Thanksgiving

For the last three years (2011-2013) I have not been able to spend Thanksgiving with my family. As anyone who is far away from family during the holidays knows, this sucks. And if your mom cooks as well as my mom does, you'll know that this sucks even more.

But we did have a wonderful Thanksgiving, Lao-style. We DID have to work, both the day of Thanksgiving, and the day after (in Louisiana, called "Aradian day"?) but a lot of people are gone so it was more relaxed.  Our boss and his wife graciously opened their house to all of us who are far away from home, and rented big tables so we could all sit outside in the great 70o weather (this was my first Thanksgiving outside!) It all came together quite beautifully, which for a while I was worried would not happen...

For the Thanksgiving meal I volunteered to make Cranberry sauce (something I've been making ever since I was 7, so it's like my own Thanksgiving tradition) and the Sweet potato casserole (Marshmallow-style, not pecan). I didn't think it would be EASY to find all the ingredients, but I didn't realize it would be that hard. 

I expected a couple stores that had Expat ingredients to stoke-pile Thanksgiving ingredients. None did. 

Monday night I spent two hours roaming the aisles of my usual "grocery" stores ("grocery" is a relative term... like mentioned in earlier blogs, it's more of a really big dollar store than anything). No luck on sweet potatoes or cranberries, though I DID find large marshmallows. 

The next day at lunch I went to Joma (the most awesome chain "restaurant"/cafe in Vientiane) and asked if they would let me buy cranberry sauce, which they had because their seasonal sandwich was a "Turkey Dinner" one. They would not let me. One of the ladies said "Oh you can get it at (insert Lao name here!" but then she couldn't explain where it was. Another guy help but after 5 minutes of jotting down directions I realized he had gotten confused and was directing me to a local M-Point (convenience store).

Then I went to Lao Plaza- the hotel we used to live in- where they were having a Thanksgiving buffet. I just wanted to buy cranberry sauce. Denied. 

So Tuesday night I went to D-Mart, another "grocery store", looking for sweet potatoes and cranberries/ cranberry sauce. I thought I found a weird-looking sweet potato, but I ended up buying something that I now believe to be a radish. 

Then I went home and complained about it on Facebook. This turned out to be the best move I could make, because a coworker's wife was out shopping the next day and found ALL of my ingredients- cranberry sauce, REAL sweet potatoes (not the purple/ black ones they usually have here) and MINI marshmallows. Divine intervention all up on my Thanksgiving meal :) 

I made the sweet potatoes (AWESOME recipe here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/sweet-potato-casserole-ii-2/) and "made" the cranberry sauce (took it out of the can, heated it up and added orange zest) and Thursday night we had a great Thanksgiving - everything an American could want in a Thanksgiving meal. We even went around the table and said what we were thankful for. 

And I wore my "Thanksgiving" (yoga) pants. Lots of give. For when I went back for thirds. 

Food mysteries

From lunch: what IS it ?

Answer: weird bananas in a grey coconut sauce. (It's actually pretty good)

Question: what is it?? 

Answer: I don't know; I felt that it would be weird to buy a drink called 'ManSome'

Christmas tree

I set up our mini Christmas tree 2 days before Thanksgiving ... 

But I was so excited I couldn't wait ! 

I got the tree and Christmas lights in Nong Khai (the Thai city across the Mekong from Vientiane - it has a supermarket!). I also asked a friend to pick up some homemade Lao ornaments from the WIG (Women's International Group) Bazaar this weekend. 

At first I wasn't sure how the tree worked and I was panicking that I would have a Charlie Brown tree...

But then I figured it out :)

The handmade ornaments : 

Booking agency mysteries

Nick and I used a travel agency to book our flight to Pakse next weekend (the Lao airlines website was either broken or not able to detect available flights...)

But the travel agency- different than the one we used last time- was a little off beat. The woman who booked our flights was great, but the 'travel agency' also had:

1. The family of the clerks in the middle of the 'office', eating a large lunch

2. The little girl of the woman, watching the Victorias Secret Fashion show 

3. This picture, on the counter. Why?

Awkward Thai Signs

'Fire Man'- I think they mean Fire station? It's in the mall parking garage...

'Asians Potato'- potato salad, with an Asian twist?

Going to Thailand just for a Movie and Starbucks

Laos has no fast food restaurants, Starbucks or movie theaters, and every once in a while we all want those things. So today we went to Udon Thani, which is an hour into Thailand. 

The most painful part of the process is clearing Customs. You have to do it when leaving Laos (painful), arriving in Thailand (not awful), then again on the way back when leaving Thailand (OK), and arriving back in Laos (really easy when done late at night and no one is there).

There were four of us so we tried to implement the "Divide and Conquer" mentality. It didn't always work. Here are Wes (white guy on the left) and Nick (white guy on the right) who are in the same line. And only one person needed to be in line. 

Also at the Lao / Thai Customs windows (there are three on each side- 4 times going through Customs x 3 windows = 12 windows you have to visit) people cut in line ALL THE TIME. And I get angry about it. Hulk-like angry. In the culture here it's totally socially acceptable to cut in line, but it's also incredibly non-confrontational. I struggle.

Anyway, after getting past Customs and driving an hour to Udon Thani, we finally reach our final destination : Starbucks. And the best part? They had HOLIDAY DRINKS. First time I've seen that at a Starbucks Asia-side. 

But they didn't have eggnog so my excitement was a little diminished. "Eggnog chai latte hold-the-water" is the best drink Starbucks can make :( 

One of the main reasons I wanted to go to Udon Thani was because Hunger Games 2 just came out, and Laos has no movie theater. We got tickets to the English showing- awesome movie. Also, we bought from the concession stand. 

They were having a special- a massive bucket of popcorn plus two sweet Catching Fire thermos full of soda- 300Baht (or $10). I'm going to have a hard time when I go back to the States and have to pay $5 for a small Coke.

Nick attempted to buy a ping-pong table. He spent about an hour looking at ping pong tables in different sports good stores in the mall and measuring the trunk to see if it would fit. But as the ping pong table would be going into our apartment, and the table was much bigger than I expected... we did NOT get a ping pong table.

There are a dozen restaurants in the mall, and all but one are hot-pot. As it was Jesse's birthday, he chose the one Western restaurant. And I went to Sizzler for the first time! 

At the Central Plaza parking lot, it is apparently totally fine to block cars in, as long as you leave your vehicle in neutral. The truck to the right is ours. We had to call a security guard to roll back the other truck to get it out. Super annoying. 

The three guys, for all their shopping, didn't get much, but I spent a lot of money getting clothes, baked goods (brownie mix! Canned pumpkin!) and hair conditioner. 

It's the little things. 

Bananas roasting on an open fire

About two blocks from our office is a street vendor who sells fruit and veggies that he roasts. He speaks no English, and is under the impression that my Lao is much better than it actually is. 

Discreet sneaky shot of the man'a roasting table. 

Usually I buy five bananas (tiny ones) - a couple to eat, the rest to share. But today I thought I'd get extras and hand them out around the office. Unfortunately, he didn't have twelve bananas ready, so he talked me into nine bananas and a sweet potato.

This is what a Lao sweet potato looks like 

It's purple.

Standing desks

Today I joined the ranks of office workers who have standing desks- a bunch of us ordered custom desks for work. My back is aching but it's supposed to help with posture. I've had it up for 3 hours and I'm already tired.

Wes and Nick got theirs first, from a different carpenter. Theirs are a lot prettier :(

Katie the Conversationalist

For the last three months or so, a group of us from the apartment have been taking Lao classes. Our teacher Nou is amazing, even if some of us are really slow. Lao is hard!
(And I'm sure it will be plenty helpful after we move back to the States... Not.)

The most useful things we have learned are how to purchase things- numbers, haggling, ordering food, that kind of thing. But we've also learned some really basic phrases.

10 basic Lao phrases:

"Sabaidee" - hello
"Sabaidee bo" - how are you
"Khop jai" - thank you
"Hong nam" - bathroom
"Kah tote" - excuse me, sorry
"Koi seu Katie" - my name is Katie
"Jao dee" - and you?
"An nii maaen yang huu jak" - nice to meet you
"Tao dai" - how much?
"Jao wow paa saa ang git bo" - do you speak English?

Anyway, since I'm finally able to string words together into super basic sentences, I've started using my Lao more. More often than not this results in me screwing up in Lao, getting embarrassed, then pantomiming what I really want (lots of pointing and head nods or shakes).

But today I got a massage at Champa and speaking a little Lao to my masseuse.
How it went down:
I got confused on the way up to the massage room and went the wrong way.
Me: "Oh, kah tote!" (Sorry! /excuse me!)
Masseuse: "(Something something something) jao wow paasaa lao" (Something something something do you speak Lao?)
Me: "Uh... nyit noi" (a little) [This is where I screwed up. I don't really speak lao. I should really just say no.]
Masseuse: (Something something something for about 5 minutes. I understood none of it)

Then later, at the end of the massage in which I had fallen asleep.
Masseuse: "(Something) may bo" ("bo" means "yes?", and is asked as a question.)
Me: "Uh... may bo?"
Masseuse: "(Something) may bo"
Me: "Uh... [in English] yes the massage was very good...?"

And then there was an awkward silence for three minutes as I tried to figure out what she said.
And then I figured it out.
Me: "OH MY GOD! Muuay bo! Tired! Yes! Jao! I was tired! Muuay bo!"
Masseuse: *Awkward laugh*
Me: "Uh... (pointing to door) Aa jan goes muuay... jao says may" (My teacher says "muuay", you say "may")
Masseuse: "Jao (something) aa jan" (are you a teacher?)
Me: "What? No. Bo."

More awkwardness. She tried to say goodbye to me later but I was still flustered from the earlier mix-up.

Comic 2

I bought a book, specifically for my comic doodles. 

"Friday Night 6pm"

Festival That Luang

The That Luang Festival is Vientiane's biggest festival, which means that the entire week is the loudest, dirtiest and busiest time I've seen in Vientiane. 

"That Luang" is a stupa (like a steeple) that is gold plated and close to our workplace, North of town. It's a religious event, so there are Buddhist ceremonies like almsgiving and prayers, but in Vientiane it's also an opportunity to get together, buy or sell clothes and food, and to visit concerts and beer gardens.

The group in white (I didn't get a very good shot) is a Lao pop band. There weren't any people following them or taking pictures - just me (and the only reason that I did that was because someone in our group pointed out that they had performed at the Boating Festival)

The Beer Lao beer garden

A picture of That Luang on Sunday, the last day of the festival

Eye mucus

So I'm not entirely sure how we ended up with this in our shopping cart (did someone put it there ? Did we steal it accidentally?) but at home Nick and I realized that there was sonething in our shopping bag neither of us wanted to get ... 

It's called 'Eye Mucus', and I have no idea what it does 

I know what you're thinking : 'if you want to know what it does, just read the back!'

Nope. Tried that.

Comic 1

Sometimes in meetings that go long, I doodle. 

Sad we won't be getting snow out here :(

Seth's Departure

Last Friday Seth left the Fast Laos team to do some long term global backpacking, and Thursday night we had a soccer game / dinner in his honor. 

Seth was our tech guy, Spikeball master and resident 'most in shape dude'. His presence will be sorely missed. 

The teams (Lao and American alike) take a group shot.

Seth was also my Insanity/ T-25 workout buddy. So not only will I miss Seth once he's gone, I'll also miss our morning workouts. Much harder to get up at 6am when no one is there to motivate you :) 

SETH GET TRAVELERS INSURANCE.

Hand washing

This sign was hung above one of the main roads near our office. 

It says 'Global Handwashing Day 15th October 2013'. And it wasn't hung up till mid November.

It's unfortunate because Laos could really use a day to learn about hand-washing. No one here really seems to do it. 

Typhoon Haiyan changed course...

Typhoon Haiyan changed it's course. Originally, metereologists stateside predicted that after causing massive devastation in the Philippines, the typhoon would hit Vietnam and Laos. One metereologist in Ann Arbor told the Washington Post that the storm would be 'one of the top five natural disasters in Laos' history'.

My dad sent emails warning me repeatedly to get water and food for the apartment before the typhoon was supposed to hit on Sunday. Friday Nick and I went to Homeideal and picked up a bunch of water, nuts, cereal bars, etc.

The sunsets over the weekend were absolutely spectacular- I don't know if that had anything to do with the weather out East, but they were very out of the ordinary.

The typhoon never hit us- we had 80o all weekend - but what happened to the Philippines was devastating. 

Anyone wanting to donate to the Philippines cause should consider the United Nations World Food Programme- it's been incredibly active over there already and they have a great rating from CharityNavigator. If you donate through http://wfpusa.org your donations are also tax deductible. 

http://wfpusa.org

Lao National Museum

After brunch at Le Banetton on Sunday, Nick and I went by the Lao National Museum. Even though it is right next door to the Lao Plaza (the hotel we lived in for a month at the beginning of our stay here), I'd never seen it open, or never had time to go in. They close for lunch at noon, and we got there around 11:20am, so it was a quick tour. 

The museum had some interesting artifacts from across the country, and some posters about Lao/ Asian history, but the most interesting part of the museum was the rooms that talked about the "American Destruction" (what we would refer to as the Vietnam War). (Please note: I am no expert on the Vietnam War. Most of what I get is from the Internet and what I've read from these museums, then tried to research independently. I'm sure there are people reading this who would like to argue points of this blog entry with me, but again, this is from what I have seen and experienced while living here, and a lot of time spent clicking around Wikipedia) (and we all know what a reliable source Wikipedia is)

As an American, visiting these exhibits in the museum feels very weird. On one hand, every victory the talk about and take pride in was a loss for the Americans, so I am tempted to be angry, or sad. But on the other hand, Laos suffered immense losses from the Vietnam War, and arguably fared worse that Vietnam did in the long run.  From the "Legacies of War" website (and verified against other websites): Laos is the most heavily bombed country per capita in history. There are still millions of unexploded bombs littering the Lao countryside, and thousands of farmers and their children have been killed or injured by them since the war ended. The U.S. does donate money to the removal of these bombs, about $9 million/ year, but it's slow going.

I knew very little about the Vietnam War before I moved here (especially compared to how much I know about WWII). What I now know about the Vietnam War makes me incredibly sad for all those who were involved in it. 

(I hope this post isn't interpreted as un-patriotic, especially on Veteran's Day- the date is a coincidence. Very proud of the men and women who defend the U.S. of A., and feel so fortunate to call America my home)

This site talks about the "Secret War in Laos": http://legaciesofwar.org/about-laos/secret-war-laos/ 

Circus

On Saturday evening we (six guys and myself) went to the Viet-Lao Circus, which was in Vientiane for a week. It was held at the Russian Circus building (which also hosts Muy Lao fighting and other sporting events), and it was incredibly awesome. 

Outside the Russian Circus there were carnival rides and stands.  One of our guys, Zach, bought a turn at the beebee guns (we finally figured out how carnival games worked), but he couldn't shoot the soda bottle with enough force. So Griffin asked if he could shoot Zach in the back with the gun. And, because this is Laos, the man running the stand had no problem with it. 

Tickets to the carnival were 40,000kip, 60,000kip and 80,000kip, so we got the top tier seats (still only about $10). Unfortunately, even top tier seats (second row) are not enough to prevent the lady sitting in the row in front of you from using her iPad to record the... entire... show. 

We didn't have incredibly high expectations for the performance, but we were so surprised by how great the acrobats and trapeze artists were! There were jump-ropers, artists on tightropes, a magician and clowns...

The trapeze artists were my favorite (even though they did their performance to a Kenny G rendition to "My Heart Will Go On"... which played twice)

All of us agreed that the worst part about the circus was the animal acts.  I don't really know how animals are treated in the American circus, but they always seem to be happy to perform and to be incredibly well-trained. This is not the case in the Viet-Lao Circus.  The circus performance included acts done by dogs, monkeys, snakes, and a horse. 

The dogs were dragged out by their front paws, which was bad enough, but the way they cowered whenever they had to perform tricks, or when the trainers came towards them... it was heart-breaking.

The snake act was kind of weird... there was a basket with two enormous snakes in it (some in the group speculated that the snakes were drugged). The entire "act" was really just the snake man wrapping the snakes around his body and running around the ring yelling like a crazy man.

The snake act became decidedly more interesting when the snake man was focusing on the second snake, failing to notice as the other snake tried to slither out of the ring to the back of the building (which was right next to where we were sitting). Nick hates snakes, and was poised with one foot on the stairs to run away from the snake if it decided to come toward the stands.

The monkey act was by far the most brutal, and the hardest to watch. The monkey trainer came out and tied his monkeys to the crates that were at the edge of the rink while he set up (about 10 feet from where we were sitting). The monkeys were agitated and one of them kept throwing himself on the gate to knock it over. Some parents were not paying attention to their kids and one of the children went towards the monkey, almost as if to pet it, until a woman sitting in the first row pulled him back.

The trainer had a loud whistle that he would blow into the monkeys' ears whenever they messed up a trick. When one of the monkeys got confused and did a trick prematurely, the trainer smacked him on the head! And when the trainer had the monkey bike around the ring on these little monkey-sized bikes, it's almost like they were trying to bike away from him, and were terrified of him chasing them.

Probably the highlight of the animal acts was the moment the angry monkey was placed on a pole that the mean trainer balanced on his nose. When the monkey got up to the top, he almost immediately started peeing ... not much got on the trainer, but enough so that I felt the monkey got a wee bit of revenge.

I just hope he wasn't punished too severely after the performance :( 

The horse was fine... almost pointless. He just ran around the ring with a performer on his back.

Despite the animal abuse, and the woman with an iPad, it was a really fun time :) 

Slack-lining over the pool

Saturdays the guys set up the slack line so it went across the pool.

Then Griffin set up two lounge chairs to make a water slide. I didn't do the slack line (balancing issues) but I did do the water slide!