Back in Time (teacher's day)

Some of my students performing the traditional Lao dance.
My self and gifts from my students-- an outpouring considering I'd only been teaching for one week.

Bangkok

The train station is Bangkok in a nutshell, from what little I saw: lots of yellow, in honor of the king, whom the Thai people love; food stalls (KFC, DQ, or thai-style fast food); a huge TV screen; lots of people (too few chairs); and a small Buddhist shrine in the back.
Also, here's a view of part of the city-- I was at the outskirts, on a rooftop. The city center isn't visible; it's behind those skyscrapers...

My mBike

A silent m... I can't quite believe I have a motorcycle but a (motor)bike I can handle.

A Few Moments of Culture Shock...

I'm doing well, as a general rule. Not yet tired of sticky rice, a bit tired of the heat (cold season is on its way, I hear), not yet fluent (oh, for a babel fish...). I wanted to share a few stories of culture shock that I had recently, because I think they are amusing, for the most part, and interesting.

-- I took a trip to Bangkok, two days to visit fellow MCCers who just had a beautiful baby girl. Bangkok is overwhelming. It blossomed quickly, I hear, and now is 7 or 11 million people strong, depending on who you ask (or over 1 million, according to a local taxi driver :)). A commercial hub, with all you could ever want to buy and that bit more that makes you want to buy it when you know you don't need it. I'm glad to be back in little Vientiane.
The point of all that was supposed to be our overnight train trip, which was five hours late on the way back. Here's the bit of culture shock: there was never any explanation or apology or comment, really, about the lateness. We were just late. No more to it, apparently. I missed work, but am a bit glad for the short week. Teaching is tiring. We'll try a full five days this week, I guess.

-- I was looking through a science book, written in English, with the science teacher at the school I'm at. A few things came up that I can't imagine being said in the science-driven western world: where do these live? (pointing at a picture of a dinosaur); can you eat these? (pointing at a picture of a weevil p.s. you do eat them, when they live in your food, but not for sustenance or with desire); is it true that you can fly around the world and end up where you started? because the earth is round, right?; if humans were nocturnal, we could better hunt owls, eh? (I added the eh? but the comment was to that effect).
I love this science teacher. I don't write this to criticize in any way but just because I think it's striking to think about education-- it's availability in the U.S., how we accept certain teachings, etc.-- and eating habits.

-- I went to a dance at a hotel last night with my host mother. There was traditional Lao dancing, some sort of line dancing, karaoke (for which I was, unfortunately, unprepared :)), and a sign over the drink station that said "Merry Christmas". Who would have thought, in a Buddhist country in October in a dance-atmosphere, you'd see such a sign? (Who would have thought I'd go to a dance with my host mom and here 40-ish year old friends?).

-- I was eating noodle salad the other day when I crunch on something. I pulled it out of my mouth. Lo and behold, it was a little crab claw. It went into the mortar (into the pestle?)along with the spices and fish sauce, I guess. Extra calcium?

Peace,
Renee

Boat Racing, Teacher's Day, and Simon Says

How do other people do it? Write so well in their blogs, I mean. I see this blank posting before me and feel its blankness rather than feel inspired to fill it with my words. Maybe if I work in snippets of life?
Snippet 1: A week ago, we celebrated Teacher's Day. In spite of teaching at the school for such a short time, I joined in the festivities: watching students sing or dance, receiving gifts (I will never need to buy soap or laundry detergent again; why don't we give such useful gifts in the U.S.? Afraid of sending the message that the receiver has questionable hygiene? Pish posh), and playing sports with the other teachers (I performed poorly in badminton, I am sorry to say. In my defense, I was outmatched by an athletic and practiced opponent, and overwhelmed by the many watching eyes).
Snippet 2: Last weekend, I left Vientiane for a beautiful ride through the countryside and boat racing festivities on a smaller scale than in the capital city. Still, Saturday was an adventure. The riverside was crowded with booths at which to eat, play carnival games, buy this and that (remarkable how similar street fairs seem to be, the world over, yet how unique; like the Fremont Sunday market, this was, except for the heat and firecrackers and dishes washed in river water :)). We failed to see many races, but the several we saw-- traditional boats of 20 and of 50 rowers going all out down the Mekong-- were memorable.
Snippet 3: I tried to teach Simon Says in class today. I couldn't even manage to explain it to the english teacher who was helping me (so, when I say do something, don't do it, unless I say Simon Says...), but I think we had fun. The time passed more quickly than the listen and repeat drills that we've been doing and the students may have learned... well, I'm not sure what... that the strange foreign teacher will jump on one foot in front of the class with her eyes closed? We'll get to the real learning eventually, I think. First, I need to win their respect :)
Snippet 4: I helped make name tags for a class-- writing the Lao script in English. Phew. I wish English was phonetic. As it was, I could have spelled each name ten different ways. Think of "ough" and all the ways to pronounce it and curse English's non-uniformity of spelling with me. But that's what you get when I language is made up from so many others-- french words, german words, african words...
Snippet 5: I rode my motorbike last night to a meeting that wasn't happening. I would have been upset except that I was proud of myself for riding at night (a fear conquered) and had a conversation with a Lao shopkeeper. He spoke a touch of english and I think I did quite well with my Lao. My students wouldn't believe it, but I think I'm learning and may one day be conversational.