Written Refreshingly by John Irvin                           No. 21                                           November 1, 1998

Back from the U.S.A.

Before I get into the details of my recent explorations to the U.S.A., here’s a brief update on the weather. (I have decided to try to include some local color at the beginning of each monthly newsletter, for your benefit. Hopefully, I will actually keep this up as I continue to write.)

Now in Chiang Mai, at the beginning of November, the cool season is kicking in early. Nights are already down to the low 60s (about 15 C), while the days are hot (about 85F, 29C) with low humidity. If you’re coming to visit, bring a jacket or a sweater for the evenings, and, if you’re coming to see the Leonid Meteors and you’re planning to go up into the hills, definitely bring something that keeps you warm down to about 50F (10C). Meanwhile, weather in Bangkok and southern Thailand is still hot, hot, hot (in the 90s, 35C), all the time, like a sauna.

Loi Kratong is one of the biggest celebrations in Thailand, and it focuses on the small vessels made of banana leaves (and sometimes Styrofoam) which are decorated with flowers and incense and floated down the river. My understanding is that this has a romantic meaning, and couples will float their krathong down the river accompanied by a prayer. Loi Krathong is also the occasion for a big parade, and, as I’ve already mentioned, lots of fireworks, which are set off with a minimum of consideration for whoever might be standing nearby.

Also, huge rectangular bags containing lamps are launched into the air. Rising because of the heat, they fill the sky like Halloween kites, and drift along like little brown ghosts. One can see them in the distance, sometimes a whole row of them, little orange lights floating away into the night and landing who knows where the next day, when the fires burns out.

Number one, I ate – and ate, and ate, and ate. Americans eat so much, my stomach was filled all the time, stretched to expanding, and I felt like a little piggy. I could hardly move sometimes. I think the Asian diet, which features rice with small amounts of meat, vegetables, and sauce, has conditioned me to accept a certain intake of calories, fat, and other things. I almost never get full in Thailand, unless I order seconds, or eat a huge banquet with people. But American food – including all the imports, like Mexican, German, Greek, Italian – plus typically American items like sandwiches and potato salad, just seem so heavy to me now; I get filled up very fast. And serving sizes are also huge in America compared to Thailand, so people eat more food.

As a visitor, I was taken out to eat a lot, sometimes for lunch and for dinner on the same day. I ate lots of different kinds of cuisine, and naturally, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to have those rich western desserts: cheesecake, chocolate this and that, and all the other things I don’t get to have in Thailand. I enjoyed the pleasure of indulgence, but I also was glad to get back to Thailand and eat the regular diet I am used to here.

By the way, although it’s true that Americans are bigger and taller than Thais in general, as western food becomes more popular in Thailand, Thais are catching up. Studies I have read claim that there is a growing number of overweight children in Thailand, due to the influx of fast-food, junk-food, and ice-cream. And some of my Thai students, a generation younger than me, are as tall or taller than me, including some of the women (by the way, I’m 5 feet 8 inches, or about 170 cm).

In the U.S., I didn’t see very much "street life," or "color," like I see in Thailand. In America we don’t have the street vendors, or street stalls – the little restaurants with plastic stools and tables on the sidewalk, excellent for quick and easy meals. Things in the U.S. are compartmentalized, tucked away into shops, and off the street. People are mobile and fast moving, and often drive from one store to the next, so they don’t encounter much street life. The only possible exception to this might be a city like New York, where there is a lot of walking, and people meet other people and see a lot of activity on the street.

I noticed nice clean, wide streets in America, with modern looking ramps and traffic lights to control the traffic. They are light years ahead of Thailand in this department. But I saw so many cars, and almost no bicycles or motorbikes. I would say that in the U.S., about 97 percent of the vehicles on the road are cars, whereas in Thailand, I would put the figure at around 60 percent, leaving about 35 percent for bikes, and another 5 percent for things like food carts, samlors, and the like. If you don’t have a car in America, you aren’t playing by the rules.

One thing I noticed, on college campuses, was the attitudes of the students. In Thailand, being a student is a stage in life, a role, a station that is taken fairly seriously (even though Thai students may seem to have a casual attitude about many things). Youth culture, while popular, comes second; being a student comes first. But in the U.S., students appear to be into many identities besides that of being a student. Youth culture in America is very strong, and the need to belong and to look for self-definition seems to happen outside the official institutions of school. Being a student appears to be one of many things to them, and not necessarily the first in importance.

In Thailand, students wear uniforms, even to college. In the U.S., I saw students in all kinds of clothes, including shorts, tank tops, even bare midriffs for the women. You certainly would never see this at a university in Thailand; it would cause a scandal. Long hair and earrings for men, and skirts above the knees for women, are about as loose as they get.

In the U.S.A., some of the women students on college campuses are not afraid to wear clothes that advertise their figures: tight blouses, low-cut tops, and short shorts, plus lots of makeup. But what is interesting is that their dress is not consistent with their actions; they may advertise sex, but that doesn’t mean they are in a hurry to do it. Americans may be used to this, but, coming from Asia, I find it very significant. In Thailand, women are trained to be modest, and most young women are very cautious about showing off their figures. To dress the way those American college women do in Thailand would be to risk being labeled as a bar girl, karaoke hostess or a prostitute – women who have fallen out the bottom of society, and who therefore can break the rules.
______________________________________________________________________
I will be traveling around Thailand this month, so the December newsletter may be a little behind schedule. Enjoy the holidays!

© Copyright 1998, John Irvin

This page hosted by Get your own Free Homepage