Peanuts

Let's talk a little about peanuts.

First off, they're delicious.  Second off, they're even more delicious when roasted.

Here's what unroasted peanuts look like:

Getting more delicious

Roasting them is pretty easy.  You throw them in a wok and flip them constantly for about fifteen minutes on medium heat.  No need for oil or grease or salt or anything!  Here's what a guy roasting peanuts looks like:

Notice the constant flipping!

After you've roasted the peanuts for a good 15-20 minutes, they'll start to become dark brown or even black.  That's okay!  The peanuts have an outer hull, and it's that which is browning.  Your nuts are probably still in good shape.  Peel off the hull and taste one- that's the best way to know if they're done.

Getting there!  About five more minutes

Once the peanuts are done, pour them out onto a cookie sheet.  The Thais have special cooling trays made out palm fronds (I think) that they use for peanuts as well as sticky rice.  When the nuts are cool enough to handle, press down and roll them using your palm.  This will help separate the hull from the nut.  This takes a bit of time, so have patience!

Yupin, being very patient.

The last part is the trickiest.  It requires some motor skills I don't quite have, and it also requires that your cookie sheet has some sort of a lip.  Take your tray outside and flip it, each time catching the nuts back on the tray.  The much lighter hulls, now separated, should fly away in the wind.

Look at that form!

And there you have it!  Peanuts, delicious, freshly roasted, and ready to eat :)

So what is a Thailand, anyway?

Aroon Sawat!

I want to take a couple minutes today to talk about Thailand as a country, for your sake as well as mine.  I didn't do too much research before coming, so I'm still learning lots of things about Thailand as a political entity and about its demographics.

Let's get started.  Thailand is in southeast asia:

here!

It's capital is Bangkok, and the country has about 67 million people in it, making it the 20th most populous country in the world.  It's about 200,000 square miles, making it about 20% larger than California (I didn't realize it was so large!)

Thailand used to be referred to as Siam (ergo Siamese), but hasn't been called that since 1949.  The language of Thailand is Thai, although the region I'm in has a dialect which could almost be called its own language, called Isan.  Isan is almost closer to Laotian than to Thai.

I would say that it's hard to get around in Thailand as an American because the standard English proficiency is so low (ranked 54 out of 56 countries globally), but Thais are extremely patient and even xenophillic- they don't mind trying to talk to you, and will help you out however they can.

Thailand has a tropical climate and has rainy and dry seasons.  It's always at least warm and often hot- although I haven't really experienced that yet.  So far temperatures have been in the 60-85 degree range for me, and always sunny.

Thailand has a parliamentary constitutional monarchy, and they love their king very much.  His image is everywhere in the country, and I haven't yet heard anyone say a bad word about him.  He seems like a very good man.

This dude

As Thailand is a newly industrialized country, most of the amenities we're used to can be found here.  The local currency is the Baht, and as a rough rule of thumb about 30 baht equal a dollar.  Things are very very cheap by American standards (and even cheaper by European standards)- it's not a problem at all to get a meal for about a buck.  

The economy grew very rapidly in the 80s and 90s and continues to grow strongly today.  Nonetheless, about half the country still works in agriculture, and Thailand's greatest export is rice--it's actually the world's largest rice exporter.

About 95% of Thais are Buddhist and 4% are Muslims.  Christians and Hindus make up the other 1%.  

I'll keep you posted as I learn more!

Kitties! also, lots of pictures

So Thailand is kind of a funny place.  There are plenty of things you wouldn’t expect to see in America, some things you wouldn’t expect to see in Thailand, and lots and lots of things you wouldn’t expect to see anywhere. 

Here are some of my first impressions:

            -There isn’t any hot water.  I’m sure it’s available in some places, but I haven’t found it yet.

            -There is plenty of food, everywhere.  I was a little concerned about losing weight, but now I realize that was silly: one is never more than a couple meters from food in Thailand.    

            -Most meals are eaten with the hands.  All meals are eaten with sticky rice.

            -Thais will eat anything and everything.  Fruits, stalks, leaves, stems, flowers, beef, pork, chicken, fish, buffalo skin, bugs, birds, eggs, bugs- it doesn’t really matter.

            -Thai is a tricky language!  There are five tones, meaning that the intonation of a word is important to its definition.

            -Most toilets are of the squat variety.

            -It seems like everybody rides little motorbikes.  I haven’t seen any crotch rockets yet, though; most of the bikes are small and not very flashy.

            -There are animals everywhere!  It seems like everywhere you turn there's either a cat, or a dog, or some chickens, or a lizard, or water buffalo, or something else prowling around.

Cats!

Chickens!

More cats!

Termites!

Temples!

Shrubberies! 

Food!

Lookit that chin

Sticky rice!

More cats!

Even more cats!

Water buffaloes!

Tamarinds!

A little background...

Good evening!

It’s Monday now, and I’ve been in Ban Thin since Thursday.  Lots has happened since then!  I’ll get you caught up in just a little bit, but first, I’d like to say a few words about who I am, where I am, and what I’ll be doing for the next couple months.

I’m Tim Miller, a student at the University of Pennsylvania and an avid traveller.

that's me!

  By this point, I’ve been to most of western Europe and have lived and worked in Germany.  Next starting in March, I’ll be studying for a semester at the University of Vienna, and presently I’m completing an internship at the Center for Vocational Building Technologies in Ban Thin, Thailand. 

Ban Thin is not far from Udon Thani, in the North East.

The CBVT is run by Geoffrey Wheeler, an American who has been living in Thailand with his wife Yupin for nearly twenty years.  It is a non-profit organization which produces bricks, paving stones, and roofing tiles, among other products.  In doing so, it provides valuable, high-quality building materials for the locals and also creates high-wage jobs for the villagers.

Geoffrey has also travelled extensively, teaching other people how to manufacture bricks and other building materials and selling the appropriate equipment.  This has been particularly valuable to many countries in southeast Asia after hurricanes and earthquakes.

Geoffrey and Yupin have been generous enough to offer to share their home with me.  I’m particularly thankful for this because it not only means that I don’t need to find accommodation for my stay here, but also that I’ll get to pick up a little bit of Thai culture along the way.  Plus, Yupin is an excellent cook.

Here we have some delicious chicken, chinese radishes, and mixed fish, along with tasty vegetables and freshly squeezed dragonfruit juice

I’ll be working at the center for the next two months.  Currently, I’m working on a project designing and building wood frames for the molds used to produce paving slabs.  In a few weeks, I may be tasked with designing a frame for a compression tester, or possible doing some database work.

In any case, it's getting late, so I'm going to go brush my teeth and go to bed!

ราตรีสวัสดิ์ 

So I'm sitting at the Queen Alia International Airport in Amman, Jordan.  

Jordan is a small country sandwiched between Israel and Saudi Arabia, just east of Egypt.  It has about 6.5 million inhabitant, including the 1.9 million who live in Amman, the capital.

That's here !

The flight wasn't too bad-- I had the whole 2-seat row to myself, so I could spread out a bit.  Also, they gave me this spiffy 7-up, which I drank while eating a delicious turkey-and-avocado sandwich:

My layover is about 9 hours.  I considered leaving the airport and touring the city, but a couple things stopped me:

• It's already 6 at night on a Wednesday.  In a few hours, there won't be much more to do
• There's a $~30 visa I would need to purchase to leave the airport
• Cab fare is $20 in both directions
• It's snowing!  Apparently, this doesn't happen often, but when it does it's a big deal and everybody goes to grocery stories and buys up water bottles and bread and duct tape in case there's a national emergency and everyone dies.
• that's probably exaggerating a little bit.

In any case, the internet that I'm mooching from the VIP lounge upstairs is not particularly good, so I'm going to sign off.  All the best!

Taking off!

So I’m writing again, back by popular demand.  Except this time, the topic is Thailand, and this blog is dedicated to my Auntie Jeanne, who oh-so-persistently requested that I start it.

the lovely Auntie Jeanne

That doesn’t mean it’s all hers, though!  This blog is for anyone who wasn’t able to make it out to Thailand this year, so that they might have the chance to share some of my experiences, and those who are going, so that they might have a glimpse of what’s in store.  Like my last blog, &etc., I’ll try to share my thoughts, experiences, and the pictures I take along the way.  And, unlike my actual last blog, &letsgo, I'll actually update this one.  I promise.  I've already sent the link out, so now I have to.

Enough of that, though.  I was originally scheduled to fly out to Bangkok on the 7^th via Tokyo, with Japan Airlines.  Unfortunately, that plane caught fire (no joke! see the abc news article).  Japan Airlines tried to reschedule me for another flight today, but rather than braving the 44-hour trip and layover-rich route that they suggested, I chose to re-book with Royal Jordanian.   I’m glad I did, because a few hours before I left for the airport, I heard an NPR report explaining that the JAL plane I would have been on had I not rebooked had a fuel leak and was also cancelled.

So while we could call the delay bad luck, I’d prefer to call it fortune: after all, I was only minutes away from boarding a plane which would imminently catch fire.  I’m a lucky man.

At Logan, before takeoff

In any case, I’m presently I’m sitting in the plane at JFK, waiting for the doors to close on my flight to Amman, Jordan, where I have an 8-hour layover before continuing to Bangkok.   At the airport, I had the pleasure of talking with a  Jordanian man who has lived on Martha’s Vineyard for the last twelve years: a pastry maker by profession, he is on his way to his son’s wedding, where he’ll orchestrate the construction of his wedding cake.  Also, his bakery is the home of the original apple fritter—that’s something worth bragging about.

Wish me a safe flight!