Rice Grains

Last night Yukiko and Wakako, two of my Japanese friends from school, spent the night at my apartment. I met them at the Pizza Hut at On Nut, where we ate supper, and from there we took the bus back to my place. Once we arrived at my apartment, they handed me a thank you gift--some delicious gourmet treats.

As we settled in to watch a movie, Yukiko pulled out all kinds of munchies--chips, Pringles, cheese curls, oreos. As if we needed anything more after a more than sufficient meal at Pizza Hut! But you know how it goes; we nibbled as we watched the movie.

This morning we took the bus back to Bangkok, me to church, and my friends to their homes. We were all rather tired, but it was a fun time together.

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Last night Trish accompanied me to meet my friend Tawan, who brought her younger sister and a co-worker with her. Time doesn't always mean a lot here, partly because of traffic. The original plan was to meet at Central Bang Na (a mall) at 7:00. Trish and I got there around 7:30, and Tawan didn't meet us until 8:00.

We went to MK Restaurant for a meal and had fun chatting as we ate. MK Restaurants actually serve Japanese style food. We had suki yaki, which is very popular here. I described in a previous blog the barbecue idea,where you have a pot of water cooking at your table, and you add vegetables and meat as you wish, let it cook, then ladle it into your dishes.

At closing time, the waitresses lined up across the restaurant and performed a cute little dance to a couple catchy tunes. It was an effective way to remind us it's time to go!

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OK, I admit it, sometimes it's the small things that get me excited. I looked out my window tonight and noticed for the first time some words on one of the apartment buildings down the street. And I could read it!:) It says "Room available for rent". Or something close to that. And oh yes, there's a golden chain tree blossoming in front of that building. It reminds me of the golden chain tree we had home on the farm in PA. That's all! Nothing more!

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Today my teacher offered to be available for extra study after lunch. A few of us decided to take him up on his offer, so we ate lunch together and then returned to the school. Only 3 of the people on the picture actually went back to study. The others were in different classes but are friends or spouses of people in my class.

From left to right: some American gal:), Anna (Hong Kong/Australia), Lee and Gaehwa (Korea), Ki Suk and Sun Young (Korea).

The time with our teacher was very casual; he asked us what we wanted to study, so we spent some time on sentence patterns and various shades of meanings in some commonly used words. Then we digressed and asked him about Buddhism. It was an enjoyable time, even if we didn't review a whole lot of our study material.

Tomorrow we have our midterm. I have been studying here in my apartment, but I got antsy and needed a break, hence this entry!

PS I heard a bit more about the accident yesterday. A bus and a motorcycle were also involved, and the guy on the motorcycle didn't survive.

I think I will include two more pictures of standard streets in Bangkok before I return to studying. Here goes:

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Today I ate lunch with Kirsey, my friend from Finland. She is here with the Lutheran church and is a fellow student at my language school.

At the end of our meal, she pulled out a container of Finnish candy. She tells me one of the ingredients is ammonium chloride, and sure enough, it was listed as one of the ingredients on the package! Kirsey also tells me that if a person eats too much, it can raise one's blood pressure! I had a piece. It was a curious mix of sweet and salty licorice. One piece was enough for me.:)

After lunch, we headed up the stairs to the sky train and discovered an accident had happened on the street beneath us. It is one thing to see the wrecked vehicles. It is quite a different thing to see a large pool of red liquid on the street where I assume one of the cars had wrecked. Below are pictures of the two vehicles, both taxis, that apparently crashed.

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Yes, I love English. But after reading the list below, which was sent to me by some friends, I am reminded that Thai isn't the only difficult language to learn!:)

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce.

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

13) They were too close to the door to close it

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Yes, this is MY language!:)

It's easy to understand UP , meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?

We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.

And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP .

When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP .

When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP .

Fess UP ..you like this!

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I haven't yet tried this ice cream sundae at KFC. Maybe Graeter's should introduce a new topping at their stores! Or not.:)

Today for lunch I tried a new little coffee shop with a unique name. I guess it's for people of all sizes. Or for all sizes of appetites??? It was a cute little place but turned out to be too expensive to go there regularly (expensive for Thailand, at least. I left 100 baht there; about 34-35 baht per dollar--you do the math). Typically I can eat for 25-45 baht, which is a good thing since I don't have a kitchen.

After leaving the Little Big, I headed for home. Unfortunately I missed my earliest oppotunity due to the crowds of people between me and the bus I wanted. Then I waited...and waited...and waited...till finally I jumped on bus #2. It went part way home; then I needed to jump off and grab a songtaew for the remainder of the trip.

Traffic was AWFUL today, I was in a bus without air conditioning, which is fine--no aircon is 7-8 baht instead of 15. But I had to sit on the sunny side of the bus, so I roasted for a while until someone on the other side got off the bus. Then I moved.

Once I got on a songtaew, I thought I had strategically placed myself in a "no-sun" zone in the back only to realize that because I was at the open back, the sun directly shone on me. Then, the bench I was sitting on filled up quite compactly with people because no one wanted to sit on the side getting the sun. So I was stuck between the hot sun on one side and a warm body on the other. Then we had the privilege of sitting in traffic for a while! Uggghhhh! Usually I manage OK; t oday I was beginning to get a little grumpy.

After jumping off the songtaew, it took about 5 minutes to cross the 6 lanes of traffic. I am always happy when there are several Thai people waiting with me. There's strength in numbers, and when we all go at once traffic HAS to stop. Or at least change lanes....:) Anyway, today a whole group of us waited to cross. A few daring folks ran out in front of oncoming vehicles; the rest of us waited a little longer and still had to run across.:)

This is really a boring entry! But a boring one is better than none at all, right?

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Today is Macha Bucha Day, commemorating the time in history when 1,250 monks gathered spontaneously to hear the Buddha preach (http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=1,2314,0,0,1,0).

I spent a good part of the day at Rama IX Park hoping to relax and refresh. Somehow, I think I chose the hottest and most humid day to venture out! The high today was 94F with humidity at over 60%. Never-the-less it was a good day apart from the fact that my camera batteries wore out before I arrived at the park. So you will have to be content seeing pictures of sights on the way to the park!

The first two pictures show the crazy intersection close to my apartment. They are building an overpass at the intersection, I suppose, to decrease congestion there. But currently it can take a good 20 minutes to get across the intersection.

This next picture is not the greatest, but I just had to include it. It is a pickup truck filled with individually-bagged plucked chickens! Remember the temperature?? Hmmmmm....

When I got off the bus, I still had a ways to walk. The next few pictures show a pet shop with puppies, birds, and squirrels.

The last picture I got to take was of a mosque not far from the park.

Once I got to the park I asked everywhere I went if anyone sold batteries. Always I was pointed toward another building or little snack kiosk. One of the girls at one kiosk volunteered to go with me to show me another kiosk that sold batteries. Unfortunately it was a kiosk where I had already asked, so I thanked the girl and we went our merry ways!

As I was exploring the grounds, I ran into a movie set (I think). A lot of people were there with fancy camera equipment, and the spotlight was on a pretty Thai girl. As I continued on my way, I met a family with a daughter having graduation pictures taken. The mom began to jabber away to me, asking me where I come from, etc., then continued on after her daughter. I trailed behind for a bit and then the daughter approached me, asking if she could have her picture taken with me. So she and some guy--her boyfriend, maybe--and I posed for a picture together!

Eventually I found a spot by a water lily pond where I sat and read for a while. At one point I heard a splash, and was a bit alarmed to see an alligator-like animal swimming across the pond toward me. But then I saw its tongue flit in and out and decided it must be one of those large lizard creatures that seem to be in Thailand.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful, and I arrived back at my apartment around 7:00. Now I am in air-conditioned comfort after being hot, sweaty, and smelly most of the day!

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This morning, as I waited for a friend at a sky train station, a security guard noticed I had been there rather long and asked if I needed help. So I attempted to tell him in Thai what I was doing. "I'm sorry," he replied, "I don't know much English." I smiled and said, "No problem!" and continued to wait for my friend. Sad but true!

The friend I waited for is a fellow student at my language school. Her name is Anna; she is originally from Hong Kong, but more recently lived in Australia before coming to Thailand. She attends a church called "Muang Thai", and as I am visiting various churches in Bangkok, I decided to add this one to the list.

After the service, I was introduced to an American family that has been in Thailand for about 5 years. They were a neat family, outgoing and fun.

I ate with Anna and a Thai friend of hers at a pavilion adjoining the church. (Anna has the yellow shirt.)

On our way out from the church, I noticed a creative touch at the church entrance.

Then I began the long ride home. The skytrain ride to On Nut was probably 30 minutes. Then I boarded the bus for the final portion of my journey. Usually the bus ride is another hour or more. Sometimes I sleep. And sometimes I miss my stop! Today I missed my stop! I woke up and didn't recognize any of the buildings outside, so the next time the bus stopped I got off.

I had no idea how far down the road I was from my soi (street), so I decided I had better board a songtaew (little pickup truck with seating in the back). As I walked down the sidewalk looking for a songtaew, I passed a street vendor selling the cutest little rabbits in miniature clothes! Awwww, I wanted to take one home with me (probably not a good idea since my 5th floor apartment is steamy hot by the time I get home in the late afternoon each day:).

Someday I'll live at a house where I can have pets....

Tomorrow I still have off from school. My plan is to go to Rama IX Park for a little retreat--pack a Bible, devotional, journal, blanket, etc. and spend time being refreshed.

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Wow, I don't know how I'm ever going to lose the weight I've gained here. Yes, I've gained more weight than I like to admit. Tonight my friend Tawan took me to an outdoor barbecue sort of place. If you know of Mongolian Barbecue restaurants in the US, it's a little bit like that, only the "restaurant" is outdoors with maybe a canopy overhead, and each table has its own little charcoal grill to use. Live music was playing in the background; well, OK, live music dominated the atmosphere. We had a hard time hearing each other talk! But it was a lot of fun--a perfect evening to be outside relaxing, eating, talking, laughing. I have a few pictures of our evening posted below.

First, we collected our various raw meats and vegetables at this serving line.

Then we put the meat on the burner and the vegetables in the water around the edges of the burner.

So we cooked our food, ate, and talked. Then Tawan told me there is also a dessert bar with the meal! Ughh! I am already full! But she brought back some tasty Thai sweets. I really don't know what they were. I think the one was clear green tapioca served with sweetened coconut milk. The other was something equally chewy and sweet, but was not tapioca. It was a good way to fill in the cracks.:)

By the time we finished it was 10:30, so it was one of our later outings. It was a really nice time.

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