They sure do grow up fast

Do you remember those two little rascals, Wei-En and Wei Min, my nephews, in Bangkok? Well, they both have grown considerably, especially Wei-En. When I last saw him, he was cruising around in his stroller, chewing on his shoelace fascinated with empty plastic bottles. Now, he's walking around, chatting it up with everyone and has 2 nicknames for me, he has renamed Uncle Jimmy as: "Go Me" and "Jimmy-ah" (imitating my Aunt Nancy in a Chinese accent).

As with Wei Min, everyone talks to Wei En in a combination of Chinese, Thai and English. Wei En can correctly identify and say: Flamingo in English, Dog in Chinese, and Elephant in Thai. At first, I thought oh my gosh, that kid is going to be confused when he gets older, but the more I thought about it, the more it seems appropriate. It'll all get sorted out and then he'll be tri-lingual like Wei Min, which is fantastic!

Wei En, following in the footprints, or should I say hoof prints of his older brother , by riding a pony. Wei En is also very into applauding !Wei Min, Wei Min and Uncle Jimmy

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)

Uncle Jimmy

Ever since I was little, my family here has called me Jimmy. Surprisingly, I enjoy this nickname, and now with 2 nephews, I'm now known as Uncle Jimmy. Its a blast spending time with Wei En and Wei Min.

While hanging out with Wei En, I've determined that I'm not going to buy any toys for my future children, but rather just give them empty bottles, cardboard boxes, and egg cartons to play with. Look at him, he's happy as a clam with my empty green tea bottle!

The last time I saw Wei Min was 2 years ago and now he's 10 years old, and riding horses! He's a great older brother to Wei En. My cousin was telling me that he buys little toys for Wei En and shares everything with him.

While at the club, I went to use the restroom and looked up and saw a sign that I think all females would appreciate in bathrooms that are shared with the opposite gender.

Let the eating festival begin...

For the past few months, I have been anticipating eating Thai food. Besides looking forward to spending time with family, I have been salivating with the thoughts of stuffing my face with delicious Thai dishes. Finally the wait is over, I got to spend the day with my family AND start chowing on various curries, noodle dishes, and so on.

Today for lunch, my aunt Nancy, cousin Suparb, and my nephew, Wai En who is almost 1 year old went to a restaurant called S&P and had several tasty dishes:

Crispy Fish

Papaya Salad

Crispy noodles (light, sweet, and oh so good)

My youngest nephew, Wei En (which means the "highest grace"), will be celebrating his 1st birthday soon, on August 18th, so I'm happy that I will be around to celebrate. He was born 2 months prematurely, but now is healthy as a horse. He's very adorable and likes to eat his shoelace.