From Thailand to The Philippines...culture shock? Not what I expected but here's what I scribbled in my notebook as my mind unraveled my first week in. What Threw Me 1. Being Literate Billboards, storefronts, ingredients on packaging, t-shirts and receipts are among the beautiful expressions of one's surroundings that ceased being objects with interesting long-tailed symbols and blossomed into direct communicative transmissions. 2. Being Touched My experience of Thai culture has been one where the parameters of one's personal space with non relatives in the public sphere are very defined. For example, I recall watching a … [Read more...]
Western Mind, Eastern Mind And The Space In Between
Excerpt from an email sent to a friend..... "Please tell me delicious stories of Canadian life. I'll call it Canadiana and hold it close to my heart..... I've been out here long enough where I'm fucking up English words... i.e. on the TV I saw written in English (on Thai dubbed Bugs Bunny yesterday)..... BOX OFFICE..... Because there is no real transliteration for Thai here, meaning, there is no standard spelling/use of the Roman Alphabet so people spell words however the fuck they feel like it... I read BOX OFFICE as... BOX OF FICE... meaning BOX OF RICE? BOX OF ICE? What is this they speak of?.... Haven't quite lost my mind, … [Read more...]
Muay Thai Training In Limbo
When I first started training with Gai a year ago, I called up one of my friends and shouted, 'He treats me like a chicken!'. This translates as - I was being taken care of. Chicken fights can be big business out here and I've seen men treat their fowl with more respect and care than I've seen nak muays receive at a gym. Nothing like looking at a bird and thinking, "Wow, one day I want what you've got" (minus having a feather shoved up my rectum then down my throat to make weight). That being said, Thailand is a random place where the majority of the population lives in the present. Great while vacationing, a bit to get used to when you're … [Read more...]