Happy 2554!

The Thai calendar marks the beginning of the current era from the birth of Buddha instead of the birth of Christ. Thus I am 543 years ahead of all of you. And fifteen hours. My New Year's Eve was fairly low key and not nearly as fun as going to First Night, but better than last year. I ended up going to a "cheese and wine" party hosted by the youth pastor of the church I am currently attending. It was good to be out in a different social circle and afterwards I managed to catch the fireworks show down at Ta Pae gate. 


And now, to kick off the new year, here is some Oscar Peterson. He is pretty much my hero. My New Year's resolution is to become as good as this. Just kidding, that is impossible. But I hope that this serves as an inspiration to excel in whatever you do this coming year. Best wishes to all of you and blessings on all your endeavors in 2011. Or 2554. Whichever you prefer. 


 

Thai boxing

Muaythai, or Thai boxing, is a significant part of Thai culture. Like many things over here, it is hardcore. Pretty much everything is legal except for "crotch shots" and there is no protective gear (except for an item related to the only illegal move). There is a scoring system, which I don't understand, but I do know that kicks are worth the most points. It may even be that kicks to the head are worth the most points. Like I said. Hard. Core. 

Like you, I thought it all sounded pretty violent and so it wasn't a part of the culture that was super high on my list to experience. But then it turned out that one of the FBR guys trains at a Muaythai studio and was fighting a professional match the other night. There were a group of supporters going to cheer him on so I decided to tag along and see what this was all about. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so you'll have to make do without pictures.

The match site was definitely a no frills establishment. There was a small boxing ring (why do we call it a ring when it's square?) in the center and a decent crowd of Thais and faraang (mostly farang) gathered around it. The walls were lined with various vendors and bars, although I didn't recognize them as such until someone informed me that the random people sitting at tables could indeed sell me a beer if I wanted one. Like I said, no frills. We found a corner and watched a few matches while waiting for John's and one of the group explained a little bit about Thai boxing to me. Because gambling is involved (and gambling is illegal in Thailand, supposedly) all Thai boxing establishments are run by the Thai mafia. I'm not sure how I feel about this, but I'd paid my admission and there wasn't much I could do. It was rather weird though to be informed that "the guy in the black shirt at our table is a mafia member." 

The matches always start with a sort of dance, which shows respect to the opponent and also as a sort of "prayer" for a good fight. During the actual match, there is traditional Thai music which increases in intensity as the bout continues. Unfortunately it also sounds like a cat in heat. Hopefully no Thais are reading this. 

Despite all the talk of no rules and kicks to the head, the fights weren't as brutal as I was expecting. In fact, the fights were surprisingly graceful and dancelike in a certain respect. Well, sometimes. There were brutal sections but they don't generally last long. The really good fighters put on quite a show, not that it was staged because it's not, but just that it was like watching a pair of really good fencers or an intense tennis match. 

When the time came for John's fight, we weren't really sure what to expect. You have to understand that John is a bit of a character. He has really red hair and a very unkempt beard and this particular night he had styled his hair into a sort of mohawk. The most accurate way to describe my impression of him would be "rabid leprechaun." He looked pretty ridiculous in comparison with all the sculpted, trained fighters who had preceded him and he's a bit of ham besides so he milked the traditional dance before the fight for all it was worth. But once the fight was actually on, he meant business. He positively slaughtered his opponent. It was over practically before it had begun. It was a bit disappointing actually. Where's my money's worth? :-) But our guy won and it was a pretty good time and an interesting cultural experience. 

EDIT: Here is an artistic rendition of a rabid leprechaun, courtesy of my brother. Thanks Eric. 

Merry Christmas!

I've been posting too many videos and I will back off, I promise. But I had to post my favorite Bach cantata for Christmas. Consider my gift to you all. It's also part of my never-ending attempt to convince people that Bach is not boring. :-)

Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland,

Now come, saviour of the gentiles,

Der Jungfrauen Kind erkannt,

recognised as the child of the Virgin,

Des sich wundert alle Welt,

at whom all the world is amazed,

Gott solch Geburt ihm bestellt.

that God decrees such a birth for him.

Watch This Video

Every Thursday, Esther and Gax host a spaghetti dinner at their house. It's kind of a hodge podge of their acquaintances, mostly expats, and it's awesome because it means I don't have to worry about dinner one night a week. Anyhow, many of those who come are volunteers with an organization called Free Burma Rangers, or FBR. I've been trying to figure out the situation in Burma for a while and after asking Esther about it she showed me this video that kind of explains it in seven minutes. It's a bit graphic I'm afraid, but I thought it was important to share. The music was written and performed by Esther's daughter and son-in-law.



http://www.freeburmarangers.org/

Christmas Activities

It is now officially Payap's Christmas break, which means that the nursing dorm has closed and Sarah and I have moved into Esther and Gax's house until after New Years. The onset of break feels a bit like the calm before the storm to me. There won't really be much to do for the next several days, but once that is finished it will be time to step up to the plate and prove that we're really worth the investment. English classes for Payap staff and faculty are officially scheduled and I'm already itching to get planning for them.

But for now, I've been keeping busy enough with various Christmas and end-of-the-semester activities. The one theology student I have been tutoring took the TOEFL exam this week so we had some intense tutoring sessions in preparation for that. I can't wait to find out if she passed, especially as sometimes felt at a loss as to how to explain English grammar to her!

To celebrate her achievements, I agreed to go to a musical that was being held at her church. It was based on the book Punchinello, which I had never heard of, and also completely in Thai, but she did a great job translating for me.

It's been wonderfully cold. We've just emerged from three days of Seattle weather and I've been eating it up. After parting ways, I headed down to the Night Bazaar in my shorts and t-shirt, enjoying the fact that it was cold enough for me to get goosebumps. I went so far as to duck into Starbucks for a toffee nut latte. It cost me an arm and a leg and maybe a few extra toes but it was so worth it. Walking up and down the streets of the bazaar, underneath the Christmas lights, sipping my latte to keep warm, made me feel closer to actual Christmas than I have in two years.

And yes, there are Christmas lights and decorations around Chiang Mai. Christmas is pretty present here although I don't know how much a part of Thai culture it actually is.

On Saturday, Sarah and I found ourselves going on a bit of an impromptu trip with some of the nursing students. We really didn't know much about it except that Esther was going and thought it would be good if we came too. The only thing I knew about our destination was that it was a three hour ride out of town.

Our mode of transportation was what Rochell refers to as “the World War II buses.” They are these huge garbage-truck looking things with long benches in the back. We crammed ourselves into the corner along with 20 or so nursing students and heaps of luggage. It was actually kind of cool looking out the back of the truck and watching the scenery go by, but the further out we got, the windier and bumpier the road became. By the time we pulled into a gas station for a pit stop, I felt like I had been kicked repeatedly in the back after slamming into the side of the truck so many times.

I ducked into 7'Eleven for some snacks and was casually going about my business when Sarah came running up to me. “Did you see what just happened?” Nope, didn't see a thing. Apparently Sarah had been walking across the parking lot when two men with guns came straight at her, chasing a third. She thought she was going to witness a murder. The men with guns threw the man without to the ground and handcuffed him. It was a drug bust. They proceeded to place a whole bunch of drugs around the man and take pictures as “evidence.” Let's just say I haven't heard awesome reports of the police here. I guess a lot of innocent people are framed and Sarah was pretty frightened by the way the man was treated. Yet another one of Thailand's sobering realities.

And so we continued to our destination, which we had been informed was a rural Lahu village. The Lahu are an ethnic group in Southeast Asia and the particular village we were going to was a Christian one. The nursing students were bringing donations of blankets and things.

We turned off onto a very bumpy dirt road and it was all I could do to remain on my seat. But the scenery was beautiful and the views of workers tending their fields by hand were striking. The actual village was primitive, but not particularly impoverished. There were kids (tons of kids... and dogs) playing in the dirt, but they were all clothed well and had shoes. The home where we stayed had an outhouse, but also had a nice tv set. It was an odd mix of simple living and modernity.

Anyhow, the nursing students put on a bit of a program for the village and we got a peek into village life in Thailand, although Esther said she wasn't sure why that particular village had been chosen as it wasn't as isolated or badly off as others. But it was very interesting. People ignored us for the most part. Actually, even if we had known Thai, it wouldn't have helped because most of the villagers only spoke Lahu. But the nursing students seemed glad that we were there and kept on taking our picture...

Speaking of which, I did take a few pictures, which will probably show the experience more adequately than my trying to write about it. So I'm just going to post them and call it good.

The road to the village. 

The village center.

The house we stayed in. 

The Christmas program. 

Classical Music PSA

I've decided that these should be weekly. Or at least continue on a regular basis. So this week I'm posting my favorite "carol" from Benjamin Britten's A Ceremony of Carols. Enjoy!

Shopping in Thailand

As with everything else, shopping in Thailand is an adventure.I think I've mentioned before the difficulties of shopping when you can't actually read the packaging.The other day I was looking for stain remover for my laundry (sweat stains are an unfortunate reality here) and was terrified of accidentally getting bleach. I mean, many things have English on the packaging (if you can find it) but apparently not the laundry supplies. 

Thai marketing is also pretty entertaining. Case in point, I needed a mug for coffee and tea. This is what I found. 

As far as actual food is concerned, If you're not getting food at a street vendor or a restaurant, which is what I have to do about 75% of the time, the place to go for groceries is Carrefour. It's a challenge. I get so disoriented there. There are at least two sections for everything (possibly more). The two I'm aware of are imported and domestic. Two cereal aisles. Two dairy sections. Two produce sections. Price comparison is really fun this way. It's like a relay race. 

Carrefour has a huge area in the middle of the floor devoted to rice. And allow me to introduce: the soy sauce aisle. 

One thing about Carrefour that I have yet to experience but can't wait to witness is that apparently the employees do a dance routine at a certain time of the night. Although maybe that is just the other CVs taking advantage of my gullibility. 

And Carrefour isn't just for groceries. It's more like Wal-Mart. In fact, it's kind of like the French Wal-Mart. Except that's changing now and it's being taken over by something else. In any case, I was rather surprised to discover apples bearing the Washington sticker. They were the same price as all the others, so I went for a taste of home. 

Anyhow, just a few tidbits of my everyday life here. Also, I have finally managed to take a few snaps of campus. If you're interested in seeing what that looks like, click here.

More Music

Whiskey is the alcoholic beverage of choice in Thailand and I have recently become obsessed with the Punch Brothers. I decided those were good enough excuses for this.

Classical Music PSA

I went to Payap's Christmas concert today. Not quite the same level as Whitworth's Christmas Festival Concerts but still wonderful. And it reminded me of how much I love Vivaldi, which I am now going to force on you for your own good.

Theology Department Christmas Party

The Masters in Theology student I am tutoring invited me and the other volunteers to the department's Christmas party. It was a pretty good time. Apparently our performance at the Christmas service went over well as we were asked to sing again. :-) After which we were given a box of snacks.

Thailand is a weird place

Living in Thailand is kind of like living on another planet at times. There are occasions when I can't help asking myself: is this place for real?

For instance, last weekend several people decided it would be fun to go to karaoke. I groaned inwardly. Karaoke is not my favorite, but I decided I needed to be more social so I went. I was told we were going to "the" karaoke place in Chiang Mai. This place was not a traditional karaoke bar. Instead, you go there and rent private "booths" with their own tv and sound system and perform for your friends. Well, I'd never heard of that before but I supposed that it made sense.

The karaoke place was located in a mall. With that single word "mall" I have conjured up in your mind a certain image. Scrap it. Well, not all of it. I guess the best way to describe the malls here is "funhouse style." Organization is... lacking. And the logic of the buildings' layouts escapes me. There is generally a plethora of escalators which lead to floors that have a random smattering of shops and occasionally to nothing at all. To get to the karaoke spot we went up a couple rounds of escalators and then took an elevator up a few more floors which I found really disorienting because none of the buildings in Chiang Mai seem that high. Then we went up another flight of stairs that kind of went in a circle and through an empty hallway. It was super sketch. By this point there weren't many other people around except for when we passed some boys doing aerobics. Like I said. Bizarre. Once we were in the hallway it really felt like I was in some sort of carnival maze. Certain areas didn't have any lights on which added to the Twilight Zone creepiness factor.

We finally made it to the spot and were told to choose a room. They all had themes like "outer space," or "night club." We chose "under the sea." The attendant led us to a door which, upon opening, revealed a tiny room decorated with what looked like spray-painted foam to look like it was underwater. "This Love" by Maroon 5 was playing, but with a Thai singer singing the lyrics! (In Thai of course). It took us so off guard that we burst out laughing.

There were two microphones and everyone took turns choosing songs from the playlist to sing. Yes, I sang one song. However they didn't have the greatest selection. Plus every song had a music video playing on the tv along with the lyrics and since we were in the water themed booth our videos often featured women in scandalous bathing suits. It was hilarious but also really awkward.

The most astounding thing about the whole evening to my mind is that absolutely none of us had had anything to drink. I cannot believe we went and did that stone cold sober.

This weekend I got to see the new Harry Potter movie at another mall (or maybe it was the same one) and it was more of the same. We were running late and Anisha was really anxious not to miss the beginning so all I can remember is haring it through this labyrinth of escalators and elevators and deserted hallways painted with weird murals before ending up at this nearly empty theater to watch the movie. Upon leaving it felt like we were emerging from a bomb shelter and were the last humans alive on earth. The mall was completely deserted and dark and we followed the one other family back to the entrance while walking past creepy looking mannequins.

Anyhow, Thai malls? Strange. The new Harry Potter movie? Not my favorite.