However, I know that after teaching in China for six months or six years, we’ve adopted characteristics that the typical American would think are…weird.
For example, when we talk, we love to marvel over the deterioration of our ability to speak English. Correct verb tenses, I have found, are the first to go. Sometimes we will struggle to remember really common words – things like “important” and “persevere,” and sometimes we will make up words in forms that don’t exist. We pick up Chinglish phrases from our students, things like, “Have a try” and “We wish you happy.” We also like to use common Chinese phrases like zao ba (let’s go) and hao da (good). No idea if I spelled the pinyin correctly, by the way.
We also dress weird. We wear clothes repeatedly before washing, because washing your clothes too frequently is just frivolous. We don’t necessarily match, and we complement more on originality than on style. A lot of people have let their hair grow long because they’ve seen what happens to hair in Chinese salons. People have acquired cool bags, t-shirts, hats, and jewelry in their travels around Asia. I love being able to value uniqueness instead of just freaking out because something doesn’t exactly fit into the rules of style. I’ve realized that I’m totally going to be one of those people who lives overseas and comes back looking weird. And I’ve realized that I kind of like that. J
We love to talk about teaching, our cities, our funny stories, the Chinese food we miss, the weather we really don’t miss, the crazy habits we haven’t gotten used to, and everything that frustrates us. I love the people who are here. You know right off the bat that there is something interesting about each person, because after all, they are choosing to live on the other side of the world.
We also love to eat all the amazing foods that are found in Chiang Mai. Really this is a segue
(hmm, I’ve never seen that written before) from talking about ELI people into talking about amazing food. The two are not mutually exclusive topics, however. In the past two weeks I have eaten Thai, pizza, sandwiches, Mexican, hamburgers, and Mediterranean, which is all pretty exciting when you normally can get Chinese or Chinese or possibly Korean. But last night was the best yet. I went (with ELI people – see the connection?) to Indian food. It was amazing. I mean, western food is pretty fun, but you realize after eating Asian food all the time that American settles really heavily in your stomach. There is “China full” and then “American full,” which is feeling heavy and a little sick. Indian food was delightfully filling but not heavy.The restaurant was several tables in the front part of a home. The cabinet behind me held stacks of sweaters and winter clothes, and a small bed could be seen just behind a partition. We took off our shoes before entering the door, as is proper in any “authentic” Thai setting. There were seven of us eating together so we all ordered different dishes and shared them together. (It’s such a shame that in America everyone has to have their own servings and doesn’t get to try everything.) We all got the flat bread (I really forget what that’s called) and rice. When the dishes came out they all looked the same…like bowls of brown slop, but each had distinctive flavorings and spices. And we had the most amazing Indian tea. It was like Chai tea but with even more spices. It was almost too much goodness to absorb. Wow, I feel happy just thinking about it. We got to eat with our hands, which of course made everything taste better. The meal was slow and relaxed. I think it has to be when you are barefoot and eating with your hands.
(picture: eating amazing Indian food)
No comments:
Post a Comment