Tuamos in Thailand

The title is not true insofar as it would mean I had mastered language and customs, but it was  gleefully shouted at me by a real Thai person when, one day after school, I rolled up to the songteaw stop on a motorcycle taxi, grocery bags in tow. I think if she had seen what was in the bags (salted peanuts and yogurt), the woman would have been less inclined to celebrate my Thainess. While I have really started to appreciate the food of Thailand, it has still been difficult to be really satisfied health-wise. To begin with, you need to be okay with eating small amounts of meat to have any culinary variety here, but proteins are often redundant, with eggs and meat in the same meal, and not really enough of either. Then I can go eat more eggs for protein, which is, of course, more of the same and gets boring. Other times, the meal will be entirely meat, rice, and sauce, often with a very fatty cut of meat. This is great for getting enough protein, but if not paired with a significant am

At about 10:00 on the last day of the term, September 23, I got the 4th toe on my right foot stuck in a drain grate. When I looked down, there was more blood than toe visible. On further examination, the toe was sagging below the others, and I looked up and said to my horrified class, "Yup. That's broken." Thank you to Heyha for letting me lean on him, and the kind teacher who happened to be motorcycling past - both of these people allowed me to get to the nurse's office without crawling. In the nurse's office, my classmates cleaned up the wound as best they could. Anyway, any American readers are wondering why my classmates were cleaning my wound. I'd been to the office once before with a smaller cut on my foot (this one had happened earlier, while swimming, and reopened), and that time also, students applied disinfectant and a bandage. It is apparently just the way things are done. The earlier cut was thanks to one of these if I'm not mistaken.

I said at one point that I would discuss the story of how I accidentally ended up on the school's tug-of-war (chak-a-yer / ชักเย่อ) team. I may have already shared this photo, but the story probably starts when, on my first day, I got this shirt. This is my PE uniform, with two PE teachers present:   Ok, well actually not that shirt at that time. There is a very similar picture that I appear to have lost of me in the same place, receiving this shirt, the school sport uniform, later that day: I used this shirt a few times for Muay Thai (as in the picture), and wore it outside of school a few times as well. Then, in my 2nd week or so, my classmate, Mai (or Mild pronounced without either final consonant; I'm not sure which spelling she prefers, or if both are even correct, and I certainly don't want to guess the Thai spelling) told me that I could come to a fitness class with her in the mornings. I went a few times that first week, and altogether I think I went regul

Today Thailand lost their beloved King. I have great respect for King ภูมิพลอดุลยเดช (Bhumibol Adulyadej) as a unifying leader, a humble man genuinely interested in understanding and bettering his country, a musician, and so much more. He will be missed.

I finally got around to looking up the background of the moon festival. It began in China as a harvest festival, celebrated according to the lunar calendar so that it coincides with the full moon. It also has the purpose of gathering families and communities together to give thanks and pray. Much like our State Fair in Minnesota, which began as a farming exhibition, but has grown into a much broader festival, for the average person, at least in Thailand, the festival is still about all of these things - but is also at least as much about shopping and eating food, including moon cakes, which are another traditional feature of the festival. The moon cake contains a sweet bean paste, which I find to be of neither good nor bad taste, but I had a few friends who were excited about eating them. The captioned pictures I took should still be below, for anyone who wants to see more.

Right, this thing is the Minnesota State Fair only just one night, and with more traditional food offerings. Wai Pa Jan is celebrated because of the full moon, and there is probably some cultural significance there that I should research, but these photos tell my experience at the actual event. A dejected Brazilian girl rests alongside her cache of secondhand clothing The street Some dancers The Rotary Club's shrine A dragon before it is dark ¡Selfie! These men perform some kind of blessing using tree branches to sprinkle water onto onlookers. You must bow when receiving the water Somewhat later in the night, these men and several other sets of people in costumes ran through the middle of the street. Random metal concert (or maybe this was the soft rock band that performed first) Obligatory mini heart picture because Thailand. it is ironic This man performs a stunt in which he jumps from the top of the pole and catches it at the b