Movies

I don't know why I feel compelled to write about this, but on the plane over, I watched:

1) Fashion Police! The Academy Awards
I was amused that they had this as a choice so I had to watch it. Natalie Portman was the best dressed female and Jessical Biel was the worst. It was a nice way to de-graduate school. It was like watching an hour of People Magazine.

2) Twilight
This is a teenage vampire movie. I know you knew that. Did you know that everyone in the movie has one expression? I mean, the expression is unique to them, but each character has one face they make throughout the whole movie. Other than that, it made the time go by. What else are we looking for on the plane?

3) Snakes on a Plane
Just kidding! I just wanted to say I watched this on the plane.

4) Cadillac Records
I liked this. It's a crash course in blues history. Still my favorite music. Mos Def played Chuck Berry. He was fun and definitely the best part.

Normal

I'm back in Bangkok for a month, after being away for a year. It rained for the first 24 hours and I remembered how much the rain impacted my writing while I was here. I mostly wrote poems, and I think there was some new description of rain in most of them. It's the start of the rainy season, which I enjoy because it's the weather most distinct from the American midwest.

Joel's here with me, and we spent most of the day at the Poll where I used to work. It was, of course, great to see everyone again. P'Nui put me right to work--I joined her in a meeting where we entertained a couple of Malaysian visitors for about three hours, describing 'our' work at the poll to them. It was fun. I assumed my once usual role of clarifying what other people were trying to say. It's a neat exercise for a writer, I suppose. Meanwhile, Joel walked around the campus. I think it was all right for him.

At lunch, we ate at a somtam restaurant I loved for its yam pladuk foo (fish and mango salad) over sticky rice. We ate with my coworkers--P'Nui, P'Noom, P'Jo, P'Otto, P'Pam, and P'Pun (P'George is photographing Prachuap Kiri Kahn this weekend). During the meal, P'Pam said, "We're back to normal." That comment had a strong effect on me. I was pretty moved, I mean. I had spent plenty of meals with them before, getting about 25% of the conversation, always feeling like the farang and the odd one out. I thought that maybe I threw their group off. That I made things not normal for them, I mean. His comment seemed to insinuate that my absense was strange to them. That blew me away.

It also was strange to think of the past year as being "not normal," with all the stress of graduate school, the idea was kind of relief. I do admit that I never really felt like I left, which is really bizarre. What's even more bizarre is that I feel the same way every time I return to Detroit. I have two places I feel really comfortable, and that's what the comment was really about, I think, anyway. P'Pam said it to be welcoming, and it worked--the comment made me feel very welcome and very comfortable. Thai people have a gift for that. Anyway, 'normal,' has never struck me as something to strive for.

Did I mention it's nice to be back? The food is just as good as I remember. Haven't gotten a hold of a pineapple yet, though...

(Please God, Please, Don't Let Me Be Normal--The Fantasticks).

Happy Birthday, Me

Last night I had a birthday dinner with some of my fellowship friends.

Chay and Tee both play the guitar, though not the same kind. :)

Rupar and Em are really hilarious together.

Maybe Em is just hilarious all the time. May looks amused.

My friend Lee (below) owns a clothing stand near Big C. She came by to give me a gift (a necklace), but she had to leave really quick. I was glad to see her before I left.
We ate at an Issan restaurant on Panasin. It was some of the best Issan food I've had yet. Why May didn't tell me about it before, I have no idea...
Good lord this was good food.
Then we went and got some frozen yogurt.
Unfortunately, that frozen yogurt I'm eating tasted pretty bad...




This is a table decoration.
This is the wallpaper:

The Ivy cafe is also an office for the Secret of Success...
Walking back to the C Building... near the library:
I'm going to miss these creatures:

Last time to see P'Tao (and Kim)

..for a while

I went over to the Korean part of town and met them at their new Internet shop that I didn't even know they had:


Then we went over to the riverside Korean restaurant:


Korean Pizza:

P'Tao's cousin... sort of.
I'm pretty serious in this picture... Not very giggly.
This salad was so yummy:

Korean bacon:
Arroi.

My Tropical Backyard

I have a garden behind my building that I like to call my backyard. Here's the photos I took so I'll never forget it.

This is a Sala--like a Selah, it's a place to rest. :) I've come to know these in Thailand to be a sign of wealth. I think the university I live at is fond of showing wealth.

Waterlilies! In my backyard.

These parrots speak Thai, which I think is easier for them to speak than English. You don't need your teeth and tongue as much to sing Thai.

I live in the building behind the Sala.

There are a few of these statues all through the garden.

These posts are one of my favorite things about Catholicism.

Meeting in the Sky

A few weeks ago, P'Nui had meeting down in the center of town, on top of a sky scraper. I had to go down there to get my visa to visit India, so I joined up with her. Here are some photos.


These are the view from the window:

P'Nui and P'Nheng

And that's P'Nui, taking the skytrain in the opposite direction that I'm going in :)

Not red states, not blue states, but...

I’m getting ready to return back to live in the US after almost two years and so it’s a time of reflection about what was on my mind when I came here and what’s on my mind when I’m leaving. Some of it is quite repetitive from other entries, but I wanted to try to get all these thoughts down in one post. The result is quite rambly, I’m afraid.

–

When I came here, I was short of shaken up by America. I was not that patriotic, mostly cynical and disheartened at what I saw from the government. What I saw from the government (and still see) is the bipartisanship, the wielding of “issues” into “sides,” and the demand to make a choice and choose a side. It seemed like everything I did could be labeled as “right” or “left,” and that unnerved me. I saw that even reading the Bible has a “conservative” approach and a “liberal” approach. The liberals pull out this list of verses and the conservatives pull out that list, and then we argue ourselves into conservative and liberal churches.* We argue but we don’t listen.

It’s not just issues and it’s not just the Bible, it’s what news channel we watch, whether we prefer Letterman or Leno, it just goes on and on and on. Two sides.

I guess that’s why coming to Thailand floored me. The people are incredibly unified in their love for each other and for the King. Right before I left, I stopped at Harry M’s house and he told me I would love it here, he always wanted to go because it might be the last place on earth where “It’s still cool to be nice.” He was so right. He is, most of the time. ;) Now that I’m here, I know why. It’s the King. Seriously, people, it’s because of their king.

I’ve talked to some ex-pats here who like to say the King holds Thailand back, but I say they aren’t paying attention. Or maybe the concept of good reverence is just way beyond their comprehension. The first thing I noticed when I arrived was a sticker in Thai on the van that picked me up from the airport. I asked P’Nui what it meant and she said, “Volunteer for the King.” And I asked, “Does the King have a volunteer organization?” And she said he does, but it just meant that every time someone does good, it gives respect to the king. I later found out that Thai people call him “Dad.” They call each other “P,” which means older sibling, or “Nong,” which means younger sibling. And they opened up to me from day one, urging me to refer to them as my siblings. And I do. I feel like they are my siblings.

Thai sometimes seems to me like a club, a state of being and the code of conduct is to “Take care” of each other. (The quotation marks are because take care is one of the few English words many Thais know). The rule is “be nice.” It’s almost like there is a nice competition. There was a time when I worried that my Thai friends only treated me well because I was a foreigner. But I see my coworkers wait for each other to finish their sentences, bring huge bags of food to share with the entire office from whatever region they just came from on a long weekend, sit in long traffic jams without getting annoyed, let alone angry–the list just goes on and on. And it’s not just people I know. When my dad, brother, and ‘cousin,’ were here, we went to a resort as the first foreigners who ever stayed there, and the couple who ran the place were so accommodating–they called us to see if we wanted to ride with them to the resort from Bangkok, offered us a ride home, and after we stayed at the resort, the husband dropped us off at the national park and helped me bargain to get a cheaper entrance fee.

This is the Thai land of the bloodless coup, after all. This is the Thai land of the mostly bloodless everything. I feel so incredibly safe here. This is why people come here and don’t leave. This is why people come here but leave and come back, again and again and again.

It’s not perfect. I’m not saying this is paradise, that I agree with everything I see, or that the US is bad bad bad and Thailand is the only place that works. There are several things that I prefer about Detroit (the artist community being the number one void of Thailand that I’ve experienced.) Even so, in most regards, Thailand is a great place for me, even though I recognize that these people are humans and we’re all flawed, of course. But flaw and kindness go well together. The result is unity.

I feel like I’m returning home to a very different America than when I left. I will have a chance to vote for someone who shares my desire to see unity in the United States. That, itself, floors me. We don’t agree on everything, Obama and I, but we agree on that. The US will never have a King, though I think that was the intention with this “One nation, under God, with justice and liberty for all,” idea. And actually, in Thailand, there is not liberty to say and do whatever you feel like–not like in the US. Irreverence for the King is enough to land you in jail. This is what separates the United States from Thailand the most–that the view of the overlying authority (King or God) differs in the way that God doesn’t ask us to throw everyone in jail every time he is criticized. I’m not sure if the Thai King asks for that either, but luckily, he doesn’t give us a whole lot to resent about him. He’s put a lot of effort into setting a good example for Thais to follow.

The more I think about it, my desire for unity really has little to do with the US, but the entire world. It’s not practical, but I want the entire world to behave as if we have a Father who gets respected every time we’re kind, and that we’re all brothers and sisters. No, it’s not practical, but I desire it none the less.

–

*I should probably note that my parents’ church, the church I grew up in, has had a unique ability keep the right and left of things pushed to the side when worshiping together. There, the fellowship and friendships occur between people who vote quite differently from each other. There are other fellowships in the area that behave the same way. So I’m not talking about “all” here…

I've taken to scolding myself at the end of every day when I don't eat a pineapple. I mean, it's one thing to dread leaving but another thing entirely to dread leaving AND skip out on the pineapples.

things I'm ready for:

original music
autumn
apples
berries
mexican food
mexicans
getting yelled at by the drive-thru kid
deep conversations that are not typed
bonfires
more original music
clutching warm beverages
driving. yes! i feel i am ready to drive a car
walks through rosedale park
the nursing home bible study
my aunt donna and uncle tom's living room
the seven brothers
daily show/colbert report
the new DIA
easedropping in restaurants (and understanding 100% of what I hear)
actually getting to consider the facebook event invitations
attending a bethany p party. finally.
graffiti i can understand
robz's back yard
festivals
not having to take an elevator 14 floors up to my bed
seeing movies when they come out
more original music
and

you

WHEN I GO

I put my ipod on random and the Over the Rhine song, "When I Go," came up. I was stunned, the way I get stunned by songs that seem to perfectly fit my mood and situation. I understand the song can mean lots of things to different people (all good songs can), but you can probably can guess how I interpreted the chorus:

"I want to know
Will it make a difference
When I go?"

And that this is pretty much how I'm thinking of Thailand:

"I just want to hold you
In my gaze for awhile
So I can remember
Every line around your smile"

--

I have so much love for my officemates. Do other people love their officemates? Amata asked me today, "Can I borrow your listen-ear?" and I knew that she meant headphones, just like I knew that she meant surprised when she said "shock cinema," or honey when she said "waterbee." And if she ever catches me listening to a song that stuns my face into a "serious" expression, she says, "I love you. I miss you," and I believe her.

--

This song really gets me because it sort of exposes a huge reason why this next transition is so melancholy for me. I'm afraid of vanishing from a place that I have invested so much time in, and then, eventually, being forgotten because we'll all be concentrating on other things. My mother used to tell me that I can't do everything (though it rarely kept me from trying). I guess that includes being in two places at one time?