Landmarks and Harry Potter.

        

Nearing a month since our arrival in Thailand, a landmark I can’t believe is already here, I no longer feel like a guest. I feel like a resident. Granted I’m still a foreigner separated by a vast language barrier and still unaccustomed to some of the Thai’s cultural norms, but I feel like a resident nonetheless. Besides the Thai people themselves, I’ve also received a warm and muggy welcome from the mosquitoes. Since we are well underway with rainy season, they’re beginning to rear their Vampirish heads. For some reason, the first few weeks here were itch free, but now that they too have seen that I’m not longer a guest but a resident, the mosquitoes feel inclined to attack. Perhaps I should feel flattered? Maybe the itchy scars on my feet and ankles will become my souvenir. That being said, I am convinced that Hydro cortisone cream doesn’t stop the itch or help with healing. Rather, it just tricks my mind saying, “Do you really want to scratch those bites and get icky cream all over your hands?”

          The mosquitoes have been the least of my worries, though. Having heard recently that I would have to leave our apartment, living arrangements occupied the forefront of my thought. Dr. Nirund, our organization’s director, visited Utaradit this week in hopes to find a place where Kelsey and I both could live. Last Wednesday, as I raced my bike home in the pouring rain to join the apartment hunt and look at a prospective place, I got a text. It was Kelsey saying, “Relax! It’s perfect.” A hotel/apartment complex, not 200 yards away from our current location, had a room available in which we could both stay. God provides. The beds even have real mattresses as opposed to showroom Styrofoam blocks! (features of our current apartment that have caused quite the back ache.) Oh how our mindsets shift when normalcy becomes luxury.

          Hopefully, this will be our last move. Lugging a 50 pound suitcase up 3 flights of stairs is not my idea of fun. Most of all, I’m relieved that we can finally have a place to unpack and officially call our Thai home without fear of uprooting again. I’ve always been the type of person who needs comfort and stability within situations (not in the physical sense regarding material things, but regarding mental and emotional ease.) I still like being a creature of habit, even though those habits include cold showers. Another comforting thing we’ve incorporated into our routine has been reading. When I met Kelsey Crow almost a year ago, one of the first facts I learned about her was her devotion to Harry Potter. Obsession, infatuation and mania don’t describe her loyalty. In her words, she “lives it.” So imagine my predicament, when I, an otherwise well-read English graduate, had to hang my head and say, “No, I’ve never read Harry Potter, nor have I seen the movies.” So, here I am, over a decade following the pandemonium, enjoying and being captivated by the Harry Potter series, somehow still completely unaware of their outcome. And that’s not the best part. Kels is reading them aloud, a treat complete with various accents, inflection, discussion topics, question & answer sessions and an anticipating voice (one that knows all the secrets and won’t answer my incessant questions!) We plan to read a book, watch its movie, etc. Every day, I can’t wait to get home for our reading sessions. I’m not sure who enjoys it more. Kesley, reading to a Potter novice, or me, listening to a Potter expert.

          As enticing as Harry Potter is, we always canvas the city for dinner first before returning home. We’ve grown accustomed to several places, knowing exactly what pictures to point to and what to expect when we’re handed a plate. This week though, one of the girls from my school came home to spend the afternoon with us. Nook, a girl who isn't even in any of my classes, struck up a conversation with me one day, and we've been buddies ever since. Funny how the only girl I knew before we left Lampang was also named Nook. Anyhow, the rain was falling in heavy sheets the second we left school. We floated up to our apartment and waited for the storm to pass before heading out to dinner. Finally, sporting our ponchos, jackets and umbrellas, we made the short trek to town. This would be the first time we had a native Thai speaker along to interpret the menus. After I told Nook the ingredients I liked, the cook arrived with a bowl of the yummiest Thai food I'd had all week, Tom Yum Gung. This soup is filled with shrimp, fish, lemon grass, lime leaves and coconut milk, combining an authentic mixture of spice, sweet, sour and salt. Masterpiece in a bowl. After dinner, I listened as Nook communicated with the store owner. The sweet man snagged a University passer-by and had him write something on a sheet of paper. After a few moments, the store owner returned with the menu's Thai scrawl translated into English so we could order for ourselves. We bowed our heads and thanked him profusely. We will most definitely be back to visit such an accommodating food stand as this one.

          Another naughty food we've discovered is Thai ice cream. Fortunately (or unfortunately) the supposed best one in the city is only steps from our apartment. Thai ice cream as a unique texture, but it is more-so famous for it's queer toppings. Even "toppings" isn't a technically accurate term considering that the extras are put at the bottom of the bowl. Candied pumpkin, kernels of corn, a mysterious black jelly, pinwheels of fruit that resemble mushrooms, and several other identifiable things. I find myself searching for the Oreos and Butterfinger but to no avail. Thankfully, we've discovered a topping (or bottomer?) that surpasses even m&m's and cookie dough. And that, my friends, is sweet sticky rice. Sweet rice, died the color blue, topped with tiny scoops of coconut ice cream, a splash of sweetened condensed milk and peanuts create the most palatable dessert on the planet. It was worth the price of the plane ticket, folks.

          Unless you join me here in Thailand (Something you should consider doing. Start saving now. I will be here one year!) you can never quite grasp what we see each day. Short of strapping a camera on my head as we walk down the crowded streets, markets and hallways of our classrooms, you can never understand the things we see. Not necessarily all are shocking, but a lot of them are. Everything from fashion, to transportation, to lifestyle, to cleanliness, to stray dogs, to the little girls with whom I spend my day. . . 

It is drastically different. 

          Though this culture shock leaves my head spinning most days, I'm brought to a complete halt when I check my email to find that Noon has emailed me again to practice her English, apologizing for her poor grammar before each farewell. "If I use what is wrong because I had speak little English. Don't forget write me back. Love Noon."

          Or when Poppy, another sweet student crawls into my office, sits at my feet and asks to sing Jason Mraz with me. Turning on the song and somehow hearing every English word clearly through the mouth of a child who can't otherwise communicate with me, is a humbling thing, and I can't begin to describe how my heart feels afterward