April 2010
1 post
rarity.
i will be home in less than a month and it seems that dance parties have fallen out of fashion.
on a more positive note, employing me seems to be in fashion.
jessica hopkins sent me a frantic facebook wall post (not frantic at all) about how i havent blogged in two months. this is true.
so: -i finished work in laos -played on islands and made a new and lovely friend and companion -traveled...
January 2010
6 posts
Vientiane has gone from the city of confusion (due to work) to the city of creepers to the city of darlings and is now the city of lazy. i like this. i work evenings and spend the rest not exploring anything. i even turned down a wedding invite yesterday by one of my students. to be fair, i’m going to a wedding with andy next weekend. it’s just been so long since i’ve had music...
heart in my throat.
i have no idea what is happening or what i am supposed to be doing and i spent last night crying. which is good actually, because i had a heavy heart all day and realized that was the first proper cry since the end of August. the stress i’m feeling is certainly magnified by not having any chance to discuss, so i’m relying on writing out the frustration.
i arrived here jan 3, unsure of...
Vientiane observations made over dinner:
-French remnants: architecture, baguettes, red wine -at my favorite breakfast cafe, with its brilliant espresso and homemade bread, chickens and roosters still dot the yard -oppressive city heat -as in, at dinner at 7 pm, my beer was warm before i had drank half the glass. the glasses are small -all tuk-tuk drivers sell weed and opium. for example:...
two truths.
1. i read a 434 page book today, cover to cover, in a successful attempt to avoid every single thing that i should have done today. having finished, i spent at least two hours on the veranda repeatedly reclining and sitting up in this really sweet chair i’m thrilled about having access to.
2. as i was was leaving this evening, i had the opportunity to notice my two pairs of shoes amidst the...
newyear.
and here we are january fourth here being vientiane where i arrived for a job i decided on in three hours less than two weeks before it should begin and have to start in fact have yet to be sure if it’s happening and that is okay because all is well no matter what happens. from volunteering with its teary christmas goodbyes to such a lovely holiday in the south on beaches in hammocks...
December 2009
18 posts
my students are sitting together near the fire practicing my favorite burmese song. they even know it on guitar. i have used my powers of deduction and realize this is so they can sing for me tomorrow.
oh dear. i am going to be a wreck.
i made a quick decision and accepted a short job offer in Vientiane for the month of January. there is pretty much nothing not awesome about this. except that i am close to the Laos border now, and Sunday am flying from CM to the opposite end of the country, and have to make it back by Jan 3 or 4. so money wise and travel wise it’s a bit much, but that’s okay. from what i understand,...
restless. restless. restless.
i’m working lazily and leisurely on proposals, which is taking far longer than necessary and reminds me of college behavior.
i can’t help it!
yesterday we drove to an hours away village in a songthaew on terrible roads and it was beautiful. Even today i am still unsure what it was exactly that we were celebrating, but that is okay. i made some videos of...
having a definite place to move into the moment i get back is the most secure feeling in the world.
can you not burn my shoes?
i’ve gone over in my head and out loud multitudinous times and have discovered that it is, in fact, impossible to say the above without sounding snarky. i think this is because it is a question that would rarely be asked under any other circumstances besides moments of slight shock and/or dismay.
i had to ask this very question, as a couple of days ago i went to leave on the motorbike and...
because i was an idiot in august...
and didn’t think to pack or prepare myself properly, and thus was forced to scramble about for the last days, putting myself and others out instead of acting responsibly, i have been ensuring that daily i take care of at least one leaving task.
it has always seemed to me that the littlest habits are the most impossible. for example, i was always in awe of people who washed their dishes...
buying cheap things in markets.
an example of an epic fail (part 1):
putting on a 3-hour long film for your students to watch, having planned about 4 days worth of lessons around it, where the characters all have difficult accents, and discovering there are no English subtitles.
best solution: “we’re watching it anyway!” and stop it every 10 minutes to explain.
it’s good they are good sports.
an...
Speak to us of Reason and Passion.
And he answered, saying:
Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against your passion and your appetite.
Would that I could be the peacemaker in your soul, that I might turn the discord and the rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody.
But how shall I, unless you yourselves be also the peacemakers, nay,...
public holiday.
this evening, in honor of the king’s birthday, i gave a great deal of money to the thai economy.
omfg, stfu.
it’s already getting to be that time where i should be sending things off, giving things away, and packing things up.
this experience went from “3 months is a long time” to “3 months is barely a beginning.”
at the same time, it’s hard to feel bittersweet when in 20 days i will no longer wear anything but a bathing suit and my activities will mainly include...
“Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it’s...”
– Erica Jong (via overdramatics) (via littlejess)
oh.
kham thoo just held the back of tete’s sweater while he stood on the windowsill with his pants and undies down, peeing.
it is the constancy of such happenings that will make me miss them so much.
Mhairi Metcalf: Please don’t cry at me when you’ve had too much to drink. I’m just going to make fun of you later.
(i know lovely people.)
November 2009
21 posts
furball.
everything is going so well that if i vomited i’m 90% sure that kittens would come out.
in other news, time is flying. hey december, you snuck up like a little mouse! in one month i will have been swinging in a hammock for nearly 3 days. and i now certainly have a hammock to swing in, because after a series of silly calls that are inexplicable to anyone unless they are in thailand, i...
list.
-discussion days in class are meant to be the best but are generally the worst.
-my hair is almost at amish boy length.
-our puppies are starting to turn into small dogs.
-i cannot fall asleep before 2 am. this makes me look very lazy as i get up between 7:30 and 8.
-i think that there are times when i give up on my students.
-i think that there are times when it feels like i am really making...
i went on my visa run last week, stretching it out into a five day vacation. i had grand plans of staying out late and socializing. the first night i stayed in Chaing Mai and i was in my bed by ten and tickled pink to find an english movie on tv (never mind that it was confessions of a teenage drama queen, beggars can’t be choosers). the next day i made my way to Mai Sai, to cross the border...
priorities.
after i find a: place to live, job, bicycle, and money, my first purchase shall be a boy rat and i shall name him sir muttonchop.
rats are the best pets. sophie was superb. and now i’d like another. i will get him a bag and embroider his name on it and we will go for walks. if my bike has a basket, i will make it cozy and he can ride around and be captain. he will sit in the hood of my...
tummy yummies.
today i daydreamed about potlucks in buffalo and decided there is only one thing that i hope has changed about buffalo when i get back: the ability to make plans and expect them to be kept.
i also decided, while making guest lists in my head, that i am going to make coloring book invitations and decorate them with all of the sweet stickers i have been collecting.
and this is a prime example of...
i am not equipped! or, how i got my new bracelet.
was in town fruit-shaking and copy-making when shwe aein called me: “sara, you have a guest.” ah. a guest. actually, a guest!?! i don’t get guests, except janis.
when i returned, i saw it was this woman, meela, who i had met last month. i had been, surprise surprise, making copies in town. she saw either my english worksheets or my appearance and asked if i was a teacher. she...
2104 new year.
..16 nov 2009..
i love back of pickup rides. heads on shoulders, hands on knees. some vomiting over the hatch because of the windy mountain roads. the aroma of rice, ready for harvest. and, of course, the aroma of lemon verbena, which i still haven’t placed.
they told me it would be cold at the IDP camp, which makes sense as it’s in the mountains and we are in the middle of cold...
bangkok is like smoking.
i realized yesterday that the time between i leave PWU and the music festival in Australia is… 2.5 months. i’d somehow assumed it was only 1.5 months. this is awesome. this is also going to be a fun game of stretching pennies.
i’m going to have to meet folks to share rooms and beds with, which shouldn’t be too hard. and i figure if i have one big meal a day and the rest...
security, work-vacations, and plane tickets, oh...
it seems that i am encountering my first security issues. a couple of days ago two of the boys from PNDO were arrested while getting gas in Mae Hong Son. as their director has connections with authorities, they were released the next time after a fair amount of baht exchanged hands. this is how pretty much everything is handled in Thailand and Burma. it makes me question the view that corruption...
hi. my name is sara, and i am a martyr.
going into town last night was an epic win. while i was walking around the night market before my dinner plans, i realized that this was, in fact, the first time i had walked around the night market since i arrived. i got fried tofu triangles, complete with spicy dipping sauce, and wandered about. (i have my eye on a tablecloth or two, and perhaps a bedspread. just sayin.’) Then i treated...
oh, a day in the life.
7:30: upsie daisey. cold shower.
8:15: breakfast.
9:00-12:00: teach.
12:30: lunch.
1:00-3:00: nap to escape oppressive heat.
3:30-4:30: town. fruit shake and letter writing at cafe.
4:35-5:30: new cafe to play with small and cute kitten. americano and squeezing pus out of my foot.
6:30: dinner.
7:00-8:00: teach.
8:00-absurdly late hour for no good reason: play with tete. knit. read. plan...
random acts of kindness, darlings, they're all we...
I recieved the following email this morning from an ex-pat I met in Tha Khaek, Laos. I was so touched and surprised; I am blessed with meeting such caring folk. It also reminded me of the wonderful times I had and the lovely folks that crossed my path, and I am really looking forward to bouncing around on my own again.
Hi Sara - Remember me? I’m the American guy with the small restaurant...
goodbye, young man and other stories.
He’s gone for at least two months into a black area. Burma is made up of black, white, and brown areas. White areas are completely under SPDC control, so while that is wrong life can continue on in a pseudo-normal manner. Brown areas are cease-fire areas. Things aren’t great, but life continues. Black areas are the most dangerous, the most impoverished. They are the areas where no...
oh, craig's list.
i have graduated from missed connections to casual encounters in my internet leisure time. i have to admit it makes me blush and giggle.
(it also makes me wonder what it would feel like to desire to post on there. i think i am glad that it makes me blush and giggle.)
marisol or pilar?
i just found out that everyone i live with uses an alias. i find it slightly distancing, for some reason. i also find it completely logical, as it is necessary for their security. i also find it rather convenient, as i have avoided using their names in the (now, i realize, unnecessary) need for security, and now i can. i think i also just want one. i feel left out. i think i would choose a spanish...
pai, lessons, and selfish behavior.
i went away for the weekend. we drove separate motorbikes the three hours to Pai, and that was certainly the best choice (though the last leg of the way there was absolutely freezing). i can’t explain this, and i have said it before, but the high mountain air smells distinctly of lemon verbena. i adore it; it spreads a sense of calm and delight throughout me.
we had a silly weekend. we did...
October 2009
37 posts
sunday.
We piled into the pick-up; piled meaning sardine-squished, about thirteen of crammed into the small bed. I couldn’t imagine this at home but here, everyone is so affectionate. Poe Ei’s arm draped across my knees and close-shouldered with Twe Zin, I found it novel and cozy. The mountains were steep on the way to Rock Thai, and all of the roads here wind snugly around mountains of all...
