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I spent a few years in Phoenix in the 90s and had the closest group of friends I’ve ever had.
I moved there when I was in my late twenties and still liked to go out dancing. One of the first nights there, I found a place that spun the music I liked and was wearing my snazzy button down yellow short sleeve shirt with red and black vertical stripes. As I was having a great time dancing on the overcrowded outdoor dance floor in a 105F Phoenix night air, a girl caught my eye because how good of a dancer she was. She noticed me looking at her, smiled at me and we danced with each other from a distance (she was with friends) for the rest of the song. Unexpectedly, after the song she came over to me with a big smile on her face, we greeted each other and had a seat and talked for a bit. She introduced me to her friends and we all danced the rest of the evening without a care in the world (‘Raise your hands in the air like you don’t care’, etc).
For those that might not know, the desert heat of Phoenix never cools down in the summer. The temperatures might drop as low as 80F some nights, but are up to 100F (38C) by 10am. Even at 9pm, it was still around 110 F (43C). Perfect weather for me.
I went to Denny’s afterwards with Tina the group and we and ate and talked til the sun came up. I talked to everyone and liked the quality of people I had met, so I decided that I’d like to hang out with them again.
And did.
Every weekend.
It wasn’t a question of ‘Do you want to do anything this weekend?’, it was a question of ‘What are we doing this weekend?’
Tina was an excellent dancer to all kinds of music and always insisted (in a nice way) that we try new steps and things like that. She was very encouraging and never let us give up. After a couple months of going out dancing with her at least once a week, I realised that my dancing had improved when one of my roommates went with us and after a couple hours said, ‘Where did you learn to dance that well?
Friday afternoons answering machines, pagers and cell phones would be alive with messages about when and where we were meeting that evening.
Tina was a people magnet. She attracted people everywhere she went and was a good judge of character. Our group expanded and we all became good friends. It wasn’t all roses and sunshine, though. There were good times and bad times, but 95% were good.
We weren’t just weekend friends, though – we were there for each other all the time. We basically knew each other’s working hours and visited each other, had dinner and things like that throughout the week too. We shared each other’s friendship, joys and sorrows like a big family.
One of the things that may have drawn us together was that other than Tina, none of us were from Phoenix. I guess you could say that she had a good eye for ’strays’ – newbies to the area – and loved to meet new people, so she brought us together.
There were absolutely no prejudices amongst us – we just accepted each other for who we were.
Granted, it wasn’t perfect – some of us got mad at the others, dated the others, etc, but in the end most of us valued our friendship over the other things that had happened and remained friends.
And then the TV show Friends began. It was totally us in sooo many ways.
I have to say that those friends made the time I spent in Phoenix some of the fondest of my life.
I went to see Dr Quack this afternoon because I’ve had a bit of a cough for about a week and thought I might be getting bronchitis again (I had a quite bad case of it back in November). After listening to my lungs, he told me that my suspicions were correct, but also that so far it’s only a slight case.
What do you think his very next question was?
Apparently it was ‘pick on the American’ day yesterday in one of my classes.
At the end of a lesson today, I had to unplug the CD player we had used for a listening activity, so I leaned over but wasn’t quite able to read the plug, so I gave it slight tug and it came out of the outlet. Here’s what ensued (from a class of 18 – 20 year olds):
StudentG: ‘That’s so American.’
J: ‘What?’
SG: ‘You were too lazy to walk around the table and unplug it.’
J: ‘Why waste time if I don’t have to?’
SG: ‘You Americans are all lazy. I’ve been to your country. You don’t even get out of your cars, you have drive through places every where. The bank, restaurants, everywhere.
J: ‘You forgot about being able to get married at a drive through in Las Vegas by Elvis. We’re busy people. We work a lot and don’t have time to waste at the bank.’
SG: ‘Americans are lazy. What about the exercise of walking into a bank?’
J: ‘Right, like those three minutes would make much of a difference?’
SG: ‘It’s because Americans hate exercise.’
J: ‘I haven’t been in a bank in years. I use internet banking.’
SG: ‘Me too.’
J: ‘Then you’re lazy too. Think of all the exercise you’d get if you walked to the bank.’
*StudentK laughs, StudentG scorns*
StudentE chimes in: ‘Americans learn things later than normal people do too.’
J: ‘What?’
SE: ‘My friend is an au-pair in America and she told me that. You learn things later than normal people do.’
J: ‘Could you please give me an example?’
SE: ‘She told me that most kids don’t learn to ride bikes until they’re six or seven years old. Not three or four like normal people.’
SG: ‘Because they don’t like exercise.’
J: ‘I learned when I was four.’
SG: ‘My friend told me the age is six or seven. That’s not normal.’
J: ‘Define “normal, E.” ‘.
SE: ‘Like us here in Germany. We’re normal. It’s like it should be.’
*I hold back the urge to burst out laughing*
J: ‘Do you think that ‘normal’ is doing things as they are known to us?’
SE: ‘Yes.’
J: ‘Okay, then all of you are not normal. In my country we get our driver’s license when we’re 16 and here you get it when you’re 18. Therefore, you people are not normal by your logic.’
That ended that conversation.
I hate traveling by bus. Give me a train or airplane any day over a bus and I’ll usually be happy. However, Laos doesn’t have a train system at all. I had looked at the Laos Airline website before starting my trip, but felt it was too expensive. A round trip ticket was $130 US – quite a bit more than the €15 – €22 Euros I had become accustomed paying for flights on Nok Air and Air Asia, so I decided to take the bus from Vientiane to Luang Prabang.
I went to the bus station the day before I wanted to travel and bought my ticket or 115,000 KIP. The guesthouse where I had stayed sold tickets or $16 US, about 148,880 KIP, but I chose not to buy it there partly due to currency confusion. Afterwards, I figured out that the difference only came to about €2.50 – which doesn’t seem like a lot, but it is here. It covered the cost of my laundry being done (20,000 KIP) and a couple beers that evening (18,000 KIP).
So far I’ve mentioned US$, € and KIP as far as money goes. Let’s not rule out Thai Baht (THB) – which can also be used there.
The official currency of Laos is the KIP, but it’s basically worthless so one can pay for and is frequently quoted prices in US$. THB can also be used in most places that US$ can other than for the visa one needs to get at the border – the price of which is determined by nationality – EU and US passport holders pay $35 US, Canadian passport holders pay $42 US, etc. The only other currency accepted at the border is Baht, but the border guards use an unreasonable exchange rate and charge 1500 THB – with the going rate about $1 US = 33 THB, you end up paying $45 US (I paid in US$ that I had bought before leaving Bangkok.
The currency I use and think in is €. I haven’t lived in the US for many years and rarely visit, so I can’t/don’t think in US$. When I have to do so, I convert to/from Euros. I can do € to/from US$ and € to/from THB and have been learning to do € to/from KIP. However, when people quote me prices in US$ or THB after I’ve learnt them in KIP, I get confused. I have to then convert to € and then attempt figure out if that’s a good deal or not (by converting back to KIP if I have bought the item before) – and that gets to be extremely confusing. It’d be much easier if everything was just quoted in KIP.
That’s what happened with the bus ticket, I think. I’m pretty sure he quoted it to me in US$ and I figured out how many KIP that would be by using the conversion rate for the € (I had no idea what the US$ conversion rate was at that time) – which made it way overpriced.
There were three types of busses to choose from – regular, air-conditioned and VIP. Knowing how long the bus ride was, I opted for the VIP bus because I wanted to make the best of a that long of a ride. Also, seats are assigned on VIP busses to prevent overcrowding. I got seat #2 – the inside one over the driver’s seat.
I left my guest house at 7h05 and decided to walk to the bus station. It wasn’t too far and that’d save me a bit of money, plus it wasn’t too warm yet. I arrived at 7h25 and went to the girl I had bought the ticket from, who checked my name off on the list and pointed me in the direction of the bus (right in front of her office). It was a snazzy yellow one that has lots of space for luggage and the passengers sit on the upper deck. Quite nice.
We departed five minutes late due to the fact that we had to wait a bit for two passengers that hadn’t arrived. Five extra minutes was all they were given and as the bus started backing out of the ‘gate’ (term used loosely), they arrived in a tuktuk. Their bags were loaded in and off we went.
First of all, I should mention that Asians have to be good drivers to survive on their roads, from what I’ve seen in Thailand, Malaysia and now Laos. There are motorbikes, cars, trucks, pickups and anything else motorized everywhere, and they’re all over the street. Driving is on the right side of the road in Laos (unlike Thailand where it’s on the left) and Laotians frequently adhere to that. It’s chaos at best outside of city centers (and often in them as well).
Vientiane is a lot different than the other Asian capitals I have visited – Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. It’s the smallest Asian capital (I think) and has a relaxed atmosphere. Sure, it has tons of vehicle type things and it can be difficult to cross the street, but it lacks the modernity of the others. It doesn’t have skyscrapers – very few buildings are more than two or three levels and a lot of the alleyways off the main roads are unpaved right in the city center. When you leave the city center, the paving gets even less and less. The roads that we traveled were all main roads and were 96% paved, but from time to time they weren’t and one can’t help but wonder why the decision was made not to pave those sections.
The bus station was the northern one, so we were outside of the center of the city in about five minutes. Up til that time, I had only seen central Vientiane and it itself was an eye-opener, but as we progressed farther and farther away from the city, I learned more and more about Laos with every kilometre we traveled.
We were leaving civilisation as I had known it.
The materials used to build houses were becoming more and more primitive, as were the houses themselves. After about 50km into the trip, the houses were mostly made of bamboo and other natural materials. The further and further we got from Vientiane, the further and further time regressed. It was fascinating.
The person that had bought her ticket ahead of me and got seat #1, the window seat I had hoped to get, was a French woman about twenty years older than me. Here English wasn’t all that good, but we still mostly communicated in English rather than French (but a bit from time to time) and this was also her first time in Laos, and she was just as fascinated as I was.
I found myself wishing that I could get out for a bit and take a few photos (it’s not easy taking them through the window of a speeding bus) and shortly after that, it happened.
Bang.
A flat tire.
In a village!
‘WHAT LUCK!’ I thought to myself. The driver said something in Lao (there were only about 4 Laotians on the bus), got off the bus to inspect the damage and French Woman asked me if we had to get of the bus. I told her that I didn’t know. The driver returned, spouted some more Lao at us and made hand motion, and I looked at FW and said, ‘Now we have to get off the bus,’ and we did – cameras in hand.
While the bus staff (the driver and another guy) were changing the tire, most of us set off to do what tourists do best – completely disturb the lives of everyone in the vicinity with our cameras.
And we did.
FW and I were the first two off the bus and I turned right and she turned left. Funnily enough, as I passed the back of the bus I saw the girl selling oranges say something to someone standing near her and that person left. A few minutes later, I saw the other girl run back with more oranges – I assume that that was the conversation.
For some odd reason, quite few people decided to stand near the bus. Changing a bus tire can’t be that interesting.
Being the sensitive person I did, I tried not to disrupt as many people’s lives by sticking their camera right in their face or asking them to sit in different places like others did (which is why there are very few people in my photos). However, I did walk the small main road of the town to see how people lived.
This town had electricity because it wasn’t too far into the mountains. However, a lot of the houses had dirt floors. It seemed to be a quiet town that didn’t see many tourists due to its lack of interesting sights. There were small children bouncing on a mattress on a porch and I also saw a lady doing her laundry in the river. There wasn’t a lot to see, but what I did see was quite interesting.
After the tire was fixed twenty five minutes later, we were herded back on and traveled another 29 km to the village of Kasi – our lunch stop.
As the girl I had bought the ticket from had mentioned, lunch was included in the price. I had no idea what to expect, but figured that it would be an adventure.
Once again, being in one of the front seats meant that I was one of the first off and first to attempt to figure out what to do. I walked over to an area that had women standing behind it. Rice was put on the plate and Lao was spoken to me. I had no idea what they were saying so I asked if they spoke English – which they didn’t understand. One pointed to things and I asked what they were, but she didn’t understand and kept speaking Lao to me and pointing. I asked if they had chicken and she still didn’t understand. So, she shrugged me off and asked the next person, who pointed to three things, they were put on rice for her and the girl moved on to the next one. She pointed to four things but only got three, so I looked at her and said, ‘I guess you’ve reached your limit,’ and we both laughed. ‘Lemme give it another shot’, I said and pointed to three different things and they were put on my plate on rice.
After sitting down on the plastic chairs at the plastic tables outside, small bowls of some kind of broth were brought to us and I was joined by the two Lao couples that were on the bus. It was a quiet lunch.
Our lunch stop lasted about 30 minutes and then we were back on the bus for the rest of the trip. It was 13h and we had about 180km to go – so I figured we’d get there at the time I had been told, 16h. No problem – it’d take a really slow bus for us not to get there by that time and we were on a speedy bus.
However, I didn’t consider the terrain.
The first 20 or so kilometres were like the ones many before – uphill but mostly straight. Then it changed. The mountains got higher and higher and the road became very curvy and the bus had to navigate them in very low gears – almost crawling. And it continued that way for the next 4 hours- until we got within 25km of Luang Prabang.
It was tedious and somewhat annoying, but also the most fascinating part of the trip – even more than the village we had had the flat tire in.
Why?
Due to the fact that we were going through many villages of Hill Tribes.
Exactly what are Hill Tribes? My understanding is that are people that still live in villages of about 200 people in the barren mountains of Laos and Thailand (and perhaps a few other countries) and still live in traditional ways. I’m not sure whether that’s a good or bad thing, but I’m not one to judge.
What I observed:
- all of the structures were made from natural materials (bamboo, etc)
- chilies and other vegetables drying on the slanted roofs of houses
- no electricity
- one communal outdoor shower near the middle of each village (sometimes with people showering (not naked) as we drove by – it looked out of place – like they had been installed as an afterthought.
- clothes being washed in the communal showers too.
- people banging some kind of leaves against the ground, presumably to dry them;
- people carefully weaving things together to make new roofs
- communities putting up new structures
- no cars and very few motorbikes (but quite a few bicycles)
Civilization (at least the Lao version of it) happened again about 20 km from Luang Prabang and I have to admit that I was a bit sad about that because I enjoyed seeing how the Hill Tribes lived – we have nothing like that in Europe.
A 9 ½ hour bus ride that I had been dreading turned out to be an unexpected surprise.
Police concerned about order to stop screening
By JACK DOUGLAS Jr.
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
DALLAS — Security details at Barack Obama’s rally Wednesday stopped screening people for weapons at the front gates more than an hour before the Democratic presidential candidate took the stage at Reunion Arena.
The order to put down the metal detectors and stop checking purses and laptop bags came as a surprise to several Dallas police officers who said they believed it was a lapse in security.
Dallas Deputy Police Chief T.W. Lawrence, head of the Police Department’s homeland security and special operations divisions, said the order — apparently made by the U.S. Secret Service — was meant to speed up the long lines outside and fill the arena’s vacant seats before Obama came on.
“Sure,” said Lawrence, when asked if he was concerned by the great number of people who had gotten into the building without being checked. But, he added, the turnout of more than 17,000 people seemed to be a “friendly crowd.”
Ag and I went to the Christmas Market on 14 December (and quite frankly I feel that way this week) and here’s how part of the coversation went:
Ag: ‘J, what would do if you won €5 Million in the lottery?’
J: ‘I’d be on the next train out of Germany.’
Ag: ‘Really?’
J: ‘Immediately, and I’d never return.’
Ag: ‘Never?’
J: ‘Okay, that’s a strong word, so let’s say ‘probably never’.’
Ag: ‘Really?’
J: ‘Yes. Would you stay here?’
Ag: ‘I don’t think I’d leave.’
J: ‘That’s because you’re from here. I’m not. I could pack and be out of here in a few days. Actually, I wouldn’t even pack everything, I’d just take the important things and be on the next train – due to luggage allowances on planes.’
Ag: ‘You’d leave your job?’
J: ‘Yes.’
Ag: ‘Why?’
J: ‘Because it’s in Germany. Okay, I wouldn’t leave tomorrow, I’d give the notice my contract requires, but then I’d be out of here hopefully forever.’
Ag: ‘You don’t want to come back?’
J: ‘No. 5 1/2 years of this country is enough for me.’
Ag: ‘What would you do?’
J: ‘I’d buy a flat in Spain, take a year off to enjoy life and then find a teaching job.’
Ag: ‘You’d continue to work then.’
J: ‘Of course, I’d get bored doing nothing. It’d be nice to work because I want to work instead of because I have to work. I’d probably still work about 30 hours a week. Wouldn’t you?’
Ag: ‘Yes.’
in this part of the world.
Divided EU meets to debate Kosovo
A number of European countries are expected to recognise Kosovo as an independent state after EU foreign ministers meet in Brussels on Monday.
Britain, France and Germany are likely to support the fledgling state but some fear it will set a dangerous precedent.Kosovo’s parliament unanimously backed independence on Sunday but Serbia’s PM denounced it as a “false state”.
A split emerged at the UN Security Council when Russia said Kosovo’s declaration should be null and void.
In Belgrade, clashes between gangs of youths and riot police went on into the early hours of Monday morning.
Demonstrators broke windows at the US embassy and also attacked the Serbian government building and the embassy of Slovenia which currently holds the EU presidency.
Cyprus, Greece, Romania and Spain have expressed their concerns about the signal that recognition might send to separatists.
While Cyprus fears possible repercussions from Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus, Romania is worried by the response from pro-Russian separatists in Moldova.
Another two EU members, Bulgaria and Slovakia, have also indicated that they will not recognise Kosovo immediately.
Unlike last weekend, this one was quite good.
I finished work at 9h50 (yay!) and did a bit of cycling in the cold morning air before heading to the supermarket and home. I was tired, so I took a nap and then spent the rest of the afternoon at home – watching videos, attempting to plan my summer holiday and a few weekend trips, etc. Not much of anything.
I met American Colleague at 12h on Saturday and we went to the Sparkasse Auto Show for the second year in a row. Our Sparkasse and local car dealerships get together and display new cars in the underground parking structure in an effort to persuade patrons to buy new cars, but we didn’t go there for that. We went to sit in the cars we like, comment on ones we didn’t, etc. It was a good couple of hours. AC is a lot of fun to spend time with.
After that, I cycled off to the Irish Pub with a twofold purpose. Of course, I wanted to watch football (soccer), but I also wanted to test the new non-smoking laws we have. My state’s non-smoking laws went into affect on Friday and I ventured out to see how they were being adhered to the day after.
The change of atmosphere was noticeable. Granted, at the time of the day I usually am there on Saturdays (15:30 – 17:00), there aren’t a lot of people but most of the ones that are there are regulars and smoke.
Not anymore.
Non-smoking laws in Germany vary from state to state. My understanding is that in my state, all pubs and restaurants must be non-smoking if they only have one room. If they have more than one room, they can designate one to be a smoking area and the other to be a non-smoking area supposedly with a separate ventilation system. However, it doesn’t mean that they have to close the door to the smoking room so smoke does still get out (it’s the same in Hessen), The exception is if it’s a one room pub and the owner is the only employee, it can allow smoking however must post a sign outside mentioning that fact (unfortunately, my state pioneered that legislation and others expected to follow suit soon). Apparently there are many pubs like that in villages in most of Germany, but I can’t think of one near where I live (in the centre of my city).
The Pub does have a smoking room downstairs – which is also where the toilets are (but you don’t have to go through it to get to them) so that’s a bit inconvenient. Also, the fact that smoke rises is means that some smoke does come up to the first floor, but nothing like it did in the past. The other thing is that even though they are required to have a separate room, the law doesn’t stipulate that the door to the smoking room has to be closed. Apparently German smoke knows that it’s not supposed to go out doors?
All I all, it was a much more pleasant experience than the previous week. Even the bar staff and some of the smokers that were sitting upstairs and making treks downstairs to smoke agreed at first. After a while, though, they all moved downstairs to the smoking room, leaving the bartender and me upstairs (on the occasion he wasn’t downstairs smoking). Interestingly enough, when another patron came in and commented on the lack of people, the bartender looked at him and said, ‘The fun is downstairs – that’s where the gang is’ (it wasn’t a jab at me).
Sunday took me to Bonn, where I met Belinda for brunch. We spent a great couple of hours talking and eating (although the food at the Machold wasn’t as good as it usually is) and then spent more than an equal amount of time strolling around and talking about everything under the sun – and it was sunny.
Topics covered:
teaching
students
teradactyls
Bonn
Asia
travelling
etc.
It was a lot of fun. I really do enjoy her company and we never run out of things to talk about.
Speaking of weather, it hasn’t been too bad for February. Actually, other than Thursday, it’s been rather pleasant.
Until yesterday, the temperature had been between 8°C and 10°C and brilliantly sunny each day (Thursday was very foggy and about 5°C). The sunny trend did continue on Saturday, but we only reached about 3°C (we were back to about 7°C today).
The new baseball schedule is out!
Click here for the northern league and here for the southern league.
