We have no school on Monday, so Andrew and I and about 18 other teachers are piling into our rented bus afterschool today to go to a beach on the Bay of Bengal for the weekend. It is about a 5 hour drive during the rainy season unless there are elephants on the road, which in that case, the drive will take longer. I haven't seen any elephants yet, so it would be exciting to see one, but the prospect of an even longer bus ride will not be so enjoyable.
We are excited to get out of the city, which has been great to explore, but it is time for a little sea salt in our hair and hopefully a sun on our skin (this might be too optimistic as it is the rainy season afterall). Whatever will come our way, we are prepared with kiteboarding gear, fishing poles, snorkel gear, frisbees, beach chairs, umbrellas and some good books to read. We when we return late Monday night, we will write in on our adventures at Ngwe Saun Beach. Take care everyone!
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Burmese Kick Boxing
We spent our Saturday afternoon, watching the Burmese Boxing semi-finals at a stadium in Yangon. Neither Andrew or I had been to a boxing match before so it was an interesting event. We got ringside seats for $4 with some of the other teachers from our school and their Burmese friend Christina.
The boxers themselves were short and small with very well-defined muscles. They don't wear boxing gloves but they do wrap up their hands. The matches go until one of the boxers is knocked out for a count of ten. The best part of the whole experience is the live band that plays as the boxers box. There is a pounding drum, some sort of xyplone instrument, some sort a string instrument, and a very-excited announcer who says "Hi-ya!" everytime a punch is thrown.
The other best part of the boxing match is the fact that they don't allow you to bring in plastic waterbottles. This is to discourage fans from throwing bottles at the players. So if you want to bring in any type of liquid, they will pour it into a plastic bag and insert a straw. Voila!-enjoy your bag of liquid.
Our friend Pete was at a soccer match in Thailand and did not know about this rule. He and his friends had packed a backpack with cokes and a bottle of whiskey. When they got to the security gate, they were not allowed to bring in actual containers, so the guards did the next best thing. They double bagged two plastic grocery bags and then poured the entire bottle of whiskey and all of the cokes into the bag with the addition of 4 drinking straws. Pete said as he walked to his seat, his whiskey and coke concoction sloshed from side to side, hitting innocent bystanders. Luckily there was still plenty of plastic bag cocktail to enjoy once they arrived at their seats.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Gypsy Cab Company
Since we are not allowed to buys cars or motorcycles in Myanmar, our main modes of transportation include the following: walking, biking, and taking taxis.
Walking is not bad, but it is slow and the sidewalks can be deathtraps at times…see photo of sidewalks. Many of the sidewalks are really just covered sewer drains and sometimes the covers are missing or loose. No high heel lady shoes here. This is flipflop/sandal country.
Biking: Buying bikes in Yangon has been the best decision we have made so far. It is super fun to cruise around the city and check out all of the side streets. Traffic can get a little hairy at times, but I have yet to see a single car accident. Regardless, we wear helmets (thank you to Elsa and Scott!) and ring our bicycle bells a lot. Ding-ding, Americans coming through, watch out!
The people in Yangon are very friendly and like to practice their English. When we ride our bikes to school in the morning (about a 25 minute ride) we are bombarded with people yelling “hello” and “hi” and “hey, where you go?” When you respond back in English, people laugh and love it. Sometimes, when there is a cute Myanmar baby around, the mother or father, will take the child’s hand and vigorously shake it at you as if the child is actually waving at you. I am not sure how much the child likes this, but the parents get excited when you wave back.
Taxis: I believe that the Myanmar people must be the best mechanics in the world. All of the taxis in the city are these old, small 4-door cars from the 70s and 80s that are miraculously still running. It is not so much the dents that make me call them the gypsy cab company, but the interiors. Any taxi one rides, is bound to be missing any of the following items (sometimes more than one): inside door panels (meaning there are doors, but it is a metal shell on the inside of the cab versus one covered with fabric or plastic), the window knob for manually rolling down a window (you often have to ask the driver for the knob, insert it into the door, roll down the window and then return it to the driver), a liner for the floor where your feet rest. Some cabs have small holes on the floor and when you drive in the rainy season, you’re feet will get wet from water splashing up from the road. You can’t always see the holes, but you see and feel the water splashing up. Yabba dabba do!
Everytime I ride in a taxi here, it has been a memorable experience. Andrew and I were once in a cab that had a manual window roll down knob on my side and an electric/automatic roll down button on his side. How that came to be I will never know, but it worked! Taxi prices are fairly reasonable, costing around $3 to get anywhere around the city. Since the fuel price hikes, prices have gone up a bit, but its still very manageable. Speaking of price changes, I know everyone has been watching the news and have no worries, things are fine here. While there have been some protests, they have been very small and there haven’t been any big changes. Had the protests not been on the news, we would not have been aware that they had happened. So life in Myanmar continues as normal.
One last note about taxis is that they usually smell good. I’m not kidding! Considering how gypsy they look, they smell good because the cab drivers buy strung orchid flowers to hang on their rearview mirrors as an offering to Buddha (at least I believe this is why.) The flowers are extremely fragrant, a mix between the scent of lilacs and stock. That is the best air freshener yet!
Walking is not bad, but it is slow and the sidewalks can be deathtraps at times…see photo of sidewalks. Many of the sidewalks are really just covered sewer drains and sometimes the covers are missing or loose. No high heel lady shoes here. This is flipflop/sandal country.
Biking: Buying bikes in Yangon has been the best decision we have made so far. It is super fun to cruise around the city and check out all of the side streets. Traffic can get a little hairy at times, but I have yet to see a single car accident. Regardless, we wear helmets (thank you to Elsa and Scott!) and ring our bicycle bells a lot. Ding-ding, Americans coming through, watch out!
The people in Yangon are very friendly and like to practice their English. When we ride our bikes to school in the morning (about a 25 minute ride) we are bombarded with people yelling “hello” and “hi” and “hey, where you go?” When you respond back in English, people laugh and love it. Sometimes, when there is a cute Myanmar baby around, the mother or father, will take the child’s hand and vigorously shake it at you as if the child is actually waving at you. I am not sure how much the child likes this, but the parents get excited when you wave back.
Taxis: I believe that the Myanmar people must be the best mechanics in the world. All of the taxis in the city are these old, small 4-door cars from the 70s and 80s that are miraculously still running. It is not so much the dents that make me call them the gypsy cab company, but the interiors. Any taxi one rides, is bound to be missing any of the following items (sometimes more than one): inside door panels (meaning there are doors, but it is a metal shell on the inside of the cab versus one covered with fabric or plastic), the window knob for manually rolling down a window (you often have to ask the driver for the knob, insert it into the door, roll down the window and then return it to the driver), a liner for the floor where your feet rest. Some cabs have small holes on the floor and when you drive in the rainy season, you’re feet will get wet from water splashing up from the road. You can’t always see the holes, but you see and feel the water splashing up. Yabba dabba do!
Everytime I ride in a taxi here, it has been a memorable experience. Andrew and I were once in a cab that had a manual window roll down knob on my side and an electric/automatic roll down button on his side. How that came to be I will never know, but it worked! Taxi prices are fairly reasonable, costing around $3 to get anywhere around the city. Since the fuel price hikes, prices have gone up a bit, but its still very manageable. Speaking of price changes, I know everyone has been watching the news and have no worries, things are fine here. While there have been some protests, they have been very small and there haven’t been any big changes. Had the protests not been on the news, we would not have been aware that they had happened. So life in Myanmar continues as normal.
One last note about taxis is that they usually smell good. I’m not kidding! Considering how gypsy they look, they smell good because the cab drivers buy strung orchid flowers to hang on their rearview mirrors as an offering to Buddha (at least I believe this is why.) The flowers are extremely fragrant, a mix between the scent of lilacs and stock. That is the best air freshener yet!
Thursday, August 23, 2007
yangon sidewalks
The street is the best place to walk, as the sidewalks are just covered drains that are many times uncovered.
Hash pics
Pictures from last Saturday's hash. Quite a bunch of characters. Andrew is drinking a beer at the halfway beer and water stop. Notice the intense amount of sweating. Now that's what I call humidity!Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Funny Things Students Say
This is from a student note card, which I asked my students to fill out about themselves:
-“Hobbies: Music like Metal, Eating Pork Chop (what?…That sounds like a Midwestern hobby to me), playing music, writing lyrics”
This is from a summer book review I asked students to write. Would you recommend this book to others?
-“I would recommend this book to another if they liked love stories, happy endings and romantic dinners (sounds like a couples ad).
Students also have great names. The double name is very common in Myanmar. For example, these are the names of some of my students:
Loan loan (girl), Toat toat (girl), Yan yan (boy), Ya ya (girl), Tu tu (boy), Htwe htwe (girl), Htet htet (boy), Kyaw kyaw (boy), Phyu phyu (girl)
AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!
-“Hobbies: Music like Metal, Eating Pork Chop (what?…That sounds like a Midwestern hobby to me), playing music, writing lyrics”
This is from a summer book review I asked students to write. Would you recommend this book to others?
-“I would recommend this book to another if they liked love stories, happy endings and romantic dinners (sounds like a couples ad).
Students also have great names. The double name is very common in Myanmar. For example, these are the names of some of my students:
Loan loan (girl), Toat toat (girl), Yan yan (boy), Ya ya (girl), Tu tu (boy), Htwe htwe (girl), Htet htet (boy), Kyaw kyaw (boy), Phyu phyu (girl)
AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Epic Saturday: Part Two
The Hash is a weekly club that has been described as the following: runners with a drinking problem or drinkers with a running problem. Apparently, the Hash is a worldwide phenomenon that has not found its way to Wisconsin (considering the drinking element involved in the club, this is surprising). There are Hashes that occur every Saturday around the world.
Here is how it works in Yangon, Myanmar. Every Saturday at 3pm, expats meet outside the Yangon sailing club. Someone from the Hash club has preset a running course somewhere in the city and has marked it with bits of shredded paper. Hashers can either run the preset course or walk it. The length of the course depends on who has set it, but it can vary from 3 miles to 6 miles. Now the course is not clear-cut as there are false trails to lead you astray and cause you to run more, but that is just part of the fun.
The Hash is not a serious, competitive event but a chance for fellowship and fitness. People of all ages and fitness levels take part in the Hash ranging from families with children and dogs, to middle age folk to a few senior citizen expats. On our virgin hash, there were no children, but there were people in their 20s to people in their 60s and a good number of dogs. People on this Hash ranged from teachers from the three international schools in Yangon, people who work from NGOs and people who work for the embassies. There were around 20-25 people at this particular hash but there have been times when there were 50-60 people. Since the Hash involves some drinking, there is a $2 fee for every hash. A small price for the fun one has on the Hash.
Andrew took part in the running hash, while I took part in the walking hash. The running hash is more physical while the walking hash allows you to see more and take pictures, which I will share. Since the Hash is set in a different part of the city every week , it is a great opportunity to get know parts of Yangon that you normally wouldn’t see.
The Hash itself feels like some sort of weird Monty Python sketch. The Hash begins and the runners take off and the walkers take off, following separate paths. The runners can be seen trucking through the village and then backtracking because they took a false trail, while the leader of the walking harsh purposely takes the most obscure routes through the city or village, crossing bamboo bridges and rice paddies. Halfway through the Hash, (around 45 minutes to an hour) there is a meeting point set up for both runners and walkers. Here the beer truck meets us for a beer/water break.
Then the 2nd half begins and walkers and runners go their separate ways to meet once again at the end. The end this time was at the ruins of a Portuguese church from the 1700s. The end is celebrated by a circle ceremony with the singing of silly songs and drinking of lots of beer. People can be punished and/or recognized for whatever reason at the end of the Hash by having to stand in the middle of a circle and down a small glass of beer while people sing a drinking song. The grandmaster of the Hash runs the end ceremony and adds his wit at every moment. Like I said earlier, the Hash is silly and bizarre and feels like it came out of a Monty Python sketch (something about all of those British and Australian accents.)
To Conclude: we will definitely be partaking again!
Here is how it works in Yangon, Myanmar. Every Saturday at 3pm, expats meet outside the Yangon sailing club. Someone from the Hash club has preset a running course somewhere in the city and has marked it with bits of shredded paper. Hashers can either run the preset course or walk it. The length of the course depends on who has set it, but it can vary from 3 miles to 6 miles. Now the course is not clear-cut as there are false trails to lead you astray and cause you to run more, but that is just part of the fun.
The Hash is not a serious, competitive event but a chance for fellowship and fitness. People of all ages and fitness levels take part in the Hash ranging from families with children and dogs, to middle age folk to a few senior citizen expats. On our virgin hash, there were no children, but there were people in their 20s to people in their 60s and a good number of dogs. People on this Hash ranged from teachers from the three international schools in Yangon, people who work from NGOs and people who work for the embassies. There were around 20-25 people at this particular hash but there have been times when there were 50-60 people. Since the Hash involves some drinking, there is a $2 fee for every hash. A small price for the fun one has on the Hash.
Andrew took part in the running hash, while I took part in the walking hash. The running hash is more physical while the walking hash allows you to see more and take pictures, which I will share. Since the Hash is set in a different part of the city every week , it is a great opportunity to get know parts of Yangon that you normally wouldn’t see.
The Hash itself feels like some sort of weird Monty Python sketch. The Hash begins and the runners take off and the walkers take off, following separate paths. The runners can be seen trucking through the village and then backtracking because they took a false trail, while the leader of the walking harsh purposely takes the most obscure routes through the city or village, crossing bamboo bridges and rice paddies. Halfway through the Hash, (around 45 minutes to an hour) there is a meeting point set up for both runners and walkers. Here the beer truck meets us for a beer/water break.
Then the 2nd half begins and walkers and runners go their separate ways to meet once again at the end. The end this time was at the ruins of a Portuguese church from the 1700s. The end is celebrated by a circle ceremony with the singing of silly songs and drinking of lots of beer. People can be punished and/or recognized for whatever reason at the end of the Hash by having to stand in the middle of a circle and down a small glass of beer while people sing a drinking song. The grandmaster of the Hash runs the end ceremony and adds his wit at every moment. Like I said earlier, the Hash is silly and bizarre and feels like it came out of a Monty Python sketch (something about all of those British and Australian accents.)
To Conclude: we will definitely be partaking again!
Epic Saturday: Part One
Saturday was a day of Epic Fitness and Exploration containing two parts: part one was the Andrew and Rayna bike tour around Yangon, part two was the Hash, a Saturday club for runners with a drinking problem or drinkers with a running problem. Let me explain further.On Saturday, we woke up and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast of instant coffee, pb&j toast and pineapple and decided that we were going to do a bike tour around Yangon to find the fish market that had been eluding us. Last Sunday, we took a taxi to the Fish Market in the afternoon but it was already closed. So around 11am on Saturday, we set off on our bike adventure. Yangon is an interesting city to navigate as most streets, if they are even labeled, are in Burmese, which we can’t read. We have a couple of different city maps but they are only helpful if you can find landmarks off of which to base yourself. We have found that the only way to really explore the city is to get slightly lost, ask locals for help and then find your way back to the main roads that you know. Unbelievably, this has worked great.
We knew this day would be great as the sun was shining, a sight rarely seen in the rainy season, and the weather was pleasant, maybe 70s-low 80s with a breeze. So on Saturday we spent around 3 hours biking around the East side of the city weaving in and out of different neighbors but unable to find the fabled San Pyae Fish Market. The city consists of a wide variety of neighborhoods ranging from gated communities with gorgeous homes and barbed-fire topped fences to makeshift villages complete with mud roads and large pigs sleeping underneath thatch roof houses. We saw both extremities on this bike journey as well as a huge bridge that took us across the Yangon River (as big as the Mississippi) into a neighboring village. Once we got out of the city the air smelled country-sweet and we came across some water buffalo (see post about exotic animals of Myanmar). We then explored the area and found another large bridge to carry us across the river and back into the city. At this point it was two pm and we headed to a Thai place close by for a quick lunch before meeting other expats for the weekly Hash run. Lunch consisted of fried wide noodles with chicken, basil and peppers, fried fish cakes with a chili cucumber sauce and fish ball curry. After that, we hurried back to our apartment, got out of our sweat-soaked clothes and prepared for epic-fitness day part two: the Hash.
Exotic Animals of Myanmar
Aside from the water buffalo, pictured to the right, we could be in Wisconsin. Goats, cows and pigs galore!
Friday, August 17, 2007
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Monday, August 13, 2007
Experiencing mild case of cheese withdrawal
Things here are good, except for the mild case of cheese withdrawal I am experiencing. I went to yoga tonight with the other young female teachers and then we went out for ok-tasting italian food that I absolutely loved because I have been craving western food with cheese. It was the first time i have had cheese or dairy in two weeks and it was delicious. The milk here is unpasteurized so I have been avoiding it for a number of reasons and just drinking soy milk. Soy milk isn't bad and can actually be enjoyable. Its only when it is paired with a complete lack of other dairy products, that it equals an unhappy combination for a girl of wisconsin stock.
Good News of the Day
I found out that you can buy pretty good bread and cake from a wine store within the resort we live at, so that just made my day. So far at the grocery store here, I have only been able to find bad white bread or something that looks like a baguette but without any type of crust. There really aren't desserts here other than fresh fruit, which is delicious, but sometimes you just want cake, ice cream, good chocolate or a gooey brownie. So slowly I am discovering happy western treasures in Yangon and it is making me very happy. The variety of Asian food is fabulous but I am a big believer in variety of all types of culinary delights.
Tomorrow, Andrew and i are going to go bike shopping with our neighbor and school gym teacher, Donald. If our luck is good we hope to buy two bikes tomorrow, but we will see. We just exchanged $300 US dollars for 384,000 kyat (the currency of Myanmar). The kyat is a funny currency in that the largest bill is only a 1000 kyat, so we have 384 single 1000 kyat bills. Living here, you slowly get used to carrying large chunks of bills around. Most things are only around 200kyat to 4000kyat (which is only a couple of bills) but since bikes are a large purchase and there are no credit cards here, we will be carrying a bag of cash-ola with us tomorrow. Thank god this is a buddhist country where people don't steal due to bad karma : )
Good News of the Day
I found out that you can buy pretty good bread and cake from a wine store within the resort we live at, so that just made my day. So far at the grocery store here, I have only been able to find bad white bread or something that looks like a baguette but without any type of crust. There really aren't desserts here other than fresh fruit, which is delicious, but sometimes you just want cake, ice cream, good chocolate or a gooey brownie. So slowly I am discovering happy western treasures in Yangon and it is making me very happy. The variety of Asian food is fabulous but I am a big believer in variety of all types of culinary delights.
Tomorrow, Andrew and i are going to go bike shopping with our neighbor and school gym teacher, Donald. If our luck is good we hope to buy two bikes tomorrow, but we will see. We just exchanged $300 US dollars for 384,000 kyat (the currency of Myanmar). The kyat is a funny currency in that the largest bill is only a 1000 kyat, so we have 384 single 1000 kyat bills. Living here, you slowly get used to carrying large chunks of bills around. Most things are only around 200kyat to 4000kyat (which is only a couple of bills) but since bikes are a large purchase and there are no credit cards here, we will be carrying a bag of cash-ola with us tomorrow. Thank god this is a buddhist country where people don't steal due to bad karma : )
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Getting the feel of the city
A week and a half has gone by and we’re starting to figure out the city and how the way life works here. The first thing we’ve learned to rely on is the fact the Burmese people are truly some of the warmest, kindest and trusting people we have come across, safer then the guys I hang with at home. So when we have any issue: lost, hungry, looking for a store, need emergency beer, people will go out of their way to help. Westerners are obviously not the norm here and the Burmese women clearly like a large beautiful ball of muscle like myself and are always smiling my way.
I have a few favorite restaurants, while actually I mean one favorite restaurant that we’ve been to 5 times already. It’s a great 5-minute walk from the hotel and it is a Yunnan style BBQ called Yunnan 13. You do not have to wait to order, it has great service and two people dining there can enjoy four beers can get filled up with the best food for around 9 bucks. How it works… you walk in, go to this cooler that you pick your speared meats and vegetable to have bbq’d. The fish mutton and mushroom are a must! They also have some interesting things like sparrow with heads on and dried fish as well. (I have had both, with the sparrow being a bit graphic when you start the chewing process and crack the skull.) After you’ve picked your eats, restaurant girls in the back grill your food over a charcoal fire. Cats roam the place, including under your table looking for scraps. There usually are 30-50 people eating at the place with 30-40 staff waiting on you. I have gotten to know a few by name and they already now what I drink and where we like to sit. We took some pics which we will share with you on this blog.
Yesterday we also went to the river and checked it out. Lots of wooden boats and ferries with people carrying most of the supplies and goods on their back. I hope to find a kiting area on the river upstream. I don’t think the water is the cleanest i.e. dead dog floating in the river. So I’m not going to ride by the city itself. There are lots of huge timbers being loaded on modern ocean ships. I was planning on going fishing at the lake for the first time but the rain has turned on. I hope to head out in an hour. All the best and we’ll keep posting.
I have a few favorite restaurants, while actually I mean one favorite restaurant that we’ve been to 5 times already. It’s a great 5-minute walk from the hotel and it is a Yunnan style BBQ called Yunnan 13. You do not have to wait to order, it has great service and two people dining there can enjoy four beers can get filled up with the best food for around 9 bucks. How it works… you walk in, go to this cooler that you pick your speared meats and vegetable to have bbq’d. The fish mutton and mushroom are a must! They also have some interesting things like sparrow with heads on and dried fish as well. (I have had both, with the sparrow being a bit graphic when you start the chewing process and crack the skull.) After you’ve picked your eats, restaurant girls in the back grill your food over a charcoal fire. Cats roam the place, including under your table looking for scraps. There usually are 30-50 people eating at the place with 30-40 staff waiting on you. I have gotten to know a few by name and they already now what I drink and where we like to sit. We took some pics which we will share with you on this blog.
Yesterday we also went to the river and checked it out. Lots of wooden boats and ferries with people carrying most of the supplies and goods on their back. I hope to find a kiting area on the river upstream. I don’t think the water is the cleanest i.e. dead dog floating in the river. So I’m not going to ride by the city itself. There are lots of huge timbers being loaded on modern ocean ships. I was planning on going fishing at the lake for the first time but the rain has turned on. I hope to head out in an hour. All the best and we’ll keep posting.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Beer massage
While I was out with the girls last night at the Strand, Andrew went out with the boys and had an adventure of his own. The male teachers from last year went to take him to something they call a beer massage, which is really a massage palour in the basement of a hotel where you can drink beer and smoke a cigar while getting a massage. The funny thing is that the place looks like whorehouse, but it isn’t. It is only a massage palor. The guys go and choose a girl to give them a massage. Because the Myanmar women are not allowed to actually touch the men, all the men have to wear these long pajamas while getting a massage (women luckily can actually receive an oil massage because Myanmar women can touch other women). So all the men lay on tables together in the massage room and receive the most painful massage of their life. It is a type of Thai massage where they are stepped on and their bodies are twisted in all sorts of weird ways. I guess it is so painful you are relieved when it is over. The guys go not because they like it but because it is so funny. They spend half of the time laughing at each other in pain.
I guess Andrew was laughing so hard (in his high pitched cackle) that a massage girl actually came over, slapped him in his face and told him to shut up : ) You might ask why would I let my husband go to such a place? Well, the answer is …it’s a rite of passage, we’re here and he might as well try it. Also knowing that Andrew is the least flexible person on this planet, I thought it would be funny for him to have his body painfully twisted into positions he could never achieve by himself. Ahh….yes, these are the experiences we live for!
I guess Andrew was laughing so hard (in his high pitched cackle) that a massage girl actually came over, slapped him in his face and told him to shut up : ) You might ask why would I let my husband go to such a place? Well, the answer is …it’s a rite of passage, we’re here and he might as well try it. Also knowing that Andrew is the least flexible person on this planet, I thought it would be funny for him to have his body painfully twisted into positions he could never achieve by himself. Ahh….yes, these are the experiences we live for!
Friday Night Social Hour
Even though I am on the other side of the world, it doesn't necessarily feel that way, which is a good thing. I haven't gotten homesick yet but I am sure it will happen at some point in the year. Since we have gotten here, we have just been busy getting ready for school, meeting the other teachers and going out to eat. This place is strangely amazing. Unlike the rest of Southeast Asia, it is not really modernized, only a bit here and there, so it feels like it is colonial days only you are not oppressing anyone. There is a very small (maybe around 200-300 or so) and tight ex-pat community of Americans, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders and British. There seem to be numerous expat social events to go to and everyone is always up for getting together, drinking, eating good food and dancing.
For example, last night there was a happy hour social at the Lake Resort where we live. Almost all of the teachers at our school were there as well as teachers from the other international school ISY and Australians who work for the English language newspaper Myanmar Times. Everyone seemed to know one another and enjoy having a good time. We all drank and had snacks and then most people went to the Strand for a continued happy hour.
The Strand is a very fancy British hotel left over for colonial days and is the place in town to get a fantastic mixed drink. Other places in Myanmar have beer and maybe some hard liquor and wine. The Strand is the crème de la crème and the big social scene for Friday night. My friend Kristy ordered me a champagne cocktail (which was only $4 –this is very expensive for Myanmar) and it was amazing. This was probably the fanciest drink I have ever had, it was champagne with a bit of sugar and bitters mixed at the bottom. To top it off, they actually put shavings of gold leaf about the size of postage stamps into the champagne cocktail. Talk about living the high life. –Where else do they put actual gold in your drink? I didn’t actually ingest the gold leaf as that seemed like a bad thing to do but took it out with my finger and spread it on my wallet, which now has gold smears on it. I think that experience demonstrates the bizarreness of this place. I also had another drink called a bagan breeze, which is very similar to a mojito and delicious.
Other social events I am look forward to partaking in with expats include a Sunday volleyball league at the American Club followed by a girls softball league from Nov-Mar at the American Club, and a once a month social at the British club on Fridays.
So far most people seem really nice, but its like living the life of the rich and famous. Very bizarre for us Midwestern folk. Some people are very down to earth, while I think others are trying to relive colonial days. I am going to hang out with the people who seem down to earth and just like to have a good time without being snobby.
Some of the things I really like so far = the food it has been delicious, although I foresee getting sick of it in a few months and really crazing some good western food. There are places to get good bread and cheese and pizza, but I am holding out on those until I desperately need them.
The prices are good. You can live unbelievably well even though you are not wealthy. Rumor has it a good pedicure is only $4 and a good 2 hour massage only $15. I am definitely going to investigate those.
The weather has been good. Not too hot-yes, it is humid but sometimes it actually feels nice.
Not so good things:
It takes a while to do things because you have to take taxis everywhere and we don’t really know the city all that well yet.
It gets dark at 6:30-7pm---I love long summer nights, oh well.It is the rainy season. While the rain cools it down, we have rarely seen the sun. I thought I would get tan here but instead I am resorting back to my Wisconsin winter paleness. Oh the irony!!!
For example, last night there was a happy hour social at the Lake Resort where we live. Almost all of the teachers at our school were there as well as teachers from the other international school ISY and Australians who work for the English language newspaper Myanmar Times. Everyone seemed to know one another and enjoy having a good time. We all drank and had snacks and then most people went to the Strand for a continued happy hour.
The Strand is a very fancy British hotel left over for colonial days and is the place in town to get a fantastic mixed drink. Other places in Myanmar have beer and maybe some hard liquor and wine. The Strand is the crème de la crème and the big social scene for Friday night. My friend Kristy ordered me a champagne cocktail (which was only $4 –this is very expensive for Myanmar) and it was amazing. This was probably the fanciest drink I have ever had, it was champagne with a bit of sugar and bitters mixed at the bottom. To top it off, they actually put shavings of gold leaf about the size of postage stamps into the champagne cocktail. Talk about living the high life. –Where else do they put actual gold in your drink? I didn’t actually ingest the gold leaf as that seemed like a bad thing to do but took it out with my finger and spread it on my wallet, which now has gold smears on it. I think that experience demonstrates the bizarreness of this place. I also had another drink called a bagan breeze, which is very similar to a mojito and delicious.
Other social events I am look forward to partaking in with expats include a Sunday volleyball league at the American Club followed by a girls softball league from Nov-Mar at the American Club, and a once a month social at the British club on Fridays.
So far most people seem really nice, but its like living the life of the rich and famous. Very bizarre for us Midwestern folk. Some people are very down to earth, while I think others are trying to relive colonial days. I am going to hang out with the people who seem down to earth and just like to have a good time without being snobby.
Some of the things I really like so far = the food it has been delicious, although I foresee getting sick of it in a few months and really crazing some good western food. There are places to get good bread and cheese and pizza, but I am holding out on those until I desperately need them.
The prices are good. You can live unbelievably well even though you are not wealthy. Rumor has it a good pedicure is only $4 and a good 2 hour massage only $15. I am definitely going to investigate those.
The weather has been good. Not too hot-yes, it is humid but sometimes it actually feels nice.
Not so good things:
It takes a while to do things because you have to take taxis everywhere and we don’t really know the city all that well yet.
It gets dark at 6:30-7pm---I love long summer nights, oh well.It is the rainy season. While the rain cools it down, we have rarely seen the sun. I thought I would get tan here but instead I am resorting back to my Wisconsin winter paleness. Oh the irony!!!
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
A Real Life Social Studies Experiment
Myanmar is a world of contrasts. Take for example our classrooms in Yangon vs the view outside of our rooms of a squatter's village. Andrew informed me that yesterday while setting up his classroom he had the pleasure of viewing and hearing two dogs having sex.
Saturday, August 4, 2007
This place is amazing!!
Things in Yangon are very good. Email hasn’t been working the best, problems with plugs blowing fuses and buying the wrong adapters and having to get new ones and the fact that the Internet is so extremely slow. The other teachers said it is slower than last year and that may be due to the fact that the capital has moved to another city other than Yangon and the internet power has been routed that way as well.
Besides that, there have been no problems with power. The Dusit Lake Resort where we are living is beautiful. The outside looks a little run down, but the rooms are huge with 12 foot ceilings and windows, a huge porch (that looks right into a huge tree- this is good for bird watching but not good for catching a sunset), teak floors and closets with built-in shelves. We have a television that gets BBC, CNN Asia, the Discovery Channel and ESPN. While flipping through this morning, we found a Cubs vs. Kansas city baseball game on; we are hoping we may get football games in the fall.
The only downfall of our rooms is the kitchen. It is small and only has two hotplates, a toaster, microwave, blender and small fridge. We are trying to get the resort to give us pots and pans and bowls and mugs. Right now we only have 3 plates, a casserole dish and 2 forks, butter knives, spoons, etc. This is the first year the Dusit has had these apartments, so they are still some bugs to work out.
We are going to look into buying bikes next week. The gym teacher here is from Colorado and is a bike enthusiast who will take people bike shopping. His wife, another teacher, is about my age, named Kristy, and is fantastic. She lives right across the hall from us and has been fun to hang around with. She may take us to see a famous Burmese rapper tonight. She said the concerts last 4-5 hours instead of the normal 45 minutes in America.
The weird and cool thing about Myanmar is that is seems extremely safe and people are so incredibly nice to you. You almost feel like royalty. People open doors for you, always smile at you, help you with you groceries, help translate where you want to go in town to the taxi drivers. Speaking of which, we take taxis everywhere. To get anywhere in town, it costs between $1-$3. The taxi cabs are beat-up and look like the gypsy cab company in the movie The Royal Tennenbaums. Andrew’s middle school principal is a riot and reminds us of Bill Murray, not the older Bill Murray but the middle-aged one from Ground-Hog Day and What About Bob.
All the men here were longhyis, which are pieces of fabric worn like skirts. It is a very cool look, one I may try to convince Andrew to take on. The people themselves are very modest and polite. They look like a cross between people of Indian descent mixed with people of Thai descent. We went wandering around downtown the other day and it felt like we were in India. There are people everywhere with stalls selling food to bags to junk. It can be very crowded in the downtown area but not where we are living. Even with the mass amounts of people, no one bumps into you or pushes you. A lot of people are interested in practicing their English. We’ve had a number of people come up to us and start a conversation about how we like Myanmar, what we do, where we are going including a young novice monk. At first, like many Westerners, you start to think that this person may be trying to scam you, but they are not. They are just curious and just wanted to say hi. It’s a little crazy.
Since there are very few white people here compared to the rest of Southeast Asia, you are still a novelty in some sorts and it is very nice. I know I said you feel like royalty, but its true. You feel very wealthy and priviledged here, which is so foreign to us Wisconsinites. We can afford to eat at the best restaurants, take taxis everywhere, can easily buy things that would be expensive for the rest of the population and live at these beautiful places. Our resort has this amazing breakfast buffet we went to the first morning because we had nothing to eat and they had everything you could possibly want. It is in this big ballroom with tables overlooking the lake. Someone helps you into your seat and to eat there are fish soups, stirfried rice, noodle veggie stirfry, crab stirfry, naan bread, curries, pancakes, eggs, sausage, smoked fish, yogurt, fresh fruit, granola, cold cuts, pastries and an assortment of juice. This fancy breakfast is only $10 american. This is expensive for Myanmar but still it is incredible for $10. Andrew and I decided to go here for breakfast for special occasions like Canada Day and Presidents Day.
The bathroom in our room is a normal western style toilet, but many toilets elsewhere are very peculiar. There is usually a western style toilet or a squatting style toilet and a spray hose that looks exactly like a kitchen spray hose, used to spray down your sink or wash large pots or pans, attached to the toilet. Now, the weird thing is that, if this spray hose is used to wash oneself, how come there is usually no toilet paper. I don’t really want to sit around in wet britches. As a result, I have acquired the new habit of making sure I have some Kleenex in my purse when we go out.
Lastly, I would like to talk about the weather. It is not that bad. It is very humid but it hasn’t been that hot. We actually turn off the air conditioning in our rooms frequently because it gets to be too cold. It rains everyday, which really cools things off. When the sun is shining outside, it is definitely warm, but it never shines for long since this is the rainy season. So, I guess I would say that it is very tolerable right now.
Both Andrew and I have had some stomach ailments since we’ve been here but nothing too bad. I think we must be just getting used to new bacteria. Hopefully, this will end soon but it’s not anything too serious.
Other than that, we are doing well, enjoying Myanmar and excited about our new year here. It will be a very interesting year!
Besides that, there have been no problems with power. The Dusit Lake Resort where we are living is beautiful. The outside looks a little run down, but the rooms are huge with 12 foot ceilings and windows, a huge porch (that looks right into a huge tree- this is good for bird watching but not good for catching a sunset), teak floors and closets with built-in shelves. We have a television that gets BBC, CNN Asia, the Discovery Channel and ESPN. While flipping through this morning, we found a Cubs vs. Kansas city baseball game on; we are hoping we may get football games in the fall.
The only downfall of our rooms is the kitchen. It is small and only has two hotplates, a toaster, microwave, blender and small fridge. We are trying to get the resort to give us pots and pans and bowls and mugs. Right now we only have 3 plates, a casserole dish and 2 forks, butter knives, spoons, etc. This is the first year the Dusit has had these apartments, so they are still some bugs to work out.
We are going to look into buying bikes next week. The gym teacher here is from Colorado and is a bike enthusiast who will take people bike shopping. His wife, another teacher, is about my age, named Kristy, and is fantastic. She lives right across the hall from us and has been fun to hang around with. She may take us to see a famous Burmese rapper tonight. She said the concerts last 4-5 hours instead of the normal 45 minutes in America.
The weird and cool thing about Myanmar is that is seems extremely safe and people are so incredibly nice to you. You almost feel like royalty. People open doors for you, always smile at you, help you with you groceries, help translate where you want to go in town to the taxi drivers. Speaking of which, we take taxis everywhere. To get anywhere in town, it costs between $1-$3. The taxi cabs are beat-up and look like the gypsy cab company in the movie The Royal Tennenbaums. Andrew’s middle school principal is a riot and reminds us of Bill Murray, not the older Bill Murray but the middle-aged one from Ground-Hog Day and What About Bob.
All the men here were longhyis, which are pieces of fabric worn like skirts. It is a very cool look, one I may try to convince Andrew to take on. The people themselves are very modest and polite. They look like a cross between people of Indian descent mixed with people of Thai descent. We went wandering around downtown the other day and it felt like we were in India. There are people everywhere with stalls selling food to bags to junk. It can be very crowded in the downtown area but not where we are living. Even with the mass amounts of people, no one bumps into you or pushes you. A lot of people are interested in practicing their English. We’ve had a number of people come up to us and start a conversation about how we like Myanmar, what we do, where we are going including a young novice monk. At first, like many Westerners, you start to think that this person may be trying to scam you, but they are not. They are just curious and just wanted to say hi. It’s a little crazy.
Since there are very few white people here compared to the rest of Southeast Asia, you are still a novelty in some sorts and it is very nice. I know I said you feel like royalty, but its true. You feel very wealthy and priviledged here, which is so foreign to us Wisconsinites. We can afford to eat at the best restaurants, take taxis everywhere, can easily buy things that would be expensive for the rest of the population and live at these beautiful places. Our resort has this amazing breakfast buffet we went to the first morning because we had nothing to eat and they had everything you could possibly want. It is in this big ballroom with tables overlooking the lake. Someone helps you into your seat and to eat there are fish soups, stirfried rice, noodle veggie stirfry, crab stirfry, naan bread, curries, pancakes, eggs, sausage, smoked fish, yogurt, fresh fruit, granola, cold cuts, pastries and an assortment of juice. This fancy breakfast is only $10 american. This is expensive for Myanmar but still it is incredible for $10. Andrew and I decided to go here for breakfast for special occasions like Canada Day and Presidents Day.
The bathroom in our room is a normal western style toilet, but many toilets elsewhere are very peculiar. There is usually a western style toilet or a squatting style toilet and a spray hose that looks exactly like a kitchen spray hose, used to spray down your sink or wash large pots or pans, attached to the toilet. Now, the weird thing is that, if this spray hose is used to wash oneself, how come there is usually no toilet paper. I don’t really want to sit around in wet britches. As a result, I have acquired the new habit of making sure I have some Kleenex in my purse when we go out.
Lastly, I would like to talk about the weather. It is not that bad. It is very humid but it hasn’t been that hot. We actually turn off the air conditioning in our rooms frequently because it gets to be too cold. It rains everyday, which really cools things off. When the sun is shining outside, it is definitely warm, but it never shines for long since this is the rainy season. So, I guess I would say that it is very tolerable right now.
Both Andrew and I have had some stomach ailments since we’ve been here but nothing too bad. I think we must be just getting used to new bacteria. Hopefully, this will end soon but it’s not anything too serious.
Other than that, we are doing well, enjoying Myanmar and excited about our new year here. It will be a very interesting year!
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