Semester Two Update!

Semester 2 has been go-go-go! I am now working in only English classes in the high school and it has been a bit of an adjustment! That doesn't mean I have been living a boring life, though.  Dhaka winter has a lot of great things going for it: cool weather, little-to-no power outages, themed dance parties, travel opportunities, and the WORLD CUP of Cricket!

Bangladesh in the news:

I experienced my first earthquake! It was pretty scary.  Savanna and I were watching TV in our living room, when everything started to shake and rattle.  I could see the apartment swaying as we made eye contact and silently waited until it was over to start to panic and yell.  I quickly grabbed my cell phone and called a few teachers until we got a hold of someone to confirm what we had just experienced: a pretty serious earthquake! There was a smaller one the following week, but I was on a rickshaw heading back from laying out at the Canadian Club, and didn't feel it! Here's some info on the first one: Earthquake Article

WORLD CUP MANIA! Dhaka has been counting down and preparing for the world cup for months now.  Before Christmas, I started seeing some signs of the upcoming cricket frenzy.  Large cut outs of the elephant mascot were stationed around the city to get people excited about the upcoming matches.





In addition to these, the airport got entirely redone: new tile floors, freshly painted walls, strange lifelike models of tribesmen making pottery on mudbanks, and cricket paraphernalia around every corner.

cricket poster outside of our gate at the airport

even the walkway to the airplane was WC themed

All of the medians in the streets were decorated with posters, twinkle lights, and cut outs of birds and flowers of Bangladesh!

This week, Bangladesh made it in the news for something negative I'd like to counter.  It was ranked 2nd worst city to live in by the Economist Intelligence Unit. I'd like to say: Watch this video! It doesn't exactly focus on Dhaka, but check out the great things, or as the slogan says, the "Beautiful Bangladesh" that is out there!

Finally, to really get a true picture of how Dhaka has been transformed for the better by a few weeks of hosting the World Cup here, read this article from ESPN.  Thompson has a nice way with his words to try to grasp the picture of the Dhaka spirit. While it is impossible most of the time to truly describe the things that happen here, he gives you another way to see "Beautiful Bangladesh".

Ok- enough legit current events.

How about the current events of my life (in photo montage)!

Epsom salt Bangladeshi Version. Dyed my foot purple for a whole day after use. 

New Super fun roomie: Kajori! She moved in a few weeks ago and is working as the Elementary Intern.  

I volunteered at the Elementary School Track and Field Event.  First, I volunteered saying I would only help if there was a running backwards race (go ahead, picture it and laugh), but I got assigned javelin throw. Some of the kids were definitely on 'roids cause they threw twice, some times three times as far as I could. (or maybe I have never been good at sports that didn't involve choreographed movements)

My form was at about this level.

Scene around the corner from school and near my apartment. There is a construction site behind the brick wall and, yes, a man carrying live chickens by their feet in the foreground.

The flowers are SO beautiful right now! Some of them are a foot in diameter, I swear! This one is outside of the gate to our apartment. 

We celebrated Kelly's birthday on the rooftop at the ARA with the karaoke machine.  It was AWESOME! 

80s Dance Party at the BHC with the girls! (This was a few hours post earthquake, but that didn't stop us from having a good time!)

Funkadelic Party a few streets down from our place! 

We had another Service Learning Day at school, and I traveled with my group to Apon.  Here, Barry is interviewing these children who have been rescued from the street.  They are sharing their horrific stories of drug addictions and suffering they experienced before coming to live in Apon.

Breaking the language barrier with a game of rock, paper, scissors.

At the gate ready for a long weekend getaway with Savanna to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia! 

The most delicious dumplings I have ever experienced. We ate here twice while in KL. It was worth the plane ride just for this scrumptious treat! 

We did everything we wanted to get done in KL: sunbathed (this is a view from the pool on our hotel rooftop), drank starbucks, and shopped! 

Ok, yes we also went to a club.

We got up early and made it to the KL twin towers by 9:30am and the tickets for the walkway were already sold out! Oh, well- at least I snapped this pic!

What to expect in the next blog post? I am heading to the Himalayan Mountains of India on Friday with 25 high school students for Discovery Week.  Think warm thoughts for me and keep your fingers crossed I can successfully pitch my tent, pee outside, build a fire, and purify my own water.  On second thought, tomorrow I'll look into seeing if Misti can come along...

While the water boils...

Flowers for helping with the play, flowers
from my Secret Santa, and  Christmas
tree I bought at the Commissary!

I have a few minutes in my hectic last few days in Dhaka for a quick blog post update :) --I am currently waiting for the water to boil in the kettle so I can have an evening cup of coffee (care of Bree's friend who flew in to Dhaka for 24 hours and brought us some fresh ground beans)!

So, last week (as you may have seen from Savanna's recent blog post) was quite festive! I volunteered to help out with the High School Play (Rumors by Neil Simon) doing choreography, hair and makeup! Each day after school last week I dedicated about 2 hours to helping make all the students look like the true stars they were! The play was absolutely hilarious! I was so impressed with all of the hard work the students and teachers put into the production.  It one of my favorite memories from AIS/D so far!

My Godmother and I wrapped in our first saris!

Back to the festivities of last week: I decided to enter into the Secret Santa game at school! It was SO fabulous coming to my mailbox each week in the HS Office and finding a treat all wrapped up and Christmasy/Bangladeshi: just for me! One day, I even got a special letter all the way from the states from Mike that included a really red (even after weeks of being in the mail and traveling across oceans/continents) leaf! It was just the touch of fall Bangladesh needed before plunging into winter <3 It has been a cool, breezy 70 degrees every day recently! It is so funny because all of the locals are wrapped up in sweaters with scarves on their heads and really concerned about the change, but I am still rocking dresses and open toed shoes to school.  I am going to have a real shock when I experience Virginia winter in JUST THREE DAYS!

 Bree, Lauren, me, Nadine & Savanna
before the rooftop party

At the end of the week, a few of us decided to go to the Aussie for drinks in a "farewell" :( to Bree.  Per doctor's recommendations, she has to return to Australlia for good this Christmas holiday to regain health in a non-developing country! One thing I have learned from living all the way over here on the other side of the world, is that it really is a small world.  We find connections and relationships in ways that I never thought possible.  So, even though Bree is leaving and won't be in Dhaka anymore, I know that I will see her again, it is just a matter of time and location :) Perhaps Hawaii as a halfway meeting place between our homelands?

Stella and I are celebrating how successful
the play was!

After returning home from the Aussie, I checked my email and found a note with the subject line:  "Surprise! Laura in Dhaka" and I thought- hmm spam from someone reading my blog.  I double clicked, opened the email- and IT WAS TRUE! My Godmother came all the way to Dhaka without even telling me! I immediately emailed back and made plans for us for the rest of the weekend.

Looks a little different from the Oktoberfest, right?!
But it is the same rooftop! 

In the morning, I picked her up (her hotel is really close to my place and the ARA) and we had a yummy breakfast at the American Club.  Afterwards, she tagged along with me for the last performance of the HS Play.  She got to meet all the actors back stage and see the work that goes into applying makeup (making 16 year olds look like they were in their 50s isn't easy!) and up-do's!  We watched the play and held our sides as they split from laughing :D Next, we rushed home to meet Sav and Bree, where Wahid took us to the salon to get wrapped in our saris.  The AIS/D Christmas party was Friday night on Rich and Colleen's rooftop!  The ladies at the salon wrapped us up tight, we stuck on our bindis, and went to a pre-party at Rob and Nadine's.  I was totally in the Bideshi Christmas spirit by then (Bideshi is Bangla for foreigner) with eggnog, women in saris, and men in their traditional dress shirts, Christmas cookies and decorations! The rooftop party was delightful- all the faculty and staff was present- the Christmas tree was set up- the tunes were playing loud- and the food was DELISH! We hung for an hour or so before making an early departure to an AYAD party at Ally's house (Bree's friend who was a youth ambassador with her).  It was a mask party-- see photos :)!

Best flatmates I could ask for <3 

Because it was a late night, we didn't pick Aunt Laura up til around 11am the next morning, but made up for the late hour by making homemade pancakes!  Although the first one turned out yellow and spicy (the pan was not cleaned from the last batch of chicken curry- Miiiisti), the rest were yummy and gave us just enough energy to get through a day of running errands.  We went to DIT2 (a market across from the Westin) to get some last minute Christmas presents for everyone back home and to show Laura a bit of the local handicrafts!

It has been SUCH a treat having her here in Dhaka with me.  It has been the best Christmas already, and it hasn't even truly started yet! We had taco night last night (yay Misti!) and topped the night off with delicious chai tea from Nepal.  Tonight Sav and I are heading to Kazana's (our favorite Indian restaurant) with Aunt Laura for some liquid fire chicken and special naan!

Excited about our wreath purchased at the Commissary! 

Tomorrow I am taking a group of students to the International School Dhaka for a theater workshop. (First time chaperoning all by myself!) A performance group is in Dhaka for a few days doing Julius Caesar mixed with Jatra (traditional Shakespeare meets South Asian theater).  Should be an intriguing fusion of arts!

Dancing at the Masquerade Ball! 

I'll try to post one more time before returning home- but if you want to keep track of my travels- I am flying from Dhaka to Doha on the night of Dec. 16 (Dhaka time) and arriving in Dulles at 2:30 pm Dec. 17! Can't wait to touch base with everyone over the holiday!

Dokhina sees her first guests

So, who honestly thought that Mama and Papa West could go a whole year without seeing Baby Di?

Yeah. Exactly! I am so lucky that my mom and dad were able to come all the way to the other side of the world! It worked out perfectly- Mom flew from London and arrived in Dhaka on a Thursday afternoon (halfway through the last day of my school week).  I had everything arranged for her to arrive at the airport, get ushered through the visa application process, and into a car with a driver to bring her home.  There, Misti showed her to my room and she was able to freshen up before Wahid drove her to school and Sav and I were waiting with open arms to greet her at the main gate! I gave her a tour of the school, and we went home for a power nap. Unfortunately, 15 minutes in- the call to prayer jolted her awake and we decided to go for some Starbucks brew at the new cafe in Baridhara- The Mermaid Cafe.  After an energy boost, we went to the BAGHA for a rooftop BBQ and some live tunes with a bunch of the other lady teachers.

The rest of the week's events in Dhaka and Chiang Mai are beautifully articulated in my Dad's post below... so I'll just give you my side notes...

Having my parents here was more than incredible.  At times I thought I was going to have one of my "I'm-so-stressed-out-I-am-going-to-faint" moments, but everything always seemed to work itself out.  Traffic jams, hartals, mosquitos, and accidental ingestions of tap water aside- the Dhaka journey was smooth.  I love that now my parents know who I am talking about when I tell stories, that they can picture me at school or driving around the Diplomatic Zone dodging rickshaws and flashing my lights (why? I still don't know what it means, but everyone else does it- so I just join in) and honking my horn. They see the kinds of things I experience everyday and can better understand why sometimes I am just too exhausted to tell them about my day... or why I suck at keeping up with my blog;) It is so hard to fully explain what Dhaka is like.  As my dad said, you really have to experience it to understand it.

Seeing Dhaka through my parents fresh eyes reopened my mind to what my life is like here.  It is pretty ridiculous at times.  I mean- livestock chilling in the street on my corner, eating to their hearts' desire without knowing it is only to fatten them up for the sacrifices on Eid- that is a unique environment.

The escape to Chiang Mai, Thailand couldn't have come at a better time. First of all, can you imagine me over this holiday? The girl who doesn't like to look at raw meet in Harris Teeter? I get the shivers just thinking about it. I think the talk and description of Eid from my students is enough of a cultural experience for me at this point in my life.

The trip to Chiang Mai was the best traveling I've had in my entire life.  I don't know if it is because I got to be the daughter again (didn't have to worry about carrying my plane ticket or organizing adventures) or if it was the peaceful aura the Thais exude: but something made this trip stand out among the rest.

Perhaps it was my life dream coming true: becoming BFFs with an elephant.  Since I don't know when, these massive beasts have been the subject of my investigation and devotion.  I love them! I have always been fascinated by them and jealous of the elephant trainers at zoos and frustrated that they got to feed them and pet them when I was so close and stuck on the other side of a fence.  At Baanchang there were no fences :) Just us with our hands feeding bushels of bananas right into elephants mouths! Big, pink, slobbery tongues sucking banana bunches from our hands and long sneaky trunks cleverly maneuvering themselves to stop us in our tracks to snatch bananas out of our grip! A whole morning with these massive but gentle beasts has only amplified my love for them.  Everything that dad explained about our experience there I second.  It was the total high of Chiang Mai- and probably the most memorable thing I've done in my life so far.

Pad thai will never be as good as it was at the Gecko Cafe we stumbled upon, but every time I eat it my mind will drift back to Thailand, and I will be happy :).

I miss my parents so much already! I hope they are sitting down for Thanksgiving tomorrow with all the O'Briens and are able to send my love to everyone and share with them some of the things they experienced here with us <3

Now some photos to further detail the best 10 days I've had on this side of the world!

My room :) Painted walls, decorations from around South Asia!

Mom looking fabulous even though she just flew for 20 hours!  Here we are standing just inside the main gate to school. 

Me and Bree in her awesome OT classroom! 

Our beautiful pink palace of an apartment building! Wahid explained that Dohkina means "West Winds" in Bangla! Same name as our sailboat! 

At Mermaid Cafe getting some coffee to wake mama up! It is such a nice escape- pretty decorations, swiss ice cream, coffee, fresh juice bar, and even an attached organic foods store! Also, check out my henna! It only costs about $2 to get done- so I'm going to make it a regular thing.

Mom and Dad treated me to brunch at the Westin. It was SO incredible! I am so lucky!

Walking home from school and into a large cow zone. 

Largest cow to ever exist. 

Mom cruising on the travelator in the Bangkok airport! Chiang Mai, here we come! 

Me and Daddy enjoying our first Chang (which means elephant in Thai) beer an hour after arriving in Chiang Mai.

Enjoying our first Thai food at Gecko Garden and Cafe.  We walked around 'til we found somewhere that smelled delicious.  The pad thai was 59 baht ($2) and the yummiest food I had the whole trip! 

Posing in front of Le Meridian- the most heavenly hotel experience! Everything was top notch- the lobby smelled incredible, there was a menu for the kind of pillows we wanted, our room overlooked the Night Market and the pool that overlooked the mountains got full sunshine in the afternoon!

Poolside treat for today: mini smoothies! 

We explored t the Golden Temple on the top of a nearby mountain.  We were even randomly called upon by a monk to be blessed and given a bracelet of good luck! 

Family photo in front of one of the many massive golden displays at the temple.

Sawaadee kaaaaaaa

One of my favorite moments of the trip: the naughty baby elephant wraps his trunk around my neck and sucks in! Which results in a huge suction effect on my neck! It tickled and felt so cool! It is his little trick that he does for all the people who come to experience the elephants. 

Mom and Dad on their elephant.  We ventured off for an almost 2 hour hike up and down the mountain after having a lot of training in the elephant camp.

Whenever the elephants got hungry they paused and wrangled a bamboo tree to nibble on.

For the trip up the mountain, Savanna and Dad were the drivers and Mom and I were the passengers.  We stopped at the top of the mountain, let the elephants play and explore, and then switched drivers for the way down.

Peek-a-boo! 

Mom and I may have been sitting in the place of the person in charge of the elephant- but the Mahouts (elephant caretakers) who walked along with us really had all the control.  

We plunked right into the river and bathed these massive animals with little scrubby brushes.  It was a cool feeling being in the water with them- but MAN it smelled bad! 

Goochie goochie goo!

Photo op in front of the Airport Center Plaza! The elephant fountain was dressed up in Santa hats!

We got tickets for Harry Potter on opening night! Loved every minute of it! I had forgotten how nice it was to go to a movie. There were plenty of times I completely forgot I was in Asia.

Standing amongst a sea of lanterns that decorated the moat and ancient wall that surrounded the original city of Chiang Mai. 

The day we left was a Thai holiday: Loy Krathong.  It is a time to give thanks to the water and rivers.  People send lanterns up in to the air by lighting them like a hot air balloon. 

On our last night, we enjoyed a truly authentic Thai dining experience.  Our waitress couldn't speak English and the performances ranged from a 3 person band, to a large group of people playing drums to men breathing fire and dancing with fire batons! 

Thanks Mom and Dad for coming all the way to Dhaka and then exploring Thailand for me. It means more than you'll ever know that you understand this experience I'm having! Love you <3