Alitta

I can’t remember when the time last time I suffered from cold weather in Bangkok was! ( I’m not talking about my office). It’s December and the weather is supposed to be cooler yet it’s still so hot even though it’s not as hot as in April.

In Thailand, we call it ‘cold season’ not winter as it’s not that cold especially in Bangkok where it’s hot all year long. Some even say Thailand has 3 seasons, hot, hotter and damn hot! I kind of agree.

In fact, I can’t really stand cold weather and that’s why I don’t really like the season. I suffer even at the temperature of 20C which is just fine for those live in other parts of the world. I can’t sleep well or run my routine comfortably due to such a cold weather. Fortunately, Thailand has no snow or else I would have to keep myself locked in the room with a huge heater.

However, one thing that some of my friends and I like about the season is it’s time for colorful scarves and jackets. When I was in university, a classroom was like an orchard full with multicolor flowers as all of us were wearing scarves and jackets even if the weather was not that cold, but as long as it was called ‘cold season’.

Dull colors of clothes are common in winter in other countries I guess but for the country like Thailand that winter is just a myth, the people just don’t care especially among students who believe that they look chic with their white blouse of student uniform along with colorful scarves and jackets.

The cold weather is a perfect excuse of those who are too lazy to take a shower or wash their clothes. They say like “Farangs do it as well in their winter” (Farang is Thai term referring to all the western people and also Aussies and New Zealanders.) I think they just didn’t realize the level of the coldness is simply different!

Anyway, I might be fond of the cold season one day when it snows in Thailand, well if you know what I mean.

I was sitting alone in my room, letting my mind go too far and a memory of my childhood suddenly popped up. I consider my childhood very unusual as I was brought up by a Thai-Chinese family and my parents were a bit old-fashioned. I bet there is a small percentage of kids who were raised up like how my siblings and I were.

I have one elder sister, one younger sister and the youngest brother, I’m the second child. Amazingly, each of us was one year and 3 months different so we spent our childhoods together. My parents always prohibited us to watch TV at night except on every Friday and Saturday night since we had to go to school. I didn’t know why but I presumed that they were afraid of us falling asleep in class.

We didn’t have our own rooms when we were kids, so we all slept in our parents’ room. While they were watching TV, can you imagine what the four kids were doing? Of course, some were pretending to sleep and LISTENING to TV whereas some were using their bolsters to block themselves from the parent’s sights and they were peeping! Hahaha it was a bit tiring to do so but we made it.

Every morning, they didn’t allow us to get up late. Eight in the morning was LATE! We had to get up very early everyday even on weekend. A reason our parents gave to us was ‘If you got up late, you’d be lazy children and you’d not be able to adapt yourself when you really needed to get up early’. At that time, I didn’t think it was rational at all!

When we arrived home after school, we had to do homework (after a half an hour break). When we were done with our dinners, we had to read books at least 30 minutes and that was terrible for me as 30 mins was like 3 hours. I always felt so sleepy after dinner, it meant I often fell asleep while studying! If my mom found out that I took a nap while studying, more reading time would be added!

I used to wonder why we were not treated like another kids, why couldn’t we play after school, why couldn’t we watch TV, why we had to get up so early even though we got up early for nothing. I felt so slight but everything was changed since I attended high school.

When I was in high school, my siblings and I still had to do the same old things but we just didn’t care anymore! I meant we didn’t find it awful at all as we were satisfied with what we had done so far. I realized some good results from the ten-year routine. It was effective! We got up early by ourselves and never late at school. We knew what we were supposed to achieve the exam. We were mature!

Thanks a million to our parents and deeply apologize to them for my evil thoughts!

He’s fond of Christmas, he appears mostly at night, he is a snow lover, he’s eccentric….he’s Tim Burton, one of the world’s most famous filmmakers.

I was not a movie maniac but Film was my minor when I was in university, thus I’ve become addicted to movie so far!

American Tim Burton is one of my favorite movie directors, I’ve watched almost of his films even an old one (Edward Scissorhands) which was produced when I was only 5 years old. He has featured a number of great films such as Edward Scissorhands, The nightmare before Christmas, Batman returns, Planet of the apes, Mars attack, Sleepy Hallow, Corpse Bride, Charlie and the chocolate factory and lots more.

If you get to see his movies and spend some time absorbing his way of making movie, you will get the idea how his movie always go, his styles and what are commonly used in the story. I was quite surprised when I took my time watching many of his films and found out what usually appears. It’s an old hat but cool!

Most of his movies are related to Christmas, nighttime, snow, black and white color and his main character in each of his movie usually has an inferiority complex and is a bit weird. His films are considered as ‘Dark tales’ that disclose wickedness of human society.

 Johnny Depp is an actor whom Burton frequently works with. Depp is always a leading actor for Burton’s movie and he even was a voice actor in Corpse Bride.

Depp is my favorite Hollywood star or to say he’s the only Hollywood actor I’m into as the neither actors nor actresses can really attract me to watch the movie. I was stunned when I first knew him in the movie named Edward Scissorhands. He’s such a talented actor, yes he was born to be!

A soon coming thriller movie of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp ‘Sweeney Todd‘ will be launched in January next year. If you are one of their groupies, do not miss!

When I was in school, I was taught that human’s brain was divided into two parts in terms of the thinking. One part (which I cannot remember if it is left or right side) is used for the calculation or anything related to math. The other part is concerned with the creativity and languages. Either left or right part works well on a person, meaning one can be good at either math or languages including other kinds of arts. For me, I found a part of math dead since I was in primary school and the other has been gradually improved.I didn’t say that I was so good at creation or any of its kinds. I prefer learning languages and I used to plan to study at least 3 languages (Thai is not counted) however, I have known only one so far.

When I was a senior in university, I was quite free as there were only a few classes per week. So I decided to do a ‘sit-in’ for Italian language class (means you don’t have to register for the course, just ask for the permission from a lecturer to attend the class and no need to take an exam either). The class was at noon on Wednesday and Friday afternoon. My friends and I were always late for the Wednesday class as we finished our early class at noon and the room was terribly far from each other (It took 15 mins walk). I really paid attention to the class as I had always wanted to learn Italian. BUT Fate didn’t take my side, everything was getting worse; I was always late, our Italian teacher were not satisfied, she always said Italian was so easy, she acted like we had knew Italian for years, she usually spoke sarcastically (in English), I couldn’t catch up the lessons as I was late every Wednesday. Finally, I never attended the class again and what I’ve got from my Italian class were almost noting. I was so sorry that I couldn’t make it but I couldn’t stand sitting in the class anymore!

Ciao, come stai? Bennissimo grazie, e tu? << Hello, how are you? I’m fine thank you and you? Yes that’s all I’ve got,,,just like a pattern of English conversation between Thai students and their teacher.

Have you ever had the hardest time in your life? Some of you might have had such a hard time no one ever imagines. But hey if you finish reading my following story, you might not think I suffered but I DID!

Students in Thailand are supposed to take an exam which is called Entrance Exam in order to enroll a university. All the universities especially public ones limit the number of students each year so the competition of getting in some well-known university is really high. The high school students have to dedicate every minute for reading books to prepare for the coming exam. YES! I was in that situation 5 years ago, it was HELL! I was depressed all the time, I felt like I would never be happy again, no smile or joke from me.

My routine was awful; got up early in the morning, had breakfast while reviewing all what I had read yesterday, stayed still for around 10 minutes forcing myself to get ready for the next chapter of the books, then lock myself in a room, indulging into the hell! I took a break 4-5 times during the study everyday, it actually didn’t help me to relax but I just needed to eat! It had taken me about one month before the exam came, however, the exam took 3 days!

Once I finished the exam, I had all the books wrapped and never returned to them again. Yet, due to them, the result was satisfying since I got into the university I had dreamt for. The hell suddenly turned into heaven. Well, it was probably too bad to say so, it was completely true though.

Anyway, thank you all the books and all my attempts. Everything was just worth doing!

Thailand is plentiful with cultures and since I was born here, I get used to the cultures which are deeply different from other countries particularly the westerns for example; even if we reach our 20, we still stay with parents, seniority is pretty important in Thailand and I find it very cool! We are not supposed to hug or kiss in public, we always throw the evil looks to them if we find anyone doing so! (That’s below the belt maybe!) So, if the Thais go abroad, they might need to prepare for the cultural shock which they will definitely encounter.

I’ve been to the Philippines in 2005 for an exchange student programme and as you know the Philippines was colonized by Spain, Japan and the US, thus western cultures were abundantly transferred. I was at the airport with some of the Filipinos, about to leave the country. While I was trying to say goodbye to them, of course only saying like ‘thank you so much for everything, I really appreciate your hospitality……..’, suddenly a Filipino guy hugged me and what was worse than that, he kissed me on my cheeks!!!!!! I didn’t get myself prepared at all so I was SHOCKED and the guy didn’t seem to realize anything at all. I was left speechless, only a smile (as usual) I gave to him. Maybe I’m too conservative!

Do you know Harry Potter? Of course everyone does and yes it was silly asking such a question but I just wanted to make sure you know what I’m gonna talk about.

The fiction chronicles the adventures of a little wizard Harry potter who is not a boy anymore when it reaches the seventh book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which its English version was released in July 2007.

Today (December 7, 2007), Thai version of Harry Potter was released. Can you imagine when people flock in a place in fancy costumes with their craze in what is not real? Are they insane? Again, sorry for asking another stupid question – They are not insane at all..! If you think they are, then I’m too! And I just don’t care whatever you are gonna say since I’m a good sport. ^_______^

I can’t remember when I started reading the first book of Harry Potter, what I know is that IT IS SUPER ADDICTIVE! I really admire J.K. Rowling for her extremely awesome imagination. It’s such a great talent coming up with a very long story of wizards’ adventures. I’ve not read the last book yet since the English version could wipe out my imagination while reading (My English is not that good I meant), so I’ve been waiting for the Thai version which I will get soon. However, I’ve read the first six books more than three times, they took so much time but I just couldn’t put them down even if I already knew what was gonna happen next.

I’m going to get the seventh book tomorrow, don’t know yet what to wear. Umm..what about a costume that resembles an owl? It’s one of the main characters in Harry Potter, isn’t it?

In Thailand, English language is a compulsory course since in a primary level, meaning Thai kids know how to say A,B,C….blah blah blah since they are around 10 years old. When they are 15 years old, they know how to greet their teacher when he/she comes in a classroom;

Students : Good morning/afternoon, teacher. How are you?
A teacher : I’m fine thank you, and you?
Students : I’m fine, thank you.
A teacher : Sit down.
Students : Thank you teacher.

THAT’S ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The way we greet our teachers is really a pattern and inflexible, once they say something else, we are mute. This is so true, my friends and I have made fun of ourselves about this pattern of greeting so far. When they are 20 years old or even older than that, most of them can only repeat that pattern!!!!!! What’s wrong with Thai people? I’ve tried to figure out the reason why Thai people don’t really speak English even if they are so good at English grammar.

1. They daren’t speak English as they are scared of making a mistake. I think they might feel embarrassed if they say something wrong.
2. They are afraid of a foreigner to whom they talk will laugh at them if they make any mistakes. (My advice is you need to be thick-skinned)
3. They hardly do their speaking in school, most of the time they learn grammar.
4. They just don’t care even though they can’t speak English as long as a gesture is still common among human.
5. They love being a listener than a speaker.
6. Thailand was never colonized by any English-speaking countries.

Once upon a time, a little prince of Siam was born in the US far away from his homeland. At that time, no one knew he would grow up as the greatest King the world would ever see.

He has brought peace and happiness to his home soil over the past 60 years.He’s more than a ruler, he’s a father who knows only how to give and ask nothing in return from his children.

He’s really down-to-earth you have no idea. He’s a genius, he knows how to solve every problem.He has a lot of sense of humour and sometimes speaks sarcastically, what a talent!

No need for Thai people to say how much they love their king, too hard to explain, too much to say.

December 5^th is Thai National day as it’s father’s day as it’s HM the King’s Birthday! Some people (hopefully foreigners) might ask how important it is. ME, a Thai just can’t give them a clear answer since I don’t know where to start, it’s simply indescribable.

Be warned, if you are a foreigner and now reading this story, COULD you PLEASE not compare MY King to yours (if your country is monarchy)? If not, you will never understand what the hell I have to spend my time on such a story for. Above all, MY King is incomparable.

His Majesty The King Bhumibhol Adulyadej is Thailand current’s Monarch, we Thai celebrated his 60^th Anniversary Accession to the throne last year and now he’s 80 years old.

Thailand is the only Southeast Asian country who was never colonized by any western countries and this is what I’ve been deeply proud of. Besides the pride, I always consider myself very lucky to be born under the King Bhumibhol’s reign. I may seem to be a patriot and yes I’m and I love it when people say so.

He’s the greatest man in the world, there’s no one like him and there WILL NEVER BE! He has spent all his life solving the country’ problems. I used to think he might have been very tired and if he were a King in other country, he would enjoy his royal life instead of trying so hard to make Thailand a better place. However, I WAS COMPLETELY WRONG! Since he has succeeded to the throne at the age 20, he has always donated himself in order to make his people happy. He says “A place in this world where I belong is the space among my people - all the THAIS”.

His image appears in every house as we respect him more than anything else in this world. We are not gullible or delusive, in contrast, we well aware he’s worth glorifying.

The article was written by an ordinary me, probably not so great but it was just right from my heart.

Long Live the greatest man in this world, our beloved KING!