On Bodily Aesthetics

Happy Thanksgiving to you all who are in places where Thanksgiving is celebrated, or wish you were. For T-day this year, a restaurant known as "The Great American Rib Company" is putting on a proper Thanksgiving dinner, buffet-style, for 600 Baht (about $15). That's a rather spendy meal over here, but it will be good to have a proper thanksgiving feast - sure beats the two T-days I spent in Japan, where since I was working each time, Subway was the only place I could find that even had Turkey...

We are officially in cool season now here in mainland SE Asia. It's very comfortable - highs of about 30 C (high 80's for you farenheit lovers out there,) with lows around 22 - 23 (Low 70's), and since it's drier, not nearly as humid. But it's hillarious watching the locals react to this change in weather - everyone goes around wearing sweaters and sweatshirts, and I even see people shivering. Lots of people get colds, reacting to this change in weather. Some of my students have asked me if I can handle this cold weather. I just laugh and say, "you don't even know cold," and tell them how much it snowed back in Dakota last month already.

And now, to the title of this posting. It's very interesting to see how the ideas of what beauty is differ in different places and cultures. Most Thai people have a rather dark skin tone, the type of skin tone that people back in the US and elsewhere spend hour after hour and dollar after dollar in tanning beds and rubbing on tan accelerator to acheive. Most caucasian women would be jealous of the women here for this reason. However, Thai women want a completely different thing - they want the fairest skin possible. When you see models in Thai ads, they have porcelain skin. If you go into any drug store, you see aisles full of various products with skin-whitening agents in them. It's hard to find sunscreen less than SPF 50. When you see Thai women on the beach, they try to cover up as much as possible to keep from gettting any darker. It kind of makes me wonder if I could set up some sort of melanin exchange program, where I could pair up Thai and other SE Asian and western women and they could swap the chemicals that give them their skin tones. That would be a sure way to make some serious money...

Another area where the two cultures seem to differ in bodily aesthetics is in the perceived ideal body shape. Much like in the US and other western places, women want to be thin here. However, the type of thin look they are going for is much different. Whereas in the US, if one goes to a health club or other fitness facility, the number of people working out from both genders is nearly equal, if not even skewed toward more women than men, here you see few women jogging or biking or doing any sort of fitness activity. Instead, the 'skip a meal each day' approach seems to be popular here, as the toothpick-thin figure is favored in this society. It seems that in the US, the athletic look has gained popularity. Rather interesting...

Hard to believe that the Vikings have won three in a row. And whatever happens, this season has not been a waste, because at least we've swept the Packers. The Badgers did their customary late-season choke job. Mighty disappointing, although if I could see any other Big Ten team succeed and smile about it, it would be Joe Pa and Penn State. Hail progress!

The Author and one of the Loy Kratong beauty pageant contestants. (Not an ad for a performance of "Beauty and the Beast," as some of you may have suspected...)

Another view of the Kratongs 

Some larger Kratongs (bowls made of banana leaves) put together by some of the student organizations on campus. 

A Kratong floating in the pond on campus. There are candles and incense sticks on them. By putting a Kratong into the water, the Thai people are sybolically letting their troubles and worries float away with the Kratong. 

More Chinatown 

Blurry twilight picture from the BKK chinatown 

Nameless

So we're one week into the new semester, and so far, so good. I have one student who's from North Korea. She's already one of my favorites - a real sweetheart. I have a guy who did a year of High School in Indiana. I have a girl who did a year of High School in a small town near Rockford, Illinois, and has visited Madison. And the crowning of it all, there's a girl who did a year of high school in Fosston, Minnesota, and did her shopping in good ol' Grand Forks. Now isn't that crazy?

Not too much to say other than that. Will be doing some conversational English classes 2-3 nights per week. Should be pretty fun, and a good way to make some extra Baht. Loy Kratong is coming up this next week. Looking forward to that. The Thai people make these little floating devices and put candles on them, floating them in the river. It's one of the better festivals in Thailand, so I'm looking forward to seeing that.

I think that these riots in France are rather interesting, and worthy of a rant. During the chaos that followed Hurricane Katrina, the BBC brought on analyst after analyst who went on and on about how American society was so decrepit for allowing such a huge gap between the rich and the poor, and how the neglect of minorities was so manifest in what followed. Some of them went so far as to say that if a similar thing happened in Europe, everbody would "pull together" and overcome. What garbage this is, and these French riots prove it. Not that US society isn't in need of serious repair, and not that the gap between wealthy whites and poor blacks isn't deplorable, but you would think that Americans invented discrimination and poverty or something from listening to these guys, when in fact it's just as bad or even worse in other so-called industrialized countries. It took the most extreme natural disaster to bring out the worst of the ugly truths that exist in our society, while a single police chase gone bad was all it took in France. Again, I'm not saying we deserve a pass and don't desperately need to address a whole raft of questions, but Europe has the same issues, if not worse.
Anyhow, enough about that. Hail progress!

Back to school

Happy Birthday, North Dakota! And Happy NOVAember!

1 November marked the first day of the new semester, so glorious "vacation" is over. Back in lovely BKK again. Thetis is still a work in progress, but there has been progress, which is nice. I hope to have a draft out real soon. But then again, I've been saying that for a while...

The new classes seem to be good. Same schedule as last semeter - working three days a week, Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. However, it's really much better, as I'm at the Hua Mark campus, which means a.) there are better lunch options and b.) no hour and a half on the bus each day. And my first class of the day is only two floors below where I sleep. So that will certainly make things easy...

Had to cope with a few students from last semester emailing me and saying "teacher, why you flunk me?" One of them was from a guy who didn't use punctuation on his final. But not that big of a deal.

The remaining time in Phi Phi was excellent, although the ride back was miserable. They put me, the tallest guy on the bus, in the seat with the least leg room on the bus. Purely an accident, but they wouldn't even let me change. Oh well. It's good to be back home either way.

Hail progress!