back to it...

As visions of my holiday turn into dust and smoke, I find myself back at school, up for a fresh start.

Chiang Mai waterfall

let's talk about the 'f' word.

(sorry about the "half post".) It seems to me I walked away from the computer mid thought and never came back, and somehow, it published itself. This is now the full post.)

I would like to preface this post by stating the following:

Thailand is a country full of diverse people and lifestyles. I love Thailand (most of the time) and have come to enjoy the amount of exploration it has allowed me over the past two years. Despite the following comments, I continue to try new things and do believe Thailand has some of the most interesting tastes and food combinations in the world.

That being said, let's talk about the 'f' word. Food. The food in Thailand was one of the things I was most looking forward to about living in Thailand. Living in the west, Thai food was something trendy, usually presented in a minimalist style in a restaurant with dim lighting, overpriced bottled water and no actual Thai people working there. However, the food was good. When I first arrived in Thailand, I enjoyed trying different dishes. I tried anything and everything, including the dishes I had tried at home, which in Thailand seemed to be, well, not that good. I learned to like new things like papaya salad (like every freaking foreigner) and got severely used to huge shrimp for pennies a piece. I stuck to the things I liked such as chicken with cashew nuts, penang and masamum curries, and threw in the occasional spicy catfish, fried chicken skin, smoked pig's neck and other oddities I thought I was pretty adventurous for trying.

There were certain things I have tried once, and will never ever ever, under any circumstance bring near my mouth again. Chiken feet with their bony gristle and meatless bones; pig ears, which I had previoously only seen fed to dogs: their chewy oil and tasteless fat is not worth any sort of calorie intake; pork intestines, no matter how many times I have seen people wash then I can't help but think that they simply aren't clean; crickets, bamboo worms, scropions, black bugs, green bugs, bugs that make you skinny, bugs that make you fat, bugs that are "good for man power (if you know what I mean...)"; I have tried it all. I know these are things I don't want to eat again. I know I should be paid like a contestant on Fear Factor for having tried them in the first place.

However, after two years, I have found I have eaten all the papaya salad, isaarn salads, fried rick, pad thai, BBQ chicken, curried this and curried that, and the worst possible sandwiches I have ever had in my life, consisting of a piece of bread and uncooked ham. "But this is foreigner food!" They say. No, no, this is hangover food when I am too lazy to go and buy something decent, and when all the eggs are gone, and I am bordering on the fringe of starvation. I have reached the end of my rope. Reached the end of trying to find decent food in this city that doesn't involve anything to do with...(say it quietly...) rice. I am sooooooooooo tired of rice. Rick and curry, rice and fruit, rice and oil, rice and chillies, rice and dessert, rice and chicken, rice and fish, rice and rice and rice and rice. I never liked rice in Canada. I would never eat it there. But now I find myself waking up every morning, making rice for Rin, living with in the smell of steamed rice, always cleaning up and wiping little escaping rice grains, and walking through markets filled with...rice.

But what do I do? The few restaurants that sell good western food including fresh pastas and real salads are typically overpriced, even by western standards. To cook these foods at home is possible, but the grocery stores that carry good imported fruits, vegetables and other treats are so far away, by the time I get there I am so hungry I have to stop somewhere on the street and get some smoked chicken, and then the whole journey has lost its purpose, as I have given in to that food.

I continue to walk the markets with Rin every night buying things for us to make for dinner. I know my dinner will consist of the following three things: rice, fish sauce, chillies. I can't even express to you how happy I would be if suddenly I turned on the morning news and saw that these three items have been wiped from the face of the planet by some superhuman force. At this rate, that is my only hope for finding some good food in this country.

After a week in Chiang Mai, my first holiday in a year I came home to a bit of a hard situation. Sante hadn't approved while we were away, and this morning, we had to put him to sleep. This is maybe the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my life. I loved him so much, and it is so hard to not feel like we are responsible for his situation. It was out of our hands from the beginning.

To Sante, on this hot summer day, I will miss you.

Sante Reungsawat-Burtch. October 15th, 2005-March 11th, 2006

Rest in Peace.

and...I'm finished.

Six exams, 80 student reports, three performances for the kids, marking hundreds of books. It's all done, returned, stamped, red-pen scratched, out of my hands and counted for. And it certainly feels good.

Yesterday was the last day of exams and we are in today fixing up some loose ends, and gettign the kids ready for the end of year performance tomorrow night.

And on Monday, to Chiang Mai I will go.

On another note to go into more detail later, after a trip to the vet, it looks like the little one isn't going to make it. We have to go through a few Thai traditions first, but I think we are going to have to put the four month old puppy to sleep. More to come soon. What a way to start a holiday...