Thursday, October 30, 2008

Halloween

Tomorrow is Halloween. There will be no party, no trick or treating. Emma and I plan to have a sleepover, but that's about it. Maybe we'll pig out on candy and watch a horror movie, but probably not. We will go to eat dinner at the home of a rotarian at five o' clock. Our first invitation by a rotarian! And finally, we were invited to a rotary meeting. Normally we just show up and "crash" it. Half the time it's a party that we didn't even know about. Well, what can we do? We're the exchange students, we don't know anything better. Next meeting though, we are supposed to bring pictures of us at the temple from the thai dance performance.
Our plans for traveling are hatching.
Rotary rules state that you can stay or travel with anybody that is rotary approved or part of your family. This means staying with other exchange students is no independent travel. SO! If we want to see Udon thani, we can call up one of the three girls there. Same goes for Ubon Ratchatani, Khon Kaen, Sakhon Nakhon, Mahasarakham (although considering that every single exchange student is a boy, I doubt it), Korat, Yasothon, maybe even Pattaya or Chantaburi. All we need to know is how to work the system...
In April, we don't have school AND I will be switching over to my third host family. They have a house in Chiang mai and in Bangkok, as well as the house in Nakhon Phanom.
In December, we have the rotary trip with all of the other exchange students. In January, the school from Renu Nakhon is also going on a trip to the North for two weeks, they want us to come along as well. February seems a little dull, but my host father says the english program might take a trip to the beach. March has a trip to Phuket and April has Songkran, the thai new year and a giant waterfight that lasts for three days. The year will shape up with lots of oppurtunities and experiences. I can't wait.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Hai Tam Ahan

Hai Tam Ahan, basically cook food for some one else.
Today, I finally got up the courage to ask my host parents if I could cook some western food for them. I know my host father doesn't really like anything else other than steak, and since finding decent steak meat is not only really expensive (because it has to be shipped from Australia) it's also almost impossible in our tiny town of 30,000. So instead, I thought, why not try something easy that everybody loves... PANCAKES! So yes, I'm making pancakes and my host cousin is so excited, she wants to learn how to make them.... from a box.
I'm lazy and since Pancake mix is available, that's what I'm using.
I plan to make pancakes, scrambled eggs and fruit salad. Sounds good, no?
Thai people don't have syrup, so I'll have to make my own, but that's about the hardest thing.
Strangely enough, in the western food section of the supermarket, there are at least FIVE different betty crocker mixes. Most thai people don't have ovens, so why would they buy betty crocker box mixes? Can they be made in the microwave? The possibilities are beginning to get interesting.
So, I went out shopping for ahan falang (foreigner food). I ended up with pancake mix, powdered sugar (in case I decide to make french toast some day, or for the syrup), butter, eggs, milk, chocolate chips, bananas, a pineapple and some apples.
The fruit is for fruit salad, but I might make some chocolate chip banana pancakes....
I'm just excited that I actually can cook again. I've missed cooking.

Just in case the thai people don't like the pancakes, my host cousin Piatt is making Tom Yum Goong. Tom Yum Goong is a spicy, sour, soup with tomatoes and shrimp. Goong means shrimp, Tom means broth and Yum means sour. Everything in Thailand is spicy so there's no need to put it in the name.
We went all over the city in search of fresh shrimp and ended up with still living shrimp. WE thought they were dead, but two or three started flopping about in th bag. The flopping stopped after the shrimp were left in the car for an hour or two....

Next week, I'm going to try and make no-bake chocolate oatmeal cookies. Piatt wants to eat them.

Earlier this week I was having dreadful premonitions of the month to come. No traveling, no festivals, no trips. Just school. Until I realized, I'm going to Korat with my friends! In late November there's thanksgiving and there are plenty of places I haven't gone yet. I'm planning lots of long bike rides and picnics. Life should be good.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Just thinking...

I've been having my make up done. Alot. Mainly because I'm part of the thai dance group and so I have to get all dressed up for performances, but what's interesting is how thai people say "open and close your eyes." When I'm supposed to close my eyes they say, "come back or go back" and when I'm supposed to open my eyes, they say "forget."
Is this some buddhist remnant? Where do we go when we close our eyes? Do we go back to ourselves? Is it a reminder that when we close our eyes we go back to a place only we know. I'm not sure. What surprises me is "forget." What do we forget when our eyes open? In western culture, opening ones' eyes means a realization, an epiphany or simply noticing life. It means in no way, "forget." Yet in buddhism, the point of life is to escape into our psyche, solve our faults and fade away into nirvana. Is that what I'm supposed to forget? Nirvana?
It's a strange choice of words to use when putting on pounds of eyeshadow.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

I want one...

http://powersports.honda.com/motorcycles/cruiser_standard/model.asp?ModelName=Nighthawk&ModelYear=2008&ModelId=CB2508

Or something cheaper. I just want a motorbike. I want to travel more, but if I need a way of transportation that's cheaper than a car when I get back, this is it.

I'm Lazy

Yes, I'm very lazy, so instead of writing my own blog. I'm going to steal Emma's already written blog about our thai dance performance. don't worry, I'll add in some comments.

October 14th 2008 - The day of the biggest festival in Nakhon Phanom, Thailand; also known as Lai Rua Fai.This is the day that my dance class, host parents, rotary club and friends had been talking about and preparing for over the last two months. Suzanne and I have been going to Thai dance class everyday for the past three weeks to practice for our performance in front of Wat Phra That Phanom [at least we were supposed to be there everyday, but we weren't]. Wat Phra That Phanom is the most sacred temple in the Northeast of Thailand because apparently, the chedi holds Buddha's left pinky (And according to a different guidebook, one of Buddha's ribs instead ).My school's Thai dancers weren't performing at the temple this year, so I was invited to dance with Nakhon Phanom Witayakhom school's Thai dancers. Suzanne goes to that highschool and her mother is the Thai dance teacher (which is good and bad, it means that I had to go to twice as many practices as Emma) There are about 30 dancers from NPW and Thai dancers go over the top with their hair, accessories, costumes and makeup. This meant that we had to go the night before the performance to get our hair done so that we wouldn't be rushed in the morning.So last night Suzanne and I headed to NPW to get our hair done at around 7:30pm and when we got there Suzanne immediately was taken over to get her hair done, and I ate dinner with some of the girls on straw mats outside. To do Suzanne's hair they took a big ring of black yarn and pulled all her hair up around it (Don't forget they teased it SO much, my hair was in huge knots) and then pulled it into a bun; the classic Thai dancing hairstyle. It looked nice (AKA 6 inches tall, it was GIANT), but I wondered how they were planning to do my hair asa . my hair is too light and thin to cover up a big black ring of yarn, andb. my hair is not long enough to cover up a big black ring of yarnIt turned out that they just teased the life out of my hair and made a "Emma's hair ring" out of the teased hair. It didn't look quite as tidy as Suzanne's;(She looked fine, but it was slightly more punk rocker than thai dancer) since it was held up on it's own the front of my hair swooped up like a mohawk and I didn't have a bun in the middle. This was solved by the girls finding a fake black bun and spray painting it gold. Gold, not blonde (My how we laughed at the rat' nest/elephant turd, OH at the Ayuthayya elephant house they actually have an elephant's turd that has been guilded in gold and displayed in a glass box. No joke). Gold. Suzanne and I still laugh about how the giant spray-painted fake hair perfectly resembled elephant poo. And it was going to sit on my head. The colour was no where near the same colour as my hair, but I guess it was better than wearing a black bun. Emma also met the young english teacher at my school and remarked on how cute he is. It's true, he is really cute, but he's hit on me one too many times and sings terribly. At my welcoming party he sang karaoke the WHOLE time. I asked him if he liked my hair. He replied that he didn't like my hair but he liked my face. This morning we had to be at the school for 2:30 so that all the dancers would be dressed with their hair and makeup done and ready to go at 6am. Most of the dancers slept at the school, but Suzanne and I slept at her house becuase her mother is the teacher and would be waking us up anyways.We didn't end up going to sleep. We arrived at her house at 11pm, ate cornflakes, avoided the cockroaches in the kitchen while we did the dishes and then we sat on the computer and drank coffee for two hours until her host mom came out to tell us we needed to wake up. We were still up.Once we got to the school at 2:30, the adventure began.[Photo] First I had to get my hair fixed with another can of hairspray, some bobby pins and a hair dryer. It was fixed 4 times before we left [note to self, grow your hair long - it makes life much easier]. They put two big yellow sunflowers in it to dress it up nice and fancy - I kept them though I'm not sure if we were supposed to or not.Station 1 - Foundation. Suzanne and I took turns going from station to station where students [usually boys] would cover our faces with layers and layers of makeup. Station 1 was foundation where a cute Thai boy [I think he's gay, most of the male Thai dancers are] (pee Deum, don't forget to make you're voice go up when saying his name. I was so disappointed that he was gay, because he really was very cute and he kept saying how beautiful my nose and smile were) smudged foundation all over our faces, ears and necks. After I was finished I looked in the mirror and it felt weird to have such a perfectly blemish free face.Station 2 - Eyebrows. Good Moses, I scared myself when I looked in the mirror. It wouldn't have been so bad if they had the proper colour of eyebrow pencil to somewhat look nice with my hair colour. But instead they used the same eyebrow pencil [that they use on the Thail girls who have BLACK hair] for Suzanne and I, leaving us with extremely chiseled eyebrows that did not in any way match our hair. One eyebrow was drawn higher than the other, but they were drawn perfectly on my eyebrows so maybe my eyebrows are just naturally lopsided. Either way it looked rediculous.Station 3 - Eye Makeup. Another male Thai dancer perfected our highlights and shadows all over our faces. He started by putting red along my eyebrow/eye crevice, then brown and purple and finally finishing with white on our eyes as well as all along our nose to make us look like the sun is on our faces. We tried to explain that we are white skinned, we already have these highlights and shadows when we go outside, but they would not listen. There is a rule of thumb for makeup - make it look like you're not wearing any. This does not apply for Thai dancers, I swear I had enough blush on my face that someone back in Canada could see that it was abnormal if they peered over to Thailand with a telescope. However, he was probably the most talented makeup artist ever, though it was hard not to laugh while he was doing my makeup becuase Suzanne and I kept talking about how stupid we looked. Thanks to Emma I couldn't stop laughing. Mostly about our purple eyebrows. [Photo] Station 4 - Fake Eyelashes. With the amount of makeup we had on, we would have looked stupid if we hadn't had some excessive eyelashes to go with the excessive pounds of makeup. So we were given some [Suzanne got one's with rhinestones on them.. lucky!] and I got my eyelids superglued together a few times until finally the girl doing them said they looked fine and she covered up the glue with eyeliner. Thick eyeliner that was not drawn straight. She then proceeded to put black eyeshadow all along the bottom of my eye.. it was hideous. Suzanne was not given the pleasure of the ugly black makeup so I decided it was not needed and took it off. It looked much nicer once I had finished.[Photo] Station 5 - Costume.First, there is one thing you need to know about Thai people - they never admit when they are wrong, and they like to keep the falangs out of the loop for practically everything so we are usually surprised with a change of plans everyday. Today's surprise - they had made us custom costumes becuase we are taller than Thai students, but they had not asked for our measurements. Another thing to keep in mind is that I am not only shorter than Suzanne but I have th emost odd proportioned body of anyone I know - super long torso and short legs. So when they brought in two custom skirts for us that were too long for Suzanne, there was NO WAY IN HELL that it would fit me. The skirt dragged on the floor and instead of giving me a regular Thai skirt [that I would fit in since I have the same length legs as them] they decided to roll it over 4 times and completely resew it - while we are supposed to be leaving for the temple.They SEWED me into it. Ihad to go to the bathroom too. The costume was a three quarter length, yellow, collared jacket with a long green skirt and sash. They also seemed to think we were much skinnier than we are because they could not tie the belt around and had to pin it and make it look like it was tied. Much too much effort when they could have given me a Thai student's skirt, or else asked for our measurements three weeks ago when we started learning the dances.The whole situation baffles me.Station 6/7/8 - Lipstick. That's right, there was not just one station to perfect our lips, there were three. The lipstick process was practically pointless as 2 minutes later I had lipstick all over my teeth and ended up wiping most of it off. I also fell on Suzanne while taking a picture on the moving bus and I had a nice pink lip mark on my yellow jacket. Classy.[Photo] We were on our way to Wat Phra That Phanom.When we arrived there we sat for a little bit and then walked all the way down the street [in our bare feet on the concrete ground] and lined up to dance towards the temple. One of the things I am still frusterated with is how many people ask for pictures. They don't even know me, where I am from, what my name is or why I am in their country; they just want a picture of me. They want pictures of me by myself, with Suzanne, with them and with their children.This one man without even a professional looking camera came up while we were dancing and got right in my face. I was so annoyed that I asked him what his name was and didn't add ka for respect. He backed off, but I never learned his name... It blows my mind why they would take pictures of a complete stranger. I can just imagine them showing the picture to a friend saying "This is some falang I saw at Phra That Phanom"."Oh really, where was she from?""I'm not really sure""Why was she there?"I don't know"Now honestly people, honestly. Does that make any sense? So after we took a bunch of pictures with a ton of different women who literally dragged us to different people for pictures [they also put their arms around me and touched my butt!!!] Thai women have this thing. Tehy want to put their arms around our waists but are too short to do so. Instead they put their arms around our butts. It's a little awkward especially when you don't even know their name.we started dancing. Horribly enough, the dancers from the 5 other schools knew a different version of this first dance and our school had no idea what was going on. We caught on eventually and had to be on our toes for when they changed hand movements, then finally we stopped and chanted for what seemed like forever! It was so hot outside that I was sweating buckets, and sweating with that much makeup on is extremely itchy. By the end of it half my foundation was smudged and i had drips of skin coloured sweat on my jacket. They fixed my hair [for the sixth time] and fixed my makeup but adding another pound of foundation on my chin, cheeks and forehead.[Photo] After taking a break for a little while [and taking pictures with a billion more people who I was never introduced to] we did the peacock dance. We were all equipped with two long peacock feathers each which we flung around and waved. After the peacock dance we were pulled over to take a group shot.For the record, I would officially like to say that I hate women who dress in all pink. Every single woman here who has dressed in all pink has made my life hell, and a particularly frilled pink woman took literally 100 pictures of us. She kept dragging us around, walking in front of the other paparazzi members to fix our peacock feathers or move us and each different pose she took 10 pictures. She kept changing us around, moving us into different photos and taking us off by ourselves until finally, I looked at Suzanne and said "run away... seriously, run". Half of them don't even ask for your picture, they just pull you beside someone and snap a bunch of pictures then run away. It took us 10 minutes to get back to our straw mat at the temple where we could eat. People kept pulling us to take pictures and at that point I was so tired from lack of sleep, exhausted from the heat and pissed off from being pulled all over the place that I finally just walked away from everyone and whenever someone asked for a picture I said "NO". I felt horrible saying no to people, but if I had kept saying yes I would never come back to Canada. We took a bunch of pictures with friends [which I don't mind so much, since I know them] and then we lined up for our third and final dance. We stood outside the big doors leading outside of the temple and we were all jumping around dancing and hooting. It was so much fun. After we left the temple grounds and walked out to the crowd, boys from our school would start chants of "OH! OH! OH! OH!" and everyone would join in with clapping or cheering or shouts of "Areeba!!!" on my part. The spectators were allowed to come into the dancers and take pictures, and within 30 seconds Suzanne and I were swarmed with people trying to get us to stop dancing to take a picture with them. (SO annoying. I wanted to dance. I told them so too, but they didn';t listen. The rest of the group was dancing and having fun and I just had old men trying to get my picture) Dancing at Wat Phra That Phanom was over by 12pm and the day hadn't even begun, but it was the most amazing thing I have done in a long time. I will write a different blog post about the rest of Lai Rua Fai later this week."So won't you tell me why you live like you're afraid to die. You die like you're afraid to go"

Sunday, October 12, 2008

So much to say, so little time.

Alright, SO I spent the last week in Bangkok, met my Dad's friend Steve and basically had a whirlwind time. I think I'll write about it later.
Yesterday, I had my first day back in Nakhon Phanom. I was whisked away to Wat That Pranom (a temple) 50 km away at seven in the morning. Thai dance strikes again. I went with my thai dance group and Emma to a giant thai dance practice with five other girls. It was hot and we were dancing barefoot--on concrete. One teacher walked around with a peacock feather and hit the girls that weren't in formation with it. Her hair is spiked up strangely and she's very grumpy. It's frustrating when someone is waving around a feather at you because he/she assumes that you couldn't possibly understand them if he/she used words. The group took a break for "5 minutes." After ten minutes of waiting, emma and I decided that it was safe enough to buy an ice cream from the mulitple ice cream trucks around the temple. As we were eating our ice cream, the massive group of boys and girls began to congregate outside the temple in the street. Once again, we were whisked away with the crowd, still holding our ice creams. The next thing I know, I am transfering my ice cream cone back and forth from left hand to right hand as I am trying to keep up in the dance. My feet are burning and the lady with a peacock feather starts walking around again. The final touch was during the last move when we prostrate ourselves in front of the temple and my bare legs (I was wearing capris) must rest on the roadside for a full five counts.

This grueling routine of dancing barefoot on concrete holding peacock feathers is in preparation for a festival called Li rua fi. The festival itself (shops, food vendors, crazy rides) has already started. I missed the opening while in BKK. Li rua fi is also called the dragon boat festival. HUGE bamboo boats have been in the works for over a month. On Tuesday, they will be lit up and will float down the Mekhong River. It's the biggest festival in Nakhon Phanom and tourists have come from all over the countryside. On Tuesday, at the temple, I will dance in traditional Thai costume. That's what all the practices have been for.

After dance practice, Emma and I met the Australian boys for an almost goodbye lunch. They leave early monday morning. We decided to go the the festival and somehow I got talked into bungee jumping (of sorts). I was placed in a harness and attached to bungee cords on both sides. The next thing I know, my stomach has gone up and down several times and I am flying. People are watching and the announcer is describing me as a beautiful falang exchange student that can speak thai. I did a flip or two and decided that my legs couldn't take it any longer. The harness was very tight and feeling almost zero gravity does weird things to one's legs. The couldn't stop shaking for almost twenty minutes.

We walked around the festival and eventually ended up at the balloons. I call them balloons because there really isn't any other word for them. They are big air bubbles that people can go inside. They float on a pool of water. Emma and I went in one together and as I got up, she fell down, or she stood up aand walked and I got forced into a somersault. Imagine being inside of a hamster ball. Now, put two hamsters inside the hamster ball. That's what we were. I have to say, I laughed so much my sides hurt.

After all the fun, we went back to bungee jumping and I got up my courage and stepped back inside the harness. Flying is an amazing feeling. Ben, the older australian went up twice in a row, but after doing one two many backflips he actually blacked out. He came back to conciousness really fast but still felt dizzy. Even though Emma and I had to go home, we felt like we should at least deliver him to his parents. So we did so and when we finally got home at about ten thirty, Emma told me to be relaly quiet inside the house. I was going to sleep over at her house and both our host parents said that it was okay. At eleven, Emma got a phone call from her host mother asking us where we were. When we said we were at the house, her host mother was really relieved. I think we're dealing with a cultural difference. In Thailand, we should announce that we are home. In the U.S. if everybody is asleep, no matter how early it is, you just go to your room and go to bed. So, it's about eleven and Emma and I are not sleepy yet, so what do we do? We have a fashion show. Fun times.

Just a word: I know that it seems like I spend all my time with Emma. In reality, I just spent an entire week with thai friend and I have a lot of time that I spend with thai people. I'm praised for how well I speak thai. So I think I'm okay.

P.S. I love you all. Thanks for commenting and being supportive.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

The five questions

Where are you going?--- I'm asked this by random strangers as I bicycle home, or to eat lunch or to a friends house. Most of the time it comes in the strange thai version of english, i.e. "Where you go?"

Where are you from?---- Also comes in strange thai english " where you from?" I always answer america, because the United States is too strange.

Have you eaten yet?--- Most of the time, I have. and this question comes in thai, the other questions come in thai about half the time.

How long will you be here?-- I used to say one year, I think I should start saying ten months.

Do you have a boyfriend?-- First they ask if I have one in thailand. No, I say. Then they ask if I have one in the U.S. I also say no. Then the thai people laugh and giggle.
Emma's host father asked me this. I answered with my usual, "No, I don't have a boyfriend."
He's decided that I should marry his 25 year old son [correction: Pee-Ok, that's the son's name, is 19] . I am now referred to as "The daughter in law."

We laugh a lot about it.
I laugh a lot.
I'm happy here.
Yes, there are hard moments,
Yes, there are sad moments and angry moments,
But mostly, I realize that this is my time. This is my time to figure out who I am and to accept myself. I love having this time. I smile a lot here. I am in the land of smiles so that's not surprising. In the U.S. I wear something I call my thinking face all the time. It looks like a frown. My grandmother once said something to me about it when I was six. I remember she had just flown in and I was trying to firgure out how I could pull her giant suit case. She leaned over and looked at me, " if you keep frowning like that, you'll get wrinkles in the spot between your eyebrows. Just like me."

I'm sixteen now and I still make that face. When I was a baby, people told my parents that I never smiled and was very serious.
My dad used to make comments, "smooth your brow suzy, you look angry."
I'd have to focus on not frowning.

But I'm smiling more and more and I'm laughing a lot.
This place is beautiful and life moves more quickly than I'd like to admit.
Signing off for now,
Suzanne
P.S. Thanks Rotary for the postcards, so far I've gotten six.