Toasty in Thailand

That is the forecast for this week.

Important: All temperatures are in Celsius.

36˚ in Celsius corresponds to 97˚F.

In my experience so far in Thailand, the actual temperature meets or exceeds the listed high every afternoon.

Also important: April and May are the hottest months of the year.

Leia Mais…

My family

My host "parents":

As you can probably see, they are very young. They own a company that sells used cars, and based on other aspects of their life here, I'd say they are very successful. (They actually told me how much they make each month, but I'm not going to pass that information along. It might not be unusual for them to tell me - or they were bragging, I'm not sure - but I would feel uncomfortably sharing that little tidbit.)

P'Noi goes to their office occasionally, but for the most part she stays home and takes care of the kids. I'm actually not sure what she does with her time, because it seems to me that the maids do most of the work anyway. She is a bit glamourous, and loves having her picture taken. We went to an old temple a couple weeks ago, and instead of admiring its beauty, we admired hers. She spent at least an hour having a friend take pictures of her. Still, she's really nice, and has a good sense of humor. She loves to talk a lot, and I've seen her spend hours on the phone. She certainly dominates conversations between her and her husband.

P'Book is a former tennis champion, and is a bit of a badass. On weekend mornings, he walks around the house in black dress pants, no shirt, and a long gold necklace. This is before he goes to work, both Saturday and Sunday. I don't see much of him - he's gone before I wake up (at 7am) and I've yet to see him come home at night. He only takes days off to go on family vacations occasionally (as in the picture above).

Benz:

Benz is 8-years old, and I think she's in Grade 2. Her English is amazing, and so she's been great to have around. She is like my sister (Josie) in many ways, but to an extreme. She doesn't just like clothes and makeup and princesses; she does beauty pageants and other types of competitions (dance, singing). She loves art too. She has a different special class or lesson every day of the week - either singing, Thai dancing, ballet, drawing/painting, etc.

Boss:

Boss is, in most ways, an average 6-year old boy. He loves video games, superheroes, action movies, etc. He's a really sweet kid, but he's a bit spoiled. I've yet to see him eat by himself - one of the maids feeds him most of the time, while he plays video games or watches TV. I guess part of this is because he's living in a well-to-do family, but there's also a sexist aspect to this. Boys are prized in Thailand, and he is treated like a prince sometimes.

Som:

This is P'Noi's sister. She's a year younger than me, I think. She lives at her university, but I've seen her a few times on weekends. I probably should talk to her more, but I have to get over that vague uncomfortable feeling I have when I'm around her. She's also very glamourous and fashionable.

P'Jiyab (spelling?):

She is the other maid (who wasn't pictured in my last post). She probably my favorite person in the house, although I love my whole family. She doesn't speak any English, but she and I and my dictionary did have one substantial conversation. I was curious about her, and I asked if she had any family. She does have a son, who is just a couple years old. I was really surprised, because she is at my house every day, from before I wake up until at least 7 or 8pm. She must miss her boy like crazy...

I also asked her if she liked her job, and after some hesitation, she told me she doesn't (she needs the money). I don't blame her. As much as I like my family, they are annoyingly helpless. They call one of the maids to come from whatever they're doing, just to get them a glass of water. If I were her, I'd resent that. Obviously that's not my place though, so I just make sure I take care of my dishes and get my own glass of water.

So that's it! It's definitely the best host family I've had so far, and hopefully it will be my last. Living in another country is difficult enough, but also having to worry about a host family relationship is sometimes more than I can handle. Still, it's good while I'm young to have this established home base. Now I'm going to go downstairs and wait for P'Noi to come. She was supposed to be here 45 minutes ago... I'm still not quite adjusted to Thai time!

Sawatdee kha!

Love,

Alex

Leia Mais…

My house

I said this before, but it's important to keep in mind: My host family is not an accurate representation of Thai living. My family is not poor, and could afford to have this house build for them. (P'Noi designed it herself.) It is so far removed from average Thai living, in fact, that multiple times a year, TV movies are filmed here! They filmed one since I arrived, but it was over the few days that I was on my business trip.

In the picture on the left is one of my family's two maids. Apparently she's younger than me. She came here from Burma a couple years ago, but I don't know much of her story. P'Noi told me not to talk to her too much. I guess the last foreign student (Rebecca) that was here tried to be her friend, and then she started using all of Rebecca's things - including contact lenses! I'm not willing to share to that extent, so I try to keep my distance a little bit.

Note: This house is very difficult to photograph, so there is lots I'm not including. Hopefully this will give you a feel of where I'm living though!

The "garden" and front gate:

Thai people have held on to many historic beliefs that are visible and relevant in everyday life. For example, every building is believed to house spirits that can be either helpful or cruel to the building's inhabitants. In order to stay on the spirits' good side, almost every building has these "spirit houses" where they leave gifts and food for the spirits:

The living room:

The dining room:

The kitchen:

There is another area with another refrigerator for us to use. The maids are pretty much the only ones who use the kitchen.

Going upstairs:

The upstairs:

From left to right: my room, the Buddha shrine room, Benz' room.

My room:

"My" bathroom:

I say it's mine because everyone else has bathrooms attached to their rooms. Plus there are 2 others downstairs. Isn't it pretty? Notice the lack of toilet paper, and the hose to the left of the toilet that is used instead. This is pretty standard in Thailand. I've seen some pretty weird bathrooms (and have them all photo-documented) so I think that will be a post-worthy topic sometime in the future.

And the shower area:

And finally, some of the trophies that P'Book has won for his amazing tennis playing!

Well I hope you all like pictures!

Happy Monday!

Love,

Alex

Leia Mais…

Language issues

Thai is a very difficult language, and my knowing Chinese has both helped and hindered the learning process. There are parts of Thai language that are very similar to Chinese (measure words, for example) and very different from English. I remember having a really hard time in China adjusting to these strange differences. Now it's no problem for me though.

However, having two Asian languages that I'm trying to keep in my head is tough. More than once, I've responded to Thai people with hao (OK in Chinese) or dui (correct in Chinese). And when I think in Chinese now, I've started to add kha (polite end particle in Thai) to then ends of my sentences.

My biggest fear in coming to Thailand was forgetting (or losing some) Chinese, and that seemed to be happening over the past week. Words that I'm sure I used to know, I just couldn't think of. Luckily last night, I had a chance to confirm my Chinese-speaking abilities with a teacher at a Chinese language school. It was so much fun! As much as I love Thailand so far, nothing will replace my attachment to China and Chinese language. Anyway, we talked for about 45 minutes, and exchanged numbers. I guess he was as happy to have someone to talk to in Chinese as I was!

A final frustrating language issue I'm having: A lot of Thai people know a few words in Chinese, and when they hear I speak Chinese, they take the opportunity to show it off. I have no problem with this - despite their poor accents, I can understand them. The problem comes when they throw these words randomly into sentences, and my mind is in Thai mode and I don't catch them. Then they have a great time laughing about my confusion, because "can't you speak Chinese?!"

I should probably go see if anyone is awake now (they weren't when I woke up), and get the day started. Soon I will have picture of my elephant adventure in Ayuttaya province!

Love,

Alex

P.S. Here are the pictures I promised you from my Thai dancing fiasco...

The teacher is on the left. I'm not sure what she's doing with her hand, but I assure you, Benz and I are correct.

Look at the scary way her fingers bend backwards! Mine don't do that. I know this from when they tried to break my fingers, and I still couldn't do it.

Funny how it looks so natural for them and I look like a bad mime.

Leia Mais…

My first "business" trip

I don't know the names of the places where I went, or where they are located in Thailand, but overall it was a wonderfully weird trip. To the left is everyone who went with us. We're at a recycling plant. Because very few people spoke English, and even fewer people spoke to me at all, I don't know why a recycling plant was our very first destination. I guess it's the biggest one in Thailand.

We stayed in a different hotel each night, and both were 5-star. So far, if I went strictly off my experiences here (which are not an accurate representation of Thai living), I'd have to say that the living standard in Thailand is much higher than in the States. As soon as I put pictures of my house, everyone will know what I mean.

The other people who went (various workers from Ban Rachawadee) were nice, but for the most part I got the feeling that they didn't care that I was there. They seemed to assume that I either understood what was going on, or it didn't matter that I didn't. I also get the feeling that I annoy my advisor, but that is probably just a feeling. When she does talk to me, she's always nice, but she doesn't talk to me often.

The places we went more than made up for it though. My favorite was a hike to the top of a mountain. The hike itself was amazing, and it felt great to really exert myself, and the view was absolutely beautiful. This is the only place that I don't have pictures of, due to a dead camera battery...

I also went to many, many temples. The first was for a past Thai king, who apparently really enjoyed cockfighting. I lit incense there, and had to kneel and pray (I think it was praying...I just copied what I saw other people doing). Temples in Thailand are beautiful, but there are some really unusual practices.

First, always take your shoes off. This applies to many public places, including offices. It's nice; it kind of gives the places a home-y feeling.

Here you are supposed to shake the cup of sticks until one (only one) falls out. This is much harder to do than they make it look. I was afraid of shaking it too much and throwing all the sticks in the air, so I was being extra careful. I shook for a good minute and a half before anything happened at all. The sticks each have a number on them, and the number corresponds to a certain fortune that they give you. The fortunes are in Thai, so I don't know what mine is.

I did various other things at the temples. Walking with a candle in a circle two times (I was later told that it was probably supposed to be three times and I messed up), putting money on a stick and giving it to a Buddha statue, hitting bells with sticks, a lot of kneeling and praying and touching my forehead to the floor. It was all very interesting, but I don't understand why we did these things.

Dinner at the first hotel (to the left of me is my advisor; to the right is a nurse that I talked to quite a bit):

After this dinner, there was a karaoke party and dancing. (Parents: avert your eyes or consider yourselves warned.) After a few too many wine coolers (meaning I had 2), they pulled me up to Thai dance with them, and it didn't seem like a terrible idea. It was a fun night.

Our tour guides:

When I showed these pictures to Pee Noi, she informed me that these are actually men who have become women. I don't know how she's so sure, but she is.

The director of Ban Rachawadee and her daughter and me:

That's all for now. I have lots more to talk about though, so another post will be coming soon!

Love,

Alex

Leia Mais…

My job

I am working at Ban Rachawadee in Nonthaburi Province, just outside of Bangkok. (Yes, it's spelled differently on the sign. They are wrong.) It is a home for boys with both mental and physical disabilities. There are about 600 living there, and most are officially orphaned. Their families (from all over Thailand) are often too poor to care for a child with such extreme handicaps, and so turn them over to the care of the state. They live at a home down the street until they are 7-years old, then they live the rest of their lives at Ban Rachawadee. They are separated by severity of condition, from unable to function at all to very self-sufficient but unable to live on their own. I chose to work with the more self-sufficient group.

The first day there wasn't bad, but I didn't fall in love with the job either. Today, though, I really had a good time. Ban Rachawadee has a lot of different activities for the boys and men to participate in, but I was immediately attracted to the art room. So far I know I haven't worked with children, but I can't guess the age of the men I'm working with. I help them with their work, and hopefully will be able to suggest some new projects for them. All of their crafts are sold in the on-sight store.

All of the staff are really nice (like all the Thai people I've met so far). They even nicknamed me! Tomorrow I will go with them to a province in Northern Thailand for 2 days. I think it is some sort of conference where we'll meet people and see other homes like Ban Rachawadee. I'm sure I won't understand any of it, but it's in the mountains so I'm excited about that.

A large gymnasium for organized games and free time:

Some of their bodies are severely deformed, and so they learn to use whatever they can best control. This is often their feet or mouths.

One of the boys had a crush on my host mom!

The love getting their picture taken.

I sewed together the one on the right!

I spent the morning outside with them, making and packaging hooks to hang keys on.

In other news, I think I have been officially accepted as a member of my host family. First of all, if you didn't know already, Thai people live by their own special time. If a Thai person tells you 10:00, don't expect them before 10:15. Yesterday my host mom told me she would pick me up between 4:00 and 4:30, and when she came at 4:25, she apologized for making me wait. Today she told me the same time, and made no mention of her arrival at 5:15!

Today I also had my first, and hopefully last, experience with Thai dancing. My host sister had her first lesson tonight, and they said I could come along and try it. I was really excited, but after 20 minutes, my fingers, wrists, neck, knees, and toes were in pain. I wasn't even thinking about the 10 people inside the studio watching me, and the various passers-by looking through the windows! The pictures from this experience are on my host family's camera, so those will come some other time.

This was an unavoidably long post, so I'm sorry about that. For those of you who stuck it out, thank you and I hope I didn't bore you!

Love,

Alex

Leia Mais…

Sawatdeekha!

I haven't been away from my computer for this long in at least a year. It's nice to be back.

The past week has (of course) been a bit of a roller coaster. Los Angeles was wonderful-- sunny and breezy, and I really enjoyed seeing Joy again and meeting her husband.

It ended too soon though, and soon I was at the beginning of a 25-hour trip to Bangkok. It wasn't bad. I finished Life of Pi (great book), watched some bad movies, listened to music, and rested (but didn't sleep).

We finally got into Bangkok around 11:30 Thursday night (11:30 Thursday morning in Michigan). The hotel that AFS put us up in was amazing. I'm sorry I didn't take pictures of our room, but I don't think I will forget it anytime soon.

There are a total of 12 people staying in Thailand to do community service. I am the only one staying in Bangkok, which is both a blessing and a curse for me. I really would rather be in less of a tourist (Westernized) area, but all of the Thai people that I know live in Bangkok so I will get to see them often.

I see this already becoming lengthy, so I will just include a few highlights of my first few days in Thailand. My host family is wonderful. They are young, so I call my host parents by the word for older sibling. The kids are great, and they make adjusting to life here a lot easier. They've taken me out each day so far, and I've eaten more squid in the past 2 days than I ever planned to in my lifetime. I saw an elephant in the street, surrounded by all the crazy Thai drivers. My host parents like to take advantage of my not understand them or Thai culture, so they say shocking things and then laugh at my response when I try to be polite. I am learning to bow to everyone I meet, and to sit without crossing my legs so as to avoid pointing my foot at people (a big no-no in Thai culture).

A high-tech toilet in Tokyo:

And for all of you who love the sound of a toilet flushing but could never indulge in your love because of the water-waste, the Japanese have a solution for you!

There will be more to come!

Love,

Alex

Leia Mais…