Village Life, a New Year, Thanksgiving, and an Anniversary

This is my first post since moving to the village full-time, and I think I should begin with this morning.

Bright and early this morning, probably around 5:00 am, a certain scream erupted my peaceful dreams. In my initial half-dream state, I was pretty sure someone in the house was screaming at the top of their lungs, "No, I won't! I can't! I won't! No, I won't! I can't! I won't!" It sounded like a fight for one's life. Strange terror gripped my heart at such a horrifying awakening, as slowly my mind processed that it was highly unlikely that someone was screaming in English, and secondly there was only my husband and me in the house, and my husband was only vaguely stirring from the sound of the screaming.

My panic settled and quickly turned into chicken soup anger, as I realized one of our roosters had discovered our place of sleep and placed himself exactly under our partially open window. It was not a scream of danger; he was demanding food! No, I thought to myself, I will not reward screaming chickens. Both my husband and I shielded our ears and refused to give in to the rooster's tantrum for the next eternal half hour. Eventually I heard the faint sounds of huffing and him moving away. We had won and returned to sleep. For some reason, this morning we have been discussing the best timing for our next pot of chicken stew.

Anyhow, as to other updates, Shan people around the world have celebrated the start of a new year: the year 2109! Yes, the Shan have been living in the 22nd century for the last nine years. Look to the Shan to see what lays ahead, young Westerners. Soon you too will enjoy termite delicacies and blood soup. It is only a matter of time... Anyhow, we had a great Shan New Years celebration here in Thoed Thai, though I'm not how sure I got pulled into helping to carry the banner for our neighborhood in the village parade. Nevertheless, a whole lot of people were able to legitimately and openly take my picture, instead of stealthily pretending to play on their phones, facing me, while their cameras made weird flashes. I think my husband vaguely considered charging 20 Baht per photograph (kidding... just kidding). Here are a few highlights...

 The handsomest guy around... :)

The "VIP" truck for very special people who don't mind paying 20,000 Baht to break the rules and annoy the community. 

The stage

 This little guy and his father, in front of the Shan flag, were just too photo-worthy. Sadly, I cannot seem to upload the version, where I fixed the coloring. His dad wanted him to take a photo with me, but he shyly refused.

Getting ready for the parade. Everyone finding their places. 

 Lovely.

No comment. 

These girls all performed in the traditional dancing later.

Almost immediately following Shan New Year, I realized Americans would soon be celebrating Thanksgiving. As I am big on the tradition of eating a large meal for Thanksgiving, I suggested to my husband that we go into Chiang Rai (a city), where we treated ourselves to a grand Japanese lunch, complete with sushi. I'm sure our meal differed slightly from many of our American friends, but we enjoyed it nonetheless. And we were thankful, of course, which was the whole point.

Then yesterday marked a very special day: Mong's and my one year wedding anniversary. To mark it, I made a Thanksgiving feast, which we enjoyed after church with everyone who came. It was a bit of a culinary stretch for most of our guests, but it'll provide them something to tell others about. ;) 

In honor of being married one year and one day, here is a sneak peak of the photos that will soon be uploaded onto Facebook:

Married life!

Okay, so I am officially the worst blogger ever. I have on several occasions to started to build up something of a readership, semi-freaked out that so many people wanted to know what I was saying (made doubly speechless and confused when people I knew began discussing particular blog entries in front of me), and disappeared until my readership had dwindled comfortably down.

The most pointed example of my status as worst-blogger-ever is the fact that I quit blogging right before my wedding and failed to blog at all again for the next eight months. A wedding. It's the kind of thing that bloggers that actually want people to read what they write really like. Because people like weddings. And wedding photos. And sentimentality.

And I just don't get it all. That's not what I want exposed all over the internet. That's not what I want to draw people to my writing.

I have blogged off and on for some time, because it connects me to people far away. I also enjoy expressing some of the things that I am thinking about. But here's the reality: I don't know how to discuss my writing. Ever. And when I get afraid that people will actually want me to discuss my writing, it tends to leave the blog. Not that I ever stop writing. That's impossible for me. It just doesn't show up in blog form any more.

But... lest anyone think my general silence (mostly from the time I first began dating my now-husband) is due to unhappiness, here's a few of my reflections on married life.

It's good. It's two people. It's warm. It's waking up next to my best friend. It's being understood. It's being misunderstood. It's choosing love every day. It's choosing to focus on some things and overlook other things. It's closeness and intimacy. It's kindness. It's grace.

It seems people are particularly curious about the multicultural aspect of our married life, because it seemingly sets us apart from so many couples. Without a doubt, bringing our cultural styles of communication into our married life has required grace, patience, and understanding. Yet, I still have this on-going theory that we misunderstand each other about as much as the average couple; we just *know* we're multicultural and therefore are more prone to apply grace in the moment. Don't we all grow up in distinctly different family cultures with unique styles of communication and different expectations? Doesn't everyone have to work through forming yet another culture whenever we embark with another person, from another family, in creating a brand new family unit?

As I said earlier, marriage is being understood and misunderstood. I think that's part of why God gave us marriage. There are deep, deep lessons to be learned in the give and take that comes from this process. And there's extraordinary intimacy that comes when we choose someone that we cannot in the moment understand. (I am not speaking of language now. I am speaking of the infinite number of things that we do in our way, which we can never explain why truly... or, at least, explanations make no sense to another.)

And the other side of multicultural marriages... oh, the richness! Seeing the world from another perspective. Seeing my own country and culture from another perspective. Speaking a language at home that is different from the languages we use outside the home for daily business. Comparing the international news in two languages (worth doing!). Absorbing values from each other that our own cultures have neglected.

That being said, I married a gem of a man. Some days I wake up and still cannot believe this can all be real. The kindness and gentleness I experience from my husband makes it impossible to imagine any other life. And I don't intend to quit saying these things about him. He's a good man--the best even--and I am extraordinarily blessed.

Wishing you all the best from Lampang, Thailand!