Universal Human Rights?

I promise there is a reason my posts have been so random and lack-luster the past few days. Actually there's two. First is that I've been hella tired. I think I'm on the verge of getting some stomach bug, but cross your fingers that I can bite that bullet.

And second, I've been working on a paper that was due this evening. Granted it was a little paper, and probably not worth all the time or energy I spent on it, but I found that my views on the topic had changed since the last time I had articulated them, so I kept starting over, trying to properly express what I have come to believe. I'm posting the paper below. Please feel free to comment or give me feedback; this is a topic I care about, so I'm very open to hearing other ideas.


The Universality of Human Rights

In order to discuss the universality of human rights, I feel that it is important to give at least a rudimentary idea of what is supposed to be understood by the term “human rights.” At the most basic and, arguably, most important sense, human rights refer to what is needed for survival and to ensure that people retain there inherent dignity. As societies continue to grow and develop, however, the range of human rights broadens and begins to include many rights, ideas, concepts beyond what is needed in order for people to live and even thrive. While I believe that some human rights - namely those which ensure a basic standard of living - are universal, others I feel need to be viewed and evaluated within cultural or societal context and be allowed to develop naturally.

My opinion regarding the universality of human rights is formed both by my Catholic upbringing and also by my studies in college. The Catholic Church’s places great importance on social justice, with the dignity of the human person being the first of the Catholic Social Teachings. Because of this belief and teaching I feel that access to clean water, food, clothing, shelter, and health care are rights that should be universal and unquestioned. Without any one of these rights, a person’s sense of dignity is damaged and their ability to not only thrive but even survive day to day is lessened. Any other human rights are secondary, and need to be seen as second tier goals by the international groups working to promote human rights. This assertion comes from a pragmatism that the study of international politics has bequeathed to me.

When fighting battles in the arena of interstate politics, progress is only ploddingly made. Too many independent cultures, beliefs, peoples and societies are involved to allow fast development. Instead of recognizing this, and acknowledging the pace at which our own societies developed over centuries, the western countries in control of international organizations alternately request and force non-western countries to “liberalize” and “democratize” at lightning speeds. This tactic does not serve any of the interests involved. Rather than jump-starting economic development or gaining political rights for citizens of poorer countries, these policies more often tend to foster anti-western sentiments and keep the poorest individuals in these countries living in poverty. This is where the academic ideals of all the rights we enjoy in western society being universal fails. Rights such as women’s equality, democratic elections, protesting, and other higher level freedoms need to be adopted and instituted when individual societies are ready for them and request them of their own governments. These rights need to be instituted from the bottom up and not the top down.

There are countless examples of countries where western powers and the UN setup elections in a country and the people actively elect a dictator. Then we ask that the country liberalize and allow political opposition, when the electorate chose the dictator because they promised food, water and heath care. Obviously, the citizens in that country have more pressing needs than the right to protest, or equal education for all citizens. Once those basic universal rights have been gained, then people are more willing to look for increased freedoms and demand them of their government. That is the time for the international community to step back in and help set up systems of education, grow a civil society that holds the government accountable, work towards gender equality.

And the ants go marching down to the ground to get out of the rain

- children's song

My bathroom at the guesthouse has ants living in the wall. I'm trying to not worry about it because they don't seem interested in much beyond the shower, and they're not the biting red kind that Andy and Chris washed out of theirs. Also, I sometimes like to watch their antics.

Like this morning when I got up to shower I found a cluster of little brown ants by the window, and when I went in for a closer look, found them working to carry a large red carpenter ant they had captured and killed outside the window, around the sill to the opposite corner of the shower and up the wall to a hole that is the entrance to their wall abode.

They also had dismembered a black carpenter ant and were busy taking the pieces of this ant into another hole in the grout of the shower. I watched them carry the legs and abdomen through the hole, but then the little brown guys got confused when the head didn't fit. They kept trying to push it in at various angles adding more pushers, switching to pulling, but it just did not fit. After a few minutes the ants took it to a different hole in the tile.

I waited until both carpenter ants were safely in the wall before taking my shower.

But seriously, the ants seem to have a very highly structured and organized society. They know what they'er doing and no one and nothing can distract them from that, even when the shower walls get steamy and slippery, they're still traipsing along, window to sill to wall to hole and back again.

On our walk to visit an NGO this morning we were adopted by the most adorable street dog I have seen yet. It walked with us the whole 20 minutes there, waited for us outside and then walked the 20 minutes back with us. I wish we could have kept it and brought it back to Coe. Patricia thinks it may have been abandoned by an American and recognized us as being similar to its former owner. Poor baby.

It's 8 AM and I'm asleep!

Thais love their King.  A lot.  And from what Drexler has told us, I can understand - he sounds like a badass.  

Part of this kingly love is playing the national anthem, the King's song, twice each day - once at 8 a.m. and again at 5 p.m. They also play it at the start of movies and other various occasions, but these two are the most noticeable for us. During the first week we were here, none of us slept past 8 and were instead jolted awake by the King's song coming in our windows.  

The last few days though, I haven't heard the King's song at 8 a.m. I'm too busy sleeping.

1 million displaced; 600,000 killed since junta came to power in 1990

- my notes from today's Thai culture class on Burma. 

Other highlights:

- average sentence for protesting the military government: 64 years

- 140,000 refugees are located in camps in Thailand

- Burma/Myanmar listed by the WHO as 190 out of 191 countries ranked on public health

- at least one-third of Burmese children are under-nourished in a country that has an over-abundance of natural resources

- U.S. and France still have companies building and utilizing natural gas pipelines in the country that are/were built by slave labor (the U.S. company - Chevron)

- military also uses slaves/forced laborers to carry supplies for them and as human mine-sweepers in mined areas

- rape is used as a systematic tactic of war

- any government project - such as gas and oil pipelines, hydroelectric dams - and areas they fear rebels travel - jungle paths, roads, past bases, ethnic minority villages - are heavily mined, making travel through the country extremely perilous

- previously opium, and currently production and sale of methamphetamines is the main source of income for most people and is tacitly supported by the government (because they can pretend to crack down for the international community, and continue to squander the country's resources for their own benefit)

- the government's arms providers: china, russia, singapore, israel

Links:

U.S. Committee for Burma

Burma Campaign UK

Burma Partnership

Shan Women's Network (Shan is one of the ethnic minorities being targeted and chased out of the country) - if all you can see at this link is the newsletter, look to the left and click on "about"

Burma Rivers Network (the rivers are one of the resources being exploited by the government with the support of - currently - China, India, and Thailand.  Slave labor is often used to build the hydroelectric dams, or the other countries - particularly China - import their own workers, doubly damaging the local economy.) 

I will post more about the week and our culture class later, but I needed to share some of this information as quickly as I could. 

My temple has the biggest Buddha

- creeper monk.

The end of the weekend and beginning of this week was full of flirtatious males and group drama.  It all makes for some pretty fantastic stories, so here goes. I may or may not use pseudonyms in the following story (or subsequent posts to be honest).

First off, Saturday started with a knock on my door around 7:30 a.m. It was Vera coming to ask if we had seen Michelle.  Turns out we hadn't, since we had been... you know... sleeping. Vera says "I don't think she came home last night because her bed is still made.  I don't know where she is.  And really I don't remember how I got home" from the club many had been out at with one of our Maw Chaw buddies the night before. Uh-oh. 

I get up, throw on a sweatshirt, and meet V. in the hallway.  We wake up others of our group to get professors room numbers, and then V. suggests we go talk to Ian, because she's pretty sure Ian brought her home from the club, and maybe he knows where Michelle is.  So we traipse upstairs barefoot in pjs and knock on the boys' door.  Later they told us about the conversation they had when the knocking began:

*knock-knock-knock*

"Ian, I think there's someone at the door."

"No there's not."

*knock-knock-knock-knock-knock*

"Yeah I think there is.  You should answer it."

"No.... Fine."

So Ian gets up and answers the door, despite his roommate's bed being closer to the door. 

Once Ian opens the door, we explain how Michelle is missing, and does he know where she is?  He does not, but has our CMU buddy's phone number, and suggests we call her.  I want to rip him a new one for leaving an intoxicated Michelle behind at a foreign club, but manage to restrain my self. Vera calls Thai Buddy, who also doesn't know where Michelle is, but promises to call back. 

A few phone calls later we find out Michelle is at Maw Chaw with Thai Buddy's guy friends, and they bring M. home on the back of a motorcycle shortly thereafter.  I'm left struggling with the fact that one person got left alone at a foreign club. I mean, it's girl code to not do that in the states... That means it should doubly not be done in another country.  Right?

The next day, roommates start fighting and growing sick of each other.  A general consensus has developed that us chicas are shifting around when we leave for our weekend trip to Laos, and then again when we go to Vietnam. 

Mere hours later, teasing goes too far and others of our group are fighting.  That made twice in one day that I wandered off with another person, to allow them time to vent, away from the group.  Lucky for me, I'm not yet sick of anyone.  And I got to eat amazing food and delicious shakes while out on our two-some adventures. 

Then, Monday morning our profs get into an argument before class.  It was like watching the parents fight... No good. 

After Monday, the fighting cooled down and the flirting started.  

Tuesday (1/27) Emily, Patricia and I walked to a wat near CMU campus called Wat Suan Dok.  Suan Dok was the first wat to hold monk chats as a tool to help their monk university students studying English to learn more easily.  Suan Dok also holds weekly meditation retreats, which a bunch of us are interested in attending and we had gone to try to find out more information.  Along the way we met a handful of really sketchy monks.  First, as we were walking, we ended up behind a monk who asked us if we were going to Suan Dok.  When we said yes, he offered to walk us in... and then took us to the back gate... and asked us to donate to the wat... Really this wasn't so strange yet, but then he took things from our hands.  Monks aren't supposed to do that... We decided that we probably still made merit for donating, even if he pocketed our 20 baht each.  

Once inside the wat, we had a hard time finding anyone who spoke english, and as we were debating sticking around until the monk chat started to get information about the meditation retreats or coming back the next day, a group of younger monks calls out - "Hey! Hey! Come over here!" - complete with typical catcall inflection.  But hey, this was a wat, they were monks right?  They probably meant well... didn't realize how they sounded. So we walked over to where they were, giggling a little bit, and sat down to chat.  

The first thing they wanted to know about was whether or not we knew languages other than English and a little Thai.  We answer Spanish (P. and me) and Latin (Em).  Maybe it was just to keep the conversation going, maybe not... but the next question out of the monks was "What does 'bonita' mean?" And then, "How do you say you are beautiful? ... Can you write that down for me?" From there we discuss how most of the monks at the university will not stay monks and fully ordain after graduation (in a couple of weeks), how monks don't usually interact with women, the differences between robe colors (there is none, just a temple's or a monk's choice).  Then Mr. "Bonita" Monk has to leave and tells us "Ustedes estan bonitas Americans."  Hmm... 

We continue to chat with the other monks, discussing how everything can be an act of meditation, so long as you remain in the present moment - not overly attached to the past, or concerned about the future.  Just present, here, now.  The monk suggests we should come visit his temple because it is the most beautiful and has the biggest Buddha.  He is very insistent that we need to come to his temple to see this Buddha, telling us the temple never closes, it's open all night. After an hour of flirtatious conversation, we're starting to chuckle to each other between comments about the size of the Buddha.  He was just so insistent, both in his flirtations, implying that he wasn't going to be a monk in another month, and inviting us for a night-time visit to his temple... It was a little sketch.  And as we left a lot of inappropriate jokes were made, probably undoing any merit we had gained by donating to the temple on our way in.

When we stopped at his temple, Montien, on the way home, we were kind of disappointed; the temple was beautiful, but the size of the Buddha was much exaggerated.  

That night Gen, Kacie and I went back to the jazz club near our guesthouse. Gen secretly (or not so secretly) has a crush on the saxophone player who runs the club, so she goes almost every night, if even for a little while. I hadn't been out for a few days and was ahead on reading, so I decided to go.  Kacie had a crap day and wanted to blow off steam, so she started buying shots.  Then we started getting hit on by a 30-something guy from Chiang Mai, working for Shell in Bangkok, who was back in Chiang Mai on business.  As Patricia dropped Emily off into my care, Mr. Shell Oil bought the second round of shots and then left. Thankfully. 

While Gen was eyeing the saxophonist, I had noticed the guitarist.  The two of us sat and watched them play a set, while Kacie and Emily ventured to the second floor loft, where you get to graffiti the walls.  As it wound towards closing time and Gen went to seize the chance to talk to her sax player, Emily and I wandered inside and found ourselves next to another college-aged American - the guitarist!  As we were talking about what brought us all to Thailand, Z. (that's what I'm gonna call him) asked where we went to school, and got excited when we said Coe.  That seemed strange, so we asked how he knew about Coe. Turns out, Z. was one of the co-founders of Banaa, a student movement that began at George Washington University to bring survivors of the various conflicts in Sudan, and particularly Darfur, to the U.S. to study.  Apparently Coe has agreed to finance a scholarship for a Banaa scholar to come to Coe sometime next year.  I hadn't yet heard this but it makes me SO happy.  Z. is also an excellent activist contact to have and was fun to talk to. And Gen made first contact with the Sax Player, Kacie ended up in a better mood, so all in all it was an excellent evening. 

Only viewers in the United States can watch these full-length episodes.

- ABC.com

This message just ruined Emily's and my night.  We were going to catch up on the Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice and Pushing Daisies, but no. No. Thai people aren't good enough for online episodes. Sad face.

My apologies for all the long, long posts as of late.  I'll try to keep them a bit more brief in the future for everyone's sake.  

On Friday (1/23), Thai class got very interesting.  We played a relay game where we had to perform basic math in Thai (with the goal of learning numbers - I'll have to remember this tactic for when I'm teaching). We were split into two teams, and whichever team could finish the stack of problems first won the relay.  First off, my team won the relay, which basically makes us Thai masters.  Second, it was pretty fun - and funny.  It was great to see the enthusiasm of everyone (especially a-jaan John, who actually bounced up and down at one point) and the different competitive strategies each person employed.  We also tried to learn the names of different foods, and failed miserably.  Seriously, how were we supposed to memorize "sweet and sour stir fried vegetables with minced pork" and the like in ten minutes?

Friday night a-jaan Bob took us out to a restaurant that specializes in northern Thai dishes.  He was most excited about feeding us fried raw pork sausage.  It was better than I expected, but I still couldn't eat much more than a bite.  I just kept thinking about the House episode where a woman almost dies from a parasite she picked up from under-cooked pork.  So, yeah, the sausage was fried, but it was also still somewhat raw, and I have a goal to avoid worms at least as well as I avoid fungus (aka mushrooms, which I refuse to eat).  The three different kinds of chicken and fish curry and fried pumpkin were way better than raw pork.  

After our incredible dinner, Drex took a small group of us to the wine bar he promised to show me.  It seemed more like the central locale for the European and New Zealand/Australia ex-pats, rather than the center of the GLBT community, but was a ton of fun nonetheless.  Emily, Holly, Kacie and I were all finishing our drinks when the server came over with four smaller glasses and a carafe of more wine.  Before we can correct his apparent mistake, he's distributed the glasses and is pouring us glasses of chardonnay.  He says to us "This wine comes from Buddha" which sounds a bit sketchy to the group of us Christian foreigners.  As we look at him a bit questioningly he continues "This means that someone has gotten it for you, but doesn't want you to know who they are.  So, it's from Buddha."  

From all of us - Thanks, Buddha.  Your gift definitely made my night wonderful.

After we got sick of telling ghost stories over white wine, we decided to catch a song-taow back to the guesthouse. Our song-taow already had a few other people in it (a single lady, a couple and their child), so we took a detour to drop them off.  When they got out the driver got in an argument with one of the riders.  We think that we witnessed our first ride and dash and the driver wanted the woman to pay for herself and the three other people who ran off. Here's hoping that never happens to a group of us. 

Today (Saturday 1/24), we went to see a famous temple located on a mountain that overlooks Chiang Mai.  The ride up and down from the mountain top was INSANE.  The road was originally built by buddhists trying to make merit, a way long time ago.  I don't think the angles, curves, slopes - anything - has been reevaluated since the road was originally built for foot and cart traffic.  Now it's a bit wider and paved, but still has crazy steep inclines and over 180-degree curves, many of which are blind. Also add into that mix Thai drivers' penchants for lane markings being suggestions, speed limits ignored, and you end up with the group of us wondering if the four-hour walk up the mountain might not have been a better idea. 

At (almost) the top of the mountain sat Doi Sutep, a very grand wat.  On the outer wall of the wat, a beautiful mural depicted the story of Buddha and his journey to enlightenment.  Drexler took us around and told the story.  Every once in a while we would reach a panel where he would say something like "And I don't know what this is, so don't ask me about it." After we explored the Buddha story, each of us wandered the wat on our own or in small groups.  Some of us have begun giving offerings at the wats we visit, becoming a little more Buddhist each time.  I find it calming and a great way to be spiritual or religious on this trip with a group of secularists. Give offerings and pray at wats, come home and say a rosary before bed. That's how I do. 

Out side the temple itself there were a great many vendors selling everything from food to postcards to other souveneirs, secular and religious.  We all ended up gorging ourselves on banana corndogs (a corndog, but with a banana rather than a hotdog inside), banana chips, and sticky rice in a bamboo tube (which has a Thai name, but I forget it).  I got chased by a lady determined to sell me a bell.  

After Doi Sutep, we went a little further up the mountain to visit a hill tribe village.  I was interested to discover that the tribe we were visiting was Hmong, since I know many Hmong from the Twin Cities.  The hill tribes - Hmong and others - that are native to Thailand apparently used to recieve all of their income from opium plantations, but unlike in, say, Colombia, the Thai government has been much more successful in helping the tribes transition from opium to other forms of agriculture and trade.  That said, the tribes are also subject to great discrimination because many were forced to immigrate here from other countries and most are now denied Thai citizenship, so they live in this stateless limbo. At least the Thais aren't killing them, like the Chinese and Burmese were. 

After the Hmong village, we went to visit a jade factory. I think Drex had built it up a little bit.  It was interesting, but not as exciting as he had made it sound. 

That night Patricia and I went out for coffee and to catch up, which was excellent.  She's so happy and adorable right now.  I tell her it's nauseating, but really, it just makes me smile.  After, we got drinks at the bar.  Mine was neon blue and called an Adios Motherfucker.  Not as delicious as I had hoped.  It was also Gen's birthday, so we had chocolate cake.  For a country that loves their flavors - one of which is sugar - Thais really fail at making sweets. Patricia and I are thinking about walking across town to get dark chocolate M&Ms at the one 7-11 that carries them.  Chocolate has become our black market. 

After unsealing, please quickly drink down.

 - bottle of green tea with milk

To quickly catch us up on the last three days, on Tuesday (1/20) Emily and I spent the morning working on our Human Rights readings for a-jaan John (a-jaan being Thai for teacher).  We decided that we wanted to wander for a place to read, because sitting in the guesthouse felt like a waste of Thailand. 

The first couple of readings were somewhat frustrating.  First, I disliked the way both authors wrote.  They came off as rather western and condescending. Second, I feel the authors placed too much emphasis on certain rights, at the expense of more basic rights/needs.  They were awfully focused on civil/political rights (like voting, protesting, unions, independent free press, etc.) rather than whether or not people have food, water, shelter, a means of living. I'm not saying civil and political rights aren't important or necessary or deserved, but how can you worry about whether or not someone can protest their government if they don't have food to eat? And, to repeat the oft-asked African Politics question, why is western/American democracy the only "right" way to govern a country? Third, the reading was extremely dense and, I would submit, a bad choice for a first class.  Especially when you view how class actually went, but I'll get to that in a minute. 

In our wanderings Em and I found ourselves in a residential area, fairly free of farong.  We stopped for a while at a shop where the matron did not speak english and the three of us used some pretty kick ass pantomiming skills to buy/sell drinks. She was the sweetest lady too, very smiley and friendly. 

We stayed there for a while, but we really wanted some coffee or milk tea, so after about an hour we wandered some more, and found a guesthouse cafe, that was full of farong.  They sold coffee grown by a nearby hill tribe, which was okay - tasted kind of like espresso.  I miss Costa Rican coffee.  As we were contemplating lunch, a-jaan John (whose homework we were doing) walked into the cafe and asked to join us. Turns out the cafe was one of the premier vegetarian eateries in Chiang Mai.  Who knew? We all tried vegetarian versions of northern Thai specialties.  Emily had some sort of curry. I had finely chopped tofu-meat with spicy veggies over rice. John was so excited that they served brown, instead of white, rice. 

After lunch it was time for Thai class at Maw Chaw, so we boarded our song-taow and set off across town.  Now, each year, as western bodies adjust to eastern bugs, the students all get some rough stomach ailments.  A-jaan Bob guesses that we either bring the stomache flu with us from Coe, or its Asian digestive bacteria kicking the American digestive bacteria out of our GI tracts.  Each year, the ailment is named after the first student to get it.  This year it's named after my roommate, Holly (nickname Holly-Bolly) but the best being sick story goes to Chris, Bolly victim number two.  As we rode to Maw Chaw on Tuesday, the Bollys caught up with Chris and he vomited out the back of the song-taow all across the city streets of Chiang Mai. By the end of class three hours later he was fine. So the Bollys (or Woerhles or Claytons as previous years know them) go.  

Tuesday in Thai class we learned how to introduce ourselves, say how we are feeling and where we are from.  Here's what I know:

Sa-wa-ti kha. Di-chan chuu Heather kha.  Di-chan naam-sakun Lewis kha. Di-chan mai chuu-len kha (I don't have a nickname). 

Sa-bai-di (I am well). 

Di-chan maa-jaak muang Mahtomedi, rak Minnesota, pra-theet America kha.  Baan di-chan yu thii tha-non Wedgewood kha (My house is on the street Wedgewood).

I can also ask for all of that information.  Pretty sweet. 

After class we went to a-jaan Bob's favorite place to sit and write.  It's a fantastic tea shop a couple of blocks from the main gate of Maw Chaw.  I asked if there was a bathroom in Thai and was understood; I'm pretty proud. Emily got the most amazing peach tea - it tasted like biting into a warm peach, no joke. Bob said this was his favorite place, because it's the only shop in Chiang Mai that can successfully make western cakes; everywhere else they taste like cardboard, but these were delicious.  Along with the great refreshments, we also had a really fantastic conversation, granted about Coe and Cedar Rapids, mostly, rather than Thailand, but thought provoking nonetheless. It was nice to talk with our two a-jaans for a while, rather than simply asking something about Thai or how to get somewhere. 

After the tea shop, a group of us went to the mall.  Along with exploring, we had a pretty diverse list of purchases to make (sandals, towel, alarm clocks, shower curtain, cell phones, phone cards... ). The mall here has (I think) four floors.  The bottom floor is mostly food stalls and technology stores.  On the third floor we found a department store.  I bought sandals from a shoe shop on the second floor.  The only real difference from the malls at home was that the open areas of the mall had been taken over by vendors of various items.  Some appeared to be overflow from nearby stores, but others were independent.  It was kind of like having a kiosk at the malls back home, but bigger.  Think outdoor market meets mall kiosk. The food court area was this way as well. 

Since it had gotten dark while we were shopping and getting massages (yes we stopped for Thai massages at the mall - proceeds went to the senior citizens' club), we decided to ride back.  Instead of taking song-taows, we decided to live on the wild side and take tuk-tuks. While song-taows are most definitely road worthy and safe, one questions if tuk-tuks can claim the same, being glorified tricycles. As we drove through the mall's parking garage ramps, it felt like we were on a roller coaster and going around curves always made you wonder if the tuk-tuk would stay upright, but it was so much fun and also 5 baht cheaper than a song-taow once we haggled down the price.  

When we got back from the mall, Kacie, Emily  and I went to a local bar and had a couple of drinks and discussed homesickness and our mild culture shock (really inspiring conversation, huh?).  Kacie and Emily got one of the best cocktails I've ever had.  Next time we go out I'm writing down what's in it so I can add it to the Cocktail Hour bar book, right next to the Agua de Sevilla. 

Once back from the bar, we watched the inauguration proceedings.  What was with John Roberts fumbling the oath of office? Congratulations to our new President!

Wednesday (1/21) everyone slept in after our late night watching the inauguration.  We had our third day of Thai class, where the highlight was harrassing a group of Thai CMU students so we could practice asking and receiving answers about names, nicknames, where people are from, and where they're currently staying. It was one of the most awkward experiences of my life. For a very descriptive retelling by Chris, click here.

Wednesday afternoon Kacie, Emily and I went to a cafe by CMU to finish our reading for a-jaan John's Human Rights class.  The cafe described itself as a milk bar and served a strange assortment of milkshakes, toast, garlic bread and mashed potatoes.  Needless to say we binged a little on the American flavors.  Then we flagged ourselves a song-taow to get back to the guesthouse. As with each time we manage to do something on our own, we were a little proud of ourselves. 

During our song-taow ride, Kacie initiated an interesting discussion about culture shock.  She feels that Thailand isn't really all that different from the U.S., that it is just as consumerist, citing the malls, markets and the expensive trinkets our Maw Chaw buddies have.  I guess I feel differently.  Wandering the city (both here and in Bangkok), you do see many shops but most are selling food and other things people need for their daily lives.  There also is not the largesse and excess that is so rampant as you wander the streets of Minneapolis, Washington, or Chicago.  People here aren't forming corporations, dealing with imaginary money, building high-rises.  They're doing what business they can to make a living. I realize this is a generalization; there are well-off Thais and a lot of resources go to keeping the temples dazzling with their gold-leaf everything.  But I guess I, unlike Kacie, feel a difference. I can't go buy a bottle of champaigne at 10 pm (like we tried to do for the inauguration); the mall closes at 8 so everyone can go home, see their kids. All the drinks you buy at cafes or on the street are tiny - they last me five or ten minutes, versus the at least a half hour at home. At the 7-11 people buy one drink or one snack at a time, versus us Americans who go in and buy three or four things at once.  Yeah, our student buddies have the newest cell phones and Mo has a wicked expensive car, but I'm not sure that's the rule either; and I'm pretty certain the huge markets are at least partially for the benefit of tourists. 

Long story short, perhaps the cultural differences are not as pronounced as we had been lead to believe they were, but I definitely wouldn't go so far as to say that I feel totally at home here either. 

Yesterday, (Thursday 1/22) we didn't have Thai class because Maw Chaw was having their graduation ceremony, complete with a visit from the princess.  So, instead of Thai class we each met with John and Bob to discuss our independent studies.  Mine has changed a bit from the original topic.  Bob and John suggested, as we were in the Chicago airport, that I direct The Vagina Monologues in Chiang Mai.  It seems that it will end up working out, since there is a group of English majors that need to do a performance-based final project. My final project then, would be to write a monologue based on the stories of the thai women I meet. I think it has the potential to go very well and be extremely interesting, but a lot of the factors that would make it successful or not are out of my control, which makes me nervous. I don't really like resting my grade and graduating GPA on circumstances I can't control, but John and Bob seem to think it will be amazing, so here goes! I still plan to try and learn as much as I can about kateoy culture, and hopefully integrate that into my monologue, but John thinks focusing on TVM will be a better use of my time right now, which is probably legitimate since I had been wanting to do a soc-like project, but really had no idea how to go about it. 

Also with our free day, we went to wat Jedii Luang so we could participate in monk chats. Monk Chats are basically what the name implies.  English speakers go to the wat and talk to monks who want to learn or practice their English skills. Most of the time we discussed monk life and Buddhist thought. Probably the most interesting tid-bit we learned is that the only monks who can participate in chats are the younger monks and novice monks.  Fully ordained/higher level monks can't have fun or talk to women, which excludes them from the chats. When our monk told us this, I kind of felt like I was helping to lead him away from his goal of attaining enlightenment.  But he seemed good for a chat, so I didn't feel too guilty. 

Today (Friday 1/23) we go back to CMU for language class.  I think this next lesson is on food. 

First Days in Chiang Mai

Sunday (1/18) we arrived in Chiang Mai, via train from Bangkok. We all looked a bit worse for wear after spending a night on the train and wanted nothing more than to reach the guesthouse so we could shower and change clothes. But these thoughts were temporarily driven from our minds by the amazing welcoming committee from the university that met us at the train station. Two professors and four students came. If I understood everything right, the profs were our program director and one of our Thai professors, and the students are going to serve as our official guides to Chiang Mai University and city. They helped us with our luggage and into song-taows (red pick-up trucks with the bed converted into benches - they serve as busses around Chiang Mai) and brought us garlands that are some kind of buddhist good-luck charm.

The city of Chiang Mai has an old city and a new city. The old city lies in the southwest quadrant of the whole of Chiang Mai and is separated from the new city by a brick wall in varying states of still standing to decrepit. The wall originally fortified the city against attack. Outside the wall lies a moat, again originally built to further protect the city. Now the moat has fountains and fish and at least portions of it are being used to test a new water quality regimen.

The old city wall has four original gates, one for each cardinal direction. Our guesthouse (Mountain View Guesthouse) is located just inside the north gate, also known as Chang Puak Gate (or White Elephant Gate in English). Once we had showered, changed clothes and relaxed a bit after the train ride, we trekked from the north gate to the new city side of the east gate for a Sunday night walking market. This market was HUGE. It takes over a square that is a daily market and then the next four or five blocks as well. Nikki, Gen and I wandered the market together, haggling for some deals and trying to take in as much as we could. I have some pictures of the crowd and street musicians, which I will post as soon as I can get pictures off my camera (I apparently forgot my cord stateside).

On our way back from the market we got lost and decided to ask for directions after hitting a handful of dead ends and finding ourselves next to the prison. It turns out we really were only a couple of blocks too far west and not far enough north.

Monday (1/19) we started our lives as Chiang Mai University students. That morning I couldn't wait to go downstairs and see us all in our matching black and white outfits! It was really strange to see everone in uniforms when I was used to them in colorful sweats, but still familiar because the Chiang Mai University (CMU) uniforms are very similar to the uniform I wore in high school. Mostly though, I was just really excited for Thai class and to re-meet our CMU buddies (picture will appear shortly!).

When we first arrived we met with the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities. Rather than "departments," each section of the school are called "faculties" here. The Dean welcomed us and told us a bit about CMU and the FoH in particular. The faculty was founded in the 1960s and has grown significantly since then. This year, they graduated 5000 undergrad students and 300 grad students from that Faculty alone. At CMU (or Maw Chaw as the locals call it) Humanities includes Psychology, Foreign Languages, Thai Lit and Language, Home Economics, History, Philosophy and Religion.

After our introduction from the Dean, we reunited with our Thai buddies - DiDi, Mo, Mai (or Jessi - because she likes Jessica Alba), and Pan - who are actually French students. After mingling over coffee and potato filled pastries, we boarded a purple, elongated golf cart for a tour of CMU campus. The purple golf carts serve as the campus busses and seat about 10-12 people. We saw all the different Faculties' buildings, trekked around the campus lake, tried CMU milkshakes (made by the Faculty of Agriculture students), and discussed life as a CMU versus a Coe student. One of my favorite moments was walking back from the lake. Chris confessed he had the song "Part of Your World" from the Little Mermaid stuck in his head and a few of us started belting out as much of the song as we could remember. When we stopped at one point, at a loss as to what lyrics came next, DiDi jumped in and continued the sing-a-long with us. Disney had it at least partially right with that "small world" business.

Once we finished our tour, we went to the Student Union to look around an perhaps buy lunch. We also aquired our fifth unofficial buddy, DiDi's friend Top. While at the Union we stopped in the campus store, where everything is lavender and elephants. Eating at CMU was also a bit of an adventure because it was one of the few places we've been so far that had no English at all around the food stands. I eventually let Jessi order for me.

Lunch also provided this gem from Top: "I usually eat my rice with food." - said to Holly who was the first to come down with the stomach ailment this year and decided to just have white rice for lunch.

After pointing out the best place on campus to get coffee (HB7 for 10 baht), our buddies left so that we could start Thai language class. This first day we just learned the phonetics of the language. For a taste of Thai - try to tell the difference between a "t" in say Text versus a "t" in for example Still. They are two different consonants in Thai. Now repeat that distinction with "p" and "k." And imagine a vowel that sounds like getting punched in the gut. Yeah. This is going well.

After class we met back up with our buddies and got ice cream. Mo and Jessi marked many of their favorite sights and hangouts on our maps, so we are never at a loss for places to visit. Still waiting for the perfect opportunity to go to the nightclub with Mo though.

Jan. 15-17 Recap: Bangkok

January 15th we arrived in Bangkok! With our delay in Chicago and then Narita/Tokyo, we arrived in BKK in the early afternoon. The day was gorgeous, sunny and in the 80s (compared with the double digits below zero in the Midwest!). We took taxi buses to our guesthouse by the train station, to unload luggage and then wandered the city. The group of us 9 students travelled around in a huge group this first night, and a couple of times we heard locals exclaim something like "Farong line!" enjoying the sight of us like ducks in a row.

As we wandered the city, I kept wishing I could read the graffitti we saw. Graffiti in the U.S. is fascinating enough, but this was in Thai! I was so disappointed that I couldn't read and truly appreciate it. (And no, I don't care about the road signs, just the graffiti).

Bangkok is a much busier city - or at least more chaotic in its busyness - than the U.S. cities I've been in. There is such a rush of people everywhere - on foot, on scooters and motorbikes, in tuk-tuks (glorified motorbikes), and in other vehicles. And it seems only turn signals and stop lights are required. Crosswalks, lanes, speeds, even sometimes whether sidewalks belong to peds or bikes are all up for interpretation. My mom would be horrified by how close vehicles drive to one another (if her comments to me are any indication!).

The taxis here are very brightly colored - hot pink is our favorite, but they also come in fire truck red, bright blue, irridescent purple, orange and often have another color of stripe along the side (green, white, yellow and blue are most common). Emily, Casey and I are thinking about painting my car when we get back.

That night we had dinner as a group so that we could learn how to order food for ourselves. This meant that our profs taught us the word for "I would like" and then we are supposed to point at the menu: "Kaw... (point)." Also at dinner we learned how to say "excuse me" - kaw tope. This simple two syllable phrase proved quite difficult for our group, however, due to Thai tones. In english a rising tone indicates a question, and (in english) you can change a statement to a question just by raising the tone of your voice on the last word. So, when we were practicing "excuse me" in Thai we would say "kaw tope" and give both words a rising tone, since we were trying to ask for confirmation or correction of our pronounciations. In doing this though, we completely destroyed the meaning of the phrase.

On the 16th (Friday) each of us students woke up at various times anywhere between 4:00 am and 10:00 am, due to jet lag. It's pretty amazing - we're all in bed by 8 or 9 and most of us get up by 7. Our parents would love us in Thailand so much more - no more angry, sleepy mornings! By 9:00 we were leaving the guesthouse, again as a large group of foreign students, to try to find ourselves some food. We had wandered past a bunch of delicious smelling food stands in BKK's Chinatown (it has a Chinatown and an Indiatown) the day before, so we decided to try to find these stalls again. And this brings us to our first cultural lesson:

Food is not as readily available in Thailand as it is in the US. Our wanderings did not bring the same bounty of smells and people that we had seen the night before and eventually a local who took pity on the "lost" farong told us that, 1 - it was too early to get food (since most stalls and vendors do not open until 10:30 for lunch time) and 2 - we were not in a safe part of town to be wandering around in. Oops. He suggested we take a tuk-tuk or taxi to the other side of town and see the sights. This we did not do, since we were going later that day with our profs, but we did cross the couple of streets to the "better, safer" side. As we did this, the first stalls began to open and we were able to purchase chai yen (milk tea) and some rice dishes for about 45 baht total (just over a dollar), making it the cheapest meal I have ever eaten.

That afternoon we took a boat tour around the city. Originally, the only way to get around Bangkok was by boat; there were no roads. Even today, gridlock around the city's streets can become bad enough that sometimes water taxi is still the best option. Our tour took us first to a Snake Farm, which had a zoo-like area and also included a snake show. During the show they milked a cobra and did a bunch of other stunts with mildly to very poisonous local snakes. I touched a python, had a monkey repeatedly grab my knee looking for food, and I fed nuts to a bear.

The next stop was a wat (buddhist temple) called Temple of the Dawn. It is built in the Cambodian style of temples (meaning it had a lot of tall, narrow towers), and was decorated with broken pottery imported/stolen from China. Here we spent a lot of time looking around at all the different buddha statues in various areas of the temple and most, if not all, of our group climbed the extremely narrow stairs to the highest public level of the main temple (about halfway up the tallest spire). These steps were so steep that to climb them you were almost on hands and knees and had to turn your feet sideways on the step if you wanted to have any chance of them fitting on the stairs. It was intense. (I hope to post pictures once we reach Chiang Mai; I apologize for not being able to now.)

Our final stop was an outdoor market at a pier. Translated the pier is called "Elephant Pier." One part of the market is famous for it's large amount of buddhist amulets. There was so much food and drinks to partake in at the market. We all bought various fruits - rambutans, mangosteens, various banana varieties, mango - and some sort of food, whether a rice dish or skewers of meat. Chai yen and rosella juice have become the groups favorite drinks, while we have also tried guava juice and soda, pineapple soda, strawberry soda, chrysanthemum juice, parsley juice, green coconut juice, tangerine juice, and some sort of fruit punch. I am the only one who despises green coconut juice - it was such a weird mix of sweet, bitter and salty, but I was the only one who disliked it. And parsley juice was surprisingly good - it tasted tangy and fresh, like raw parsley, but also sweet. Very refreshing.

I know how to say hello (swa-tee-kah), lonely (wa-way), excuse me (kaw-tope) and I'd like a thai iced tea (kaw-chai-yen). Basically, I'm ready to move here! (NO.) I think I really need to figure out Yes, No, Sorry, Thank you, Just walking and Bathroom/Toilet because I keep trying to say these things in Spanish or English - neither of which are helpful. Drex and John (our professors) keep using their Thai skills, with taxi drivers or vendors or to get random tour people to leave us alone; its like they're teasing us. I can't wait to start Thai classes at Chiang Mai.

Today (Saturday, Jan. 17th) we continued our tour around Bangkok, seeing Wat Pho - home of the Reclining Buddha (which is HUGE) and another wat attached to the Royal Palace that is home of the Emerald Buddha. I will post more about these places and pictures tomorrow, however, since I need to go meet the group for our train to Chiang Mai! So excited!

Airports and Delays

I have been up for just over 28 hours. Woo!

We got up extra early this morning to ensure we could make it through any blizzard conditions we encountered on the way to the CR airport. The flight to Chicago went very well, but once in O'Hare, things went downhill. First we were delayed from 12:00 noon to 1:30, then til 6, then 3, then 4:15, but when all was said and done we left the ground at about 6:10. Yuck. So while United did "at least get us to Asia" (to quote our apologetic pilot), we are overnighting in Tokyo instead of Bangkok. I guess we just get an extra adventure out of the deal.

Prof. Drexler promises we'll have a good view tomorrow morning when we leave the hotel and fly to BKK. The Tokyo-Narita airport is essentially in the middle of rice paddies, about 2 hours from Tokyo proper. It sounds gorgeous and we may be able to see more of Japan as well as Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia out of the plane windows if their clear weather holds. Should be exciting!

In about ten more hours, we'll all be in Thailand! :)