my new home in Taweewattana

I now live in the Taweewattana section of Bangkok, and it already feels like home after just a few days.

My apartment is the designated apartment for AFS foreign teachers to my school Dipangkornwittayapat; I'm the "first annual" and my advisor Jiaranai hopes it will become a long and treasured tradition.

The apartment, an easy walk from school, is on the second floor, next to a lovely young family with a three-month old daughter (I miss Brie, but it's nice having a baby nearby). The apartment consists of a large, clean room with windows on three sides, looking south into my balcony and over the canal (Khrong Pratoom if you want to find it on google), west over red tile and tin roofs of neighbors (nightly rains sound like a jet plane taking off), north into our hallway (windows let in light and breeze).

The balcony is my water area--"water" (nam) was my first assimilated word in Thai and is very important here. The enclosed area of the balcony, about 4 ft by 6 ft, is toilet and spigot/shower. A big black plastic barrel is my cistern, readily filled with the spigot. Jiaranai bought a bowl for me; I brought the scrubby and soap from the US. One bowl of water is all it takes for my twice daily (at least) cleansing and refreshing shower. The open area of the balcony is laundry and sitting area, 4 ft by 5 ft 4 in (I measured by the 1-foot-square tiles, decorated in a one-inch gingham pattern). Laundry is by hand, 7 bowls of water for wash, 7 bowls for rinse, hang on the drying rack, dry within hours. Jiaranai helped me choose laundry supplies, including the little stool to sit on as I scrub.

My toilet is "Western style", but flushed by pouring down water, no flush handle or tank. Sometimes it's the used laundry water, sometimes I simply gather a bowl or two of water from my cistern. I have successfully negotiated the squat toilets in the school, seems pretty sensible once you try it.

Breakfast and lunch are at school--a wonderful cafeteria with fresh rice, noodles, soup and Thai dishes, seems to be a new variety daily. Things aren't too spicy; apparently even some Thai natives like it mild-- with the ever-present option of red-pepper sauce, fish sauce, some other sauces I haven't even dared to smell yet. Tastes delicious plain to me, so far. Breakfast today was rice, roast chicken, a spicy-ish chicken-and-greenbean dish, and a tasty soup (I saw tofu and sliced carrots, didn't recognize any of the other ingredients, can't remember any of the Thai words--seems for every word I learn, I forget two). I was just patting my tummy and saying I'm full when people decided I needed dessert. First a visually beautiful treat of yellow corn kernels, orange squash pieces (looked like acorn squash, dark green skin still on), and bright green squiggles about 1/2 cm diam by 2-3 cm long, would have been scary except I'd just learned about the sweet green paste made of a garden herb (they showed me the leaf), pounded in a mortar and pestle with sugar, whipped with egg and coconut milk. Today's dessert was topped by a scoop of crushed ice, my clue that a dish is sweet. And then she brought over a bowl of hot steamed bananas in sweetened coconut milk...

Dinners will be across the canal from school at Boom's Shop. Boom is a delightful young woman who has already agreed to teach me as she cooks. Pad Thai starts with a wok over an open flame, 4 large shrimp in hot oil; before they're quite pink add 2 scrambled eggs and stir together with the shrimp. Add a handful of rice noodles, immediately pour in water to steam the noodles. Add garlic and red pepper, scallions--I think I'll need to watch one more time. Tom yam kung starts with diagonal slices of lemon grass, fine-chopped red peppers, this sauce and that sauce, shrimp, mushrooms, scallions. She also makes a delightful sticky-rice in banana leaf, sweet and tasty. One day the sticky rice was blue-purple; I was just wondering why when Boom picked a purple flower growing in her shop garden, put it next to the rice. I took a picture of the flower with the rice and she beamed--her pupil is catching on!

Yes, the weather is hot, and wet. I'm re-learning my mom's technique of closing all windows and curtains during the heat of the day, then open again after dark, with my electric fan at the window nearest my bed. A variation they never needed in Iowa or Pittsburgh--if it's too wet out at night, I open the balcony windows only and set the fan to blow out one of the other windows; sets up a cross-breeze without bringing in too much moisture. The school classrooms are not air conditioned, but windows are all open for a welcome breeze.

I'm pretty sure I got the prize position with the Teacher Assistant program--a very liveable home in a pretty location. I'd love to hear from the rest of the TAs where you've landed--