Erika's February Letter
This month started out interestingly as Kristen and I became full-blown adventure tourists. We thought that we would take a nice weekend bike trip to a waterfall 34 kilometers or so from town. We would bike out one day, hike around the waterfall and come back the next. It sounded easy and enjoyable. The first day, we had a lovely trip for the first 28 kms. The last 6 kms were insane. We went up and down the steepest roads we’ve ever seen. All on heavy one speed bicycles. It took us over 4 hours to do those last 6 kms. And then we had to go back the next day. The waterfall was stunningly beautiful but the surrounding circumstances were a bit traumatic. However, we did learn how much endurance we have and how tough we can be! Another plus: we found an amazing restaurant where I ate the first good steak I’ve had since coming here. It was a good reward for hard work.I am really excited when I find a place that makes quality western food but only because an American girl gets a little tired of rice after a while. The truth is that the food here is amazing. Thai people really love food. They eat all the time. It’s very important. If you meet a friend on the street, they say, ‘hello’, ‘where are you going?’ and ‘have you eaten?’ Here is a rundown on food that I love here:I am a big fan of the fruit. There is one fruit called mangosteen. The Thais say that it is the queen of the fruit. It has a hard deep purple rind that you crack open to see a sectional white thing. It looks a little brain-like. I’m really not sure how to describe this taste. It is mellow and mildly sweet. It’s delicious. I also really like tamarinds. I don’t know if we can get these in the states. I’ve heard the name before but I don’t think I’ve ever tasted one. It has a great citrus-y sour taste but is also sweet and fun to eat as you peel off the shell and bite off each of the seed coverings. And then there are oranges and pears (much crunchier here) and bananas (dozens of different types), etc.
I also love the noodles. Thais often sit down to a bowl of noodles even if they have just eaten. People are obsessive about them. (Every day in the cafeteria, I see the same old man eating a bowl of noodles—no matter what time I go! I think he sits in that one spot and eats all day long.) Kristen and I have tried bunches of different noodle restaurants. Fortunately, our favorite one is right next to our favorite dessert stand. It is especially heavy on the garlic (not the dessert, our favorite noodles!) You can get thick white rice noodles, round yellow noodles, thin white noodles (in the states they call them glass noodles) or round green noodles. (There are more. That is the beginning of your range of options!) On birthdays, one eats ice cream (either coconut, which is OK, or green herb flavored, which is disgusting) with glass noodles in it. Because you want a life that is long--like a noodle!Our favorite dessert is actually an Indian thing. It’s called roti (which means ‘flying dough’, I think). Our roti lady is a marvel, a master at her craft. With no unnecessary motions, she flattens a piece of dough and throws it at the counter several times until it is thin and pizza sized. Then she fries it; we get ours with banana, chocolate and coconut milk. The other dessert we really like is bananas in coconut milk. This involves mountains of sugar and we make it at home a lot.I’ve realized in writing this that many of my favorite dishes are things I will probably not be able to find at home. I often stop to eat fried noodles or rice dishes which are much like Thai food at restaurants in the US. And I can cook a lot of those dishes. But the food items I love the most will disappear from my life in a few months. Why did I do this to myself?I don’t know how to introduce this subject so here it is: a friend of mine (she was the head receptionist at the school and a member of the family that’s adopted us here) died on the Chinese New Year this month. She had a brain aneurism burst and was in a coma for a few days. It’s been a difficult time. I was thinking as I walked home from the hospital one night how na?ve it is to leave your own country to “get away from reality”. The truth is that reality is inescapable. Here I am: working, worrying about money, getting sick, misunderstanding expectations and encountering the loss of a friend who has taken care of me for 5 months. I don’t remember thinking that I would be in a constant state of bliss but I didn’t anticipate this, either. Well, here’s the comforting counter to all of this—if death and friction is one constant in reality, so is the love of Jesus who died so that we could join in the life of God. (And of course, reality on earth is not all bad—there’s a lot of great stuff happening everywhere, too.)
I also love the noodles. Thais often sit down to a bowl of noodles even if they have just eaten. People are obsessive about them. (Every day in the cafeteria, I see the same old man eating a bowl of noodles—no matter what time I go! I think he sits in that one spot and eats all day long.) Kristen and I have tried bunches of different noodle restaurants. Fortunately, our favorite one is right next to our favorite dessert stand. It is especially heavy on the garlic (not the dessert, our favorite noodles!) You can get thick white rice noodles, round yellow noodles, thin white noodles (in the states they call them glass noodles) or round green noodles. (There are more. That is the beginning of your range of options!) On birthdays, one eats ice cream (either coconut, which is OK, or green herb flavored, which is disgusting) with glass noodles in it. Because you want a life that is long--like a noodle!Our favorite dessert is actually an Indian thing. It’s called roti (which means ‘flying dough’, I think). Our roti lady is a marvel, a master at her craft. With no unnecessary motions, she flattens a piece of dough and throws it at the counter several times until it is thin and pizza sized. Then she fries it; we get ours with banana, chocolate and coconut milk. The other dessert we really like is bananas in coconut milk. This involves mountains of sugar and we make it at home a lot.I’ve realized in writing this that many of my favorite dishes are things I will probably not be able to find at home. I often stop to eat fried noodles or rice dishes which are much like Thai food at restaurants in the US. And I can cook a lot of those dishes. But the food items I love the most will disappear from my life in a few months. Why did I do this to myself?I don’t know how to introduce this subject so here it is: a friend of mine (she was the head receptionist at the school and a member of the family that’s adopted us here) died on the Chinese New Year this month. She had a brain aneurism burst and was in a coma for a few days. It’s been a difficult time. I was thinking as I walked home from the hospital one night how na?ve it is to leave your own country to “get away from reality”. The truth is that reality is inescapable. Here I am: working, worrying about money, getting sick, misunderstanding expectations and encountering the loss of a friend who has taken care of me for 5 months. I don’t remember thinking that I would be in a constant state of bliss but I didn’t anticipate this, either. Well, here’s the comforting counter to all of this—if death and friction is one constant in reality, so is the love of Jesus who died so that we could join in the life of God. (And of course, reality on earth is not all bad—there’s a lot of great stuff happening everywhere, too.)
I finished my last week of classes on the 23rd and am leaving to start my travels on the 2nd. I thought it would be best to send this out to you now. Next month, you will hear about my visit to the south of Thailand—Bangkok and the beaches. Thanks all for your friendship and correspondence,ErikaFunny language note: I am picking up a lot of words but communication is still more than sketchy. For instance, I was trying to tell someone about this cave I want to visit the other day. The real name is pretty complicated but everyone calls it ‘monkey cave’ (a nearby temple feeds and protects a group of monkeys, it’s a big draw). I thought that I’d said ‘monkey cave’ which in Thai is ‘tham ling’. Apparently, it sounded more like ‘theo ling’, which means women’s underwear. That led to an interesting discussion!"
I finished my last week of classes on the 23rd and am leaving to start my travels on the 2nd. I thought it would be best to send this out to you now. Next month, you will hear about my visit to the south of Thailand—Bangkok and the beaches. Thanks all for your friendship and correspondence,ErikaFunny language note: I am picking up a lot of words but communication is still more than sketchy. For instance, I was trying to tell someone about this cave I want to visit the other day. The real name is pretty complicated but everyone calls it ‘monkey cave’ (a nearby temple feeds and protects a group of monkeys, it’s a big draw). I thought that I’d said ‘monkey cave’ which in Thai is ‘tham ling’. Apparently, it sounded more like ‘theo ling’, which means women’s underwear. That led to an interesting discussion!
I also love the noodles. Thais often sit down to a bowl of noodles even if they have just eaten. People are obsessive about them. (Every day in the cafeteria, I see the same old man eating a bowl of noodles—no matter what time I go! I think he sits in that one spot and eats all day long.) Kristen and I have tried bunches of different noodle restaurants. Fortunately, our favorite one is right next to our favorite dessert stand. It is especially heavy on the garlic (not the dessert, our favorite noodles!) You can get thick white rice noodles, round yellow noodles, thin white noodles (in the states they call them glass noodles) or round green noodles. (There are more. That is the beginning of your range of options!) On birthdays, one eats ice cream (either coconut, which is OK, or green herb flavored, which is disgusting) with glass noodles in it. Because you want a life that is long--like a noodle!Our favorite dessert is actually an Indian thing. It’s called roti (which means ‘flying dough’, I think). Our roti lady is a marvel, a master at her craft. With no unnecessary motions, she flattens a piece of dough and throws it at the counter several times until it is thin and pizza sized. Then she fries it; we get ours with banana, chocolate and coconut milk. The other dessert we really like is bananas in coconut milk. This involves mountains of sugar and we make it at home a lot.I’ve realized in writing this that many of my favorite dishes are things I will probably not be able to find at home. I often stop to eat fried noodles or rice dishes which are much like Thai food at restaurants in the US. And I can cook a lot of those dishes. But the food items I love the most will disappear from my life in a few months. Why did I do this to myself?I don’t know how to introduce this subject so here it is: a friend of mine (she was the head receptionist at the school and a member of the family that’s adopted us here) died on the Chinese New Year this month. She had a brain aneurism burst and was in a coma for a few days. It’s been a difficult time. I was thinking as I walked home from the hospital one night how na?ve it is to leave your own country to “get away from reality”. The truth is that reality is inescapable. Here I am: working, worrying about money, getting sick, misunderstanding expectations and encountering the loss of a friend who has taken care of me for 5 months. I don’t remember thinking that I would be in a constant state of bliss but I didn’t anticipate this, either. Well, here’s the comforting counter to all of this—if death and friction is one constant in reality, so is the love of Jesus who died so that we could join in the life of God. (And of course, reality on earth is not all bad—there’s a lot of great stuff happening everywhere, too.)
I also love the noodles. Thais often sit down to a bowl of noodles even if they have just eaten. People are obsessive about them. (Every day in the cafeteria, I see the same old man eating a bowl of noodles—no matter what time I go! I think he sits in that one spot and eats all day long.) Kristen and I have tried bunches of different noodle restaurants. Fortunately, our favorite one is right next to our favorite dessert stand. It is especially heavy on the garlic (not the dessert, our favorite noodles!) You can get thick white rice noodles, round yellow noodles, thin white noodles (in the states they call them glass noodles) or round green noodles. (There are more. That is the beginning of your range of options!) On birthdays, one eats ice cream (either coconut, which is OK, or green herb flavored, which is disgusting) with glass noodles in it. Because you want a life that is long--like a noodle!Our favorite dessert is actually an Indian thing. It’s called roti (which means ‘flying dough’, I think). Our roti lady is a marvel, a master at her craft. With no unnecessary motions, she flattens a piece of dough and throws it at the counter several times until it is thin and pizza sized. Then she fries it; we get ours with banana, chocolate and coconut milk. The other dessert we really like is bananas in coconut milk. This involves mountains of sugar and we make it at home a lot.I’ve realized in writing this that many of my favorite dishes are things I will probably not be able to find at home. I often stop to eat fried noodles or rice dishes which are much like Thai food at restaurants in the US. And I can cook a lot of those dishes. But the food items I love the most will disappear from my life in a few months. Why did I do this to myself?I don’t know how to introduce this subject so here it is: a friend of mine (she was the head receptionist at the school and a member of the family that’s adopted us here) died on the Chinese New Year this month. She had a brain aneurism burst and was in a coma for a few days. It’s been a difficult time. I was thinking as I walked home from the hospital one night how na?ve it is to leave your own country to “get away from reality”. The truth is that reality is inescapable. Here I am: working, worrying about money, getting sick, misunderstanding expectations and encountering the loss of a friend who has taken care of me for 5 months. I don’t remember thinking that I would be in a constant state of bliss but I didn’t anticipate this, either. Well, here’s the comforting counter to all of this—if death and friction is one constant in reality, so is the love of Jesus who died so that we could join in the life of God. (And of course, reality on earth is not all bad—there’s a lot of great stuff happening everywhere, too.)
I finished my last week of classes on the 23rd and am leaving to start my travels on the 2nd. I thought it would be best to send this out to you now. Next month, you will hear about my visit to the south of Thailand—Bangkok and the beaches. Thanks all for your friendship and correspondence,ErikaFunny language note: I am picking up a lot of words but communication is still more than sketchy. For instance, I was trying to tell someone about this cave I want to visit the other day. The real name is pretty complicated but everyone calls it ‘monkey cave’ (a nearby temple feeds and protects a group of monkeys, it’s a big draw). I thought that I’d said ‘monkey cave’ which in Thai is ‘tham ling’. Apparently, it sounded more like ‘theo ling’, which means women’s underwear. That led to an interesting discussion!"
I finished my last week of classes on the 23rd and am leaving to start my travels on the 2nd. I thought it would be best to send this out to you now. Next month, you will hear about my visit to the south of Thailand—Bangkok and the beaches. Thanks all for your friendship and correspondence,ErikaFunny language note: I am picking up a lot of words but communication is still more than sketchy. For instance, I was trying to tell someone about this cave I want to visit the other day. The real name is pretty complicated but everyone calls it ‘monkey cave’ (a nearby temple feeds and protects a group of monkeys, it’s a big draw). I thought that I’d said ‘monkey cave’ which in Thai is ‘tham ling’. Apparently, it sounded more like ‘theo ling’, which means women’s underwear. That led to an interesting discussion!
posted by Kristen Johnson | 12:10 AM
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