks ago. I had been tagged on a Facebook note about the top 100 novels and thought I'd try and check a few more off the list. Man is that guy a whiner! The entire 200+ pages were this 17 year-old kid whining about how he can't focus in school and has been expelled again and hates everyone (except for his little sister, which I have to admit was sweet), and he keeps latching on to ideas obsessively and then discarding them. Teenage angst has a lot of potential for readability, but this was just sad. The beginning of the book refers to the similarities with David Copperfield (a young man writing about his life and all) in a dismissive way, but I have to say I'm enjoying D.C. a good deal more than mister Salinger.

I take it as a sign of maturity that I'm now able to start a book and then decide not to read it. In the past I'd be too stubborn to quit once I'd started. Or if it was a book I'd heard a lot about I'd feel obligated to read it. Atonement was on the Top 100 list, but once I picked it up from the library I remembered I indeed had watched the movie and didn't relish the idea of reliving such a bitter story. My Jim I had heard about, but decided I wasn't up for wading through the dialect. Another book I have was written retrospectively(? - starts at the present and each chapter takes a step back into the past) and frankly I'm starting to feel like since I know how it all turns out there really isn't much to keep me interested in finishing it.

With fall coming on, I need to find a reading nook. Somewhere cozy with a window to let the sunlight in. My apartment windows are unfortunately not faced appropriately and I'm still looking for a coffee shop that has both comfy chairs and sunny windows.

Suggestions?

wow

...one month straight and then one month of nothing. I'll be posting more soon, I promise.

Just as soon as I tear myself away from a couple blogs I've gotten hooked on.

And get the equipment to work from home (finally!).

And finish the books I need to return to the library.

And the thank you cards I've been meaning to send.

...but the thought has to count for SOMETHING, right?

Summer Reads

Summer is upon us. Walked out the door yesterday and was embraced by a strong warm wind whirling by. I LOVE wind. Feels like a caress and a big breath of fresh air in one.

Need to stock up on some books to take with me on trips and to read out in the sunshine on some soft green grass.

Here are a couple I put on hold at the library.



Seems like a good assortment. I also tossed in some David Sedaris, Robert Fulghum, and the odd memoir of first-year residency in med school. Not as odd as some of the books I was reading a year ago (you'll never look at rice crispies the same way again after reading Stiff):



Or as long as others:



East of Eden was great. I was not a fan of some of the "classics" foisted upon us in english classes (Invisible Man? what was the point? really?). But this is good stuff. Wally Lamb's book was rather dark, but I was determined to finish all 901 pages. It definitely wasn't as enjoyable as the 759 pages of book 7 in the Harry Potter series!

In general, the human body fascinates me. One of my very favorite books is Fearfully and Wonderfully Made by Paul Brand and Philip Yancey.

I started The Gift of Pain, and set it aside only because of the more pressing need to finish library books reaching their due date. I look forward to getting back to it.

Any others I should add to my holds list at the library?

Hedonists take heed!

This is the true joy of life, the being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clot of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.
- George Bernard Shaw

Happiness depends upon ourselves.
-Aristotle

Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
- Abraham Lincoln

FEEDBACK!

Okay, yes, this blog is for me - for me to blather on about whatever my heart desires. But it's also for those of you out there reading it! Let me know what you think of the various random things I write about. You don't even have to go through the hassle of leaving an official comment! Just check one of the boxes at the bottom of the post:

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