Daily life in Krung Theep
For this round I decided to tell you a little about my everyday life here in Krung Theep. Let's start with stocking the apartment with food and sundry items. I have two 'grocery' type stores within walking distance. You'll notice I said walking distance. It's not like the states where you can easily drag home 4 or 5 big bags of groceries loaded up in the back of the SUV. I can only buy what I can lug home at any given time. With that limitation, it's not too tempting to buy unneeded stuff. So I can walk about 15 minutes to get to either one. Both are accessible to farang in so far as one can figure out what most things are. Drinking water is the bane of my existence. Every couple of days I lug home a couple or three big bottles. At least it isn't too expensive. In a few trips over the course of a few days I have pretty well stocked up on necessities. Some things are cheap, some cost pretty much exactly the same as in the states. Cereal is one example. A box of basic Quaker Toasted Oatmeal Honey Nut is the same price almost to the penny as in Colorado. Needless to say I won't be consuming large quantities of cereal here. Especially not when the ingredients for a delicious pork/rice soup are soo inexpensive.
I have settled into a nice routine this week. My alarm goes off at 8, if I am not already up, I get up, check email then study for an hour before breakfast. Breakfast is either cereal, toast or nothing so far. I haven't yet made the pork/rice soup but that should happen this week. At 9:45 I leave for class. It's a warmish 15 minute walk. On the site, the next set of pictures will show you some of what I see every day. Just before I reach my school, I buy a nice size plastic bottle of fresh squeezed nam som (OJ) from a street vendor and finish my walk to class. Once at the school, my teacher brings me a cup of marginal coffee and a glass of nam yen (cold water).
Then it's time to get serious. For two hours, from 10-12, I work hard with no breaks. At this point we do still speak some english, but we speak more Thai than English. At noon, I get a one hour break. It's really like the teacher(s) get a one hour break from the farang! Sometimes I find a cheap place for lunch. Yesterday I had a wonderful Tonkatsu Set at a nearby Japanese restaurant for 100 baht ($2.50). Sometimes I just stay in and study and skip lunch. By this time it's getting hot so I don't usually venture too far from the school. At 1:00, it's back to work. The next two hours goes by very quickly. Sometimes I feel like I've learned a ton and sometimes like my brain is just spinning from too much input.
When class is over, I usually walk back to my apartment. Today I stopped briefly for a nam soda (soda water) and a game of pool before going back. I lost. As usual. When I get back to the apartment, I read the Bangkok Post, check email again and decide what the evening will hold. Sometimes I stay in and study. Sometimes I watch some of the baseball playoffs. I even got to see part of the Seibu Lions vs. the Chunichi Dragons game the other day. Other nights I go out for some sanuk (fun). That often involves alcohol and pool. Tonight I will meet an American guy who has a website that revolves around the music scene here in Bangkok. We'll go hear a band that a friend of his plays in. We're both hoping there will be some synergy. Then it's lights out and time to rest up for another day in Krung Theep.
Another thing I have been planning to address is the emphasis on whiteness. I will put a photo up which illustrates my point here. I am amazed every day by how much emphasis the Thai people seem to put on skin color. In virtually every advertisement with people in it, the people have very very light skin. Some are farang and some very light skinned Thais. I've talked to a number of Thai locals about it and essentially lighter skin is viewed as more attractive. I've been told that it's in large part due to the fact that the workers in the fields and rice paddies are out in the sun all day and therefore have traditionally darker skin than city dwellers. Thus dark skin is associated with the "poor and ignorant masses" in the countryside. All of the most popular models, TV and movie stars are very light skinned. Billboards only have light skinned people. The other part of that equation revolves around the Chinese population in Thailand. There are many Thais of Chinese descent. They are also very light skinned and are traditionally associated with the business community and normally are relatively well off. A very popular Thai Pop song from a couple of years ago is by a girl group called China Dolls. The song is about them not wanting other girls to hate them because they are Chinese. They can't help being light skinned and having "Chinese Eyes". Over the next few weeks, I'll continue to explore that phenomenon. Guess that's all for now!
I have settled into a nice routine this week. My alarm goes off at 8, if I am not already up, I get up, check email then study for an hour before breakfast. Breakfast is either cereal, toast or nothing so far. I haven't yet made the pork/rice soup but that should happen this week. At 9:45 I leave for class. It's a warmish 15 minute walk. On the site, the next set of pictures will show you some of what I see every day. Just before I reach my school, I buy a nice size plastic bottle of fresh squeezed nam som (OJ) from a street vendor and finish my walk to class. Once at the school, my teacher brings me a cup of marginal coffee and a glass of nam yen (cold water).
Then it's time to get serious. For two hours, from 10-12, I work hard with no breaks. At this point we do still speak some english, but we speak more Thai than English. At noon, I get a one hour break. It's really like the teacher(s) get a one hour break from the farang! Sometimes I find a cheap place for lunch. Yesterday I had a wonderful Tonkatsu Set at a nearby Japanese restaurant for 100 baht ($2.50). Sometimes I just stay in and study and skip lunch. By this time it's getting hot so I don't usually venture too far from the school. At 1:00, it's back to work. The next two hours goes by very quickly. Sometimes I feel like I've learned a ton and sometimes like my brain is just spinning from too much input.
When class is over, I usually walk back to my apartment. Today I stopped briefly for a nam soda (soda water) and a game of pool before going back. I lost. As usual. When I get back to the apartment, I read the Bangkok Post, check email again and decide what the evening will hold. Sometimes I stay in and study. Sometimes I watch some of the baseball playoffs. I even got to see part of the Seibu Lions vs. the Chunichi Dragons game the other day. Other nights I go out for some sanuk (fun). That often involves alcohol and pool. Tonight I will meet an American guy who has a website that revolves around the music scene here in Bangkok. We'll go hear a band that a friend of his plays in. We're both hoping there will be some synergy. Then it's lights out and time to rest up for another day in Krung Theep.
Another thing I have been planning to address is the emphasis on whiteness. I will put a photo up which illustrates my point here. I am amazed every day by how much emphasis the Thai people seem to put on skin color. In virtually every advertisement with people in it, the people have very very light skin. Some are farang and some very light skinned Thais. I've talked to a number of Thai locals about it and essentially lighter skin is viewed as more attractive. I've been told that it's in large part due to the fact that the workers in the fields and rice paddies are out in the sun all day and therefore have traditionally darker skin than city dwellers. Thus dark skin is associated with the "poor and ignorant masses" in the countryside. All of the most popular models, TV and movie stars are very light skinned. Billboards only have light skinned people. The other part of that equation revolves around the Chinese population in Thailand. There are many Thais of Chinese descent. They are also very light skinned and are traditionally associated with the business community and normally are relatively well off. A very popular Thai Pop song from a couple of years ago is by a girl group called China Dolls. The song is about them not wanting other girls to hate them because they are Chinese. They can't help being light skinned and having "Chinese Eyes". Over the next few weeks, I'll continue to explore that phenomenon. Guess that's all for now!