Picture: Payap Van Window

A picture of the window of one of the 12 passenger vans we use to travel around Thailand. No dogs. No smoking. No.. torches? And no durian!

Tanning in Thailand

We were walking back to PIH one day and Angela suddenly exclaimed, “Look! A Thai person walking to class! Something must be wrong.”

This is an extremely funny comment, if you’re familiar with Thai culture. It is incredibly hard to joke about something you don’t understand. I was thinking about this comment later and how much it demonstrates that we are slowly coming to understand what it means to be Thai. Two months ago, if someone had said this to me, I would not have known why it was funny. I can now explain it quite well.

It has been my experience that if it is possible, Thai people will choose to drive, bike, motorcycle to their destination. Anything but walk. I was walking back to PIH one day after hiking across campus to the 7-11 and one of my Thai friends asked me, “Where are you coming from?” When I told her PIH, she and her friends looked really shocked. “So far, so far!” they said. “If Thai person does not have a ride, they don’t go.” Part of this has to do with current Thai fashion. Everyone here wants pale skin. There are “skin whitening” products everywhere. It is quite funny, coming from the United States, where everyone wants to be tanner. There’s no market here for things like tanning beds or tanning oil. People are constantly pointing to my skin, telling me “sw’aii” (beautiful).

It could only be something truly terrible that would drive a Thai person outdoors and cause them to risk pigmentation. Pigmentating? I’m sure you get the idea.

Picture: Marathon!

We survived! After the race. Lithuania, Yui, and me. Def BFFs.

Kaythee in Thailand

“Khun chuu arai, ka?” (What is your name?)
“Chan chuu, Katie, ka.” (My name is Katie.)
“Kasey?”
“Katie.”
“Kathy?”
“Katie.”
“Kateen?”
“KAY.TEE.”
“Kaythee?”
“FINE.”

Everyone in Thailand has a Thai chuu len (nickname). Often, farang are given Thai nicknames, which help the Thais remember which farang is which. Unintentionally, my chuu len has become the Thai-icized version of my name “Kaythee.” So, in order to promote a more “Thai friendly” version of my blog, I am now formally introducing it as “Kaythee in Thailand.” To most accurately recreate (in your very own home!) my Thai chuu len, you can try saying “Kay-thee,” placing the stress on the last syllable. For bonus points, allow the tone of your voice to rise on the last syllable. Repeat after me: Kay-THEE.

Andrew

It has almost been exactly a week since my friend Andrew, who lived with me at PIH, died in a motorcycle accident. I attended his memorial service last Saturday, where we were given a sheet of paper so that we could write a letter to his parents. I usually find it very difficult to write sincere things, but I found writing to Andrew’s parents was a lot easier than I would have imagined. As cheesy as it sounds, the truth is that my heart knew exactly what it wanted to say. By contrast, I have found writing about Andrew to be incredibly difficult. I finally figured that I should just start with the first thing I wrote to his parents.

Picture: Bathroom Sink

THIS. IS. SPARTA. Er.. otherwise known as the craziness that has become our bathroom sink. Theoretically, the entire left half is mine, but as you can tell, my things have retreated drastically northward. The wagons are circled and despite being vastly outnumbered and less “well-greaved” than we’d prefer, we are preparing to make our last stand in the upper left. If you can identify the Greek references in this post and find Laocoön, Kharybdis, Io, & the Horattii in this picture, then you win.

Dorm Life in Thailand

Things That Have Been Going On In My Dorm Room:

• I came back from class one day to find several people sleeping on my floor.
• My shower curtain disappeared.
• My roommate’s friend “Ugly Betty” has moved in. Clothes, toiletries, “Don’t Worry Be Happy!” shower cap, and all.
• Because my saliva glands are ahead of the evolutionary pack, they able to produce a highly-sought after chemical that dyes cloth. On the upside, I’ve signed a multi-billion dollar contract with Thai scientists who want to study this phenomenon. On the downside, I now have attractive drool puddles bleached into my bedding.
• Someone calls our dorm room every morning around 5:15 AM. My roommate answers, says two sentences, and hangs up. This happens every morning, without fail.
• I broke down and bought some peanut butter!
• I woke up one morning to my roommate sobbing and talking on the phone. This continued for another two hours. I felt pretty awkward.
• I’ll admit it. A combination of Rihanna and Imogen have been on repeat on my computer for about two weeks now.
• Ugly Betty has produced two ginormous stuffed cartoon bear-things that now also live in my room. One is about the size of a large house cat. The other is about the size of a german shepard.

And that’s life right now, besides the crazy amount of things due next week for midterms.

Running in Thailand

I went for a walk with Tuti yesterday. While we were meandering, we noticed someone running towards us.

Tuti: Is that a man or a woman?
Me: I don’t know.
Tuti: C’mon! Guess! It will be fun.
Me: Um… woman?
Tuti: That’s what I was going to say. You can see her boobs are running.
Me: Ohhh my goodness, Tuti.
Tuti: It is true.
Me: My boobs will be running tomorrow.
Tuti: No, your boobs are too small. They cannot run.

Kato (Thai Studies’ other Katie and another IPSL student) asked me on Tuesday if I would like to run in her service agency’s marathon on Sunday. So I said yes. And so I did. I ran a marathon today. Granted, it was only (ha, only!) 12 km, which is about 7.5 miles, but still. It was a lot more running that I was ever expecting to do. Like, ever. Life or death situations included.

Picture: Painted Fish

We visited Chiang Rai this weekend, and saw the Golden Triangle (where Laos, Burma, and Thailand all come together at the Mekong River). In addition to seeing the Hall of Opium and some awesome mountains, we saw quite a few wats (Buddhist temples). They were all very ornate, and had amazing paintings and architecture. This is a picture of one of the painted flower pots.

Crank That Service Learning in Thailand

I am in Chiang Mai through a study abroad program called the International Partnership for Service-Learning and Leadership (IPSL).  It allows students to take classes while also volunteering during their time abroad.  The service agency I have been paired with is called the Healing Family Foundation (HFF), located near Wararot Market in the old city.

The organization is designed to create a niche for mentally challenged adults and teens in the Chiang Mai area. In addition to facilitating familial ties and love and friendship, the agency gives this marginalized group of people a place in society by teaching them Japenese weaving. The HFF then buys these weavings from the “artists” and uses them to create a variety of unique products, which they then sell to the public. What is incredible is that the HFF is not only reaching out to the mentally challenged in Chiang Mai; the agency is constantly reaching out and trying to connect people with disabilities throughout the country. It is seriously an awesome and groundbreaking foundation in terms of what they are trying to achieve. Creating a way for disabled people to support themselves (and perhaps eventually become self sufficient), thus earning themselves a “real” place in society, is an amazing goal. You should go check out their website, along with the blog of my supervisor, Mr. Nakayama (FYI: it is in Japanese, but the pictures are good).

I visit every Monday and Wednesday. The artists spend the mornings weaving. After lunch, they have an activity time, followed by what can only be described as a giant dance party. They love to dance, and the HFF is trying to encourage all the artists to be more active, as most of them are overweight. My main job is organizing activities to fill the time directly after lunch. So, thinking to combine my activity duties with the artists’ love of dancing, I decided that I would teach them the Macarena. I brought in a CD and had them in a circle and slowly counted off “one-two-three-etc.” and went slowly through the motions. A few of them caught on very quickly, but the majority just looked at me skeptically as if to say, “You really mean to tell us that this is The Great American Dance?”

Well, kind of. I told them we have to Macrena first before we can Soulja Boy. You (yoooou) have to crawl before you can walk.