monsoon

i got sprinkled on today. 

woah

been crazy times here.  more on that sometime.  in new orleans this week for the national Project WET conference. 

news

tim's brother mike and sister-in-law nihcole came to visit this weekend.  we went to places in phoenix we haven't been to before.  we also ate at two vegan restaurants, green and mandala tea room.  green was alright, with good pizza.  mandala tea room was better, and tim even said he liked the pancakes, liked them so much he'd come back again just to eat them.  that is like the highest praise you could ask for from tim for a breakfast food.  i think my jaw hit the floor when he said it. 

also, starting april 7, i will be employed full time!  i'll be a program coordinator for arizona project wet (http://cals.arizona.edu/arizonawet/).  i'll be working with k-12 teachers around maricopa county, training them to incorporate water education activities into their curriculum.  i'm pretty excited, though i'm not really sure what to expect quite yet. 

14 pounds

what is the weight of the oranges i just picked from two of the trees in our complex? 

there are more out there, i just can't reach them. 

march madness

march is tim's birthday month. its also wildflower month here in AZ. you can see some pictures of our wildflower outings here. the first bunch are from usery mountain park, one of county parks not far away. there were lots and lots of poppy and lupine. we saw a feral bee colony, the first one tim and i have seen, most likely africanized. fun!

last weekend for tim's birthday we took a little trip. we went hiking to seven falls down near tucson with john, allen and shu-ching. then tim and i went down near the mexican border to the ramsey canyon preserve and the san pedro riparian area. the whole time were were in ramsey canyon, there was a huge white unmarked blimp hanging up in the sky above us. i suspect that it was up there spying for illegal immigrants, since its like 10 or 15 miles from the border, but i didn't get to ask anyone. it was slightly creepy. we saw some pretty cool birds there, although i think its still a little early for the best. we saw acorn woodpeckers, vermilion flycatchers, a bridled titmouse, mexican jays, a pygmy nuthatch, a hermit thrush and spotted towhees. and maybe a rufous hummingbird.

then, we went to tombstone. we were in the area. i had asked my friend teresa about it and she said it was pretty touristy. she was right. it was like a wild west version of bourbon street or something. just a strip that people walked around, and there were wagons and people dressed in wild west costumes. i tried to think what i knew about tombstone from the movies, but all i could think of was the 'back to the future' where they went back to the wild west, and then that made me think of will smith and his wild wild west whatever, and then i was on to tommy lee jones and 'men in black' and i finally concluded i have never seen a movie about tombstone. all i know is there was a gunfight. and the high school mascot there is the fighting yellowjackets.

the final stop on our tour of southeast arizona was kartchner caverns state park. it was kind of a pain. we tried to go there on saturday night. we arrived after it closed, but expected to still be able to camp there. oh no. there were big gates that were LOCKED. have you ever been to a campground that was locked at 7pm??? so we learned our lesson and got back there before closing on sunday night. to get tickets to go on the cave tour the next day, we had to get up and get a little card thing with a number on it, then buy whatever tickets they had left. we got #3. oh yeah. they made it out to be like a million people would be waiting to buy the 100 walk-up tickets available for that day, but they were totally exaggerating (the advance purchase tickets were sold out til the 25th or so). we were a little skeptical that it would be worth the $18, but it was actually really cool. its a relatively small cave, but it had some really cool formations. and who knew there was enough water in the desert to make a cave? we could hear the water dripping when we were in there, and apparently there is sometimes a slight flood. my favorite part was the bacon drapery. we weren't allowed to take any pictures, which was good and bad. we didn't go in the big room, that's a different tour and no tickets were available. that tour is only available at certain times of year, when the big room isn't serving as a maternity ward for bats.

...and its still citrus season here. i'm right now making a (belated) strawberry-lemon birthday pie for tim. we've got some oranges on the trees in our complex that need to be eaten, so i think next i'll be trying a caramelized orange tart.

more citrus

so i made a pie with the grapefruit curd.  it was delicious.  i got the curd recipe from somewhere (i picked the one with the most juice and fewest eggs), but other than that i sort of made the pie up.  it was delicious.  if you happen to find yourself with a few grapefruit you don't know what to do with, i recommend this.  it was way better than the grapefruit-poppy seed loaf.  of course, since it was so tasty, this is no longer experimental, but i kind of like that as a name for it because its probably the first grapefruit pie you've ever eaten or made.

Experimental Grapefruit Pie

 

Grapefruit curd

1 c grapefruit juice

2/3 c sugar

4 large egg yolks

4 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces

Zest of one grapefruit

 

Whipped cream

1 c whipping cream

3 tsp sugar

 

Graham cracker crust

1 1/3 c graham cracker crumbs

2 tbsp sugar

5 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

 

1 or 2 fresh grapefruit, sectioned

 

 

1.  Make the grapefruit curd.  (can be made up to 2 weeks in advance and kept refrigerated)

• Simmer the juice over medium heat to reduce it to ¾ c.
• Whisk together the juice, sugar and egg yolks on the top of a double boiler.
• Set the mixture over simmering water and cook until the mixture thickens, whisking constantly.  Do not let the mixture boil.  When you run a spoon or spatula through it, the gap should fill in somewhat slowly (it should leave a visible track).  (15-30 min)
• Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a clean bowl. 
• Whisk in the butter and zest.
• Place waxed paper or plastic wrap on the surface of the curd. 
• Refrigerate until cold.

2. Make the crust.

• Mix the ingredients together and press into a 9-inch pie pan. 
• Bake for 5 min at 350^oF.
• Cool completely.

3. Whip the cream and sugar together until stiff peaks form.

4. Gently fold 1-1.5 c (to taste) of whipped cream into the grapefruit curd, until no white streaks remain.

5. Put the curd+cream filling into the crust and smooth the top.

6. Top with sections of fresh grapefruit and decorate with the remaining whipped cream.

citrus season

its high citrus season here in the desert.  what's that you say?  how can citrus live in the desert when the fruit is mostly water??  interesting question...  hmm, that is perhaps one reason that there's basically no water left in the colorado river....

but anyway, it means that right now a lot of people have more citrus than they know what to do with.  here at hermosa place condominiums, we have easy access to oranges and what i think are tangerines (not great for eating anymore, but super still juicy!).  there's also a lame lemon tree.  but down the street in some unknown persons' front yard is the real lemon tree, which is loaded.  or was til i picked all the lemons i could reach.  i will have to go back with tim should i need more lemons.  my friend teresa has what is apparently called a "cocktail tree", where they have grafted it so its half lemons and half grapefruits.   she literally has more grapefruit than she knows what to do with, because who really eats all that much grapefruit?  so i have relieved her of some and been experimenting with all sorts of citrus things. 

so far i have made citrus syrup, lemon pie, lemon-poppy seed cake, grapefruit curd and a grapefruit loaf.  i am finding that you can more or less substitute one citrus for another.  however, grapefruit tends to have less flavor per volume so maybe you should concentrate the juice before you use it for extra flavor goodness.  but even if you don't, it tastes good. 

sock free in '08

even more important than the frost-free date is the sock-free date.  this year, mine was february 8.  oh yeah.  and today was my long-pants-free date.  unfortunately, it looks like socks might be re-appearing later this week, but i'm keeping my fingers crossed that they won't. 

friday was apparently my lucky day.  i was wearing my lucky pants.  seriously, they are lucky brand.  and 2 lucky things happened.  i won a drawing at the DBG for a day off work with pay.  every day that you bike, walk, take the bus or carpool to work, they enter your name in a drawing for the day off or some movie tickets.  this is the first time i won.  (i also get a $10 target gift card every month i bike at least 5 times.)  then later on friday, i found out i had won a different drawing for $250 (not related to work).  i'm still a little skeptical about that one, at least until i get the check in the mail!  a while back i contacted the web of science people to have them correct my middle initial in an entry, and then they asked me to fill out a customer service survey, and at the end you could enter a drawing, which i did because what the heck.  even if i never, win i reduce the odds for everyone else!  but i won! 

i think i should wear lucky pants more often.  i offered them to tim for his job interview this week, but he declined.  something silly about they wouldn't fit? 

no dip for you!

watch out for those double dippers among us....
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/30/dining/30curious.html

winter

its winter here, like everywhere else in the northern hemisphere. here that means some rain and clouds. sometimes that happens, but its still warm and sunny most of the time. although it gets chilly at night, and it did frost a couple times right after christmas. at the garden, some of the plants are covered up so they don't get frostbit. but i still see hummingbirds almost every day.

jeremiah visited after xmas. we went up to allen's boss's "cabin" in new mexico for a few days (cabin is not quite the right word...more like small luxury home in the woods). you can see some pictures when i bother to put them online. it was something of an adventure. we rented a minivan since there were 6 of us. the cabin is some distance (>10 miles) down a dirt road. this we knew. we also knew it had snowed an inch or so a couple days before we got there. we also knew there was a hill. we didn't anticipate that the snow would have stayed around quite so long, since the air temp was in the 40s during the days. and the hills were steeper than we anticipated. we got almost all the way up to the house on the first try. the last 1/10 mile we just couldn't do. the tires were just spinning. so we carried all our stuff and food to the house. jeez, do your lungs not like being at 6500 ft when you're not used to it! anyway, we go settled in, only to find that the pipes seemed to be frozen. (i concluded that the last person there did not properly flush them and close up the house, that's why they froze, but we don't know for sure--but the solid block of ice in the toilet tank is some kind of clue, i tell you!) we got the wood stove going, and the house heated up pretty quickly. from 45 to 75 in a few hours. nice. ok, so no water exactly, but it was warm and the power worked, so we were pretty stoked. and it was super nice up in them woods. the next day we went to a national monument nearby and then had some trouble driving back up the hill but we managed. other than that, nothing too significant. good food, good times, jenga marathon.

since then its been back to work. more field trips at the garden. and i've been helping interview people to be new school guides like me. and helping develop some new curriculum elements and a new "advanced science" course for the adult volunteers, on taxonomy. its pretty fun, and keeping me busy.

tomorrow we'll see steve freedberg, a blast from the past. he's in arizona with his desert ecology class from st. olaf college. i'm showing them around the garden and then we're going with tim to look for ants/other insects/whatever we can find. because, like i said at the start...its winter here. which means that things are relatively inactive. so, we might not find much. other than birds and jackrabbits and the feral cats at the garden.

and to close, a funny story for you about a field trip i did before xmas. it was a "flower and seed" tour, focusing on plant reproduction. it was a group of special needs students (down syndrome, etc.). so i had to figure out on the fly what they could handle, because i had no idea. we talked about different animals and what kind of flowers they like to pollinate, what things they eat that are fruits, how plants get traits from the mom plant and the dad plant... and i was proud of myself because i was sure they were getting something out of it and having a good time and i hadn't freaked out about not knowing i would have a special needs group... then one kid said, "how do mommies and daddies make babies?" and it was clear he was talking about human babies, not plant babies... OMG, what do you say to that?? but i kept my cool and just said, "well, we are just going to talk about how mommy and daddy plants make baby plants, ok?" and that seemed to satisfy him, he didn't ask again. WHEW.

adventures in babysitting

so i have been working in the education department at the desert botanical garden, doing tours for field trip groups. mostly they are in 1st to 4th grade, with an occasional older group thrown in for fun. here are some of the interesting stories.

with 4th graders: the teacher says, "this student here isn't feeling well." so i look over, and the girl just leaned over and barfed right in the middle of the trail. nice.

with 2nd graders: i asked some question, to which the answer was, "flower." a little boy shouted out his answer, which was "OVARY!!"

with 8th graders: we were talking about the parts of a flower and i said, "this is the male part, anyone know its name?" one weird kid said, i think, "scrotum." but then another kid said something else right after, so i got to ignore the scrotum comment.

with 2nd graders: everyone turned around to look at some quail. when i tried to refocus the kids, one boy said, "i need help, i have a cactus in my hand." and sure enough, he did, a piece of cholla. he was a trooper, i radioed for a ranger to come help us (no way i was touching that thing or it would get stuck in my hand) and the kid said it hurt but waited really patiently and hardly complained. there was a little squeal of pain when the ranger pulled it out, but no screaming or tears or anything. i had 2 teachers, 2 parents and 12 kids. how come no one saw this kid getting too close to the cholla?

ah, fun in the garden.

science you can use

i know its been awhile, so what better way to get back into the blogging spirit than a nice article on really relevant science. as reported by CNN.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/personal/12/03/bad.kissers/index.html

i forgot to lower my expectations

we went to the state fair last night to watch the demolition derby. you may remember our trip to the state fair rodeo last year. the rodeo was pretty fun, partly because i'd never been to a rodeo. i had high expectations for the demolition derby. my only previous DD experiences were at the monroe county fair in bloomington, so i expected big things from a state fair one!

of course, i was let down. how could i forget that things here are always less exciting than i think they should be? the place was totally packed, but i don't know why. probably because there's not much else to do here? first they had three "qualifying rounds" that we thought might be the whole thing. they took all this time to get about 10 cars in the arena, then let them smash each other up for 1 minute. after that, if your car was still working you could go in the "main event". but its kind of hard to totally ruin these cars in only 1 minute. so there were 32 cars in the main thing. that is just too many. there were some good hits, and one car got flipped on its side, but pretty quickly most of the cars broke down in the middle of the arena. then there wasn't enough room for the remaining 5 cars to get up good speed for smashing the others. so we got bored and left before it was over.

the most impressive part was car 747. it was some kind of station wagon when it started, but its back end got totally crunched up so that there was nothing beyond the rear axle by the end. and it lost a tire pretty early on, but kept going on that bare rim!

there were also some fires. in bloomington, the volunteer firefighters are on hand and immediately put out any fires. here, there's a guy with a fire extinguisher and they only stop the action for him to do his work when they really, really have to. so i was sort of worried a car would explode or something.

the other amazing thing was that the drivers were totally retarded. they'd stop all the cars for some reason, and tell all the drivers they should get out NOW if they want to get out. then they'd let the cars start going again. THEN the drivers would decide to get out. umm, they just told you to get out while there are no cars smashing into each other but you decided to wait until it's totally unsafe????? and towards the end, there was about dead 20 cars all together in the middle, and the drivers were getting out and sitting on the car roofs, even though the remaining cars were still smashing into the pile sometimes. yeah, smart folks we have here at the state fair.

one highlight of the trip was my chili relleno dog. its like a corndog, but the hotdog has chilis in it and there's a pepper between the dog and the breading. it was pretty tasty. i didn't have any of the deep fried desserts because you just can't convince me a deep fried twinkie is worth $3.50 when i can make one at home. we also got free single-serving sample packs of spam.

10 things that make me glad to be back in the US of A

in no particular order...

1. tap water that is safe for drinking
2. drinking fountains
3. bread
4. cheese
5. sandwiches
5. america's most smartest model
6. i didn't have to wear a yellow shirt on monday
7. wine
8. jon stewart and stephen colbert (i could watch them online in thailand, but its not the same)
9. ice cream
10. english

tourists

ok, here is the brief summary of our travels after i left school.

i went in to bangkok on friday night after school, to my friend alex's new temporary apartment. he works for the state department and just relocated to bangkok, but their permanent apartment was still occupied. the temporary place is pretty swank, and the permanent place will be even nicer. your tax dollars a work. then alex, his wife nithya, nithya's friend and i went out to dinner at some really nice thai-for-westerners type place. it was quite delicious and expensive (for thailand). finally around 11:45pm i headed over to the airport to meet tim. we had a general meeting area arranged but i was worried i'd miss him. it was packed with people and i had to stand on my tip-toes to see over three thai people to watch people coming through immigration. but i found him with no problem. not much PDA in the reunion, tim was worried we'd be arrested or something. :)

on saturday we slept in...it had been a late night for me and a really long day for tim. we got a late start, finally went to the national museum and walked around a little. that part of bangkok is kind of hard to get to unless you take a taxi and sit in traffic for forever, so we took the skytrain to the river taxi and then walked some. it was probably an interesting trip for tim. we walked through the amulet market, where you can also buy dentures, and ate at a small restaurant by the river where they barely speak english. it was ok, but not superb. the national museum was interesting. they have a lot of cool stuff but its not at all well-preserved or well-presented. we didn't have much time, due to the sleeping in, but we saw the rooms we were most interested in, old carvings and art and such. after that we walked over to the golden mountain, which is a hill with a big golden dome thing on top. i'm sure its some important buddhist thing, but i don't know what. it was a really nice view from the top, though, and we could see some rainclouds heading our way. then we took the khlong taxi back over to near alex and nithya's (they will be A&N from now on). we walked past the singha beer garden on the way, and how could we not stop?

on sunday we went to jim thompson's house with A&N. jim's an american who fell in love with thai silk and revived the thai silk export industry. then he moved some old-style teak houses to his compound in bangkok. there are some interesting things inside the house, he liked to collect art and all, but you can't take pictures so i can't show you. he disappeared into the thai jungle some time ago. we ate at the cafe there and it was pretty tasty. then tim got a migraine, so he and i went home. later on we ordered in some indian food, it was delicious if you ask me since i hadn't had indian in at least 3 months.

on monday morning we flew up to chiang mai. we found our guesthouse and it was quite nice. right by the river, good location, etc. we walked over to some temple and from there took a boat trip on the river to a "fruit plantaion tour". it was totally lame. don't do it if you go there. although the boat ride was kind of nice, if loud. later we ended up eating at a food court at an outside mall, which is not uncommon in thailand but tim was initially opposed. he ate some khao soi gai and found a new obsession. whatever it was i picked was not as good. tim's migraine came back, so we went back to our room and watched "my girl" on hbo. oh and we found mangosteens in a little grocery store. tim loved them. that was the highlight of the day, when he tasted them and found out how delightful they are.

tuesday and wednesday we went on a jungle trek. it was not all that exciting. we also visited a local market (nothing new for me) and a temple. the hiking the first day was kind of sucky, although we did go through some rice paddies and a guy from singapore fell in, that was entertaining. the first little hike we did was to a waterfall, which was a not-bad hike. but upon leaving the waterfall our guides didn't make sure everyone was together. i was behind tim, who i thought was following the german girls. apparently he couldn't see them and led us (and the chinese couple following us) the wrong way. no one told us we weren't going back the way we came. maybe 10 minutes later, we stopped so tim could marvel at some ants and the chinese passed us. finally we got moving again, went back most of the way to where we started, when one of the guides comes running up and tells us to go back to the waterfall. we were totally confused because he kept running to find the chinese. so we walked back slowly towards the waterfall, trying to figure out where we went wrong. we stopped and waited when we got to the first obvious side-trail. well, apparently we were supposed to make a sharp turn right when we came up from the waterfall, way back, and somehow it took all the others that long to figure out we were gone? it was kind of crazy and poor group-management skills by the guides.

anyway, that night we stayed in a hut in a karen village in the hills. the scenery was nice, and the food was pretty good. there was this crazy little man that hung out with us after dark and had all kinds of crazy magic tricks to share. he showed us how to do them, but i can't really remember them now. then he'd get someone to give him beer. it was entertaining. we slept in a bamboo hut on woven mats. don't worry, we had mosquito nets. it was a rough night. first singapore was snoring sooooo loud and sooooo grossly that i could only laugh. too bad it lost its funniness as the night wore on. then china started snoring. it was a nasal symphony. then singapore and korea got up before dawn to go look for birds. singapore doesn't really understand how flashlights work, i think, so he was shining it all over in the dark. (the previous evening he'd shined the flashlight in my face and said, "can you see now?" and i said, "not when you're shining a flashlight in my eyes" and he said, "i'm not shining it in your eyes!")

the hike that day was better, more jungly but still all secondary forest. and still a surprising lack of wildlife. we went to another waterfall. something in the creek bit tim on the toe. (it didn't get infected or give him a disease, yet.) after the hiking we went bamboo rafting, which was pretty fun. the british guy was not very good at steering, but i didn't actually fall off. he fell off like 3 times and managed to loose the long pole you use for maneuvering. tim displayed amazing balance, standing on the raft behind the thai man doing most of the work, and barely getting wet.

after rafting we went on an elephant ride through the jungle! that was fun. its weird being on an elephant, and having another elephant behind you. the little thing you sit on is not very comfortable. but its a different view than you usually get. nothing really interesting happened, we just rode around and then the elephants drank some water and we were done.

when we got back to our hotel we were glad for a hot shower. then we had dinner at the food area of the night market down the street, and that was quite delicious.

our last day in chiang mai (thursday) we just walked around and looked at various things. mostly temples. there was one that had all sorts of weird lawn ornament-type things, including a donald duck. we're not sure what was going on there, maybe they have a special attachment to animals at that one. after a long day of walking, we got thai massages. it wasn't as brutal as the first one i got, they didn't stretch as much or put me in as many weird positions, i think because this one caters mostly to tourists and the other one didn't. my massage lady made fun of the tan lines on my feet and my short hair, even though hers was shorter. tim's massage lady re-tied his pants for him with no warning. and they said something about tim looking like superman and being from hollywood.

we flew back to bangkok that night, then down to koh samui (actually, to surat thani) on friday morning. our plane took off for samui, we started gaining altitude and then leveled off pretty low. after awhile i said to tim, "we're still really low. and we didn't go out over the ocean yet. its weird." and then the pilot came on and said we had to go back to the airport because of problems with the navigation system. so we landed, repair-type people came on and went into the cockpit, everything seemed pretty normal until these 4 russian people started freaking out and demanded to be let off the plane. i guess they didn't trust the repair people. but there's not that many flights to where we were all going, so they probably just screwed themselves. anyway, finally we got back in the air and it was a nice 1-hour flight. from there we had a 1-hour bus ride to the ferry dock, then a 1.5-hour ride on the ferry, and finally a 45-min minivan ride to our hotel. it was a brutal day and i had thought we would be at the hotel sooner. at least we had like 5 minutes to eat some food at the cafeteria at the ferry dock. it was actually decent food, and true thai hot.

we didn't do much on koh samui. we walked on the beach. sat on the beach. went in the water. rented a sea kayak and explored a little, there were some little islands off the coast. waded out at low tide-ish and looked at some exposed rocks, saw tons of sea cucumbers and some fish, i cut my foot a little. in the afternoons it rained some and the beach totally cleared out, but after that it was super nice out. i didn't particularly like the beach, it was pretty narrow, especially at high tide. and there were restaurants and bars and massage places and tour places right up to the water. but we did get offered lots of drugs. people walk around selling various things. the strangest are the guys walking around with tablecloths. until you find out that in their hand under the tablecloth are the drugs. i think we got offered smoke, drugs, marijuana, opium and cocaine. what else could we need?

the best foods we had were for lunch. one day we got some food from a guy on the side of the road, true thai-style. when he could tell tim was considering a particular dish, which i told tim was hot, the guy was all, "spicy, spicy" and looked concerned. but we had that and some fish and pineapple curry thing. they were spicy, especially the one. i don't know what its called but i've had several variations of it and its hot. its basically just pork and chilies, sometimes green beans. the guy was pretty impressed tim could eat it, he was hovering around at first to make sure there wasn't a casualty. and then a lady (wife?) came out and asked in thai if it was good, and i said yes back in thai. yeah, language skills! it was a fun experience and really made tim realize that to get true thai food you have to go places that tourists don't typically go. and maybe risk some gastrointestinal problems. the next lunch was delicious also. it was in a restaurant, but we ate things out of the pots by the road. just like it sounds, there's a table by the road with various pots, and thais come and look in the pots and pick what they want, get a quick meal for here or to go.

then back to bangkok on sunday afternoon! 30-min taxi to the ferry, 2-hour ferry ride (why so slow?), 1-hour bus ride, 30-min minivan ride to the train station. it wasn't as bad as the way out. but then we had like 2 hours to kill before the train. we got some food from, loitered, etc. finally our train came. we had a first class cabin, traveling in style. it consisted of bunk beds, a little table that folded down from the wall, and a little sink. the bathroom was down the hall. but the beds were surprisingly roomy and comfortable. it was nice to have a sink since i wouldn't dare brush my teeth in that bathroom. and we had a window, so we could look out and watch the nighttime scenery go by. we actually slept pretty well, until maybe the last 3 or 4 hours. the tracks were nice and smooth until then, then they got really bumpy. they offered us dinner when we got on, but we already had eaten (we got on at 8:45pm!). i thought they'd bring breakfast but i was wrong. good thing tim impulse bought those pringles. actually, i was looking forward to the dunkin donuts i knew to exist at the bangkok station. :)

so we got back to bangkok on monday morning around 8:30. whole wheat donuts at dunkin d, who knew such things existed? back to A&N's. shower, do some laundry (there was a rum leak in my bag...) tim took a nap while i went to the bank to transfer the money from my thai bank account to my american bank account. that took longer than i expected...first they had to figure out what i wanted to do and then what the right form was, then i had to figure out what to write on the form. then there was some need for my work permit, which i had returned when i left school because that is what you're required to do when you don't work anymore. but eventually it all got sorted out.

that day tim and i mostly just went shopping around bangkok for souvenirs and such. we ate lunch at this outdoor food place by some of the big malls, just pointed at things, noodles, pork balls on sticks, a crab cake in a crab shell. it was all pretty good, except the noodles were just so-so. we had a farewell dinner with A&N at a foreigner-oriented vegetarian place. i had a watermelon-mint drink, it was interesting. then we managed to pack everything back up, get a few hours sleep, and head to the airport around 3am for our 6am flight. and we made it back all in one piece, although super tired.

home again, home again, jiggedy-jig

we made it home from thailand yesterday. the flights were a little brutal. actually, the bangkok-tokyo flight was not bad, got in some decent naps. but tokyo-portland was brutal. two little kids in the row behind us. that's not necessarily bad, but the mom and grandma were not exactly paragons of in-flight manners. you know, when they turn the cabin lights off its usually so people can sleep better. people sleep or watch a movie or read, and pretty much there is no talking. well, mom and grandma started yelling from one end of the row to talk to each other. and what a great time to tickle the kids until the scream! for the first 6 hours of an 8.5 hour flight. i didn't get any sleep.

then i had 6 hours in portland, so i got to see michele arntz and chloe and spencer. cute kids, and i can't believe chloe is so old already! she's definitely a real person now. crazy. and it was fall in portland, something i haven't experienced in awhile. cool temperature, which i was not prepared for since i was leaving a tropical country and ending up in phoenix (high in the mid-90s today). it was a good time in portland. i had my first real sandwich (salami) in 3 months! delicious.

then the flight to phoenix was packed. by that point i could not keep my eyes open, so most of the 2.5 hours was spent napping in uncomfortable positions and occasionally banging my head on the window as i dozed off. interesting story about boarding that flight. it was on alaska airlines, whereas the other flights had been on northwest. my boarding pass was printed by northwest in bangkok. it said something about only being valid with a flight coupon attached, which was not. so i asked someone in bangkok about it, they said no problem its a boarding pass. then i asked 2 people (one from northwest, one from alaska) in portland. no problem, see where it says boarding pass in multiple places? well, when i tried to get on the plane, the lady said, "oh, this won't work. you need a new ticket." umm, what? well, whatever, they just printed one in like 2 seconds, but still. and there was another guy who'd been on my flight from tokyo that had the same problem. (he was a whole day late due to a flight cancellation the day before in tokyo, he was getting on that plane to phoenix.)

ok, that's all for now. more later on our vacation adventures in thailand, and pictures.

so long, farewell...

t minus 5 hours and counting.

this will be the last post for awhile. in a few hours i'll head into bangkok, to alex and nithya's apartment. then around midnight tim will arrive (hopefully!). then its all fun and games for 10 days.

i submitted my final report to the principal yesterday. we had a 10 minute meeting in which he appeared to not pay attention. half of the 10 minutes were spent discussing my travel plans and talking about how his son is a pilot. so, who knows if it made any impact. although at lunch just now he thanked me for the report and said there were many things they could improve. so i guess he read it, at least.

last night was the farewell party with the biology department. the food was delicious. mostly everyone else talked in thai and i just sat there... just like the last 3 months! today i'm alternating between packing, some final internet business (like this post) and not really doing anything.

so, have a good couple of weeks without me. i'll let you know when i'm back in the states. don't forget to write!

i can't leave

this morning i about had a heart attack and fell out of my chair. ok, the heart attack is an exaggeration, but i really did almost fall out of my chair. and not because i'm clumsy. i went to the northwest airlines website to look up my flight itinerary for flying back to the US so i could tell michele when i'd be arriving for my 6-hour layover in portland. according to northwest, i had no flight reservations. that is when i almost fell out of my chair. i looked at that reservation maybe a month ago and changed my seat so tim and i would be sitting next to each other! what happened to it?? then i went to a website for the thai travel agency that the school used to purchase my ticket and tried to find my reservation there because that was supposed to work, too. that site also said i had no reservation. that's when i about had a heart attack.

so i went down to the office, walked in and said, "i have two problems." (i didn't tell you about the second problem yet.) having a problem is pretty much the only reason i visit the office, so i don't know why i announced it but i did. so i told them my flight problem and khun sujin said, "but you have a reservation." well, but, they don't think i do. that is my problem. but she got right on the phone and made some calls and told me they are working on. ok, on to my second problem. last week i asked to get my last payment early, on tuesday (yesterday), so i could go with someone to the thai bank and transfer money to an american account and not have to deal with cash. "oh, but everyone got paid yesterday." but not me. so sujin calls over to accounting people. apparently i'm not getting paid until next week because officially my last day is october 1. does that make any sense??? no. plus, i won't physically be here and always before they've had me sign something saying i received the money. apparently nothing here can be easy or logical for me. but maybe they'll arrange for me to be paid before i leave on friday so i can sign the thing. i hope so, i don't particularly want to leave without getting my last payment.

then someone called sujin and one of the other ladies in the office offered me some tea and cookies. i needed them because i wanted to cry, i didn't have a plane ticket home and they didn't pay me! so we had some snacks and somehow sujin did some magic and my plane ticket got fixed. my reservation was deleted or something? it didn't really make sense, but it was fixed so i didn't complain. but i still want my money.

it was not a good start to the day. and i had to go to the immigration office to extend my visa so i'm legally here after next tuesday, so i was just hoping nothing else went wrong today. the immigration office was totally packed. we sat there for maybe an hour and they had called half of the people in line in front of me (you get a ticket with a number and it also tells you how many people are ahead of you in line). nathan and lisa needed to go to the vietnamese embassy by 4 and were waiting for me. so then p-ahm (lady at school who deals with all the legal stuff for the foreign teachers) just went up to one of the worker ladies and said something, came back and got my papers and crumpled up my ticket, and we were out of there in about 15 minutes. it was pretty sweet. well, there was a moment of worry when she brought back my passport and the lady had stamped it so that i could stay until september 9. i said, "oh no, not september! october!" and p-ahm made a funny face of shock and went back and the lady changed it.

i was much more relaxed after that all worked out. but i still want my money.

the beginning of the end

i've got a busy social schedule this week, farewell dinners tomorrow night and thursday night. plus trips during the day to the immigration office, the bank, and a meeting with the principal. so tonight i suggested to nathan and lisa that we check out this intriguing place down the street since its my last chance. its a "pub and restaurant" called vintage. we've been wondering about it for the past couple months but hadn't gone. so we met up around 6pm and headed down the street (part of the reason we haven't gone before its that its kind of far down the street, maybe 10 minutes walk, and this walk requires you to risk your life since there are no sidewalks or anything.) we got there and it was empty except for some workers in the back. we looked around and finally lisa went to ask if they had food, because it sure didn't look like it. they said they were closed until 7pm. the decor was interesting, lots of red and black, and the music was really loud.

since we were hungry we went to an italian-style place nearby. i ordered something called napolitano that had no description in english. it was spaghetti with a sweet tomato sauce (sort of bbq sauce-like) and mushrooms and tomatoes. it wasn't bad, but i wouldn't order it again. after our dinners we had ice cream. it was delicious. i got rum raisin. (i couldn't resist the raisins, especially since they were all plumped up with rum!) i haven't had much real ice cream here, if i get any ice cream its usually an ice cream bar from the minimart and its not even made of real ice cream. so it was a good treat.

then we walked back by vintage to decide if we wanted to go in for a drink. we decided against it. there was no one else there! and nathan had said during dinner, "when i went in, i felt like it was a place that might have vampires." or something to that effect. it was a strange place. but at least we went in. maybe on a friday night it would have more people. i hope for nathan and lisa's sakes that it turns out to not be sketchy, so they'll have something to do once all the other foreigners leave. i feel bad for them that it will just be them and all the thai teachers, but not bad enough to want to stay a minute longer.

and, just so you'll know what i'm missing when i leave, here is a picture of the head biology teacher's desk. the desk i sit across from every day. all day.

homesickness

i haven't been too homesick here in thailand. its not like i've never been away from home before, i guess having experience helps some. not that i don't miss anything, but i can generally deal with the loss and longing or whatever it is that constitutes homesickness. i've never HAD to have something you can only really get in the states (or bangkok). but i've decided there are 2 broad categories of things i miss.

category 1: things i know i miss.
these are the things i have more or less missed since i left. tim, luna, family, you who are reading this, my good pillow, good bread. i miss these things, but i do my best not to think about it because there's no way luna's coming to visit, and generally i ignore the missing and do ok. but every now and then, something happens to make me really miss one of these things. i've missed luna more since little cats have started hanging around school. they are so little and cute, and i pet them until they are done being petted and go about their cat business. then i miss luna the rest of the day. and i spent this weekend with my good friend alex and his wife nithya. now i really miss all my old friends. i've gotten to be good friends with lisa and nathan, 2 americans who teach english here, but its not quite the same as friends i've known for a long time (alex for 11 years now, hard to believe)...

category 2: things i don't know i miss until i re-experience them.
then there are the things i never thought about missing until i had them again. at dinner with alex and nithya on saturday, we had a dish with raisins in it. i couldn't stop eating the raisins. they were so good! i think alex thought i was a little crazy, eating all the raisins, but i couldn't help myself. who knew i missed raisins!?!? who knew anyone missed raisins? but apparently i do, and i'll be glad to have a large container of them available when i get home. i know there are other items in this category, but i can't think of them right now...

so, what did i do with alex and nithya this weekend? not much. on saturday we checked out their temporary apartment, mostly to find out where it is because they'll have to commute from there to the US embassy every day. its a nice building and all, but kind of inconvenient relative to the embassy since they'll have to walk to the skytrain in their suits. then we went to one of the malls, where there was a member of the royal family doing something. i thought it was going to be the king because they had the yellow (mercedes) cars all lined up outside, and some thais told me that only the king goes in the yellow cars. but it turned out to be one of the princesses, i think. we thought maybe the queen (it was definitely a lady but from a distance its hard to tell 50ish from 70ish) but one of the thai teachers told me today that the queen basically never goes out these days. so much for the color coded cars. then we went to eat a place called eat me, where the raisin revelation happened. then i went home and they went to their hotel.

on sunday i showed up at the hotel, we watched the end of pretty in pink and 2 episodes of entourage on HBO, then went and walked around lumpini park (the central park of bangkok, i guess). there was a strange interaction with a lady who wanted our empty water bottles. then we went back to their hotel and hung out by the pool for awhile, it was quite relaxing and nice. the weather was beautiful, not too hot and a good breeze. then we had some pizza. thais eat their pizza with ketchup on top, and even though this was a swanky western hotel chain they served the pizza with a bowl of ketchup. i abstained. alex tried it and declared it delicious, but maybe he was just showing off how he's so accepting of this new culture he has to live in. nithya went to take a shower (she had actually gone in the pool) and alex and i just hung out and talked. a delightful evening. then i went home and they went to bed because alex had to go to work this morning. (apparently the people in his office usually work 7am-4pm. i don't think i'll be joining the bangkok embassy staff.)

and, TODAY WAS MY LAST MONDAY. only 4 more days to go. well, 2 full days and 2 half days because i have to go to the immigration office and the bank.