Elderly in the U.S.

The answer I got from the question "Are you afraid of growing old?" was "Exactly!". Not only Americans afraid of it, but also Thais. It's universal. :) But, no one can refuse the circle of life. They said they must accept the truth and try to be as healthy as possible. Moreover, they hope to be able to travel after they retire. They have been collecting money for the journey and the expense for their living, too. Some of them want to live in their own house and some want to live in an apartment. They actually prefer to live separately after they retire which I guess that such idea is underlied from American's individualism. If they're 65 or older, they want to have peaceful life in a good house/apartment. However, they said that if they are disabled, they might consider living with their children.

American Family

American students are independent. To compare with Thai students, they're very different. They have jobs to earn for their tutoring. They live apart from their parents. They believe in themselves. The decisions they make are on their own. They tend to be independent on their families any more but they actually don't, at least emotionally.

Talking with my American friends, I found out that they still consider their families (which include the pets as well) very important in their lives. Many of them say that if they have hard time to decide something very important, they'll ask for advices from either or both of their parents. Besides, even though each of the family member lives apart, they still feel they have close family since they visit and make calls to each other frequently. They also organize a family reunion at least once a year. The big day varies. It might be a parent's birthday, anniversary, thanks giving or they might make a day among family members.

One of my American friends is living with her grandma. She told me that it's not normal for Americans to have a grandparent living in the same house. The elderly are usually sent to some certain places where there're people taking care of them instead of staying with their own children. This culture is completely different from Thai culture. We feel like we're supposed to return all good treats our parents have been giving us back by taking care of them when they get old. In Americans' perspectives, they think if they can't do that well, it's better for them to provide their parents the more comfortable lives.

The different perspective about the elderly's lives is a good example of how we, having different culture, think. It's unique. That's really interesting! Gosh, I love knowing these differences!!

Multicultural Society

As a person who loves to adventure, I'm always curious in everything new. It's interesting for me to learn cultures and different ways of life. It'll be more fun if we try to figure out why someone in some culture do or don't do something. For example, there's a group of people in India (Hindu) who don't eat beef because they worship cows as the cows provide milk for them. Personally, I don't think multiculturalism can bring any disadvantages in the society if people are open-minded.

It's currently the 21st century. Today's technology, invention and transportation make our world smaller. We have more chance to experience the outside world. That allows us to meet many things different from our tendency we're familiar with in our country or culture which might sound "strange" for us to know and "weird" for us to accept that cultural existence. But, if we look broader and deeper, we are also weird for the other culture. So, let's open our mind and change that "weirdness" into our "interest". Then, we'll learn more, know more and love more.

Having a multicultural society supports us to adjust ourselves to the smaller world in the 21th century easier. Once again, just open your mind then bias, prejudice, stereotype and discrimination will disappear a the multicultural society. Moreover, our 22nd century will have no war, for sure.

Bang Bang!!

I've never ever had positive view toward the object called "Gun". Personally, gun represents violence. The fact that every thing has its both good and bad side can't be used with gun for me. So, it's obvious that I'll not have a gun in my house even though I'll be given one for free and legally. There're five girls in my family and many of my little cousins always come round. That's the main reason why I think I don't need a gun in my house. It's dangerous for those kids although we hide the gun in a very safe place. (Kids are smarter than we think they are. They are great explorer.)

Moreover, my community is pretty safe. We can hardly heard the news about crime or robbery in my community. But, if there's a robber sneaking into my house. A toy gun might work for threatening him/her otherwise my dad is skillful at using a slingshot. :D

Picture: A kid in classical Thai costume is using traditional slingshot.

Possession VS Action

It's true that when I see a sport car, I say "Wow". It's true that many times, I can't take my eyes off a blink diamond ring. Those stuffs might make me think the owners are cool at the first few minutes but then, I forget that they are cool because of those wealthy objects.

My parents are not rich but they are important to me. Even though my sisters always quarrel with me and use my stuffs without asking for my permission, I miss them a lot here. My teachers own second hand cars. Some of them ride bicycles to the campus but they all are still important to me. What you have doesn't matter to me to consider you more important than that cute girl with a brand name bag whom I don't know. What you're doing and have done is the core value.

So, what make a person long-running important for me are their precious mind, our experience and relationship and whatever they've done to me. That make me feel to be responsible for not hurting their feelings and trying my best not to lose them just because they're supreme.....to me.

Is all mankind the same or different?

I don't think people all over the world are very different but we're different somehow. (??!!)

Physically and traditionally, we all are different. Our finger prints never be the same. We have different beliefs. We react to a certain situation in the different way. Even though we're from the same country or sharing the same tradition, we still slightly have something different. Fon (my Thai friend) and I are both Thai. We speak Thai. We have great respect to the King of Thailand. She believes in Jesus. I believe in Allah. She drive to school. I ride a bicycle. She speaks politely. I shout. The differences reveals (may be) because we're raised in different place among different people. The environments we are in make you are "you" and I am "I".

Anyway, I believe that we're psychologically the same. No matter where we are from or what we believe in, we all need care, love, self-esteem, being accepted and so on. Of course, all mankind need peace.

In my opinion, the differences are the challenges for us to learn and understand. When we understand each other, we can automatically create love and sisterhood/brotherhood among us. With our open-minded to learn and accept the differences, there'll be no fight, no war. Here comes PEACE.

Walking Tour

I've walked on Water Street and to downtown - Eau Claire a few times. Every time, I'm astonished by the unique buildings. They look completely different from the buildings in Thailand. Here, many old buildings still remain. I'm a person who loves taking pictures. When I first walked around downtown, I took lot of pictures of buildings here.

Last week, I's assigned to take a walking tour in order to take pictures in front of 5 historical buildings. At first, we were about to walk downtown but when we took a careful look on the map we printed out from a website, we found out that we didn't have to walk that far. We can find a lot of historical buildings on Water Street (It's on the west side of the map.) and the area near by!

John Pinkum House is the first place we stopped by. Look! The house is pink and I was in pink. Haha.

I'm not a direction person, so such sign (on my left hand) helped me a lot to find an antique building. :)

Charles Ingram (the owner) was a son of a lumberman. No doubt, there are a pile of logs in the house.

Here's the First Congregational Church. Before we reached there, we heard the bell rang. It's was calling us for a visit.

I was in the Randall Park. The statue in the photo is "Adin Randall Statue". Who's Adin Randall. Below is the answer.

The picture answers the question! Adin Randall is the one who gave this park to the city of Eau Claire in 1857. It's a beautiful and peaceful park. Let's see how gorgeous it is.

Dun dun dun!!

I know, it's cool. Hah ha.

First School Week in UWEC

I can obviously see the differences of students' behaviors in the U.S. classes. In Thailand, students wear uniform to school in almost every university and if it's the made up class, it's impolite for students to wear flip flop to the class. So, eating and drinking are also not allowed in the class. It's not a rule but a norm. But here in the U.S., students can wear whatever they want (I haven't seen girl students in shorts, anyway, which is pretty good.) and they can put any food in their mouths during studying in the class. I once saw a student ate snacks while she's listening to the professor!

Even though students here are allowed to eat in class, they participate in the class actively. That makes me feel as if I was the least smart student in the class. (Maybe I am but I wish I'm not.) As a student of Faculty of Education, I wish classes in Thailand would be lively as these in the U.S.

chick-a-o

I was very excited to visit Chicago, one of the biggest cities in the US. And there, I were.

Sears Tower is the first place we went in Chicago. I thought it’s weird to stand on the glass floor but I did it and it made me feel like I can fly…1450 feet height above Chicago city.

The Field Museum displays thousands wonderful objects. I love taking pictures and I got hundreds of pictures from the museum…

There’s the word “water” in Thai!!

Ahh!! Thanks God for giving me the chance to watch “The Blue Man Show” Although I had never heard about them, their advertisements are so impressive that I told myself I shouldn’t miss such a crazitive (crazy+creative) show.

Bad news, I couldn’t record VDO clip with my personal camera during the show because I would be ejected out of the theater automatically by their ejecting machine installed in the chair…haha

Worse news, after the show, I need to go to the bathroom in hurry and the line was so long.

Worst news, when I got out of the bathroom, I found that it’s too late for me to take a photo with the blue man. I took too much time in the bathroom that the wicked blue man didn’t wait for me. T-T All my friends could take (at least) a photo with him except me.

Anyway, Eng Hwa was so kind that he share me the BLUE color he got from the blue man…Thanks, Eng Hwa!

Art Institute is marvelous! It’s filled with various types of art in almost every century. I wish I had more time to spend inside the museum so that I can appreciate the beauty of all pictures more.

and as you can see, my models are awesome!! J

We (actually, it’s only Eng Hwa) did wanna see the statue of Micheal Jordan, so we took the bus to the United Center. When we reached there, the fences’re closed but we squeezed between two fences and I was about to do something embarrassing…about the bathroom (again :P) If you want more detail, please feel free to call me..haha….I think I was a VIP in that moment, anyway. : ))

We took a walk around the Chicago City in the second night. These generous old lady and gentleman told us the direction to the United Center...Angels in the big city.

---Navy Pier, I’ll see you again! That’s not because of the fairy wheels or mascots but it’s because the Shakespeare’s Theater there. I found an advertisement about Aladdin the Musical performed throughput these two months. But, my trip there was too short, I don’t have enough time to witness that fantastic show on the next day…

Kluai Buad Chee - Bananas in Coconut Milk

Klui Buad Chee is one of my favorite dessert. It's easy for you to cook, and pleasant for you to eat.

My grandma is the best Kluai Buad Chee cook. When I's young, there usually be a party that we (my family and relatives) gather in my house and Kluai Buad Chee cooked by my grandma is always the major interest of the party because it's the greatest Kluai Buad Chee we've ever had. I used to ask her the secret of cooking such wonderful sweet and the answer is "Just put great attention to it." Below is how you can easily cook it...don't forget to put your great care to make it done!

Ingredients:

2 bananas
2 1/2 cup of coconut milk
3/4 cup of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt

Preparation:

1. Cut bananas into pieces.
2. Heat coconut milk until hot.
3. Put all pieces of bananas into hot coconut milk.
4. When bananas are cooked, add sugar and salt.

Note:

I've heard that bananas can be substituted by potatoes. I haven't tried it yet, so please let me know if it works. (=

Hmong--an important part of the US.

I've just learned at the English Table that there're many of Hmong people living in WI and some of them still speak Laos and maintain thier tradition. I's very surprised about that and it's more surprising that my (future) roommate in the fall semester is a Laotian-American!

In Jasmine's class, I learned more about Hmong people and culture and she gave us an assignment expressing my point of view towards the given picture or the poem.

The picture shows us the sufficiency of Hmong people. They enjoy thier simple life, growing plants, rasing domestic animals and even making the traditional clothes. Hmong means free people and their lives are also free, free of any facilitators. And they seem to be happy with their simple life with environmental friendliness.

The poem is pretty interesting for me. The writer can effectively convey his father's (and also the other Hmong's) struggle to be alive and free. There're many difficulties they faced and finally, they can survive in the free land, the United States.

Anyway, the first stanza brings me a question. As I dreamed to be a teacher, I questioned that...can this poem used as one of the material in the class (espacilly in the elementary school)? With the sentence..."We're from an uncivilized world. Laos, it was called"..., students might be instilled the negative thought about Laos and China (as it's mentioned in the history). Is this fair?

So, it's the teacher's role to clarify, I think. Ah, being a teacher's such a tough work..phew!

Trip to Madison, WI

On Thursday, Eng Hwa and I visited Dr. Lang, my host from Conversation and Cuisine Program. She's got a lovely house and cute children. We talked about Wisconsin in the past and Mr. David, Dr. Lang's husband told us that the school we went to at the Chippewa Valley Museum is originally located in the other place. He also showed us where it used to be. It's at the corner pointed to.

The next day, I went to Madison, Wisconsin's capital city. We went to the State Street which is very crowded and full of reasonable price goods. Is everything sold there on sale everyday, I'm wondering. To be honest, it reminds me of weekly market in Thailand which I thought there never be such market in the US. but it's proofed now that there is! One different things that the markets in Thailand don't have is..the performances.


















The Dairy Farm brings me many awesome experiences..I milked the cow, fed the calves and llama and drive the tractor!! haha




















Look! What's Becky doing?

OMG!! (Chris taught me this abbreviation :P) The Capitol is off the hook. (Chris, again) Because of my weak English and the extreme beauty of the Capitol, I can't find any words to explain how gorgeous (Traci) it is. It's off the hook, anyway. Okie? (Becky)

Do you remember the room above? It's Wisconsin Supreme Court where there are 4 female justices and 3 male justices and the chief is here........(below)

I'm kind of feminist =)
And...the fossils are very impressive!!

The Excursion to Chippewa Valley Museum

I went to the Chippewa Valley Museum this weekend. At first, I thought I'ld be taken to such a boring place with old stuffs but when I reached, I found that those old stuffs are fantastic. Museum isn't boring anymore.

As I said, everything there is awesome, so it's difficult for me to choose 3 most impressive thing in the museum. Hmm...I still have to make choices, anyway.



The first : The School House
As I'm a student of Faculty of Education, the school house is the most impressive in the museum. I learned students' lives in Chippewa and many educational materials are displayed there. I like the poster for practicing pronunciation most but I apologize for not having the picture of it...my camera ran out of battery at the time we're in the school.

The second : Paul Bunyan and Babe..
I've read many weird tales about them so what I's looking forward to is...seeing them. Finally, I met them!!



The third : Grandpa's fridge
I know that everything has its own history but I never thought that the fridge used to be made of wood!
Question. If I didn't tell you that it's a fridge..do you think that it looks like a wardrobe?