I was first introduced to Pedro Giraudo while listening to the jazz station at home. This piece came on the radio and I was intrigued when I found myself struggling to figure out when to tap my foot. Turns out it's in 11/8 time. Everyone count with me: 12345-123456-12345-123456... so let's see, a complex time signature + latin jazz + counterpoint = awesome. And who is that fellow on the trombone? Looks an awful lot like a certain Ryan Keberle who I performed in a jazz concert with my senior year... I really miss jazz nerds.
Also:
New pictures! senior quest camp retreat and the field trip.
February 25, 2011
Field Trip
"Kam taam from Ajaan!," Aj. Noi, bursting with energy as always, abruptly changes the subject at hand, which may or may not have been related to learning Thai. "Tam arrai next week? What do you do next week?" As usual, she speaks to us in Thinglish first, using the words that we know. "Because we take a field trip! Payap pays!" Aj. Noi's levels of excitement never cease to amaze me. "And you can ride the, dootdadootdadoot! You know?" This bit needs some explanation. The "dootdadoot" is where Aj. Noi has imitated horns by pointing her fingers away from her forehead and is doing an impression of an ox. Now you have just a smidgeon of an idea of what Thai class is like.
so today we all piled into what Aj. Noi termed the "Payap magic bus" and what everyone else termed the "prison bus" and went on my first field trip since middle school. Okay, I guess that's not quite true. Maybe high school. And I guess study abroad is kind of an extended field trip.
I expected to be rather bored by the whole thing. I mean, I'd been on an ox-cart ride before with Zoe. They are not the most exciting or comfortable of things. But I didn't realize that they had a whole morning of activities planned for us. I can't really describe the location. It was some sort of touristy Thai culture outfit. We were divided into small groups and rotated through various stations. My group consisted of my fellow CV Rochell, Chaang from China, Guillam from France and John from New Mexico. First we got to observe and then try our hand at operating an old-fashioned loom. Except John messed it up somehow so not all of us got to try it. :-) Next we were taken to a sort of weaving and handicraft station where I sort of managed to make something resembling a flower out of a leaf. Crafts are so not my thing. Then we got to play with some play-doh, erm, I mean clay. I made a model of the Loch Ness Monster. There was a pottery wheel and a couple of others tried to make some pottery, with varying success. (Karen, you would have been in heaven. Except you're an art major, so you already do this stuff all the time. I thought of you is all I'm trying to say.) Our last station was learning how to make paper.
After we'd rotated through all the stations, we were led over to a grass ring where two oxen were waiting for us. I thought we were just going for an ox-cart ride but no, we were actually riding the oxen as though they were horses at the fair or something. It was pretty fun, but not as fun as riding an elephant.
To finish, we were taken to a small rice field so we could get a picture of ourselves planting rice. It was very muddy and a lot deeper than I expected. I had totally forgotten about my leg wound (which is almost completely healed) and when I climbed out I realized that it was covered in mud! Oops. I tried to hose off and resolved to go to the hospital for a new bandage as soon as we returned.
But I had lunch appointment first. It's Esther's birthday and we were invited to have lunch at her office. I made my appearance and then, as soon as felt appropriate, I ducked out and headed to the hospital where the staff were extremely curious as to how I'd managed to get the area under my bandage caked in mud. As usual, they all came scurrying over as soon as they saw me, examining my leg and approving it's progress. "Lek, mai?" (Is it small?) one of them asked. I tried to explain that I had been to a rice field, but somehow they heard building. Oh well.
I wasn't done. I had one last class to teach. The focus was to be reading and I really wasn't sure how to approach it. I decided just to work out of their textbooks and hopefully they would be able to communicate where they needed help. Not everybody came of course, it being 4:00 on a Friday, but that was a bit of a blessing as it allowed me to work with students individually. I'm not sure how much I actually accomplished. Teaching someone how to read and comprehend has got to be one of the most difficult tasks in language teaching, I only had an hour, and I had no idea where to start. But I did my best and at the end of it one of the students approached me.
"Teacher, we want to study with you in summer." Huh? There was a lot of miming, and something about March 28th. I didn't really get it all. I'm not sure if there's a reason they want to study with me in the summer. But to have any student say "I want to study with you" is a definite ego boost. Receiving a list of ten names of prospective guinea pigs, erm, I mean students, is even more so. I don't know how much they actually learn, but I must be doing something right.
so today we all piled into what Aj. Noi termed the "Payap magic bus" and what everyone else termed the "prison bus" and went on my first field trip since middle school. Okay, I guess that's not quite true. Maybe high school. And I guess study abroad is kind of an extended field trip.
I expected to be rather bored by the whole thing. I mean, I'd been on an ox-cart ride before with Zoe. They are not the most exciting or comfortable of things. But I didn't realize that they had a whole morning of activities planned for us. I can't really describe the location. It was some sort of touristy Thai culture outfit. We were divided into small groups and rotated through various stations. My group consisted of my fellow CV Rochell, Chaang from China, Guillam from France and John from New Mexico. First we got to observe and then try our hand at operating an old-fashioned loom. Except John messed it up somehow so not all of us got to try it. :-) Next we were taken to a sort of weaving and handicraft station where I sort of managed to make something resembling a flower out of a leaf. Crafts are so not my thing. Then we got to play with some play-doh, erm, I mean clay. I made a model of the Loch Ness Monster. There was a pottery wheel and a couple of others tried to make some pottery, with varying success. (Karen, you would have been in heaven. Except you're an art major, so you already do this stuff all the time. I thought of you is all I'm trying to say.) Our last station was learning how to make paper.
After we'd rotated through all the stations, we were led over to a grass ring where two oxen were waiting for us. I thought we were just going for an ox-cart ride but no, we were actually riding the oxen as though they were horses at the fair or something. It was pretty fun, but not as fun as riding an elephant.
To finish, we were taken to a small rice field so we could get a picture of ourselves planting rice. It was very muddy and a lot deeper than I expected. I had totally forgotten about my leg wound (which is almost completely healed) and when I climbed out I realized that it was covered in mud! Oops. I tried to hose off and resolved to go to the hospital for a new bandage as soon as we returned.
But I had lunch appointment first. It's Esther's birthday and we were invited to have lunch at her office. I made my appearance and then, as soon as felt appropriate, I ducked out and headed to the hospital where the staff were extremely curious as to how I'd managed to get the area under my bandage caked in mud. As usual, they all came scurrying over as soon as they saw me, examining my leg and approving it's progress. "Lek, mai?" (Is it small?) one of them asked. I tried to explain that I had been to a rice field, but somehow they heard building. Oh well.
I wasn't done. I had one last class to teach. The focus was to be reading and I really wasn't sure how to approach it. I decided just to work out of their textbooks and hopefully they would be able to communicate where they needed help. Not everybody came of course, it being 4:00 on a Friday, but that was a bit of a blessing as it allowed me to work with students individually. I'm not sure how much I actually accomplished. Teaching someone how to read and comprehend has got to be one of the most difficult tasks in language teaching, I only had an hour, and I had no idea where to start. But I did my best and at the end of it one of the students approached me.
"Teacher, we want to study with you in summer." Huh? There was a lot of miming, and something about March 28th. I didn't really get it all. I'm not sure if there's a reason they want to study with me in the summer. But to have any student say "I want to study with you" is a definite ego boost. Receiving a list of ten names of prospective guinea pigs, erm, I mean students, is even more so. I don't know how much they actually learn, but I must be doing something right.
February 19, 2011
Concert surprise!
Hurray for random discoveries! Today promised to be a pretty ho-hum saturday. I didn't particularly mind as the weeks have been so busy lately, but the same ol' same ol' gets, well, old after a while. I've taken to escaping to starbucks on the weekends. I feel rather guilty about this. I've never been a huge fan of starbucks, patronizing them whlie in Thailand seems wrong on so many levels and it's ridiculously expensive. But perhaps because of this combination it's the one coffee shop I have found here that isn't tiny and crammed with people. so I can go there to quietly read or study Thai. The best part is they have great balcony seating, which means I can look out over Tha Phae gate and watch everyone's comings and goings. I'm such a creeper.
And so I made my way there today and caught up on making some flashcards for all the new vocabulary I hadn't reviewed. I definitely spend enough time there to make it worth the expense (their coffee costs more than I pay for most meals), but I was finally forced to leave when the sun went down and bugs started swarming around the lights. Mai chop (I don't like). I didn't really feel like heading back to the dorm so I decided to wander for a bit. There are lots of great little shops in this area. It's pretty backpackery and establishments catering to farang are everywhere, including bookshops. I was feeling a little homesick and so I decided to poke my head in one of these, thinking of all the times I've visited Auntie's bookstore with friends. There are lots of used bookstores in Chiang Mai, but the "Lost Bookshop" really took my fancy. There was a wonderfully bookish old fellow sitting at the cash register and a very friendly cat lounging on one of the shelves. The proprietor even turned on some music for me (and started singing along!) when he saw me browsing the shelves. I thought about purchasing a Brian Jacques novel, but couldn't find the specific one I wanted. I was about to leave when a flyer caught my eye. "Chiang Mai Music Festival," it said. Classical music by Haydn, Beethoven and Brahms. February 18 and 19. Why, the 19th was today! I checked the start time. 7:30. It was about five minutes to seven. I couldn't remember the last time I'd actually attended a live performance of classical music. The location was on the opposite side of the old city, but the city isn't that big. I decided to book it (ha!).
I made it to the right spot but didn't see any indications of a concert. Frustrated, I began to circle the block and finally found an entrance to a parking lot. There was a table set up next to a lot of the same flyers. I ran up and asked if there was a concert and how much it cost. It was free! I could not believe my luck. I slipped into the back row at 7:25, extremely pleased with myself.
I would have been happy if the performance had been mediocre, or even downright awful. My expectations were not high. But the musicianship was fantastic! These were legit professionals who teach at big-name universities and have gone on international tours. It was so, so, so great! You don't get that many opportunities to hear good chamber music in spokane, so it's an area of classical music I'm largely ignorant of. It was really wonderful to hear such a great trio (piano, cello and violin) and I had a great view of the keyboard besides. I soaked in every minute of it. I think it's probably been close to two years since I've been able to attend a live concert like that. And I think this may be an ongoing thing, so I'm definitely going to keep my ears open regarding future performances.
I walked away from the concert with the biggest smile on my face. It had been a rough week and I had needed something to lift my spirits. And then, as I turned the corner, I stumbled across another concert of a different sort. Guess what they were playing. "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You." I swear that song is following me. I cannot escape.
And so I made my way there today and caught up on making some flashcards for all the new vocabulary I hadn't reviewed. I definitely spend enough time there to make it worth the expense (their coffee costs more than I pay for most meals), but I was finally forced to leave when the sun went down and bugs started swarming around the lights. Mai chop (I don't like). I didn't really feel like heading back to the dorm so I decided to wander for a bit. There are lots of great little shops in this area. It's pretty backpackery and establishments catering to farang are everywhere, including bookshops. I was feeling a little homesick and so I decided to poke my head in one of these, thinking of all the times I've visited Auntie's bookstore with friends. There are lots of used bookstores in Chiang Mai, but the "Lost Bookshop" really took my fancy. There was a wonderfully bookish old fellow sitting at the cash register and a very friendly cat lounging on one of the shelves. The proprietor even turned on some music for me (and started singing along!) when he saw me browsing the shelves. I thought about purchasing a Brian Jacques novel, but couldn't find the specific one I wanted. I was about to leave when a flyer caught my eye. "Chiang Mai Music Festival," it said. Classical music by Haydn, Beethoven and Brahms. February 18 and 19. Why, the 19th was today! I checked the start time. 7:30. It was about five minutes to seven. I couldn't remember the last time I'd actually attended a live performance of classical music. The location was on the opposite side of the old city, but the city isn't that big. I decided to book it (ha!).
I made it to the right spot but didn't see any indications of a concert. Frustrated, I began to circle the block and finally found an entrance to a parking lot. There was a table set up next to a lot of the same flyers. I ran up and asked if there was a concert and how much it cost. It was free! I could not believe my luck. I slipped into the back row at 7:25, extremely pleased with myself.
I would have been happy if the performance had been mediocre, or even downright awful. My expectations were not high. But the musicianship was fantastic! These were legit professionals who teach at big-name universities and have gone on international tours. It was so, so, so great! You don't get that many opportunities to hear good chamber music in spokane, so it's an area of classical music I'm largely ignorant of. It was really wonderful to hear such a great trio (piano, cello and violin) and I had a great view of the keyboard besides. I soaked in every minute of it. I think it's probably been close to two years since I've been able to attend a live concert like that. And I think this may be an ongoing thing, so I'm definitely going to keep my ears open regarding future performances.
I walked away from the concert with the biggest smile on my face. It had been a rough week and I had needed something to lift my spirits. And then, as I turned the corner, I stumbled across another concert of a different sort. Guess what they were playing. "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You." I swear that song is following me. I cannot escape.
February 18, 2011
Music PSA
uI probably should change the title of this blog to "Heidi posts lots of music videos and sometimes writes about Thailand." But here, as per request from Laura, is my favorite of Etta James' recordings. This would have been a more appropriate Valentine's Day post. Better late than never.
February 10, 2011
It never rains but it pours
After roughly a month and a half of, for me, disappointing unproductivity I now find myself with almost no time to breathe. I feel like it's partly my fault. I was sick of feeling like an unnecessary addition to the nursing dorm and I probably became a little too squeaky of a wheel. But it's partly due to murphy's law, as always. so now we're faced with the end of the semester and we need to complete 20 hours of conversational English classes, plus 9 hours of remedial English help, plus tutoring and chapel and intensive Thai and planning for the fast approaching summer work camps and international baccalaureate and preparing the Christian group for a Founder's Day performance... Yep, it's pretty busy. Of course that means that it's all coming at exactly the wrong time. My roommate's sister is coming to visit and I have been semi-unwell due to a bad case of cellulitis.
Last weekend was the senior quest camp for the international college's graduating seniors. We all helped organize the camp and facilitated activities. It took place at Doi Khun Tan, a "mountain" campsite not too far from Chiang Mai. The site actually belongs to Payap and going there reminded me (for some reason) of going to my uncle's cabin on priest river. Probably because the facilities were similar. Anyhow, it went well and I had a pretty good time. It's always nice to get away from the city. But I think that's where I got the infection. I don't know how it started, but I must have picked up some bacteria or something because I developed what looked like a bite from the world's largest mosquito on my leg. But this is Thailand, so I really didn't think much of it. I assumed it would go away in time. But when it didn't and I started feeling feverish I decided maybe I should get it checked. I was given some antibiotics and told it should go away in 24 hours.
Which brings us to yesterday, when I woke up on the proverbial wrong side of the bed. I hadn't slept well and I was in a very bad mood, for various reasons. And from then on, it was another one of those days where everything goes wrong. I ran out of cereal, which means I didn't get a proper breakfast. Then I discovered that I'd accidentally left my bike in the no-parking zone overnight. That meant it was chained up and I had to pay 50 baht to get the chain unlocked. Unfortunately this has happened to me a couple times before now. You'd think I would learn.
so I was extremely late to Thai class and couldn't focus because of all the negative thoughts I had in my head. It had been 48 hours and while I told myself that my leg felt better, everyone insisted that it looked worse. I really didn't want to go back to the hospital because I haven't received my insurance card yet and was already feeling a bit strapped for cash. But I went to ask my boss at the nursing dorm about the insurance card and when she saw my infection she told me not to wait but to go to the hospital. Unfortunately it was also my first day of a new conversation class, this time with theology students. I was excited to teach again, especially since I feel like I have a better idea of how to teach and what I need to work on. But by this point I was feeling very tired and put out and no longer able to convince myself that my leg felt any better.
The thing about the first day of class is that it is full of unknowns. I can prepare all I want to, I have no idea how things are actually going to go. Because teaching means working with people. Individual people who have their own personalities and wills and whose personalities and wills will all be playing off of each other in a group setting. You can't "script" your lesson. You have to be spontaneous. You have to be flexible. Because it's not just a one-way street. You aren't just giving knowledge, especially not in a conversation class. No, each moment depends on how the students respond, or even more terrifying, how they don't respond.
But I'm learning, and what's more, I'm teaching independently this time. I'm sorry, but it's so much easier. I don't have to accommodate someone else's style this way and I'm free to test out my own ideas. I arrived a few minutes early to get oriented. There's something about feeling comfortable in the space you're teaching in. I hated the rooms we were in last time. They were intimidatingly huge for such a small class size and not very welcoming. I was glad to have the extra time to get settled, especially as the desks were stacked in a way that resembled modern art. After getting things arranged, I was feeling like at least something was going right when I realized I'd left half of my materials back at the nursing dorm. Crap. And so I got to scurry back to my room, up all four flights of stairs, to retrieve the stuff. Go me.
In spite of it all, I was pretty pleased with this first class. It wasn't nearly the disaster my first day of teaching was, although being at the front of a classroom still makes me feel like I'm five years old. It was, however, completely different from what I expected. The students were not anything like the paralyzingly shy accounting students I had before. Oh no. Apparently theology students have charisma and this group was pretty boisterous. Luckily they were also reasonably respectful, so if I can just manage to project my voice better I think everyone will stay on task.
When I had made it through those two hours I limped across the street to the hospital, now fairly concerned about my leg. My boss had said something about "cellulitis" and "bacteria in the bloodstream" which had gotten my attention. As I sat in the waiting room, Ozzie called to remind me that Anisha was hosting a dinner at her parents' house. I told him I was busy and explained my situation. At this point I was too tired to be disappointed at missing the dinner.
The doctor examined me and told me they would probably have to cut the wound open since the antibiotic couldn't get inside. And so it was that after a brief consultation I found myself on a hospital bed getting my leg sliced open. For some reason they couldn't use a local anesthetic so I had to make do with a sort of numbing spray that sort of almost worked. Basically, it was quite painful. It felt like someone was ripping into my leg with wire prongs. Afterwards I was given more pills and told to return every day to get it redressed. Oh, and I can't get it wet, which makes showering so much fun.
so I've had better days, but at least I don't have septic shock. My parents are probably about having a heart attack right now, reading this. sorry padres, I do take care of myself, I promise. I really hope every first day of teaching doesn't involve this kind of drama. Otherwise I'm not going to survive the year!
February 4, 2011
Random Observations
1. The other day, sarah's boyfriend Kevin was sharing his perplexity over backpackers/tourists. "Why do they always dress like a cross between a pirate and a magician?" he queried. After being surrounded by backpackers in New Zealand, I nearly cried with laughter at this very accurate description. Now we all have a game. Every time we see a backpacker we ask ourselves "pirate? or magician?"
2. During another conversation about the weirdness of Thailand, Ozzie christened it "the island of misfit toys." Once again, so very accurate. His point was that many of the foreigners who end up in Thailand are really misfits in their own countries. I'm inclined to agree. All you have to do is take a look at my Thai class. It makes for an interesting social atmosphere. Everybody sing together "we're a couple of misfits, why don't we fit in!" I think that movie is also the origin of one of my favorite quotes. "We can be independent together!" Okay I'm done with that.
3. Payap is hosting a film festival this weekend featuring films from southeast asia. As someone who loved Dr. smucker's international film class at Whitworth, I'm in heaven. Except instead of a Whitworth faculty member leading the discussion afterwards, as wonderful as that was, we get to have Q&A sessions, often with the director. Unfortunately I'm missing tomorrow because I have to help with the senior retreat. But I will say that my favorite film thus far has been "In the Middle of the Bridge," which is basically a documentary featuring interviews with various Burmese monks involved in the 2007 anti-government protests, aka the "saffron revolution." The Q&A session afterwards was with a Burmese monk who is involved with the fight for political freedom in Burma. It was soooo interesting.
4. I've learned that my name has a meaning in Thai. That is, the sounds "hi" and "di" are Thai words. They mean "give" and "good" respectively. so apparently it sounds like my name is "to give good." Now I understand why sometimes people giggle when I introduce myself. When you think about it, it's
a bit awkward, but I guess there are worse names to have.
5. I've made my sound recording debut. The Christian Communications Institute, right next door, is putting together a presentation on Thailand and needed a male and female narrator. Everyone else was busy so I got the job. They'll actually be coming to Washington, and probably to Whitworth, sometime this spring I think. so you can go to their performance and also hear my first professional voice recording. It took me about five takes to get it at the right speed without sounding like a robot. It's actually quite a bit harder than you'd think.
February 2, 2011
You know you're making progress when...
I can hardly believe this myself, but I just gave a bilingual homily in chapel. That's right. I wrote an homily based on the story of the good samaritan and then Ozzie helped me to translate it into Thai. And then this morning I stood in front of a room of 50 Thai college students and spoke to them in English and in Thai. It was a lot of firsts at one time. And it was at 7:30 in the morning.
I know my previous post on chapel wasn't entirely positive and maybe that caused some concern. But I want to make it clear that chapel has been going really well. It really has. I have the unfortunate tendency to take a rather cynical point of view sometimes. But honestly, if I were in the student's shoes, I would not want to be there! Get up early so I can sit through some boring worship service that I don't understand and don't identify with? I mean, let's be real. The nursing students are, thankfully, very respectful. In return, my hope is to make it all as painless as possible. And I am being tentative about it and trying to be culturally sensitive. I think there are a couple of fallacies about religion and culture. 1) That they are synonymous and 2) that they can be completely divorced from one another. I don't think either is true.
That means that, in my view, Christianity is not "American," or even "Western," although it has certainly helped shape these cultures. But we march in to other cultures with our worship songs and our cultural interpretations of the gospel and end up making people become not just Christian, but our "brand" of Christian. Khao jai mai? And sometimes it's just laughable. For instance, you can't (according to Rob) really translate a lot of the traditional western hymns into Thai because the notes don't follow the Thai tones. I guess some of the translations are pretty painful. But to say that religion has nothing to do with culture, that it doesn't change culture, is ridiculous. I can't convert to another religion and keep my former culture entirely intact. so once again, we have a question of values. Who determines them and how do we apply them to life? If I value cultural diversity over all else, I'm going to have little patience with missionaries and English teachers and "destroyers of culture." If I value my faith over culture, I'm not going to have many scruples about how my actions affect cultural diversity. To say that people with these different sets of values can come to a mutual agreement is completely unrealistic. And that is often the two types of people who rub shoulders in Thailand.
And thus I find myself trying to tread lightly. When we were trying to translate my homily into Thai, Ozzie made the observation that the dictionary had a lot of religious words and also a lot of words related to sex. Basically, the writers know the types of farang who are coming to Thailand. Now, wouldn't it be awful if it was the sex tourists who displayed an interest in Thai culture and made more of an effort to understand it while the Christian missionaries simply ignored it all in their drive to convert people? As an outsider, what would you think? To be clear, I don't consider myself to be here as a "missionary" any more than I consider myself to be "missionary" in the u.s. But I do consider myself a Christian. And as such I am representing something. someone in fact. And so I have to be careful.
That means that, in my view, Christianity is not "American," or even "Western," although it has certainly helped shape these cultures. But we march in to other cultures with our worship songs and our cultural interpretations of the gospel and end up making people become not just Christian, but our "brand" of Christian. Khao jai mai? And sometimes it's just laughable. For instance, you can't (according to Rob) really translate a lot of the traditional western hymns into Thai because the notes don't follow the Thai tones. I guess some of the translations are pretty painful. But to say that religion has nothing to do with culture, that it doesn't change culture, is ridiculous. I can't convert to another religion and keep my former culture entirely intact. so once again, we have a question of values. Who determines them and how do we apply them to life? If I value cultural diversity over all else, I'm going to have little patience with missionaries and English teachers and "destroyers of culture." If I value my faith over culture, I'm not going to have many scruples about how my actions affect cultural diversity. To say that people with these different sets of values can come to a mutual agreement is completely unrealistic. And that is often the two types of people who rub shoulders in Thailand.
And thus I find myself trying to tread lightly. When we were trying to translate my homily into Thai, Ozzie made the observation that the dictionary had a lot of religious words and also a lot of words related to sex. Basically, the writers know the types of farang who are coming to Thailand. Now, wouldn't it be awful if it was the sex tourists who displayed an interest in Thai culture and made more of an effort to understand it while the Christian missionaries simply ignored it all in their drive to convert people? As an outsider, what would you think? To be clear, I don't consider myself to be here as a "missionary" any more than I consider myself to be "missionary" in the u.s. But I do consider myself a Christian. And as such I am representing something. someone in fact. And so I have to be careful.
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