Tales from Thailand

Hi, I'm Miranda, and these are musings, stories, and photography from the cultural and diplomatic adventures of a patriotic xenophile studying abroad in Thailand for 10 months. Enjoy and leave a message or question! Have a great day! Follow me on twitter @Merendeh and check out my videos on Youtube!

[durianquotes]

We are torn between nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange. As often as not, we are homesick most for the places we have never known.

Carson Mccullers (via durianquotes)

[learninglog]

When I was a student at Cambridge I remember an anthropology professor holding up a picture of a bone with 28 incisions carved in it. “This is often considered to be man’s first attempt at a calendar” she explained. She paused as we dutifully wrote this down. ‘My question to you is this – what man needs to mark 28 days? I would suggest to you that this is woman’s first attempt at a calendar.’ It was a moment that changed my life. In that second I stopped to question almost everything I had been taught about the past. How often had I overlooked women’s contributions?

Sandi Toksvig. (via loveeintheice, learninglog) (via cucumberoya) (via natalei) (via ausrotten) (via thegrandbudapestmotel6) (via vivianvivisection) (via maycontainfeminists) (via rumbox) (via ratat) (via hcockey)

[colonelhathi]

japan ≠ korea ≠ china

pakistan is not in the middle east

most muslims aren’t arabs

geishas are not prostitutes

mexico is a very small part of latin america

there are 54 countries in africa

china has 56 different ethnic groups and none of them eat chop suey

singapore is not part of china

most singaporeans speak english as their first language, please don’t ask, “why is your English so good”

[mir-andawrites]

43 Days left!

Hello everyone!

It has been a very long time. Unfortunately I still do not have consistent internet or computer access...it is complicated. 

Anyway, here is what I have been up to since February:

I headed down to Bangkok and then Ayutthaya and participated in a Thai Traditional Massage Course with 9 other exchange students. We had a blast, it was great to spend time with them, and I passed the exam so now I am officially certified in Thai Traditional Massage!

Next, we headed up north to Chiang Mai for the AFS Midstay camp. It was supposed to take place in February, but because of the political protests, it was postponed until March. As usual, it was a great time. We were all excited to see each other, hang out, and recount our Thai adventures. AFS was great about planning activities as well. We rode elephants and oxen carts, bamboo rafted down a long river, ate a traditional Northern style meal with a dance performance, and of course spent loads of money at the night market and night bazaar.

After that, everyone else headed back to their host families, but the other 3 girls who are on YES Abroad and I headed down to a province called Nakhon Sawan and then to Kampangpet for our community service project. We met the director of the Mae Wong National Park and then we moved into a cabin in the forest itself and proceeded to do service work and embark on adventures. The best part was when we climbed Mount Chon Yen - it was exhausting, but I felt very proud of myself afterwards.

When we finished, I endured the 16 hours of bus travel to get back to my host family in NKP, but I only stuck around for a couple of days. After that, I packed a small bag and took the van to a little town called Loeng Nok Tha, near Yasothon and Ubon Tani. There I met up with 5 of my AFS friends, where we taught at an ERIC English camp at Loeng Nok Tha school. Out of all of the English camps I have taught at in Thailand thus far, this was my favorite one. I really connected with the students and they were eager to learn and have a good time.

Now I am back home, and I don't have too much planned for my last several weeks here in Thailand. I have a friend doing a week exchange, and my little brother Omsin is currently living in the temple in our town as sort of a Monk student (I'm not exactly sure how to translate it.)

Another cool thing is that a Big C Supercenter opened in NKP - the first one in my province, and it is complete with a KFC and Swensen's.

I also got some good news - college acceptance, which I am  very thrilled about!

[larmoyante]

It’s funny. When you leave your home and wander really far, you always think, ‘I want to go home.’ But then you come home, and of course it’s not the same. You can’t live with it, you can’t live away from it. And it seems like from then on there’s always this yearning for some place that doesn’t exist. I felt that. Still do. I’m never completely at home anywhere.

Danzy Senna (via larmoyante)

[mir-andawrites]

Hi everyone!

I know, I know, I've been a faulty blogger. Thank you for sticking by me!

It's actually harder to keep up with this than I had realized, especially because I'm a perfectionist when it comes to writing things that other people will read.

Anyway, tomorrow is my last day at UTP and then Thursday I begin a new adventure in another town with some friends. Wifi willing, I will post pictures and more frequent updates!

I've got about 12 weeks left in Thailand. Crazy, right?

In some ways, it has felt like an eternity. In others, I feel like I just arrived.

[united-nations-deactivated20190]

“I disowned my family to get a chance to survive and they all died. I was 12,” said Innocente Nyirahabimana, one of the survivors of the Rwanda genocide twenty years ago.

Take a look at these powerful photos of 14 survivors of the genocide, taken by photographer Myriam Abdelaziz.

http://j.mp/1cmm7Yt

[united-nations-deactivated20190]

13 February is World Radio Day — a day to celebrate radio as a medium that reaches the widest audience worldwide. Yet, there is a gender gap in radio content and management: women reporters & hosts get less airtime than men; and fewer women are in executive positions. Through World Radio Day celebrations around the world, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is committed to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment.

[whitabex]

[upworthy]

It’s Been Over 100 Years Since An Artist Has Done This In America. About Time Someone Did It Again.

More than a century has passed since a photographic journey explored Native Americans with such a broad scope and in this amount of detail. In 1906, photographer Edward S. Curtis was commissioned by J.P. Morgan to capture the “disappearing” race.

In 2014, to change perceptions about Native Americans, photographer Matika Wilbur believes we have to update the kind of imagery we’re looking at when we think of her race. It’s a beautiful — and important — idea.

[micdotcom]

23 times feminist campaigns changed the world

Remember when everyone was like “Feminism is so dead?” Well, the last few years have absolutely proved that theory wrong.

Activists have become increasingly skilled in the digital age at using the sophisticated online tools to galvanize social change. The result? Amazing feminists are changing the world.

Here’s a look at the incredible digital campaigns in recent memory resulting in amazing feminist victories. There’s tons of work left to be done, but these moments are worth celebrating. They are a strong reminder of why we keep on fighting.

See the full list

Follow policymic

[claphnelauren]

whenever I’m traveling i always get tripped out at the fact that this is someone’s actual hometown like they know every back road and how to get everywhere and they’ve probably had tons of memories in this city

but I’m just someone passing by

[princejamesthefirst]

Photos from Ithaca College’s African Student Association “Fight the Stereotype” campaign. So important.

[roseinphrae]

Procrastination

I have a few tasks that I need to do, but I’m not doing any of them. They’re pretty important things, and I know I should be working on them. Hey, I even want to be working on them. For some reason though, I find myself procrastinating my work and I’m having a difficult time stopping. I think there are two types of procrastination that I deal with. 

The first is what I like to call passive procrastination. This involves me sitting at the computer and scrolling through tumblr, or news articles, or watching YouTube videos. I’m not doing much of anything, and I’m definitely not doing what I should be doing. Activities like this are passive and unproductive. I don’t think they’re harmful in small doses, but when they’re used as a procrastination device they can be very hard to control.

The second type, which is what I dealt with today, is what I refer to as active procrastination. This afternoon I cleaned my room, swept my floor, and put away my clean clothes that I washed yesterday. This seems great, right? It’s productive, and I got some things done. Usually I would be proud of myself for cleaning up my bedroom and doing some organization. The thing that was different about today was that I was cleaning as a procrastination tool. I was doing it to avoid the real work, to avoid what I really needed and wanted to be doing. 

There are a lot of things that I use to actively procrastinate. Sometimes I clean, like today with tidying my room or with washing the dishes. Other times I like to cook, or make a craft project. Sometimes I’ll go outdoors and exercise or just wander around my neighborhood. None of these things are bad; most of them are actually quite good and necessary. The problem is that when I use them as procrastination tools, I don’t feel good about doing them. Usually I enjoy exercise and I like using and developing my muscles and my body, but when I exercise to procrastinate, I don’t enjoy it as much. I don’t know if this is unique to me, but when I actively procrastinate I really don’t enjoy the activities I do. 

The answer, I think, is just to do the work. Stop procrastinating, and stop kidding yourself that you’re being productive when you’re really actively procrastinating. Today I was trying to avoid two things: my chemistry homework and practicing new Thai vocab words. I did a lot of things today, but these two (important) activities were avoided. Sitting down and writing this post has really helped me to be more aware of what I was doing and I hope it’ll help me in the future. Sometimes tough love from yourself is really the best medicine. I’m about to make a rough draft of my chemistry lab report. I know I’ll thank myself tomorrow.

[mir-andawrites]

This is me with internship applications, scholarship applications, blogging, and the capstone project. Tomorrow I promise to be productive! Good luck Eleanor!

[sci-universe]

Curiosity rover on Mars has captured its first view of Earth from the surface of the red planet — a striking image that shows our home planet as a bright light in the Martian sky.

“Consider again that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives.” — Carl Sagan on Pale Blue Dot

Read more here. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/TAMU

[androphilia]

Yannick Bonheur and Vanessa James, the first black pair skaters to compete at the Olympics

[awkwardsituationist]

there are three ways that individuals who are oppressed can deal with their oppression. one of them is to rise up against their oppressors with physical violence and corroding hatred. but oh this isn’t the way. violence creates many more social problems than it solves. another way is to acquiesce and to give in, to resign yourself to the oppression. but that too isn’t the way, because non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good.

but there is another way. and that is to organize mass non violent resistance based on the principle of love. where there is something about hate that tears down and is destructive, there is something about love that builds up and is creative. love is the only creative, redemptive, transforming power in the universe.

when you rise to the level of love, of its great beauty and power, you seek only to defeat evil systems. individuals who happen to be caught up in that system, you love, but you seek to defeat the system. you just keep loving people, even though they’re mistreating you. just keep being friendly to that person. i’m foolish enough to believe that through the power of this love, somewhere men of the most recalcitrant bent will be transformed.

edited from a november 17, 1957 sermon by dr. martin luther king, jr. photos by: 1. marc riboud of jan rose kasmir at the pentagon, october 21, 1967; 2. lefteris pitarakis in cairo, january 28, 2011; 3. guillermo legaria in bogota, october 26, 2011; 4. sergei chuzavkov in kiev, december 30, 2013; 5. william fernando martinez in bogotá, november 11, 2011; 6. reuters, kiev, november, 2004; 7. stefan stefanov in sofia, bulgaria, november, 2013; 8. john vizcaino in bogotá, november 11, 2011; and 9. hadi mizban in baghdad, january 6, 2008

[lucid222reveries]

"i’m foolish enough to believe that through the power of this love, somewhere men of the most recalcitrant bent will be transformed."