an update email

Dear Amorette,

It's been way too long. I apologize for not replying earlier. You were the first person to reply back to me and your email really really helped me. I'm actually just starting my second week of the second semester here at Thammasat and it's been a little crazy. Kevin Lee came up to Thailand for two weeks and spent the holidays with me and when we came back from New Years down south on Koh Phangan, we were greeted with all this news about the pre-New Years Eve bombings. We were extremely glad that we weren't here in Bangkok for New Years.

I landed an internship at UNESCO's Human Trafficking Division right before I left for China after finals but when I got back, there were some complications with my application and all that. The person I'm supposed to be working with is on leave in the states and his secretary isn't the friendliest person in the world. I almost want to just saw screw UNESCO and just do my informal volunteering at the Foundation for Women, which is much smaller and has much more of a friendly community feel to it.

Anyway, when you were here, where did you travel to? Did you happen to make it up to see any family? I've gone up to Laos to visit my mother's older brother twice and right after finals I went up to China to visit a bunch of family. It was really eye opening. The Thai people call my ethnic group Tai Lue and the Chinese simply call us the Dai (which is the same as Tai) and we occupy the autonomous region in Xishuangbanna in the Yunnan Province in China. It was crazy. I was actually a majority there. In the main cities, everything is labeled in English, Chinese, and our own Dai script. I didn't even know we had a written language and I was seeing it all over the place.

While I've always been a bit obsessed with the Second Indochina War / Viet Nam War aspect of my family history, seeing a bunch of my relatives in China also introduced a part of my family history that I guess I've been neglecting: the Cultural Revolution.

Also, I was extremely surprised by how "Chinese" my cousins were. They're older than me so of course they already have children and stuff but I would almost say they're as Chinese as my siblings and I are "American." Like for example, when they're talking to each other, they speak Mandarin and when they speak to their parents they speak our own dialect of Tai Lue. It was weird. But extremely beautiful, nonetheless.

I encountered something interesting on the way out of Xishuangbanna though. I had to catch a flight back to Bangkok from Macau and spent a few days in "real" China. I met these Chinese women on a train back home to Shanghai or something and there were passing around pictures from their holiday. They also spent a week in Xishuangbanna in the ethnic minority villages. Watching them look through their pictures and talk about the wonderful things they experienced reminded me of how foreigners loved the "Hill Tribe Trekking" in Chiang Mai. Xishuangbanna is like Chiang Mai, a place of ethnic minorities, and the Tai Lue are like the Hmong, Mien, Akha, etc., extremely exotified. I guess it disgusts me because it's like the west is obsessed with going to Zoos to see different creatures and how they live. Except here in Asia, the Zoos are villages and the creatures are people.

ANYWAY. About your summer abroad program... I DEFINITELY recommend Bangkok. It's like the NGO-Heaven of Southeast Asia. All I did was search on google for Human Trafficking organizations in Bangkok and there was a bunch. The intern that I'm supposed to be taking over was a Human Rights Lawyer who went back to get her Masters degree after she already had her Law degree. I think theres something for everyone here. There's the big international UN thing. The American organizations with offices in Thailand. I think the most rewarding might be the NGOs run by the Thai people though and since you can understand some Thai, that could work.

It sounds like your experience at Columbia is great. Man. That would be my dream school. If only if only. The diversity is great, aye? It's kind of like that here in Thailand too. You're not only learning about Thai culture, but you're learning from all the other exchange students from Germany, Sweden, Norway, Australia, etc.

I become extremely race conscious when I'm traveling though. It seems the only mobile people in the world lack color and sometime I'm a bit self-conscious and wonder if any of them look at me while I'm diving in Koh Tao or wandering around Angkor Wat and think that I don’t belong there. I just got back from Singapore, which was all but great except that I lost my wallet at the airport. Luckily I had my passport on me but now I have no credit cards, ATM cards, or cash. But I guess that’s okay. Financial Aid still hasn't sent me any money. The whole loosing wallet thing made me incredibly homesick though. Bleh. Anyway, please let me know if you're coming here! I'd love to play tour guide again. I haven't booked my flight back yet but it will be sometime in early June. Please keep in touch and I promise it wont take me this long to reply again =) Take Care.

Love,

Monica

-----Original Message-----

From: Amorette

Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2006 10:11 AM

To: Monica

Subject: Re: [GREETINGS FROM THAILAND]

Monica, darling!

I'm SOOO glad to hear from you. And you emailed me at such a great

time too when I can actually email people back! :) (I just finished

a midterm so my brain is in total chill-out mode for the rest of the

night...)

In any case, I absolutely SUPPORT your intuition of staying in

Thailand for one more semester. I totally feel like I was in your

shoes 3 years ago, except you're having WAAAY more fun than me. :) I

went through a lot of the same exact things, except you're actually

living out things that I wish I would've done like work at an NGO and

travel more! I also went through the whole thing about not really

being accepted as an American (I always got Japanese or Hong Kongnese,

especially when I got this fobby haircut there) and yet I was never

accepted as someone from the "homeland." Maybe that's why my time

there was kind of hard for me too - I thought I was going back to the

homeland, but it sort of just forsaked me. And at that time, the Thai

government was treating the Hmong refugees living at Wat Tham Krabok

like crap. Legislators in Thailand called us "social garbage" and

refused to allow the community to move into their districts... so

there was a lot going on emotionally and psychologically for me at

that time.

If I only had been as focused, energetic, and strong as you are, I

would've probably made more out of my trip there. I think that you

should TOTALLY take advantage of your opportunity to work at this

awesome NGO. No doubt. I totally know what you mean by feeling guilty

about not coming back, but to be honest... those organizations will

still be there and will still turn its wheels when you get back. This

experience in Thailand may never be the same again because you're not

bounded by ties (ie: commitments and major financial debt) and because

you have this thriving curiosity and energy right now. You also have

all these great resources at hand as a student protected by the UCs

and with health insurance (in case anything happens), etc. It's a

great time to be having the time of your life in another country! :)

It's never the same again in the future unless you move to Thailand

and work there.

Anyways, I'm just a big proponent of you staying another semester

because I think it will be a great all-around experience for you. If

the only thing holding you back is guilt about organizations awaiting

your leadership - don't let that stop you. Like I said, they'll be

fine. That's how it was when I got back from Thailand! They were

doing great things and SASC's membership had actually grown!

Thanks for the update though. I've been meaning to email you to find

out how you are! it's great to hear your'e having an awesome time. I

think about Thailand so much these days!

I am actually seriously considering spending my summer out there next

summer for my summer internship that's required in my program. In a

way, it's to make up for all that I missed out on 3 years ago and to

really develop some great work experience out there. I will forever

be in the states, so why not take advantage of a summer abroad while I

can in grad school? Also, I really want to brush up on my Thai. My

boyfriend is currently in his first year of law school, and he's also

really interested in going out to Asia somewhere (maybe and hopefully!

Bangkok) for some international or human rights law work. It would be

great to spend a summer in Bangkok together!

Maybe you can give me some ideas on internships in Bangkok - your NGOs

sounds so awesome too. How did you find such cool places to work? I'm

open. I'm currently looking at American non-profits based in Bangkok,

like the Rockefeller Foundation.

As for what's happening here in New York, I am currently in the middle

of midterms and it's CRAZY like no other midterms I've faced before in

my life! It's midterm hell for sure. It's busier now than it will be

around finals... and it's just a TON of work - nothing like at

Berkeley. i've got 6 classes total and they are keeping me busy busy

busy! it's sometimes a bunch of bullshit busy work... which we think

is lame.

On the upside, I LOVE it here in NYC and I really love my classmates.

We're having a lot of fun outside of classes! Everyone comes from such

amazing backgrounds and experiences and from all over the world. It's

totally normal here to hear multiple languages being spoken at the

same, even in discussion sections and stuff. Only in my program here

at SIPA am I immediately seen as American right away instead of Asian.

I'm referred to as "American" more so than "Asian American" because

there are so many Asian international students here and they can tell

right away that I'm American. But in general it's pretty diverse here

and everyone is so into learning about each other and having a good

time together. I love it!

Anyways, have a WONDERFUL time on your travels in Southeast Asia and

do be safe! I'm SOOO envious. :) Maybe we'll be in Southeast Asia

together at some point! Keep the updates coming and please tell Dr.

Thanet that I said HELLO! He's such a great adviser! :)

Love, Amorette