Different Goals for 2009

Happy New Year to all!

January first generally comes around and I make some lame "resolution" that I don't feel very emotionally invested in. So this year I decided to put the "Exercise 5 times a week" resolution on the shelf and go for something that I think is more challenging and new...

Pae and I were at a book store looking in the craft section and found a book that teaches how to crochet stuffed animals. She expressed an interest and curiosity about the art of crochet so I thought it would be a cool "stocking stuffer" to get her a couple skeins of yarn and a few crochet needles and see what she could figure out with a combo of the internet and my memories of what Mom Betsy in Florida taught me when I was a kid as her guide. As It turns out, Pae was studying for a Christmas Eve Final Exam and a Jan. 2 Final for school and I ended up sitting quietly crocheting away while she studied! I hadn't picked up a needle in probably 24 years.

Messing around I relearned a couple stitches and quickly made a couple very low quality "hats" for some of our stuffed animals and my favorite, a tiny sweater for Pae's little six inch stuffed duck! I figured out how to make a simple granny square and crocheted 9 of them so far.

One of my challenging but achievable goals for 2009 is to crochet a blanket out of somewhere between 100 and 168 squares depending on the dimensions and pattern I decide on. I figure one square a day gets me to a blanket by May or June! Making the squares is more relaxing for me than exciting and eventually as Pae gets done with tests she can join, as was the original plan!

The second thing I think I want to try to do is grow something that doesn't die! Every time I have ever bought a plant I have killed it with either too much water, too little water, too much light, too little light, or too much non-green-thumbedness. Here in Thailand we try to eat a lot of fruit. A common thing for us is to finish a watermelon or a guava and unconsciously throw all of the seeds into the bin. One day I decided to try to get some papaya, guava, orange and watermelon seeds to germinate. They all started to grow and I was excited. Two day after I planted the sprouts into pots and "over watered" them, the orange sprouts flat out died...as always happens to me! But to my surprise, our watermelon plants, two papayas and what I think have to be several guava plants have continued to grow. I have since added a couple purple onion bulbs and plan to throw some hot peppers and tomato seeds in the mix as well.

The goal is to number one, keep the dang things alive. Two would be to actually get some edible hot chilies, tomatoes or a long time in the future, watermelons to grow!

I could use some exercise and could trim off some love handles, but that new year resolution is tried and "tired!" Here's to crocheting in my studio apartment and gardening on my balcony! Now all I need is some Oprah on the boob tube and a box of chocolates and I'd be fully in touch with my estrogen producing side.

What are your New Year Resolutions??

Christmas Observations

Christmas has come and gone again here in the Land of Smiles.
I spent much of the time leading up to the holiday just like any other time, working and pretty much living life as usual. Thailand is predominantly Buddhist with small Muslim and Christian populations, so Christmas isn't widely celebrated "religiously." Christmas is strictly commercial here and even the merchants haven't tried to hype it up (like it has been in the States) to try to generate higher "holiday" revenues.

So how is Christmas different here than my Christmases back home?

• Snow? no
• Christmas carols every where you go? no
• Bing Crosby ad nauseum? no...and for me, I could never get too much Bing!
• Neighborhoods all lit up with Christmas lights? no
• Day off from work? no
• Charlie Brown Christmas, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, Abominable Snowman, A Christmas Story on TV? no
• Fruit cake? no
• Egg nog? no
• Mistletoe? no
• Nativity scenes? no
• Turkey or ham? no
• Candy canes, tinsel, home-baked cookies? no
• Christmas tree? YES! We got a little 8 inch wooden tree with six ornaments!
• Sneaky shopping and hiding of gifts? YES!
• Spending time with the ones we love? YES! Pae and I were able to spend our second Christmas together. On Christmas eve went with Pae's brother (P'Nut) to watch the first leg of the Final of the AFF Suzuki Cup which pitted the Thai national Soccer team against Vietnam. Although we lost the first leg 2-1, we could still beat them on aggregate if we score two more goals than them in the second and final leg in Vietnam in a few days. It was only my second ever soccer game, I had a good time.
• Gift wrap? Ha-ha, I think poor Pae had to pull one of her gifts out of an unwrapped Stove Top Stuffing box, one tied up in six or seven 7-11 plastic bags, and one double bagged and tossed (with love) into an old paper bag.
• Last minute shopping? YES! But this time, It wasn't me who did the last-minute shopping trip, it was Pae. She got home after me on Christmas day and still had her purchases bagged in shopping bags...(see point above concerning gift wrap!)
• Christmas atmosphere? We tried.

I could go on for hours concerning the differences between here and there, but it's to be expected considering that Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Christ...and he is a non-figure in the Buddhist religion.

A few observations from Christmas and the days leading up to it:

Oddest moment- At school we had a half hour long assembly where the students sang a few non religious songs and then the teachers (foreign) were forced to sing as well. As we sang Rudolph and We Wish You a Merry Christmas, our Australian Santa began distributing candies to the students. The poor guy got mosh pitted by a group over to my right. As I looked over there it looked like a pool of piranhas in a feeding frenzy around a bald, red faced, underweight Aussie Santa Claus, whose fake beard had twisted half way around his head in the melee. Definitely a memory.

Cutest story- Pae and I compared Christmas practices and such for a little while on Christmas day after I got home from work. The cutest story was one that she told about when she was a primary school girl. Although Christmas isn't a big holiday here, you do still get bombarded with pictures of one main figure throughout the week prior...that would be Jolly Ole' Saint Nick! From T.V. and stories Pae had seen how Santa would start delivering toys to good little boys and girls starting on Christmas Eve. She also observed that he would put gifts and candy in stockings that were hung on the fireplace. So Pae, before she went to bed on Christmas Eve, secretly put one of her little white school socks out in hopes that Santa would pay her a visit. She said that she woke up only to find that Santa hadn't come. She was disappointed but not disenchanted!

Most random Christmas gift- The students here like to package up some candy and give it to the teachers for a Christmas/New Years gift. Last year I got 4 bars of military soap from one of my third graders and I thought "Great! Trying to tell me something?" I also got a bottle of shaving cream that year. This year I got a bottle of Mango body scrub from a set of third grader twins...again with the hygiene products. But nothing beats this year when "GM" one of my third graders ran out of an Exam I was giving and grabbed something from his mother who had come to the school to deliver some cookies and gifts for the teachers. He came back in the class with a large red and black piece of luggage! I tried to hide the confusion that surely showed as I thanked GM for the thoughtful gift. Even funnier than receiving the luggage as a gift was riding on the back of a motorcycle taxi, trying not to pummel pedestrians and utility poles with the giant case that was catching wind as dude freakin' flew through the Soi to the main road.

Coolest thing I saw on Christmas Eve- Okay, so this has little to do with Christmas, but as we arrived back to our apartment complex after the soccer game, there was a larger elephant standing in the road in front of one of our favorite noodle shops, trunk feeling around for any handouts. The owner was mounted atop of the one ton beast guiding it through the soi, selling sugar cane and bananas to people who wanted to feed it. Written in chalk on the elephant's side in Thai said that it was a girl and that she was pregnant. The fact that there was an elephant outside of our place is not strange or unexpected, they pass through nightly in fact. It was just that she was pregnant, which was cool, and also that the dude wasn't riding bear back, but he had a little bench-shaped saddle mounted atop old girl. This "seat" and large bag of sugar cane that dude was carrying gave her the look of perhaps a Thai Santa's sleigh. I imagined a Thai Santa delivering toys to the children on an elephant!

Two favorite Christmas carols I heard this year- Every year some artist comes out with a Christmas CD. Of all of the Christmas albums in the history of the world, my favorite is and will forever be White Christmas. I have many favorites but my favorite this year from the album has to be the upbeat "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." My second favorite song this year, a little skewed as I probably only hears between 5 and 10 carols recently, has to be Kristin Chenoweth's "Do You Hear What I Hear" performed on FOX News on Christmas Eve. This was the first time I heard of her and honestly her speaking voice was like finger nails on a chalk board, but once she started singing I was amazed. See her perform the song at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ntvn8MIuPLc . You won't be sorry you waited for it to load! I guess she is a Tony winning performer in the Broadway musical "Wicked."

That's all from here, We wish you a happy holiday season. Be safe and enjoy each other's company and love.

What makes a hero?

Is a hero the dude in green tights and a black cape who summons super human abilities and conquers evil villains? Is a hero the 15 million dollar outfielder who single-handedly brought a World Championship to your home team with one mighty swing of a bat? I'm sure there are people in sports who inspire people to excel or to be passionate about something, or who represent an entire nation, city or demographic...but it seems that the shine of the word "hero" has been dulled by us not really pointing to the normal everyday people who do heroic things or who make heroic choices and sacrifices for a greater good or over their own well being.

We hear daily how the service men and women returning home from our most recent war receive "a hero's welcome" as they walk through the airport. Are they "all" heroes for being sent to war? Do we give the blanket designation of "heroes"? We often do, and for many of them, it is more than well deserved. Did they voluntarily join the service so they could eventually be hailed as heroes? No, their reasons for enlisting certainly vary, from those who see evil in the world and want to be a part of stomping it out, those who see steady employment and income and increasingly those who see free college four years down the road. Many who have been there know that our military is a bunch of guys and gals doing:

1. their job (for 100% of our military). After all their service isn't voluntary and free of charge, it is a job, a form of employment and for many a career path with adventure and personal development attached.


2. what they feel is the right thing to do (for much less than 100% of our military members), meaning they do not only rush off to distant places and put lives on the line just because the big boss so ordered, but also because they believe in the underlying reasons for such military action. Again, this is usually a chunk of our forces that is significantly less than 100%, bringing us back to point #1, they are just doing their job.

Are doctors heroes? Are they heroes because they perform a 13 hour emergency surgery that saves someone's life? Many would say heck yes. Playing devil's advocate I would submit that there are many who are just doing their job.

The other side of the coin would be the defense attorney, you know, the one who defends the likes of O.J. or more recently, Casey Anthony. You absolutely know that THEY know the truth, for argument's sake, that O.J. did it...but it is their job, and they actually take a professional oath, to do their job in the best interest of their client, blah blah blah...We often paint these defense attorneys, especially in high-profile cases, as evil money hungry, attention and fame-hungered jerks who should burn in hell for defending someone who is so obviously guilty and non repentant. Are they monsters for trying to exploit the law and loopholes and technicalities to get their clients off or to get their punishment lessened? Again I guess it would depend on intent...you know, if there is some kid who got free grants for law school after agreeing to become a public defender in the inner city and then this kid gets all of the super bad-doers, and is tasked daily, for years, with defending the scum of the city, is he different than an established attorney who cherry picks cases that would earn the most money or get the most attention? You decide.

This entry turned into something totally different than I intended, forgive me please. The intent was to share with you a person in my life who I consider a hero. He is Pae's big brother, P'Neung. He is the oldest child (hence his name translating to the number "1") and as I found the first year I was here, very protective of his family, especially his baby sister!

Pae's mom, some 10 or so years back, had failure of both of her kidneys and P'Neung, I say heroically, gave one of his healthy kidney's to his mom, not knowing if her body would accept the foreign tissue or not. Now, I'm know that there's a moment when people are confronted with a difficult choice that there is some amount of weighing options and determining the WIIFM. I'm sure that P'Neung's decision to give his kidney to his mom was one of the easiest he has ever made. To have a 50 centimeter incision made in your side/back to have a body part removed and sewn into someone else, because you love them and because you care for their well being just as much or more than you care for your own, I submit to you, is certainly a heroic act.

Pae's mom just spent a couple weeks in the hospital as her kidney stopped working again. She is home now and her condition has improved and her kidney is able to function on its own without the aid of a dialysis machine (didn't have to go that far) and constant monitoring by health care people. Pae just got back to Bangkok from helping take care of her mom with the rest of the family. It's great to have Pae back and equally as awesome that mom has gotten better and is no longer eating bland hospital food! This is a picture of Pae, her mom and P'Neung.

Buddha's Feet

We run into many different representations (statues and paintings mainly) of Buddha and the life of Buddha here in Thailand. For me it is something relatively new and something that leads me to ask questions. Questions like "What is the difference between the Chinese Chubby Buddha and the skinnier image that the Thais and much of S.E. Asia revere?"

To answer these questions, my first source of knowledge is always Pae and then random people at school who can either bring their Thai explanations down to my level, or who feel comfortable trying to explain to me in English. When I want to learn even more, I turn to the trusty internet! (Before you ask, No, I don't read books!)

The most recent question that popped in my head, as we took pictures of reclining Buddha on a recent weekend excursion, was "What is the significance of the symbols on the bottom or Buddha's feet?" As you can see from the pictures we took (the gold one taken in Kanchanaburi and the bottom one in Prae, Northern Thailand) there is a pretty good deal of action going on down there! Pictures of animals, actual toe prints, a wheel, etc. I found the following short explanation on religionfacts.com. It refers to the actual imprint made of the Buddha's foot, which I have not run into yet in my time here. I have usually only seen the bottom of the Buddha's foot which is adorned with the same symbols.

The footprints of the Buddha (Buddhapada) are one of the early
representations of the Buddha in the anticonic (no statues) stage of Buddhist art. The Buddhapada are highly revered in all Buddhist countries, especially in Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Symbolizing the grounding of the transcendent, feet have been objects of respect in India long before Buddhism. According to Buddhist legend, after the Buddha attained enlightenment, his feet made an imprint in the stone where he stepped. In another tradition, the infant Buddha took seven steps after his birth to symbolize his spiritual domination of the universe.

The footprints of the Buddha symbolize the Buddha's presence, as they are believed to be the imprints where the Buddha actually touched the ground. At the same time, the Buddhapada signify the Buddha's absence now that he has entered nirvana, and thus are a reminder of the Buddhist ideal of nonattachment.

The Buddha's footprints are usually depicted with the toes of all one length and with a dharmachakra (wheel) in the center. Other early Buddhist symbols also appear on the heels and toes, such as the lotus, the swastika and the triratna (Three Jewels).
Some Buddhapada can be very large and detailed, displaying the 32, 108 or 132 distinctive marks of a Buddha in a checkerboard pattern. These symbols are also seen on the bottom of the feet of large statues of the reclining Buddha.

Sculptures of Buddha's footprints are usually protected in a special temple structure, where the faithful bring flowers and other offerings to them. The Buddhapada image can also be found on Tibetan thangkas.

Friday Foto - December 19, 2008

A picture from our trip up north with the family.

Us taking our turn relaxing on the swing of a

hilltop coffee shop. Hugs are nice!

Wat Arun

Soi Dogs

I haven't asked, but I'm assuming that there is no "pound" here in Thailand. Speaking of course of a dog pound where unwanted or homeless dogs are kept, given away, and I guess euthanized if there are no takers.

I'm also guessing that the reason is because this is a Buddhist culture and they pretty much frown upon killing or harming animals. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, just that it is frowned upon in the Buddhist religion.

This brings me to the meat of my entry, Soi Dogs. A soi dog is basically a stray dog that lives in and around the streets of Thailand. Wherever you go there are dogs running wild, with apparently no owners. Even though they have no owners, they are fed, and recently with the cooler temperatures, clothed by the people who live in the area...the people who see the neighborhood dogs on a daily basis.

These dogs usually live in areas where there is high foot traffic...because where there are a lot of people, waiting for buses or running in and out of stores there are also street food vendors. This provides droppings, scraps and food buyers buying an extra stick of grilled chicken hearts to feed to "their" dogs. Pae and I probably spend more every month feeding our local 5 (Nu-deng, Whitey, Blacky, Fat Blacky and DingDong) than we spend on cell phone minutes to keep in touch with our families! SO you can say that these Soi Dogs become an extension of your family.

Another funny thing is that they are pretty territorial as far as their normal living areas. That is until the female dogs go in heat, and then all hell breaks loose between neighboring dog gangs. You see big furry head poodle dogs trying to hump bull dogs, you see sausage dogs, post climax, stuck to a shi-tzu/beagle mix! I swear there are so many COOL looking dogs here because of the interbreeding of breeds. A while back in fact, Pae's dog Pao, a Shi-Tzu, popped out a couple pups in one litter, one Shi-tzu/Shi-tzu and I think two Shi-tzu/Chow mixes! Talk about a funny looking Pao nursing two Chow pups that were almost her size after a week or two! That's the cool thing about dogs, they can hook up with the whole neighborhood of boy dogs in 6 or 7 days and pop out several different breed pups from several different dads! Amazing!

We like to take pictures of some of the Soi Dogs we run into as we go about our daily business or when we travel to other provinces. 90% of the times we come across a funny or cute dog we don't have our cameras, but those times that we do, we make sure we document. Here are some of the cuter or funnier dogs we've actually gotten on film (or memory card to be more accurate):

Hunga Bunga

I was watching two students this morning kicking a water bottle cap around the school yard for about 30 minutes. I'm not sure what was odder, the fact that kids could still have such a great time with a plastic screw on cap or that I actually stood at the teacher's room window glued to their every move. The head fake, the footwork, the nutmeg, the blatant kick to the shin...and ultimately, it true kid style, when the bigger stronger kid got tired of having circles run around him by the smaller, skinnier, more agile and skillful ball handling runt from a grade below him, he grabbed him by the arm, threw him to the ground, took possession of the makeshift soccer ball and blasted it top corner of the school bench...sending both boys into a joyful fit of laughter and enjoyment.

As the boys continued their non-PSP, non gameboy filled morning I began to think back to when we were kids living in the swamps of Florida, TV-less and without running water for that matter. We had the greatest time with everything that nature so generously provided us with as playthings. From chucking unopened pine cones at each other to building tree forts...from trying to rid the swamp of thistle plants with our hunga-bunga sticks to climbing skinny pines and trying to bend them over to the ground...we spent the majority of our days getting muddied up and just absolutely enjoying our time as siblings.

I can say that I'm super happy not to have had internet back then. I'm sure it would have been great, but gone would have been the days of watching mom and dad play pinochle around the campfire with their old friends. Gone would have been the days of exploring a newly discovered puddle and finding tadpoles in all of their stages of development, some with legs, some without, some with long tails, some with tails that had disappeared! Hours and hours without the interruption or feeling that I had to check my email or update my blog or facebook!

Many of the kids come to school wielding PSP's and other handheld computer games or cell phones with other uploaded game applications. It was funny for me to see a kid after school yesterday come into the admin office and open a drawer to retrieve her cell phone...the drawer was FILLED with phones and games that students have to "drop at the door" before their first period classes. I found that amusing.

I'm glad they didn't confiscate their bottle caps!

Sufficiency Economics

As you stroll the city of Bangkok and look at the skyline you see the expected high rises, skyscrapers and apartment complexes. What you might notice when you look to these buildings is that there are usually trees sitting atop most of them, like little gardens 32 stories, 47 stories 50 stories above the ground. These "gardens" are generally not decorative, but an application of the idea of "Sufficiency Economics" or in Thai "เศรษฐกิจพอเพียง". This basic concept introduced to Thais by the King is a practice in moderation meant to help the people be more robust in case of international or domestic economic crisis, crisis that often only sting the well off but can destroy the lives of the poorer part of the population.

The philosophy of "เศรษฐกิจพอเพียง" explained only in part is done best by translating the individual parts of the Thai expression. The first part of the word translates to "economic issues" or "economy". The second part "enough" and the third part "up to the point" or "as much as".
Putting it all together you get "economy up to the point of enough" or a philosophy or way of living that stresses moderation. Example, why buy a $600 cell phone when you can survive with one that costs only $30. Or, why buy a designer handbag for $1,000 when the same functionality can be purchased for 1/100th of the cost. The concept is nothing new really as it is taken from basic Buddhist principles, but the King, during an economic crisis in the late 90's convinced the people that moderation was key, not only for individuals but for families, businesses, communities and the nation.

Sufficiency Economics is most noticeable when you look to the tops of the buildings here and see giant trees growing way up in the sky (also when you see every girl here carrying Louis Vuitton or Gucci...fakes of course, see below)! Also you see people growing fruit trees, herbs, spices and hot peppers in their yards rather than showy roses, orchids and more ornamental landscaping. This is just another facet of Sufficiency Economics.

Note that the King didn't say that people shouldn't buy an expensive luxury vehicle or cell phone with all of the latest technology and functions, but that people shouldn't strive to own these things to show status or to feel as though they have attained a certain status. It is also taught, as it should be, that a person shouldn't indulge in "the finer material things in life" if they don't have the means (extra) by which to attain them.

The people here in Thailand who do have the means are the minority, just like the sports superstars who have 17 Aston Martins in their 3 acre garages in the States, or the Hollywood stars who adorn their lapdogs with 80 carats of diamonds.

The majority of people here are those who live pay check to pay check. They are people who work very hard to eek out a simple living that doesn't support purchasing high-end non-essentials. I think this may be part of the reason why you can find pretty much anything here pirated or fake. People here aren't going to pay $80 of their salary to buy a real copy of "The Sopranos Season 6" when they can get it at the night market for $5. A 4000 Baht Lacrosse polo at the mall or one under the bridge for 200 Baht? A set of Samsonite luggage for your next trip or an identical set of Sampsonate luggage for 5% the cost? Get the idea, yeah?

So long story short, the trees on top of the buildings or the Thai chili pepper plants hanging off people's balconies are their personal participation in "เศรษฐกิจพอเพียง". I personally think it's pretty cool to see these tiny little forests, orchards or gardens floating above the city and coming out of people's apartment balconies! We did the same thing when we were kids, we had what, three or four tomato plants...Yeah, perhaps they only provided us with a couple pounds of tomatoes per season, but it was still something!

"Sufficiency is moderation. If one is moderate in one's desires, one will have less craving. If one has less craving, one will take less advantage of others. If all nations hold to this concept, without being extreme or insatiable in one's desires, the world will be a happier place". ~King Bhumibol Adulyadej

"A Date that Will Live in Infamy"

A quiet Sunday morning in Hawaii, 67 years ago, turned into a day that President Franklin D. Roosevelt said would live in infamy, and it has.

During the surprise attack on the Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, nine U.S. ships were sunk with many others heavily damaged by wave after wave of Japanese bombers. Over 2300 men and women died that day with scores of others wounded. More than 1000 of those killed were from the U.S.S. Arizona. A memorial for the Arizona rests atop the wrecked vessel commemorating the lives lived and on that day lost, of the sailors and Marines of the Arizona, many of whom were never recovered from inside of the sunken ship. As the memorial reads, it is not only a memorial, but a tomb for many.

Of all of the days that stick out in my brain, December 7th is among the four that I will never forget. The other three being June 6th (D-Day), November 10th (The Marine Corps Birthday), and September 11th. These are all important days to me for one reason or another.

Today though I focus on Pearl Harbor and remember those brave many who fought during WWII to defend the country they love and also those who didn't live to see the war end, and who didn't get to see Japan become one of our closest friends and allies.

If I had the DVD "Tora, Tora, Tora" I think I'd pop it in right now. We have "Band of Brothers" but it deals more with the European theater and it's in Thai without subtitles!

I salute all those who serve and who have served.

Paintings of Thai Temples

These paintings are of what people say are the 12 Thai temples that you must visit in your lifetime. I'm not sure if you "must" visit them for religious reasons, like some pilgrimage or if they are just so cool that you gotta see them.

Each of the 12 paintings also incorporates the Asian zodiac. Western astrology generally has a different symbol for each month. Asian astrology on the other hand goes by year...hence "Year of the Dragon" etc. I was born in the Year of the Pig, Pae Year of the Rat. We are currently in the Year of the Rat.

I stuck the paintings in a collage with the name of the astrological symbol for each. The calendar I got these paintings from, written in Thai, tells also the city and province the temple is located in. Most of them are in the mountainous northern provinces. What better setting for a temple than atop a mountain!

I'm not into astrology at all, but I thought that the paintings were great and I think I should start ticking the temples off of my list. The paintings look much better full screen.

Rated "R" for G-String Content...Funny at First...

I was googling images of the King and this next picture was on a page that I eventually navigated to. The image is titled "Miss Chernobyl 2004". I think this is a picture from the swimsuit portion of the competition!

All laughing at the photoshopped image aside, there is a very sad tragedy behind it. Sorry for the Rated R graphic on our Rated PG-13 blog, but after my initial smile and gut laugh at the photo's witty caption, I was reminded of the disaster in Russia over 20 years ago.

There were very few deaths attributed to the actual explosion of a nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant with most of the "known" deaths from caused by nuclear fallout. Cancer, radiation sickness, etc. As it turns out there are actually lots of young people who were born with birth defects following the 1986 accident. Children born disfigured or without limbs are an erie reminder to those who still call the surrounding area home. That's obviously the "gag" behind this photo.

According to a National Geographic story titled "Inside Chernobyl" (a very informative read), 400 times more fallout was released from the Chernobyl accident than the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima during WWII. The site burned for many days formed a cloud of radioactive poisons. Prevailing winds carried the fallout cloud to many other places in Europe, mostly Belarus.

It's amazing to read not only about all of the physical effects of the radioactivity that people were exposed to from working to put out the fire at the reactor and from nature following the disaster, but also the psychological effects that it had/has on the people.

I'll not rehash the story here, if you're interested you can find the 2006 story on the National Geographic website at the following address:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2006/04/inside-chernobyl/stone-text

For a more technical background on what happened, how it happened, etc, wikipedia has a good technical description of the nuts and bolts of the explosion.

Annual Show for Our Students

Every year our students put on a show for their parents. This is my second show with the school. We give up some of our classes so they can practice dancing, singing, marching, etc. We don't usually complain about losing class periods, but this year is going to be tight in trying to cover the entire curriculum with the missed days.

We had kids from preschool to 6th grade participate in the show. As today was Father's Day here in Thailand, there were a lot more dads that participated in the festivities this year. It's different to see the kids hanging with their parents all day rather than playing with their classmates in their uniforms everyday.

**I initially started to write something negative here, but I prefer this to be a positive blog! Plus I'm in a positive mood!**

Here are some pictures of some of the teachers, students and parents.

Upcoming 24 Hour Race!

On the heels of Pae running and finishing her first 5.4 kilometer run, I have searched for and found my next challenge.
I've never run a marathon (not yet), a triathlon (not yet) or an iron man (scary) but a couple of those are on my list of things to do. I did do the Vertical Marathon a few months back but that was just torture. I found a race at the following address that I am registering for and need to start preparing for!

http://www.thailandmarathon.org/w4w.shtml

The name of the event is the Pan Pacific Bangkok Walk 4 Women 2009. The race is being held to raise awareness for cervical cancer in women. It will be held in February which gives me a couple months to get my body ready, more for endurance rather than distance. This race is not to cover a predetermined distance, but it is a 24 hour race to see who can go the farthest in the 24 hour period! The race starts on a Saturday and participants run/walk until the next day, 24 hours later.

This is the tough part. Usually I'd like to set a time goal for myself for a 5k or a 10k but this time I'll have to set a distance goal. Off the cuff I told Pae that I wanted to go 200km. Then I thought about it! That would be like running a one hour 10k every hour with only 10-15 minutes rest between runs for 24 hours! SO...I think that is a very unrealistic goal! I believe there are ultra marathoners out there or Kenyan school kids who could probably pull of 200km, but me? Hahaha. I couldn't go that far on a motorcycle!

So, I need your help. I have an idea of how far I think I want to try to go in the 24 hours. Pae and I talked about it last night and I'm pretty sure that a goal of 100km would be achievable yet challenging. I mean, that's like doing twenty 5k runs in a day.

I have an idea of what kind of strategy I want to employ. Of course I'm not just gonna run and walk for 24 hours without taking a food break, changing socks, half hour rest here and there! So I'm open to your ideas for both, distance goal and strategy/tactics!

I have exactly 2 months before the race and have a lot of preparation to do both physically and mentally! I don't know how I'll finish or if I'll come remotely close to achieving my goal...one thing I can guarantee though is this...Monday, February 10...I'm calling in sick to work!

ทรงพระเจริญ

More pictures of Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej

Long Live the King! ทรงพระเจริญ

December 5th is the birthday of the King of Thailand, King Bhumibol Adulyadej. He will be 81 years old.

Today he was supposed to give his annual birthday speech but had to cancel at the last moment due to a slight illness. He is said to have an inflamed esophagus and loss of appetite.

Everybody here will be praying for him as he is the national hero, almost a father to the people, truly revered and loved. His health has not been the best lately and neither has the health of his Kingdom.

People were very interested to see what words of wisdom he might speak tonight during his address. He generally stays away from politics, but has a few times injected himself when the country and the people began to suffer too much.

As King Bhumibol is a father figure to the nation, Thailand also celebrates this day as Father's Day.

Happy Birthday to the King.
Happy Father's Day.

Long Live the King!!
ทรงพระเจริญ !! ทรงพระเจริญ !! ทรงพระเจริญ !!

Water Won't Help!

My first experience with Thai food was in California back about 18 years ago as a Marine. Jesse Zimbauer and I walked into a Thai restaurant and ordered some meat dish and the old man (owner) asked if we'd ever eaten Thai food before, to which we responded in the negative. He then smiled and asked what "level of spicy" we wanted. Both of us, big bad Marines, replied "Big Spicy" to which he immediately, concern in his face, replied, "Water won't help, Big spicy too spicy".

We of course took this as a challenge and told him, "No, we want Big spicy". The back and forth went on for a few minutes with the owner growing less concerned about how we would physically react to his spicy concoction and more worried about if we would ever return or if we would give his place negative pub on base.

Eventually the look of concern on his face and his repetitive insistence that "water won't help" broke us and we convinced him that the lowest level of spicy that we would accept was "medium spicy". He reluctantly agreed as he felt that even medium spicy was too hot for a couple of white boys with high and tight hair cuts.

Our food came, we dug in and scoffed at it's alleged spiciness. We kept mocking dude and mimicking his "Watah won' help!" Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Splinter ninja master voice, "Watah won' help, watah won' help! PPhhhht!"

Let me tell you friends, the Thai chili is a sneaky little bastard! You'll grind into some deep red ones and they'll give you a little sting in the tongue and lips...no biggy right? It's the little ninja green ones that look like other vegetables that sneak up on you and turn your head into an inferno!

Soon after choking down some rice and beef while still mocking Splinter, our tears of hilarious laughter turned to tears of pain and spiciness. "Medium spicy" took about 6 spoonfuls or roughly 3 minutes to start puttin' an ass-whoopin' on us that we will likely never forget! To this day I think Splinter heard us mocking him from the kitchen and while whispering to himself ,"I show you, think you eat big spicy!", minced like 3 pounds of green chilis and put them in our food.

He must have been laughing his rear off as he watched his two defeated customers both regrettingly reach for their warm glasses of water that he had warned "won't help". It didn't. Water indeed did not help!" My sweat was sweating it was so dang spicy.

He soon came out of the back with a plate full of sliced cabbage, grinned and said "I told you, water won't help, try this, probably won't help, but try it."

I think it is a cool concept but not sure I "believe" in Karma. One thing I can say though is that the owner of the Thai place was a nice old man who was not trying challenging our manly-man-ness, but trying to help us to enjoy our first experience with his country's food. We just mocked him and assumed that our marine Corps invincibility would take care of his girly-girl-water-won't-help chili peppers...

Lesson learned.

Pae and I are starting to share some of the different foods that we eat here in Thailand. Not sure how often we will update it, but you can find it at the following blogger address...enjoy! If you "follow" us by clicking to be a follower then you'll get updates.

Thai-Food-Heaven.blogspot.com

Enjoy! If you "follow" us by clicking to be a follower then you'll get updates.