Cultural Exchange

Tags

language

Hey guys – I know it’s been a while. Keep your eyes on here, cause there’s gonna be some good updates soon, and I’m even pondering the thought of a giveaway. I have to get some more audience first, so we’ll see…it’s a brewing idea.

In the meantime, it’s storytime.

A friend recently shared a facial cleansing ritual on Facebook that I decided to try. I mean, with all the pollution going around these days, my face breaks out so badly that some days I want to just put a paper bag over my head.

Who knows if it will work – haven’t tried it yet. Here’s the site if you’re interested though ==> here.

Anyhow, one of the ingredients required is castor oil.

So I went to the pharmacy to try my luck at finding it, neglecting one potential roadblock: I don’t know how to say that in Thai.

I wrote castor oil on the paper.

He looked at it.

He looked at me.

“What will you use it for?”

“To wash my face,” I replied. “That’s not the normal use though.”

I couldn’t think of how to explain the normal use….you know, pregnant ladies and root beer floats, and a long past due date – that was where castor oil came into play at my house growing up.

Blank stare.

“No problem,” I say. “I’ll try the pharmacy across the street.”

A look of dawning comprehension crosses the man’s face. All the other people watching this exchange in the shop look at each other (there are six others in there, trying to help me out. This is also a situation where acting out what I am trying to say does not work).

“You mean asgdfkjasgefknscgefknhe” he says. Or at least, that’s what I heard.

“Yes, yes, of course,” I respond.

The man pulls out a tiny bottle of castor oil, brandishes it proudly, and loudly announces (in English):

“YOU WANT LAXATIVE!!!!!”

I just have one question – why is there a picture of weed on the bottle? Anyone got any answers on that? (and why didn’t WordPress save the change when I rotated the photo?)

Random things I know thanks to Asia

Tags

asia, learning, random facts

So I was thinking the other day about all this new information that I have learned thanks to life overseas, and I just wanted to share a few things. I think that the list will get bigger and bigger as time goes on. Also, if you’ve lived overseas, feel free to chime in on the comments.

1. when driving, the driver is almost always next to the yellow line. even when you’re on the other side of the car…on the other side of the road.

2. in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, you can check in for flights at the high speed railway rather than the airport. it’s SO convenient.

3. Coke tastes better when it’s made of real sugar.

4. westlife

5. Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar use full pages of your passport. the Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand only use stamps. Indonesia just changed the look of it’s visa – it used to be a whole page; now it’s half a page. Granted, it can still take a whole page, depending on agent placement.

6. Seven eleven dominates. You can also get a good meal at a seven (the cool kids all call it “seven”).

7. If you’re from Kentucky, everyone will relate your state to KFC. KFC is everywhere in Asia.

8. So is coke.

9. it’s possible to know the flight schedules of every airline that leaves your airport.

10. food purchased from a street vendor cannot be beaten for tastiness.

11. intestinal issues are normal.

12. deworming is a regular part of life.

13. Johnny will never stop walking…

14. you can’t always count on a gorgeous girl to actually be a girl.

15. starbucks plays the same music all over the world. if you walk in a starbucks here, and close your eyes, it’s like you are in America.

16. eggs are not refrigerated in stores, and that’s totally fine.

17. blood is a perfectly normal flavor enhancer for soups. congealed, it’s great to eat with chicken.

18. it’s perfectly normal to celebrate American holidays with other nationalities – ie, celebrating the 4th of July with Brits.

19. money can be super colorful

20. angry birds have taken over the world.

…and I’m gonna end with that. But as I think of more, I’ll add them in the comments. And seriously, chime in!

Second Anniversary

Happy two years overseas to me!

On this day, two years ago, I came to Thailand to begin this journey. I had no idea how long I’d be here, or where this would take me.

Since that day, here’s a few things that have happened:

- learned a language (and can bluff through a few more with some carefully selected vocab)
- been to 8 different countries (southeast asia is a little more spread out than, say, Europe).
- made many new friends
- adopted a puppy
- learned to drive a manual – on the other side of the road – while sitting on the other side of the car
- started ministry in a village where there previously was none
- made some awesome friends among other overseas workers
- joined up with a thai church
- bought an intense camera
- worked on keeping up relationships back home (not doing as well on that as I wish)
- continued to keep up my amazing taste in music

I’m not sure what the next year holds – right now my tentative return date is December 15th, 2012. I also have to admit that I have no idea what happens next from there. Truly, no idea. It just reminds me of a day when I graduated college and had no idea what was happening next…and you know, God was good and provided a lot (incidentally, it’s been five years since college – FREAKOUT).

Anyway, I celebrated with a peppermint mocha from Starbucks. Here’s to another great year in Thailand.

Thankful

November is a big month for thankfulness. This post is a preview of part of my December 1 newsletter, so those who read the blog are getting a special sneak preview of the newsletter.

1. 1000 friends village, and the ministry there. This year, it has gone from nothing to having a consistent group meeting every week. We don’t have a believer there … yet. But we’re definitely lifting that up, and know that when we are f8thful, the father will move.

2. My house – I am living on the 3rd floor of a local ministry center, which has been a true blessing. Even though I live alone, I am near many of my Thai friends and have easy access to them. They also have easy access to me.

3. Humor is the best thing ever. I dearly love to laugh, and I am thankful for that gift of laughter that rings through every day. In fact, I plan to blog more “funny” in the future.

4. Telling God’s story is one of the greatest privileges. Not only am I over here reaching the Thai people, but also, I am writing stories about how God is moving among his people. The journeys of faith I have encountered have rocked my comfortable little world in all the right ways.

5. On the 20th of this month, I celebrated the 27th anniversary of my birth – that’s right, 27 years (crazy!). I’m thankful for the ways that the father has moved in my life; making sure that I don’t stay the same person from year to year.

You got anything you are thankful for? Share in the comments section!

Why I think I’m hilarious

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funny

Sometimes, I get a big head and think I’m all that AND a piece of cake on the side. This is perpetuated by the fact that everytime I open my mouth to speak, people here pretty much die laughing. I’m starting to fancy myself a bit of a stand-up comedian, since I’m followed by the sound of laughter.

Here’s an example:

I’m walking through the market in Phnom Penh (which is in Cambodia, btw). It’s full of clothes of all shapes and sizes (but mine of course, which is completely normal).

A woman sitting in a stall piled high with bras and underwear calls out to me: “miss you want to buy underwear?” (Note: imagine the word “underwear” drawn out – kind of like “underweeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar.”)

“No thanks,” I replied. “I already have a pair on.”

I walk away, followed by a chorus of Cambodian women chuckling. Also, I should mention that I crack myself up, so I am laughing too. I laugh at them laughing at me, they laugh at me laughing at them – we’re stuck in this giant circle of laughter (which is awesome).

It’s just fun.

Anyway, since stuff like that happens to me all the time, I’ve decided that it’s time to be adding more of the “why my life is hilarious” posts. That, and many people have told me that I’m funny, so I figure it’s time to let the inner funny run rampant every now and then.

Get ready, people. I’m hilarious.

Adventuring (or how I narrowly escaped the Bangkok floods)

Have you ever had a moment where you think, ‘oh my goodness, this is SO not fun right now, but it will make a great story later.’?

That was me last night. I was dragging my suitcase through the bus station in Bangkok. If you haven’t been keeping up with the news, Bangkok is pretty flooded. That means that dragging my suitcase meant far more than just over rutted sidewalks and bumpy streets. No, that means traversing sandbags and sketchy puddles and people gathered in the station trying to get out of town.

My friend and I had bought tickets to go visit Cambodia last November for a super cheap price – AirAsia has nice sales here and there, so we’ve taken advantage of those deals as much as we can (but probably won’t do too much of it anymore, cause a cheap vacation never is actually cheap). Anyway, to save money on the way home, we bought bus tickets for the overnight bus.

In a perfect world, the bus leaves at 930 pm, and arrives at our destination around 6 am. Not with flooding…

But that’s for later.

Anyway, we race through the station, and find someone who has tickets. She’s only got three left, and there are more people approaching. I hold those suckers like there is nothing else in the world that I need – cause I have got to get back to my city! I can’t delay that return. Also, I have heard stories of people who stood in line to fill buses and airplanes leaving the city. These cheap last second tickets are not leaving my fingers.

We buy those tickets, and follow a little man the seller points to. “Go with him,” she says.

We follow him out of the terminal area. He leads us to an overpass, and points at a few buses on the other side of the road. “Over there,” he says.

I carry my 19.6 kilo suitcase up 30 steps and down 30 more steps, dripping sweat the whole time.

This was the point where I started thinking, “Oh my goodness, this is not fun now, but it’s going to make a great story later.”

I didn’t think the story could get better, honestly. But wait – it totally did.

So I have no problems taking overnight buses. I think they are great cheap ways to get from point A to point B, and as long as you take some sleep inducing drugs, you are golden.

We get to our bus, which is parked on the other side of the highway. The buses are double decker, so I figured that we’d take seats on the top deck.

Oh no.

The porter motions for us to get in the bottom of the bus.

So we look in. There are four seats (all taken) and a bunch of people sitting around a table. There is a small amount of room – a corner seat, and a bit on the side next to it. The man gestures that we are to sit in those seats, me and my buddy.

We crawl over the others already there, and settle into the spots. It’s so tight that we can’t move without bumping into someone else – me into a Thai woman on my side, or my friend, and my friend would bump into me or the two Thai guys nearby who found it highly amusing to stare at us (though honestly, I would have stared too).

And have I mentioned we were right next to the bathroom, which smells like … well, a bathroom?

As soon as the bus rattled off the side street onto the highway, me and my friend did what any seasoned traveler would do in this situation – we took some tylenol pm and drugged ourselves to sleep.

However, that was not a simple solution (note: I don’t think there is such a thing).

Right after we left, someone turned on a tv program featuring a standup comedian. Remember, thai stand up comedians are not like American ones. The shows are riddled with sound effects, and are just loud. Also, this was turned up at max volume. Another not cool thing – I was wearing my sound canceling headphones, and could still hear every single word.

Finally, they turned it off, and we tried to sleep. My friend sat next to me, and tried to get comfortable. I tried (and failed miserably) to get comfortable. The thai woman next to me pretty much had her feet on me as she did get comfortable and feel asleep.

The two young men sitting in the chairs facing my friend and I were eager to talk, so I got to have a nice conversation with them, exchanging pleasantries and all that. They did a fair share of staring, which is normal. I mean, the thought must have been going through their heads why are these two white girls riding this cheap overnight bus? They should be spending money and flying back to their city. And they speak Thai; they must be crazy. I mean, had I been them, I would have stared too!

Ultimately, after 13 hours, we arrived at our destination – exhausted and travel worn – but the thing is, we arrived.

Plus, we had a great story to tell.

ps. I really did enjoy this trip – this post is SO not a whine and complain one.

Stark raving mad, I say

Tags

language

Yesterday, had my first day back in language after two months off due to traveling. Travel does interrupt class, a lot – and I’d rather be consistent, you know?

It was so much fun. Me and my teacher, Khruu Muu, spend most of the 6 hours a week that we meet laughing (I can’t help it; I’m a funny person).

I say random weird things a lot in class – I told my teacher about calling friends to tell them I wasn’t going to be able to come pick them up.

Here’s what I thought I said: “I called my friends and told them that I would be late, and could not pick them up.”
Here’s what I actually said: “I called my friends I would not come, and could not put them in a cabinet for safekeeping.”

When I can’t remember the actual words, I just throw in some random Thai words and hope they are the right ones. Obviously, that does not always work for me.

Oh to live in a perfect world, where everything that comes out of my mouth makes sense…I promise, in my head it totally does.

But here’s where the title of this post comes from. Khruu Muu and I were talking about different people in the office, and how they have achieve language levels. I told him about my friend Dustin, who recently achieved level 4. Another friend, C, just attained level 5. (all long-term people are supposed to achieve level 5 – it’s part of our requirements).

He got a little excited. “Dustin got a 4? I told him that I thought he would get a 4, and he did.”

“Yep,” I said.

Let me pause – for those of you who get my update letter, you know that in October, I asked you guys to pray for language. I put there that a personal language goal was to hit a level 5 by next June (or July, I mix up those J months). I haven’t taken a test yet to determine where I am, but were I to guess, I would say high level 2, low level 3.

Back to the story.

Khruu Muu got all serious. “You know, if I were to grade your snapshot right now, I would give you a level 5.”

Me: “For real?”

Khruu Muu: “For real.”

I still maintain that he’s stark raving mad. But it’s given me a TON of motivation to keep studying hard and practicing my speaking. Also, as a plus, this month we will finally start reading and writing, so I can finally step out of illiteracy.

So excited right now.

Who Says

I am blessed to have a truck. It’s the best for getting to the office where I work, out to the nearby villages, and just around my city. It’s huge, white, guzzles diesel and roars when it runs. You can hear me coming from a mile away.

The best feature of it, besides that it works, obviously, is that it has a CD player. Every month or so, I burn a new CD with awesomesauce songs that are stuck in my head for the month. I’ve traveled all over my city with the likes of Mat Kearney, Ellie Goulding, OneRepublic, Lights and many more.

There’s one, that I’m almost embarrassed to say comes along – but let me explain why Selena Gomez makes a guest appearance on these cds. Also. If you don’t understand why it’s embarrassing to have Selena Gomez on my mix cds, you are in junior high, or have no musical shame.

First – here’s the song:

After you’ve noted which one it is, please stop reading this, and go tell any female overseas worker that she’s beautiful. And if you feel creepy doing that, or it’d be inappropro, just say “YOU ARE A DAUGHTER OF THE KING AND AS SUCH YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL.” Or something lovely like that….I promise, it will get a reaction. Just throw a word that connotes that she is drop dead gorgeous in there. It’s needed.

Here’s why this song ends up on my playlist.

I go out among Thai people, who are approximately the size of a toothpick. I’m certain that’s what their bones are made of – whereas mine are made of industrial steel, like building framework. As such, I am huge in comparison.

Also. I’m not a little girl. I’m not the size of a whale or anything, but I’m not skinny (yet) either. That means, when I walk into a village, all the old ladies pinch my arms. “Oh, look how fat you are!”

Last month, in a minority area, here’s all the comments about my appearance I heard in ONE DAY.

Why are you so fat?
Why are you so skinny?
Why are you so old?
Why are you so young?
Why are you taller than me even though you are younger?
Why are you so pretty?
Why do you look sick today?
Why are you so white?
Why are you so brown?
Wow, you are fat!
Eat more, you need to be fatter.

I walk away from stuff like that, and pound my fist on the table. “I am a daughter of the King, by golly, and as such I am drop-dead gorgeous!”

Here’s a crystal example. I study the Bible with a friend every week, and then go swimming with her afterwards. We met at a different place one week, and there was a scale there. We talked about weight a bit during prayer requests – she told me of a friend who had broken up with his girlfriend, and consequently lost 8 kilos.

“He has a broken heart,” she said. “It made him lose weight.”

Then, she had a “brilliant” idea.

“We should weigh ourselves,” she said.

“I’m going to be huge compared to you,” I replied.

“No, it’ll be fine,” she said.

She stepped on.

Then I stepped on. I weight 30 kilos more than her. For those of you who don’t use the metric system, that’s 66 flipping pounds. That’s more than airline baggage, if you need a comparison. Trust me, that don’t do much for your self esteem!

She just stared. “Hmmm….I think you need a broken heart.” she said.

So yes, I surround myself with songs that remind me that I am beautiful.

And yes. I am a daughter of the king, and as such, I am drop dead gorgeous and hawt.

And like Selena, I ask myself….who says.

Just trippin through

I’m the clumsiest person I know. Now, I’m also the clumsiest American that many minority people know.

Let me backtrack a tiny bit.

For the past 9 days, I’ve been all over the northern parts of a Southeast Asian country, looking for and taking pictures of minority people groups. I’ve got my trusty Nikon D700 beside me, some well charged batteries, and plenty of memory cards to keep me going.

As I take pictures, these precious people are looking at me funny. Babies burst into tears. Old women feebly hold up their hands – “mo-mo” some say – my guess is that they are asking for money, but we can’t fully understand each other.

Let’s get to the clumsy part. Ok, it’s been raining all week. I mean, a typhoon hit Southeast Asia last week, and now the after affects are making themselves known all over the place, leaving behind a drizzling rain and mud puddles galore. Lovely, right?

Side note: I lovelovelove the squish squish sound of the mud beneath my feet. My toes are stained from red clay dirt, even though I borrowed black rubber boots to wear during the worst of the muddy days.

Now, I’m a klutz on a good day. My parents always joked that it was a good thing they didn’t curse me with the middle name “Grace” (that was reserved for my sister, who isn’t as challenged as I am at staying upright).

A lot of time, I take a loose shot of a person first, show it to them, and then take a close, tight shot of them as they smile in delight at seeing themselves (and are more comfortable with me). So this shot was no different.

I’m standing in front of a house where a woman is husking rice, and an older woman walks by with a gorgeous blue umbrella. Nice shot, I think. I take a shot of her.

Then, I step towards her to show her, and BAM, I have hit the ground. My foot just flew out from under me, and I crashed.

I jumped up – nothing hurt but my dignity, and that’s only slightly bruised, and move towards her to show her the pic.

Magic’s lost though. She won’t stop talking, and I assume she’s telling me to be careful walking and not kill myself as I go through the village. She was still talking as she walked away.

Oh well.

But that’s not my only spill.

Man, I wiped out more times than a surfer in Hawaii.

The muddy hill short cut (which did cut out some uphill walking – I hit a knee on that one).

The time when I was just standing still (!!!) and wiped out.

The sidewalk of the big city, walking in the rain.

…. and many, many more. Sadly, I seem to have forgotten a few. They just…spring out of my memory.

It’s been an epic trip, though. There’s some amazing minority people groups here, and I cannot wait to get back to Thailand and shart digging through those pictures to see what I have.

In the meantime, here’s a little song to make you think of me.

Wipeout.

Musical Me

I’m a music addict, and I’m not seeking a cure.

I’ve always been that way.

In first grade, I stalked a kid who played the violin. He brought it to Sunday School and played a song for the class. From that moment, I was his crazy fan girl. I’d hang out with him at every church event. He was homeschooled like me, so we got to see each other at large homeschooled family gatherings (we do that a lot).

Around sixth grade, my family moved away, so I didn’t get to hang out with him any more. But we moved to a place where my besties rivaled the angels in their music making abilities. We’d get together and sing Irish Tenors songs, sitting between two speakers that were bigger than me, our soprano voices blending beautifully with the tenors.

During that time, I also picked up the violin. A friend was gracious enough to have pity on me and passed off her used Yamaha violin. I played that thing till the tips of my fingers were numb. Couldn’t afford lessons, but I was able to saw out some lovely songs. I had aspirations of being the best violinist in the world (look out, Joshua Bell). That didn’t quite happen.

Moved away again, and this time, didn’t have so many musical friends. It’s ok, I listened to tons of music. Alasdair Fraser’s Traditional Gaelic Melody, discovered during this time, still brings me to tears. If you’re brave and want to hear it, click here.

I fiddled around with it in high school (fiddled – haha!), but didn’t do anything too serious. I was only self taught.

Then, in college, I fell back in with my angelic friends. We were in choir together, and sang in spanish, Hebrew, Latin – oh, our choir was heavenly. We also were in musicals – an opera “The Elixir of Love” by Donizetti, and “The Mikado” by Gilbert and Sullivan. I learned a ton about music and singing then…

My junior year, I had one extra credit hour that I could fill with a class. It was going to be a music credit, DUH! Classical guitar was full, so I picked harp.

Oh goodness.

I fell in love.

For the next four semesters, I MADE time to take harp. I scheduled practice time just like it was another class. I firmly believe that having harp therapy kept me sane in the busiest of semesters. That heavenly plink is just….well, wonderful.

I played in Wednesday orchestra, Sunday night orchestra, church specials, whatever they would let me do. I loved playing, and it was the best thing ever …

Then I graduated.

No harp at home, and no idea where I could find one.

So I bought one. I graduated college debt free, and promptly took out a loan to buy a harp. I found a gorgeous Salvi Sinfonietta, and just lovelovelove it. My mom and I road-tripped to North Carolina to pick it up.

Worth every penny

But I’m overseas now, and it sits in my parent’s living room. A new friend is going to go this week and tune it and play it up a little bit, so I am very excited about it…it’s going to get some of the TLC that I can’t give it.

Today though, I found out good news. There’s someone in my city who has several harps. And she knows someone who might be interested in renting theirs out….oh, I just get chills with the possibilities.

That’s my exciting bit for today. I might get to regain my finger callouses…I miss them.