About Me
Friday, August 27, 2010
Fishy business
The word for Water is Nom. Nom nom nom. Delicious. The word for fish is blah. Blaaaah.
Today we went to a fish farm. I know it doesn’t sound all that exciting, but it was probably the best time I’ve had here so far…maybe ever. Okay I’m exaggerating but it was really an amazing experience. It wasn’t just a “fish farm” it was an NGO called the Northern Thailand Foundation for Enablement. Basically they raise Tilapia and harvest their eggs (or frys as they called them) to sell to other farmers who raise them to full size and sell them. It was such a well thought out process it was brilliant. Everything was sustainable and natural and just…so cool to see in practice.
Even better than just getting a tour and watching the process in action…we got to get right up in there with those fish. Down and dirty. Oh so dirty. Shin deep in muck, chest deep in water, finger deep in fish mouth. work work working our cares away. I’m sure it was pretty amusing for the seasoned workers to watch a bunch of students filling nets with flailing fish splashing muddy water in our faces as we shrieked like little girls (even the boys I swear. Like little girls) It was hard! Some of those fish were feisty little guys…or not so little guys. The Tilapia never got tooo big, maybe the biggest I saw was arm length to my elbow. But there were some carp that were massive. The biggest I saw looked like a giant gold fish I kinda wanted to take him home but I would have needed a Guinness Book worthy zip lock baggie for this guy. He was fat too. So cute. We also found a walking cat fish, we put it on the ground to see why it got its name, and there it went walking on back to the water. Okay it was a little more like slithering but still pretty bizarre because it used its too side fins to propel forward. Oh we also found dancing shrimp. And ate them. Right there and then. In the water. As fresh as it gets. They’re pretty tiny like the size of one to two knuckles and completely clear but they’re like pop rocks in your mouth..they jump around. I’m not gunna lie I was grossed out I had to bite down right away because it freaked me out. And then their stringy antenna and legs got caught in my teeth and I’m not going to act like I was okay with that either. But no regrets, it was an experience I’ll not easily forget. We collected some and they made them into a small salad for us to sample at lunch, with cilantro and stuff…it was way more fun to eat then.
After a couple hours of transferring a whole pond of tilapia from one site to another (not exaggerating) we got to spend some more time with fish. This time I spent less time with my fingers in ITS mouth and more with my fingers in MY mouth. It was oh so tasty. Fried Tilapia dipped in sweet and sour like sauce, mixed with rice…I think I may have eaten a whole fish. Nom Nom Nom Blah blah blah.
As we cleaned up, some of the workers played instruments and soon the students were joining in. and soon Jamie and I were being taught a traditional Thai dance. And soon we were showing it to other girls, and soon we had a performance to put on. It was such a blast, we had a woman playing a traditional Thai string instrument that sounded similar to a violin, Max on the drums, Jon on the Thai guitar, an adorable older woman playing something similar to symbols and a whole company of dancers. I don’t think I stopped smiling the entire afternoon.
With our bellies full we went out searching for some full fish mouths. They taught us how to look for eggs (which the females keep in their mouths) First we learned to distinguish between male and female (I’ll spare you the dirty details), then learn how to tell if the females have eggs, then learn how to collect them if they do. It was such a blast learning how to catch the fish with mostly our bare (or gloved) hands and so weird to see the females practically throwing up their bright yellow eggs. Jordan and I had a blast trying to become fish whisperers and ridding the tilapia school of the foreign carp. We literally didn’t notice when half of our group moved to a new pond. Whoops.
Then we had to do some REAL labor. Net cleaning. I don’t know how these little ladies did it. There were only two of them doing it when we got there, and once we started they took a break and watched. Again I’m sure it was something similar to a zoo attraction we probably looked ridiculous there were about 6 of us per big net and we had them laid out on the ground as we scrubbed them with push broom style brushes. I was soooo into it. For about 10 minutes. Then my back hurt. And I could feel blisters forming on my palms. And then the sweat came. And I gained sooo much respect for these adorable women who were smiling at us from the comfort of their chairs.
5 hours later, with my white shirt 3 shades closer to brown, and my muscles aching (Not to mention the smell)… it was finally time to leave. I learned so much from the staff and the head honcho of the farm who showed us around all day and explained everything. Such an amazing, fun, absolutely wonderful experience.
And to top it all off even the van rides to and from were epic. We traveled in style.The vans were …as Ted said… “Probably so illegal in America” They were so comfortable, cushiony, laid back. These were high class. Reserved for those with good manners, as the no farting allowed sticker illustrated for us. No joke. Red circle. Red dash over stick figure emitting offensive fumes. From anus. In addition to hilarious stickers and posh seating there was a huge T.V. and Karaoke. Probably the best idea ever, until the lack of any single one English language CD forced us to attempt Thai Karaoke.
Don’t worry, I’ve got it on film.
Other exciting news… I now have a grandpa! He is so cute. I call him gom gom. He is hard of hearing (aka more forgiving of my terrible Thai) and thinks I’m clever for using chop sticks…I love him already
Also: Upon my real brother's request I will attempt to name the rest of my family over hear in the SE Asia. Spelled Phonetically. Chem (9) Meyo (10) Jay (15) Ting (16) Brother..don't know his name (20), Fong (25), Chahn (27), and Ling maybe not sure (31) May (pronunciacion for mom), and Paw (dad) .... Huuuge family. It's like I never left home. Don't worry real fam I still miss and love you.
Life is great.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Just another day in Chiang Mai
Today I realized that somehow upon arriving in this country I magically became an expert at using chop sticks. No joke. Thailand loves me.
Also today was the Third day of classes. Language is really intense and to be honest hurts my brain…a lot. But it’s amazing how much I’m learning so quickly and I love the teachers. I can't imagine how much will power it takes them not to laugh at my feeble attempts to pronounce words that feel just.. so wrong to my American trained mouth. Despite our butchering of their native language they are really encouraging, which is fortunate because every time I think I'm catching on to one thing we move on to something new and again I'm drowning in syllables and tones, wanting to give up and go cry to my host mom and eat my feelings with a big bowl of sticky rice.
We are taught completely in Thai, we aren’t supposed to use ANY English. Nada. Whoops wrong language.. we still ask quite a few questions in English because we don’t know enough to ask in Thai yet, but I’m pretty sure they’re going to be strict about it as soon as we know enough to get by. So I have that to look forward to. Terrifying.
Because it’s the first week things are pretty unstable, we’ve been doing a lot of orientation and today we went on a city tour to the art museum, a "rahn yahan" (restaurant) and a big market (Kat-Luang)to do a scavenger hunt. It was pretty much awesome.
The market was HUGE. There were so many things to look at, so many smells (The good ones;amazing. The bad ones...foul.foul.foul), and of course, so much to taste. Our scavenger hunt was written in Thai so we had no idea what we were looking for. We went around to whoever looked like they weren't busy...pointed to the word...and said "Arai ka? Arai ka?" Basically we were the epitome of a foreigner, primitively pointing and grunting.."what what?" Luckily Thai people are the most amazing, helpful people I've ever met and everyone just pointed us the right direction until finally we were standing in front of a booth holding at least a dozen colorful things that I was hesitant to label as fruit because they looked more like children’s toys. But 3 seconds later I was shown that yes indeed it was edible: clear, sweet, smooth, delicious.
Some little old lady even walked around with us showing us where things were, it was adorable I wanted to take her home with me...I don't have a host grandma yet, if I knew enough Thai I would have asked her if she wanted to .
Most of the items on the list were foods which we bought and sampled. This included fried worms. Apparently the most expensive ones you can get in Chiang Mai because they live in some tree and never touch the ground? Who knew... Apparently at night there are several fried bugs for sale and they're supposed to be delicious. Two orders Crispy Caterpillar, Roasted Rolly polly and a side of French Fried Flees please.
Afterwards we all met up and our Ajaans and we talked about the things we tried and then I made the mistake of trying to be helpful in a country where I know absolutely nothing. About anything. Why? I don’t know. I really…don’t know. I called my host sister and told her she could just pick me up at the market. Because I thought it was closer than my school. Because I didn’t think about the traffic. Because I didn’t think about the fact that I would have to stay in one place until she came to me. Because I am a stupid stupid farang (foreigner). It wasn’t that bad but the fumes were awful and I was exhausted from running around the market all day so my feet hurt and there was no where to sit. But I am not one to dwell on my stupidity so I made the most of it and bought a coconut ice cream (&#*(^&@)(* YUM and people watched.
OH, how could I forget…we also have started cross fitness training. It's so soothing after a day of learning to get some fresh air, stretch out our limbs, breath in (Or should I say swallow? chew?)the thick, humid, air and embark on the torture tour that is Kru Jon's workout. Those of you who have experienced or been told tales of the abundance of my sweat can’t even imagine the rivers pouring from every pore. I’ll let you ponder that lovely image in your heads.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
gao sip gao problems
Imm Lau Imm Lau
Last night was fantastic. I had dinner with my brother Jay (15), he cracks me up he doesn't know much english but he smiles at me and giggle and has hilarious body language, he reminds me of a cartoon.
I don’t think my host mom cooks, because they seem to have two full time babysitter/ nanny/maids who cook, clean, etc. The food was amazing though, even when I wasn’t sure what I was eating...which was a lot of the time.
After dinner my host mom came home and brought me, my little sister Meo(10), little brother Chem (9) , and Jay to the athletic club to go swimming. It was so nice, a huge pool, and I played with my little siblings who I now adore. They no close to zero English which doesn't matter at all because lets face it how necessary is it to speak English while teaching each other new splashing techniques? My mom on the other hand has pretty great English which is so nice because I love talking to her, I can’t wait to learn some Thai so it will be easier for both of us.
When we got back home my host dad was there, I went over to say Sa-wat-dee-ka and my mother knew I was tired so she told me to go dry my hair and sleep. Right after getting into my pajamas though I heard Jay calling “Anna, Anna!” and I opened my door where he told me in broken English something about someone wanting to take me out..to a barty? I was so confused… “Now?” I asked to which he nodded his head yes. So I went back to my room, put on real clothes, and waited for…?
Five minutes later a hoard of my host sisters waltzed in and ushered me into yet another car (is that 3 so far?). My host mom asked if I was sure I wanted to go (protective as my own already) and told me not to fall asleep in class on Monday, but my sisters assured her I could sleep all day Sunday which didn’t sound half bad to me. So we packed into the car, 4 in the back two in the front and drove off to the barty. Actually we went to a delicious little desert resteraunt.
Let me tell you, these tiny girls can EAT. We ordered about 11 slushy drinks, 7 random desert things (looked like cut up white bread to dip in pudding), and 5 spicy noodle/beef/egg/veggie mixtures. For SIX people. Imm Lau, Imm lau I said (I’m full) to which they responded “eat more, keep eating, try this”, I think that’s why they told me when the food came to eat fast. Not because I had to compete with them, but because otherwise my stomach would be able to detect the oncoming digestive disaster. Oh well, at least it was delicious and my sisters are hilarious, they remind me of my own.
By then I was absolutely exhausted and they laughed at me as I fell asleep on the car ride home, telling me it was okay, I didn’t have to eat the next day…I could sleep until dinner. ;)
1,2,3,4?…. meals later
These people love to feed me. So I woke up, ate breakfast, took a shower, did some stuff on my computer, and fell back asleep for while. I was woken up by Fong who told me it was time to go meet up with Mom and she drove me to this really exclusive looking golf club where she brought me to a beautiful game room/library. Of course there was food, it was lunch time for goodness sakes. Oh. my. Buddah. (innapropes?) my mother is the worst/best. she makes me try everything and then “try again try again”. Luckily she had to leave to pick up Ting or I don’t think she would ever have let me stop eating.
The rest of the afternoon was spent playing pool, first in their way which included a full rack of red balls with about six random colored balls placed in designated spots around the table: pink, green, blue, black, yellowand brown I think. The object is to first get a red ball in (1 point) then hit a colored ball in (pink= 7 Black =8 Yellow= 2 etc.). I sucked at it and Jay killed me, we ended up giving up and started playing teams but no one was very good so we played all afternoon, switching to the regular stripes/solid form after a while and actually finished a game: Jay, Meyo, and Chem won :(. Then we headed to the market to pick up a crate of fresh crabs for dinner, which we dropped off at home for the maids to cook while we swam at the athletic club.
Dinner was delicious but, again, was overwhelming. I felt bad because I was full and my host mom told me she told the maids to cook 7 crab for me. SEVEN. Crabs. SEVEN! So of course I ate more. And more. And then she wanted me to try this one tea. Then this one juice. Then sticky rice with coconut milk. I am definitely giving up on watching my figure. Unless you count watching it grow. I really didn't take it seriously when Ajaan Mark said that our host familys want us to gain weight, I'm just glad they aren't weighing me...I guess some families do that. Hilarious.
I really love my family though, they are really fun and playful and try to include me a lot. It’s amazing how much you can communicate without words. Chem, Meyo and I played games during the car rides, they taught me a few games similar to rock paper scissors but they involved slapping the losers hands..they never really hit mine though it was cute. We also played monkey in the middle at the pool with Ting and Jay. Meyo and Chem love having my attention and I love it too but it gets exhausting. I’m sure my host mom loves having a new babysitter though ; )
I. Am. Exhausted. More to come.
Welcome to Chiang Mai, Welcome home
We were given a culture crash course that left me dizzy and sure I was about to either fall off of a four foot high squatting toilet or get thrown into the street for pointing at something with my feet. There were so many rules, so many phrases and tricky syllables that everything started to blend together into one big ngai-cheu-di-chan-messssss.
1.“Don’t touch people’s head. Ever. Even friends, even kids, no exceptions.” (Great I had ruffled a little boys hair the night before, I’m definitely going to be deported)
2.People don’t drink out of bottles. They use cups. If Thais see a stupid drunk tourist stumbling down the street shirtless with a beer bottle in his hand, Thai people will be most confused about the bottle. (Jordan and I look at each other. Yup, we were those people last night..don't worry we had our shirts on and we were actually walking pretty straight..to avoid being run over by motercycles or running over any tiny thai grandmas at night markets)
3 - infinity: Don’t point at things with your pointer finger, always take your shoes off before entering the house, use your right hand for eating and left for the bathroom, put your fork and spoon together when you’re full and done or you will look away for a second only to find your plate refilled by your host mother (who wants you to gain weight in order to feel like you love her and her cooking), don’t expect any privacy, Always, Never, ahhhh. Let’s face it, it’s impossible for me not to mess up in some way or another. Can't wait.
Before the crash course is over we notice that our families are beginning to show up and gather outside. They look as nervous, intrigued, and excited as we do. We get a departure bag with emergency numbers, a journal, an ISDSI shirt, and we’re sent to greet the crowd in our broken, newly learned Thai.
‘Soo-wat-dee-ka, di-chan-cheu Anna” Hello, my name is Anna.
The crowd applauds, and I stare back at the faces wondering which ones will soon be my new family. We gather our luggage and wait for Pi Wilasinee to call our names. Finally I hear mine and I am whisked away by two adorable girls. My new sisters? No time to waste, they whisk me away carrying one of my bags and I follow behind with my remaining one, wondering so many things. We load up into a truck and they introduce themselves. Fong and Ting, 25 and 16. The car ride was actually surprisingly fun, and they spoke pretty good English so I learned a little about them. They are from two different families Ting is one of 4 and is the oldest, Fong is one of 5 and is number four, like me! Phong likes thin noodles, Ting and I like medium ones. Ting plays a little tennis but prefers table tennis, her brother is fat. You know…standard stuff (?) (?) (?)
But really it was great we had a few laughs and they taught me some random words. I’m excited to get to know them.
We stop by a jewelry like shop and say hello to mama, she looked happy to see me, but who knows (I haven’t quite been able to distinguish between the thousand smiles of this land yet). We switched cars and went to eat meatballs with noodles and patient? Juice, it tasted like orange to me but they assured me it wasn’t. Then they took me home.
There is one house for living (I have a huge bed it nearly fills the nearly empty room it’s in…probably built for 3) with bedrooms, a TV, computer etc. and one house we eat in. Well probably another for living on the other side too, I’m not sure, it’s so confusing I don’t know if they are all relatives (probably) or what the deal is but it’s a lot of space and they said I can make myself at home. Besides being slightly confused by the living arrangement and people’s relationship to each other, I’m just happy to be here and excited for things to get super awkward. Here we go. Sa-wat-dee ka