Dropping your daughter off at university

I got to go to England last week to drop Wilder off at University. As I found out, the main thought in my head was "Is she going to be all right?"
Of course she was- but part of my parental duty was to wonder. Here is why I'm not worried- and I know she is going to be alright

Reason 1- she can see a premier league stadium from her dorm window.

Reason 2- There is a monument to the Earl of grey tea in Newcastle!

Reason 3- this is not her dorm

Reason 4- this is a building on campus

Reason 5- this is another building on campus

(its a cool campus)

Reason 6- Mr. bean is an alumni

Reason 7- there are options if she misses America

Reason 8-many cool castles nearby

Reason 9- surf lessons on the beach

Reason 10- seriously good fish and chips and mushy peas

Ah Wilder I love you. You are going to do great because you are amazing. (and Mr. bean)

Another bonus of dropping Wilder off was seeing the fantastic support network she has: Cousins Tom and Liv, Aunt Sally and her boys,the amazing Aunt Anne, and Nadjib with his man purse.

teaching Innes Burmese

                                   My Burmese teachers

Oh this is not a job I would want.
First- Innes is not good at learning language... any language
Second- Innes has a horrible memory
Third- Innes likes to try to speak new languages (but see first and second )

So there I was in Burmese class. I figured no problem as I had been throwing out "Mingalabars" left and right. Or pay and ya if you will. I love saying this with a smile as I bike to work as quite often I get a smile and a Mingalabar in return. Maybe the smile is along the lines of "oh bless you special boy for trying" or maybe I'm saying it right.

Lisa signed us up for Burmese lessons at the school. Here are a few things I've learned so far.
The basic sentence structure is Noun+ Verb + ending. The ending can tell you if its a question or future tense, etc.
example:
Beer = beer, thout = drink, la = present tense. So I would say "beer thout la" for I drink beer or you drink beer or we drink beer or he drinks beer.
*I'm thinking at his point- I got this*
To make it future- ma la. "Beer thout ma la" (I will drink beer)

Needless to say there are variations- but I will keep trying to learn them- and at the very least if you come to visit we can go and drink beer together.

A few more observations:
a common greeting is Sa be be la = have you finished eating lately?
I asked if there was a greeting along the lines of "how are you?" and was told that in Myanmar if you ask someone how they are they will think "why is it any concern of yours how I am doing? that doesn't matter to you!"
So I will start asking people if they have eaten after I mingalabar them.

Stay tuned- more language lessons coming your way!

beer factory

A bit embarrassed actually that it took a month to get here. Not one block away from our school is this fine establishment. What sets it apart? not much, they have beer and such. Am excited though because its not the beer its the friends you drink beer with. We had a beer club in Caracas and about the time of this picture of Mike (with beer) was being sent to Nadjib and Michael, they were sending one (with beer) back to us. So beer really can bring people together and the world a better place! Here's to more global betterment Yangon beer factory.

Rode a bike my first time there- and they had bike parking! And shiny lights to bring you in.

Hard to see the scale here but this is the "beer tower" all I can say is look at the glasses behind it!

MSR and Nadjib in London, Mike and Innes in Yangon, Cesar in Cali. 

Downtown

Downtown. Macklemore could write a song about this place. We have only been down there twice and I'm looking forward to getting back and just wandering (without rain). Here is the first of a few reports

sorry about the glare. What a cool window! roots growing down, water pipe, old paint- has it all.

Artsy? yes. Lisa? yes.

One could caption this: Lisa checking out two guys' nuts. But should probably go with 2 coconut salesmen and Lisa.

So I must have walked by a dozen of these without taking notice (rain and all) but then a betel nut salesman walks up to one, takes some kyat off the clip, attaches a bag of betel, and gives it two quick tugs. 
So now I have to watch, and sure enough a few seconds later up goes the bag to the top floor- magic!

can't quite see it but there is a hand grabbing a bag up there!

Luca and I found the possibly not authentic knock off store. Chelsea and Ajax kits for him, Myanmar team jersey for me. 12$ total... might not be real. (and the myanmar jersey, which is an XL by the way, is shall we say snug. I'm big in this country)

 

I think I will be saying this for a new building every time I go downtown but this is my favorite  building... this time. 

The Burman barber (stress on the word "man")

I had been given some heads up on this place. Mike S. told me that the haircut is approx 10$ but you can have a free whiskey while you wait. If you have two and figure a whiskey would cost you 5$ or so... FREE HAIRCUT! Brilliant! Also Chris B came back looking sharp! so I had to go (and I don't really care for whiskey)

The exterior

The whiskey (it was pretty good)

The before

The after

So economically I might not have done as well as I could have. 1 whiskey (plenty) and I also got the deluxe shave, and bought some hair pomade! I have never been shaved by another man (or woman) and dang if my face wasn't smooth as butter! made me look 2-3 years younger I bet. 

4 weeks! no really?

Has it really been almost a month? Wow time is flying! I still feel like a total rookie but have made some progress. Here are a few milestones: 

1-I can say hello and thank you: (phonetically) mingalabar and jayzubar. I likely say them completely wrong but have been getting some big smiles for using them. Appears people appreciate the effort if not the proper pronunciation.

2- I can go out on a run and not get completely turned around. I can walk to school (and back), and I even can spot landmarks from the taxi- I'm telling you the mental map is starting to come together.

Many more to come I hope- till then here are a few photos of random this and that.

The bamboo scaffolding on buildings is sweet! Sketchy AF but in the end I bet it is just as strong as steel... but I'm still not climbing it

GREEN! as in: it is quite green here. It doesn't matter the surface if you don't scrub it- something will grow on it. It is amazing for the eyes to take it all in as we walk.

  

Just some cat pillows I found- pretty cool huh?

Kind of hard to see but this is cool. Those are fans for a car engine in there. Must be over a hundred. The guy next to him had drive belts, next guy steering wheels, then wipers, seat, taillights, and on and on. Every part for a car- I would love to see someone build a car just from the parts available on this street.

I have been noticing some relaxed copy-write law (or enforcement) But this I liked: 8up would just be too close to 7up- be safe, go with 9up. Lawyers won't call you for 9up.

So it rains a bit here. Actually it pours! Lisa came back from a run and wisely went right into the shower

I will devote a later post to things you can balance on bikes and scooters. This one is just to tempt you, and I was just a bit late. The guy on back had a 12 foot ladder... what could possibly go wrong?