The Practice

The Practice

It's still a challenge to get out of bed in the morning. Not to make it sound like a symptom of depression, or something like that. For me, I think it's like a plane taxiing along the runway until it's cleared for take off.

And because this is Freedom Year, there is no pressing reason for me to get out of bed at a certain time. My eyes open; the curtains keep the room sufficiently dark, I check the time on a nearby device and decide how much longer I'm going to taxi down the runway before I take off.

It's Sunday, which probably means street fair day at the castle. I may mosey up there, or just stick around on this end... or maybe explore another direction.

The Bod is sore today, reacting to the fitness practice of the last several days. There is no barbell or dumbbell lifting involved. Just body weight, bands and flexibility training. My upper-upper, which I've mentioned before, is tight, not particularly rigid, but lacking in attributes that I believe would provide greater upper body strength and agility. So this is one of the main areas I'm working to improve. What I haven't added is a proper yoga practice. I practice getting into and holding certain poses daily, but there's no routine.

Morning View... Not Much but not bad.

"Elsewise" on my developing canvas of daily practices, the daily musings continue. The breaking of the fast with tea and toast as I bang out a few benign paragraphs that may appear to be brilliant with the passing of time. Sometimes I post them. (In fact, as my mastery of the technology improves, I will probably end up posting most if these essays.)

There are some days that I don't feel like speaking Thai. At least I don't think I do until the first greetings to a from my hosts. I think my initial aversion to it is having to think before I speak. However I soon accept that the more I speak, the less I'll have to think about it.

I don't have anyone to practice with so my trial is by fire, so to speak, in the real world. I would venture that most of the vendors I encounter, especially in the mall, speak better English than I do Thai. Often they are very helpful. I think they get that I am learning.  The guy I bought the kabobs from yesterday seemed very happy I was speaking; or probably just happy I was buying.

(My cynicism still serves me well.)

Decor of the Residence

The other side of speaking is learning and studying. It is, or should be well known by now that we can learn (damn near) anything at YouTube University, including Thai. So every couple of days - it should be every day - I take in a few videos to increase my vocabulary. I even try to figure out what sounds the symbols... letters... make.

Like most languages, native speakers talk fast and, at first sentences sound like one long word. I understand that I'm as a child learning this language so I have to listen and detect key sounds to understand.

I think Thai has a different sentence structure than English, so word for word translation won't work.

I'm probably wrong here, but I think the subject comes first. So I would ask, "the train station, where is?" Or some such. I haven't figured that out yet. There are also noun classifiers that shouldn't be separated. Not clear on that either.

Not that I've made any long-term plans to stay in Thailand, but I might as well do something while I'm here. I think learning the language of your hosts is as wise as it is strategic.

Don't Walk into the Light. The Corridor

Finally, the continuing practice of content generation, of which this blog is a part. (If some day some official, or potential sponsor or employer wants proof of the content I create.) This blog, along with the video clips, is the most original content I generate. The photography is just a copy of what's already out there, (however, I need to be a little more ballsy about what I submit to the photo sharing platform.) So there's yet another practice.

Until I wrote it all down, I didn't realize just how much I had going. It didn't seem like that much. I feel like I spend a lot of time walking around getting lost, but then those adventures turn into discoveries and eventually become content. So there's a good deal of overlap that occurs.

So, with all this down on a digital screen, we arrive at the end of yet another breakfast blog.

Cheers.