“Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition.” - James Baldwin

"Where are you from?" is quite possibly the hardest question I have to face. Even complex math problems have a solution, but the question of my origin is much too broad for me to ever feel I've given a satisfactory answer.

I was born in Ohio. I live in Pennsylvania. These are black and white. But the oddly shaped rectangle on a map is hardly what I'd call home. Additionally, I borrow a sense of home from other locations. In Pennsylvania alone I feel at home in a multitude of streets, dorms, and houses.

But never in my life did I expect to land on the tarmac in Bangkok and feel so overwhelmed with a feeling of homecoming. I deplaned with the largest grin on my face, feeling practically giddy with appreciation for the opportunity to return to this country.

My taxi driver from the airport commented in broken English as I grew visibly excited as we drove down Ladkrabang Road. "You've been here before?", he asked me, "You know where we're going?". Oh did I. On my right the night market I used to shop at flew by, and my friend Kate's old apartment passed on my left. The bridge I used to use to cross the street; my favorite stalls still selling food in their same locations; they were all there.

I entered Santisuk English Center with the same grin I deplaned with, and it's hardly left my face since that moment. I left coworkers, students, and friends when I went back to the United States last year. However, I was returning to family.

It's been amazing since I arrived. Carol and Don Don are so incredibly welcoming. CJ, after some prompting, remembers me and still runs around Santisuk with just as much spunk but with a year added to his age. After Carol made us breakfast I left to take in the morning in Ladkrabang, just as I used to.

Ladkrabang Road, right where it connects with the road Santisuk's on.

I've sipped coffee around the world and by far my favorite way to take my coffee is blended with ice and made by the Ladkrabang coffee lady.

One of the water monitors (or as the locals call them, "komodo dragons") who hang out in the park with me.

It's good I'm only here a few days, or else I might need to buy a second adjoining plane seat to fit on the plane home. All I've done is eat the amazing food that Thailand offers. I seriously missed authentic Thai food. And after Carol treated me to lunch, my (well technically Kate's) old students treated me to dinner. And dessert.

Adam and New treated me to dinner... sticky rice and fried papaya were some of the long awaited items on the menu, although the seafood, duck, chicken, and papaya salad were delicious as well.

Ice cream before English class.

Good food and great company, there's nothing quite like coming home... other than finding another piece of it tucked on the opposite side of the world. Home sweet Thai home, for the next 4 days at least.

Just Another Day in Chiang Mai

Kate and I are spoiled.

After living in Thailand for a month we’ve seen a good variety of temples. Gold roofs and Buddha statues are awesome, they really are. But we can see those back “home” in Bangkok. We wanted to take full advantage of Chiang Mai.

We decided to forgo any of the tours. They cost a lot of money and took us to see temples and different hill tribes. The native hill tribes are really cool, but Kate and I didn’t have it in our hearts to be able to go and participate in giving money toward what Thailand has essentially made into a human zoo. So instead we decided to use the help of some locals, the Internet, and a very kind hotel employee to organize the rental of a private taxi to take us out into the rural areas of the mountains. We wanted to go outside of the well-traveled circuit.

We walked into the lobby of the hotel at 8:30AM to meet our driver. He was extremely nice and led us out to his vehicle. We paid for a taxi. We got a private 10+ person van with comfortable leather seats, a large television (which we didn’t use, the view through the windows was way more exciting), foot rests, cup holders, and it was entirely to ourselves. Kate and I. We had a private chauffeur and amazing transportation for an entire day, flat rate.

First we visited Bua Thong Waterfall. It’s really hard to put what we experienced into words. First off, we were the only ones there. Kate and I had a three level waterfall to ourselves. Even cooler though, is that Bua Thong is a limestone waterfall. So because of the grip from the limestone, you can walk and climb all over it, even when it’s particularly steep. So Kate and I climbed around our own private multi-story waterfall for an hour and a half.

Besides the waterfall itself, we were just experiencing the tropical Thai forest out in the middle of the mountains. Everything’s different from the States: trees, plants, bugs, fish, and animals. We saw frogs and crabs, as well as a large variety of insects. It was so much to take in. It was so overwhelming and absolutely, amazingly gorgeous.

Part of the falls. 

A view from near the very top of the falls. 

 Part of the stream above the falls.

This is what every path in the forest looks like.

Hazardous. 

When we finally felt like we could part with the falls (which still was not easy) we hiked back to where our driver had dropped us off. Before we knew it we were on our way to yet another stunning waterfall. Or, I should say falls. The next one was in the middle of a national park and had 10 levels. It was a long hike to the top, and sadly the top level was not very rewarding, but it was another awesome experience.

One of the levels of the falls.

The best part of the Mae Sa falls was the fact that you could swim under parts of it. That’s right, Kate and I got to swim in the waterfall.

The waterfall that we swam at. 

Underneath a waterfall.

Oh, and it started pouring when we were hiking up at the top of the falls. Slightly inconvenient maybe, but it got people to start leaving the park. So when we hiked back to where we decided to swim it was empty. So we got yet another waterfall to ourselves. I repeat, we’re spoiled.

When we finally decided it was time to head back we dried off and hiked the rest of the way to the van. We made it to the hotel around 5:00PM, just in time for a swim before dinner.

One of the two pools at our hotel. Again, we had it to ourself. 

The view of our hotel from the pool.

Oh, and dinner was awesome. We ate riverside in downtown Chiang Mai. Kate and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Lanterns, candles, river. It was rather swanky.

And clearly, all that is not enough to do in one day, so we hit up the famous walking night market in Chiang Mai.

Except it was way over-hyped. It was super crowed, the vendors weren’t particularly kind, and it was just overwhelmingly large with little variety. So we decided to ditch and head back to a slightly more local night market we knew of near our hotel.

It was very pretty and a much better market. Kate and I enjoyed shopping a little too much and we managed to head back to our hotel only when the market started to close (roughly between 10 and 11 PM).

We slept really really well that night.

Goodbyes and Good Eats

Today was kind of surreal. It was my last full day in Bangkok, as well as the day Carol and CJ left for the Philippines. So my day consisted of packing, saying goodbye, and a last dinner with Kate's students.

Kate, CJ, and I hanging out before he headed to the airport.

Today he informed Kate that he's leaving for the Philippines where he's going to preceeded to break her heart. This comment slightly made up for the fact that the vendors down the street from where I live think that he is my son. When I found that out today it seriously made me sad. But kin or not, I am going to miss the four year old whippersnapper.

The send off party for Carol at the airport.

Oh, and we had to rush back to Lat Krabang from the airport to meet Kate's students for dinner. They took us to a "buffet", which actually just means that they keep bringing food to your table until you explode. It was a Japanese restaurant. So, I experienced sushi for the first time. As well as shrimp eggs and liver. Good thing I can actually use chopsticks now! (Thai's only use chopsticks for noodle dishes, so I didn't get used to using them until the last week or so, but Japan uses them all the time so we would've been in trouble if our skill sets hadn't expanded.) But just to recap: sushi, shrimp eggs, and liver. That was on top of all of our slightly more normal foods. And Thai spice levels to everything. Kate learned very quickly not to ask what was being put on the table. Even when she spoiled the surprise I decided to dig in anyways... after all, when in Rome Thailand. 

The orange on top of my piece of sushi is actually just a pile of shrimp eggs.

I'm off to bed though. I have to get up in a matter of three hours or so to catch our early morning flight to Chiang Mai. I'm not bringing my laptop, so expect posts to lull for the next few days. But I'll make up for it in mass posts before I leave on Monday, so no worries! See you on the flip side!

A Lesson in Thai Cooking

One of the things I wanted to do while I was in Thailand was learn how to cook Thai food. Well Thai cooking classes are crazy expensive due to the whole take-advantage-of-the-foreigner philosophy. I mentioned this plight to my students and they enthusiastically responded with the desire to teach me themselves. So today, five hours before their English class, they showed up psyched and hungry. We attacked the kitchen with fervor as they demonstrated how to make tom yum kung and kowpat (fried rice), while other students prepared kaijiao (Thai omlette) and some noodle dish. Then, we feasted.

From the left: my student's Por, Chompu, and Mamay in the kitchen. 

May and Chompu

An interesting fact I learned was that citrus cuts the spiciness from food. I, against my students' suggestions, decided to try and eat one of the Thai peppers on its own. I regretted it rather quickly. However, one of the student's came to the rescue as she told me to take one of the slices of the lime we had been cutting. It really did cut the burn almost immediately. So now you know.

All of us in the kitchen. 

Chompu applauding me as I do the very hard job of transfering rice into the pan. 

Making fried rice. The tom yum kung is on the left. 

Chompu making the servings look all professional. 

Fried rice and the noodles. 

All of us right before enjoying our meal.

One of my best meals in Thailand. And the fact that we made it ourselves was all the better. Aroy!

Another Post About Food... This Time Sponsered by Coca Cola!

I lied. Coca Cola didn’t sponsor my blog post. In fact, I had to pay a full 10 baht for my drink all by myself. That’s a whole hard-earned 33 cents my soda cost me, thankyouverymuch. But look at it!

Yes. That’s Coke in a bag. They like to put everything in bags here, particularly with liquids. It’s supposed to be healthier for the environment or something, and certainly makes things cheaper, but I have not adapted to carrying liquids in what I previously considered not even slightly sturdy plastic.

Also, I’d like to note that my student Mamay is entirely faking her excitement in the photo. She thinks that my amusement from this is weird. But she’s a great sport and not only drags me everywhere from the Crocodile Farm to Ayutthaya, but additionally puts up with my weird enjoyment of the mundane things in her life.

But wait, there’s more! In this special blog post you get not one, but two unique edibles from my past weekend. After all sugar always goes best with… more sugar!

Welcome to Thailand’s version of cotton candy. I believe the name is roti sai mai, but I only know that from Googling it. It’s some sort of spun sugar. Generally enjoyed wrapped in a weird crepe-esque thing. It’s similar to eating straw. It has a weird dry straw-like texture when you eat it, but it’s so appealing. I can’t explain it. And who doesn’t like eating straw wrapped in pastel pink and green crepes? Exactly.

Froot Loops

So I’m grocery shopping in Thailand, and besides a few hundred baht worth of crispy M&Ms (I’m stock piling to transport back to the States) (Customs is going to be so confused) I decided to pick up a bit of comfort food for breakfast. I have been in Thailand for almost two weeks, but I still cannot acclimate to the whole ‘rice and pork’ concept of breakfast. So I bought some Fruit Loops (one of the few cereals I recognized). 

Great, right? Yeah. So I opened them and was a little surprised. No neon circles of sugar for Winona. Long story short, Kellogg’s doesn’t put artificial coloring in their cereals abroad.

Yup. So these are what Fruit Loops look like in Thailand. You can return to your day now.

PS: Kate and I totally played with those stickers mentioned on the box. 

The only things I can say in Thai are food… Aloy!

The title is almost completely true. My conversational Thai consists of: hello, thank you, excuse me, I’m sorry, short, across, down, and rock paper scissors. Extremely helpful, I know. However I can say dozens of food phrases and I’m almost to the point where I can understand Thais when they are discussing what they should order. My personal favorites? Kawpat saparot (pineapple fried rice), kaitod kratiam (a chicken dish that is distinctly garlicky), nan soem pahn (orange smoothie), and malagoah (um…I’m not entirely sure what I’m eating, but it’s really yummy). Those aren’t actual phoenetic spellings, but simply the best I can do writing out how they sound in Thai.

Today was focused around food. It’s funny how when I walk out my front door and three blocks to my left I’m taken to a whole new world of food. Things that would make you gag in America, right across from things that I want to smuggle whole suitcases of home with me. I met up with four of my Level 1 students for lunch today and they took us to a new restaurant. I tried Thai curry for the first time. I have adapted to liking the Thai level of spiciness. (Heads up, I think every Thai knows how to say, “spicy” and “no spicy” in case you ever need to order without a Thai’s help.) Anyways, the curry wasn’t the exciting part. This was…

 Yeah.... that's squid. Cute tenticles, right?

The dish that the squid was in. (Delcious, by the way.)

Yeah. I ate that. My students were much amused with how much of a fuss I made about poking it before I put it in my mouth. It was actually really good, although I had to eat it with rice so I couldn’t feel the tentacles. I was a trooper.

Some of my Level 1 students and I out at lunch.

(From the left is: Champu, Nes, Mint, and May.)

The weirder part came at dinner. Kate’s students took us out again (the four from the photo in my last blog post); this time to Kate and I’s favorite restaurant so far. This was our second time going and the lady remembered us and repeated our order from the previous time to show us. When you are the only Americans for miles, and you visit more than just once, you kind of get a reputation.

Well, I’m sure our students have a reputation there because they seemed right at home. Two of them left to go order ice cream to bring to the restaurant and when they returned they asked the restaurant to put it in the freezer until we were done. They didn’t have the slightest problem doing so. Well, while they were gone Tuey (one of the girls) pulled a plastic grocery-esque bag out of her tote. In it was two fish. Two fish, which she handed over to the restaurant woman to cook for us. No joke.

It pretty much looked like this when Tuey handed it over...

That fish had been in her bag since before their class with Kate (which had started at 7pm) and we got to the restaurant around 9:30pm. I mean, this went against everything my doctor told me, but ‘when in Thailand’, right? I just tell myself, “if the locals eat it…” and I tell myself that a lot. Here’s the fish afterword:

Adam said the eyes are delicious... Apparently that's where my bravado draws the line.

But you can’t just end a day on that note. There’s got to be dessert, right? Let me explain ice cream to you… there’s no dairy. There’s very little dairy in Thailand in general, but absolutely none in ice cream. Ice cream consists of frozen coconut milk and I don’t know what else. It in itself is delicious (aloy in Thai). However, they always put toppings on/in it. And I’m not talking your M&Ms and sprinkles. Here’s an example of some Thai ice cream toppings: coconut jelly, sticky rice, corn, different kinds of beans, stuff I can’t identify but is definitely savory and not sweet, fruits you don’t have in the United States, and egg yolk. Seriously. Liquid raw egg yolk. It’s one of their popular toppings. Well, the students bought ice cream for everyone with tons and tons of said egg yolk. It wasn’t until it had melted (it freezes originally and we thought it was some sort of frozen fruit…) that we realized what it was.

So yeah, nothing like a day full of weird food to prepare your stomach for bed. I have to work on my lesson plans, and then I’m off for the night. To all you Americans just starting your day: have a good day and have fun eating foods and knowing you’ll actually wake up the next day!

My First Day in Thailand

Nothing like starting your morning by having Japan Airlines wake you up at 4:00AM to serve you seaweed for breakfast. Yummy. Before I knew it I was struggling through the Bangkok airport, through customs, and off to meet Carol and the rest of the Santisuk Center crew. Except… Carol forgot when my flight got in. So here’s me: brain dead after 30 hours of travel, looking for a person who’s not there. Thankfully some Thai woman let me borrow her cellphone. God bless her.

Well, an exciting start to my day doesn’t even compare to how much I’ve experienced just on my first day here in Thailand. I made it in time to shower and head to church. The service was incredible. It was a modest group of young adults in the front room of the Santisuk center, but watching youth and adults from all over the country (and world) being able to worship together was an incredibly moving experience. Also, through that service I gained a piece of mind that comforted me about the rest of my stay. (Up until that point I had been in a bit of shock over the culture difference.)

And let me just say, I embraced the culture wholeheartedly from that point. All the church members went to lunch together for fellowship and I got to speak to some locals of all ages. They helped me perfect my few phrases of Thai and more importantly, ordered for me since I had no clue how to approach and ask for food. I ordered a cantaloupe smoothie and some chicken and rice. I had no clue what else was on my plate until Carol sat down next to me with a grin.

“You know that’s blood right?” she gestured to what had looked like a crossover between Jell-O and mousse but more porous-y. “Nope!” I responded before digging right in. And yes, it had that iron-metallic flavor. No, I didn’t finish it. I do plan on getting it again though so I can send you a picture. But, what I do have, is a picture of myself with some of the other missionaries – and we all accidently color coordinated for the service!

Us missionaries from all over the country working for Santisuk. :)

Oh, and here are some more photos of where I’m staying/working:

                

 The front door to the Santisuk English Center (and where I'm living three floors above).

A view of the street standing just a few feet from the door in the previous photo.

                But my day didn’t end there. Carol took Kate (She’s the one on the farthest left. She’s staying at the Lat Krabang branch with me.) and I to a huge market. Cue photo of Kate and I drinking out of a coconut there:

                And if that wasn’t enough we got to traverse more throughout downtown Bangkok to see the main school and eventually to eat dinner. Less exciting this time. McDonalds (picked by Kate and Carol, at this point I was almost mentally comatose from the lack of rest). But that’s okay. Because I got a chance to get refreshed. Afterword (as if we hadn’t already done more than is usually fit into a week!) we went to a spa and got Thai massages. Trust me, you’ve never had a real massage until you’ve had one in Thailand. It’s not the same. My body is in a state of nirvana. But before capitalizing on such a state and going to bed, I decided to update my Blog for you all. You’re welcome.

                

We were getting our feet washed before we were allowed to partake in the spa.

(Thai's consider feet to be a "dirty" part of the body. It's super cultural.)

                     Oh, and a shout-out to Emily who found a Wikipedia article about the struggle I went through in my previous photo. You can click here to view it. But that's it everyone, and it's quite enough for one day! I'm finally off to bed. It's been three calander days since I've had a real night's sleep. I can't wait!