Yes

I just finished a book called "The Yes Man" by Danny Wallace. It is a brilliant book! Nothing in common with the Hollywood film, though, surprisingly, because it was supposed to be based on it... It is an inspiring tale of what great things can happen if you just let them...by saying Yes to everything.
So I decided to do just that. for a few days. See what happens. (Yes, I realize it's not a self-help book...but...I mean...maybe?)
So this is what happened:
Day 1.
I was really inspired. I figured I'm so bored anyway that whatever happens as a result of saying yes it'll be fun. So I waited for an opportunity to present itself...an invitation...a suggestion...I waited and waited...and waited some more. Nothing happened. Nobody e-mailed me, nobody called to invite me somewhere. I ended up watching TV as one does in a situation like this. Even there nobody made any suggestions - only once they came close: "Do you want to experience television like never before?" they asked. -"Yes!!" - "Then experience it in high definition. It's like watching television for the first time." Sounds exciting - my TV isn't showing particularly well even in standard definition. OK...? Now what? Well, it's available starting next month..wait for details. Wait? Sure, I can do that... They didn't insist that I call somewhere or anything. Which is probably for the better - it's African television, a call there would cost me a fortune!
However, every time a show ended they'd say - stay with us for..something else. So I had to say yes. As a result I consumed a lethal amount of television. I ended up turning it off in the middle of a movie, which isn't really cheating because they didn't say I had to stay with them for the entire time..
Later I went out for something to eat. Even if the Thai people were in fact suggesting something I had no idea they were doing it so I couldn't say Yes.
That was day one...

Food again

It actually happens to me quite often here with food that I do something and just as I've done it I realize that's not what you're supposed to do.
For example, there is this new place I recently discovered. I passed it a few times, saw people eating and thought it was pretty cool. Basically, there is a pot on each table with some sort of broth boiling in it and you order things you want to put in it - fish, meat, prawns, mushrooms, veggies, noodles etc. So you get those things raw and you sort of cook your own soup. But this I found out only after I ordered. First I tried to ask what's on the menu but because the girl spoke some English but couldn't explain all the things she just brought out all the raw stuff. I just took some prawns and fish, ordered some fried rice and that's it. I only cooked the fish and prawns in the broth and ate it with the rice. Right after I did that I realized that was a big waste.

The second time I was smarter-I ordered noodles and veggies and stuff to make a noodle soup. I got two types of noodles - rice and egg. I put my chicken and prawns and veggies into the broth and right after I dumped the rice noodles in I thought - oh-oh, you're definitely not meant to do that. Explanation: rice noodles are those transparent noodles, and I'd cooked them at a cooking course so I should have figured this out but I didn't: you're meant to pour hot broth over them because they don't actually need to be cooked - they are soaked in water beforehand so they just need to pick up a bit of flavour. But if you put them in a pot like I did they become very thick and sticky and it's very hard to fish them out of there.. But I did it and in the end I really enjoyed the meal! So live and learn!)

Food

I guess I never realized how sloppy I am when it comes to eating. I guess it all comes from playing with my food when I was a kid. Today I decided to explore a new place to eat around me so once again I got a good bit of staring. And a bit of giggling as well... I ordered grilled fish. That was a bit of an adventure in itself - first I looked it up in my phrasebook then I had to compare all the weird little scribbles that make Thai to find it in the menu so I could point at it and so order. When I got the fish I decided to explore it to find out how it's cooked because it's absolutely delicious. So I started poking at it with my fork and spoon (for those of you who don't know - Thais don't have knives), as well I put the stuff it's stuffed with in my mouth to figure out what herbs those were. This must have convinced the lady who worked there that I was a totally hopeless farang, because she literally ran up to me, turned the fish around, lifted the skin with the spoon so I could see how I was supposed to eat it. All I could do was smile...
Then she brought a sauce for the fish. A habbit I got here is to try every sauce a little bit to make sure it's not too spicy. This one was. As I gulped down some Coke with what I thought was a pretty casual expression, not showing how my mouth was BURNING at that moment, I caught the stare of the lady again. A few seconds later she came back with just plain soy sauce. But to make it clear I DID eat the fish with the spicy sauce. When in Thailand, you know... Turns out you don't really feel the chilli when it's mixed with the fish but you feel the lovely taste that goes perfectly with the fish.
After finishing one side of the fish I decided to flip it over to get to the other. Seconds after doing that I realized you're probably meant to do something else.. I saw the lady with the boy-waiter looking at me and giggling this time..

buses cont.

Yeah and there were massage chairs for seats in that bus...

Bus trips

In many guidebooks there are warnings about buses in SEA. I haven't really been on a bad one actually. The trip were quite nice - I watched a whole movie in Thai. It was a romantic comedy. It was pretty romantic and really funny - even when you don't know what they're saying. It was obviously even more funny for those who did know what they were saying - the whole bus erupted with laughter every once in a while when I had no idea what's going on. It was one of those cute films about a shy awkward girl who falls in love with this guy and obviously she has a friend who's the exact opposite of her who tries to help...OK so the idea isn't really new, but I have to say it was pretty creative in the execution. A refreshing change from Hollywood. In general I quite like Thai movies: I've seen a couple now. One was a drama based on true events about a teacher who helps a group of teenage boys who get caught up with drugs.. The other was a horror film and it was really good. I have to admit I had to stop watching it midway because it was scary and I was all alone. But the half I did see was pretty original.

to add

Just to add to that - I was really impressed with many of the letters on that website. I was thinking - wow, some ordinary people out there are SO creative. But then I started reading all the about author points - turns out they are professional writers! No wonder their letters are so good..

Amazing things

It's quite amazing what you can find on the internet..I'm not that big into computers but sometimes I end up spending hours just surfing the net. Today I was trying to find a quote I've been meaning to look up for a while now and found this blog - unsent letters. Basically, anybody can send in a letter to whoever.If the letter is interesting they publish it on the blog.They even have a book now. So on the eve of Valentine's Day weekend I thought it was a pretty good experience to read through letters people never sent to their ex friends, ex-spouses, ex-boyfriends/girlfriends etc. This worked especially well: letter to the other man category "But I do" by anonymous with Melody Gardot's "love me like a river does" playing on youtube in the background. Beautiful!

Bicycle

Ever since I came to Khon Kaen I've been dealing with staring and looks of disbelief when I WALKED to work. It's about a 20 minute walk. But nobody walks here. EVERYBODY has a scooter. Nobody even rides a bike. Even though everybody wears T-shirts "Save the planet" and the university has loads of ecoprojects and stuff. (I sort of understand that now when it's getting closer to summer here). So around New year I got a call from I guy who works at the same school who I saw only TWICE who said he got me a bike for Christmas. Now, if that doesn't spell weird I don't know what does. I hardly know him and he gets me a bike...That's a pretty big present for somebody you just met. I actually thought it was a joke first but then realized it wasn't. But he didn't actually give it to me for another MONTH - couldn't organize delivery. That's also a bit strange - you go to all the trouble of getting a bike and then you don't hand it over for a month?
But now I got a bike! I have to be honest I haven't been using it much..it's pretty scary here - the whole driving on the left doesn't come naturally to me..but I'm practising! I've got loads of bruises to prove it too. My first ride was quite an embarassment really - I got double the usual staring..Now it's getting a bit better. Hope to master it soon so I won't have to be under this scorching sun for long!

Haiti

I tried to follow everything happening in Haiti. But after a while it just became very depressing: especially this CNN report about medication stuck in the airport. They showed all these hospitals in desperate need of antibiotics and other medication and how it was in boxes at the airport. Then the reporter went to the airport just asked for some stuff, got it and took it to the hospital. The reason hospitals weren't getting the medication was because there was no fuel to get vehicals to the hospitals. That seemed so stupid to me - there were thousands of US military there - why couldn't a few dozen couldn't just pack backpacks with medication and bring it there themselves?! It's not like food and water where you need loads, you would need a backpack a day...
So I stopped following the news. I actually thought of going there to volunteer. Maybe I still will when I figure out what I could possibly do to be of help! Not feeling particularly useful at the moment...

hair cut

It was inevitable. I'd have to get a haircut at some point here in Khon Kaen. For those who don't know what this place is like, I have to explain that nobody here speaks English. I mean nobody and at all! I could probably wait until my Thai was good enough to explain what I wanted(umm yeah, right!), but after getting sent home from work to change my clothes that were judged as inappropriate I was getting a bit self-conscious.
So I asked for recommendations and was advised to go to this one place because "the guys there are gay so they try hard". I got this recommendation from a guy, a guy who had a pretty good cut. So I went there.
The hairdresser was wearing really short tight shorts. Yep, he was the gay guy I was told about. I realize this is probably just a stereotype of gay hairdressers but I was counting on somebody with a good sense of style and a gentle touch. But as we all know stereotypes aren't always true. They weren't in this case. First I got a very "energetic" head massage as he washed my hair FOUR times in refreshing COLD water. It was so invigorating and got the blood flowing to my head so well, apparently, that I had a head-ache for the next fifteen minutes.
Then it got to the cutting. I showed him a picture in a magazine. He seemed ok with it. Since I don't really see how he did it in the back I can't be too upset about it. But what he did to my fringe... At first he left it too long, but when I asked him to cut it a little bit shorter the "little bit" must have gotten lost in translation.
So now I have a short uneven fringe. Yes, uneven. No, he didn't try hard. I guess he only did it for the cute half-American half-Thai hotshot who recommended that place...

New blog

Well I've been talking a lot about it so...here it is - my blog!