Last time I began with the obligatory “I’m-new-to-this” spiel, and now since it has been 3 months since that post I feel like I should delve into the classic “oh-my-god-it’s-been-so-long-since-I-last-wrote” apology + explanation. But that is something that I find boring and/or that I usually gloss over. Instead I will just dive right in, and I’m going to use the Thai language as a launching point for this post (thanks Kanav, for letting me sponge off your idea). And the same thing stands as before; skip to the pictures if you just want a snapshot of my life.
The other day I was talking to my friend Neung (which, fun fact, means #1), and we had a very interesting conversation about the Thai language and tenses. Unlike English (which has more tenses than I ever realized before teaching), Thai has no verb conjugation at all. Instead, you figure out if you are talking about the past or present or future from context. When I asked how to distinguish between “I went,” “I had gone,” “I was going,” and “ I have gone,” Neung simply returned to the context explanation.
But I think he could tell that I was unsatisfied with that answer, and so he continued, “I think it’s rooted deeper in our culture. Thailand is largely a Buddhist country, and in Buddhism you don’t believe that death is the end. Instead you will be reborn over and over, and so we do not view time in the same way as many Western countries. Our culture is not as focused on time, and that shows in the language.” Our conversation continued on this thread, into a sort of chicken and egg speculation about how religion and language may have informed one another in Thailand. I only took one linguistics course and one course on Buddhism while in college, but I still found (well, find) it all fascinating. There’s a lot more I could say about that, but the reason I told this story is that I realized that I can see how this mindset has shaped my lifestyle here.
If you know me, you know I spent the last four years rowing in university, which means I was spending an extraordinary amount of time training. Between practice and schoolwork, every minute of my day was carefully planned. Don’t get me wrong — I had plenty of fun times in college (by some arguments, maybe a little too much fun). But these times were often planned as well.
Here in Thailand, even though I am teaching overtime, I have more free time than I ever have had in my life. I have stopped planning every second of my weeks. I have re-picked up my avid reading habit, which has been wonderful. I do small, spontaneous things throughout my weeks. I take trips and adventures on weekends. I am sure there are plenty of people that have been able to find this kind of lifestyle in the US, but for me it has been an interesting (and wonderful) adjustment.
Instead of trying to delve into the deeper meaning of all of this, I will go with another anecdote and let you do your own analysis. The other weekend Kanav and I set out to check out this temple (Doi In Cee) at the top of a big hill, a little outside the city. We coaxed our bikes up a small steep road, followed some signs in Thai and ended up at this enormous Buddha with a beautiful view (yeah, yeah, I had to bring up pretty views again). Peacocks and turkeys
were strolling around among the monks and ornate structures. That in itself was a strange experience, but as we walked around a bit more, a monk summoned us in to the tree-house-esque room they were chilling in. This monk was visiting from Bangkok and spoke perfect English. Long story short: about half an hour later we found ourselves in the temple alone with him, as he guided us through a meditation sequence.
With these little stories I am not trying to announce a total personality alteration or worldview reversal. Instead, I think I am trying to convey how my daily life feels. Over this past semester, some of the novelty of moving to a new country has worn off; I have found a semi-routine; I get my coffee from the same lovely people every day; I have my favorite restaurants and my favorite bars; I have my favorite and less-favorite classes and students (I have discovered that teachers pets are SO REAL); my life for all intents and purposes often feels normal. But there are also so many moments in which I am reminded how my life here will continually surprise, challenge, and amaze me.
With that overly cheesey sentiment, I am now going to transition into my lovely laundry list of everything else in my life. I separated it into two sections, for your ease: more daily life occurrences/thoughts/events, and more adventure/travel experiences.
Day to Day Life
Teaching: I can’t believe the semester is coming to an end. I will genuinely miss my students next semester. While I may have lost a few students at the midterms, the ones that have remained are (most of the time) super sweet. And it always makes me smile when a student comes up to me with an urgent look on their face, and thrusting their phone in my face, with “diarrhea” translated. (Yes, that has happened to me multiple times and to every other teacher I’ve talked to. Gotta love that spicy Thai food). Speaking of which….
Food: Whenever I’m asked about Thailand, I always talk about the cheap massages (still awesome and weekly), the people, and the FOOD. Unfortunately, this does not mean I will be able to cook you all delicious Thai food when I go back to the US…it’s actually cheaper here to eat out than cook,
so basically the closest I’ve got to cooking is microwaving oatmeal in the am. That is the one thing I have not been able to adjust to — Thai “breakfast” is the exact same as all other meals, and even though I’ve tried crazy things, eating spicy chicken and rice for breakfast does not yet excite me.
Thai Wedding: Nu took me to a Thai wedding reception! It was western cowboy themed, and was filled with a Thai-country cover band, good food and lots of beer. Aside from sticking out like a sore thumb, I felt like I was at a wedding at home.
Loy Krathong: This is a Thai holiday that took place around the same time as Thanksgiving. It involved sending krathongs (little flower/candle things) floating down the river and sending lanterns up into the sky. Also it involved the most reckless use of fireworks I have ever seen. I found out afterwards that it is actually the Thai version of Valentine’s Day. Alas, I have not found my Thai husband yet so I just partook in this tradition with my friends and it was absolutely lovely.
Miss Satellite: Our school had a beauty pageant (that served as a massive fundraiser), aptly titled Miss Satellite. In Thai, the women in pageants are called “moons,” and “satellite” means “fake moon,” and if you have not put it together yet, all participants were first-year male students dressed in drag. It was very enjoyable, entertaining and astonishingly convincing.
Hash Runs: If you like running/hiking through beautiful scenery and you like drinking, check this link out. I didn’t know that hashes were a thing until I
came here, but apparently they’re all over the world. I’ve made some awesome new friends and seen incredible parts of the countryside I would have otherwise never seen.
Farm Festival: At Singha Park (Singha = beer company), basically this was a huge festival filled with beer, food, fun live music (it was fun to try to pretend I knew all the Thai lyrics), and hot air balloons! Rides were <$3, and it was amazing, of course, but also a little terrifying — even though we didn’t go up that high. These balloons I believe were constructed with the average Thai person in mind; my hair was awfully close to the fire propelling us up (much to the amusement of the guy controlling it) and the basket barely came up to my waist.
“Adventures” and Other Travel Things
Chiang Mai: This is a big city not too far away, with a huge expat population
and many other PiA fellows for us to visit/hang out with. Definitely my favorite place here was the rock quarry (“Grand Canyon Chiang Mai”), where I went swimming and cliff jumping. So beautiful and so unique looking. Chiang Mai has also been a great place to take care of those occasional bouts of homesickness, ie it has MEXICAN FOOD! Also not pictured: huge dance clubs.
Scuba diving: I was able to vacation in paradise for a little while, in Koh Phi Phi in Southern Thailand. Picture the bluest ocean possible, soft white beaches, crazy little formations of islands, sunny skies, buckets of gin & tonic (no, seriously, I mean BUCKETS) and more beautiful, half naked men than I have ever seen in one concentrated area. During the days I went snorkeling
(pretty sure I saw a reef shark) and went scuba diving for the first time! To be as cliche as possible, it was like an entirely new world/the most incredible thing ever/now I want to dive all the time. Then at night, the beach bars turn into entertainment: fire-throwing, to be exact. These extremely unregulated shows/games involve kids as young as 5, fire-limbo, fire-jump rope, really fire-anything, and many drunk tourists doing stupid things for free shots. So, I had a blast.
Fish Tail Cave: A short, pleasant ride from home. It began as a typically pleasant little outing: a Chinese-style temple, feeding monkeys by hand, and exploring a few small cave temples. Then in the depths of a more remote cave (across an extremely rickety bridge) my friend and I thought it would be a good idea to do a total sensory deprivation. We turned off our one working light and sat in total silence and darkness. That in itself was a fascinating experience (it really made the phrase “silence is deafening” ring true). But after our little experiment we flashed on our light to discover the BIGGEST SPIDER I have ever seen (seriously, it would have covered my entire face) a mere arm’s length from where we were sitting.
Phu Chi Fah: This is the place that everyone raves about in Chiang Rai — it is one of the tallest peaks on the Thai/Laos border. The “thing” to do is wake up at 4 to go make it to the top before sunrise to see the “sea of mist,” basically
looking at the mountains of Laos peaking out of the morning fog. I am not an artsy writer, so I will not even begin to try to paint a picture with words. I will just say that I was worried it was over-hyped, and it absolutely blew all of my expectations away. Plus, it involved camping and a gorgeous (if at times
extremely steep, pot-hole-y and terrifying) bike ride.
I did the Phu Chi Fah trip with my friend Kristin (works at a university nearby), Bex, and Lisa (new to CR working at a nonprofit). Of course, making new friends everywhere is one of my favorite parts of this whole experience. So to finish this cliche-filled post, I will end with my new favorite insight from my friend Deborah, who I met on month 7 of her world travels:
“The world is bitchin.”
