Falang

According to our expat guide, the Asian term 'Falang' comes from the years when there was a large French colonist population. The SE Asians attempt to say 'Francais' mutated into the word 'falang' , which is now a term for 'white person'. It's not a negative (or positive, for that matter).

Here's Griffin with his falang baguette. 

Security system

When the power is out at the apartment, and there is no elevator access, and the video cameras are down, a more rudimentary security system is used : 

It's also called 'cardboard'. Used to block the stairwell. As security.

Katie Learns Lao #1: Expressions have heart.

Awesome website thru which I am learning Lao expressions :)

http://www.retire-asia.com/lao-heart-culture.shtml

 

Expressions in Lao relate to the heart, and I think that's just incredible. Someone at work said that the Lao language doesn't like to be exact, but rather 'paint a picture'... Which is not super awesome when you're trying to get vehicle dimensions for work, but really awesome when learning a new language. My favorites from the website below:

To control one's emotions is to "have a strong heart" (jai kaeng)

To be absent minded is to "have a heart which floats" (jai loy)- positive accepting Lao spin on something that frequently annoys Westerners 

To be honest is to "have a pure heart" (jai bolisud)

To be hesitant is to "have several hearts" (lai jai) - like, many hearts are pulling you different directions!

To die is to "have one's heart torn apart" (jai khart)- so much love for this phrase. Way prettier than 'he died'.

Our new apartment !!!

Soooo we don't move in till Saturday, but here are some pictures of our new apartment in Laos!

Our bedroom and bathroom are separated by a glass wall... Which will make for very interesting baths, I suppose.

View from our balcony !

Sinh-ing at Work

I had a meeting with the Ministry of Finance and Customs offices, so I wore the typical Lao woman's business outfit : a sinh (traditional skirt) and collared shirt.

This a pic with Ammalay, our office admin and the only other woman in the Fast group !

Rainy season

It's always fun when the power goes out at work ...

Bugs in and around my mouth

There are a lot of bugs in Laos. Maybe I just notice them more here ? 

But today I got an iced mocha and walked back to the office with it- I take a sip and notice something chewy. 'Yay!' I think, 'there's fudge / chocolate swirls in this!' 

Alas, my curiosity gets the best of me, so I spit out the chewiness into my hand. Chewy chocolate goodness becomes less delicious when you see that it has legs. 

Friday lunchtime our Lao counterparts brought lunch to share with us. This lunch included silkworms- if you've never had silkworms, I don't recommend them. They are very much like gushers, in the juice-filled sense, except that instead of fruit, it tastes like fish sauce, and instead of juice-filled insides, it's literally worm guts. 

The wet, sticky feeling from your fingers is pretty similar, though. 

Spikeball (AKA White People be Crazy)

Coworker/ resident "Thor" Seth has determined Sunday afternoons be official "Spikeball time". At 4pm every week a group of us head down to the riverbank along the Mekong, Seth sets up his Spikeball net (like a mini trampoline you hit a ball on), and we play Spikeball for hours.

This is awesome! Except for two things:
1. 4pm on Sundays in June in Vientiane is effing hot. It's nice if it rains earlier that day, but otherwise all of us are chugging down water.
2. I am crap at organized sports. I don't know if it's because of my lack of co-ordination or what, but Spikeball gets considerably less competitive when I'm playing, mostly cuz the 6- 8 guys who play kind of have their game figured out, and I'm still the 3 year old kid who's ecstatic about hitting the ball until I realized I just scored a point for the wrong team.

"Beach time"- note that the beach leads to a nasty river, and there is trash and metal everywhere.

 Griffin's a super muscle-y bad ass Spikeball player. 

Seth, observing his Spikeball minions hard at work. Pretty sure he's a covert salesperson for whatever company creates Spikeball. 

One of my favorite things about Spikeball happens around 6pm, when the locals start coming out (many of them go down to the river and hang out as their social time, when it starts to cool off). We're this loud, crazy group of white people who are wearing, for the most part, very little clothing, and some of the guys see it as a contact/ tackle sport and take down other Spikeballers... it stands out a lot from the Lao groups around us. Many times we have groups of young Lao men who ask to stop what we're doing; next week, I think some of them are planning to join us.

Ze workplace

It's a really pretty building next to Wat Ponxai (spelling?). 

Even better... It's air-conditioned :)

"I Want" & "Long Penis"

Today I learned that to say "I want..." (cereal, water, etc.) in Lao sounds very very similar to how you say "long penis" in Lao.
So now I have to worry about accidentally saying "Long penis to go" or something equally awkward.

Something to think about.

The view from the "Mekong gym"

The Lao government pays for exercise instructors to go out by the Mekong riverbank every night at 6pm and lead aerobics for an hour. WHY DOESN'T THE U.S. DO THIS?!

It's awesome, it's free, people socialize and exercise. And with that sunset?!? It's absolutely wonderful.

Also we (shout-out Seth, Matt and Jesse) have been doing Insanity at 6:15am, outside by the pool. Insanity outside in Laos is essentially the same thing as Bikram Insanity. So much sweat everywhere.

Vive la France! Pony Pony Run Run and other French things in Laos

 Already one of my favorite things about Laos is how many French people are here. The French community here puts on activities, has the best (by western standards) medical clinic, has some of the best schools, and a lot of the younger people here are French. This is the ultimate badass part, because (a) I love speaking French, and (b) I love French people (also (c) I think French food is freaking incredible).

Yesterday (Saturday) the Institute Francais put on a "Fete de la Musique". Starting around 10am there were a lot of live performances by local artists. I didn't get to go to the day activities, but last night there was a concert by "Pony Pony Run Run", a French electro-pop bands that sings in English. I've never heard of them before but apparently they're a pretty big deal in France and Belgium. This is their most famous song "Hey You": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InO1-QYsnnc
I think they did a great job, but live performances of electro-music (for me anyway) always feel harder to follow than the album version.

Et voila Pony Pony Run Run

I brought along my American friends/ coworkers, but was so excited to meet new people (esp French!) that I spent most of my time talking with the French girls who were there. I think I spent 60% of my time speaking French, 30% translating between French and English, and 10% talking with my coworker people.

Favorite part of the night- I was talking with one of the girls, and one of my coworkers (Wes) walked up and said "You speak French?! I didn't know that."

Me: "Yeah, I do!"

So he turns to the French girl I was talking with, and says proudly, "Me llamo Wes!" 

Which was incredibly confusing for her, even though she also spoke some Spanish.

I might also have found it hilarious because I had a couple of glasses of wine by then.

Other note:

Americans are really good at getting a concert going. I don't know if it's because we have to make due with shitty high school bands or awkward live performances or what, but I think that's one area in which our loud (and at times obnoxious) energy becomes an asset. The Pony Pony Run Run concert had pretty good music but everyone was doing that awkward barely-moving, arms-by-your-side swaying type of dancing, and eventually three of the guys in my group (shout-out to Rich, Brett and Griffin) and myself just started jumping up and down and doing 70's dance moves and- to some extent- getting low. The party got much more fun after that, and even though I think a lot of people presumed we were just dancing because we were drunk (which was partially case for the gents, methinks), I think we did a great job of bringing more life to the party. 

 Here is Rich. I like this pic cuz it summarizes the evening pretty well. Also, at one point he put one of the French girls on his shoulders. No one else at the party was doing that, but that just made it more hilarious.

Scootering (or, as Nick calls it, "Please don't die")

On Saturday Nick and I decided to rent scooters so we could explore Vientiane and test out if we wanted to buy our own, once we're all settled into the apartments. (At Lao prices, it was 80,000 kip, or $10, for 24 hours)

It was my first time on a scooter, and I feel like I took to jet-skiing: very very awkwardly. I really enjoyed it, but I have crap for balance and grace, and I'm sure I terrified more than one driver on the road. Nick felt it necessary to keep reminding me to check my review mirrors, and to use my brake "like a normal person".

Also when I was "practicing" along the side street where we rented the scooters, I almost hit a park car. I was incredibly embarrassed, but the kids nearby thought it was hilarious.

We went South of Vientiane, mostly by randomly veering along the main roads, but the area right outside the city is gorgeous. Lots of beautiful green nature, many stunning mansions that have been renovated to be used as car chop-shops or warehouses.  I wish I had pictures but I was too distracted by my awesome-ly evolving scooter skills.

Vientiane's city identity is a chaotic patchwork and I love it.

First couple days in Vientiane

For those people who do not know where Laos is: 

Lemme start off by saying that Laos is HOT. Worse than Louisiana summers- probably because many of the stores/ restaurants/ buildings here are not air conditioned.





Yesterday we explored a bit of the city, including the enormous riverbed alongside the muddy Mekong River.

I guess during rainy season / when the river is higher, the Mekong covers all the sandy area? But right across the tiny river is Thailand!










We went to "homeideal", which has everything from groceries to clothing to dishware to linens, and I ended up getting some "Western shampoo". Some of the Asian beauty products in Laos I try to avoid- mainly, the "whitening cremes" and the shampoos that have "pigments" in them.

There was a foosball table by check-out and Nick started a game with a little Lao girl.

I also found fanny packs. My mom really wants to find a "cute fanny pack", but most people have told me that there is no such thing.
















Then we went back to the hotel and accidentally took a 4.5 hour nap, which made us late for our group dinner.  We ate at Khop Jai Deu- like many restaurants here, the menu contains a massive hodge-podge of cuisine. I had the Chicken Butter Masala (aka Butter Chicken, an Indian dish), but others had Pad Thai, spare ribs, pizza, etc. etc. And our table drank a LOT of Beer Lao, which a coworker has appropriately dubbed "the Miller High Life of Lao".

Side note: there are not near enough chocolate desserts here.

We ended the night in a bar along the main strip in Vientiane, which I'm pretty sure was playing communist propaganda for a portion of the evening. The mojitos were meh, but made for excellent chasers when the bartenders brought out chicken feet...


Personally, I think chicken feet are disgusting. The ones last night were spiced, which is probably better than tasting chicken feet "original", but you have to crunch down on bony, cartilage-y, chicken talons. The texture killed me. And my hands smelled of chicken feet for the rest of the night.