Westmont on fire

48 hours ago, I was preparing with my Constitutional Law group, going over our notes for our mock trial in front of the “Supreme Court” (aka, our professor) that would count for a significant part of our grade. A group of my friends and I had decided we were going to go see Quantum of Solace, the new James Bond film, at the midnight showing. This, along with my typical “it’s Thursday night, I’m watching the Office” was my motivation to get through my 3 hour class. 

Around 5:30, our group went into the library, heading toward the computer lab in the basement, printing out our merit briefs and offering encouraging pep-talks words to one another before marching into our class in the Physics classroom, all dressed to impress, lawyer-style. At that moment, another member of our group came racing in: “Hey guys, class is cancelled. There’s a huge fire right above Westmont and Dr. Fogg is getting off campus to his family.” 

Our first reaction was the typical “What?” followed by “No class, well lucky us!” We pushed open the side door, met by an enclave of smoke, bringing to mind all those “great” Sacramento summer nights I just experienced last summer. We raced across the library until we were standing in front of where our class would have been held, staring up at the freshman dorm, Page Hall. We were met by a large, glowing fire that had not been there fifteen minutes before. 

After a moment of “Whoa” our instincts kicked in. All those fire warnings last fall Westmont reiterated again and again as all of Southern California burned paid off- myself and two other girls in our group turned and sprinted, in our heels mind you, toward the gym, the designated safe location for not only Westmont students, but all the Montecito community in the case of a fire. 

Running down the hill, I was about to call my mom when I stopped in mid-dial and called my best friend in said, telling her to make her way down to the gym. She and my roommates were already at the gym. Three of our friends, who had seen the fire erupt from our dorm on lower campus, grabbed their computers and bolted campus while they still could. They camped in Ventura the rest of the night, watching the news online while we waited it out in the gym. 

The editor in chief of Westmont’s newspaper, the Horizon, Rob, was also in my Constitutional law group and was able to make it back to his off-campus apartments, calling me on the way, telling me he was updating the blog and start getting quotes. I began talking to freshman I knew and snapping pictures with my phone, not believing the quality would actually depict what I was trying to convey. Little did I know those photos would be the only visual source hundreds of people would have about our lockdown situation for the rest of the night.

In all honesty, when I saw the fire, even though I was so close, I thought it would pass over us. I saw a range of emotions as I got into the gym, and did not understand why people were crying. One of my friends, who is not a US citizen, asked her roommate to grab her passport and I thought, “Why? It’s going to pass right over us.” 

As our time in the gym got longer, the prospect of our beautiful campus actually being on fire began to seep in. I began thinking of Clark Halls, where I lived freshman year and was on upper campus. I began thinking of Bauder Hall, the psychology department where all my suite mates study. I thought about if the fire got to Van Kampen Halls, our dormitory, and the fact I didn’t have my laptop with all my photos from Uganda, Thailand, and the last year and a half at Westmont. I thought about all of that but each time it was trumped by one fact: I’m okay. My friends are okay. That’s all that matters.  

Despite this, that didn’t make the prospect of losing so much so quickly any better.  As I was making one of my news editor updates on the phone to Rob, he asked me if the campus was on fire. I looked at my friend, who is an RA, and asked him, “Is the school on fire?” He paused, than said, “Yes, but don’t tell anyone.” I took a deep breath (but not too big, because the smoke in the gym was getting pretty bad) and told Rob, “Do not print this, okay? Westmont is on fire.” His response was the same one I got from everyone: “Ok, then I’m going to start praying.” At some point, it was all we could do. 

Throughout the night, friends of mine from Isla Vista, my old RA, my parents, all called me in addition to countless texts from all over. When it was closing in on three hours, Stu Cleek, associate dean of student life, got on the intercom, as he had throughout the night, and informed us that all the buildings were intact, including the Dining Commons (which received a rousing applause from the 800 people in the gym) and that the perimeter around the gym was secure. Settling back to watch The Incredibles, I thought the worst was behind us and the biggest issue we would have would be combating the large amount of smoke in the air. 

However, a few hours later, President Beebe, who left his family to stay in the gym with us, got on the intercom and told us a few buildings had been destroyed: the Math Building, (which was scheduled to be destroyed in the Master Plan), the Physics Building (where my class would have been held) and additional storage units that were going to be destroyed in the demolition in the Master Plan. Then, he said, “Bauter Hall is gone. Clark Halls is currently engulfed in flames.” I was speechless- all the work I knew the Psychology department had done, gone. Potential rooms of freshmen students were on fire.

Over the next hour I learned that Mark the RD’s house, where he had lived for almost 30 years as resident director for Clark, was completely destroyed. Clark S, a men’s dorm right next to Bauter Hall, had a roof collapsed. And then I heard Clark M was gone- the building where I spent my entire freshman year and both Mayterms. It is the only home I have ever known in Clark. When I heard this, I called Rob and he asked me if I had a source. After hearing this, a student from the Clark section of the gym walked passed me with his friend, breaking down with uncontrollable sobs. I stood in silence and then said, “My source is standing in front of me.”

We learned the majority of the buildings were saved on campus, but faculty housing was a different story: as morning dawned, we learned 14 faculty members had lost their homes in Las Barancas, the faculty housing Westmont built adjacent to the campus for professors. While they haven’t officially released the names yet, the ones who have leave me just aching with sadness. In addition to 35-60 students losing their rooms, now we have so many professors who are homeless.

I fell asleep sharing a cot with my roommate, praying I would wake up with no new news. After a restless amount of sleep due to the cold air and the smoke, about 2 or 3 hours later, I awoke, realizing this wasn’t some confusing dream. 

We had tried to get out of the gym during the night, but due to where our friends’ cars were parked, they wouldn’t let us out. At 8:30 on Friday morning, they started permitting us to be driven to the VK parking lot, get our cars, and drive to a place of refuge until the school would permit us back on campus. Kristen, my roommate from freshman year and also from Sacramento, said she was going home and asked if I wanted to come. The last thing I wanted to do was go back to Sac when everyone I knew was here, so I got in the care with the rest of my suite mates and headed for Ventura, where the rest of our friend group had spent the night. 

We were the first group driven back to VK and went with three of our friends who are also RAs in VK. As we got out of the car and stared at our dormitory, we were amazed to actually see it still standing. The vegetation around the dorm was still smoldering – it was then we realized just how close the flames had gotten to our homes. 

As we headed toward our cars, our RA looked at the dorms, looked at us, and said, “Go get your stuff.” Quickly, we went upstairs, unlocked our doors, and stared into our rooms, the ones I had spent a good part of the night believing might be gone. Thankfully, our windows had been shut so we didn’t even have a lot of ash in the room. Except for the fact it smelled like a bunch of chain smokers had spent the night, everything was safe. 

With only a few minutes, we grabbed clothes, phone chargers, our computers, and any other valuables we could remember. I finally changed out of my “lawyer clothes” slipped on my rainbows, and grabbed the contact solution and glasses I desired all night.

We parted ways in the parking lot, one car going to Sac, the other to Ventura. We drove at speeds we probably shouldn’t have but were so relieved to finally be in a home, away from cots and a smoke-filled gym. The news was on, but I didn’t want to watch, instead I watched the Daily Show to dull my mind and laugh about something. Friday morning, the governor declared Santa Barbara county a state of emergency.

I talked to countless people all day, wrote an article, and attempted to get the smoke smell out of my hair in a shower. My friend Wes and I decided since we both have places to stay in Santa Barbara, we wanted to head back, especially when they opened the campus back up to students. I am currently at Jill Hurd’s house, my mom’s freshman roommate from UCSB, and they have done more for me than I could possibly have needed.

After about 12 hours of sleep, I am doing better. I bought a few random things at Old Navy today and have been trying to get in contact with administration with some questions concerning upcoming articles I will be writing. As of Saturday afternoon, the school hopes to start up classes on Wednesday, which means having us possibly move back in at the earliest on Tuesday. However, this is all subject to change. 

Thank you so much for the amount of prayer and well wishes that have been directed toward Westmont these past few days, they have been felt. If you wish to stay updated on what is going on, I encourage all of you to visit:

the Westmont website: http://www.westmont.edu/

the Horizon website: http://horizon.westmont.edu/

What is important is that no Westmont student or faculty member was harmed in this whole ordeal. We are safe, albeit homeless but the community outpour has been tremendous, thank you to everyone who has facebooked me offering a place to crash – it has not gone unnoticed. 

I’m waiting it out here then, maybe doing some homework (although all my friends think I’m crazy). The Westmont men’s soccer team was suppose to play APU in the playoffs today, but APU postponed it to Monday before the NAIA league even proposed it. Allison, my little sister who is a sophomore at APU, told me the school prayed for Westmont in chapel on Friday and the school as a whole has been really supportive of Westmont. I might go over on Monday and cheer the soccer team, which I was planning on doing today if I had finished my homework. I guess if there ever were a time to cheer on my school, it would be now…

Oh, and I finally might see Quantum of Solace tonight…better late than never. 

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me here or email me or call my parents. Again, thanks for all the support, we will continue to need it in the days ahead!

 

till next time,

Sarah

back at the mont

Some people are amazing in their ability to keep up with blogs.

I am not one of those people.

It has been about three months since I landed in LAX from my brief but amazing stay in Thailand and now I find myself in one of my favorite places in the world- Santa Barbara. I’m about to start my third year at Westmont with the unit status of a senior, but still am barely going to squeak through four years with this double major and my obsession of packing up and leaving soon after I arrived.

I don’t know how good I will be about posting here, but there have been multiple times I have wanted to just throw something up here since returning, sometimes related to Thailand, sometimes not. We will see how it works out.

Regardless, today is the first day of class and my godsister Lizzie’s 7th birthday, so that’s always a reason to commemorate a day online.

Till next time,

Sarah

california here i come

Hello everyone, I am finally writing this post while being back in the United States of America, specifically Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California, which has been experiencing some rather unpleasant weather, but that in no way can mask its beauty nor damper the happiness I have finally being back here. I’m sorry this post was not more immediate, like my last day in Chiang Mai or the first day I got back, but there were many other activities I wanted to accomplish before logging onto a computer…I hope you all understand.

Songkrang was everything I expected it to be and more, including buying large slabs of ice, placing them in our coolers and dousing everyone we came in contact with an icy surprise. We paid dearly for our actions, but it was so much fun. We left early Monday morning to head back to Musekee (the name of the village, in case I have not already mentioned that). We were all somewhat bummed to leave so early on Monday, especially when, on a break on the road, we asked what we had to do in the village and were met with “oh, free day!…..so why did we have to leave Chiang Mai so early? However, by that time in the trip, we just figured out there are some things we just do not understand and equally have no control over.

The last two weeks were devoted to pursuing additional interviews with residents in the community who could help us with our research papers. My friend Lauren and I decided to write about the changing environmental issues in the community and the different actions that have been taken to prevent some of these problems. It was a fascinating topic and since our paper was 28 pages long, I feel that it does not do justice to discuss it in passing here in this blog entry. Basically, the Karen people have had this conservationalist mentality for generations and it has effected much of how they see nature; that they should always be in constant harmony with it.

I did a lot of traveling to different homes, families, and research projects throughout the community. As fate would have it, when we all had our computers and were in need of power, the power tended to go out even more, resulting in my having an interview with me, my translator and friend Kae, and a teacher from one of the local junior highs, by candlelight and an assortment of insects that were attracted to the flame. We were able to make it back in the pitch blackness by the light of Kae’s cell phone and made it into our houses before all hell broke loose in a rainstorm.

However, the rain and power outages in no way stopped the heat coming on often in the late afternoon. It was not until the last few days that we finally experienced rain all day and actually felt pleasantly cool. The rest of the time, such as the Sunday of my birthday, it was extremely hot…actually, now that I think about it, my birthday was probably the worst heat wise and things got better after that.

And yes, my golden birthday of twenty years was a great experience in the village. Everyone was really nice about wishing me a happy birthday and I received a loaf of banana bread as my birthday cake, which makes me pretty happy. I also shared my cake mix I brought with everyone, which made the whole group pretty happy.

Now, anyone who knows me knows I have a very minimal understanding of technology, to the point where it could a problem working in the twenty-first century with this dependence upon electronics. However, as most also know, this is often not my fault, but usually the blame should fall on my “chaos hands” or simply my inability to read instructions on a computer screen (if it were on paper, I’m sure it would not be a problem). Well, I had gone the entire semester with no technology problems. None. I had even written 11 pages of our paper before Lauren finally began some of her own thoughts to the mix. And then the storm came. And while our documents were saved on the desktop, there was a virus, and three days before our paper was due we lost everything I had written. I blamed myself really for not having found someone else’s flashdrive (mine stopped working) and saved it there, so I wasn’t too upset, and besides, what does frustration do in that situation? So we sat down at the internet cafe, where Eddy allowed us to use his computers, and began once again to write out our paper. In one day I wrote 9 pages and the next day was able to polish up 14 pages. Lauren commented I truly was an IB kid- I would hope after seven years, some of that would have stuck.

The last few days we all began missing home and just wanting to see our loved ones once again. We also accomplished some of what I consider the most impressive feats of the month – watching the entire first season of arrested development. We had a talent show on the last Sunday, which varied from 11 of us girls dressed as the 11 boys and performing what I consider a rather accurate impersonation, an original SST ballad, and a boy band dance. It was memorable to say the least! The last night we had a farewell dinner with our friends in Musekee. Many of the young girls whom we had befriended began to cry at the thought of us leaving, and our hearts were equally broken with that thought as we pulled out that morning.

Chiang Mai consisted of shopping at Gat Luang, or the Day Market (not what it means, but it’s what the farang call it) with Kara, who needed to find lice-free clothing for herself since she and about five other girls on our trip had contracted these pesky little visitors. Kara took it as a sign she should just go through with the extreme and shave her head, so Thursday night consisted of that little adventure! Friday was our last dinner together and before we could realize it, it was a gloomy Saturday morning and the waterworks were already beginning as we said goodbye to the first group of seven people traveling for an extra week to a Karen refugee camp on the Burma and Thai border. For anyone wondering, they have not been effected by the cyclone, thankfully, and we did not experience any weather problems as we flew home on Saturday.

Saturday was an emotional day for many of us, but not all, as we all slowly realized we would no longer be together as an SST family. I know I will see many of these people again, but it seems so odd to not be hearing them around me or seeing them in class on a daily basis. I don’t believe I have experienced true re-entry culture shock yet, since I am currently amusing myself with these amazing classes in Mayterm and reveling in the joy of having five weeks to live back at Westmont. While many of my friends here want to be home already, I just keep telling them I am home.

Our group diminished throughout the day until Saturday evening, ten of us arrived at LAX and I finally got to see my parents and sister after four months. My mom came prepared with my favorite sweater telling me I would probably want it, and boy was she right – I am so cold here! We had a rental car and the CRV to hold all of Ali’s things from packing up from APU and then all my belongings, and then we drove to Westmont.

I don’t know if I stressed enough how much I missed people at Westmont this semester, but I did, in ways I do not even know how to express. Saturday night, though I was tired, I did not sleep. Instead, I was shown a video that was intended for me to watch on my birthday in the village, but instead I did it here and opened up my birthday gifts. After the important activities, aka watching the four episodes of the Office that I missed, it was about 3:30 in the morning and time for our tradition at the close of every semester – going to Denny’s at 4 in the morning for breakfast before taking my friend Wes to the airport for his God-early flight back to Texas. I opted for a hamburger; I had eaten a lot of pancakes in the last month.

The past few days have been re-adjusting times back in Clark M, the same dorm (but different room) I lived in my freshman year. There are so many little things that I miss, like the beautiful flowers, and still other things I never noticed about Westmont before, like that the nature around here is fairly quiet…although I do not know if anything can top those demon-possessed trees!

There is probably so much that I left out of this blog entry and much of the excitement has been diffused due to the fact I am simply so relieved to be home. It’s an odd sensation to feel so content and excited about being back, but still missing much from Thailand. I was showing my pictures to my friend Ali a few nights ago and I was reminded of all that I did more than two months ago and thought “Oh yeah, that was fun.”

Thank you all for putting up with my ramblings and enjoying my photos this past semester. I cannot believe that all just flew by and another year of my undergraduate education is completed. There is so much I have taken from this experience and hopefully I shared with you all a tad bit of the insight I have acknowledged – hopefully much more will come down the road. There is much to talk about and see in this wonderful country formally known as Siam – I hope one day most of you will visit “real Thailand (aka not just the beaches) and if you do, can I come?

Till next time,

Sarah

ps- you thought I wouldn’t at least put some pictures up?

our bedroom. you can’t really see sarah clemmer’s pink lair next to our large blue net, but we called it her princess bed. princess…sarah…..okay, it’s funny if you have the name!

one of my many paths for walking around the area

Me and Kae, one of the amazing translators and a good friend

Krathai….the phrase “holy mother of pearl” has a new meaning for me

June- she’s been a friend since day 1

volleyball 24/7 in the village….in the rain….

the result of me playing volleyball all afternoon….i’m still trying to get the mountain dust off… although our pedicures in chiang mai helped!

birthdays in musekee.

blowing the 20 candles out.

cake baking round 2 with lindsey, steph and sarah. yes that is a mortar and pestle….

we used it to mix sugar and margarine together to make frosting for our cake…a roy mack mack

Yu Paw and Yu Pi- seven year old twin sisters who two of my favorite people in Thailand.

banana bread round 2 – best 30 baht i ever spent

cutting and eventually shaving kara’s head.

she can pull it off so well!

the sarah’s – clemmer, davis, and rinko- on our last night in chiang mai.

Me and the Piis- Katie and Keith- two of my favorite people. keith’s creepy face is completely intentional.

(notice how wet i am because it outright poured our last night).

our dysfunctional but lovely westmont family.

taipai airport. “children’s playroom.” i guess they want the parents to feel like kids too. (this is the result of putting anxious twenty year olds with a layover that is too short for them to leave the airport, i couldn’t snap the photo in time of security walking over to us as we played on those sweet moving, sliding floors…)

there’s more, but i’ve concluded i have too many pictures!

a weeklong water fight?

Why on earth has the United States not picked up on this amazing holiday? Songkran is I hear the name for the Thailand new year celebration, but really what it signifies is an excuse to throw all hierarchical limitations between people aside for a few days and permit anyone, regardless of age, to pelt another person with a bucket filled with water, ice optional. It always happens at this time of the year in April and is such a fun event, the Spring Semester program decided to make it part of the activities to travel back down to Chiang Mai for the weekend so we could all partake in this experience with the Thais. I think it’s also a secret way for the locals to have more targets to throw at- farang are especially exciting targets to hit amongst all the madness.

It has been over two weeks since I last was sitting in front of a computer and had internet access, and thanks to the wonderful organization of the Westmont registration office, I was not inundated with the stresses of wondering if I were registrared for any classes these past few weeks. Yesterday, Friday morning, we left the village and travelled for five hours down the mountain toward the stifling, triple digit heat of Chiang Mai. On the way down, we were met on the streets with buckets of water and tried, often unsuccessfully, to pelt them back with water we stored in our water bottles. All the water they use is generally the filthy non-drinking kind and usually in Chiang Mai comes from the moats, so there is always the risk of becoming incredibly sick from swallowing it. However, we have a couple of vinegar bottles floating around for such emergencies for killing anything that might accidently be consumed in the madness.

It felt so great to come back to our familiar territory of Chiang Mai. Despite these feelings, our time in the Musakee village the past two weeks have been a great change of pace, although some would say it’s a pace that is becoming a tad too slow for them. We are housed on a compound which normally has students during the school year, and are fed three meals a day and Aj Mike pays them to wash our clothes as well. Our mornings consisted of participating in an anthropology-type class. It was more of an introduction to the study/ethnographic fieldnotes/Aj. Mike having an opportunity to share his experiences with us of living with the Karen people for a year in the same village. However, as he continually reminds us, he is a sociologist teaching an anthropology course, which anyone can tell you is two very different fields of study and something, at least to me, is often lost in the study. Luckily I enjoy anthropology and am pretty good at writing for a long period of time about it on essay questions, so our final on Thursday was not that big of a deal.

This month seems to me to have more of a camp-like feel to it. To pass our time in the afternoon we have resorted to learning how to make friendship bracelets, playing multiple rounds of Mr. Destiny, cards, cutting each other’s hair….the usual. We often have times to travel on a bumpy half hour truck ride to the lake where we can most likely get a better cleaning than any attempts in our bucket showers. Nevertheless, our accomodations have been excellent and the Karen around the compound awesome- often the kids come with us to the lake and often join in a chorus of “pay way naam!” (go swimming!).

So far we have been able to observe a funeral and a wedding here. Unlike in the West, having random foreigners who do not speak your language show up at a significant event in your life is seen as a honor. We make their wedding international or provide a higher status for them. I’m not quite sure how I feel about having my skin tone be a status climber nor do I often feel right being led into a seperate room and provided, with our group of often 12-15 people, an abundunce of food. What is interesting is that, at the wedding, the family had cooked enough food to feel the entire village, which is huge. They don’t know how many people will show up, but everyone knows they are invited and therefore, they have more than enough food to feed us. I know in the US, even if you tell people there is no guest list and everyone is invited, people feel uneasy about randomly showing up- they want to have some sort of formal expectation of arriving. So I suppose culturally, our presence was appreciated, but the nagging feeling I’m only appreciated for the color of my skin and where I come from lingers.

Life moves at a much slower pace on the compound, and while some are starting to acquire cabin fever, I seem to be enjoying it all. I just try to keep myself amused, whether it be by walking around the roads, listening to my music, or attempting to plow through the rest of my books. Things should start switching up once we return and begin our “ethnographies” on a certain topic. My friend and I are researching the environmental impacts in the hills and any implications or conservation efforts that have been made by the Karen and Thai goverment. Surprisingly, we are the first group to ever inquire into what I see as a major topic among these people. It should be interesting, but I don’t really see it as ethnographic work, considering we aren’t living with the people and are visiting them solely for interviews. My mind is starting to perceive this all as an investigation for a newspaper article, which fits just as well for me.

Less than a month until I return to California- it’s so odd to think about and yet we are all starting to become excited by the prospect of returning and partaking in what has only been told to us via email and skype.

Tomorrow we will get a big truck filled with water and participate head on with the craziness of water throwing all around Chiang Mai. It’s been a great break being back in the city and having the reward of being doused in water, not to mention check my email. Once again, I apologize for only having text, but know that there are still some good pictures being taken.

I will most likely throw in one more little blog before boarding a plane on the third, so be looking toward early May for anything around here. I’ll be in the village for two more weeks and then Chiang Mai for two days before leaving on the third. Crazy.

Thanks for all your thoughts for me these past four months. I’ve enjoyed opening up my inbox after two weeks and being pleasently surprised by all the updates on lives or the simple messages from friends. Hopefully all of your lives are going well and the heat of California (if you’re in it) has not kicked in too hard yet.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go practice my bucket throwing techniques.

Till next time,

Sarah

happy easter!

yes, it’s a little delayed, but i hope everyone had a great easter holiday. i was on spring break during the event and was on koh chang, an island on the eastern side of thailand kinda close to cambodia. i’m here with one of my friends and we are somewhat seperated from the rest of the group, which works pretty nice for me since it’s been such a great break. on easter, we woke up early and went to the beach at sunrise, reminicent of both of our experiences with sunrise services at our churches back home. it was pretty different remembering the resurrection of the savior on an island where there are no churches and i’m pretty sure most people didn’t even know it was a holiday.

i forget what i wrote about in my last blog, but i do believe i was in chiang mai when it was written. since then we went on a long week filled field trip down to bangkok. the days were filled with hotel stays, pools, countless games of mafia, a nemo (as in finding) tour bus, humidity, and a myrid of different facial and head hair styles as a result of the termination of the guys “furry february” contest. words are not adaquete- just ask for pictures when i return if you want the full details.

tomorrow we head back up to chiang mai and i’m pretty excited- it’s the closest thing i’ve gotten to going home in the last three monthes. it will be great to be on familiar streets and buildings, but that feeling will be short lived since we will only be there for one day to renew our visas and then it’s off to the karen village- the part of the semester i have been looking forward to the most.

the past week has consisted of me becoming re-connected with the beach that i have missed this entire semester. yesterday anna and i went on a snorkeling day trip and had a blast. we met some people from korea who we later met this evening and chatted with- in fact, they are checking their email right next to me as i write this. we have enjoyed having cable tv in our room and updating ourselves on all the madness of the world and the occassional movie in english on tv. my favorite by far- pride and prejudice. the keira knightly one, but still, any essence of jane austen is bound to make me feel happy!

travelling these past few weeks and living out of a suitcase was somewhat of a challenge for me- i think i just became overwhelmed by all the moving and being on that crazy bus for so long. i enjoyed it the majority of the time, but let’s just say, i’m glad i decided to do a semester in thailand over journeying across all of europe in one semester- i might have gone insane….

being away from home, especially around a holiday, was somewhat hard for me this past week. however, it was nice to have time to relax on this island (even though i have concluded despite all it’s beauties, santa barbara is still #1) before jumping back in with the large group once again in a tiny village.

also, i guess the interent gods have been following me down to the south, because the hotel anna and i found while walking around here our first day also had free internet down in its restaurant- the only free internent i’m pretty sure on this whole island. considering most places try to rip you off because they have a monopoly on everything, i was pretty ecstatic (the price for the hotel is really nice too and the room and service has been wonderful). i should be able to come online a few more times when i am in chiang mai, but other than that, i believe this will be the last full blog you will be able to read for a while. the usb outlet doesn’t work on this computer, so i can’t download any pictures, so just be sure to ask me for them when i get back.

okay, i hope everyone has enjoyed reading these essays of mine and i have enjoyed receiving comments and emails back from everyone. seriously, some days, they have been just what i wanted to hear.

hope everyone is doing well wherever you are reading this.

take care,

sarah

demon possessed trees and bop-it birds

hello everyone! hopefully you have all been busy with your lives and have not stopped to notice i have failed to write on this blog for over two weeks. my sincere apologies- i would say it’s because i’m busy, but i’m sure compared to your hectic lives, i’m probably not. let’s just say i’m enjoying living in another culture, that takes up a lot of time, right?

this is my last week in chiang mai- after this thursday, it’s hit or miss with me and the internet. we will be proceeding down the mainland of thailand from the north where we are in chiang mai to bangkok and then dispersing for our destinations for spring break. we will have internet in the hotels, but won’t be staying there long, and most likely we’ll get something during spring break. however, after that, i’m off to the villages. theoretically, i could get internet service, but i’m determined to absorb the full cultural experience, even though at times it might be crappy i can’t talk to anyone back home.

now, to explain my title, which i thought about for some time. two weekends ago, i went on this silent retreat at the local catholic church here with three other students from the program. one of our assistants, keith, did it when he came to thailand as a student on the SST program and really enjoyed it. i especially liked the time to just sit and think and not be distracted by lots of noise, my voice primarily . i also did a whole lot of reading.

however, when i arrived on friday afternoon, i thought my time there wouldn’t be very peaceful because of this one sound i kept hearing outside my window. i thought for sure it was construction of some kind until i realized it was coming from the trees. ever since that day, i have heard this god-awful sound coming in a mass from clumps of trees around chiang mai- it sounds somewhere between a lawnmower and a pack of locasts about to attack me. naturally, i wanted to find the source of this sounds. when my investigations proved fruitless, i do what any logical person would do- conclude these trees are demon possessed and move on with my life (woot for religion serving as a socital explanation for the unexplainable….all the anthro folks appreciated that comment….).

secondly, there has been this sound that i have heard in my house ever since i moved in. it would start as this loud, long croack and then i would be warned it would be coming- the loud “bap ba!” about three or four times. this sound would periodically go off throughout the day, but especially late at night or early morning. to me, it sounded like that bop-it game that i always lose. so then i started imagining that the students in the dormitories randomly pull out this bop-it game at 1 in the morning and let it go off. it made absolutely no sense, even in relation to the whole “being in a different culture” situation.

then, during the retreat i heard the noise again and suddenly it hit me- oh! it’s a bird! this might sound obvious to you all, but i swear this does NOT sound like a bird- it’s that crazy monkey bird in uganda all over again…..

so life has pretty much been consumed with me writing my term paper this past week, going to lectures, and finishing up our internship. we turned in all our work for that class today, so we are done and it makes me really sad. however, i have already gotten emails from some of my friends at the buddhist university and i’m hoping to send them some pictures of my home when i get back to the states- they are pretty excited to see santa barbara, my school, and the biggest deal- a church!

we had our farewell party yesterday for our host families, internship supervisors, teachers, student helpers, it was this huge event at the chiang mai night safari. yes, you read that right-night safari. safari. uhm….what continant am i on?

part of the show for the evening was to go outside to the pond where they had this huge electro-light water show for us. it was presented against the ambiance of techno music, which of course, makes any light show…memorable. actually though, it was really impressive- one of these days, i’ll have to see if disneyland can top it.

my aunt couldn’t make the party, but my khun mae came with my cousin (the one i thought was my brother) and my cousin’s “friend.” seriously, i have no idea what is going on there. she came in early february, they told me she would be here for one week…and she’s still here. luckily, she’s really sweet and likes to cook food- fish is her favorite, we’ve had many different preparations of fried fish since she arrived. i don’t mind, it’s good for…wait, what’s fish good for? carrots are eyes, but fish is….i dunno, you’re liver?

anyway, i have a final tomorrow and then packing day. i cannot find my preview day tshirt, and i know it has to be somewhere in this house- i mean, i know it’s just freakin’ awesome cuz it was designed by westmont’s own “good fight apparel,” but somehow i don’t see thai ppl stealing one of their shirts….

life is going by rather quickly, but i’m trying to enjoy each day. tomorrow, a bunch of us are going to a mexican restaurant here so we can speak spanish- finally a foreign language i actually understand!

when we travel to bangkok, we are going by way of the incredibly obnoxious tour buses that tower above every building and is just…awful. yes it has air-conditioning and TVs, but do they have to be so freakin’ big? but i’ve decided not to complain, but laugh at the fact we are joining the ranks of all the chinese and european (and some american) tourists i have made fun of for the past two months….such a hypocrite…..

and now, an update of my life via photographs…

lauren and me in front of the cheidi at wat pathumthani on maja puja day. yes it looks like a spaceship. everything about this place is HUGE. i think there were close to million people there (this is located about an hour from bangkok, we traveled by night bus to get there….ugh).

row upon row of people lining up for a mass alms giving at six in the morning…that glow is coming from the chedi

the sun rising….and the candles that we would light later that night. there are so many pictures i have from this event, i’m only putting a portion here, but i’ll print them all back out in the states.

one corner of the huge building where they had all the ceremonies for the day.

Lauren, Mae Pim, Khun Mae, and me before dusk fell and we had the lighting the candle ceremony. we all had our own candle.

sunset- and listening to more peace awards be given out for this international test that was taken on how to achieve peace in the world through the buddha’s teachings.

my shoes were not pointing toward the buddha image…or where i thought he might be…i was too far back to know, but i played it safe.

the place all a-glow with candles.

i worked so freakin’ hard for this shot, so i decided to share it with you.

the only difference is in heaven, mangos and sticky rice will be served on biodegradable, earth-friendly dish holders

a label in the library at the catholic church. i thought it was hysterical…cuz sometimes, there is no other category…..

me and the ajaan who supervises us at the buddhist university…she’s pretty much awesome

 zeineeth, my neighbor, and his nanny, Non Oute (non is a title i give to anyone younger than me).

slowly, but surely, they will take over this place…..

khun mae! for the record, can everyone notice she is actually smiling? for being the “land of smiles” thai ppl do not like smiling for photos. khun mae is really the first one i have met who smiles every time!

oh yes, and by looking at me through this picture, you can start to get a feel for the heat we are experiencing here, and it’s only going to get worse. good thing we are going south!

k, that’s all for now. hope all is well for you guys.

sarah

a typical day…

for all those who were wondering.

6:15-7:00 – my alarm goes off. i now believe there is some type of “house alarm clock” that goes off at some God-foresaken hour before this early time that beeps incessently until ceasing on its own. i’m afraid to pursue my instinct of finding it’s location, for fear the next day no one would hear it….

7:00-7:30 – i have by this time performed the arduous task of putting on my uniform (which ever one is clean that day, the other one the housekeeper, Pi Boa, washes) and have made myself somewhat presentable. they have this little table and mirror for me in my room, which is pretty awesome since i don’t have that at home or school. i then proceed down to breakfast, which is usually over easy eggs, pork, lettuce or broccali, sometimes there is fried fish instead of pork. in terms of what people get for breakfast, this is pretty tame. on the weekends they sometimes mix it up with some traditional northern food, but i’m going the “typical route” here

7:30-8:00 – i eat and then my khun mae drives me to school, which is about five to ten minutes away. i get flashbacks of being driven to school as a freshmen in high school.

8:30-10:00 – class time. normally it is thai language (although we just had our final for that class today, so it’s done!)

10:00-10:30 – break time, consisting of getting something from the local bakery called “puff and pie” or checking the internet or reading/playing sodoku.

10:30-12:00 – second class, normally thai culture, although a few times it has been thai writing class. once a week we have an internship seminar, which is more of a reflection on what we have been experiencing and a foreum for us to toss around ideas.

12:00-12:30 – lunch in one of the roon-aa-haans (cafeteria). i usually opt for this fruit and veggie salad that is actually kinda amazing.

12:40-1:00 – we cram 14 people into a rot daang/sea lot (same same) and drive to wat suandok.

1:00-5:00 – internship at wat suandok, which consists of teaching english to different years and hanging out with our monk friends. this is our last week there and i am incredibly sad at the thought i am soon not going to be seeing these people every day. we had a farewell/thank you time in the fourth year class, where all our closest friends are and we got this sweet pillowcase, which is going in our room next year (fyi christa). while most people get fridays off, we get the one day of the week that is reserved as a buddhist holy day off, which changes every week and this time around happens to be on a friday.

5:00-5:30 – i walk home and feel like i have achieved some sort of cardio exercise.

6:30 or later – we eat dinner. normally it was my khun mae and mae pim, my aunt, but about two and a half weeks ago my cousin’s “friend” came to visit and she told me she was staying until sunday….and has been here way past that day. it’s somewhat amusing since i have no idea what is going on in that department, so i make up most of it in my head.

7:00 onward – i check my email (and you all sleep), work on my homework, read, write, listen to music, sometimes watch a movie (i have had three different monks tell me to watch ‘music and lyrics,’ so i need to get on that). i have a paper due next week that i should be working on right now, but informing you all about what is going on here is equally important.

to clear up confusion from my last blog, walking street is this amazing place two blocks from my house that is about six different blocks devoted to really cheap but amazing artifacts and food straight from thailand. it’s like the night bazaar here, but slightly less faraang and only up on sunday- it’s normally a busy street but they block all the roads in the area sunday night. i have been there for all but one of the sundays we have been in chiang mai- it rocks.

i’m reading erwin mcmanus’ “soul cravings” right now and just got to the part when he discussed reincarnation in terms of destiny, hope and dreams for one’s future. reading it in thailand, where the western mindset of “you have one life to live” is unheard of made it ten times cooler.

i haven’t forgot about posting pictures of magha puja day, hopefully by the end of the week.

hope wherever you are as you read this, you are doing well and remembering to enjoy the day.

take care till next time,

sarah

khaaw nieaw ma muang

i like to call it heaven on earth, the english language would prefer if i used the words “mango and sticky rice.” whatever it is, it’s finally in season and popping up in vendors all around walking street this sunday evening.

it’s funny really, but i believe i have finally found a place where i enjoy shopping and will do it for more than an hour. it’s simple- all you have to do is put it in a foreign country, make it incredibly cheap, and give me a list of lots of people to buy for in addition to myself. too bad things couldn’t be that simple in santa barbara….

so this weekend rocked and i wanted to inform everyone of that. i was incredibly exhausted from my family’s day treck on thursday to this huge temple for Magha Puja day, which i will inform everyone about via pictures in another blog. so i slept in until 8:30 on saturday, i think i could have gone longer, but khun mae came thinking i was sick or something, because what other reason would there be for me to be in bed. i’m not quite sure if that’s a thai thing or simply the lack of having youth in a house for a very long time….

saturday afternoon i was able to talk to my dad via skype for two hours, which was pretty sweet because i hadn’t actually vocally talked with him or my mom since the first few days i landed and hadn’t seen him, even if it was over a camera, for over a month. so in typical davis fashion, we talked for two hours, but hey, with skype, it’s all free. now i know the main reason why i left my laptop at home: my parents are able to use it to skype me since it has a built-in camera and microphone. so sometime this week i’m sure i’ll get a hold of my mom since she was off having fun on my terf in sb.

sunday, today, was equally exciting and thanks once again to the wonders of skype. i got to talk to have three different conversations on skype with different people and got to even get to see what my lovely room looks like now that christa is all alone there in armington. like every skype conversation i have had with anyone at westmont, it completely made my day. but what could possibly enhance it?

answer: walking street. yes i was working on an oral that is being planned the day before, but for some reason i’m not stressing out about it, and once we got everything organized, i headed off on walking street. dinner consisted of me finding pat thai and pouring all sorts of spices and sweets on top of it and then completing it with khaaw nieaw ma muang- holy crap, that stuff is amazing.

i decided to walk all the side roads of walking street today, which took about two and half hours and i actually skipped one lane that i have been on every time i visit the street. i made so many purchases, but it was a blast and i had lots of fun bartering my way down. my favorite was when one seller and i barted a price by punching in different numbers into his calculator until we both settled on the price. my second favorite was when i was trying to bring something down from 100 baht (in thai) and the seller told me he would bring down to 99 baht and we both laughed. i eventually got it down to 90 for the record.

for some reason i am not bothered by the faraang that litter walking street, probably because most of them are from europe and i only have to endure the emberressment of american tourists about 1/3 of the time, the rest i just get to say “oh those europeans” or “oh those hippies,” which definetely fall into a category all of their own. i have found, after exploring today, that my regular route on walking street is not the normal path for the majority of the tourists, but they are still there, and i make an effort to only speak thai when they are around….

it’s weird to think that i have less than three weeks left in this city and still so much to do, academically and absorbing the city until then. i’ll write more about Magha Puja day when i have completed my orals for thai class on tuesday- almost done with that class!

until then,

sarah

as promised…finally

hello everyone. sorry there has been such a delay between this post and the day of my midterm. i actually did have the intention to write something that day, but the photos were not loading and everything i was writing sounded really fake. i was trying to re-create my feelings from the wat stay from 4 days before and decided to just not even bother…to hear my opinions upon the event, ask me to read you excerpts from my journal, it’s from the actual day.

o yes, and today i did play the beatles on my ipod for one of my monk friends. it started with me asking “have you ever seen ‘across the universe?’” i played both versions of the title song for him. his response? “it is very relaxing to listen too”

add “and outright amazing” and i would completely agree with him.

and now, i will update you on my life via pictures…..

one of the temples we visted two weekends ago. i have the name written down somewhere…it was long….

i’m drawing a blank on the name of this temple, but this i believe is the main vihara, or meeting room, of wat whatever.

hey fellow environmentalists, here’s an idea to ensure trees don’t get cut down: make them a monk. seriously, these trees have been “monked,” in that they have had a robe placed on them and therefore cannot be harmed in any way. these trees are all over thailand, especially the old trees they don’t want to have cut down, i’ll have better pictures before i leave. i just thought this one was interesting because it has these sticks that ppl pay some baht to sign and then they are used to support the tree and symbolically supporting buddhism.

 sorry for the lopsidedness…..but the message is still clear

 the wheel of karma as depicted by a tibeten artist. karma is one of the most confusing ideas i have confronted here. in the third year class we had a discussion that eventually accidently meandered down the path of buddhism/christianity, but for a while it was all these different monks expressing personal depictions of karma and whether it was indefinite or definite….at some points it just went over my head or sounded like we were just talking in circles (ironically, the way it’s illustrated here).

this was in a meditation room at the forest temple we visited on friday.

feeding the fish at the forest temple. and these are not your cute rainbow fish. these are cat fish. i would personally be scarred for life were i ever to be submerged in that body of water….

…or somehow lose a bet and have to feed the fish this way. i’m adventurous, but i’ll leave these activities to those a bit more reckless. nonetheless, it was pretty funny.

this is the chedi at the first temple we visited in Lampoon two Saturdays ago, the name of which i have but cannot currently find. i do know it’s the home temple of one of my monk friends at Wat Suandok. the chedi is the most important spot at any temple because it houses the relic that makes the wat so holy. some places, like wat suetep up on the mountain, have relics, or body parts, of the last buddha that everyone knows, but some places, like wat suandok, have relics of important monks (i forget what this one had). this one is famous for the walking buddha on top of it, which you can’t see in this shot, but it’s up there, i swear.

 they would…but at least they said please…..

construction sites would look a lot prettier if we all started using bamboo as latters.

the footprint of buddha, or at least the most i could get at that angle.

thankfully, we did not have to climb these steps, although a few braved the treck down and up, making doi sutep look like a stroll in the park!

guarding the temple steps with ferocious pride

 

THE CAVES! this was hands down my favorite part of the day. oh how many times did i wish i actually knew something about photography outside of my trusty digital camera.

 the billy goat inside me had a lot of fun scampering around the cool rocks after the heat of the day and ascending down into other parts of the caves with only a birthday candle to light our way.

a reminder we are still in thailand…these are spirit houses, in case i have not mentioned that yet. i haven’t i just realized. well, they are EVERYWHERE in thailand.

waiting in a line to give alms to the monks at 6 in the morning. we walked from the forest temple with them down the back road to this street and then seperated so they could make their rounds and we could buy food for them/ after it is prepared and they eat some, we get the leftovers.

sunrises, especially when occuring on a hilltop at a forest temple in thailand, make me smile.

a bunch of the village girls led me down to “feed the fish” and i found out there is only one kind of fish to feed in thailand.

the room (i don’t know if it’s the vihara) where we had our meditation lessons.

 a drawing one of the third year monks, curse, made of me. i guess if i were asian and/or a cartoon, it’s actually a fairly good depiction….

class time on v-day.

i love asian translated artifacts.

 my first students i ever had- jack (on the left) and lu (on the right). jack is the one who gave me my thai name, jhan (not an “m” for the record…hey, i confuse that in english, much less thai!)

okay, more to follow, but there you have an update of what’s being going on up until today!

till next time,

sarah

let’s play a game.

it’s called “let’s see how long it takes a package to arrive in thailand from the united states.” i know, sounds like fun, doesn’t it?

many of u were expecting my reflection upon my temple (wat) stay this weekend along with an assortment of many sweet photos…not gonna lie, these are pretty cool looking. but i have a midterm tomorrow, because, in case u guys forgot, i’m going to school too! so tomorrow, three in class essays on buddhism and thai history, not to mention geography, which, for the record, is probably my worst subject. i don’t even know all the capitals in the US, but somehow, i will master this lovely map by tomorrow.

 ok, i’m going to go study and u guys can start the game. i’ll repay u with pictures. think of it like reciprocity….

until next time,

sarah

ps- for the record, i welcome all who want to peruse this blog, contrary to any comments i might have made in previous posts, just give me some grace if my humor does not translate well over in writing!