http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE-FSCRxgUQ
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Why I Love Being Home
My younger brother Jeff got home from his mission in France a few days after I got home from Asia, and the past three weeks have consisted primary of playing in the waves, Bourne movies, sleeping in, Mexican food, road trips to grandparents, sit-ups competitions, Olympics mania and other fun nonsense such as this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE-FSCRxgUQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE-FSCRxgUQ
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
patriotic?
When I walked through customs at LAX on August 1st and saw the large painted letters, "Welcome to the United States of America," I got a little choked up. Every time I've re-entered the country, the passport officials say, "Welcome home." I love that. Just a few days earlier, I had seen a picture of a George Washington in Boston at the Thai Princess' photography exhibit. It moved me.
Yet when I lived in France growing up, I was always a little disgusted by my American-ness. As a history major, I was confronted again and again with the U.S.A's evil mistakes. In college, expressing disdain for country was trendy and necessary to prove that you understood its weaknesses. It made you a good liberal.
While I can despise some of our country's policies past (thank you, Howard Zinn) and present (only 4 more months, GWB!!!) , the more time I have spent abroad since my mission, the more my love of country has increased. I love the vastness, the diversity, the land, the innovation, the history, the arts of this nation. I feel deeply grateful for the opportunities my family has had here. These were the thoughts running through my head as I got my passport stamped. (It's full now - I need to get additional visa pages!)
But as my cousin Emily drove me home, I was affronted by the consecutive miles of fast-food chains, the huge gas-guzzling cars only containing one passenger, the strip malls, the inequality, the empty excess. I could feel my warm feelings for America starting to dissipate. It's complicated.
Yet when I lived in France growing up, I was always a little disgusted by my American-ness. As a history major, I was confronted again and again with the U.S.A's evil mistakes. In college, expressing disdain for country was trendy and necessary to prove that you understood its weaknesses. It made you a good liberal.
While I can despise some of our country's policies past (thank you, Howard Zinn) and present (only 4 more months, GWB!!!) , the more time I have spent abroad since my mission, the more my love of country has increased. I love the vastness, the diversity, the land, the innovation, the history, the arts of this nation. I feel deeply grateful for the opportunities my family has had here. These were the thoughts running through my head as I got my passport stamped. (It's full now - I need to get additional visa pages!)
But as my cousin Emily drove me home, I was affronted by the consecutive miles of fast-food chains, the huge gas-guzzling cars only containing one passenger, the strip malls, the inequality, the empty excess. I could feel my warm feelings for America starting to dissipate. It's complicated.
Bangkok's Top 6
1. I almost ran into an elephant on the sidewalk! While deeply engrossed in a conversation with a Luce friend, I suddenly glanced up and saw that I was about to be trampled by a baby elephant. I yelped and my friend pulled me out of the way. Everyone else had seen it coming, and they got a good laugh out of it. Where else in the world can you run into elephants on the streets of a huge city?
2. No were not in a hotel room, but in a MOVIE THEATER. And yes, those are silk pillows and blankets. You can't see it in this picture, but our feet are propped up on the fully reclined foot rest. Before entering the theater, we got free drinks and cookies in an exclusive lounge. Tickets were only $15 and we watched the extremely entertaining "Hancock." This was the best movie-viewing experience ever.
3. Giant reclining Buddha. He gets to lounge on his side in his own temple.
4. Pink Taxis. Need I say more? (There were some combination yellow and green ones too.)
5. Adorable Pakistani tourists. I made friends with these two sisters on the hour-long bus ride back into town from the floating market. They had adorable Indian accents when they spoke English and got really hyper really quickly as we sang and played hand games. Their dad offered to let me take them home with me.
6. A Princess' photography exhibit. Like her father, the beloved king of Thailand, she is an amateur photographer. Her photographs feature her travels around Thailand and the world. One of my favorites was a pictures she took of Times Square with an advertisement for Thai Airlines' direct flight from Bangkok to JFK. They just discontinued that route, and a lot of my friends had to have their flights re-routed through Europe at the last minute.
2. No were not in a hotel room, but in a MOVIE THEATER. And yes, those are silk pillows and blankets. You can't see it in this picture, but our feet are propped up on the fully reclined foot rest. Before entering the theater, we got free drinks and cookies in an exclusive lounge. Tickets were only $15 and we watched the extremely entertaining "Hancock." This was the best movie-viewing experience ever.
3. Giant reclining Buddha. He gets to lounge on his side in his own temple. 
4. Pink Taxis. Need I say more? (There were some combination yellow and green ones too.)
5. Adorable Pakistani tourists. I made friends with these two sisters on the hour-long bus ride back into town from the floating market. They had adorable Indian accents when they spoke English and got really hyper really quickly as we sang and played hand games. Their dad offered to let me take them home with me. 
6. A Princess' photography exhibit. Like her father, the beloved king of Thailand, she is an amateur photographer. Her photographs feature her travels around Thailand and the world. One of my favorites was a pictures she took of Times Square with an advertisement for Thai Airlines' direct flight from Bangkok to JFK. They just discontinued that route, and a lot of my friends had to have their flights re-routed through Europe at the last minute.
LAOS DAY 3: into the waterfall
Two tourists died kayaking the day that we were hiking in the jungle. They got caught in a massive whirlpool and had untrained guides. We heard about it that night while we were relaxing in the village. We were scheduled to kayak the next day, but needless to say we were all kind of freaked out. (There's actually an entire page in the Lonely Planet book about safety precautions doing outdoor adventures in Laos. ) Laurel, Michael and I decided instead to explore the massive waterfall that we never found the day we went bike-riding. We spent a couple hours walking in, through, up and around the impressive body of water.
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