1st Birthday Party

Wei-En turned one year old today and to celebrate, we had an "American" dinner. Everyone had mashed potatoes, corn/pea mix, salad, and steak, but me, who had some salmon. In addition, there was some cream of chicken soup. My aunt later in the evening said, "oh its okay that Jimmy eats the soup."

My aunt keeps on trying to trick me to eat meat. Earlier today, I was helping myself to dumplings and she was encouraging me to eat it and served me some sauce. As I cut into the dumpling, I thought that it resembled a little pork ball. So I turned to my cousin and asked her and she confirmed my suspicion. My aunt replied, "oh, its okay." Its actually amusing and I don't mind as she's only trying to look out for me.

In Chinese culture, noodles are served to people on their birthday because its believed that eating long noodles grantees a long life. So Wei-En is enjoying some noodles and as my cousin pointed out "eating it primitive style" with his hands.


One of his gifts is the yellow polo shirt pictured is all the rage right now in Thailand. The shirt was created last year and honors King Bhumibol Adulyadej on the 60th anniversary of his ascension to the throne. Its yellow because Thai tradition assigns color for each day of the week. He was born on a Monday, thus now Bangkok is blanketed daily in yellow. When I wander outside, each day, there are plethora of people wearing this shirt. The support of royalty here is incredible.

Tone deaf

Tonight, I had my Chinese lesson a bit later than normal, at 7pm, because of my trip earlier today and my teacher had obligations until 4:30pm. We definitely got off to a bad start because her transport time between her first bus to the Sky Train then to another bus was 2 hours . I sort of laughed because I feel like in those types of situations all you can do is laugh, but I don't think she appreciated my humor. D'oh! So I think she was a bit grumpy and then I started to be a bit combative.

One of my problems in the Chinese language is the ˇ sound. One is supposed to drop their voice low and then quickly go to a higher pitch. My problem is that I think I raise the intonation of my voice, when in reality it is monotone. This frustrates my teacher, which frustrates me because I think I'm doing it correctly and think she's bonkers. However, I think she may be right.

I often think of Cranium in these situations. Its a fabulous game if you are not familiar with it. There are 4 categories that challenge all 'parts' of your brain: spelling, trivial pursuit type questions, artistic and performance.

There was one time that I was playing and picked a card from the "star performer" category. I was given the task to whistle a song, I can't remember which one, but that doesn't matter. As the other team flipped over the timer, I started to whistle with all my heart. My teammates sat there bewildered, not having any clue of what was coming out of my mouth. See what happened was, in my head, I thought I was fluidly moving between musical notes, but in actuality everything that flowed through my pursed lips was monotone.

So I think I might be a little tone deaf, which does not bode well for my Chinese intonations. As my bad pronunciation continued through our lesson, we became increasingly agitated with each other. To the point where we were arguing about the colors of my shirt. My response in Chinese to her color question was that "this shirt is dark purple, light purple, and white." She proceeded to tell me that my shirt was dark blue, grey, and not white. We argued for a few minutes before our respective language barriers (she speaks a little English) shut us both up and we moved on.

Who do you think was right?


(James, wearing a dark/light purple and white shirt with Wei En)

Si Racha

Today, my aunt, cousin, and Wei-En travelled north about 1 1/2 hours to Si Racha so that the ladies could run errands and take care of the condos that they own there. On the way up, we stopped at an outdoor market, where we bought several of these bamboo sticks filled with sticky rice and raisins that have been cooked over a fire. The vendor breaks them open with a hammer when she sells them. There are 2 kinds one with white rice and the other is red, both with sweet beans. Its more of a dessert, mildly sweet and tasty.

After I went for a run along the beach and they finished their errands, we went to an outdoor cafe. They claimed that this place has the best Phad Thai in the whole country. I couldn't get over how cheap it was! For the seafood phad thai dish above, it was only 40 baht (about $1.10). The other dish was a flat crispy egg and mussel dish with chili sauce. Everything was thailicious!

Earthquake in Peru

So as many of you know, I was recently in Peru for about 5 1/2 weeks, taking a Tropical Medicine course and travelling a bit. Also, I'm sure many of you know by now that there has been a devestating earthquake (7.9! on the richter scale) that has ravaged places such as Ica, Pisco, and Chincha. While we have no control over accidental natural disasters, we can try to help in the aftermath.





These areas of Peru are diverse in landscape and beautiful, and the people who live there are wonderful, warm, and giving people. Let's try and help in anyway we can, you can donate at: https://donate.oxfamamerica.org/02/oxfamamerica?source=fy07_do_home

Hairspray

In the middle of a downpour, I dragged myself to the movie theater in the shopping mecca near my house. Before I left the states, I had heard about 'Hairspray' and wanted so badly to see it, but ran out of time. Thus, I was overjoyed to find that it was playing in only 1 theater in all of Bangkok, which was conviently located within walking distance, albeit it was monsoon-like outside.

The movie is fabulous and you should see it, even if you're not a fan of musicals. The movie tackles issues such as race relations, obesity, and the value of hair products (these are all issues close to my heart).

Afterall, a NY Times movie critic describes the movie as "so joyful, so full of unforced enthusiasm, that only the most ferocious cynic could resist it. It imagines a world where no one is an outsider and no one is a square, and invites everyone in. How can you refuse?"
(http://movies.nytimes.com/2007/07/19/movies/19hair.html?ex=1343880000&en=90b528cba10a599b&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink)

World's Tallest Chocolate Tower

As soon as I read in the newspaper about the making of the World's Tallest Chocolate Tower, my mouth started salivating. When I arrived to the high-end shopping complex, I was a bit underwhelemed. I guess I was expecting it to me at least 10 stories tall, nonetheless, I guess its pretty impressive as it is 10 meter tall and has been covered with 600 kg of chocolate. I hope they let me eat it at the end of its showing.

Happy Mother's Day!

Granted I am a little late in posting this day of appreciation, but it was only this past Sunday here in Thailand. Annually, Mother's day is on the 12th of August. Since the Queen is the "mother" of all the Thai people, they have Mother's day on her birthday. As someone who was raised in a culture where kings and queens are something from yore, its a bit odd to me that they also get a day off for her birthday. I think its fabulous that they're celebrating the queen, all over Bangkok are shrines like the one the one pictured.

Durian

Durian is a fleshy fruit found under a spiky, tough shell and if it has a long stem, my aunt and uncle say that's the best indicator that its high quality. Its definitely an acquired taste, as everyone does not like it either because they can't open the friggin' thing or the odor/taste is nasty to them.











I'm not quite sure if I can adequately describe it but the fruit is soft, its almost like a cheese that kind of melts in your mouth. The taste is not overly sweet, but rather a subtle sensation of sweetness dissolving over your taste buds. I think its critical to find it when its ripe, otherwise, the odor and probably taste is reminiscent of a sweaty locker room (gross!). But its definitely worth the gamble to try some of this exotic fruit.

Day 2 of Chinese Lessons

Oy vey! I spent a few hours today with my teacher and am quite frustrated with the whole process. Nevertheless, my family is getting a few chuckles out of my mispronunciations. For example, today I was learning how to say "Do you have vegetarian food?" But instead, I mistakenly asked "Do you have any pajamas?" My cousin, teacher, and auntie were laughing quite hard. I told them "I might go hungry, but at least I'll be warm at night!" Actually, my teacher was quite concerned with my inability to say 'vegetarian food' and that I would starve, so she was thinking about having me say that phrase in a different way until I finally caught on. The reason that things can go awry in Chinese is that there are 4 tones, so 'ma' can be said 4 different ways and each has a different meaning (mā, má, ma (w/ aˇ over it), mà). Its actually not so horrible, its just taking me a while to figure things out. But I am learning things that are important to my survival in China, like "I am a vegetarian" and "What color is this?"