I'm noted on here before that I enjoy occasionally delving into the ridiculous, but funny, annals of Cracked.com. For those who don't share my hobby (if you visit, be warned: its humor can get dirty), one of the hallmarks of their website is their list-format articles. For instance, the two stories currently leading on their homepage are "The 7 Most Insane Ways People Legally Avoided Paying Taxes" and "5 Things Flight Safety Presentations Should Mention."
I like this format. And, just now, I feel inspired to try it out. So, apart from the literal change in view that comes from being on a different side of the globe, how does living in a foreign country change your POV? Well...
1. All your holidays become multi-day events
I've written about this, I believe, at every holiday I've experienced here in Taiwan. Thanksgiving, or Christmas, or Easter, rolls around. "Aw," I think, "Another holiday away from home! Time to have a search for a turkey meal/Christmas Eve service/Eggs Benedict-making fest to compensate." I have said festivities, miss my family, but do the best I can to have a good holiday. Then I go to sleep.
And the next morning, surprise! It's still Thanksgiving/Christmas/Easter! Yep, due to the wonder of time zones and the fact that my hometown is a solid 15 or 16 hours (depending on Daylight Savings Time) behind Taiwan, my family is usually having their big celebration right around the time I'm eating breakfast and driving to school the next day.
Let's take Easter for our first example, since it happened most recently and my family was disappointed because I (whoops!) forgot to Skype in with them for the holiday. But, as I figured out afterwards, there was a reason for that. See, my family celebrates Easter in the early afternoon, like, say 1pm-4pm or so. Which, in Taiwan, would be 4am-7am. And, on any given Monday, my alarm goes off at 8am. So...yeah.
On the more successful Skype holidays, say, Christmas, for example, I Skyped my family three times over the course of two days: noon on Christmas (Christmas Eve at home), late at night on Christmas (Christmas morning), and afternoon on Boxing Day (Christmas night). Or, take Thanksgiving, which found me Skyping in the next day at lunchtime, with my Subway turkey sandwich, as my family cleaned off their Thanksgiving late-night snacks. It's bizarre, but it's something you eventually adjust to: holidays are as fluid as time zones when it comes to when they're celebrated. And you'd better be there for all of them.
2. Everyone's online at the wrong time.
All this talk about time zones brings me to my second point: you know all those people who've hassled you your whole life about not staying up too late? You know, the early birds who consider staying up past 11pm or sleeping past 9am to be some sort of freakish abnormality, not to be tolerated under any circumstances? Well---they are now your most reliable contacts.
On the flip side, never have I felt more rewarded to keep an abnormal sleeping schedule than I have since I moved here. Want to talk to someone? Better be okay with staying up till 2am. Want a lot of people to read your blog? Well then forget about posting before midnight, it's best if you wait till at least 3am to maximize readership. (True numbers there: Google Analytics tells all.)
And, really, developing dual communities on opposite sides of the globe just means you have twice as much stuff to do online, and doing it in sync with the local community necessitates more and more hours spent there. At this point, just about every time I open my Facebook I have a notification or four waiting--after all, while I'm sleeping or teaching, my friends back home are in their late-night Facebook mode! And then, on top of that, once I'm in my late-night Facebook mode, so are my friends here in Taiwan.
So I'm not actually complaining about this shift. It really works out pretty well for a night owl/online addict like me. But still, time zone shifts can be confusing, especially when you're dealing with facts like...
3. You have to re-memorize all publication schedules
This may not be a big deal for other people. And, truthfully, it's not *that* big of a deal for me, most of the time, since I had no functioning television in my house last year and so relied exclusively on Internet versions of shows, which always come out later to begin with. But. You still get used to certain release dates; you still (if you're me) know *exactly* when Bones will be up, and *exactly* when The Office will be. You also have to get used to the fact that none of the reputable sites you know and love are licensed for use where you are.
And there are websites that get updated on a time schedule, too--usually something like Monday/Wednesday/Friday, yet now rendered Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday. Or, if it's a daily site, perhaps it will seem to be updated twice-daily, since it posts directly in the middle of your viewing session.
So it's a mixed bag of good and bad, and it makes Internet content completely unpredictable until you master its patterns (which I haven't), and unfortunate fact given that, living in another country, you are 100% dependent on the Internet for everything, from translations to communications to media to procrastination. Take your normal dependence, multiply it by 100, and you've got a rough idea.
Now take into consideration that you don't know when stuff will be available. Of course, 'not knowing' is a normal state of being while living abroad, which leads us to how...
4. You acquire a deep empathy with all immigrants, ever.
This is actually the number 1 reason why I truly believe that EVERYONE should be required to live somewhere they can't communicate at some point in their lives. Preferably while they're young, since it's easier then and it avoids years of misunderstandings.
See, if there's one thing I've realized since moving to Taiwan, it's that living in a foreign country is hard! You don't know your way around, you don't know the culture, you know next to no one, and, to top it off (in my case, at least), you can't even find the answers to these things because you don't know the language.
Let me give you an example. When I was in high school/the beginning of college, I worked for Jamba Juice. And I remember, some of our best customers were foreigners from Asian countries. They would come in, looking earnest, and spend what seemed like hours studying the menu before coming to the front and ordering, pretty invariably, an orange-carrot juice. Asking size was a struggle, and when they had finished ordering and paying--usually in cash, with a $20 bill, you could see the look of relief on their faces as they stepped back to wait for their juice.
I'm not going to lie, as employees, we hated this: orange juice and carrot juice come from two massive, hard-to-clean machines which would sometimes otherwise go a day without being used; beside that, these customers always seemed to come right after we'd finished cleaning both machines for the night. It was pretty annoying.
Well...I'm pretty sure I now am that person. I think of them every time I step foot inside a coffee shop, or a juice shop, or a restaurant of any kind, and stare unknowing at the massive menu of indistinguishable words which must, I know, be the dishes I'm supposed to be ordering. I'll stare, and stare, pick out the few words I recognize, and then, usually, place one of my stock orders--drinks: latte (hot or cold; hazelnut or almond), watermelon juice, or milk tea, and meals: beef noodles, hamburger (if it's a Western place) or, more frequently, "this one," with a point at the menu. I feel accomplished, and happy, if I can pull this trick off without a hitch. Anything beyond it is unthinkably hard.
I then pay--always in cash, and quite frequently in the local equivalent of a $20 bill (ie the one most ATMs use), a 1,000NT (~$30USD) note, because that's how my money comes to me. Hopefully I'm not inconveniencing the employees with a notoriously hard order, but truth be told, if I were I would have no way of knowing, and they would have no way of telling me.
In another side story, I remember foreigners U-picking at the orchards I also worked at in high school. They would frequently come back with fruit they weren't supposed to have picked, and I remember one of my co-workers in particular getting very frustrated over the fact. Sometimes it was an honest mistake, but sometimes--and you could tell the difference--they were just playing the "I don't understand" card.
Now, I know that card. I love that card. It really is true, too: not knowing the dominant language in the country you're living in (or not knowing it well enough) is a HUGE get-out-of-jail-free card. Not literally, of course, but the fact is you can get away with quite a lot when you really don't know the rules, or have any way of finding them out. Playing the foreigner card can come in quite handy and, previous frustrations about it aside, it's actually pretty wonderful.
See, all these little things bundle together to make you know, in pretty good anagram, exactly how immigrants feel in YOUR country. And, while it's easy to write people off who can't speak your language at home (You're in America! Learn the language!), it's much more difficult to do so when the situation's been reversed, and you see firsthand exactly how difficult it is, and, more importantly, how long it takes, to do so.
This also applies to ethnic enclaves, another phenomenon I never quite understood until I moved here, and realized that, while living abroad...
5. You develop a sudden, simultaneous love for and mistrust of all things 'foreign'--aka, from home.
I've written about this before: whenever I go to church here, or, really, whenever I see a foreigner here, a little alarm goes off in my head. What is going on? What is/are he/she/they doing here? Why are there so many foreigners in one place? Something is not right!!!
See, when you're living in a country where you stick out like a sore thumb, you go through a couple of phases. 1: WOW I am seriously the only white person in a 10-mile radius right now. 2: Well obviously I'm the only white person in a 10-mile radius right now, this is TAIWAN. 3: Yes, I'm the only white person in a 10-mile radius right now, move along, folks.
Right around when you hit that third stage, it becomes absolutely shocking whenever you're proven wrong. It happens occasionally that I'll draw some stares when I'm out on my scooter or on the MRT (I learned to ignore it sometime around stage 2 above), but when I see a white person in a similar context, I full-on stare. I can't seem to help myself. All memories of how much I dislike being stared at go out the window as I grapple with the unnerving realization that there's more than one of us here! It actually makes me quite uncomfortable, a fact which bodes interestingly for when I go back home in July...
And of course alongside this is the sudden idolization of all things American. We're going out to Western food? Fantastic! There's a Starbucks on that corner? Hooray! They serve red meat there? My day is made!
It's an odd juxtaposition, really, this love-hate relationship you develop with 'home,' and one which I suppose reinforces somewhat the idea that...
6. The whole world suddenly seems like it's just a whim (and a few saved paychecks) away
Obviously, moving across the world is a huge step, and one that involves a TON of planning, paying, and travel time. But, once you've done it, it becomes remarkably apparent just how feasible it is to do. Pick up and move to another country? Sure, why not!
As an outgrowth of that, then, travel becomes the most natural thing in the world. Want go to Thailand for a week? Sure, why not! How about Australia? Why yes I would, sign me up!
I've yet to determine whether these impulses come solely, or just primarily, from living abroad, or if they're more a product of having a full-time job (and salary) for the first time. But, for me, at least, I can't help but think it's probably largely because I'm living abroad. I mean, really, my wages are pretty low by US standards, and flight prices don't vary based on local cost of living (a bum deal, really), but even so it seems 100% natural and easy to travel widely while I'm here.
At the core of it is the realization that long plane rides really aren't that long, and that international travel, if you can keep a cool head about it, is pretty easy. And, especially once you've adjusted to living in a culture in an infantile state of non-knowing, it doesn't really matter where you display your ignorance; beyond that, you've developed the very specific skill-set necessary to navigate an unknown location using only hand signals and whatever level of English whoever you're talking to happens to know.
It's liberating, really: when you known nothing, and know you know nothing, you can go anywhere. Now that's a sentence I never would have written before moving here...oh, the joys of a fresh POV.
Showing posts with label Thailand. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thailand. Show all posts
Monday, April 16, 2012
Friday, February 10, 2012
Small accomplishments
Often, it's the smallest things that determine how I feel about today. The same is true today--I feel like the day went great: I made dinner.
I also taught, of course, giving my past-tense-and-Thailand Powerpoint to the 6th graders at Qingshan, and continued work on my class-by-class seating chart I'm making for myself for all of my classes. And I got/am getting more organized, which always makes me feel accomplished; I made a calendar for cleaning duties in our apartment and am in the process of making a daily schedule for myself which will (or so the theory goes) make me actually go the gym when I plan to go the gym--I hate not doing things that are set in stone, or, you know, written on paper with ink.
But those are not today's triumphs, in my rather illogical mind; no, the triumph was making dinner.
Part of that is because today's dinner was the first I've cooked since the beginning of CNY break a month ago, but the bigger parts come from the fact that, in making this meal, I felt like a local.
No, not in flavor. But in ingredients, and how I got them. The drive back from school found me starving and ambitious, so I took a detour and found a big outdoor vegetable market I'd been to once before a few months ago--yeah, that's right, once--and was able to, not only find parking in the rush hour madness, but communicate with the vegetable vendors in Chinese, seek out the best produce and prices, and buy them without a hitch. (Getting home my creativity was not quite so productive, and involved a somewhat less planned detour, but that's beside the point.)
I ended up with a pair of onions for 30NT (~$1), a red pepper and a good-sized yellow pepper for 45NT (~$1.50, and the more exciting for having seen my roommates' supermarket-bought peppers priced at 45NT for one), a couple of green onions the guy threw in for free, and a spectacularly massive carrot for 14NT (~$.50).
At home, I already had a chicken breast thawing, but no marinade, so I popped over to the local Taiwanese grocery store, explored their mostly-Chinese-written-and-flavored sauce section, and picked one labeled as BBQ satay which, once I got it home, smelled slightly fishy. I mixed a few teaspoons of that with oil and soy sauce and voila! Marinade. After throwing some rice and bullion in the rice maker, it was time to chop up the veggies, and boy were there a lot of them:
Then it was just a stir frying away from deliciousness and the knowledge that, for ~$2.25US plus the chicken and rice, I'd made at least three or four meals worth of wonderful, healthy food.
It's a small accomplishment, to say the least. But to make this meal, I had to navigate the city successfully to place I didn't know well--in rush hour, nonetheless, use my Chinese to get the vegetables I was after, and experiment in completely unknown sauces to make it all come together nicely. And it did! So yeah, it's small, but it also happens to have made my day.
I also taught, of course, giving my past-tense-and-Thailand Powerpoint to the 6th graders at Qingshan, and continued work on my class-by-class seating chart I'm making for myself for all of my classes. And I got/am getting more organized, which always makes me feel accomplished; I made a calendar for cleaning duties in our apartment and am in the process of making a daily schedule for myself which will (or so the theory goes) make me actually go the gym when I plan to go the gym--I hate not doing things that are set in stone, or, you know, written on paper with ink.
But those are not today's triumphs, in my rather illogical mind; no, the triumph was making dinner.
Part of that is because today's dinner was the first I've cooked since the beginning of CNY break a month ago, but the bigger parts come from the fact that, in making this meal, I felt like a local.
No, not in flavor. But in ingredients, and how I got them. The drive back from school found me starving and ambitious, so I took a detour and found a big outdoor vegetable market I'd been to once before a few months ago--yeah, that's right, once--and was able to, not only find parking in the rush hour madness, but communicate with the vegetable vendors in Chinese, seek out the best produce and prices, and buy them without a hitch. (Getting home my creativity was not quite so productive, and involved a somewhat less planned detour, but that's beside the point.)
I ended up with a pair of onions for 30NT (~$1), a red pepper and a good-sized yellow pepper for 45NT (~$1.50, and the more exciting for having seen my roommates' supermarket-bought peppers priced at 45NT for one), a couple of green onions the guy threw in for free, and a spectacularly massive carrot for 14NT (~$.50).
At home, I already had a chicken breast thawing, but no marinade, so I popped over to the local Taiwanese grocery store, explored their mostly-Chinese-written-and-flavored sauce section, and picked one labeled as BBQ satay which, once I got it home, smelled slightly fishy. I mixed a few teaspoons of that with oil and soy sauce and voila! Marinade. After throwing some rice and bullion in the rice maker, it was time to chop up the veggies, and boy were there a lot of them:
It's a small accomplishment, to say the least. But to make this meal, I had to navigate the city successfully to place I didn't know well--in rush hour, nonetheless, use my Chinese to get the vegetables I was after, and experiment in completely unknown sauces to make it all come together nicely. And it did! So yeah, it's small, but it also happens to have made my day.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Past Tense
Today marks my last day of Chinese New Year break, a day which I mark with an odd mixture of joy and remorse. It's been a very strange experience, flitting about with nothing to occupy my days but what I choose, a ragtag diet of books and movies and TV shows (and, yes, a trip to Thailand) supplanting my steady routine of classes and work. I haven't had this sort of a complete and total break since Christmas breaks in high school, and even then I was living at home, which meant my free time was snapped up to get the house ready for the deluge of people which always marks the holiday season for us. This break was different: it was a break.
And now it's over. I spent several hours today sitting in my favorite coffee shop nearby and hammering out a Powerpoint presentation for my lesson plan at Qingshan this week, featuring my trip to Thailand and a new lesson on the past tense: read, watched, played, went, rode, and saw. Patty thought the kids would like to see what I did over break, and I tried to make the slideshow a nice blend of my trip and the grammar, teaching the concepts and then heading each slide of my pictures with a sentence: "I went to the beach." "I went snorkeling." "I saw lots of fish." "I rode an elephant."
I like how the presentation turned out, and it felt good to sit down with a decided purpose in mind and work until it was finished. I've missed teaching, missed having a task set before me that I needed to finish. Especially since it took place in a coffee shop, it reminded me of being in college, which is (for me) a pleasant memory.
But now, these weeks of relaxation and exploration are a memory, too. They are all now set in the past tense, and I can't imagine I'll encounter a similar break again. Going forward, I'm no longer a student, and after this year I'll no longer be a teacher, either, leaving me in a standard job working standard hours, which notably exclude weeks-long breaks for holidays, Western or Taiwanese.
So am I excited to go back to school tomorrow, excited to meet my new students at Hanmin, see my co-teachers and students at Qingshan again and step back into my routines? Yes, absolutely yes. But even so, I can't help but feel a twinge of sadness as this break, and breaks in general, slips irrevocably into the past tense.
And now it's over. I spent several hours today sitting in my favorite coffee shop nearby and hammering out a Powerpoint presentation for my lesson plan at Qingshan this week, featuring my trip to Thailand and a new lesson on the past tense: read, watched, played, went, rode, and saw. Patty thought the kids would like to see what I did over break, and I tried to make the slideshow a nice blend of my trip and the grammar, teaching the concepts and then heading each slide of my pictures with a sentence: "I went to the beach." "I went snorkeling." "I saw lots of fish." "I rode an elephant."
I like how the presentation turned out, and it felt good to sit down with a decided purpose in mind and work until it was finished. I've missed teaching, missed having a task set before me that I needed to finish. Especially since it took place in a coffee shop, it reminded me of being in college, which is (for me) a pleasant memory.
But now, these weeks of relaxation and exploration are a memory, too. They are all now set in the past tense, and I can't imagine I'll encounter a similar break again. Going forward, I'm no longer a student, and after this year I'll no longer be a teacher, either, leaving me in a standard job working standard hours, which notably exclude weeks-long breaks for holidays, Western or Taiwanese.
So am I excited to go back to school tomorrow, excited to meet my new students at Hanmin, see my co-teachers and students at Qingshan again and step back into my routines? Yes, absolutely yes. But even so, I can't help but feel a twinge of sadness as this break, and breaks in general, slips irrevocably into the past tense.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Little Things
When Karina and her mom asked me, this evening, what I did today, I couldn't easily give them an answer. In truth, what I did today is almost identical to what I did yesterday; here, for those interested, is the link to the third and final installment of my pictures from Thailand:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2658116619440.2114778.1451610020&type=1&l=a33c460429
Apart from that, the highlight of my day came at dinner, which gave way to a series of small one new things, so here it is:
Thing 11:
Very, very small new things. I ate at Chialing's, where I've eaten many times because her cooking is just so fabulously good, but even so, I sought out new things where I could. I took a different route, and discovered along the way any number of little shops that I still need to try sometime.
Once there, Chialing was beyond busy, but she was still able to recommend for me something new to eat, a simply scrumptious noodle dish with meat and some sort of pickled cabbage on top, together with an egg, which I cooked for myself, as the Taiwanese patrons looked on. Quite shocked them, I believe. In any case, the resulting meal was easily the best I've had since being back in Taiwan, and I think it has permanently supplanted my previous standbys at Chialing's. And it's a new thing!
The other very small new things of the evening were a oh-so-creamy honeydew melon ice cream/yogurt that I had for dessert, and nonfat milk, of all things--I've rarely seen it here in Taiwan, and never purchased it, until tonight. Quite tasty, these two things, and quite small, but new!
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2658116619440.2114778.1451610020&type=1&l=a33c460429
Apart from that, the highlight of my day came at dinner, which gave way to a series of small one new things, so here it is:
Thing 11:
Very, very small new things. I ate at Chialing's, where I've eaten many times because her cooking is just so fabulously good, but even so, I sought out new things where I could. I took a different route, and discovered along the way any number of little shops that I still need to try sometime.
Once there, Chialing was beyond busy, but she was still able to recommend for me something new to eat, a simply scrumptious noodle dish with meat and some sort of pickled cabbage on top, together with an egg, which I cooked for myself, as the Taiwanese patrons looked on. Quite shocked them, I believe. In any case, the resulting meal was easily the best I've had since being back in Taiwan, and I think it has permanently supplanted my previous standbys at Chialing's. And it's a new thing!
The other very small new things of the evening were a oh-so-creamy honeydew melon ice cream/yogurt that I had for dessert, and nonfat milk, of all things--I've rarely seen it here in Taiwan, and never purchased it, until tonight. Quite tasty, these two things, and quite small, but new!
Friday, February 3, 2012
Mundane Living
I hate days like these when I sit down to blog. I don't, however, hate them while I'm living them; they're necessary on many levels.
Today was mundane. I mostly sat around the apartment doing various things, and running various errands as necessary.
I finished re-reading Persuasion (LOVE that book, by the way; go read it if you haven't! That link's to a free digital version, too, so you really have no excuse not to read it.). I watched Vanilla Sky for the first time (Weird movie...still debating how I feel about it.). I chatted with Rachel and her parents.
I chatted with Fonda about our respective vacations and my apartment's bills. I vacuumed my rug; washed my sheets; flipped my mattress (SUCH a difference! I don't think anyone has used this side, ever...it's like new!).
I grabbed a coffee from Donutes, accidentally mispronouncing the word for hazelnut in the process. The green onion pancake place I was craving was closed, so I had dumplings for dinner, to the usual effect (delicious at the time, tasting it less pleasantly for hours afterward).
I drove to Karina's to drop off her camera and umbrella--and somehow left both her camera and her umbrella at home. I chatted with Karina and her mom. I drove home and commenced a huge (and ultimately successful) search for my missing watch.
But mostly, what I did was edit and upload photos, 165 so far today, and I'm currently debating adding ferry pictures to my current album or leaving them for my Koh Phi Phi album. Anyway, here's my link to our explorations of Krabi: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2649873373364.2114663.1451610020&type=3&l=21c1bc4493
So, really, not a lot going on today. But sometimes these days are absolutely necessary, and absolutely wonderful to live through. I'm feeling both relaxed and somewhat accomplished (clean bed, pictures posted, etc), even though I didn't manage to fit in a one new thing today. Sometimes, it's best to stick to the ordinary, tried-and-true, mundane old things for a day.
Today was mundane. I mostly sat around the apartment doing various things, and running various errands as necessary.
I finished re-reading Persuasion (LOVE that book, by the way; go read it if you haven't! That link's to a free digital version, too, so you really have no excuse not to read it.). I watched Vanilla Sky for the first time (Weird movie...still debating how I feel about it.). I chatted with Rachel and her parents.
I chatted with Fonda about our respective vacations and my apartment's bills. I vacuumed my rug; washed my sheets; flipped my mattress (SUCH a difference! I don't think anyone has used this side, ever...it's like new!).
I grabbed a coffee from Donutes, accidentally mispronouncing the word for hazelnut in the process. The green onion pancake place I was craving was closed, so I had dumplings for dinner, to the usual effect (delicious at the time, tasting it less pleasantly for hours afterward).
I drove to Karina's to drop off her camera and umbrella--and somehow left both her camera and her umbrella at home. I chatted with Karina and her mom. I drove home and commenced a huge (and ultimately successful) search for my missing watch.
But mostly, what I did was edit and upload photos, 165 so far today, and I'm currently debating adding ferry pictures to my current album or leaving them for my Koh Phi Phi album. Anyway, here's my link to our explorations of Krabi: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2649873373364.2114663.1451610020&type=3&l=21c1bc4493
So, really, not a lot going on today. But sometimes these days are absolutely necessary, and absolutely wonderful to live through. I'm feeling both relaxed and somewhat accomplished (clean bed, pictures posted, etc), even though I didn't manage to fit in a one new thing today. Sometimes, it's best to stick to the ordinary, tried-and-true, mundane old things for a day.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Pictures, videos, and more pictures
That's been my day: uploading, editing, and sharing. Honestly, it's
somewhat exhausting sorting through vacation pictures, if you also want
to edit them, upload them to Facebook, comment on them, tag people, and
mark where they were taken. This is especially true if, as today,
Facebook tells you with some regularity that you don't have permission
to edit your own albums, for some bizarre reason.
Anyway, here's the fruits of my labor, in the form of my first Thailand album and the link to my Youtube page, where you can find my videos chronicling dancing elephants and elephant ridie in Chiang Mai, and hundreds of thousands of terrified crabs and a gorgeous sunset with the sound of a muezzin call at Krabi.
Pictures: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2644331434819.2114580.1451610020&type=1&l=04c4bfe453
and video:
http://www.youtube.com/user/grahamcrackersarecoo?blend=1&ob=0
More pictures are forthcoming.
But also, today's one new thing!
Thing 10:
I ventured outside my restaurant comfort zone today and began my exploration of the streets behind my apartment. Today, that meant a nice stroll along the backside of the street reading menus until I got to the oven-baked pizza place which throws its garlic-and-cheese smell out into the street for all to covet. Once there, I was able to ask in Chinese whether or not they could do take-out (they could) and then used my standard point-and-say method to order myself a Margherita pizza, one of my all-time favorites, before sitting down to await it. I was the only person in the shop when I went in, but I seem to have brought the customers with me, as two or three people trickled in as I sat there. Interesting phenomenon...going to have to keep an eye on it.
Armed with my pizza, I walked back by way of a busy little restaurant I've been eying for a while now, for its juice stand section. (My favorite juice stand went out of business a few months ago.) So I stopped in and ordered a watermelon juice, only to discover that the staff is all but surly, and there is absolutely nowhere to stand in that restaurant without being in someone's way, especially while holding a pizza box. Maybe I'll try again--it is the only juice stand I know of nearby--but it was supremely awkward. At least the juice was tasty.
When I got home, I discovered that my pizza was not, in fact, Margherita, but something else altogether, with shredded cheese, sliced cherry tomatoes, and not a basil leaf in sight. Very sad, and odd since I heard the waitress repeat my order twice, both to me and to the pizza maker, yet he somehow still made it wrong. Oh well, it was still decent, just not terribly awe- or trust-inspiring for this particular shop.
Anyway, here's what I got for my adventures in dinnertime. You win some, you lose some.
Anyway, here's the fruits of my labor, in the form of my first Thailand album and the link to my Youtube page, where you can find my videos chronicling dancing elephants and elephant ridie in Chiang Mai, and hundreds of thousands of terrified crabs and a gorgeous sunset with the sound of a muezzin call at Krabi.
Pictures: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2644331434819.2114580.1451610020&type=1&l=04c4bfe453
and video:
http://www.youtube.com/user/grahamcrackersarecoo?blend=1&ob=0
More pictures are forthcoming.
But also, today's one new thing!
Thing 10:
I ventured outside my restaurant comfort zone today and began my exploration of the streets behind my apartment. Today, that meant a nice stroll along the backside of the street reading menus until I got to the oven-baked pizza place which throws its garlic-and-cheese smell out into the street for all to covet. Once there, I was able to ask in Chinese whether or not they could do take-out (they could) and then used my standard point-and-say method to order myself a Margherita pizza, one of my all-time favorites, before sitting down to await it. I was the only person in the shop when I went in, but I seem to have brought the customers with me, as two or three people trickled in as I sat there. Interesting phenomenon...going to have to keep an eye on it.
Armed with my pizza, I walked back by way of a busy little restaurant I've been eying for a while now, for its juice stand section. (My favorite juice stand went out of business a few months ago.) So I stopped in and ordered a watermelon juice, only to discover that the staff is all but surly, and there is absolutely nowhere to stand in that restaurant without being in someone's way, especially while holding a pizza box. Maybe I'll try again--it is the only juice stand I know of nearby--but it was supremely awkward. At least the juice was tasty.
When I got home, I discovered that my pizza was not, in fact, Margherita, but something else altogether, with shredded cheese, sliced cherry tomatoes, and not a basil leaf in sight. Very sad, and odd since I heard the waitress repeat my order twice, both to me and to the pizza maker, yet he somehow still made it wrong. Oh well, it was still decent, just not terribly awe- or trust-inspiring for this particular shop.
Anyway, here's what I got for my adventures in dinnertime. You win some, you lose some.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Theoretically the 29th
Technically, 1:28am in Singapore (and Taiwan), so 12:28am in Thailand, which is still not the 29th, but this is still pretty close to actually blogging all but one day of our stay in Thailand. Hooray!
So, we're currently in the Singapore airport, enduring a 6-hour overnight layover (cheap flights always have downsides...), and discovering that Singapore is the absolute best place ever to have a long layover. Their motto is "The feeling is first class," and it certainly does feel that way: wide open spaces, uber clean glass walls, smooth-running escalators, pristine stretches of (now-empty) carpet, free internet kiosks, an overnight cafe which smells scrumptious...and, as we just discovered, lounge chairs. Those will be our beds tonight.
In the meantime: today. It's been full. And a little crazy, for several reasons and on several occasions. Best of times, worst of times. A Dickensian day, if you will.
It started early, 7am, with a buffet breakfast and a rendezvous with our friend at the tour center, an older guy with so-so English who told us we could get a 2-hour snorkelling trip for two to Bamboo Island and Mosquito Island for 1,000 baht (~30USD). We said sign us up!
Snorkelling was glorious: after a 20 minute longtail boat journey, we started at Bamboo Island, where our driver parked on the beach near the coral; for me, a complete newbie at this whole being-in-the-ocean thing, it was perfect. I got to wade into it, literally, with the deepest spot I found about waist deep, and just float as I saw parrot fish, angelfish, leapord fish (campoflauged beautifully!), dozens of unidentified smaller fish, of course a fair amount of (unfortunately smallish) coral, sea cucumbers, some gorgeous peacock-blue floral-looking things, and, my favorite, a deflated puffer fish. Karina didn't snorkel much there, since she prefers deep water, but I loved it, my bi-minutely shark scans (I read too much for my own good) notwithstanding.
Then, after a brief verbal scuffle with someone trying to charge us to stay at the beach for an hour, we set out for Mosquito Island where, despite the name, I saw not a single mosquito.
What I did see, though, was fish. THOUSANDS of them, all swimming about and above a magnificent reef off the side of a limestone cliff. This one was deeper, and we didn't go to the shore, but just flopped out of the boat into what felt like an aquarium. Here were all the fish I saw before (except the puffer), plus some groupers, a Dory-like fish, some truly rainbow colored fish, and more varieties of others than I could possibly name. It was glorious.
All-in-all, a wonderful first snorkelling experience and, for that matter, first ocean-swimming experience. But I discovered that I love everything about swimming in salt water except the salt water. Despite my best efforts, it would NOT stay out of my mask and mouthpiece, leading to a few moments where I felt like I was drowning--many of which happened, not coincidentally, when I was in the deep water, barred from standing up and a long swim from my boat. Also, Karina delighted in throwing bread at me, upon which hundreds of thousands of fish would then converge--which is, by the way, TERRIFYING to experience inches from your face.
So snorkelling was great. When we got back, we checked out and I checked into the local massage place, where I treated myself to a lovely oil massage (at triple the prices of the mainland, unfortunately, though still four times cheaper than America) while Karina sunbathed. Then it was a rather rushed buffet lunch and just catching our 1pm ferry back to Phuket.
In Phuket, things got...interesting. For some unknown reason, not nearly enough taxis had shown up to service people coming off the ferry and, as all the minibuses were full, too, we decided to foot it to Phuket town (a 15 minute walk, we were told), eat dinner there and spend the rest of our Thai money (I REALLY wanted another hour or two of Thai experience), and then catch a minibus to the airport. A long walk past illegal taxi- and motorbike-hawkers later, we stopped in at a 7-11 and stepped out to find it was raining. And, of course, by then all taxis had disappeared.
At least this time my travel curse waited till we were off the beach.
About an hour, three stops for directions with some-English-speaking locals and several kilometers of walking and watching minibus after minibus speed by without stopping later, we found a wonderful Thai family who spoke decent English and called a taxi for us, which arrived just as it was starting to get dark for the last-minute save.
So we ate in the Phuket airport, bought a few postcards, rearranged our stuff, sat around, got frustrated with line-cutters at immigration, jostled for service with determined, yet non-English or Thai-speaking Chinese tourists with meal vouchers at Dairy Queen, and finally boarded our (delayed) flight for Singapore.
And now we're here, using our free Internet but more than ready to seek out the fabled "snooze chairs" the airport is advertising every time our 15 minute sessions run out. After all, the 29th has been a very long, though wonderful, day.
So, we're currently in the Singapore airport, enduring a 6-hour overnight layover (cheap flights always have downsides...), and discovering that Singapore is the absolute best place ever to have a long layover. Their motto is "The feeling is first class," and it certainly does feel that way: wide open spaces, uber clean glass walls, smooth-running escalators, pristine stretches of (now-empty) carpet, free internet kiosks, an overnight cafe which smells scrumptious...and, as we just discovered, lounge chairs. Those will be our beds tonight.
In the meantime: today. It's been full. And a little crazy, for several reasons and on several occasions. Best of times, worst of times. A Dickensian day, if you will.
It started early, 7am, with a buffet breakfast and a rendezvous with our friend at the tour center, an older guy with so-so English who told us we could get a 2-hour snorkelling trip for two to Bamboo Island and Mosquito Island for 1,000 baht (~30USD). We said sign us up!
Snorkelling was glorious: after a 20 minute longtail boat journey, we started at Bamboo Island, where our driver parked on the beach near the coral; for me, a complete newbie at this whole being-in-the-ocean thing, it was perfect. I got to wade into it, literally, with the deepest spot I found about waist deep, and just float as I saw parrot fish, angelfish, leapord fish (campoflauged beautifully!), dozens of unidentified smaller fish, of course a fair amount of (unfortunately smallish) coral, sea cucumbers, some gorgeous peacock-blue floral-looking things, and, my favorite, a deflated puffer fish. Karina didn't snorkel much there, since she prefers deep water, but I loved it, my bi-minutely shark scans (I read too much for my own good) notwithstanding.
Then, after a brief verbal scuffle with someone trying to charge us to stay at the beach for an hour, we set out for Mosquito Island where, despite the name, I saw not a single mosquito.
What I did see, though, was fish. THOUSANDS of them, all swimming about and above a magnificent reef off the side of a limestone cliff. This one was deeper, and we didn't go to the shore, but just flopped out of the boat into what felt like an aquarium. Here were all the fish I saw before (except the puffer), plus some groupers, a Dory-like fish, some truly rainbow colored fish, and more varieties of others than I could possibly name. It was glorious.
All-in-all, a wonderful first snorkelling experience and, for that matter, first ocean-swimming experience. But I discovered that I love everything about swimming in salt water except the salt water. Despite my best efforts, it would NOT stay out of my mask and mouthpiece, leading to a few moments where I felt like I was drowning--many of which happened, not coincidentally, when I was in the deep water, barred from standing up and a long swim from my boat. Also, Karina delighted in throwing bread at me, upon which hundreds of thousands of fish would then converge--which is, by the way, TERRIFYING to experience inches from your face.
So snorkelling was great. When we got back, we checked out and I checked into the local massage place, where I treated myself to a lovely oil massage (at triple the prices of the mainland, unfortunately, though still four times cheaper than America) while Karina sunbathed. Then it was a rather rushed buffet lunch and just catching our 1pm ferry back to Phuket.
In Phuket, things got...interesting. For some unknown reason, not nearly enough taxis had shown up to service people coming off the ferry and, as all the minibuses were full, too, we decided to foot it to Phuket town (a 15 minute walk, we were told), eat dinner there and spend the rest of our Thai money (I REALLY wanted another hour or two of Thai experience), and then catch a minibus to the airport. A long walk past illegal taxi- and motorbike-hawkers later, we stopped in at a 7-11 and stepped out to find it was raining. And, of course, by then all taxis had disappeared.
At least this time my travel curse waited till we were off the beach.
About an hour, three stops for directions with some-English-speaking locals and several kilometers of walking and watching minibus after minibus speed by without stopping later, we found a wonderful Thai family who spoke decent English and called a taxi for us, which arrived just as it was starting to get dark for the last-minute save.
So we ate in the Phuket airport, bought a few postcards, rearranged our stuff, sat around, got frustrated with line-cutters at immigration, jostled for service with determined, yet non-English or Thai-speaking Chinese tourists with meal vouchers at Dairy Queen, and finally boarded our (delayed) flight for Singapore.
And now we're here, using our free Internet but more than ready to seek out the fabled "snooze chairs" the airport is advertising every time our 15 minute sessions run out. After all, the 29th has been a very long, though wonderful, day.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Krabi Jungle, Phi Phi Resort
Well, for the second night in a row I'm working with slow internet which I am being charged for by the minute, and the rate today is 4 times what it was yesterday, and they're closing in 10 minutes, so I REALLY have to be brief.
Highlights:
Krabi is amazing. I drove on the left and swam in a waterfall, and missed out on kayaking through mangroves but saw them anyway. Glorious hostel with animals and thatched huts and delicious food.
PhiPhi is gorgeous, but SPENDY. I knew the room was pricey but didn't expect the 3 times price hike on everything else. Going snorkeling tomorrow and laying out on the beach, then it's back to Taiwan! When I'll update more, retroactively.
RETROACTIVE ADDING, FEB. 3:
Picture-and-video time. Here's Krabi!
Also, a video of us at the waterfall:
Highlights:
Krabi is amazing. I drove on the left and swam in a waterfall, and missed out on kayaking through mangroves but saw them anyway. Glorious hostel with animals and thatched huts and delicious food.
PhiPhi is gorgeous, but SPENDY. I knew the room was pricey but didn't expect the 3 times price hike on everything else. Going snorkeling tomorrow and laying out on the beach, then it's back to Taiwan! When I'll update more, retroactively.
RETROACTIVE ADDING, FEB. 3:
Picture-and-video time. Here's Krabi!
 |
| Wax apple on the ferry! |
 |
| Kita! |
Friday, January 27, 2012
Krabi retrospective
Today is actually Feb. 2. However, on January 27th I was settling into a new hostel which, so far as I knew then, had no Internet. I later discovered this was wrong, but also discovered the baht-per-minute charge and snail-like pacing, so blogging took a backseat.
Also, here's us waiting for the bus at Patong beach, just because I like these pictures and want to post them:
Besides, by waiting and posting retrospectively, you now have the benefit of more than mere words on my blog! See, our first day in Krabi (after the insanely long bus-and-minibus journey from Patong beach to Phuket Town, and then Phuket Town to Krabi Town, and then the involved negotiation for a cab from Krabi Town to our hostel, a good 25 minutes outside town), was glorious.
First off, here's what the hostel looks like:
Then there's the part where we got there just in time for dinner (DELICIOUS curry and fresh coconut for me):
And, after dinner, the sunset. And I really can't even begin to post all the amazing pictures we took there on here. I'll just throw up a few, and a few videos; give me a few days, and I'll put the link to my Facebook album on here. We must have taken over 200 pictures just in that one evening...absolutely GORGEOUS!
Okay, a few more than a couple. Can't help myself. Anyway, here is the more experiential version of the evening, via video:
So now the lost day is fully exposed, and, I feel (and you you agree), well worth the wait.
Also, here's us waiting for the bus at Patong beach, just because I like these pictures and want to post them:
Besides, by waiting and posting retrospectively, you now have the benefit of more than mere words on my blog! See, our first day in Krabi (after the insanely long bus-and-minibus journey from Patong beach to Phuket Town, and then Phuket Town to Krabi Town, and then the involved negotiation for a cab from Krabi Town to our hostel, a good 25 minutes outside town), was glorious.
First off, here's what the hostel looks like:
 |
| (food/internet/hammocks to the right; ocean straight ahead; huts behind) |
 |
| The rooms. :) |
And, after dinner, the sunset. And I really can't even begin to post all the amazing pictures we took there on here. I'll just throw up a few, and a few videos; give me a few days, and I'll put the link to my Facebook album on here. We must have taken over 200 pictures just in that one evening...absolutely GORGEOUS!
Okay, a few more than a couple. Can't help myself. Anyway, here is the more experiential version of the evening, via video:
Relax....then go to Phuket
As I write this, it's almost 2am and we're in Phuket Town, here in the south of Thailand. Outside, life is still going on like crazy; Jack Johnson songs are drifting upward from the downstairs restaurant/bar area of our hostel. It's cool for a single night, but I'm glad we're headed to the more remote islands tomorrow, away from what I've mentally classified as the Las Vegas of Thailand.
Today was relaxation. We slept in, had a leisurely breakfast, strolled around Mel and Mar's house and watered their flowers, then packed our stuff and went to the mall to sample more Thai food, buy me some flipflops for the beach, get a Thai foot massage (Mar and I), and meet with Mel and Mar's friends from growing up, Maxine and Grace. Being with Melanie and Marissa in their home town felt like being home again and, in addition to the dry heat and leisurely pace, it was truly paradise. We were sorry to go.
But we did, and now we're in Phuket! Tomorrow we're off to Krabi, where we'll hopefully be roughing it a bit more; that is, there won't be a bar and internet cafe on every corner. Hopefully, there won't be corners, just more trees and rocks.
Wow, that last line sounds like Pride and Prejudice: "What are men compared to rocks and mountains?"
It's late, and Karina's beside me yelling at the malfunctioning hostel computer she's using, so I'd best get off and let her have a chance with a computer that works.
Today was relaxation. We slept in, had a leisurely breakfast, strolled around Mel and Mar's house and watered their flowers, then packed our stuff and went to the mall to sample more Thai food, buy me some flipflops for the beach, get a Thai foot massage (Mar and I), and meet with Mel and Mar's friends from growing up, Maxine and Grace. Being with Melanie and Marissa in their home town felt like being home again and, in addition to the dry heat and leisurely pace, it was truly paradise. We were sorry to go.
But we did, and now we're in Phuket! Tomorrow we're off to Krabi, where we'll hopefully be roughing it a bit more; that is, there won't be a bar and internet cafe on every corner. Hopefully, there won't be corners, just more trees and rocks.
Wow, that last line sounds like Pride and Prejudice: "What are men compared to rocks and mountains?"
It's late, and Karina's beside me yelling at the malfunctioning hostel computer she's using, so I'd best get off and let her have a chance with a computer that works.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Chiang Mai
We rode elephants today! And I drove an ox cart! (Really, the driver got down and just chilled way behind us/fixed things back behind us!) And bought an elephant-made painting! (Spendy...slight buyers' regret but not, because it's a painting of an elephant DONE BY AN ELEPHANT.) And went to handicraft markets! And a night market! And bought a new Starbucks Chiang Mai mug and a gorgeous green Thai bag! And ate SO MUCH DELICIOUS THAI FOOD!
So yeah, long, amazing, expensive day. And glorious.
Wish I had time to tell the whole story, but I don't...so...now it's off for an impromptu Thai language and culture lesson with Melanie and Marissa.
Retrospective, added 2/1/12:
I posted pictures! Here's the public link to them:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2644331434819.2114580.1451610020&type=1&l=04c4bfe453
And here's the videos I took today, one of the elephants dancing at the elephant show at Mae Taeng, and one of Karina and riding the elephants. Good times.
So yeah, long, amazing, expensive day. And glorious.
Wish I had time to tell the whole story, but I don't...so...now it's off for an impromptu Thai language and culture lesson with Melanie and Marissa.
Retrospective, added 2/1/12:
I posted pictures! Here's the public link to them:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2644331434819.2114580.1451610020&type=1&l=04c4bfe453
And here's the videos I took today, one of the elephants dancing at the elephant show at Mae Taeng, and one of Karina and riding the elephants. Good times.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
In Thailand!
And writing this from Melanie's computer after a FANTASTIC (and fantastically long) day. In essence, I've been up for 2 days as we traveled here, and then had the best first day in Thailand ever.
So, after our 16 hour bus-and-multiple-flight journey (which involved a cold but swanky bus with a not-so-nice transfer, a very nice EVA plane, a very crappy AirAsia one, and an almost-missed connection in between), we were thrilled to see Melanie, Marissa and their dad, who picked us up from the airport in Chiang Mai, and immediately began being the best hosts ever.
Seriously. After they took us to the best money-changing place in town, telling us the city's history as we drove along, they served us a scrumptious traditional northeast Thai dinner, and then Melanie, Marissa, Karina and I set out for Night Safari, a zoo/wildlife preserve which included a nice walk, two tram rides through animal enclosures, and a laser light show. It was a blast!
So now we're back, it's 10pm local time (11pm Kaohsiung), I've been up for two days (Karina's been up longer), and we're headed out early tomorrow morning for a day with the elephants. All that to say, I'm gonna go catch some long-overdue Zs, uninterrupted by cold bus air or flight attendants bearing food. Good night, Thailand!
So, after our 16 hour bus-and-multiple-flight journey (which involved a cold but swanky bus with a not-so-nice transfer, a very nice EVA plane, a very crappy AirAsia one, and an almost-missed connection in between), we were thrilled to see Melanie, Marissa and their dad, who picked us up from the airport in Chiang Mai, and immediately began being the best hosts ever.
Seriously. After they took us to the best money-changing place in town, telling us the city's history as we drove along, they served us a scrumptious traditional northeast Thai dinner, and then Melanie, Marissa, Karina and I set out for Night Safari, a zoo/wildlife preserve which included a nice walk, two tram rides through animal enclosures, and a laser light show. It was a blast!
So now we're back, it's 10pm local time (11pm Kaohsiung), I've been up for two days (Karina's been up longer), and we're headed out early tomorrow morning for a day with the elephants. All that to say, I'm gonna go catch some long-overdue Zs, uninterrupted by cold bus air or flight attendants bearing food. Good night, Thailand!
Headed for Thailand
In approximately 2 hours, I will board a bus headed for Taoyuan. About 8 hours after that, I will board a plane headed for Thailand. I'm beyond excited! I get to meet up with Melanie and Marissa, and of course explore the gorgeous southern beaches, too. It will be glorious. I am beyond thrilled.
But my computer will not make the journey.
That's right, my daily blog will stall, and maybe cease. Temporarily. See, my bag looks like this:
And that's me being a minimalist. Which I aim to be. Thus, for a while, no blog.
But rest assured, I will use any Internet access I can get my hands on to post whenever I can, and I'll be purchasing a notebook tomorrow so I can post retroactively, but still somewhat in real time. Just because I'm stubborn and can't possibly give up on 6 months of hard daily work just because I don't happen to have a computer nearby.
Also of note, I'll be suspending my one new thing thing while I'm gone since, you know, EVERYthing will be a new thing.
In the meantime, though, here's today's one new thing.
Thing 5:
I WENT TO PINGTUNG TODAY! It was absolutely phenomenal. Maggie invited me to come have dinner with her family, and it was lovely. Maggie and her dad picked me up from Zuoying and drove me out to their family home, where we had delicious hot pot and wax apples, I met two of Maggie's sisters, her parents, and her dog (who was entirely too terrified of me to let me photograph him), and we took bikes to see Maggie's family's old shrimp farm.
There was just too much wonderfulness happening to write about it all in the brief one-hour window I have now, so here are some of the great, but unedited, photos.
Thing 6:
I bought a towel. Sounds uninteresting, I know, but that's before you see it, and hear my rationale. See, here it is:
That's right, Paul Frank. And I bought it over Hello Kitty, Spongebob and Doraemon. Because my current towels aren't good enough, because they're too good. See that backpack up there? Yeah, that's all I'm bringing. And I needed THIN. And CRAPPY. And CHEAP. And voila! Paul Frank fits the bill.
But my computer will not make the journey.
That's right, my daily blog will stall, and maybe cease. Temporarily. See, my bag looks like this:
And that's me being a minimalist. Which I aim to be. Thus, for a while, no blog.
But rest assured, I will use any Internet access I can get my hands on to post whenever I can, and I'll be purchasing a notebook tomorrow so I can post retroactively, but still somewhat in real time. Just because I'm stubborn and can't possibly give up on 6 months of hard daily work just because I don't happen to have a computer nearby.
Also of note, I'll be suspending my one new thing thing while I'm gone since, you know, EVERYthing will be a new thing.
In the meantime, though, here's today's one new thing.
Thing 5:
I WENT TO PINGTUNG TODAY! It was absolutely phenomenal. Maggie invited me to come have dinner with her family, and it was lovely. Maggie and her dad picked me up from Zuoying and drove me out to their family home, where we had delicious hot pot and wax apples, I met two of Maggie's sisters, her parents, and her dog (who was entirely too terrified of me to let me photograph him), and we took bikes to see Maggie's family's old shrimp farm.
There was just too much wonderfulness happening to write about it all in the brief one-hour window I have now, so here are some of the great, but unedited, photos.
Thing 6:
I bought a towel. Sounds uninteresting, I know, but that's before you see it, and hear my rationale. See, here it is:
That's right, Paul Frank. And I bought it over Hello Kitty, Spongebob and Doraemon. Because my current towels aren't good enough, because they're too good. See that backpack up there? Yeah, that's all I'm bringing. And I needed THIN. And CRAPPY. And CHEAP. And voila! Paul Frank fits the bill.
Friday, January 6, 2012
Booking
It's odd, but one of the strangest, yet strangest for not being strange things that has happened to me here is that I now routinely research and book travel arrangements. That has never been a part of my life before this year--I was always either just traveling along with my parents, or else a broke college student with no realistic travel plans in the works--but now it is. And, as a result of my being in another country, it has become quite a regular part of my existence.
Today, I completed three separate bookings, for both flights and hotel rooms for myself and a friend. Whenever I got to Taipei, I either arrange things or (more often, honestly) work things out with Karina, and pay her back. The same goes for other travel around Taiwan; it usually involves myself and friends getting together and figuring out what we want and can afford to do, and then doing it. Whenever people come visit me--my mom in December and, looking forward, my friend Lindsey in March, and my brother Alex and sister-in-law Melanie in April, it's me who does the background research and preliminary booking for everyone involved. If I make it to Japan and Australia before heading back to the States, like I hope to, all the planning and paying will, obviously, fall to me.
It's obvious. And that's odd. After my entire lifetime of not being able to make these calls, I suddenly can, must, and do, without giving it a second thought. I am suddenly capable of planning entire weekends, throwing fistfuls of money (okay, not fistfuls, I'm actually not rich, after all) down for a plane ticket and somewhere to stay, with scarcely a flinch. It's self-determination to the utmost. And I love it. And also hate it.
I just spent a good two or three hours searching through hotels to stay at in Phi Phi for when Karina and I visit later this month. And I have to say, finding the right balance of price, niceness, availability, and non-scathing reviews is tough. Much respect for all of you who do it with even more variables, like "good for kids," or "allows pets" thrown in. It's the ultimate in uncertainty, and combing through pages and pages of information about rooms, or flights for that matter, is simply no fun. Booking sucks.
What doesn't suck, of course, is the fun that booking makes possible. Which is why it's become a regular part of my adult life thus far.
Today, I completed three separate bookings, for both flights and hotel rooms for myself and a friend. Whenever I got to Taipei, I either arrange things or (more often, honestly) work things out with Karina, and pay her back. The same goes for other travel around Taiwan; it usually involves myself and friends getting together and figuring out what we want and can afford to do, and then doing it. Whenever people come visit me--my mom in December and, looking forward, my friend Lindsey in March, and my brother Alex and sister-in-law Melanie in April, it's me who does the background research and preliminary booking for everyone involved. If I make it to Japan and Australia before heading back to the States, like I hope to, all the planning and paying will, obviously, fall to me.
It's obvious. And that's odd. After my entire lifetime of not being able to make these calls, I suddenly can, must, and do, without giving it a second thought. I am suddenly capable of planning entire weekends, throwing fistfuls of money (okay, not fistfuls, I'm actually not rich, after all) down for a plane ticket and somewhere to stay, with scarcely a flinch. It's self-determination to the utmost. And I love it. And also hate it.
I just spent a good two or three hours searching through hotels to stay at in Phi Phi for when Karina and I visit later this month. And I have to say, finding the right balance of price, niceness, availability, and non-scathing reviews is tough. Much respect for all of you who do it with even more variables, like "good for kids," or "allows pets" thrown in. It's the ultimate in uncertainty, and combing through pages and pages of information about rooms, or flights for that matter, is simply no fun. Booking sucks.
What doesn't suck, of course, is the fun that booking makes possible. Which is why it's become a regular part of my adult life thus far.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Loose ends
My brain these past few days has been a tangled mess of different countries and numbers, figures and names bouncing from point to point as I try to determine which flight to take, which hotel to book, when to send which documents, how much money to send to my bank account back home. Taiwan, Thailand, America, Japan; Hualien, Meinong, Green Island, Taipei, Chiang Mai, Bangkok, Phuket; Texas, Tennessee, Washington, Ohio, New York. Too many locations; too many numbers. They simply won't queue.
By today, at least, I have managed to bring a fair amount of them into line. Over the course of many hours, many websites, some help from Fonda, some help from my mom, an email from an adviser from my university, and a solitary trip to the bank, I am now assured of a place to stay in Hualien and Taipei; a flight to and from Thailand (internal flights are still sticky, though...); loan deferment sent; money transferred home; necessary items purchased.
And I even managed to make myself a complete meal tonight on a single burner!
One thing I will not miss about living in Taiwan is the immense hassle it is to deal with multiple financial systems, which collectively rely upon the archaic system of wiring money whenever it needs to be moved across continents and international borders. It's especially odd given how very open our world's borders seem to be to trade in general; I can only hope that businesses have better tools at their disposal than I do.
On the plus side, the bank's staff definitely recognizes me and invariably ushers me directly to the sole bank employee who speaks passable English.
This is rather a random post, and I must say that this is neither more nor less than a reflection of my current state of mind. Planning for multiple trips while planning multiple months' budgets from multiple bank accounts in multiple countries produces nothing if not a sense of scattered-ness. And with so many loose ends floating around, it's all I can do to grab at a few in passing and try to fasten them down before they strangle me.
By today, at least, I have managed to bring a fair amount of them into line. Over the course of many hours, many websites, some help from Fonda, some help from my mom, an email from an adviser from my university, and a solitary trip to the bank, I am now assured of a place to stay in Hualien and Taipei; a flight to and from Thailand (internal flights are still sticky, though...); loan deferment sent; money transferred home; necessary items purchased.
And I even managed to make myself a complete meal tonight on a single burner!
One thing I will not miss about living in Taiwan is the immense hassle it is to deal with multiple financial systems, which collectively rely upon the archaic system of wiring money whenever it needs to be moved across continents and international borders. It's especially odd given how very open our world's borders seem to be to trade in general; I can only hope that businesses have better tools at their disposal than I do.
On the plus side, the bank's staff definitely recognizes me and invariably ushers me directly to the sole bank employee who speaks passable English.
This is rather a random post, and I must say that this is neither more nor less than a reflection of my current state of mind. Planning for multiple trips while planning multiple months' budgets from multiple bank accounts in multiple countries produces nothing if not a sense of scattered-ness. And with so many loose ends floating around, it's all I can do to grab at a few in passing and try to fasten them down before they strangle me.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Moments from Today
I woke up this morning with a headache. ""What a perfect accompaniment for my day of teaching unruly 6th graders," I thought to myself as I scootered in to work.
The first class confirmed my suspicions that it was going to be rough, grabbing all the props I brought in for our "Where are you going?" game and making me break out mean-teacher-Bekah a few times.
But they also gave me a couple wonderful little moments that I thought I'd share.
The first class confirmed my suspicions that it was going to be rough, grabbing all the props I brought in for our "Where are you going?" game and making me break out mean-teacher-Bekah a few times.
But they also gave me a couple wonderful little moments that I thought I'd share.
- For calling roll I've been mixing it up a bit, and today students had to tell me their favorite animals. Best one: dinosaur
- After school, one of my more troublesome students, AJ, walked over to the classroom phone and pretended to call me. We got a nice little exchange going on
- To reinforce the place names we were learning, I asked my students what they did in each one. "What do you do at the restaurant?" "Eat food!" "What do you do at the park?" "Walk the dog!" and then--- "What do you do at the hospital?" "DIE!" hahah
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Color-coded
Ten years ago, no one would have described me as a planner. Granted, ten years ago I was 12 years old, and scarcely anyone would describe any 12-year-old as a planner, but a quick scan around my room would reveal nothing whatsoever to indicate that anything within me liked things to be ordered in any particular way--or, for that matter, in any way at all.
At some point, probably in high school, this changed, and I became a strictly regulated being with a full schedule. In college, this intensified; I discovered that, without a clean dorm room (or at least a clean desk), it was almost impossible for me to be productive. In addition, I suddenly had to face the prospect of paying my own bills out of my own wallet--not just gas money and movie tickets anymore, but tuition and living expenses and books, too. And, as those things are expensive, I got a job, then more jobs, and my schedule became something which I couldn't have escaped even if I wanted to.
But despite all this organization--or perhaps because of it--by the time I graduated college, I had determined that I had earned a little disorganization. A little time without plans, a little time in which every last bit of minutiae in my life wasn't finely humming along with my internal self-regulator. This philosophy actually started in college, in my rare and precious free moments: If I didn't absolutely have to plan something, I wouldn't.
Usually, this works out fine; I am fortunate enough to have plenty of great friends who are more ambitious when it comes to, say, travel plans. But sometimes that's not enough. And, when that's the case, I realize abruptly that I am a planner, after all.
Today, I planned my break-time trip to Thailand. Karina and I have been making preliminary plans on this trip for months--I wrote about this stage a while ago--but even pinning down dates has been difficult, let alone pinning down physical locations or, the ultimate plan, reserving plane tickets. But it has to be done, and soon.
So, today Karina and I sat down and hashed it out, finally choosing a time for certain, and working out a rough itinerary of where we wanted to go. A few hours into the process, Karina had to head for bed, but I kept at it. I couldn't seem to stop: I had to finish it, and finish it well. After a grueling whole-Internet search, I found plane tickets which should knock 30% off what we thought we would have to pay. So I took down the plane numbers, the arrival and departure times, the sites where I found the deals. I did some more research and figured out when and how we could move from Bangkok to Chiang Mai to Phuket to Krabi to Phi Phi and back again.
All pretty normal, right? You've got to know where, when, and how you're going, right?
Sure. But then came the attached maps. And the color-coded days and diagrams.
I'm pretty sure that's not normal. I'm pretty sure that, if 12-year-old me could see it, she would roll her eyes and walk away, dreading the moment when I'd force her to follow every detail of my plan, down to the minute.
Fortunately, I'm still not at that phase; I still value freedom within a vacation, but my journey from messy, disorganized child to That Person Who Color-Codes Her Itineraries is still perplexing.
Then again, 12-year-old me never got to go to Thailand. So if she wants to run screaming away from me, let her: I'll be lounging on the beach at Krabi.
At some point, probably in high school, this changed, and I became a strictly regulated being with a full schedule. In college, this intensified; I discovered that, without a clean dorm room (or at least a clean desk), it was almost impossible for me to be productive. In addition, I suddenly had to face the prospect of paying my own bills out of my own wallet--not just gas money and movie tickets anymore, but tuition and living expenses and books, too. And, as those things are expensive, I got a job, then more jobs, and my schedule became something which I couldn't have escaped even if I wanted to.
But despite all this organization--or perhaps because of it--by the time I graduated college, I had determined that I had earned a little disorganization. A little time without plans, a little time in which every last bit of minutiae in my life wasn't finely humming along with my internal self-regulator. This philosophy actually started in college, in my rare and precious free moments: If I didn't absolutely have to plan something, I wouldn't.
Usually, this works out fine; I am fortunate enough to have plenty of great friends who are more ambitious when it comes to, say, travel plans. But sometimes that's not enough. And, when that's the case, I realize abruptly that I am a planner, after all.
Today, I planned my break-time trip to Thailand. Karina and I have been making preliminary plans on this trip for months--I wrote about this stage a while ago--but even pinning down dates has been difficult, let alone pinning down physical locations or, the ultimate plan, reserving plane tickets. But it has to be done, and soon.
So, today Karina and I sat down and hashed it out, finally choosing a time for certain, and working out a rough itinerary of where we wanted to go. A few hours into the process, Karina had to head for bed, but I kept at it. I couldn't seem to stop: I had to finish it, and finish it well. After a grueling whole-Internet search, I found plane tickets which should knock 30% off what we thought we would have to pay. So I took down the plane numbers, the arrival and departure times, the sites where I found the deals. I did some more research and figured out when and how we could move from Bangkok to Chiang Mai to Phuket to Krabi to Phi Phi and back again.
All pretty normal, right? You've got to know where, when, and how you're going, right?
Sure. But then came the attached maps. And the color-coded days and diagrams.
I'm pretty sure that's not normal. I'm pretty sure that, if 12-year-old me could see it, she would roll her eyes and walk away, dreading the moment when I'd force her to follow every detail of my plan, down to the minute.
Fortunately, I'm still not at that phase; I still value freedom within a vacation, but my journey from messy, disorganized child to That Person Who Color-Codes Her Itineraries is still perplexing.
Then again, 12-year-old me never got to go to Thailand. So if she wants to run screaming away from me, let her: I'll be lounging on the beach at Krabi.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)