Each Sunday morning I walk the 25 neighborhood blocks from my house to the home of one of my fourth grade students. I tutor her, her father and her little sister in English conversation for a couple of hours each week.. it's great getting to spend some time with a Thai family at home, playing with the little girls, talking with the parents (as well as is possible with their limited English and my severely limited Thai) and taking advantage of the tasty treats they share with me. (this week it was thick slices of dense, chewy Chinese moon cake filled with a sweet bean paste.)
The girls' parents told me this week that apparently it's supposed to be the end of the rainy season now in Bang Phli, an occasion marked by the Rap Bua festival today. The monks at the temples, they told me, are required to stay within the temple walls during the entire rainy season... this festival, then, celebrates the day when they're allowed to roam free again. Apparently they're not allowed to walk around during rainy season because there are so many sprouting plants and little animals and insects crawling around on the ground that it's impossible for them to walk on the ground without accidentally killing things. at least that's what I gathered from our broken English/Thai conversation. The main event in the celebration is loads of boats floating down the river, into which all the people lining the banks of the river throw armloads of lotus flowers so that each boat ends up stuffed full of flowers and each boat's lone passenger (a big buddha statue) is essentially buried.
Well, I'm unconvinced that this is the end of the rainy season. It has been raining harder and more often than ever here lately. The neighborhood streets are more like canals these days and I never leave the house without an umbrella and a change of dry clothes. On more than one occasion walking home from school these past couple of weeks I've taken off my shoes and waded (almost knee-deep at some points) down the street, watching all sorts of interesting objects (a sofa cushion, piles of trash, a couple of school notebooks, chopsticks...) lazily float past my legs. At night the rain pounding on the roof, the cars, the banana leaves on the tree outside my window, is often so deafening I can't listen to my beloved npr podcasts or watch the arrested development dvds amelia brought me.. I can't even talk on the phone it's so ridiculously loud. To be honest, though, I find the stormy weather exciting most of the time. as long as I'm not caught outside in it, wearing my thin white work shirt, carrying my computer and cell phone, 30 blocks from home, without a motorbike in sight. (this has happened)
Showing posts with label neighborhood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label neighborhood. Show all posts
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Sunday, September 6, 2009
watermelon and my wallet at the water purifier
-
A few weeks ago I walked the five blocks from my house to the neighborhood water purifier machine at soi 30, like i do every couple of days. It was refusing to take my 1 baht coins, so I set my wallet up on top of the machine and worked with both hands on wrestling the little coin accepter thing into submission. five minutes, several muttered curses and a bruised shoulder later (i was very thirsty and had no water at the house) I was eventually successful and left triumphantly with my water jug. and without my wallet.
It wasn't until the next morning when I went to pay the motorbike guy that discovered I was walletless and, of course, moneyless. I begged passing students for the 15 baht I owed the man, went to teach my first period, then borrowed money to race back to the machine to retrieve my wallet.
I arrived at soi 30 and was disappointed to find the top of the machine bare. Before trudging home I awkwardly stood there for a few minutes contemplating what to do, wondering if there was any way I could communicate my problem to one of my neighbors, trying to remember what had been in the wallet. credit card, debit card, passport copy, health insurance card, US driver's license, about 1000 baht...
I had my supervisor post a sign asking that whoever found it please return it to my house or her house or to the school. The sign stayed posted there for about three weeks until yesterday I saw a lady tearing it off the side of the machine. I figured after a few days that I wouldn't be getting it back since it was pretty obvious whose wallet it was - three different pictures of me, the lone white person in the neighborhood, in there - everyone knows where I live and still no sign of it. I had canceled the credit cards immediately, I would have needed to renew my Oregon driver's license pretty soon anyway and 1000 baht isn't a lot in the long run, so it's not a big deal, just a hassle.
On a happier tastier note, i gorged myself on some supremely satisfying fruit this afternoon.
i'd venture to say that this was
the most delicious watermelon I've ever tasted
crisp, juicy, dense and sweet i ate it in one sitting. and the whole thing put me back just 17 baht.
.
A few weeks ago I walked the five blocks from my house to the neighborhood water purifier machine at soi 30, like i do every couple of days. It was refusing to take my 1 baht coins, so I set my wallet up on top of the machine and worked with both hands on wrestling the little coin accepter thing into submission. five minutes, several muttered curses and a bruised shoulder later (i was very thirsty and had no water at the house) I was eventually successful and left triumphantly with my water jug. and without my wallet.
It wasn't until the next morning when I went to pay the motorbike guy that discovered I was walletless and, of course, moneyless. I begged passing students for the 15 baht I owed the man, went to teach my first period, then borrowed money to race back to the machine to retrieve my wallet.
I arrived at soi 30 and was disappointed to find the top of the machine bare. Before trudging home I awkwardly stood there for a few minutes contemplating what to do, wondering if there was any way I could communicate my problem to one of my neighbors, trying to remember what had been in the wallet. credit card, debit card, passport copy, health insurance card, US driver's license, about 1000 baht...
I had my supervisor post a sign asking that whoever found it please return it to my house or her house or to the school. The sign stayed posted there for about three weeks until yesterday I saw a lady tearing it off the side of the machine. I figured after a few days that I wouldn't be getting it back since it was pretty obvious whose wallet it was - three different pictures of me, the lone white person in the neighborhood, in there - everyone knows where I live and still no sign of it. I had canceled the credit cards immediately, I would have needed to renew my Oregon driver's license pretty soon anyway and 1000 baht isn't a lot in the long run, so it's not a big deal, just a hassle.
On a happier tastier note, i gorged myself on some supremely satisfying fruit this afternoon.
i'd venture to say that this wasthe most delicious watermelon I've ever tasted
crisp, juicy, dense and sweet i ate it in one sitting. and the whole thing put me back just 17 baht.
Monday, August 31, 2009
a storm, dog vomit and a wedding
_
Last night I was startled out of sleep by the most ridiculously loud crack of thunder I've ever heard. My bed frame shuddered, the accompanying lightning lit up the whole room. it was the first time i've actually been scared by a storm.. what with the torrential rain, violent wind and thunder and lightning that could've be mistaken as some sort of military offensive, i thought my little house might not make it through the night. well it made it, as it turns out, though not without small lakes having formed under my bed, in the living room, in all my shoes sitting in the entryway.
the motorbike ride in the morning was fantastic - i wish i'd had my camera with me. the full 2kms to school were flooded with no less than a 8-10 inches of murky grey water, a good 12-14 inches in some places. I got a workout keeping my legs completely outstretched for 10 minutes sitting sidesaddle on the bike behind the driver man who was trying to navigate us down the canal, around floating tree branches and anticipate the speed bumps along the way.. it was unreal watching kids, shoes and socks off, riding to school on bicycles whose wheels were half-submerged in floodwater, shoeless grandmas, skirts hiked up well above the knee, sloshing down the street selling breakfast food, and the feral neighborhood dogs looking even mangier than usual, soaking wet and struggling to walk/paddle from pile to pile of floating garbage.
And once I arrived at school I got an unanticipated treat...
Since the school is almost entirely open-air (and security there is lax, at best), it's not uncommon to have animal visitors now and then. Usually it's just birds sitting on your table at lunch, or pooping on a stack of tests, but yesterday evening we apparently had a dog come visit the third floor. I know about said dog because it vomited right outside my office door. and then, because of the rain, the hallway flooded and created a putrid, chunky, reddish/brown river which flowed, conveniently, under the door into my office and straight down to my desk and the stack of books and papers I had lined up next to it. a superb start to the day.
The kids were awesome today, though, which helped me forget about my vomit soaked room and belongings. They get really excited about teaching me Thai, so I let them play teacher for much of the day.. great fun.
Last weekend, two of the Thai teachers at the school got married. I wasn't invited to the ceremony (I'm not too offended, considering I'd never met them until last weekend) but they had their party/reception at the school and they invited all the foreign teachers to attend. I have a grand total of three photos from the event...
Ivy and Mitchie showing off.. something.
and me, most likely looking for the nearest server to bring us our next course
fuzzy shot of the auditorium where we ate dinner
and were entertained by the school band and the MC (another teacher) cracking jokes in Thai, of course, so I don't know if they were actually funny. i laughed at them all anyway.
about half of the evening was spent taking pictures in front of this floral archway.
here are the bride and groom with one of the high school teachers
As I was leaving, the school director earnestly told me that I need to find a man to marry me soon so that we can both teach here, get married at the school (very cheap, she assured me), have children, and then send them to this school and they'll get free tuition! i told her i'd think on it.
.
Last night I was startled out of sleep by the most ridiculously loud crack of thunder I've ever heard. My bed frame shuddered, the accompanying lightning lit up the whole room. it was the first time i've actually been scared by a storm.. what with the torrential rain, violent wind and thunder and lightning that could've be mistaken as some sort of military offensive, i thought my little house might not make it through the night. well it made it, as it turns out, though not without small lakes having formed under my bed, in the living room, in all my shoes sitting in the entryway.
the motorbike ride in the morning was fantastic - i wish i'd had my camera with me. the full 2kms to school were flooded with no less than a 8-10 inches of murky grey water, a good 12-14 inches in some places. I got a workout keeping my legs completely outstretched for 10 minutes sitting sidesaddle on the bike behind the driver man who was trying to navigate us down the canal, around floating tree branches and anticipate the speed bumps along the way.. it was unreal watching kids, shoes and socks off, riding to school on bicycles whose wheels were half-submerged in floodwater, shoeless grandmas, skirts hiked up well above the knee, sloshing down the street selling breakfast food, and the feral neighborhood dogs looking even mangier than usual, soaking wet and struggling to walk/paddle from pile to pile of floating garbage.
And once I arrived at school I got an unanticipated treat...
Since the school is almost entirely open-air (and security there is lax, at best), it's not uncommon to have animal visitors now and then. Usually it's just birds sitting on your table at lunch, or pooping on a stack of tests, but yesterday evening we apparently had a dog come visit the third floor. I know about said dog because it vomited right outside my office door. and then, because of the rain, the hallway flooded and created a putrid, chunky, reddish/brown river which flowed, conveniently, under the door into my office and straight down to my desk and the stack of books and papers I had lined up next to it. a superb start to the day.
The kids were awesome today, though, which helped me forget about my vomit soaked room and belongings. They get really excited about teaching me Thai, so I let them play teacher for much of the day.. great fun.
Last weekend, two of the Thai teachers at the school got married. I wasn't invited to the ceremony (I'm not too offended, considering I'd never met them until last weekend) but they had their party/reception at the school and they invited all the foreign teachers to attend. I have a grand total of three photos from the event...
Ivy and Mitchie showing off.. something.and me, most likely looking for the nearest server to bring us our next course
fuzzy shot of the auditorium where we ate dinnerand were entertained by the school band and the MC (another teacher) cracking jokes in Thai, of course, so I don't know if they were actually funny. i laughed at them all anyway.
about half of the evening was spent taking pictures in front of this floral archway.here are the bride and groom with one of the high school teachers
As I was leaving, the school director earnestly told me that I need to find a man to marry me soon so that we can both teach here, get married at the school (very cheap, she assured me), have children, and then send them to this school and they'll get free tuition! i told her i'd think on it.
.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
mango salad and a misunderstanding
kjlkj
I set aside Saturday morning to clean my house (yes, i do this sometimes) in preparation for amelia's arrival on Thursday. After about 30 minutes, I'd had enough and left to go for a swim at the school pool.
It was a ridiculously hot day and, dragging my feet down the scalding pavement, I was thinking how lovely it would be if some kind person would take pity and pull over to offer me a ride. Well lo and behold, just moments later a truck slowed, stopped beside me and the driver looked over and tapped his horn. the universal signal for "hop in, I'll give you a ride wherever you'd like to go!" right? this was my interpretation. so I jovially opened up the door and hopped up into the cab, grinning and bowing and thanking my new friend who, I was somewhat surprised to see, seemed a bit alarmed and confused. Ecstatic to be out of the heat and getting an air-conditioned ride, I told man (who was certainly acting strange, for someone who just volunteered to give me a free ride) where I was headed, he gave me another puzzled look and slowly pulled away from the curb.
It was only then that I noticed the bed of his truck. full of fruit and vegetables and hanging scales and price cards.
It quickly became obvious that this man had not, in fact, been offering a ride to the sodden girl on the curb. he was trying to sell me fruit. Unable to say "never mind" or "oops," let alone, "oh sorry, I thought you were offering me a ride because you stopped and honked and I was hot and wishing for a ride at that precise moment, but now I see you weren't so I'll get out right here, thank you," there wasn't much I could do, so I just sat next to this little man in his fruit truck, bumping down the road, smiling hugely at him when ever he glanced over perplexedly, until we got to the school. He let me out, I bowed and grinned some more, and he turned his truck around to continue with his day's work. In hindsight, I should have bought a big bag of fruit from him, but at that point I was so relieved to be getting out of this supremely uncomfortable situation, I all but ran down the street to the pool.
somewhat embarrassing but hey, free ride!
Well, on a foodier note, I've taken to eating a salad of slightly unripe mango, sliced, with shredded cabbage and red chilis and dressed with lime juice, fish sauce, sweet chili sauce. It's crunchy, cool (I normally put it in the freezer for a few minutes before eating), spicy, tart and slightly sweet (depending on the mango). Goes beautifully with a hot rice, curry or soup dish..
salad improvised from what was left in the fridge one day
I set aside Saturday morning to clean my house (yes, i do this sometimes) in preparation for amelia's arrival on Thursday. After about 30 minutes, I'd had enough and left to go for a swim at the school pool.
It was a ridiculously hot day and, dragging my feet down the scalding pavement, I was thinking how lovely it would be if some kind person would take pity and pull over to offer me a ride. Well lo and behold, just moments later a truck slowed, stopped beside me and the driver looked over and tapped his horn. the universal signal for "hop in, I'll give you a ride wherever you'd like to go!" right? this was my interpretation. so I jovially opened up the door and hopped up into the cab, grinning and bowing and thanking my new friend who, I was somewhat surprised to see, seemed a bit alarmed and confused. Ecstatic to be out of the heat and getting an air-conditioned ride, I told man (who was certainly acting strange, for someone who just volunteered to give me a free ride) where I was headed, he gave me another puzzled look and slowly pulled away from the curb.
It was only then that I noticed the bed of his truck. full of fruit and vegetables and hanging scales and price cards.
It quickly became obvious that this man had not, in fact, been offering a ride to the sodden girl on the curb. he was trying to sell me fruit. Unable to say "never mind" or "oops," let alone, "oh sorry, I thought you were offering me a ride because you stopped and honked and I was hot and wishing for a ride at that precise moment, but now I see you weren't so I'll get out right here, thank you," there wasn't much I could do, so I just sat next to this little man in his fruit truck, bumping down the road, smiling hugely at him when ever he glanced over perplexedly, until we got to the school. He let me out, I bowed and grinned some more, and he turned his truck around to continue with his day's work. In hindsight, I should have bought a big bag of fruit from him, but at that point I was so relieved to be getting out of this supremely uncomfortable situation, I all but ran down the street to the pool.
somewhat embarrassing but hey, free ride!
Well, on a foodier note, I've taken to eating a salad of slightly unripe mango, sliced, with shredded cabbage and red chilis and dressed with lime juice, fish sauce, sweet chili sauce. It's crunchy, cool (I normally put it in the freezer for a few minutes before eating), spicy, tart and slightly sweet (depending on the mango). Goes beautifully with a hot rice, curry or soup dish..
salad improvised from what was left in the fridge one day
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