12 days and still adjusting...
Hi All,
Thought I'd say hi again before disappearing for 10 days. I'm going to sit a Vipassana Meditation course in Yangon at a place called Dhamma Joti. It begins this afternoon at 5pm and will end on 11/28 at 7am. I'm looking forward to the course because it will help me settle down a bit after a frantic summer of preparing for my comprehensive exam and then getting myself here.
But, first, I'm using my UW email again because I can't figure out how to get addresses into my gmail. So, just as with my previous announcement from gmail, please remember that all emails are public here. The cyber cafe that I used is always crowded so it is not an illegal medium but we don't want to create problems eh?
After my first week of meeting a bunch of new people, things slowed down a little. I set up Burmese tutorials with 3 different teachers and tried to find an apartment. I hesitated on an apartment that I really liked and lost a chance for a great space. Oh well... It had been thoroughly cleaned with a new tile floor put in and painted pink (a nice cheery shade). It was the top floor of a building so there was access to the roof with a great space to hang out in the evening. I wondered why the owner went through all that trouble to rent it out and asked him why he wasn't living in it. He said, "oh...business reasons" which made me feel like there was something shaddy and therefore asked for a few days to think. By the time I decided, the owner decided he would live in it himself.
After that, it has been many hours of walking around with my bwe sa (broker) looking at various apartments. The range is mind boggling. Some are in such poor condition that even my most adventurous side cringes - mold on the walls, bizzare collections of live and dead organisms in the corners and screens... you get the picture. You all know of course that I am a clean freak. Yesterday, the bwe sa showed me a "condo" which has 3 rooms and is available to $274 per month at the current exchange rate. I don't want to pay that much but if Pat and I share, it is well within my budget. So...Pat also looked at it today and if all goes well, which mainly means that the owner must process our periodic (weekly and then eventually monthly) registration as foreigners staying in Burma, we will be able to get this condo. We'll have 1 extra room so come stay with us!
I only have one interesting story to relay this time. One afternoon when John and I were walking to his gym, we passed a woman in what would be considered to be a mini skirt in any country. I was first surprised by her bare legs and then realized she was talking very loudly to herself. John and I had seen her once before wearing a spaghetti strap top. She is clearly not well. So...John and I talked about what it must be like for her and walked passed her with little concern. However, right after we passed her, she yelled and ran after me. It all happened very quickly but she grabbed what at first felt like my hair but actually was my red hair rubberband. She pulled the rubberband off very quickly and efficiently so that my head was only yanked back briefly. Before I could react, John chivalrously yelled "hey" to scare her and she looked stunned for a minute. Then, with vehemence,
she threw my hair rubberband out to the middle of the street and shouted at us in Burmese. Unfortunately, neither of us know enough Burmese to know what the heck she was saying. I noted the word that was repeated most often, "shaung" which might mean avoid. John asked if I was okay and honestly, I think I was more surprised than anything. Being a clean freak, I thought, "Man...she was just picking through some trash. What they heck is in my hair now?!" My theory is that she really hates red or will not tolerate anyone wearing red in her hair. I noticed that she had a pretty orange red bow in her hair. So...I will exercise caution if I see her again. She is in the neighborhood quite often. At least, I'll make sure there are no hair ornaments in my hair.
So...that's the exciting news this time. I'll email again when I finish my meditation course. It was all going to work out so well because the apartment I liked so much would not be available until the end of November so I was going to do something good for myself and save money while I waited for my apartment. Now...I'll just do something good for myself and hopefully have a place to live when I finish my course.
Hope you are all happy and well,
jayde-thissa
Thought I'd say hi again before disappearing for 10 days. I'm going to sit a Vipassana Meditation course in Yangon at a place called Dhamma Joti. It begins this afternoon at 5pm and will end on 11/28 at 7am. I'm looking forward to the course because it will help me settle down a bit after a frantic summer of preparing for my comprehensive exam and then getting myself here.
But, first, I'm using my UW email again because I can't figure out how to get addresses into my gmail. So, just as with my previous announcement from gmail, please remember that all emails are public here. The cyber cafe that I used is always crowded so it is not an illegal medium but we don't want to create problems eh?
After my first week of meeting a bunch of new people, things slowed down a little. I set up Burmese tutorials with 3 different teachers and tried to find an apartment. I hesitated on an apartment that I really liked and lost a chance for a great space. Oh well... It had been thoroughly cleaned with a new tile floor put in and painted pink (a nice cheery shade). It was the top floor of a building so there was access to the roof with a great space to hang out in the evening. I wondered why the owner went through all that trouble to rent it out and asked him why he wasn't living in it. He said, "oh...business reasons" which made me feel like there was something shaddy and therefore asked for a few days to think. By the time I decided, the owner decided he would live in it himself.
After that, it has been many hours of walking around with my bwe sa (broker) looking at various apartments. The range is mind boggling. Some are in such poor condition that even my most adventurous side cringes - mold on the walls, bizzare collections of live and dead organisms in the corners and screens... you get the picture. You all know of course that I am a clean freak. Yesterday, the bwe sa showed me a "condo" which has 3 rooms and is available to $274 per month at the current exchange rate. I don't want to pay that much but if Pat and I share, it is well within my budget. So...Pat also looked at it today and if all goes well, which mainly means that the owner must process our periodic (weekly and then eventually monthly) registration as foreigners staying in Burma, we will be able to get this condo. We'll have 1 extra room so come stay with us!
I only have one interesting story to relay this time. One afternoon when John and I were walking to his gym, we passed a woman in what would be considered to be a mini skirt in any country. I was first surprised by her bare legs and then realized she was talking very loudly to herself. John and I had seen her once before wearing a spaghetti strap top. She is clearly not well. So...John and I talked about what it must be like for her and walked passed her with little concern. However, right after we passed her, she yelled and ran after me. It all happened very quickly but she grabbed what at first felt like my hair but actually was my red hair rubberband. She pulled the rubberband off very quickly and efficiently so that my head was only yanked back briefly. Before I could react, John chivalrously yelled "hey" to scare her and she looked stunned for a minute. Then, with vehemence,
she threw my hair rubberband out to the middle of the street and shouted at us in Burmese. Unfortunately, neither of us know enough Burmese to know what the heck she was saying. I noted the word that was repeated most often, "shaung" which might mean avoid. John asked if I was okay and honestly, I think I was more surprised than anything. Being a clean freak, I thought, "Man...she was just picking through some trash. What they heck is in my hair now?!" My theory is that she really hates red or will not tolerate anyone wearing red in her hair. I noticed that she had a pretty orange red bow in her hair. So...I will exercise caution if I see her again. She is in the neighborhood quite often. At least, I'll make sure there are no hair ornaments in my hair.
So...that's the exciting news this time. I'll email again when I finish my meditation course. It was all going to work out so well because the apartment I liked so much would not be available until the end of November so I was going to do something good for myself and save money while I waited for my apartment. Now...I'll just do something good for myself and hopefully have a place to live when I finish my course.
Hope you are all happy and well,
jayde-thissa
posted by Jaydester at
12:25 AM
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