Thailand!

Obviously it's been a few months since anything has been updated here... life has a way of creating a lot of more important things to do. But now, I have no agenda for the next month except to sit in the warm sun, update my blog, check Facebook, and wait for my baby to be born. Oh yeah, I got pregnant since last time I updated this (but I think anyone who actually reads this knows that already).

Shopping in Bangkok

A week ago today, Drew and I were packing three suitcases... one for each of us... doing last minute preparation for the baby's room (which right now is just a section of our room), and saying goodbyes to all of our friends in China, who we'd just said "hello" to four weeks earlier. Last Monday, we got up at 5am, hopped on a plane, and headed for Bangkok for our last vacation just the two of us. We arrived, picked up our luggage, and promptly got ripped off by the first taxi driver to realize it was our first time in Thailand. I did the math later, and I think he charged us around seven times the amount we should have paid... which worked out to be about $30 USD (which I should probably not be whining about).

We spent the next couple of days going shopping, trying to guess which of the women were actually women (there are a lot of transvestites in Thailand...), eating amazing Western food, exploring, and trying to figure out how not to be rude (haha!). Everyone bows here to greet each-other and thank each-other, and say goodbye... and I'm hoping that's it, or else I'm missing my cues. At breakfast one morning at the hotel one of the waiters offered to take my plate of food back to my table while I poured my cereal. Still not feeling too confident, I thanked him the best way I knew how, and poured my cereal onto the floor (luckily not ALL of it). How do people bow while they're holding food??!






Wednesday, we decided to be touristy and checked out the floating market, took pictures with some tigers, and rode an elephant. Yep, at eight months pregnant I rode an elephant. Can't say it was the most comfortable ride ever, but definitely worth the pictures. At the Tiger Temple, I noticed that our tour guide was very friendly with the baby tigers, even putting his hand in their MOUTHS, but wouldn't go near the older tigers. I was definitely a bit terrified, and also wondered if the tigers might have been drugged, due to how sleepy they were (but I hear they sleep a lot, so hopefully we were just there around naptime???). One of the tigers had his foot in the air and they placed my hand on his foot to take the picture. I moved my hand toward his paw, and must have bothered him because he definitely snarled at me. I decided to move on to a sleepier tiger, and not die. I asked the tour guide later if he'd ever seen anyone get hurt there, and he said, "Yes, but that is top secret." Glad I asked him AFTER we got our pictures taken.

Floating Market

Thursday was our last day in Bangkok and in order to save money on a hotel and plane tickets to Chiangmai (where we're having the baby), we took the overnight train. My last experience on an overnight train was in China, involved VERY stinky feet (not mine); no air conditioning; dirty, hair covered sheets and pillows; and 4 guys sleeping underneath our bunks, one of them being an extremely LOUD snorer who Drew threw water on all night to try to get him to stop (it didn't work). When I saw the ghetto train pull up, I was worried it would either fall apart or I would before we got there. Luckily this train had NO smelly feet or loud snorers, we had CLEAN sheets AND air conditioning, and curtains to shut out the world while we slept! Heaven on a train. Ok so maybe my standards for heaven on a train were pretty low. Went to the bathroom a couple times at night and didn't realize until morning that their waste system was a hole in the floor, exiting to the train tracks. Bio-degradable I guess?

Soft Beds With Air Con in the Train!

Anyway, we got to Chiangmai on Friday, and we're staying in a long-stay hotel here (that has a POOL, woohoo!) for the next two months (hopefully less) waiting for Baby Fraser to come into the world. Christmas is 7 days away, and we have our stockings hung up from the kitchen counter. I think this is the least I've ever thought about Christmas. Kind of seems insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Well, for those of you who ARE doing festive Christmasy things, eat some turkey for me. I'll be busy getting sunburnt and eating ice-cream. Merry Christmas!

Famous for the Color of My Skin

A few weeks ago I received a call from my friend Alex. He's a (white) musician here and has played in a vast variety of venues here. "Hey, I need to put together a four-person foreign band. Do you want to be in it?" "Okay," I responded, "When is the gig?" "Tomorrow, at a car show. I told them I didn't think I could get four foreigners together before then with no practice, but they said they don't care if we know how to play music, they just want four foreigners. You in?" The gig paid $100 a person, and all we had to do is show up, and play whatever we could figure out how to play without practicing. So basically, I was getting paid $100 to be white at a car show. Sweet!

A giant tour bus arrived at my door the next day to pick me up... I felt like a superstar... or something. We arrived at a 5-star hotel and were given the most elaborate lunch I've ever seen, and then the fun began.

We went to the area where the cars were set up, and began to set up our instruments. We went over to the soundboard, set up behind the cars and asked where they wanted us to set up. "We need you in front of the cars." "Do you have cords long enough to get us out there?" "Cords? We don't have cords." Oh. Okay, I guess we're playing an acoustic set? Good thing the main stipulation was the color of our skin. After much trouble I was able to find a chord that was maybe 2 1/2 feet long to fit my keyboard, and we found one for Alex that reached all the way past the cars. I'm not sure if you're picturing this... I was BEHIND the cars. He and my friend Olivia, who sang, were IN FRONT. Haha! Hey, a hundred bucks is a hundred bucks...

Next, the announcer brought us forward with a translator and asked us a few simple questions about whether we were accustomed to China and Chinese food. My Chinese is nowhere NEAR fluent but I understood enough to respond "Yes" after each question... somehow this gave the announcer the idea that I was fluent enough to INTRODUCE the rest of the band and the next song! "Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh................" 5 hours later... "This... is... a... worship song... Yes." The announcer promptly looked at our interpreter. "What?" Yeah, he didn't ask me any more questions after that.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. We all went home to our normal lives and were forgotten. But I'm thinkin I'm gonna remember this experience for at least a couple more weeks. It pays to be a whitey.

Family

Sometimes I long for what I don’t have right now. I long for the long walks with mom to anywhere talking about anything and everything. I long for the moments when I feel like a kid, and my dad wraps his arms around me and tells me everything’s going to be alright. I long for the times I’ve lost track of time with my siblings, doing what we all love best… playing music. I long for the moments I look into my youngest sister’s eyes, and she snuggles into that spot in my arms where she fits perfectly, and I try to explain to her little three-year-old brain how much I really love her.

Today I met with a girl whose mother just passed away, and listened as she revealed her brokenness, and clung to any bit of hope I could give her. Last week, Drew stayed up until 3am with a thirteen-year-old boy whose father left him when he was two, and his stepfather often abuses him.

My family will always be my family. They’ll always be waiting for me, and will always support me. The least I can do is be what they are to me, to someone else, who doesn’t have that… Even if that means I have to leave my family, to show that kind of love.

Sometimes we have to let some things go, in order to gain something better.

Father told me that if I left mother, brothers or sisters for his sake, I’d get a hundred times as much as I left, in return. Sometimes I wonder if they are found in the faces of people like this.

If they are, this longing is a small price to pay.

Worlds Collide

We headed back to America three months ago, and as soon as my feet hit American soil, or by that I mean Airport floor, I felt the bizarre feeling most people must feel after they’ve grown accustomed to a new place, and return to an old one. I felt like I had somehow jumped from one universe to another. Everything was familiar and unfamiliar all in the same moment. I was almost immediately repulsed by commercialism and vanity, and then realized, that it was just “America” and I used to fit in here pretty well!

Days went on. We went to the dollar store, and I was overwhelmed at the availability of every candy I had dreamed of all year, and filled my grocery basket like a child with Nerds, Sweet Tarts, and mints. Restaurants we’d longed for were a five-minute drive away… and we had a CAR to drive to them! We went to Wal-mart, and I was floored at the unending possibilities of everything I could buy! All in ONE STORE! Then grocery shopping happened, and I felt like I was 18 again and didn’t know a thing about what to buy… there were just too many options! And how did you buy the fruit and vegetables? Did you have to weigh them? Put them in a bag? Put a tag on them?

Then the moment came when I saw my family. Everything was right in the world again. My 3-year-old sister even remembered who I was! Our last month in Canada was filled with Christmas festivities, and I treasured every moment as long as I could. The culture shock had worn off, and I felt home again.

HOME?! Universes collided. I had only weeks left before I went back to China. I didn’t want to go. I was terrified of missing everything I had still not quite grown accustomed to being so accessible.  And my family. The thought of leaving them left a knot in my stomach. Did I spend enough time with each person? Did I make the most of the time I had? Could I make it another year apart from them? I wanted to stay home, not go home.

We headed to the airport, three days after Christmas. My stomach felt like a brick had somehow been thrust down my throat and was quite comfortable making itself at home in the bottom of my stomach. Would I be ok? Would the culture shock overwhelm me? Would it feel like “home”?

We arrived at 3:30am last Thursday. The next few days, I walked around, a bit like I was in a dream. Universes had shifted again. Instead of cars filling the streets, scooters, 3-wheeled wagons, bicycles, some cars, city buses, and 50-year-old looking trucks filled the streets. Vegetable sellers sat on most corners, and the old Chinese people filled the air with music, and dancing. Then I caught a whiff of the shao-kao (street meat) cooking… my stomach started screaming. I was CRAVING Chinese food! Any kind would be fine!

We stepped into a restaurant. “Do you like goat?” the owner said. “We’re Canadian.” I replied, somehow convinced he'd asked me where I was from. “Oh, can Canadian’s not eat goat?” Ok. Little rusty on my Chinese. We ended up leaving that restaurant, because we didn’t want goat… not because we were Canadian. HAHA! How embarrassing! We ended up at a little noodle restaurant, and I awkwardly tried to pull my Chinese out of the abyss it had disappeared to in my brain. They were so kind and patient. The noodles were so good.

Today, I hopped on my scooter, joined the chaotic road-race and ran errands. They understood me, and I understood them. I breathed in all the smells around me, and looked at all of the sights that were unusually usual. I smiled as big as I possibly could smile.  I loved being here. I’m Worlds apart from my old home, but there’s a strange familiarity about this place… like it was just waiting for me to get back here… back home. 

My 22nd Birthday

A couple of weeks ago I turned twenty-two. I love swimming, and it has been so warm here we decided, hey, let's head to the lake! We talked to a few friends who had been previously, and after hearing it only took about an hour and a half by bus we thought, "Sounds like a great adventure. Let's do this!"

So we woke up bright and early on May 11th, and after riding a bus to the terminal, waited patiently for the free bus to downtown to show up (which comes every hour, on the HALF hour.). We weren't exactly sure what we were looking for, but right about the time 8:30 hit, we noticed a bit of a ruckus happening on the other side of the road... HUNDREDS of people appearing out of thin air running full speed for an unmarked bus that was in the midst of pulling up. I couldn't help but to burst out laughing, and then quickly realized, this was probably our bus! With that, Drew and I were off on a mad dash across the street,weaving in and out of cars, bushes, and other scramblers to the unmarked bus we were assuming was ours! We asked someone on the way into the bus if it was the right one, and she of course laughed and told us yes.

After an hour to the other side of town, we were at the long distance bus station. We soon realized that the picture of the bus our friends had given us was the picture for the SECOND long distance bus we needed to take, which led to an hour and a half long adventure trying to figure out which bus was the bus we were supposed to take! Eventually we found it and took it, hopped on the next bus, which promptly drove one stop, and let everyone off. By this point, what had originally supposed to have been an hour and a half journey, was nearing four and a half hours. We asked the driver, "Are you going to the beach?" "Yeah, of course!" So we waited... finally I said, "WHEN are you going to the beach?" "Oh, in about half an hour." She responded. So, we got off that bus, and decided to try out a covered three-wheeler. We were now in a pretty remote village. Fifteen minutes later, we were pointed to a long path that headed toward the water.

We walked down the path and were surrounded by a myriad others headed toward the beach. To our left and right was kiosk after kiosk selling everything from clothing, to dried fish, to nail clippers, to sheets and curtains, to fruit, to turtles! It was awesome! Along the journey we noticed camels and peacocks hanging out at the different booths. When we got to the beach, it was covered all the way to the shore with dancers, artists, game booths, and more camels and peacocks! The water was full of long canoes, boats that looked like they were built on stilts, and other unique looking water vehicles you could pay to try out. We decided that place was as good as any to eat our picnic lunch. Between mounds of garbage, we laid down our towels and ate our tuna sandwiches as the villagers gaped and snapped pictures of the funny white foreigners, trying to get a tan. Why would we ruin our perfectly white skin?

We ended up leaving that place shortly after and finding a beautiful remote beach with next to nobody at it, surrounded by picturesque mountains and a clear sky.

After this was dinner time. We found what I think was the only restaurant in the village and took a seat. The waiters and waitresses nervously argued amongst themselves over who would have to talk to the foreigners and take our orders. Finally after realizing that none of them were going to come over, Drew walked over and asked if we could take a look in the kitchen at what they served. After pointed to a few items, we waited for our meal to be served. Next to us was a giant enclosed area filled with water and fish, and next to that was a few baskets piled on top of each-other with live chickens. A couple minutes later, we watched as the cook came out, caught a fish that had to be at least a foot and a half long, dropped it on the ground and proceeded to beat it with a stick! Next to him was a guy sitting on a rock plucking the chicken we'd ordered for dinner. I don't know that I've ever eaten such a fresh meal!

We headed for the bus home after that and arrived to our destination about two hours later. I had a feeling that this was gonna be one of those birthdays that just sticks out to me as a memorable one. As we traveled through the mountains and I watched the sun set in the valley, turning the events of the day over in my mind, I smiled. As completely foreign to me as everything that happened that day was, I knew it was exactly where I wanted to be. This strange, unfamiliar place, this is home... and I love it.

Every Day Life

The Jetson Mobile

Grocery Shopping

Shao Kao

Dancers at the Park

Feeding the hungry fish at the park

The dog we pass every afternoon on our way home from school

Shopping!

Us

Sometimes when I'm in my extremely Western-style apartment, eating extremely Western macaroni and cheese that was graciously mailed to me, and watching extremely cheesy chick flicks on my computer, I forget that I'm not in North America. It's a really odd feeling after Zack Ephron turns 30 again, I have to run errands, and I'm suddenly jolted to the reality that I live on the other side of the planet. Usually it happens almost immediately as I walk out the door of my apartment, and "China" fills my nostrils. Who knew one country could have so many overwhelmingly powerful smells... all within a few feet of one another! I have never been to any place that I have experienced such a plethora of odors within a journey of 30 feet! Ha ha!

So from thirty feet out the door, usually Drew and I are headed to our mode of transportation... which right now happens to be a three-wheeled scooter that also happens to look rather like a bubble-shaped hovercraft from the Jetsons! I absolutely think it is the coolest thing ever... Drew has a few issues with it, since it is fairly circular-shaped, and he tends to crack his head every time we go over a bump. We found out about a week ago that actually mostly old people use these three-wheeled scooters, because they are handicapped. So funny! If we have failed to remember that we are foreigners in a foreign country by then, it doesn't take long before we've drawn a crowd! A friend told us a few weeks ago that "foreigner is like panda. Not very many, so everyone want to see." Now imagine a panda driving past you a bubble-shaped-hover-jet. You'd be staring too!

We pass food markets with their fresh rabbits and chickens ready to be butchered in front of you when you buy them, horse-drawn carriages carrying a myriad of things from trash to vegetables, parks full of elderly people playing chess and authentic chinese instruments, and groups of men and women all over town dancing together to get exercise as we weave between buses stuffed to the roof with people, taxis, and bread-cars (really skinny short vans that look like loaves of bread).

Then the adventure of getting errands done becomes a reality. And yes, it's always an adventure! Buying chips at the grocery store becomes a debate in your mind... do I really want to try seaweed flavored Pringles, or should I stick to something more familiar, like roast-beef flavored potato chips (which impressively taste a LOT like roast beef!) Ordering furniture at the furniture store... well let's back up a step. Trying to explain to the taxi driver that you want to go to the furniture store across town and not the one a couple miles away, then trying to be as friendly as you can with the little Chinese you know when he wants to strike up a conversation, then finding the furniture you want, trying to decide whether you really want a color within pointing distance or if you should try to attempt to say the word in Chinese and find out what color you REALLY said when the furniture arrives, explaining your address, giving your phone number and hoping you'll be able to answer their questions when they call you... oh it gets much more complicated than this! We have come to learn that what takes an hour in America, takes at least a day here in China... at least until we can speak the language!

Now the language burier... that is the REAL adventure! We know just enough of the Chinese language to get ourselves in trouble! I have ordered a can of Sprite (in Chinese) at restaurants three different times now and have somehow managed to receive two different kinds of pens, have an entire discussion with a waiter (mostly me just staring blankly at him) about whether I wanted a giant bottle or a can, and a bewildered smile from a waitress who responded to my request by saying she couldn't speak English.

Drew's goof-ups are the funniest to me... for some reason the words for you, me, and he or she, have been jumbled in his mind. So far, he has called a child's mother beautiful (in attempt to call the child beautiful), told a waitress that she wanted chopsticks, and asked one of our friends if his wife was Drew's wife! But at least he's willing to go for it! He's my hero. Always the one to get things done when I'd rather just crawl under my covers and pretend that our scooter will magically be fixed by morning and the internet will be set up by itself if we want it bad enough!

At the end of the day, I love China. I love its strange smells, its funny old people that think we're funnier than they are, its food (which is awesome), and all of the funny interesting scenes we like to write home about. But it's always good to know that my extremely Western apartment, full of macaroni and cheese and corny chick flicks are always waiting for me to come home to.