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