First Impressions

I have to say, the first thing I thought when I stepped off the plane in Singapore was, "My GOD, this place is clean." Which was a very accurate first impression. As we whizzed down the highway towards the University guest house (but definitely not over the speed limit), I felt my amazement grow as I saw well manicured medians full of flowers and beautiful, clean streets and sidewalks. It could not be more different than the grimy, dirty, polluted, Bangkok. My dad remarked, "It feels like we're in Southern California." And it does; I do not even feel like I am in Asia anymore. Except for all the, well, Asians.

A Culinary Cabaret*

I am in Thailand, at the beach in Hua Hin, which is on the western side of the Gulf of Thailand. It’s quite gorgeous here, with beautiful beaches and shady palm trees. The highlight of my time in Hua Hin has not been, however, my time spent on the beach, but my time spent at restaurants. In fact, most of my time in Thailand in general revolves around eating. My mother makes plans to meet a friend for lunch, and since traffic is so bad in Bangkok, we leave two hours before she arranged to meet her. Once we’re all met up, we eat a spectacular lunch, and, since we don’t have time to go home before our dinner appointment, we shop around until its time for yet another meal. Even our time in Hua Hin, which is purely our own (no lunches or dinners with friends), has been based around food. What should we do for lunch? Where shall we go for dinner? Do you want to go get mangoes and sticky rice?

I don’t mind making food the focal point of our trip. Thailand is, after all, known for its exquisite cuisine, and it would be a shame to let a little thing like my caloric intake get in the way of eating as much of my favorite foods as possible. And at Hua Hin, all my favorite things seem to be right here, in one town. Well, all my favorite sea food, at least. I adamantly refuse to eat sea food in the United States. Call me a food snob, but what little sea food I have eaten Stateside never, ever, compares to what is available in Thailand. One might say, “Well, you are from Ohio,” but I have sampled lobster, crab, etc, in states that are not completely landlocked. And my verdict remains the same: Thailand has the best sea food. Period.

Last night, we went to a small restaurant right on the pier, with seating out over the water. As it got dark, we could see the green lights of the squid boats as well as the highly lit naval destroyers that guard the King’s summer palace (he happens to be there right now, which explains the presence of the destroyers). Our order closely resembled what we’d been eating every night: spicy steamed squid, deep fried fish (no breading though, which makes it a million times better than fried fish in the States), mussels, and 2 kilos of crab. I’m fairly certain all this came right out of the ocean we were sitting on, and it all tasted great. Our waiter even made fun of us for ordering so much crab, but we ate all of it and wiped that smile off his face.

I comfort myself with the fact that sea food doesn’t have that many calories, and if this isn’t true, please don’t tell me. Besides, I’m only in Hua Hin, only in Thailand, once a year, so I might as well indulge.

* I should confess that the title for this post came from the song “Be Our Guest,” from Beauty and the Beast. I’d hate to take credit for creativity that I do not in fact possess.

The Voyage of Self-Discovery, Part II

Tuesday afternoon found me in St. Paul, at Louise’s apartment, with nothing to do. The reason for this was not that there was nothing to do, but simply that Louise was at work, and I did not have the energy to go exploring on my own. My time in St. Paul was fun, though it was a shame that Louise had to work as much as she did. I wanted to spend more time with her, but since she is moving to France in the fall to teach English, she needs all the money she can get. I would not force her to ask for time off because of me. In any case, I had a good time. We went to Books and Bars, which is a fantastic idea of a book club combined with alcohol; what could be better?! They read a book each month then meet at a bar to discuss it. It was really fun even though I hadn’t read the book. After that was the mid night show of Harry Potter 6, which I, surprisingly, enjoyed immensely (my opinions on the Harry Potter movies could take up an entire new blog); I especially love seeing all the high schoolers get all dressed up, though it makes me feel really old. Louise showed me Macalester and we got sandwiches to eat by the river. We walked around the Minneapolis Institute of Art and saw the big cherry spoon at the sculpture garden. It was great to hang out with her, since, like Katie, I had rarely seen her since Christmas break. But on Friday, after dinner, I headed out to Mounds View for the final part of my road trip.

The event was fantastic, and if I can manage to go again next year, I will. It was definitely smaller than I was expecting, but I think that made it better, since the teachers were a bit more forced to focus on you. I was incredibly nervous; this was my very first swing event where I didn’t know anyone. In the past, any event I had gone to was also attended by at least two or three other Obies, but here, it was only me. I shouldn’t have worried though, since everyone there was incredibly nice and welcoming. At least two people came up to me on the first night, asking if I was out of town, and oh, where are you from? How did you hear about us? It was great. It was also nicer than expected to go back to an empty hotel room, but myself, after the dances were over. I feel like I was finally as courageous as I’d always imagined myself to be, going to this event alone. And that was definitely a good thing, since a lot of this trip was about finding stuff out about myself.

I drove home on Monday, stopping Monday night in Chicago with Katie. It was uneventful, which was fine by me. I made it home Tuesday without incident, in good time. I guess I did figure some things out on this trip, though they were mainly things that I need to work on, like my patience and my impulse, but I guess it’s a start. I know what I need to work on now, and am doing my best to do so. I hope to be a better, more grounded person when I get to Concord in the fall, so hopefully my time in Thailand is somewhat productive.

The Voyage of Self-Discovery, Part I

I guess my summer, up until a few weeks ago, was pretty boring, since, after I came home from Oberlin, I wasn't working. I mainly sat around the house all day trying to muster the will to get to the gym.

I had heard about the Twin Cities Balboa Festival at All Bal (which had been the highlight of my summer so far), and harbored a desire to go, but was unsure of whether this could become a reality or not. The Twin Cities are awfully far from Cincinnati, and to just drive up for the weekend seemed a bit excessive. However, luck would have it that my two best friends lived in convenient visiting-points along the way; Katie lived in Chicago and Louise lived in St. Paul itself. A plan was forming slowly in my mind: I could drive to Chicago, visit Katie for a few days, then drive to St. Paul, and visit Louise for a few days, then go to the Festival. It would be perfect! Now the question was: Did I have enough money? I fretted over this for a while before deciding that I did have enough, and even if the trip cleaned out my checking account, I was about to be a salaried teacher in the fall, wasn't I? Another motivating factor was the fact that I really needed to get out of Cincinnati. Due to a weird sequence of events, I’d been presented with some information about myself that I was not particularly proud of, and really wanted to get out of the house in order to figure things out; about myself, about this weird situation, about life. So, I decided to road trip. It worked out even more beautifully since my good friends from Cincinnati, also from high school, would be coming to Chicago for the weekend as well. So we headed north for a weekend of shopping and clubbing in Chicago.

I’d never been out clubbing like that before, and it was a bit of a shock to realize that I was expected to talk to and flirt with guys I didn’t know. I guess that’s how things work in the real world, and so far my experience was limited to Oberlin, where we had house parties and I almost always knew at least half the people in the room. I managed to convince Katie that I didn’t want to flirt with any guys; I just wanted to dance in the safe cocoon of our friends. Thankfully, she allowed me to remain inconspicuous, and I had a great time jumping around with my friends. My friends from home left for Cincinnati on Sunday morning, while I was planning to head out on Monday. Katie and I spent Sunday quietly, sleeping in then drinking coffee at Starbucks while we read and chatted. It was really nice and relaxing; I want to spend all my Sundays like that.

Monday morning I was off again, this time to Appleton, Wisconsin, to visit my favorite set of twins ever, whom I had met at Oberlin while teaching swing dancing. I made good time, and Laura and I had a wonderful lunch, after which she showed me around downtown Appleton. We went back to her house and just hung out and talked until her two sisters, one twin, Stephanie, one older, Catherine, returned from work, after which we had dinner then rented a movie. It was a wonderfully simple evening, but really fun. I love those girls and had a really good time hanging out with them.

To be Continued…

Graduation, etc.

I guess a post about graduation is, by this point, long over due. Over a month ago, I graduated from Oberlin College with Honors in Latin. The whole day- and the week leading up to it- were nothing if not surreal and almost fake. All of Senior Week, all I could think of was, "This might be the last time I eat at Black River, This might be the last time I walk to the gym," etc, etc. I felt like everything we did during Senior Week was incredibly forced- we all felt like we had to have the most fun and have the most outrageous time that week, and I ended up having very little fun. I can hardly party hard one night a week, let alone 7. And in addition to all this forced-fun, little arguments got blown out of proportion, everyone seemed to be mad at everyone else, and my housemates and I finally concluded that the administration keeps all the Seniors an extra week to make us all hate each other so we can't wait to leave. All this was a bit depressing, since I had started to become resentful toward the place that had been my home for the past four years. However, somehow I managed to get through it all- parents, my housemates families, packing- and finally graduate. It was a beautiful day, the speakers were all very good, even if the commencement speech was a bit of a downer. And that was it. I wish I could say that I felt some immense difference after I was handed my diploma, but in all honesty, I was just glad it was over, and was preparing to deal with the incredibly stressful aftermath. Swarms of family and friends descended upon us; I can't remember being more overwhelmed by people. But the ceremony was over; it was time to get ready to go home.

As I packed up my car after lunch, I kept waiting. Waiting to feel different, waiting to realize that I was never coming back, waiting to burst into tears. But it never happened. I teared up a bit when I said goodbye to some friends, but I would be seeing most of them again, whether over the summer or once I moved to Boston. As I said goodbye to my housemates, I knew I would see them all again, so again, it did not seem like a sad moment in which an era ends. I simply got in the car and drove away, as if it was the end to any other school year. I did cry a bit on the way home, but not much, and I have to say, I have yet to feel extremely sad. I am excited and ready to enter the "real world," and though I will miss Oberlin, I have to admit that I was ready to leave.

Perhaps I'll feel differently in the fall, when I am in Boston instead, but that remains to be seen.

Saying good -bye

I thought that I would feel different after I turned in my last exam on Saturday, free and happy, but I felt the same; anxious over my exam and wondering what I wanted to do with the rest of my day. I wondered to myself, "I'm done with college now; shouldn't I feel different? Where's that dramatic shift in my life?" I guess it didn't really hit me until yesterday, when I had to say goodbye to a close friend, one whom I don't know when I'll ever see again. It hit me hard when I walked into his room and saw that everything had been packed away. The room was bare and I though, "Oh my god, in about a week my room will look like this too. This is really happening; he's really leaving and I really have to say goodbye." We sat and talked and listened to music, joked about summer plans and discussed his plans for his semester abroad. But finally the moment came when he had to go meet other friends. He hugged me and all I could think of was "No, don't leave me," when in fact it is I who am leaving. I will be moving out and into the world, leaving behind this wonderful place I have come to call home. He was the first of many people that I will have to say good-bye to, the first of many whom I may never see again. As I walked home holding back tears, I couldn't help but think about my past four years here. I walked past all the buildings I had ever taken classes in, the library where I spent more than enough time, the lawns where we would lie out in the sun. As excited as I am to move on to a new phase in my life, I'm not really sure if I'm ready to leave this one behind. I love Oberlin, and all the people I've met here. I will miss almost everything about life here and am terrified of having to move to a new place and start over. I'm terrified of losing contact with those I really care about- everyone is so busy all the time, will I truly keep in touch? But I guess that's just a part of growing up- packing up and moving on, holding on to the things-and people-that really matter.

Its amazing how emotions can just run wild when something huge like college comes to an end. No one really seems to know what to do with themselves, so everyone just goes crazy. Classes just ended this past Friday, and though there is still a week of finals and two weeks till graduation, I still feel like I am going crazy. I don't know how to feel, and I feel everything at once- happy,sad, nervous, excited, depressed, and generally emotional. I don't have much to do by way of finals, so I'll be spending the next two weeks reflecting on my time at Oberlin and probably realizing that this place has meant more to me than any other in my short 22 years of life. I've grown so much here, so much about me has changed. I've made the most wonderful friends who I know I will cherish for the rest of my life. I've learned so much- academic and otherwise-and I feel fully prepared to enter the real world, though as ready as I am, I'm not sure I want to leave. Senior Week and graduation will be wonderful and sad and crazy all mixed into one, and I'm hoping that my friends and I create some memories that are both new and exciting and totally indicative of our time at Oberlin.