Semi-normal

 

 

The “vacation” is officially over. It continues to dawn on us that we’re actually living in Thailand and not just on a visit. I suppose it’s relative and to some people six months might seem temporary. But to us, the time we have feels long and substantial.   And the reality is that our suitcases are unpacked, we’re in a real apartment, there are monthly bills to be paid, and work to do. Over the past week, Jim and I have fallen into a routine of sorts…but one that is anything but boring or taken for granted. Although there is a pattern, not a minute goes by that we don’t feel like pinching ourselves to see if this is real. It’s so exciting and different to be here and it suits us very well. Life is good.

 

Each morning…without fail, the weather is utterly gorgeous. From our bedroom window, which overlooks the street seven floors below, we awake and see the local street vendors have already set up for the day and are busy cooking  chickens, vegetables, dumplings, and other culinary delights.

 

The view straight ahead reveals the mountains surrounding Chiang Mai and city buildings just below.

 

The temperature in the apartment is cool and we make coffee, check email, and get ready for school. At 9:30 or so, we head out to catch a “song taow,” which is Chiang Mai’s version of public transportation. Different from taxis or tuk tuks, which take you wherever you want to go (for a price), the song taow’s route is left up to the discretion of the driver. They are all pickup trucks with a low roof covering the back and two long benches underneath. “Song” means two and “taow” means plank. Two planks. After you flag one down, you ask if they’re going where you want to go and they say yes or no. If the answer is yes, you then have to agree upon a price. A little daunting at first, now we’re pros.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After getting dropped off at the Thapae Gate of the old city, we walk just a little way to the AUA language school. Most of the time we see one of our fellow students before we get there, having coffee at an outdoor cafe or crossing the street heading to class. We greet each other with a big “Sawatkee ka or krup!”(depending on whether it’s a man or a woman speaking). Over the past 12 classes, we’ve really gotten to know each other…and it’s great. My Jim is one of the best, if not THE best, in the class….with Ali, a college age young woman, in close second. Struggling heroically are Jack and Mary, an older missionary couple from Texas. In between are David (just out of the military), Mike (retired and living “forever” in Thailand), Oreo (a Frenchman), Maggie (an American from Pittsburg), Gary (another American, a little hard to read), Jam Woo (a very sweet and shy Korean man), and Paul from Liverpool who speaks Thai with a cockney accent. Then there’s me, of course. I’m having a blast learning Thai and it doesn’t seem like work at all. It also connects me to the culture and the people here and that’s a very good thing. It’s possible to isolate yourself,… hang out with other farangs, go to English speaking shops, eat at American style restaurants…but Jim and I really don’t want to go that route. We share a similar sensibility in that we want to embrace all this place has to offer. We appreciate the familiar, but also welcome the unfamiliar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After class, Jim and I usually walk home to the apartment… taking a slightlydifferent route than the day before. By 12:15, it’s beautifully hot and we walk on the shady side of the street. Often we stop for lunch (Kuaythiaw….noodle soup) or to do a little shopping. Yesterday in class, we learned all about different kinds of noodles and meat you can order and we had the opportunity to act upon that lesson. Very fun. After we get home, I work on my book and Jim studies more Thai language. He’s taking a second class from a tutor who is teaching him to read. I have a corner of the apartment which is mine, a desk and two cream colored walls just calling out to be plastered with drawings. I’ve made a small dent in that pursuit. I work between art and writing. The day passes quickly.

 

 

 

 

 

When night falls, we head out for dinner. I cannot overstate the concept that eating in Thailand is a major celebration. More than once I have walked into a clothing shop and found a family sitting down to eat a meal together right in the middle of the racks… getting up to show me where to try on that little dress I picked out. After sundown, hoardes of people come out on the street and sidewalks to sit at tables and chairs, eating and drinking together. The nights are so alive, it is with some reluctance that we go to sleep.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One definition of routine is “a customary or regular course of procedure.” That hardly describes a day in Chiang Mai. I cannot begin to catalog the surprising things I encounter every day, if not every five minutes, around here. Outside my apartment building on the sidewalk, there is a seamstress wearing a medical face mask, who works from dawn till dusk sewing on a pedal operated sewing machine. The other day I got a massage at a massage parlor where all the practitioners are blind. We met a woman from Ireland, most recently living in San Francisco, who is setting us up to teach Salsa at a small club in the old city….run by a Thai/American painter from New England. Chiang Mai is the essence of mixed media….and every day is a new discovery.

Final note: This morning Jim and I got up and went to the “expat’s club” which one of our classmates told us about. They meet once a month and put on presentations of interest as well as sponsor smaller group activities like the badminton club. As usual we jumped into a song tao and drove through the city streets, eyes wide open as every corner has something new and interesting to see. The meeting was held in a very posh and expensive hotel…The Shangrila. After weeks of trying to live more like locals, it was strange to walk into such a fancy place….it was the first time I’d seen paper towels in a bathroom since I got to Thailand. (It actually makes me think of my mom because she instructed me once, in a no-paper towel situation, to make the best of it by using my wet finger to fluff up my hairdo.) The members of the expats club were just as I expected….99% farangs, mostly retirement age, all speaking English. The coffee was served in white china with little a little chocolate pastry on the side. Very lovely, although it seemed like another world. The presentation today was called, “What’s What in a Wat,” and we learned all sorts of interesting things about…you guessed it.... wats!   Chiang Mai is called “the city of wats,” and it has around 350 just in the old city alone. They are fascinating and beautiful…and now we know a lot more about the structures themselves and the monks that inhabit them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was a slide show and lecture, followed by a raffle and announcements about various happenings in the area. One of these was about a fashion show called “leather and lace,” a fundraiser for children featuring fetish clothing. Even in the elegant environment of the Shangrila, this didn’t seem at all out of place. Then we discovered that the woman involved was actually someone Jim had been communicating with on the topic of salsa. Before we knew it, she asked us if we would perform at the fashion show. And naturally, we said yes! After that it was lunch with June and two of her friends and then off to the leather and lace shop for a fitting. No one was expecting Jimmy so they didn’t have any men’s wear but I ended up with a super tight black leather dress and red leather gloves that go all the way up to my shoulders. Jim will get his chance later this week when one of the designers is planning to bring him some leather pants and a vest.

 

 

 

 

I'm not sure if today's events qualify as  “semi-normal,” but the fact that our morning began with a lecture and ended up with leather didn’t really surprise us. After only two weeks, we have embraced the unexpected and are more than willing to take the ride.