“I want one of those, and one of those, and that!”

- Ajaan Bob’s imagining of Rama IV

On Sunday, Bob took me to a Royal Palace and the city and ruins of Ayutthaya.  This was possibly the most memorable day trip of the lot.  We started by taking the Bangkok subway, which uses these really cool one-trip token things.  They're plastic and have a computer chip inside that records where you are going and how much you paid and controls the gate that lets you in and out of the subway.  The tokens probably are not actually that interesting, but I thought they were cool. We rode the subway to the train station (sa-ta-nee rot fai), where we got 12 baht, 3rd class tickets to the palace.  

3rd class train is quite the experience, let me tell you. It’s basically open-air, because all of the windows were open before we left the station. Each set of benches is slightly smaller than a car’s backseat, but most of the time you cram three people onto them anyway.  I sat next to a mother with two kids, one about 4 the other not yet walking. Vendors push around all the bodies in the seats and in the isles, hawking everything from rice, juice, water to nylon hammocks.  Two of the men sitting by Bob, across the isle from me, bought four or five hammocks from the vendor.  They thought it was the sweetest deal ever.  The mother sharing my seat bought her four-year-old some rice.  And she promptly got train-sick while eating it. As the train began to fill, people ran out of seats and began crowing in the isles.  This did not deter the vendors traveling up and down the train. One man standing near me had a fish the size of someone’s face in a bag of water, as though it were a goldfish he were taking home from the petstore. When we were a station away from our stop Bob and I got up and made our way to the door of the car. This was necessary because none of the station stops were very long. I ended up standing in the space between two cars, watching the ground fly past below, thinking it wasn’t so different from riding the accordion of a two-car bus. 

The palace we went to see is located in the country about a two-hour train ride from Bangkok. It was built by Ramas IV and V in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  The idea behind the palace was to build one of everything that Rama IV saw on a European tour.  No joke.  They had a French palace, and English manor, a Chinese palace, gothic cathedral turned buddhist wat, among other buildings and parks. It was crazy.  All of the buildings had very vibrant colors as well - the french house was yellow, the english one was purple, chinese red, observatory yellow and red stripes... very interesting and rather strange to see them all crammed into the same place instead of hundreds of miles apart. 

Once we had exhausted the palace, Bob and I took a boat up the river (the traditional means of travel around Thailand, especially around Bangkok) to Ayutthaya.  

After the kingdom of Sukkhothai fell out of power, the kindom of Ayutthaya became dominant in Siam.  The capital city once held at least one million people and was a great center of trade between India, Europe, China and the rest of Southeast Asia. In 1776 it was ransacked and destroyed by the Burmese, who came in, burned everything they could, stole and melted all the Buddha images, and killed as many as they could - including monks.  This is especially strange to me, since the Burmese are Theravada Buddhists, as are the Thais/Siamese.  Seems you might kill different kinds of Buddhists, but your own sect?  I don't know. 

This destruction had a different result than the destruction of Sukkhothai.  Sukkhothai was destroyed and then left as ruins.  Other cities became important, diminishing new construction, so the ruins in Sukkhothai are all that is left in Sukkhothai.  Ayutthaya on the other hand, has been rebuilt around the ruins.  You have to drive thru a growing urban center to get from one ruined wat or palace to another.  Also, some of the ruined temples have rebuilt active wats inside them.  I'm not certain how I feel about this difference or exactly how it affected my experience viewing the ruins.  I didn't always feel that the ruins were as impressive as at Angkor or Sukkhothai, but at the same time, it was really interesting to see a ruined jedi at one end of a soccerfield, or a gleaming new white wat situated in the center of a walled-in group of ruins.

"May your wisdom be as wide as the ocean."

- my prayer painting... thing...

Today was our last day in Vietnam.  We taxied to the University and met with our professors there before setting out to visit a couple of pagodas.  The first was sort of like the Doi Sutep of the Hanoi area, with the temple complex being the largest and highest in the area.  No elephants expiring on the site though.  Bummer.  Ian, Patricia and I got harassed for not purchasing snacks at one of the auxilliary temples.  Vietnamese Buddhism could use a Jesus-in-the-temple figure; just about everyone we've visited has had a bunch of vendor stalls near, if not inside, it.

The second pagoda we visited was much smaller, but we spent our entire visit with the abbott, who was fantastic.  They made us a vegetarian meal for lunch.  Most were very surprised because it was the best meal we had in Vietnam.  No joke. After lunch we had question and answer time with the Abbott.  This was so amazing, despite the copious amounts of translating (interpreting) that had to occur.  We had been to monk chats and such in Thailand, and spoke with many Thai people (who have a better handle on their Buddhism than Vietnamese, since VN Buddhism really combines a bunch of other practices for most people), but this was the first time we were able to ask our questions to a learned monk, who had dedicated his life to learning about and practicing Buddhism.  In Vietnam they practice a form of Mahayana Buddhism, versus the Theravada Buddhism practiced in Thailand.  While Mahayana swears off meat entirely (and not really in VN...), where they are allowed to eat meat given certain requirements are met in Theravada Buddhism, in all other manners, Mahayana seems to be less strict than Theravada Buddhism.  For example, in Thailand, monks could not take or give something directly from or to a woman.  This is not the case in Vietnam or apparently Mahayana Buddhism in general. In the same vein, while in Thailand novice monks can participate in monk chats and just talk with people about Buddhism, fully ordained monks cannot - it's seen as fun or frivolous. So this was the first time we had been able to talk with a monk who was fully versed in Buddhist belief and teaching.  I'm not certain about others, but I definitely got clearer answers to some of my questions about Buddhism today. 

After Q & A, the Abbott made us prayer scroll things.  These are a Chinese influence, I believe, but basically they are a sort of prayer or blessing written for each individual in traditional Vietnamese characters.  Each has a main character or message in the center in large characters, and a secondary message or explanation on the right in smaller characters.  On the left, the monk who writes it signs his name.  Then a buddha image gets stamped at the very top. My prayer reads:

"May your wisdom be as wide as the sea.

May you teach your students with unending enthusiasm."

Each of the Vietnamese people translated the characters a little differently, so I feel the exact translation is a little loose or cloudy, but this pieces together my favorite translations. I can't wait to get it back home and framed and hung somewhere. :)

I also keep finding the most adorable puppies in Vietnam that I want to bring home to North Carolina with me.  But that's still a ways off in the future, and I would have a hard time sneaking one through customs. 

Leaving bright and early (5 a.m.) tomorrow for Cambodia!

"Go a-way! Go a-way!"

- Ajaan Rien, paraphrasing the first King of Siam

Two weekends ago, we packed up all of our belongings, tried really hard to make them all fit back into our suitcases (mostly everyone failed), and moved to the hostel located on CMU's campus - Uniserv. This move was necessitated by the lack of air-conditioning and over 95 degree weather that started a week or so before we left and should continue to rise until after we leave in April.

As soon as our luggage was safely in Uniserv storage, we headed out (all 12 of us from Coe and a group of five A-jaans from CMU) in two vans to survey the sites of Sukhothai and other ancient cities. The Dean of the Humanities - Ajaan Rien - was a tour guide before landing his cushy job at Maw-Chaw, so he was able to tell us all of these amazing (and sometimes not so amazing stories) about the places we were visiting. Some of the basics:

Before Thailand became Thailand, back in the 12th century or so (Europe's middle ages, he reminded us), the first Kingdom of Siam was founded, with it's capital in Sukhothai. Other related kingdoms include Ayudaya and Lanna. Both Ayudaya and Lanna were founded after Sukothai, and eventually Ayudaya became dominant. But Sukhothai was first, so it still maintains a lot of prestige (unlike Lanna, which is important to the Northern Thais and some Lao, but not really anyone else, apparently). While most of Sukhothai and its satellite cities - S... something and Pitsanulok, which I'm sure I misspelled, was burned down by the invading Burmese army during the Ayudaya period, the temples still remain. Why the temples you ask? Well - in Sukhothai, there were three classes of building - those for normal people, those for royalty, and the temples - and each of these classes were made with differing building materials. The Palace was built with teak wood, and normal buildings were made from bamboo and thatch, so they either were burned down by the Burmese, or decayed over time. The Temples on the other hand are special and were made of stone, dug from the ground - natalite... or latelite... something like that, so they're still standing.

Ajaan Rien told us how the French - the first Farang in Thailand - didn't believe the Thais when they said they dug the stone from the ground. It looks a lot like volcanic rock, and Thailand is mountainous, so the French said "No, you got that stone from the volcano." To which the Thais said "Silly farang. There are no volcanos in Thailand." Rather the stone is found 2-3 meters below the ground soil. When it is in the ground, it is somewhat clay like and a little pliable, allowing blocks to be cut out. Once above ground they bake and harden in the sun and then are solid as other rocks and used to build temples.

There is a lot of Khmer (Cambodian) and Chinese influence in the architecture of the time. These two groups both worked to influence, and in the case of the Khmer, control the area. As an act of defiance against the Khmer, the later buildings are almost all in a pseudo-Chinese style, called Sukhothai style. This creativity in architecture and decoration was meant to show that the Thai kingdom was separate and independent from the Khmer kingdom, similar to the Declaration of Independence, but minus the Revolutionary War. Apparently the Khmer didn't care about North/Central Thailand that much.

In Sukhothai we saw what is supposed to be the most beautiful image of the walking Buddha. It was pretty nice; huge too. But as we biked around the park containing all the Sukhothai ruins, Patrica, Emily, Holly and I found one that we decided was more beautiful. It was smaller, much more graceful and actually caught the movement of "walking," unlike the big one, which just looked like Buddha standing. The four of us also sneaked off the beaten path to a quiet corner, found an empty pedestal (you'd be surprised how easy that was!) and formed the group of us into our own huge "subduing Mara" (evil, the devil) Buddha. Then P, E, and H posed as the Holy Family, to ensure we were equal-opportunity blasphemers.

Just outside the old city of Sukhothai, we saw the biggest Buddha image in Thailand (maybe anywhere?). If I had been standing on its pedestal, Buddha's knee (as he sits crosslegged, lotus-style) would have hit right around my upper arm or shoulder. We're talking gi-normous Buddha. Gi-normous Buddha is known in Thai as the Talking Buddha, and not because his pose is of Buddha giving a sermon or anything. No, Buddha's just doing his usual thing - Subduing Mara. The story of the talking Buddha is my favorite from the trip, and goes a little something like this:
One day, the Burmese army comes invading - as the Burmese army is wont to do according to Thai history. (I'm pretty sure if they taught history in Burma/Myanmar, they would say the same about the Thais, but since they don't (which is another post entirely), who can say?) And the King (I believe it is the king of Ayudaya at this point, but don't quote that), he's having none of this "invading, burning everything down and taking all your land" business, so he runs ahead of his troops and tries to cut the Burmese army off before they can burn down Sukhothai. The King thinks to himself, "Hey, the Burmese army isn't going to listen to my plea, so how else can I get them to leave us alone?" Then he finds himself at the gi-normous Buddha, and decided that perhaps the Burmese would listen to an order from Lord Buddha himself. So, the industrious King scrambles behind the gi-normous Buddha (supposedly seconds before the Burmese would have seen him, if Ajaan Rien's retelling is to be believed), and starts bellowing "Go a-way! Go a-way! Leave! Leave!" The Burmese army is reluctant to attack in the face of a giant, "talking" Buddha telling them to scat, so they peace out and live to pillage another day.

Isn't that great?! I love it.

Another fun moment was when Ajaan Rien was explaining why the windows in the temple were so small and narrow - "We Thai people were not so good at maths" was the inital response. When that warranted blank looks, he explained more thoroughly, that they hadn't discovered how to build larger windows and hold the roof up at the same time - much like medieval castles in Europe. The phenomenon had never been put to us in that fashion before, and it caught us off-guard.

When not touring ancient ruins, we ate a lot of Northern Thai food, drove a lot, and spent a ton of time in hotel swimming pools (usually playing chicken). The weather that weekend was wicked hot (forecasted over 110) and you would drip just from being outside, so the pool was really the only place to be.

Returning to Chiang Mai and Uniserv we discovered the main drawback to moving - less internet, which is why the posting has fallen completely off the band wagon. One project for the week - Get caught up before we leave for Vietnam. :)

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. 

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!