My Abode

I've been trying to think of things to share with everyone who reads this, so I asked a friend for suggestions. Right away she pointed out the fact that I haven't shown anyone my apartment. So I have decided (if it works) to take you on a video tour. It won't be long, as I only have 4 rooms, but this will give you an idea of where I have been living the last two months. Enjoy!

Meh-nah-meh-nah!

Hehe....as many of you have read, every morning I pass by at least one monk on my way to school. At first, I was just plain curious at this. It's not everyday you walk down the street in the US and see some guy walking around in an orange robe, with people kneeling on the ground giving him food. A little while after the curiosity wore off, I was sad because I knew that these men were modern day indulgence sellers, and that the people were making their offerings in vain to nothing. They are just living a life without hope and without Christ. So, in order to make themselves right with whatever they have to earn merit, and do good works.

So now, instead of looking at that every day and just feeling depressed, I have been trying to find humour in foolishness. If you ever watched the Ed Sullivan show or have heard Jim Henson's muppet charachters hum this tune, you'll know just what my favorite monk sounds like. He's this big guy who stands next to this food area giving out blessings and getting loads upon loads of food, but when he gives people his blessing, it sounds like he's saying meh-nah-meh-na..meh-na-meh na na in this really deep mellowtone voice. I chuckle now every time I pass him. Also, there is a monk helper who every time I see him, he is texting on his cell phone, and this is 7:30 in the morning! I always look him in the eye and smile big at him, thinking maybe he will be thrown off by that. One time that actually worked and he looked at me a bit bewildered. Sarah and I are also contemplating whether or not these different monks are territorial, because one day a monk gave another monk a glare, and we figured he had taken his spot. I think it may have been the same guy we saw take a tuk-tuk back to his Wat because he had so many buckets of food!

Oh my, who would have ever thought in my entire life, I would have these experiences!

Mail call!

I think I have corresponded more by mail in the past 3 months than I ever have in my entire life. In the age of email, Skype, texting, and instant messaging, I feel that it makes receiving letters in the mail all the more important and special. At Concordia, the student that showed up to lunch with a hand-written letter or a care package was usually the envy of everyone else and would not hesitate to share their good fortune with their friends around them.

Today I get to be the one boast. Despite a slight miscommunication to some people that my apartment number was 284 :( instead of the correct 824, I received my first letter from The Sister's in Faith at RCLC filled with several notes of encouragement from the ladies there. (P.S. Deb I love the frogs). It pretty much made my day. Just when I was getting to the point of fatigue from 6 weeks of language study, I now have a bit of encouragement to keep me going! Thanks ladies!

Hopefully tomorrow, Dang or La can help me write a note to mailbox 284, just in case they have any other mail of mine :(

Not Polite

Today in class we learned how to say that something is not polite, and I so badly wanted to use it right away in class I started shaking. (Deep breath) Since starting module 2 I have very quickly been exposed to the fact that some things which are extremely impolite and or rude to say in our American culture are completely normal and acceptable in some Eastern/Asian cultures; specifically in relation to personal appearance. This has been very difficult for me to grasp and I find myself putting up my defenses and feeling angry rather than accepting the fact that some things are just going to be different, and as someone told me, I can't come to a new place and expect everyone else to conform to my ways.

We have a new student in our class from America who is much bigger than the average Asian, and I feel like this must seem incredible to the Asian students in my class. Because of this, one of the students from the Philippines always always always makes some impolite comment about this poor guy and ridicules him in front of the whole class. Today we learned about clothes, and he told the student that he would have to charge the student triple to iron it because he is so large. Later on the same man said that this student would have no problem eating 400 baht worth of food at this all you can eat buffet, and it would be cheap for him because he is so large. (Just so you have a point of reference, most of my full meals I eat cost about 40-70 baht per meal which is like $1-$2.) There was nothing anyone could do to get my jaw off the floor after he said that. I was in shock. If he would have said that to me, I feel like my knee-jerk reaction would have been not pretty (to put it nicely). I don't know, it just really upset me- I wanted to cry.

Here is what makes this situation difficult.

1) We're not in Kansas anymore so I can't expect people to have the same understanding about what is polite as I do. Another "western" student explained that there are no such things as filters here when it comes to physical appearance. They will point out your physical flaws yet at the same time tell you you are pretty or handsome. So when we worry that making fun of people might cause them to be depressed, they think it's as normal as asking how your day is, and saying they like your shoes.

2) How I react to things here as a Christian is very significant and closely observed by others, so I can't act out in anger (not that I should anyway).

3) Age and respect for elders is much more significant here than at home. So correcting my elders ever is not well received here.

4) Here when you have a disagreement with someone, the matter has to be handled delicately or not at all. If I was the one to cause offense to another person, they would likely not even tell me, but keep on going or end the relationship without any reason.

I feel though that there has to be a way in which I can communicate that this is very upsetting to me without offending the other person. Enough on this subject for now. For now I'll just pray about it, and ask Dang if there is a way to approach this situation respectfully.

Traffic Report

Side-seat and backseat drivers beware, this post may make you a little nervous and cause you to grab your seat!

Now, I thought when I moved from Ohio to Chicago it was shocking to see what traffic was like. No longer was I briefly delayed on my way to work as I waited for a chance to pass a tractor, but then I had to time green lights on Harlem and yell at the occasional pedestrian or the car that tried to make a left-turn during rush hour. However, since my first hour in Bangkok, I've got to say that Chicago has nothing even close to the awful traffic that Bangkok does. Not even the Dan Ryan/Eisenhower split can compare. Perhaps a picture can help illustrate this better. First of all they drive on the left-hand side, and our vehicle is in the farthest legal right lane. During rush-hour here all traffic laws are thrown out the window, precisely when they should be used to make things less chaotic. That pink taxi and bus in front of us are in the oncoming lanes that people pulled into thinking they could get out of this jam, only the oncoming traffic had no where to go and as they were making left hand turns our lanes couldn't move forward because they were blocking our road. Road markings such as lanes are merely directional aids for most cars because they don't actually use them. 4 lane freeways are usually 6 or 7 leaving no lane for emergency vehicles. I hope I never have to go to the hospital, I'd probably die by the time I got there. The only vehicles that occasionally follow traffic signals are busses and some cars. Tuk-tuks and motorcycles just weave in and out of traffic and often go in any direction they want or they drive on the sidewalk. I've had more than one motorcyclist look at me like I was the one in the way walking on the sidewalk. Children and even babies ride on motorcycles all the time without any type of protection or safety strap. In the country most people ride in the back of a truck. Pedestrians in the city rarely ever cross the road at street level unless it's somewhere where there is a crossing guard. Everyone else uses elevated pedestrian walkways. Everyone including dogs. No kidding! I actually saw one two days ago and had to do a double-take.