Village Farm Winery!

Last weekend, I went with a group of English teachers from my school to a WINERY!! Yes, a legit winery in Thailand! The husband of one of the teachers has a friend who owns a winery farm about 3 hours away from Khon Kaen.  A group of us teachers were invited out for the Village Farm Winery Harvest Festival!

 A cocktail hour, 5 course dinner, grape picking, grape stomping, and all we could drink wine! 

We stayed at another Thai friend's Tibetan style home (which was HUGE and beautiful with 15 bedrooms!). It was made all out of wood that Uncle Danny has collected from all over Thailand.

Dinner was AMAZING, salad, pasta, clam chowder, salmon, cake, and some cheese. The wine was even better, red, white, and rose wine!  All we could eat.. and drink!

We received a tour of the winery from the owner and he told us all about the process of how the wine is made how they export their wine to France.  We chatted with some of the other friends of Uncle Danny and one had lived in San Diego for 18 years!  We chatted all about San Diego and how good Old Town Mexican food was.

After dinner and countless glasses of wine, we followed the musical band that was our dinner entertainment out into the grape fields where we were handed head flashlights and clippers after a few fireworks.  We frolicked out into the field and picked the grapes.

After our hard work of picking, the grapes were thrown into enormous barrels.  Soon after I hear "Wheres Chelsea?!" as the winery owner was looking for me.  I had told him during the tour that I wanted to stomp the grapes like the traditional Thai girls did and it wasn't long after he spotted me that he forced a Thai guy (much smaller than me) to pick me up and toss me into a bucket along with the grapes (after I washed my feet and put on a long skirt that was too short for my long legs).  Soon I was dancing and stomping along with the Thais!

The evening ended back at the house with some more cocktails and karaoke.. its not party in Thailand without karaoke! The next morning we stopped at a market on the way back to Khon Kaen where I picked up a few bags of grapes, these crazy mushrooms, and fresh tasty vegetables.  Lunch and dinners set for the week!!

Overall, great weekend. Thank you Village Farm!

Farang Girl Problems

My Reality: I'm behind in anything relating to celebrity gossip, the latest styles in the fashion world, social phenomenons and new technology, and anything that has to do with US and World News. I tend to get most of my news on Facebook which is where I found out about Whitney Houston, who won the Superbowl, the end of Kim Kardashian's marriage, and that my brother had a girlfriend. I'm in the dark still about Twitter and only recently figured out what the "#" means when its in a Facebook status (its a hashtag to mark key words for a tweet.. uuh okay I know what it is but I have no idea how it works). I basically live in my own little bubble in Khon Kaen and its hard for me to be concerned with whats going on elsewhere unless it directly affects me, like the Thailand flooding which left my grocery shelves nearly empty for months and bus travel twice as lengthy in time.. I knew about that one!

Along with practically living under a rock and unaware of whats going on in the world (yes, I could check online news more than I do), living in Thailand as a farang girl gives me multiple opportunities every day to experience strange situations and face issues that I wouldn't face if I were Thai.

Farang: also spelt falang, is the generic Thai word for a Westerner. The word farang teeters on the boundary between positive and negative in Thailand due to the fact that Western religions, lifestyles, eating habits, family dynamics, ideas about respect and independence, clothing styles, language, and even appearance, directly clash with those of the Thai people..... Tourism, in combination with a history of impoverishment, has led some Thai people to associate westerners with money. This association with money and power can lead to a rock star treatment of foreigners; many privileges and a great deal of respect often come to those with white skin. Awe and admiration for foreigners is commonplace. The word suey ('beautiful') often follows the word farang. The idea that white is beautiful is reinforced by store shelves full of skin-whitening products. Thai people also, historically and today, are interested in keeping Thailand for the Thais. This idea has spread into the cultural identity of the farang, both with fees often four times as large at parks and temples, and by restricting visas for spouses of Thai people. All of this is interconnected to the fact that Thais pay close attention to farang in their home country. (Wikipedia)

Farang also is the Thai word for guava.. a farang eating farang.. 555**!

Well, here I am.. a blonde girl in a Thai world with my fair share of "Farang Girl Problems"

• "No spicy!" "Mai sigh pet!"  I stress in both Thai in English hoping to get my point across that I don't need a single chili pepper in my som tam papaya salad I've ordered for lunch.  I take precaution when taking the first bite then I'm instantly hit with fire, my mouth is burning and I'm practically crying. No whole chilies and its still spicy. #FarangGirlInThailandProblems
• I leave my cool and air-coned apartment at 7:45am and begin my walk to school.  By 7:47, I'm sweating.  #FarangGirlInThailandProblems
• Sitting next to me on the songtell is an older Thai woman.  She won't stop staring at my face and my hair. Suddenly she begins stroking my arm and jabbering to her friends about how beautiful and white I am. #FarangGirlInThailandProblems
• As part of my morning ritual, I cover my body with a thin layer of baby powder in an attempt to keep me cool and absorb the sweat.  My entire room is now covered with baby powder. #FarangGirlInThailandProblems
• I need something nice to wear to school for a special activity.  I go to the market and can't find a single thing decent that fits me. #FarangGirlInThailandProblems
• I've been wearing the same pair of beat up grungy Rainbow sandals for 17 months because again, I can't find another pair of shoes that'll fit my farang feet. #FarangGirlInThailandProblems
• My blonde hair is EVERYWHERE, on my floor, stuck on my shirts, on the back of my skirts.. Is the heat for reals causing me to shed? #FarangGirlInThailandProblems
• The season is changing from cold to hot season. My body can't handle the change and heat and I'm left with an allergy reaction in the shape of a batman eye mask across my face. #FarangGirlInThailandProblems
• I'm outside my apartment wearing a tank top and jeans.  Two Thai girls walk by wearing short shorts, tiny bikini like tank tops, and heels.  The mom I tutor for looks at me and notes my bare shoulder by saying "Teacha Chelsea, SEXY today!" Shes being serious. Teacha is showing too much skin. #FarangGirlInThailandProblems
• I threw off my fried rice ladys and ordered something different one day.. I attempted to order one plate of fried rice with shrimp AND crab. 5 minutes later, I've paid for the two plates sitting in front of me. One fried rice shrimp, one fried rice crab. #FarangGirlInThailandProblems
• Rice for breakfast, rice for lunch, and rice/noodles for dinner.. I don't have an Asian metabolism. #FarangGirlInThailandProblems
• While eating the school lunch, I am particularly enjoying the mushroom curry. Later in the day I find out it wasn't mushroom, but chicken liver. #FarangGirlInThailandProblems
• I've run out of my face lotion with SPF that I've had sent to me from America as my special request in my care-packages.  I go to the Thai drugstore and can't find a single lotion without skin whitening. #FarangGirlInThailandProblems

**Five is "ha" in Thai.. 555! Thailand's "LOL".

555, silly farang girl.

500 Days of SE Asia!

Today marks my 500th day away from home and my 500th day in Asia! Its been a roller coaster of a ride and I have grown and experienced so much within the past 500 days and feel like I'll be leaving Thailand as a new and improved version of myself.  I only have 45 days left and I could go on and on about how much I'm going to miss beautiful Thailand, my kids, Thai food, Thai islands, the baht, traveling, and so much about my life here.  As excited as I am for my visit home to see friends, family, and eat In N Out and Mexican food, I am oddly anxious and stressed about returning to America and experiencing culture shock.  At times the thought is so extremely overwhelming that I can't picture myself actually getting on the airplane! Don't worry America, I'm sure I'll get on it.  I'm trying to remind myself that leaving Thailand means I'm starting a whole new adventure and I'm SO stoked for Australia and to start a new chapter in my life!  When expressing my mixed feelings about leaving, a friend asked me "who says you can't go back?!".  Australia is fairly close, I know I'll be back to Thailand someday. :)

Okay, I'll stop myself there before I start ranting and getting emotional, I'll leave you with pictures of my favorite experiences in the last 500 days.