In which I ramble aimlessly.
My Other Half will be visiting Bangkok for the first time this April. It will mark a number of firsts for him: the first stamps in his brand-new passport, the first time he leaves the United States, his first trans-Pacific flight, the first time he meets my parents and local friends, the first time our roles are reversed--I am the hometown gal and he is the visitor. After four months apart I am more than ready for him to get here, making an unending list of all the things we have to do in the 12 days that he will be in town (most of them involving food), eager to share my world with him. For it was always his world that I entered when I flew to St. Louis, and my "Valley girl" English helped me transition easily into an American life, leaving so much of my roots behind to slip into a different skin.
The Thai went first, having no one to converse with except the staff at the local Thai restaurants, and so did the Thai and Indian food that I loved. I learned to find favorite dishes at a handful of American restaurants and begged that everything be made just a little spicier for my un-American palate. I put chili flakes in absolutely everything and ordered Chinese food just to add an obscene amount of prik nampla (chopped peppers in fish sauce) to it. I learned to do without sour mangoes and sweet guava and took to dipping pieces of Granny Smith apples in a mixture of salt and chili flakes. I taught the Other Half to love "cheese toast," made with shredded cheese, onions and peppers in a sandwich maker, an Indian snack I had grown up eating at home. I learned to embrace Hot Pockets and cereal for breakfast, though I ached for noodles from street vendors and my favorite tamarind candy.
But I digress. As I often do when food enters the picture.
Temples are on our agenda, as they often are for any first-time visitor to Bangkok. (I hate to tell him how bloody hot it is going to be here in April and how not even the most beautiful temples can distract you from that "I'm going to pass out from the heat and humidity" feeling that Bangkokians know and love so well.) There will be shopping, naturally, and there will be food--in fancy restaurants, in holes in the walls, on plastic chairs on the street. There will be movies in the fancy theaters, where the seats recline and you get a pillow and blanket. There will be other things--sensitive things not to be mentioned in such a public place, matters of culture that could turn out really well or really badly. I choose to block that entire scenario from my expectations entirely or I would be losing hair from the worry. Let it all unfold as it should.
I swear I had a point to this entry when I started.
I guess what I want to say on this Valentine's Day is that I am counting the days and weeks until I see my Other Half again because life is very hard without him close by, and I know that his visit will help us make important decisions about our future. And though I am tired of making these life-changing decisions every few months, I would not be the person that I am without the craziness of the last three years of my life and the tens of thousands of miles I've had to travel to find Home. Through the long airplane rides and bad airplane food, through working 30 hours straight several days a week, through tornado warnings and ice storms and heat waves...it was all worth it. And really, how many people can say that?