March 24th, 2015

A couple of articles to share from The Guardian this week.  First, from the 'it all makes sense now' file, the German language has an inordinate amount of sayings related to poop.  Over 3/4 of my gene pool is German, and even though I am 2-3 generations removed from it, this preoccupation with all things bowel related is strong.  I run the gamut of thinking that racial stereotyping is total BS, to it being able to predetermine all actions, but it is this kind of first hand anecdotal proof that gets me leaning towards nature.

Second, I came into the conversation around the water cooler towards the end, but this article about why white people are called expats and non-whites are called immigrants stirred a lot of passion.   Initially, thought it was a load of crap cause expat to me indicates a temporary thing, while immigrants seek to live in the second country permanently.  But when I thought twice about it, our cleaning lady is here to work, but I don't consider her an expat.  She is by definition an expat, but we don't view her such.  My initial thought was that expat is today's term for what we used to call Colonialists or Imperialists.  Just exerting influence in the world using cash instead of at the end of a musket.  Hmmm.  Then I see an article in the US that claims there is discrimination against Christians, a war on Christmas, or racism against whites and my head begins to throb.

Speaking of expats, who I will now refer to as migrants, I have lamented previously that the worst part of this life for me is the constant exodus of people out of the country.  The first two years were bad enough, but this year, am losing 4 out of 5 of my favorite dudes.  These are the fellas that I call when I want to have a cocktail, have a dinner date with the girls, or just to watch the game.  The dudes that accept me for my peculiarities...was having beers with one of them while our daughters had soccer practice the other night, and he brought another buddy from work who was "from Seattle".  We get introduced and I say to the friend's friend that I hear you are from Seattle?  He says, yeah...Gig Harbor.  I reply dismissively..."Gig Harbor?  That's not Seattle...that's like, Tacoma?"  He started to get defensive and our mutual friend just says, 'Ignore him, he loves to get under people's skin...just an asshole'.  See, totally understands that streak in me and turns it around.  Hard to develop that in short spaces that you have in the limited migrant labor shelf life.  Gonna miss those guys and expect they will stay as friends and that we will see them down the road, but especially as I have to start cultivating new relationships and that always starts out with having to be nice.  Interested in what they do, blah blah blah.  Was thinking about this when I received a link to this video about expat, oops, migrant friend circles...funny cause it's true.

At least I still have one chum sticking around.  An English fella that has a love of the Pittsburg Steelers.  Nuff said...  His profession is knowing everything about wine.  We arranged for him to teach a "class" last Saturday to help raise money for the local Community Center.  10 people comparing same wines grown in Old and New World environments and we hosted at our place.  As the guests were from the whole community and we only knew a couple of them slightly, we weren't sure how it would go, but after some initial uneasiness, once we got into the first wines, people livened up and we had a fine evening.  8 wines (4 comparisons) with a Port and dessert at the end.  My friend kept us enthralled all evening with his knowledge of wines and did so in a way that did not make anyone feel stupid about their own knowledge (and lack thereof).  Would do one of those monthly and think I just might arrange that as a rotating club next year.  Now just need to recruit enough quality folks to round out the members.

Carolyn turns 12 today (I forgot this morning...shame) and is in the 6th grade and she and her buddies have discovered boys.  Have listened to a lot of conversations about girls being upset with other ones as they both like the same boy, and how some girls keep two boys interested, keeping one on the "sidelines" but that he is still their "property".  I don't suspect that they have moved into any areas past the "liking" phase as I will probably stop hearing about this stuff altogether when that happens.  Am also happy we are here as the parents keep a pretty tight leash on their kids in these parts, but one thing that being involved with Chinese people does supply is the inadvertent awkward name.   One of Carolyn's buddies likes a boy named Willie Hung.   I am friends with that girls parents and we were talking about this over drinks the other night.  I asked the mom if she knew about this liking boys stuff and she did...then asked if she knew the name of the boy her daughter was supposedly fond of.  She rolled her eyes and said how that is going to be a lot of pressure on that poor kid. 

Just read this article in That's magazine (natch) about the 50 best retaurants in Asia.  Unsurprisingly, Taiwan only has one listed, and it is a French place in Taichung.  I did just make reservations for us for Thursday to eat at # 7 on the list...Nahm in Bangkok

We head out tomorrow for Spring break...Thailand for 10 days baby.  It has been number one on my wish list since the decision was made to come to this part of the world and am super excited.  Three nights in (what happens to the man who goes through the turnstile the wrong way?  He is going to) Bangkok, two nights in Chiang Mai, and 6 nights in Phuket.  Looking forward to experiencing the culture, sights, beaches, etc., but mostly, have high expectations of the food.  Italian, Indian and Thai are the three pillars to me and can't wait to get me some of the real thing.

See you on the other side.