Thanks for the Ride

Goodbye Thailand

2008-08-06T22:09:00.000-07:00

I have five days left before I leave Thailand. I’m sad, but I’m also excited. I’ve changed quite a bit (I can only imagine what a mission does for people). I’m confident and not as afraid of the world as I’ve been before. My testimony has grown as I’ve learned (or at least scratched the surface of) how the gospel fits into the global spectrum. I’ve stopped obsessing about the future. I’ve learned the value of throwing plans out the window to instead sit and talk with a stranger or to see what’s over the huge bridge I pass everyday.

My friends and I were talking about how it’s going to be weird to text again. I cut into the conversation to point out the benefits of texting and I started to present an argument that I had used several times back home, and one I had completely agreed with, before realizing how absolutely ridiculous it sounded. “Texting is good because sometimes you just need a quick piece of information from someone and you don’t want to have to go through social obligations of saying “Hello” and “How are you doing?”

Ludicrous. The words sounded absolutely ludicrous as I spoke them because here in Thailand the point of life is not the little piece of information…the point of life IS the social "obligation." It's all about the short phone call that ends up being three hours long because your friend needs to work through her break up, or the two minute grocery trip that turns into an hour chat when you realize that the clerk behind the counter has a super interesting life. It's about giving your seat to the grandma, not because you're a gentleman or a girlscout and that's what you do, but because the grandma needs a place to sit. I don’t want to go back because I am just starting to get it! I’m starting to understand what life is really about and I’m afraid that when I go back I’ll slide back into my obsession with accomplishment and forget to balance it with sincere fulfillment. I’m afraid I’ll let my to-do list become my life again instead of using it as a tool within my life. My life is about people, self-development, and God and I’m afraid that I will forget that when I go back home!

…Ha… Except that I guess I’ve forgotten that home is also my life. Thailand has been a great experience, but what I’ve learned here is useless unless I can learn how to implement and internalize it back in the USA. Even though Southeast Asia has amazing qualities, and their social structure is much more conducive towards relaxation and human interaction, America has incredible characteristics as well that help faciliate real relationships and happiness. At times, running away from home may be necessary; it's helped me step back and closely examine myself and where I've come from. But the real challenge, and I guess the whole point of life, is learning to muster the strength and humility required to go back—and not just to go back, but to go back and make it work, to encompass the strengths from both worlds for the purpose of creating a beautiful life, and to do it with the people I love.

Meditation Retreat

2008-08-06T21:58:00.000-07:00

Jessica and I decided to go on a two day Buddhist meditation retreat. We met at a Buddhist monk university with a bunch of other backpackers. The retreat is a free service provided for tourists. First we were introduced to Buddhism. A monk explained that Buddhism is not a religion, but a way of life. Everyone can be a Buddhist as long as they follow the precepts of Buddhism which include spreading loving-kindness to the world, enriching and developing your soul through deep introspection and self-mastery, and discovering the path that leads to a balanced life.

After the introduction they drove us up to an incredibly well-kept campus complete with dorms, a large meditation hall, and a dining hall. Once we got there we were asked to change into all white, and then to refrain from speaking the rest of the day. It was so peaceful. Granted it did kind of look like we belonged to an insane asylum as we wondered around the yard, but the silence and the white really set a tone of respect and reverence.

We met in the meditation hall and sat on mats listening to the Buddhist monks in front as they explained different techniques. Their purpose was very clear. They weren’t hoping to convert us to their doctrine; they were only offering ways to exercise the mind in hopes that it would help us attain peace. “You (westerners in general) eat food and exercise in order to strengthen your body, but you don’t take the time to feed and exercise your mind.”

I always thought that meditation was this practice where you fell into intense concentration about deep and complex issues and some meditation techniques may facilitate that, but what we were taught was that meditation focuses on simplicity rather than the complex. Our monk used the term, “monkey mind” to describe the way our thoughts constantly jump around all over the place and he taught that meditation practices are simple exercises used to gain control over our mind. I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant until we started the meditation.

The first technique we learned was walking meditation. We stood and started chanting “standing, standing, standing, intending to walk.” Then we would slowly lift our right foot move it a step in front of us, and then gently set it down while chanting “right (lift the right foot) go (move it forward) thus (set it down).” And then we would switch to the left foot. We did it forever! (okay, it was like 15 minutes, but it felt like forever). The whole point was to focus on, and only on, our movement. Anytime our minds wondered we were told to acknowledge the thought, figure out (I'm second from the left) why we were thinking it, and then to gently focus back on our movement. It was incredible. I had no idea how much my mind jumps around! It was so hard to live in the present moment. I was in the present, but my mind was jumping from first grade when I slid on the sidewalk, to high school graduation when I was trying to decide if I should take a picture with Jon Daniels, to 6th grade when the missionaries came over. I was thinking about everything I had to do the next day, everything that had happened the day before. I was imagining conversations that had never happened, and situations that probably never would happen. Heck, I was writing this blog in my head! What was interesting to note was how many times certain thoughts kept coming up. “Okay, I’m thinking this…I’m thinking it again…and again, hmmm.” Very insightful and so dang hard! I found that the meditation which included simple physical movement was easier for me, but Jessica did really well with meditation that focused on sound, and other people did well when theu just focused on breathing.

The way my mind jumps around isn’t always a bad thing, however, I realized how I’ve let myself become a slave to these thoughts. I worry about things that I have absolutely no control over, I freak out about something that hasn’t happened, I let thoughts get in the way of the things I really want to accomplish. I have a great imagination, but it has been a curse as well as a blessing because I haven’t been able to control when and where I let my mind wonder. I keep thinking about how good this would be for people who are addicted to pornography. Pornography is a huge problem at BYU and all I could think about is how much suffering could be eased if we all practiced simple exercises everyday that strengthened our ability to control where our thoughts run off to. I never realized the benefit of meditation. It's not a hokey religious practice that wastes time, but it's a valuable, practical exercise that could help us take a little bit more control of our lives.

Thai Cooking Class

2008-08-06T21:55:00.000-07:00

I love the food in Thailand. It is so delicious, cheap, and there are street vendors selling it to you every 5 meters. Some of my favorite foods here are rice sausages, juicy fried chicken and fish, roti and bananas, the pancake man’s fortune cookie batter fried on a skillet to make a tortilla shape, folded, and then stuffed with blueberry filling, bananas, and chocolate, mangos and sticky rice, gyotza (fried potstickers), Masaba (roti filled with dry yellow curry), cantalope boba drinks with tapioca balls at the bottom of the cup, fried bananas, pad thai, khao soi, sticky rice and meat with chili sauce, skewers of pork, pineapple, and peppers, spring rolls, waffles shaped like fish filled with strawberry, chocolate, coconut, or blueberry filling, mango cheese cake, coconut crackers, little coconut cakes, fried dough balls dipped in yummy sauce, real fruit shakes, Ovaltine drinks (I’m totally serious), pancakes with egg in the batter, chicken with cashews, tomato macaroni like you’ve never had it before…the list could go on and on. This food is everywhere you go! And you can usually get any item for about 30 cents.

So this was a long introduction, but my point is…I’ve gained 10 pounds. Okay, that’s not my point, but I thought I’d throw that out there anyways. My point is that I am going to be really sad to leave all this food so I decided to take a Thai cooking class. Me and my friend Dani spent a day learning how to cook six Thai dishes. We were picked up in the morning and taken to the local market to buy ingredients (Thai’s normally go to the market everyday to pick up the ingredients for their meals that day. They hardly have any food in their cupboards). Then we went to a women’s house. Outside of her home under a tin roof were about twenty gas burning stoves (Thai don’t use ovens), a bunch of counters, mats to sit on while you pound curry, and some sinks. It was a great outdoor kitchen. We learned how to make Masiyana, yellow, and green curry, sweet and sour chicken, pad thai (noodles with sauce, peanuts, lime, bean sprouts, and egg), chicken cashew nut stuff, Som Tum (papaya salad), Khoa soi (noodles in coconut soup—a northern thai specialty), ground chicken with basil leaves (“A Thai’s favorite dish”), mangos and sticky rice, steamed banana cake, and some other stuff. We ate all the food we made, it was ridiculous and I could hardly move when I got home that night. She gave us a cookbook so when I get home, I am going to start cooking Thai food. Yay!

Bangkok!!!!!

2008-08-06T21:52:00.000-07:00

“You and me have seen everything to see. From BANGKOK to Calgary.” Okay, I haven’t been to Calgary yet, but I can at least sing the first part of the song. Yes I went to Bangkok. Jessica and I had a little mix up with our tickets so I arrived in Bangkok by myself a day early. I got to the airport at one in the morning so I slept on the airports plastic benches until that morning. It was my job to find the train station, buy tickets back to Chiang Mai, and find a place to stay. I figured out how to use the local buses because I didn’t want to pay tons of money to take taxis everywhere (okay the most expensive ride is $15, but I’m spoiled here), I wanted a less touristy experience, and I felt safer riding around the city with a big group of locals. Whelp, I did it! I spent a day going all over Bangkok by myself and it was great. I was really impressed with myself. If you would have asked me to go to Bangkok by myself at the beginning of this summer I would have laughed in your face, but today I feel more confident in my ability to evaluate and maintain my personal safety. I feel confident in my ability to take care of myself even though in a place as foreign as Bangkok. I would have rather been with someone, but circumstance didn’t allow it so I dealt with it. Those who know me well will know this was a big accomplishment. My other friends came the next day. We stayed on Khao San Road; it’s this famous-touristy-backpacker-market-haven road. It was fun and I found a sticky rice and mango vendor so I was happy. We went to the huge shopping malls, the Chatuchuk market (largest outdoor market in the world…that’s their claim anyways), rode on boats through the disgusting river, rode the sky train, visited the Grand Palace, and the Royal Wat, saw a HUGE, I’m talking big, reclining Buddha, and did it all for under $30…food included. Bangkok was great but after two days I was ready to go back home to Chiang Mai. I’m partial because I lived in Chiang Mai the longest, but I think it’s prettier and has a more peaceful feel to it than Bangkok and Phuket. I took a 13 hour sleeper train up from Bangkok and I am now back to my home. Unfortunately I will be leaving in less than a week.

Phuket!!!!

2008-08-06T21:46:00.000-07:00

Puket is an island at the tip of Thailand. It’s definitely not a resort city, but the beaches are gorgeous. Turquoise water, white sand, pineapple and mangos: Can life get better than this? I submit that it cannot. Going there was a perfect break after the two weeks of “go-go-go.” Just a couple friends and I went to Phuket and stayed at a hostel taking day trips out the island’s beaches. Our days were like this: We slept-in, played at the beach all day, went out to eat, came home, and watched movies and talked all night. It’s kinda disgusting how lazy that week was, but I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it thoroughly. At the hostel we met a bunch of really interesting and cool Europeans. So apparently almost all Europeans take about a year off to travel the world after they graduate either from high school of college. Incredible. They aren’t super rich either. They just spend a year working before hand, and then they use their saved money to backpack across the globe. If they run out of money they go to Australia to work for a bit and then off they go again. These backpackers aren’t bums either. I met a girl who's about to start med school, another guy who's going to law school. Europeans whole social structure supports this yearlong journey. And in Italy during the summer, the entire nation is empty because everyone goes on holiday. One of my Italian friends laughed at me in disbelief when I asked him if he had ever done summer school? “What is summer school? How can you go to class when the schools are shut down?” American’s may have more money because we work an extra year and during the summer, but Europeans seem to have far more interesting lives. However…some of them spend all their time drinking at pubs…not sure why you would pay tons of money to travel the world drunk…but the majority of the people we met stayed sober most of the time. :) Regardless of the Europeans, Phuket was cool.

Malaysia!!!!

2008-08-06T21:37:00.000-07:00

I didn’t have any idea what to expect from Malaysia. I had never learned about it in school, and I had never watched “Zoolander,” but I ended up being very impressed. It is the second most industrialized nation of Southeast Asia (Singapore is the first). Unfortunately there was some shady dealings and the agency who set up our excursion short changed our Malaysian tour guides. But they were intrigued because they had heard that we were a group of missionaries and they decided figured out a way to show us around the country by cutting their wages from the two-day trip’s expenses. We were grateful for that because we got to do some amazing things. We went to their national palace that acts as their “White House.” We also visited the place where they signed their declaration of independence, and a monument that honored those who had died in the first and second world wars. We went to the Petronas Towers (former tallest buildings in the world, now the tallest twin towers in the world). We went to two HUGE caves. Each rooms inside the caves were as big as a basketball arena. And my favorite thing we did was a night boat ride down a river to watch large glow bugs. They covered the bushes along the banks of the river and looked like sparkling Christmas trees. Instead of eating at fancy restaurants like we had been doing in the previous countries, we ate at local outdoor cafes, which were still delicious. I also loved visting the Muslim mosques. I've been learning quite about Islam and the more I learn the more I realize how similar it is to my personal beliefs. It's unfortunate that most of the western world has a slightly skewed perception about muslims and Islam, at least I did anyways. The majority of muslims are amazing people trying to grow closer to the Lord through a beautiful religion.

Cambodia!!!!!! (part 2)

2008-08-06T21:20:00.000-07:00

I don't know whose reading this...but adults should probably read it before they let kids look at it. We took a bus down to Phnom Phen the next day. The country is poverty-stricken. Although it is doing much better today, the wounds beset by the horrific Pol Pot Regime run deep within the people and the countryside. We bought so much stuff that we didn’t really need or want, but we couldn’t help it because we knew that the vendor selling us the fried spiders, or the Thai silk, or the overpriced postcards lived on the edge of desperation.

The first stop we made that day was an old high school used as a torture prison during the Khmer Rouge occupation. We walked through “classrooms” that were empty except for a metal bed frame and huge blown up picture of the dead body found in the room when Vietnam invaded the city over 30 years ago. Outside the school was a large wooden frame where prisoners were hung upside down and lowered into buckets of water. Another building of the school was dedicated to explaining other torture techniques used during the KR occupation. The most profound room had pictures of the faces of all the men, women, and children (some as young as three-years-old) who belonged to the Khmer Rouge and were brought to the prison as suspected spies. The Khmer Rouge was paranoid of mutiny so they became fanatical about finding traitors within their own organization. “Give us names! Give us names!” the torturers demanded so the prisoners gave them random names to stop the pain. Taking the names, the tortures brought in new group of innocent victims who were met with the same fate as those before them. It was a vicious, bloody cycle of paranoia. Out of the hundreds of prisoners who entered, only seven made it out alive.

After spending some time there we drove over to see the killing fields monument. I was expecting to walk through actual rice fields maintained specifically in remembrance of those who died during the KR occupation. Instead we drove up to a small forest. In front of the forest stood a huge monument filled with the skulls of people who had died at that spot. But where were we? The KR had people working in fields all over the country. What made this spot special? The tour guide motioned us towards a small pavilion, and to our horror we realized that it covered a large sunken cavity in the ground, a mass grave. Men, women, and children who labored in the work camps throughout the region came to this forest for execution. Together they dug a large grave, and then they would kneel at the side of it. A KR officer would knock them unconscious into the graves with the butt of their guns, and then the KR would bury the victims alive. It was awful. We were sick. We had all studied about what had happened in Cambodia, we had read books about it, but it was an entirely different experience to stand face to face with the evidence of its reality. I started walking further down the path to get away from the grave, but right in front of me a few meters away was another one. I walked further down hoping to find some kind of respite, but the path turned and my blood ran cold. Stretched before me was a grassy field covered with dozens of large sunken cavities. A group of students gathered around pieces of clothing that had surfaced during the rain that morning. Teeth, skulls, and bones stuck up through the graves and the heavily beaten path. Silence reigned supreme during those twenty minutes. Some students ducked in a corner to cry, others left the group to sit by themselves and reconcile questions like, “Why?” and “How?” The day before we had witnessed the glorious pinnacle of human creation only to witness the next day the shameful pinnacle of human obliteration.

It’s hard not to lose faith in humanity after seeing something like that. It’s hard not to let fear strangle my expectation, or at least hope, of some kind of mortal peace. I took awhile to write this post because I’m not sure what anyone would get from reading it. But I guess I can tell you how my trip to Cambodia affected me. First I forgot about the whole thing because I didn’t want to deal with it. But after a few days I got jumpy, I found that my thoughts were randomly plagued with scary images, and I became paranoid that something bad might happen. I felt like I was protecting myself by “not letting my guard down”—by facing the fact that bad things happen and they would probably happen to me. But what took me a while to realize was that paranoia and fear were the very elements that caused thing like the Cambodian Killing Fields, and the Jewish Holocaust, and the Rawandan Genocide. Bad things do happen, but I let the possibility of something bad happening cloud the reality of how good still far outweighs the bad. It’s important to learn about the evil of which humans are capable, but we learn it not to let fear overcome our thoughts and actions, but for our thoughts and actions to overcome our fears.

Cambodia!!!!!!! (part 1)

2008-08-06T21:05:00.000-07:00

After visiting Ho Chi Min we flew to Siem Reap. That first day was a free day so two other girls and I hired a tuk-tuk and we went exploring around the city. We passed by several markets, a school, a group of young boys playing in a water hole, a group of women riding bikes to work, little girls walking along a canal. One of my favorite places we visited was a Cambodian orphanage. Little kids jumped out to greet us, tease us, and play with us. They spoke English almost fluently. The older students took care of the younger ones while the adult worked. All the children were happy and energetic. We learned that they went to a school run completely off donations and it was an incredible success. I was touched in the thirty minutes we spent with them.

Next, we spent the entire next day visiting the ancient temples of Cambodia. Siem Reap used to house one of the most powerful kingdoms in the world. The temples were…wow. We visited one temple that had large trees growing all over the ancient stone architecture. Huge twisting roots grew through windows, around columns, and over stairs and fountains. It was exactly how you would imagine an ancient ruin to look. I guess they filmed the movie “Tomb Raider” at this temple. There was another fascinating temple called “the face temple”. About a hundred stone men, each with unique faces and clothing, stood out side the gate of the temple holding two large stone serpents (Nagas) The Nagas are supposed to protect the temple from the evils of the outside world. As soon as I walked inside the temple an eerie chill swept over me. Huge faces, the size of a garage door, stared at me from every direction. Every face was unique, magnificent and silhouetted by the soft purple sky at dusk. It was so cool! Finally, we visited the most popular temple, one of the Seven Wonders of the World: the majestic Angkor Wat. It was beautiful. Almost all the walls were covered with intricate stone carvings. According to our tour guide, the stone carvers who worked on the ancient temples were put to death if they made any mistakes on the holy walls. Yikes. I guess the threat worked because I didn’t see any mistakes. Later that night we hiked up to the highest point in the city and sat on the stones of another ancient temple and watched the sunset across the city. It was weird to think how such a powerful kingdom could turn to ruins in only a matter of a few centuries.

I'm an Aunt!!!!!!

2008-07-11T04:05:00.000-07:00

He's big, he's beautiful. He's Baby Moody!!!! My sister, Kirsten, and her husband, Mark, had their baby on July 9!!!! Yeah! He's sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cute! I can't wait to go home! I miss him already!

Vietnam!!!!

2008-07-11T03:50:00.000-07:00

I went to Vietnam! That makes me cool! Holy moly! Okay, so first we went to Ha Noi. The layout is really neat. As we flew in it looked like a bunch of dark green islands in a sea of rice fields. The dark green islands are small hamlets with green trees and roads. They are each about one to two square miles. When the Vietnam war was going on Ho Chi Mihn decentralized the city because the Americans kept bombing it. Now Ha Noi is more centralized than before, but a lot of the prior city structure remains. The architecture is gorgeous. Super colorful town houses. Everyone eats dinner outside in front of their town houses. They point their chairs toward the sidewalk so they can talk to people who pass by. I love it. We went to a water puppet show, and then went to Ho Chi Mihn's mausoleum. I saw the embalmed body of Ho Chi Mihn encased in glass. After Ha Noi we flew to Ho Chi Mihn City (Saigon). Traffic is crazy!!!! We went to a rubber tree plantation, the Cu chi tunnels and then to the Vietnam war museum. It was a physically and emotionally taxing day. I came away with the convicition that if people go to war they'd better have a DANG good reason for it because it effects millions of innocent people for years and years after the fact. War is disgusting. Yuck, yuck, yuck. All I could think about was the last chapters of the book of Mormon. Luckily there are tons of people who are helping the victims and veterans from that war and the current tragedies now facing the earth. We haven't lost our humanity.

Laos!!!

2008-07-07T03:45:00.000-07:00

I'm in Luang Prabang right now...that's in Laos. I couldn't point to Laos on a map before I got here, but now I have spent two days floating down the Mekong river across Laos, and touring around a Laotian village and town. In Luang Prabang there is quite a bit of French influence because of the French occupation last century. But it's interesting because it's mixed with Asian culture as well. So what you get is the most amazing baguettes ever, quaint French architecture embedded into Southeast Asian radiance. Yesterday I had the opportunity to offer alms to the monks who walk the streets early, early in the morning collecting sticky rice. The streets were covered in bright orange and yellow as hundreds of monks made their way through the streets. We visited a gorgeous Buddhist shrine located in a cave at the base of a huge limestone cliff. The food is really good; they use a lot of fish, however, I finally got the dreaded Southeast Asian food sickness. That wasn't fun. Today we went to a huge waterfall. Beautiful! It's pretty amazing here and tomorrow I fly to Vietnam! Wahoo!

Last Days at Soppoengwitta School

2008-07-07T03:00:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe, but I am finished teaching. Even though it was only a one and half month thing and I am really happy it's over because I was running out of lesson plan ideas, I was quite sad to say goodbye to the children. On the last day Pa-ah (director) formally said goodbye to us during morning announcements and thanked us for our modesty and politeness (cause apparently the Austrailian who had come to teach before had questionable teaching habits) and then later that day served us a special lunch of Pad Thai (our favorite) with all the teachers, in the special teachers' room. It was a great honor. During lunch some of the 6th graders had Jessica and I come out to the candy store and there waiting was a group of about 20 students including one student who had a colorful box over his head that said "teacher!" All in unison the kids yelled, "We love teacher!" and then they dramatically pulled back a blue cloth off a desk to reveal a beautiful piece of artwork made out of Popsicles sticks, glue, and paper. They gave me my favorite chocolate treat and ice cream because I had bought it a lot while I was there. We were touched. The things I'm going to miss the most is Kru Daretts laugh when she told us about the 'bird hotel', Gong's happy chatter in the mornings, the little girl who everyday, without fail, ran up to me and exclaimed, "Aree! Beautiful," the other little girl who insisted on giving me a hug every time she saw me and because of her height her hands always wrapped right around my bum, the teachers who always told us we were getting fat, and heck, even the rambunctious first grade boys who rolled around on the floor wrestling each other through our entire lesson. Good times. So here's my tribute to the Soppoengwitta School. To all the teachers who drove miles to teach the low income children, to Pa-ah who sacrificed all his time and money for the betterment of the students and their educations, and especially to all the children who are fighting against the poverty cycle and helping to bring their families and their culture a better future. I will miss you all!

The picture may be a little blury, but I promise that's me on an elephant

2008-06-20T20:04:00.001-07:00

So after a super long trek through wilderness we were met with 10 large elephants ready to take us to our final destination. I stood face to face with an elephant and looked into her dark eyes. "What are you thinking? What are your stories? What are your secrets?" I wondered. But she never said. Then, without warning the great gray beast knelt before me and allowed me to climb up her large limbs and Brighton and I sat on the metal seat fastened to the elephants back. As she stood I was afraid I was going to die and as she started walking I was sure of it. But after I got over the initial jitters I was amazed at how graceful our elephant stepped. The methodical movement of those log-legs were very ballerina-esque and I felt like I was in a rocking cradle. The gorgeous view was an added bonus.

Quest to the Waterfall

2008-06-20T19:52:00.000-07:00

Our group took a detour during our hill tribe trip to hike through a jungle and find a waterfall. The hike led us to super tall rounded trees cover with thick leaves and moss. They looked like giant green statues. The large vines that were draped through thick branches reminded me of streamers at a birthday party. We saw a large pool filled with clear turquoise water. Sun beams that broke through the jungle canopy mixed with humid mist cast a magical aura throughout woods. Exotic flowers caught light in their waxy petals giving off the illusion that they were glowing. Large colorful spiders sat contently on their sparkling webs. Dejavu. I've been here before...but when? And then I remembered. This is the place my backyard turned into when I was a little girl.

Hike to the Hill Tribes

2008-06-20T19:22:00.000-07:00

I hiked to some hill tribes with the group a few weeks ago. It was beautiful. First we hiked through a thick jungle and then we climbed up a steep muddy and hill and when we reached the top...Ahhhhh (angles singing)...a gorgeous valley spread across the landscape. A checkerboard of deep yellow, dark green, and purplish blue fields blanketed large rolling hills leading to majestic cliffs contrasted against a dark grayish-blue sky. Little rays of sun poked through thick cloud cover. The rest of the 20 km hike was like this. Stunning views, beautiful smells, and a peaceful breeze were our constant companions through the entire trek. I'm pretty sure it was the portal to heaven.

Read posts and sorry about the comment button

2008-06-01T04:36:00.000-07:00

I just posted a bunch of posts. They don't all show up on this page, but you should read them. Go to the Blog archive on the left hand side of the blog and click June to see all my posts! And I'm sorry about the comment box not working. I don't really know why it doesn't work. If you have any ideas please email me: alysej@gmail.com

So…I went to Burma

2008-06-01T03:17:00.000-07:00

For those of you who saw Rambo, don’t worry, I’m okay. You may be wondering why our group decided to go to Burma despite the dangers resulting from its tyrannical dictatorship. The answer: We were getting our visas renewed. When you enter Thailand you are allowed to stay for 30 days. If you want to renew your visa you can do it for $60 in the city, or leave the country and come back in for $10. We chose the later and took a road trip. So all 11 of us rented a van and Brother Dang drove us to the Golden Triangle (a central port in the opium trade). We’ve been told it is completely safe to enter Burma in the north. It was an amazing trip.

On the Thai side of the border outdoor markets flourished, shops and restaurants were well maintained and busy with customers, the paved roads were in good condition. I was surprised at the immediate difference I saw on the Burma side of the border. It felt like I had gone back 50 years. Outdoor markets were not nearly as numerous as in Thailand. Road were cracked and decayed. Buildings were falling apart and homes and shops were built with the thin metal, cardboard, and grass. I’ve seen conditions like this in Thailand, however, it was surprising because this city was on the border. Border cities are usually centers of commerce and wealth, yet this city exhibited the traits of a poor country village. It would be interesting to go deeper into the country and see what the living conditions are like there.

We only spent a few hours in Burma, but something happened to me in that country. We rode around on little motorbike taxies and tour several temples and Wats, but it was the people who were the most fascinating. Most of the women and children wore chalk on their cheeks to protect their skin from acne causing oils, and from the sun. Some images that day will forever be burned into my heart. As we rode down a dusty street we passed a 30-ish year-old man squatting in a pile of trash he dumped from a nearby garbage and feasting on its contents like he hadn’t eaten for weeks. We passed a 10-ish year-old boy smoking a cigar.

As we were getting ready to leave the country a small skinny boy, 5 or 6, dressed in rags put his hands together and gave me the most piercing gaze as he begged for a few cents. All I could do was stare at him. I knew he was putting on a show for the tourists, but his overly dramatic demonstration held the undeniable truth of his circumstances. I could feel the stress of his life reach up and grab my heart. My friend dropped a few baht into his little hands and I broke my gaze. A few minutes later I was informed that the little boy had reached his hand into the pocket of someone in our party before he was caught. I congratulated myself at first for seeing through the boy’s act, until I suddenly realized that I was also an actor in a much more sickening game. Denying monetary support was not nearly as despicable as my delusion of superiority.

Road Trip

2008-06-01T03:10:00.000-07:00

The group of students and teachers that I am traveling with took a road trip last Wednesday. First of all, the drive up was absolutely gorgeous! I can’t explain to you how beautiful Thailand is. Everywhere you look is a breathtaking vista. North Thailand has huge mountains covered in thick jungles overlooking vast rice fields dotted with grass huts, old villages, wats, and animals. I tried to take pictures of what I saw, but pictures don’t capture the smell of the grasses, pictures don’t capture the movement of mountain mist, and pictures don’t capture the reality of the moment.

My professor arrived in Thailand last Sunday so he came up to Burma with us. He is definitely one of my favorite teachers of all time. It was so awesome because on our drive we asked questions on history, philosophy, religion, and current events and Ralph (our professor) would go into these awesome impromptu philosophical lectures that deepened our thoughts and rattled our beliefs. He’s the kind of teacher who carefully prods you to reach inside yourself and examine the beliefs and cultural ideas you never thought to consider, but that were always there. Lectures like that shake up my intellectual and spiritual insides and force me to evaluate myself. It’s sometimes painful…like cleaning your room.

A room that is messy can look relatively clean on the outside, but under your bed and in your closet things are stuffed in a big unorganized mess—gathering dust. When you clean your room you have to pull everything out before you can start putting it back in. Doing so is scary and frustrating because your room starts to look even more messy than before you started to clean. Each item has to be pulled out, dusted off, and thoroughly examined. You have to decide what the item is and where it should go. A lot of stuff ends up in the garbage and, in the end, there is always a box of miscellaneous stuff left over that you never could decide what to do with. It’s painful, but you end up understanding yourself and your surroundings on a more profound level.

Teaching stories

2008-06-01T03:02:00.000-07:00

Story 1:
I was teaching 6th grade. We were playing a game and it was my job to pick people to come to the front of the classroom. They don’t understand “come up here.,” so I have to motion them to them to get them to get up. How would you do this? Following the American body language, I motioned a boy to the front by turning my palm up and moving my fingers toward and away from my body…bad mistake. Apparently that motion is reserved for prostitutes propositioning new clients…No recovery from that one. I thought I would die after I realized why everyone was hooting and hollering. Sad part is I did it a few more times after that!

Story 2:
On Tuesday we were tired because we had taught 5 classes in a row. A nice teacher had us sit in her room during our break. As we sat there a group of about ten 9-year-olds walked into the classroom and saw that we were tired. Immeditatly I felt little hands begin to massage my shoulders. Other students picked up pick posters and used them as fans. Other students began massaging my arms. Other students began feeding us fruit. I leaned back in my chair and let them do their thing. I had heard about the great massages offered in Thailand, but I’m pretty sure my massage that day topped them all.

Teaching at Soppoengwithaya School

2008-06-01T02:58:00.000-07:00

Every morning at 7:30 am Pa, Ong (an 8th grader at my school), and I drive to Soppoengwithaya school. As we drive into the school students from 5- to 17-years-old wai us. The first day I came the kids wai-ed casually until they saw me and then they stared intently at me before running of to tell their friends about the farong (foreigner).

Before school everyday, all four hundred students line up in the courtyard according to grade and gender and sing the national anthem, salute (wai) the flag, and have announcements. The first day I came Pa spoke to the students and introduced Jessica and I as the new English teachers. Jessica and I were celebrities after that. Students would watch us wherever we went.

We teach all the students in 17 classes throughout the week which means we only see each student once a week. Its nice because we only need to organize one lesson plan per week, but it stinks because our teaching is more ornamental and fun; we won’t be responsible for any huge strides in their English speaking skills.

The kids can read and write English, but they can’t speak it worth beans. We are trying to focus our lessons on teaching the students to speak English. I love teaching the primary classes because the kids love us. The secondary classes aren’t too bad, but they definitely don’t adore us. I’m pretty sure they think we’re dorks and they would be well justified in that conclusion. Actually no, Jessica’s not a dork because I found out that she wore spikes on her hands when she was in high school…cool.

Teaching at the Primary School Near MaeJo University

2008-06-01T02:55:00.000-07:00

So I have been teaching English for two weeks and I really like it. When I was living a MaeJo University, I started teaching at a local primary school down the road. The first day was awful. We had no preparation at all. We just showed up at the school, walked into a 2nd grade class and were asked to teach for an hour. Yikes! It may not have been so bad except that there were five of us in one classroom and we all had different ideas about what to; not to mention the teacher who had ideas of her own. We taught two classes and then went to lunch. The lunch wasn’t very good, but we had to eat it all because the teachers were watching us intently and we didn’t want to offend them. After lunch we were sent to the computer room to email friends and then we were sent home instead of teaching another class.

The next time I taught was with just Jessica. It was nice not to have to teach the class alone, but we also had the flexibility to our own thing. I’m so glad that we got to practice at this primary school for a week because when we transferred to the school we are teaching now we were more prepared.

Aehrei

2008-06-01T02:47:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, I was told that would be given a Thai name. Pa picked one that stood for “Our kid.” I tried to say it, but the word was impossible for me to pronounce. It sounded like Ngn. Basically, in order to say it you had to have the back of your tongue go through your nostrils…or something. It was weird because I swear I was saying it correctly, but they just laughed and laughed anytime I tried to pronounce it. It’s interesting how my brain can’t pick up on the subtle sound differences in the Thai language.

Anyways, they finally decided to give me a new name. Pa said, “Your name—Aeh-rie.” It sounds like “Eh-ree” where the accent is on the “Eh” and you roll the “r.” I thought it sounded beautiful. My host mom said, “Wow! A very good name. The meaning is tofu.” Tofu? They gave me a name that meant tofu? I wasn’t as excited about it anymore, but then I realized that she was saying “thoughtful,” not tofu. It’s nice to know that I’m not the only one who can’t hear subtle sound difference in a foreign language. I liked Pa’s explanation of my name the best, “A person who is kind…Love everyone.”

Ong

2008-06-01T02:37:00.000-07:00

Ong is 13-years-old and is his mother and father’s pride and joy. When I first met him he would hardly look at or acknowledge me, but I later learned that he manages his shyness by acting nonchalant.

I’ve never seen anyone eat his or her food with such pleasure and satisfaction as Ong eats his. He relishes every bite as he systematically devours every meal. It’s not that he eats a lot, or that he puts on a dramatic scene similar to Bob’s hand shucked corn in “What about Bob?” It’s just that he thoroughly enjoys what he is eating and you can see it on his face. Watching him makes your mouth water and find yourself almost asking to have a bite of what he’s eating until you remember that it’s pickled chicken’s feet and then you’re brought back to you senses.

Pa

2008-06-01T02:30:00.000-07:00

Pa is very reserved and gives me (a female) a large amount of space, however, he is extremely kind and loving despite the physical distance. Pa knows little English, however he still know a lot more English than I know Thai. We have little conversations such as “You like Thai food,” and “Chan chob Durian.”

Pa is the principal at the school I am teaching at. He is very well respect and has received several awards for his teaching and leading accomplishments. However, despite all his hard work, he is very relaxed and easygoing at home. He takes off his shirt and roams the house in a wife beater. Every morning before school he wanders over to the next house over and has breakfast with his parents. When he drives he does so gracefully and smoothly—ebbing and flowing with the traffic. In short, he has figured out how to be efficient minus the stress. I think the society he lives in helps.

Pii

2008-06-01T02:18:00.000-07:00

My host mom is very kind and relaxing yet she exhibits an admirable air of dignity. I think she is absolutely gorgeous with a clear light brown complexion, dark eyes, and big lips. She wears dark square glasses that make her look hip. She is 45 years old. It’s funny because when I first met her I called her “Mae” (mom) and she laughed and corrected me. “I am not Mae. I am young. I am “Pii” (sister). Whoops. It’s funny because if my mom were still alive she would only be 42 years old, so technically Pii could be Mae.

Pii is very smart. She knows several languages and reads a lot. Currently she is teaching at a primary school while also working on a Master’s degree. She is gone this week end to present her thesis about reforming teaching methods in Thai public schools.

I’ve been told that Pii is the epitome of a good Thai housewife: she is on top of everything. However, she doesn’t seem very concerned about clothing, interior decorating, cooking, or cleaning. That’s not to say that she doesn’t dress well, or that her house isn’t well kept, but you can tell that education, work, and family take a higher priority in her life.

She loves Ong and they have cute relationship. It is different than American relationships in that she is physically affectionate towards Ong as if he were a 5-year-old…But it’s not weird as some might assume. It seems perfectly natural, but it does point to some differences between our cultures.

Pii wants me to learn Thai and teaches me everyday. It is nice that she speaks a little English so that she can help me understand what word she is teaching. I have learned a lot from her, but I still have a long way to go before I am capable of carrying out a full conversation in Thai.