Random Cultural Notes

It's been a busy week. One of those instances where everything happens at once. I was about to tell you all the boring details of work and so forth, but I can hear the sounds of your tiny violins even while I'm this far away, so instead I'll try and post something more interesting.

On a cultural/event related note, I managed to make it to the capping ceremony for second year nursing students. This marks their transition to third year and also signifies that they are qualified to began doing intern work in hospitals. It was a very old-fashioned Thai event and students wore their nursing outfits, which gave me an excuse of taking pictures of them without feeling awkward.

In case you are wondering, yes they actually practice nursing in those outfits. After they graduate it seems professionals get something slightly more modern. Events like this one are very formal and well-rehearsed. There usually are several very long speeches in Thai. I sat in the wings with various family members and several over-size stuffed animals that were to be given as gifts to the students. 

Other stuff

• Anisha shared a funny cultural experience the other day. she was trying to explain to her roommate why she did not want to wear a Mickey Mouse hand bag. "But how will puchai (boys) know you're cute?" her roommate wondered. Hm. Dear single friends, maybe this is what we have been doing wrong. 

• I finally managed to take a picture of the cows near the university entrance. It's not the best shot but you get the idea. 

• I've actually been making a list of the quirks about where I'm living as a form of entertainment. This was inspired by the plumbing problems we've been having lately. I'd noticed the sound of a pipe leak from behind a maintenance panel in my room, but had been ignoring it because I needed to focus on work and didn't want to be harassed by chaang naam (the Thai word for plumber is, apparently, "water mechanic"). However today when it began to sound like there was a small waterfall in the wall, I thought it cause for concern. Luckily there were already water mechanics working on the problem.

• The laundry area outside often floods when it's rainy. A couple of times I have come back to my laundry and found it strewn on the wet cement in much worse shape than before I washed it. I miss dryers.

•  There are three washing machines, one of which is perpetually out of order. The other two play music as they wash your clothes. No I am not making this up. There are also scales outside of 7'eleven that you can weigh yourself on (for a small price) while they play a simplified version  of Fur Elise.

• My building has seven floors and therefore is equipped with an elevator. This, I have discovered, only stops on odd-numbered floors. I don't know why.

• In my room there are very few electrical outlets, and none next to the kitchen area. This means I often boil water either on the floor or next to the iron.

• The students are locked in the nursing compound promptly at 8:00 p.m. every night (10:00 on weekends) and often amuse themselves by practicing cheerleading on the front lawn. The dorm itself is locked at midnight with no way to get out. Esther has suggested that I invest in a rope in case of a fire, and I don't think she was entirely joking...

These are things I haven't noticed all at once, but that I have gradually discovered in the course of living here. After a while, you forget to take not of the things that strike you as strange. You forget that this isn't how life is done in spokane. It's only when I stop and think or tell newcomers about my life here that I begin notice all the quirks.

I'm beginning to think that there's a point in living abroad when you sort of forget your life back home. Not that you forget what you did or the people you knew, but I guess you forget what everyday life is like there. Right now, to think of spokane and all the people there going about their normal routines is quite weird for me. It's a bit like trying to remember a dream you've had. I just can't fit the world of spokane and the world of Chiang Mai into the same reality. They don't seem to belong to the same planet, just as my life here doesn't really seem to belong to the same person. some days I wake up and I still think "wait a minute I'm not an English teacher, I'm a music student!" It's not homesickness or anything like that. It's just very confusing.

I mean, in many ways Chiang Mai doesn't seem all that different from spokane anymore. The people in it aren't really that different from the people back home and life here is made up of many of the same routines. "People are the same but different," a girl I met in New Zealand last year observed. We'd been talking about travel and that quote pretty much sums up my experience so far as well as my difficulty in describing it. That quote maybe doesn't seem particularly profound. It really doesn't seem to say much at all. But it's the closest I can get to describing living in another culture.

I've been looking through a book about study abroad that I wish I'd had access to before I left. It talks about stages of cultural awareness (along with a lot of other really good stuff). One of these is minimization of differences, which is something I'm afraid I probably lean towards. I like to think that we're all human beings in the end and we should all be able to relate to one another. I don't like to make things overly complicated or acting like being members of a different culture makes us members of a different species. Yet there are significant differences and to ignore them is to close yourself off. It's exhausting to try and figure other cultures out, which is why I often feel like giving up. I wonder how much I can really understand about why people do what they do. In my experience, we're all insane!

I guess I am trying to assess how much I've been able to integrate to Thai culture and whether or not I've been trying hard enough. Though I've been here longer than the duration of most study abroad programs, I still feel like an outsider in many ways. The language barrier is, I think, the biggest hurdle. Without being able to communicate with people fluently, you really can't be much more than a bystander. But there are other significant things that would get in the way, even if I could speak the language fluently. "In foreign cultures, it seems as though you can be loved, but you will never be "in." You simply lack "connections"--family, history, etc." my friend Amy observed during a recent facebook chat. That also reflects how I feel. I feel very loved here. The nursing students and staff are very friendly and show their appreciation for what I do (even though I feel like I don't really do that much here). Esther and the team are great support. But I'm not in. That's okay, but it's a bit frustrating and makes me wonder how or if I can change it even a little bit.

so I blog and I try to figure people out and I try to do good work and  I wonder how this whole experience will fit with whatever comes after this or if it will at all. And that's kind of where I'm at. Didn't mean to get so reflective but sometimes it's nice to get it in writing.