My World in Pictures: Going downtown

This is the main road, Bangna Trad, where I catch the bus.  To head downtown I cross the road (using that big pedestrian crossing) and the bus stop is right on the other side.  It's about 1 1/2 blocks from my apartment to the main road.

At the bus stop, waiting for a bus to take me to the skytrain (BTS)

On the bus you pay your fare, a flat rate of 8 baht, to the bus employee.  No monedas required!

I get off the bus here: BTS station Udom Suk. 

This is a bad shot of the inside of the BTS.  It's a little embarrassing to take pictures in there!  Anyway, this connects to a mall which is connected to a hotel where my church meets.  We rent a meeting room there each Sunday.

And that is my journey to church!  Which is the same for any trip downtown. I typically make the trip about three times per week for various reasons.

A cultural home

This morning I read something that resonated deeply within me as I resettle into my adopted culture and adjust to being away from my home culture.  Henri Nouwen is so often able to put words to thoughts I hadn't known that I'd thought, and this was no exception.  This is what struck me so much:

"Being back in France makes me think much about countries and cultures.  During the past few months I have been in Holland, Germany, Canada, the United States, and England, and in all these countries  I have had intense contact with people and their ways of living, praying, and playing.  There is great temptation to want to know which culture is best and where I am most happy and at home.  But this way of thinking leads to endless frustrations because the Dutch, Germans, the French, the Americans, and the Canadians are all people who have unique ways of feeling, thinking, and behaving, none of which totally fits my needs, but all of which have gifts for me... I am increasingly aware of how important it is to enjoy what is given and to fully live where one is...

Do we really need to belong to one country or one culture?  In our world, where distances are becoming less each day, it seems important to become less and less dependent on one place, one language, one culture, or one style of life, but to experience oneself as a member of the human family, belonging to God and free to be wherever we are called to be.  I even wonder if the ability to be in so many places so quickly and so often is not an invitation to grow deeper in the spirit and let our identity be more rooted in God and less in the place in which we happen to be."  (emphasis mine)

These words bring me so much comfort as I feel the pulls of the US, Thailand, and Argentina.  I relate to different aspects of each culture and yet none of them fits me completely.  I feel so blessed to be able to live in and experience different cultures, different faces of God really, and to take away what I can from each one. 

The truth about jet lag

When people tell you about jet lag and warn you about jet lag, there is one very important part that they leave out. So I am here to set the record straight. 

Jet lag is as much about eating as it is about sleeping. 

I didn't notice this phenomenon too much when I arrived in July, I think because everything revolving around eating was so strange and new.  But I certainly noticed it going back in December. I was hungry- all the time. So I ate mini-meals every 3 hours those first few days.  Returning here this weekend I haven't been eating quite as much (hopefully my body is just working on using up some of its reserves from the holidays) but I am definitely hungry most all of the time.  Today, standing around the copy machine at work, I talked to two other teachers about this very thing. Both of them had been awake at 2 or 3am this morning starving- so they had gotten up, had breakfast, and gone back to sleep. Of course a second breakfast was then in order when they got up for school. 

When you think about it, the hunger thing makes complete sense. Our bodies are as programmed about when to eat as they are about when to sleep.  It's just that no one every talks about it.  So future travelers beware, and prepare to snack your way through your first few days.  And now, I am going to go back to my guava.

My World in Pictures

It has been brought to my attention that I perhaps do not take enough pictures of daily life, of the places that have become so normal to me that I forget that they're weird. So today when I went out to get something to eat, I brought my camera. I give you the first installment of My World in Pictures. 

One of my favorite eateries under the parking garage.  I order the same thing every time.  She knows this. I know this. But she lets me practice spitting it out in Thai anyway. 

The Under the Parking Garage food stand collection. 

Fast food, Bangkok style. Slice it up fresh for you. I wanted to get a picture of her slicing the guava, but she was a bit camera shy.

Home with my snack/dinner, guava and pineapple. $0.70 total.

And, may I add, this pineapple, that I am currently munching on, is some of the flat out best pineapple I have ever eaten in my life.  Mouth watering. 

Luxury Items

When I flew out here in July, my bags were filled to the brim with necessities (mostly). So this trip was my opportunity to bring some luxury items, though plenty of space and weight still went to necessities and items I picked up for other people.  I would like to state for the record, that each of my bags weighed in at 48.5 lbs.  On the one hand, that is a success.  On the other hand, with 3 more pounds on the table I could've fit another book or two...

A few special items that made the trip with me yesterday:

• My Henri Nouwen books (including the two I added to my collection last week)
• My ice skates
• The t-shirt quilt my mom made for me while I was in Argentina
• My 4" silver stilettos 
• The glass art my dad made me for Christmas- first time his glass has been able to make the overseas trek
• Mis libros en español
• A painting of the NYC skyline 
• My new carry-on bag, whose handle does not detach when you pull on it.  Very nice feature. 
• Yerba mate
• Frutigran biscuits from Argentina

The flights went well, as in they were on time and there wasn't much turbulence.  But man do I hate flying into the jet stream.  The 5 1/2 hour flight from Bangkok to Tokyo took 7 hours going the other way.  Not to mention the 10 1/2 hour flight from Tokyo to Detroit that took 13 1/2 hours in reverse!   I've been greeted by a warm breezy brilliantly sunny Saturday, and as excited as I am to see my friends and catch up with everyone, I am really enjoying this introvert day to rest and putz around my apartment.  Maybe I'll even go make another cup of tea. 

Renewed: Preparing to leave once again

I've got 48 hours left in the US and I plan to spend quite a few of them, how else, shopping.  Lots of great things to stock up on before I go.  Usually I spread out the collecting and spending over the entire visit, but this one has been so busy that it's all been left till the end.  Despite all the great products, what I love most about the US is the people, of course.  Granted, what I love most about Thailand is the people and what I miss most about Argentina is the people.  I think I just like people. 

But people, also, are hard to fit in a suitcase. And people are altogether too fragile, as a family tragedy has taught us all too well this week.  You can take every precaution, but so much of life is just unpreventable, unpredictable, and wholly unexplainable.   And that is, in part, what makes it so nice to come home and reconnect with so many people I love- too often this moment is all we have. 

My days in Michigan have been a deep breath, a step away from a life that I love, but a life also filled with challenges. I return to Bangkok this week with a renewed sense of purpose, in my life and in my work.  I return with renewed passion to live and love how Jesus did, with a layer of healing and forgiveness between me and some of the hurts of last semester, and with a joy to jump back into teaching and into learning Thai. I also return with twice as much luggage as I came with, but that's to be expected :)  These past few days the verse that keeps coming to mind is one from Isaiah, I don't know the chapter and verse off hand, but one that I have realized is just as much of a life verse as any other I have chosen: Yes, Lord, walking in your ways we wait for you, for your name and your renown are the desire of our hearts. 

May my heart always look at Jesus and say Yes, Lord. May I walk in his ways. May I wait for him, for he has a time for everything under heaven. And may the desire of my heart always be his Name and his renown.

Year In Review

2011 was a year of change and transition.  But then again, so was 2010.  I am hoping that 2012 is a bit calmer, at least in terms of major location and employment changes!  I was thinking about it yesterday though, and realized that in the past 10 years I have lived in 7 cities on 4 continents.  10 years ago today I'd been to Mexico once for a week and to Canada many times, but that was it :) 

NYE last year found me in Nashville, ringing in the new year with friends from my time in Argentina.  January found me in the midst of a long term job teaching 7th grade science. In February, my job offer came in from ICS and I decided to move to Thailand.  In March I enjoyed a week with my cousins while their parents were away over our spring break, and a visit from friends in Pennsylvania.  I also started another long term job that would go through the end of April and really challenge my management skills.  April took me to the Philadelphia area to stay with another cousin and see Philly for the first time.  I apparently didn't do much in May :)  In June I spent a lovely week at Long Lake before teaching summer school.  July was a quick month of organizing and packing and good-byes.  I left for Bangkok on the 19th.  August brought the first days of school and a quick learning curve of daily life, learning how to get around my neighborhood.  September was a month of developing friendships and beginning to form routines in my new home.  While October started smoothly enough, news of great floods soon reached Bangkok, and then the floods themselves, sending the city into a panic and causing our school to close.  I was lucky enough to end the month nestled on the beach of a quiet island in the Gulf of Thailand.  With school still closed in early November, I headed to Burma for 5 days, returning to tentatively restart "normal life" once the threat of the floods passed, leaving our neighborhood and district dry.  December has been a whirl of parties and celebrations, first in Bangkok and then in Michigan, and has ended with a flurry of family and friends, and hardly a flurry in sight. 

My goals for 2012 are simple.  Learn more Thai.  Live in the present moment.  Trust the inner voice of Love. 

Happy New Year, dear readers!