"Don't Take Any Guff"

And now, for something completely different:

I’m on a cross-coountry trek up the west coast of the US to do fundraising and visit my family. The first stop is San Jose to see my cousins. I tried ride-share for the first time and it worked out great! Ended up getting a ride from a nice guy named Edward who has a similar story to mine. Worked in film for about 10 years and just decided he was never gonna be a big famous whatever, so he got a job working for the news in San Francisco and now works as an editor and cameraman for them while getting to see his family often.

I stayed with my cousins Judy and Bob and Maggie the dog overnight and had a great dinner with them, filling them in on the past year. I got to visit my cousin Gail’s classroom and talk to her kids about Thailand and our program. They all wanted to buy the stuff I had brought to sell at churches, so it was pretty funny; they cleaned me out before I even got to my destination! I figured, who cares who buys it, as long as I can sell it for the families. Plus, this way, it gives more people the chance to hear about our program.

I bought a train ticket on Amtrak to go up to Eugene to visit my friend Erika, partly cause it was cheaper, partly because I had never been on a train in the US before and wanted the experience. At the station was an old man, a volunteer conductor, according to his badge, who explained to each individual person what the process was to get on the train, and called us all together when it arrived. He said, “Now listen, if anyone gets off the train and starts smoking by you, tell them to smoke down here. Don’t take any guff offa them!  It’s against the law to smoke this close.” It was awesome.

He went on to tell us that the Union Pacific freight lines own the rails, and Amtrak just rents them for passenger trains, so they always have to get out of the way of the freight trains. I never thought of anyone “owning” the rails, I guess I always figured they belonged to the US as a whole. He was also chatting with a Filipino mom and her two teenage girls about their trip. Apparently, he’s been taking classes at the senior center and learning all about Southeast Asia. Great volunteer conductor, that one!

On the train, even though I was just in coach, the seats recline almost all the way back, and it wasn’t the best night of sleep ever, but I got a good 6 hours at least. I woke up just at sunrise as we were passing the base of a beautiful snow-covered mountain. Wow, what a great sight to wake up to. Definitely reminded me that I was in Oregon, not in Thailand anymore. At our next stop, in Klamath Falls, I got off the train to stretch my legs, and was hit with a blast of cold mountain air, about 40 degrees. Very refreshing, but FREEZING. I can’t say I wasn’t expecting it, because I knew it would be cold in spring, but I still could only handle it for a few minutes before getting back on the train for warmth.

The conductor invited all the people who were interested in learning more about Oregon history to come sit in the Sightseer car where they would be talking about the train lines and the towns we were passing through. The sightseer car was nice because it has huge windows that run the length of both sides of the car, so much better than the seats in coach. Of course, even with the best of intentions to learn something, most of the people, including myself, succumbed to sleep with the rocking of the train. I did wake up to see some nice waterfalls and an old train from 100 years ago that had been knocked off the tracks and into the ravine below by an avalanche.

I finally arrived in Eugene, where Erika met me at the station and we had a nice lunch: GRILLED CHEESE! I did not realize how much I missed grilled cheese sandwiches, until I got back. Also, I love Erika’s cats. They are awesome, all five of them. I even won over the skittish Siamese. While Erika and her husband Doug went to dinner with her former boss, I wallowed in the luxury of Netflix and watched copious amounts of Parks and Recreation! Ahh, American (scripted) tv, how wonderful you are.

Erika played hooky and we went up to Portland to hang out for the day, dodging rain showers the whole time while shopping and finally ended up at the greatest bookstore known to man: Powells. If you have never been to Portland, go there just to see this bookstore. If you have been to Portland and not to Powells, well WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU? :) We met up with my cousin, Kate, and had drinks and hors d’oevres (don’t check my spelling, I studied Spanish) at this cool restaurant. That night, after Erika headed home, Kate and I went to see The Iron Lady at one of the coolest movie theaters I have ever been in. It reminded me of the theater in Roslyn, the one in the old funeral parlor. They have little tables built into the back of each row so you can put your food there and they make their own fresh lemonade and pizza. Great movie experience!

The next day, we had breakfast with Kate’s boyfriend Chris (great guy) and I was introduced to delicious gluten-free oatmeal blueberry pancakes (shocking right?), and reintroduced to the incredible American portion size. I wandered around downtown for a bit of shopping. After Kate’s roommate got off work, we piled into the car and drove up to Olympia. Love that drive up the coast, it’s so beautiful. I am sad I did not get to stop into Vancouver and visit my friends there, but we just did not have time. I did get to see my college roomie, Neli, for a brief visit on our way up, but that was about it.

Finally, we got to my grandma’s house and I got to see my mom for the first time since Christmas and my grandma for the first time in a year and a half, almost! OK, now back to our regularly scheduled programming. More about the WA visiting in a moment.

April 2012: SongKran and Scrapes

Wow, hard to believe it has been a whole year since I got to Thailand. So much has happened yet it seems to have flown by, a month at a time. SongKran is the time Thai people really let loose and have fun. It’s their new year, and it’s also the hottest time of the year, so what better way to celebrate than by having the biggest squirt gun fight of all time? Weeks in advance, vendors are set up all over the city to sell squirt guns and water buckets, and the moat fills up with water. They put up signs that say “danger, deep water zone” and I always thought “don’t they know that just makes me want to jump in even more?” The traditional way to celebrate is by giving honor to one’s elders. This is done by giving them flowers, apologizing for any wrongs committed in the past year, and asking for a blessing. The elders (parents, grandparents, teachers, etc) then dip their hands in water and put it on the top of the younger person’s head, blessing them with water to start the new year fresh and clean.

For Taw Saeng SongKran, we had a special day planned. We all dressed up in our best Northern Thai clothes (long wraparound skirt and loose top for women, baggy linen pants and shirt for men) and did a program. Amelie, my sweet piano student, played Fur Elise (well, the first two pages anyway, which is all anyone every recognizes) with such confidence, you would never guess she just learned it a month ago! The little girls did a dance that Orawun taught them, Sophie choreographed a traditional Lam Thai dance for another group of girls, including herself (I was so proud of her!), Matt (one of our part-time English teachers) played a popular Thai love song with backup from our teen boys on guitar and vocals, and the women all sang a Northern Thai ballad that is as well known as America the Beautiful would be in US schools. It was funny though because it is Northern Thai, so some words I don’t know at all, and some are words that I know but mean something entirely different. For example: Miow means cat in Thai, but is the name of a hill tribe in Northern Thai. Don’t want to mix those up! Everyone did such a great job performing and the whole day was capped off with the kids lining up in rows for blessings from 4 people: P’Bua our chef, P’Anhkhana one of our Thai staff, the wife of our CEO, and myself. Not sure how I ended up in the group, I think it was partly because I was the next oldest, partly because I was leaving and partly because the other people we invited to partake in the ceremony didn’t show up. I don’t really care, it was fun either way. The last person in my line was Sophie, so that was kind of cool to get to take part in this traditional ceremony with her. The rest of our day was spent getting soaked with water by our neighbors on either side and joining them in soaking passersby.

The next day was time we had planned for a while to go visit Sophie’s parents’ graves up in Mae Taeng. It’s hard to get up there or to get directions from anyone as to how exactly to get there without someone who had been there a million times, but we finally, after about 5 attempts over the year, made it. Ahna had Jasmine’s car and we had a couple people set up from TS to come with us too so we could do some songs and pray and plant some flowers. Well, at the last minute, Angkhana and Napapon had to back out, so Sophie invited some of her friends from her old village to go. We caravanned to Ahna’s place, went to pick up some flowers to plant and a spade to do it with, and were on the way. We had to call the Akha pastor a couple times to get more specific directions, but we finally got there! I took pictures of all the turns this time, so we can find our way again next time. 

I was really happy that we got to do this before I left for the States, I think it was a good healing time for Sophie. She hadn’t been there since her mom’s funeral, and she was in shock, so I don’t think she even remembers much about that day. We bought several pots of flowers and transplanted them into the dirt around the graves, so it looked really nice. Ahna brought her harp, and I had my guitar, so we sang some songs, and said some prayers, took some pictures and headed home, stopping for lunch on the way. We left Ahna’s house, dropped off Sophie’s friends and planned to meet up at Taw Saeng to go throw some water at strangers, when disaster struck. I saw it happen and I still don’t really understand how it happened. We were driving through a green light, Sophie in front of me, when all of a sudden, she was skidding along the street on her elbow! Apparently, the car in front of her had slammed his brakes on, even though the light was green and there was no reason to stop. They had been doing construction there recently, and I think there was still some sand on the ground, so when she slammed on the brakes, they locked and she tipped. It was SO scary. I drove up on the curb, tossed my bike down and ran into the street to get her off the ground. Luckily, it was a busy time of day, so there were many people to help. She was scraped up, but not bleeding too badly, so she was able to drive home, but we didn’t leave the house again that day. I just went out to get us dinner and ice cream and I patched her up as best I could. Worst timing EVER, because the following day was her birthday! She just kept saying, “I don’t understand! I’ve been driving for 2 years and I never fell before. Why did I fall now?” I kept explaining that is how accidents happen. Even if you are super careful, there are always unexpected things that occur to cause accidents. 

Poor thing, the next day, she was so sore, but wanted to go at least watch people playing in the water by the moat and hang out with her friends. We went to the pharmacy in the morning to get some new bandaids and some advice on how to make sure she didn’t get infected. We left with iodine, saline solution, bandaids and cotton balls. It was a painful process to keep infection from setting in, but worth it. Poor Sophie, I have been in her place before, and I know how excruciating that pain is with saline and iodine. We did make it to the moat, but I forbid her to drive the rest of the week with anyone other than me because it was such a dangerous time to be driving at all, you never know when someone is just going to dump a truckload of water on you from the side and try to tip the motorbike over!

Well, I met up with my friends that day at the wall and kept checking in with Sophie on her end of the moat. We met up in the afternoon because she wanted to go eat moogataw at the restaurant with her friends, so I drove her home to change and she picked up her birthday cake that Ahna and I made FROM SCRATCH! (I know, never would have guessed it, huh?) and went out with her friends. I guess the whole restaurant ended up singing happy birthday to her. I was so bummed that I missed it, but I guess that is what happens with teenagers, they don’t want you around when they are with their friends. Sad. :( Funny thing is, her friends all wanted me to come, but I let them have their night. 

Saturday was the next day, and we changed her bandages, went back to the moat and spent another day flinging water at people. I must have walked 3 miles at least that day! I met up with Lucy (remember her? My Thai teacher from last year?) and we walked around with her boyfriend and saw so many Taw Saeng kids swimming in different places. I even saw Molly out! I was shocked, because she is NOT the kind of kid who wants to be around groups of people at ALL, let alone getting water dumped on her unexpectedly. When I asked her about it, she was like “yeah, my friends called and wanted to know what I was doing. I was like ‘I’m staying home. I’m not gonna throw water today’ but then they came to my house and forced me to come throw water, so here I am.” I was like, “Yeah, that sounds about right.” Hahaha

Monday, April 16, we ate moogataw with Winnie’s family at their house, and it was a great time! We all went shopping together in Jasmine’s car at the huge market and got all sorts of food. Kilos and kilos of food! I kept trying to get other people in the neighborhood to come share with us, but they were all going to sell stuff at the markets. All the other parents of the Taw Saeng kids were saying goodbye and how much they were going to miss me and saying “you are coming back, right? Taw Saeng won’t be the same without you!” It was good to get a chance to say goodbye to everyone, but so hard too because I will miss them all so much! It was almost better that there was no big farewell moment at Taw Saeng when I left because I know I would have cried. At the end of dinner, when I was saying goodbye to Winnie’s family, we were all crying. Well, not Sophie, but she doesn’t cry at anything, so she doesn’t count.

I finished packing and moving all our stuff to Ahna’s house (Sophie’s stuff) and Grace’s house (my stuff) and then we had one final farang family dinner with Ruth and Sacha and Rachael and Sophie before we all went to the airport. The weirdest thing happened. Even though I had been choking on my tears all week and would nearly break down at the slightest provocation, when we got to the airport, I was totally fine. I said goodbye to my dear friends and my daughter and got on the plane. Then, at liftoff, I cried.  

Birthday Beach: Ko Samui 2012

After months of asking to go to the beach for her birthday, Sophie finally got her wish. I had told her in January we would go on vacation for her birthday, but I refused to tell her where. She kept pestering me day after day, until I finally caved and told her we were going to the beach, but not where. She just kept guessing and guessing and then thinking she knew based on my facial expressions. It was so funny, but so hard to keep secret! We flew first to Bangkok where we had a 5 hour layover, so we got to go into the city and to the huge Siam Paragon mall. She had never been to Bangkok before, so that was exciting for her too. First plane ride, first trip to Bangkok, first time at the ocean. This was a big trip for her. I think the mall overwhelmed her, because after only an hour, she was ready to go back to the airport. Shopping at Siam is like shopping at Rodeo Drive: fun to look, but you couldn’t even buy a keychain with your inheritance. Except at the Gap.

Well, to cut a long story short, the trip from Bangkok to Ko Samui was not exactly the smooth transitions I had anticipated. First, our flight was about 45 minutes late leaving, which meant that it would be hard to make the last boat of the day. Then, we had to pay twice as much as I had budgeted for our bus/ferry trip. Add to that a serious case of teenage sized “are we there yets” and it was a less than joyous trip. But all that didn’t matter when Sophie first saw the ocean and the sun setting into it. It was a beautiful sight and she was SO excited. We got some food on the boat and settled in for the hour ride to the island. Which actually took two. Luckily, the rest of the boat was in the same, well, boat, as we were. Apparently, we had all read the same travel website that gave us misinformation about times and prices. We ended up sharing a cab with a British couple on holiday who had not booked a hotel. They came to our hotel with us and got a room there. Let me just say that internet photos are very deceiving when it came to our itty bitty “bungalow” and I use the term loosely. Good thing we had no plans to stay there much because it only a bed, a toilet with no lid or flushing capabilities (yay for buckets of water) and, bonus! Cockroaches. Suffice it to say that on the next trip, we will stay closer to home and pay the extra for a room with a real toilet and a tv set. Despite all that, the grounds were beautiful, and, come on! It was a beach resort. We were walking distance from two beaches and at most a 20 minute drive from dozens of others. The first day, we woke up early because Sophie wanted to have her first beach experience. We rented a motorbike from the hotel and drove to the “family friendly” beach about a mile away. It was a perfect first beach: super soft sand, shallow water and lots of families with little kids, no drunk college people anywhere in sight. 

Sophie LOVED it. She was in that water, playing in the sand, asking me to take a million pictures in a million poses and generally having the time of her life. After a couple hours there, we drove into the city to check out some other beaches and get some lunch. This proved harder than we thought it would. We were hoping to find an area like the markets at home, but the market appeared to be closed. We did find a place for lunch finally, that was about the prices at home, and it was pretty tasty! We had fun driving around, enjoying the scenery anyway. We finally found a popular tourist beach where they rented jet skis. Sophie really wanted to do it, and I did too, until I found out that it was $20 for 10 minutes!  No thank you. We decided to spend our money on a day tour the next day instead. So, we hung out on the beach, parked our stuff next to a Dutch family who looked unlikely to pilfer it, and enjoyed the beautiful day.

That evening, we met up with the British couple again at the gorgeous pool and took a walk down to the beach around sunset, where we took a lot more pictures with the hills in the background and walked down to look at tide pools and crabs. We had dinner at the hotel, delicious by the way, and not overpriced either, and took the motorbike into town for a birthday movie. It was a movie with dogs. Talking dogs. Talking dogs in Thai with no subtitles. Not animated. Can you imagine my joy? (That is sarcasm, in case you didn’t catch it.)  

The next day we were up even earlier to go on our snorkeling/kayak adventure around the islands. I think we picked a good trip, but the weather didn’t cooperate. It was pouring when we left the dock, but by the time we got to the first island, it was clearing and nice enough to go for a good kayak around the islands with the tour guide. Then we did a small hike to the center of the island to see the beautiful saltwater lagoon that the book and movie The Beach is based on. (They filmed it on Ko Phi Phi cause they couldn’t get the rights to film on protected nature preserves). We got back on the boat for lunch and to go to our second island. At this point the skies opened up again, so by the time we got to our anchor point, it was raining so hard we almost couldn’t see. We braved it anyway, and took a kayak to the shore, where we picked up some snorkel gear. We could have skipped snorkeling and just gone hiking, but I really wanted Sophie to have that snorkel experience with real fish, so snorkel we did. The sky finally cleared, but the damage was done, the fish were all scared away and the rain had pounded so hard that the sand was all swirly so you could hardly see your hand in front of your face. We gave up on snorkeling, got some snacks on shore and kayaked back to the boat. 

By the time we got back, it was broiling hot and we were ready for a good swim. We were only the second group back, so we took turns diving off the boat and swimming around in the aqua water. Well, not so much diving, as being pushed off by a teenager, for me. We headed back to shore, and took a nap on the top deck for an hour, which was so luxurious and just what I needed. When we reached shore, they had made little commemorative plates with our pictures on then, and even though I’m not usually a sucker for that stuff, it was so inexpensive and such a cute picture of both of us (a real rarity!) that I bought it. On the way home, Sophie said “This was so much fun. Thank you so much mom!” That made all the stress and work and expense worth it, because I just wanted her to have a really good experience to balance out the terrible year she has had.

Back at the hotel, we got a pedicure on the beach and then went into town to find some seafood for a special birthday dinner. On the way home, we FINALLY found a souvenir place so she could get presents for some of her friends. The next morning, we got up early to take some more pictures on the beach before getting a cab to the docks. We ate breakfast on the pier and then walked around the souvenir shops there before catching the ferry back to the mainland. The trip back was much more pleasant and faster than the trip out had been, and we stayed in the Bangkok airport this time for dinner and browsing the bookstores instead of taking the train into the city.

We got home late that night and Ahna and Sacha were waiting to pick us up and hear all about our trip. All in all, a successful first family vacation!