The semester is over and I have not stopped to reflect or share enough. Life is better than ever here in Khon Kaen. The weeks fly by sandwiched between weekends of jolly fun. Highlights include golfing, fishing, finding bags full of cardboard robots, and solving the world's mysteries at Sunset bar (bird's eye view of the band above) and Bamboo Palace which is now equipped with a pong table and cushions for the bamboo furniture.
Midterm break was another trip of a lifetime. I joined Isaac, my friend from South Africa, in Koh Chang for an extremely rainy long weekend at the beach. The highlight was meeting some hilarious Thai people and celebrating someone's 34th birthday on the porch of our bungalow overlooking the ocean. Isaac came back to KK with me before we headed up to Vang Vieng, Laos. Vang Vieng is a silly place. It's a small town, very beautiful like almost all of Laos, and overrun by the worst of the worst backpackers in Southeast Asia, including myself and my five friends. The draw is the river. You see, in a parent's worst nightmare, the scheme goes like this. Pay for tube. Get in truck. Drive up the river. Get out of truck. Get in river. Get in tube. Float down river. Stop at bar. Paint body (optional). Buy beer. Use rope swing. Float to bar #2. Buy beer. Use slide. Float. Buy beer. Use bigger rope swing. Float. Buy beer. Mud wrestle. Float. Beer. You get the picture. By the end of the day, we had minor cuts and bruises, were down a pair of shoes, a camera, a couple thousand kip, and up two cases of pink eye. Life list must-do. Here I am demonstrating fine form off swing #1.
After that rowdy segment of the trip, we needed to atone for our sins so we headed South to Si Pan Don, Four Thousand Islands. That's right, you geography whiz-kids, Laos is landlocked, how in the world are there islands? It's a miracle of the Mekong River. Wiki it. Google it. See it for yourself. There are more hammocks than power outlets and everyone seems content to take it easy. We rode bikes through idyllic palm-tree-lined rice paddies to see the widest waterfall in Southeast Asia. We watched two of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen. Grown men cried. We spent the rest of our time enjoying each other's company. In fact, that is precisely what we were doing when some guy who "forgot [he's] not a strong swimmer" leapt off his porch into the rushing river below. His head was barely above water as he floundered into our view. Eagle Scout to the rescue. Glenn earns Lifesaving Merit Badge.
Dad, this one is for you:
In one of my favorite travel writing pieces, Why We Travel, Pico Iyer writes that when an American travels, (s)he learns about a foreign place as foreigners simultaneously learn about Americans. We are like walking video screens. We might literally be the closest thing to Michael Jackson or Bill Clinton some of the people we encounter ever experience firsthand. Anyways, a few weeks back, I ran into my sculptor friend P'Prajak in our favorite coffee shop. He said it was fortuitous because he is currently making a Florence Nightingale statue for the Faculty of Nursing. Seeing as he only sculpts Asian faces, Flo was giving him some trouble. You can see where this is going...? Uh-huh. Currently, my beautiful farang nose is waiting to be cast in bronze on the face of a bigger than life-sized statue of the Lady with the Lamp because I am the closest thing to Florence Nightingale for miles.
Check it out:
The fortuitous meetings in the coffee shop get me into some things. Glenn says that if I were in any other country I would have been killed by now. A little background is necessary. After class a few months ago, I was walking with my adorable student Mita on her way to rehearse a play for kids with chronic illnesses. I said that was great and she invited me to join. After meeting the group a few times and learning the lyrics to a Thai children's song, I accompanied the troop to the hospital. So, back to the coffee shop. P'Sek, the leader of this troop, asks me in his very fast Thai if I would help him with something. I agree, "ได้ค่ะ. I can, kha. ช่วยได้ค่ะ. I can help, kha. Ok, see you then, ค่ะ, kha, ค่ะ, kha, ค่ะ kha." Not sure exactly what I agreed to help with, I later discover I will be acting in the puppet version of the Green Goose play. On another side note, my grandparents are under the impression that when I return from Thailand, I will be fluent in ภาษาไทย. I am going to squash those dreams for all of you now. It took me HOURS, hours, HOURS to memorize 15 lines as แม่ไก่, mother chicken. Anyways, I did it. The show was a big success. Here is a clip from the practice. In the first scene, แม่ไก่ is immobile because, at that point, I was still concentrating on the words, which I mess up and you will know when because I speak some accidental English. The premise of the enchanting story is similar to the Ugly Duckling, but in this case, a dinosaur egg hatches on a farm and the baby dino sees papa goose first and thinks that papa goose is his mommy. Scared he's going to eat my chickies, Kookook and Kookik, แม่ไก่ busts his bubble and says to my chickadies, "What kind of goose is green?! Feathers? He doesn't have them. A wings? Doesn't have 'em. How can he be a goose? He's a monster for sure." Then sad little Dino takes a hike to find animals that are green and lack feathers and wings. He finds frogs and some komodo dragon things, but his origins remain a mystery. In the end, papa goose convinces แม่ไก่ that the "Green Goose" won't eat her chicks and everyone is very, very happy and we run around and sing. Like I said, this video is just a practice and it's only half of the performance. Since none of you can understand Thai, I don't think you will mind, right? Skip to 3:24 for my main part.
Ok, let's talk about my job. I have the best one in the world. I really, really, really enjoy teaching and I love, love, love my students. Some of my most promising starlets dream of serving green curry at an altitude of 30,000ft working for Thai Airways, which I think is hilarious, but we have so much fun together and I think they love me almost as much as I love them. In fact, I have some proof. Exactly half of the feedback I got from my writing students include the word love. One winner from No Name says, "To begin with... I love you : ) I think you are the perfect foreign teacher. Thank you for everything that you gave for me and friends. You are a beautiful women and some day you look very beautiful. For the last, I wish you are happy with everything and everytime. P.S. Sorry with my bad English." Not one single piece of constructive criticism. Not one suggestion. Simply a love note, but I am okay with that.
The best piece of evidence has been misconstrued by my extended family as a haiku written for me. That is the problem with forwarded emails. In fact, it was not intended to be haiku. Sweet, sweet little Tiew (next to me below with the bangs) wrote to me
i feel very luv u
i dunno how?
i think
Destiny
><
from Tiew
She later clarifies her non-haiku,
i means i dunno Know what makes me feel close to you .
i feel like you since the first we've met.
i 'm very Impressive u when u fixed my shoes.
when we talk together on the beach that makes me feel
u r the best friend 'n the best teacher ^^
and everythings that make me luv u so...
thx 4 everythings นะคะ ><
Now my students await their exams and I await grading them so I can hop a flight to Phratet INDONESIA with my pals from KK plus two good ones imported from the USA. My hometown crew is repping in SE Asia via Brooke and Megan. YAY! And, just when I thought things couldn't get any better, Glenn decided to extend his stay and join the Indo trip before he leaves us for home turf which will be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
