Can you heal me now?

So, after two and half years in Thailand, I've finally managed to clearly introduce myself to the local people. Yes, one would suspect this mastery after reading Lonely Planet's Thai Language Dictionary or even within my first two Thai lessons, but no, that one is wrong. My Thai friends and neighbor's know me as Blooke. Yes, that beautiful combination of phonemes represent me! Blooke.

Now as a language teacher...or maybe just as a person with hearing capabilities, one immediately realizes that Thai's have difficulty pronouncing l's and r's. Actually, it's not that they have difficulty pronouncing them, they just switch them. So I become Blooke, and my co-worker Blake becomes Brake. Now, call me a little slow, but it wasn't until recently that I decided to conduct a little linguistic experiment (the full paper will be published somewhere by some unknown publishing company at an unknown future date).

Hypothesis: If Thai's can say Blooke and Brake clearly, then they should be able to say Brooke and Blake clearly.

Methodology: In a taxi in Bangkok with my friend's Kristi and Allison, I engage in an introductory conversation with our driver. I've included the transcript below.

DIRVER: What your name?

ME: Blooke.

DRIVER: What?

ME: BLooke.

DRIVER: Nice meet you Brooke!

ME: And these are my friends Klisti and Arrison.

DRIVER: What?

ME: KListi and ARRison.

DRVIER: Sawadee kap Kristi and Allison.

Analysis: It appears pronunciation is not the problem at all, but healing...I mean hearing. You could also check out others' analysis, although I question the scientific validity behind their approach:
http://hlt.nectec.or.th/hlt/administrator/components/com_jresearch/files/publications/ntj.pdf

Implication: So if your name is Lacy Rick Blain, when visiting Thailand, be sure to introduce yourself as Racy Lick Brain.

Good ruck!

The 80 Baht Challenge

I was going to blog about my bowel movements during this little experiment of going culinarily local, but then thought I might lose my only reader. So mom, because I appreciate my fan, I'll just blog about all the great deals I find on cheap food in Mae Sot and my mood swings as a result of being cheese, coffee, and pastry deprived.

*For detailed pictures of various dishes referenced below, see my challenge comrades blog http://writingoutloud.tumblr.com/

DAY 1 - 78 Baht ($2.59)
Breakfast: 18 Baht (59 cents) - Flatbread, bean curry, chick peas, and tea
Lunch: 30 Baht ($1) - Pad See Ew...And ewww is right! This is the last time I spend almost half my daily allowance on a noodle dish the size of my palm. I left starving and angry.
Dinner: 30 Baht ($1) - Bamii noodle soup...worth every Baht.

DAY 2 - 75 Baht ($2.42)
Breakfast: 10 Baht (32 cents) - Hua Fai Mohingha ....might make this a morning ritual. What ever will I do with a whole 70 Baht left for the day!
Lunch: 25 Baht (81 cents) - Kao Mung Gai "tamada"...couldn't splurge for the pi set
Snack: 10 Baht (32 cents) - A bunch of bananas...these should ease the hunger pangs for the rest of the week
Dinner: 25 Baht (32 cents) - Kao Soi
Dessert: 5 Baht (16 cents) - Coconut Macaroon Muffin

DAY 3 - 73 Baht ($2.36)
Breakfast: 13 Baht (42 cents) - flatbread and Burmese tea
Lunch: 15 Baht (49 cents) - pumpkin and eggplant curry, rice, flatbread
Snack: 15 Baht (29 cents) - Burmese tea, potato samosas
Dinner: 20 Baht (65 cents) - Pad Kpoa with sticky rice...if you shovel this in your mouth right before playing an hour long soccer game, you feel so sick that you feel full!
Dessert: 10 Baht (32 cents) - Banana and coconut sticky rice cake...what the hell do you call those things?

DAY 4 - 80 Baht ($2.60)
Breakfast: 17 Baht (55 cents) - Chickpea wrapped ni flat bread...I like to call it a Burmese breakfast burrito.
Lunch: 23 Baht (75 cents) - Fake meat curry wrapped in flat bread with a side of fried ginger rice ball.
Dinner: 40 Baht ($1.30) - Mataba and cucumber over saffron and clove rice...you may wonder why so expensive? But you get serenaded with the call to prayer from the mosque across the street twice in one meal!