Off to new lands

So last night I headed home after My Library and for some reason all the wats, which are usually ringing their prayer time bells at that point, were instead rocking a drum and cymbal beat that would not have been out of place in a marching band. I'm not sure what it was all about, but it was really cool.

I got to talk to my mother and her side of the family yesterday evening, which was really great. I haven't spoken to my mother in over a month, and I haven't talked to my grandmother, great-aunt Margaret, or uncle Don since I left the country - or longer! Christmas is great for that kind of thing. What a great way to cap off the night. Or it would have been were it not for the hippies partying down the hall all night playing cheeseball psychedelic music at max volume. But whatever, it was Christmas. Who can be cranky over such trifles?

Tonight is Sansany's baci ceremony, which is really exciting. I have to figure out how to make my sindh (traditional Lao skirt) look presentable...let's just say they're not meant for hourglass figures...I've got to hustle out of here so that I can be back to meet Kee to get a ride out to the village. I'm so excited and honored to be a part of it...

I'm hopping on my "slow boat to China" (to the border to the bus to Bangkok to the plane to China) at 7:30 tomorrow morning...and it's raining!! For pete's sake, it's the dry season and it's raining. I'm hoping it proves picturesque rather than ruins my photo ops.

At any rate, being on a boat means it might be hard for me to get to the net, so if you guys don't hear from me for several days, you'll know it's not because I followed some random people to a party and they abducted me (relax, guys! Jeez!). :)

Merry Christmas!

It's been a very cool couple days. Last night I figured out that one of the local bookshop shows artsy-fartsy movies every night, so I watched Elegy, then walked home under the bright stars of Orion. For some reason it was the only constellation I could see as I walked along the Nam Khan River, but it was really bright. Very beautiful.

But the coolest thing of all is technology. I got myself signed up for Windows Live Messenger and managed to have a video visit to my Dad's family's annual Christmas Eve bash. Seeing everybody's faces brought me to tears. They sang "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" when the camera first popped up, and there went the waterworks. But after a moment, they were all their Taylor-y selves and we spent the remainder of the time cracking up - especially with my uncle wandering in and out of the shot wearing the turban I got him in India! It was cool not only to talk face to face with everybody, but to see the party going on behind them as usual. It was the next best thing to being there. Technology is truly amazing. So thanks, Larry, for going out to get the webcam to make that possible. It's one of the best Christmas presents I ever got. And tonight I get my other Christmas present: a phone call to my Mom and her side of the family.

It just goes to show that the flurry of wrapping paper and food is really just icing on the cake; there's not so much as a strand of tinsel here in Laos, but my day is made because I got to be with my family for Christmas...I hope all of you out there are lucky enough to have the same.

Merry Christmas!

Partying Lao Style

Strange but true: it makes you cool if you bring a falang to a party.
You'd think the Lao would be sick of us tourists by the end of the work day, but that is apparently not the case. Last night I headed back to the guesthouse only to find the courtyard across the road filled with a bumpin' party. Complete with an MC who handled the festivities by singing karaoke. It was really loud so I figured since I wouldn't be sleeping for a little while, I'd at least head out to the patio and enjoy the music and update my journal. No sooner had I sat down than a guy who had stopped in to visit the owners of the guesthouse comes over to me and says "come to the party with me." I figured it's only across the street, so why not?
He plunked me down in the middle of his friends. If any of them spoke English, they'd forgotten how after several rounds of celebratory libations, so I kind of sat there while they stared at me and smiled. After a lot of attempts, I finally managed to get someone to tell me what the party was about - apparently the brother of the guy who invited me has just been elected head of his village, so he was throwing the party to thank his supporters.
I danced with a couple of the guys. I missed the line dancing, which apparently happened earlier in the evening, and ended up doing Lao-style dancing, which is pretty much walking in a circle and moving your hands a little. There must be more to it than that but I had no idea what I was doing, so I just waved my hands a little. I'm sure I was quite a sight. The other attendees (especially the table full of single guys I'd been plunked down at) certainly got a kick out of it. But I have to say, some of those Lao songs go on forever - that's a lot of walking in a circle...
After a few dances I excused myself to go home and sleep. But a good time was had by all, and I got to party local style.

I can't believe it's practically Christmas

It's amazing how things creep up on you when there isn't a media barrage reminding you every few minutes that the time to buy stuff has arrived...in a few hours it'll be Christmas Eve here and beyond my epic worldwide shopping expedition (which started months ago and was actually fun), I've barely given Christmas a second thought. But now I'm sitting here realizing that in a few hours my family will start getting together for a weekend of enjoying each other's company and I won't be there for it. As much as the Grinch in me loves missing Christmas, this is the one part I'll miss. If this trip has taught me anything, it's how much my family means to me and how much I miss them when I can't just pop in on them whenever I want. So to all my family out there, I love you and I'll miss you over the next couple of days. And to everybody who's secretly thinking how lucky I am to be skipping what many consider to be the most stressful family gathering of the year, just take a minute to be grateful for it, stress and all.
But missing my family doesn't mean I'm going to be moping around over the next two days. I'll be getting in my last couple days of volunteering, trying to make myself useful as much as I can. Other than that, I'll be getting ready to jump on my slow boat to China. Or rather the slow boat to Thailand from which I'll take a bus to Bangkok from which I'll take a plane to China...but I'm gonna stick with "slow boat to China" because it sounds so much cooler. :) I'm very excited to watch the Lao countryside slowly slip by from the deck, and to wrap up in my blanket and read a good book and update my journal with all the reflections that a new year brings on. Lots to process this year, that's for sure! It's been an eventful one.
In other news, I have finally finished uploading my photos! For now, at least. I've given up on uploading video, because it runs at the rate of approximately 1 minute of video per hour of upload. Not worth it. But you can see the rest of them at http://www.flickr.com/photos/30772531@N03/sets/
Each country has a "favorites" set, so I'd recommend that. I don't care how fascinating you find my travels, nobody wants to sift through 2000+ pictures of somebody else's vacation, so that's the way to go. Maybe 20-odd photos per country, which is more than enough.
Enjoy!

Mellow day today

Last night I did manage to meet up with one of the two people from my cooking class. Becca showed up with a Russian (Slava) in tow, and the three of us headed off to eat some fried bugs. We were so excited about it, and then the waiter drops it on us: they are out of fried bugs. No! It took forever to work up the courage to eat them, and now the moment has passed. Alas. So we had to just learn to be ok with regular food. We did try fried seaweed, though, which is quite tasy. The only "interesting" part of our repast was the jeowbong. We were so excited about it, and we were so proud that the waiter looked at us with a new respect when we asked for it...then we got it. Apparently the real recipe for jeowbong includes pa daek (the heinous-smelling fermented fish goo) and re-constituted dried buffalo skin. Let me tell you, pa daek tastes like it smells. All that horrible rotten stench transfers directly to your mouth. And the buffalo skin, which I didn't even bother trying, is apparently like the funky veins of gunk you get in a piece of meat that you can chew forever and never put a dent in. Yikes. So there goes my enthusiasm for real jeowbong...but my love for the one in my recipe book is unchanged.
Today it was back to Big Brother Mouse and My Library. A low-key day today, not a heck of a lot going on. But I did realize that it's been a really, really long time since I had to remember which verb tense any word I said was in. Future condtional? Dang, I don't remember that at all. So while my photos upload to flickr I'll be looking up verb tenses so I can be sure I'm teaching the right thing.
In happy news, Sansany (the girl from My Library who will be going to Bangkok on scholarship) is having a baci ceremony the day after Christmas and has invited me to go. I'm so honored to be included, so I'll also be looking up how to be on my best behavior at a baci ceremony. I'm so glad I will still be in town to go!
I hope my health holds up - I think I'm catching yet another cold. Urg. Hopefully I can kick this one like I did the last one, because otherwise that'll put a cramp in my visits to BBM and ML, as well as my plans to take the slow boat up the Mekong to get myself to Thailand (being on a damp, chilly boat for two days does not sound appealing with a cold). Go away cold!
No plans for tonight. Maybe I'll try to find a bunch of fresh OJ to kick-start my immune system. Beyond that...I was going to try to make it sound exciting, but yeah, no plans.

Note to the fearful

I'm told that the words "oyster sauce" call to mind some kind of salty, fishy, stinky concoction that is very scary to the meat and potatoes crowd. In truth, it is quite sweet and tastes nothing like an oyster. It's one of the ingredients that gives Chinese food a slightly sugary flavor. Almost like the hoisin sauce you dip egg rolls in. Try it, you'll like it.

Today was awesome. We did some trekking through hill villages in the morning - past poinsettas growing wild...as trees! Then got to play with elephants a bit in the afternoon. The ride was a bit of an anticlimax since they put you on a howdah (basically a big saddle-chair). I did not, as I'd hoped, get to drive. But I did get to feed them once we finished the ride. One was quite the greedy old girl and I literally had to wrestle with her trunk to keep any aside for her less-pushy companion.

Tonight I am (probably) having dinner with at least one of the people from cooking class yesterday. With any luck we'll go eat some fried bugs - I found a place that sells them. She seems game for anything, so I may have found my eat-a-bug buddy. Then tomorrow it's back to Big Brother Mouse and My Library!