Recent Days

The wireless internet at work died early last week. I haven't been very connected but that hasn't stopped me from doing stuff around the city. My buddy and former roommate Ryan arrived in Bangkok last Tuesday which is great. He's gonna be here for a few months traveling around but has set up base camp at the Villa Suanphlu. He started taking private Thai lessons which has really reenergized me into learning more. My girlfriend speaks better English than I do so when we speak Thai it's more of a novelty and I haven't made much progress recently. Now I'm slowly learning more and more vocab. My favorite new word is mang moom. It means spider and literally translates as "corner bug". Ryan's school where he learns is a pretty groovy bunch and last night they organized a bowling night for everyone. My bowling experience in America is pretty much limited to dilapidated candlepin lanes so it's always strange when the place is part bowling alley and part wild rave club. When I think of a night of bowling, black lights and booming bass are not what immediately jumps to mind. That said, it was very fun and I look forward to hanging out with that group again some day. Maybe even lessons of my own..? We'll see. For now I can get better acquainted with my Thai for Intermediate Readers book. I sure have enough down time at work with that wireless router still out.

Much love,
J

Happy New Year!

Well I'm back after a nice nine-day break. I decided to stay in the city for the holidays rather than leave for a beach or jungle but it turns out it was the city that left around me. New Year's (and really most holidays) are a big time to be together with family so a lot of Bangkok's citizens return home. This meant that all of my favorite food vendors were closed at one time or another leaving me to survive on large chain restaurants instead (pizza company). This also meant that my go-to internet cafe was closed which is why i've been incommunicado for the past week. I didn't do a whole lot with my days off. Spent most of them catching up on my reading and lounging by the pool. New Year's Eve was fun though. Andrew, Vanessa, Songtai, and myself were debating about whether to go to Siam Square countdown (the Times Square equivalent) or to the Suanlum Night Bazaar where I had gone a couple years before. Well the Siam idea was quashed as being way too crowded and the Bazaar was being bulldozed to make way for a new mall (bummer) so we decided to go to the little blues bar we love so much. It was really jumping. We could just barely fit in the door. We stayed there and did our own mini-countdown and then made our way to Khao San road where we played some pool and danced a bit. Songtai had to work the next day (1pm) so we didn't stay out too too late. The rest of my time was pretty low-key. My New Year's Res is pretty much just to take better care of myself so I've been going to the gym and I even bought another basketball. I went down to the courts last Tuesday to play in the weekly pick-up games. It's a lot of fun, but running around in the Bangkok air tires you out very quickly. Hope everyone had an awesome new year! Let's make it a good one!!

much love
J

ps. Happy 100th post! Here's to 100 more!

Subtitles

I've been watching a lot of movies. Movies from every genre, some English, some Thai. I recently watched a Thai horror movie called "Shutter" which I enjoyed and found genuinely scary. I guess they've since remade it in Hollywood to poor reviews, but while usually citing the original as superior. Anyway. I've been thinking a lot about the Thai language and it's seeming lack of depth in communication. I suppose I'm spoiled by the English language which offers dozens of synonyms for every word, each with their own nuances and connotative differences. There is a seemingly endless array of words with which to construct exactly what you mean to say. Not the case in Thailand. Instead of saying things like: annoyed, angry, and irate, you say: a little angry, angry, and very angry. You can create the differences yourself, but it feels like the desired effect is lost. Not that you're misunderstood in any way, but that you aren't able to express your feelings as you truely want. Having grown up with a different language it's hard to settle on saying "very happy" when I know there's words out there that can convey "euphoric", "elated", or "ecstatic". The same way I imagine the Inuit must feel in that cliched fact about their 8 words for snow. Sure we get the job done by saying "wet, heavy snow" but why can't English have an exact word for that? I know I don't speak Thai anywhere close to fluently yet, but I was starting to see a disappointing lack of superfluous vocabulary. Surely there's a difference between a rat and a mouse, right?

I have a point. I'm getting to it. When I recently watched "Shutter", I had the subtitles on but was able to pick up phrases and certain parts of the Thai conversations (It really helps to hear it when you know what they're about to say!). Then I started to notice some simple phrases were translated differently depending on who was speaking to whom or what emotions were being expressed. It got me thinking back to a conversation I had a while ago about the difference between a speaker-oriented language (ex. English) and a listener-oriented language (ex: Thai). In Thai and many other Asian languages, the listener is responsible for comprehending what the speaker has to say. Taking it in for themselves and understanding contextually the nuances of what was said. Maybe that's what I'm missing. There are all these feelings and emotions out there to assign to words; it's just my resposiblilty to do so when someone says them to me. And likewise, for me to trust that what I say will be properly understood. So much so that if, in a movie, I heatedly ask "Understand?" the one listening should interpret that as "You just don't get it, do you?!" Wild stuff.

Much Love,
J

ps I hear there's some serious snow up there. Any pics? and how would you best describe the snow?

EDIT:
Irate = โกรธแค้น
Annoyed = รำคาญ / หงุดหงิด
Angry= โมโห
ecstatic = ปิติ/ ยินดี
euphoric = สบายใจ
elated = รื่นเริง
I have a lot to learn...

Holidays

Well, It's been a long long time since I've posted anything but I'm hoping to change that over the next couple days. Sorta like a 12 days of Christmas kinda thing. I've mentioned before how I Can Read's vacation leave breaks down, but it has undergone a change recently. We now get fewer days off we can pick and choose, but get more days off around the actual holidays. While it stinks to have fewer days off like this, it is nice to have actual holidays off. Since we work all day on the weekends we miss a lot of social events already. It's even worse when we have to work on days when most of the city has the day off (not to mention the fact that the classes are only 25% capacity). All this means is that I now have a lengthy break coming up around the new year. I think our plan is just to hang around, maybe take a quick trip to Kanchanaburi just to get out of the city. I'm expecting some visitors in the coming months so I'd rather save up for that.

A lot of people are going home for the holidays so one of my friends had a pre-christmas party last week. She ordered a gigantic turkey with potatoes and stuffing. Oh man. It was so good. Mama's kitchen (restaurant right next to my apartment) was talking about doing another turkey dinner on Christmas day which would also be fantastic. Just know that I'll be thinking of everyone twice as much in the next couple days. Miss you guys.

Much Love
J

ps I have to work on Xmas day and the 26th But I can bring my computer for potential Skyping. I would have breaks from 12:30 - 1:30 both days and also 10:00am - 11:00 on Sunday (10:00pm - 11:00 est Sat.)
New Skype ID: James.Pizza send me some requests! Let's Jam!

Father's Day

It's Father's Day today in the Kingdom. It's a national holiday and one of the few I get off from work. It's extra sweet this year since it falls on a Sunday which gives me a three-day weekend! I think I've mentioned this before but today is also the King's birthday which means there's gonna be some serious fireworks tonight. There will be firework displays all over the city but our plan is to go up around the royal palace where (I assume) the best one is gonna be. Typically the Thai people all wear yellow on the King's big day but due to the political goings-on it's been changed. Last year it was pink in memory of the King's sister who died earlier in the year. I've done a little scouting and I'm not sure what the color is today but that's ok. We just gotta figure it out before we go up to the palace and are surrounded by thousands all in the one color.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!!

Much Love
J

EDIT: It's pink again!

Krispy Kreme

Krispy Kreme Mania has hit Thailand and hit it hard. About a month ago Thailand's first Krispy Kreme branch opened and the response was ridiculous. The line not only went around the corner, but it left the building and went down the street! There were signs along the line saying things like 'six hour wait from this point'. Six hours! It was all a part of their grand opening promotion where they were giving away tons of free donuts if you bought a dozen. The strange thing is that on day two, the line was out the door again. No free donuts but customers still waiting in long lines just to get..a krispy kreme(?). The demand has remained high which is a little baffling to me. I don't know if everyone just wants to try the donut that caused such a fuss or if they genuinely find them so delicious. Maybe it's a little bit of both.

Much Love
J

Here's a link to the article

Loy Loy Kratong

Hey Everyone! I’m really sorry for not posting anything in a long, long time. My one month internet connection in my apartment expired last week and now that I’m working full time I’ve decided to just use the internet when at work and use my time at home for other things. The only problem with that is, just like before, I don’t have any access to the internet on my days off (Mon, Tue) and I’m hesitant to transport my laptop back and forth from work on Sundays when I work in Bangna. So there goes half the week. My apologies for not being connected the past couple days, I promise I’ll be around and keep updating as often as I can. For now, there’s a couple big stories to get into to.

The first story would have to be my new girlfriend. Her name is Songtai and she works for the AIS phone service provider here in Thailand. As always, my work schedule makes it tough to find time together but we’ve managed. We had a date last Sunday which brings me to story two.

I think I’ve mentioned Loy Kratong on here before but just in case you forgot it’s one of the major holidays here. It’s always on the full moon in November and is for celebrating the end of the rainy season/ thanking the water spirits for the rice harvest. Part of the celebration is the floating of the ‘kratong’, a small little boat made of banana leaves and flowers. You’re supposed to make a wish and let it go in the water where it will float away along with all your worries. Pretty cool. You can buy pre-made kratongs all over the place on the day, or you can buy the materials and make it yourself. I had so much fun making mine last year that I had to do it again. So Andrew, Vanessa, Fern, Songtai, and I made ours up in my room and made our way down to the Chao Praya (big river running through Bangkok). It was crazy. The spot where we went is always one of the most popular to go floating so there were people everywhere. There was a concert with traditional thai dancing which is always cool. There were a dozen places to float your kratong in some stagnant water but we wanted to put em in some flowing water. We got tickets for the river taxi to take us out to the middle of the river to let them go which was definitely the way to go. The whole time you could hear the loud music of the concert and see the fireworks going off in the distance. Thailand loves fireworks on their holidays and Loy Kratong is no exception. There have actually been fireworks going off every night for weeks in preparation for the big day. Off my balcony you can see 3 or 4 separate displays at a time. Another thing the Thais love to do is release ‘kom fai’. They’re floating lanterns that take off into the sky when you light the candle inside (You’re supposed to make a wish with these too). There’s some pictures of the festival that’re making their way online and I’ll have them up here when I find them.

That’s the biggest news from the past week. I’m getting really excited for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, but I’ll obviously be really homesick at the same time. I think we’ll go to the same steakhouse we went to last year that had the thanksgiving buffet which promises to be delicious. I have so much to be thankful for.

much love
j