My maid is Special.

All this for $6.


Chicken and potato in curry, rice, grilled chicken, salad with prawns, water melon, pineapple, blueberries....

This is what I could get for $6 in the states.




And this for dessert:


All kidding aside... I would die for a twinkie right now.

SMOKE

I saw this movie in 1995. It's a beautiful story about a Cigar shop in Brooklyn and it's patrons. I saw it on a rainy day in a small theatre in Portland. I love this flick. It tells a tale of the small moments that add up to an individual's life. Simple and profound. The owner of the Cigar shop (Harvey Keitel) takes a photo every day of his corner Cigar Shop. Bringing our attention to life's infinite and changing details.

Last night as I sat drinking a beer with friends on Khao San Rd. our conversation turned to the world of blogging. Someone mentioned a blog created by two friends who take a photo a day at the same time and post it. One woman lives on the East coast, the other on the West coast. Many people have done the 'photo a day' blog format. I haven't followed a blog with this format, but a quick search on google and I found this guy:

http://everyday.noahkalina.com/

A pretty cool little project, actually. A picture of his face every day for the past 10 years. I think he should go back to the hair cut he had in 2001 though..

All of my brilliant ideas have not been original or my own. This is no different. And with that I introduce to you my new blog format. Here's the first in a series of "a photo a day in the life of an international school teacher"...

Moki

This is Moki.

Moki is Khun Salle's dog. Khun Salle was one of the first Thai people I met when I got here. I've never seen Khun Salle not smiling (or her dog for that matter, but not so unusual for a dog). She might be the happiest person on earth. She owns a store in the neighborhood. Khun Salle taught me how to hail a cab. Standing in front of her store, I looked down the street about 7 or 8 blocks at the large group of Thai men dressed in hot pink vests, sitting, lounging, and dozing off on their motorcyles. Khun Salle motioned for me to hold both of my arms up in the air and face the flock of motorbikes and vests. I did. Then she started 'pretend steering' into the air. She motioned for me to join her. I did. I've never been one for air guitar, but air steering is awesome! I held up my arms and started 'driving' like a mad woman, taking turns left and right, wailing around frantically. Sure enough, the gestures worked and the sleeping cycle quad returned my gesture like a wave and within minutes a bright pink vest and the buzz buzz of a moto approached. Khun Salle said, "20 baht you pay". Pinky held out his hand, the universal gesture. I gave him 20 baht and seemingly out of nowhere, a taxi cab appeared to take me to my destination.

Moki, you probably speak better Thai then I do, will you tell the driver where I'm going?

Open up and say, "AHHHH Massage"

I changed into these scrubs today for an hour of pure ecstasy. $7.00 massage and Thai women, how did I live without you for so long?

In the US, you see a Starbucks on every corner in every city. In Bangkok, the Starbucks is a massage spa. Why doesn't the whole world live this way? Our world would be so peaceful if it did, but then what would Raytheon Corp. and Lockheed-Martin do?

Thailand, I love you.

Top 3 Reasons I May Stay in Thailand forever

1. Mae Bahns.
I hired a Mae Bahn last week. Most of the teachers at ISB have a mae bahn who cooks, cleans, and shops. Being a single teacher, my first thought was, 'a maid is really not necessary. I couldn't possibly need a maid. Way to extravagant for me'. But then I remembered that my culinary skills aren't the sharpest and I'm going to be really busy with school (and by school I mean getting massages). Maybe a mae bahn who would cook a couple of meals a week would be nice.... hmmmm.... let me think about it... okay I'll hire someone... just to try it out and see if I like it. My mae bahn, Luemduen, has been with me one day and I can safely say, I like it. A lot. I came home last night to a piping hot thai meal on the table for me, my floors glossy clean, clothes freshly laundered and hung up in the closet, and a fridge full of groceries from the market.
I have a housewife!! Saweet.

2. Massage
$7 full body oil massage. Enough said.

3. Final Particles
These are words tacked on to the end of sentences in Thai to convey emotion and feeling. These particles are used in Thai because if you tried to express feeling and mood through intonation of voice, it may interfere with the tone (and therefore meaning) of a word. In English, we use tone to express emotion. In thai, it's all about the particle.

Here are a few I have learned... this is by far not a complete list or for that matter even accurate:

Wa: at the end of a sentence to express anger
Ja: at the end of a sentence expresses intimacy or love.
Gra-mang: used to express doubt or sarcasm

The language nerd in me wants to stay in Thailand forever because:
A. I want to crack the code and learn Thai, and
B. it will take me that long to do it...