Sao Lao

Last Sunday I went to Nooderlicht Photofestival in Leeuwarden. 64 photographers from 21 countries, including Vannaphone Sitthirath of Lao PDR were at the 13th Noorderlicht International Photofestival. This year’s theme is “Another Asia” with three exhibitions. I only attended Another Asia I exhibition at Fries Museum.

It was quite busy at the Fries Museum. It was the last Jubilee weekend with free entrance, free food (Asian theme), and free entertainment for the public.

I spent most of my time looking at photographs on Cambodia, Vietnam, and on Vannaphone Sitthirath’s display. She has 8 photographs at the exhibition. I was captivated by the images of the Cambodian Glue Kids by Zann Huizhen Huang (2005) and Growing up in the Mekong by Vannaphone Sitthirath (2004).

It was worth the long travel up north. I even found out there is a large Thai community in Leeuwarden, large enough to have a Thai restaurant in town. Guess where I had my dinner? At Thai Tip restaurant.

Thai Tip restaurant in Leeuwarden

I woke up at 7:30 AM this morning and was ready for the first day of school. While I was organizing my backpack I realized that my wallet was nowhere to be found. I started to panic and did my best to retrace my steps, in hope to figure out where my wallet went. I have never lost my wallet before in my entire life (so far) so it was quite scary to know how careless I could be to loose one of the most important things in my life. Let’s see what’s in the wallet shall we? Hmmm…student card, health insurance card, residence permit, a bank card, Chef Vienne’s business card, and 200 something Euros. How the heck am I going to get to school with no money?

The last place I had my wallet out was at a restaurant in Friesland last night. But then I recall having touched my wallet while searcing for the extra memory card in my boyfriend’s car on the drive back. I told myself not to panic and gave Johan (my boyfriend) a call. I asked him to search his car to see if I left it there somehow. It turned out that while I was searching for the extra memory card I fell asleep and the wallet fell out of my purse. It was lying on the right side of the seat by the door. It was a good thing that it didn’t fall out when I got out of the car.

Johan saved the day and drove from his workplace to bring my wallet to me and I was able to get to school on time. I even had the chance to go by the University Bookstore to pick up the textbooks before class. I walked all the way from Leiden Centraal Station to the book store to get some exercise. On the way back I took the bus because I didn’t want to be late and also to give me a few minutes to eat lunch.

What a day I have had. I’m not even going to list the things that went wrong after the search for the missing wallet. I told myself to look for positive things and smile. If not then I will cry.

Here are some pics I took from earlier today.

A very old windmill, which is now a museum, a few minutes walk from Leiden Centraal Train Station.

A canal in the center of Leiden with Webster University on the right side.

A very well known English Pub in town.

Kooyker Book Store, where I get all of my Social Science textbooks.

Part of Leiden University building.

Social Science Department building, where all my classes are held.

Wood carvings made from tree trunks.

It doesn’t take much to make me happy. I like going to a park or a garden to relax. I often took my siblings to a park near by our house to walk around and hang out with the ducks. My favorite garden is the Ewing and Muriel Kauffman Memorial Garden. It is located by my former university and just a couple of blocks from the Kansas City Country Club Plaza.

Entrance to the garden

A theme for the garden.

The center of the garden.

Some plants and ground covers.

Dancers in the pool.

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Last night I went shopping with my date at Bijenkorf Rotterdam for Biotherm moisturizer. Afterward we went out for Sushi and Sashimi. I told my date that I will pay for dinner if he will be a good sport and doesn’t complain too much about me taking too long to shop. Actually we were in and out in less than 20 minutes. The only thing I did after buying the moisturizer was browsing the undies and pantyhose section, checking for the latest trends.

This is the second Friday in a row that we ate sushi and sashimi. I didn’t know I like fish, especially raw fish until now.

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Even though my favorite color is blue I want to get away from the grey and cold blue feeling the last theme gave me. So here it is a new look for the site, which will make my youngest sister very happy. She likes the green color and even took my green t-shirts I bought the day before I left Kansas.

Some more tweaking are needed but for now the theme is good for a test drive. Now it’s my bed time and I must make myself go to bed. It’s a good thing that tomorrow is Friday.

I walked across an empty land
I knew the pathway like the back of my hand
I felt the earth beneath my feet
Sat by the river and it made me complete

Oh simple thing where have you gone
I’m getting old and I need something to rely on
So tell me when you’re gonna let me in
I’m getting tired and I need somewhere to begin

I came across a fallen tree
I felt the branches of it looking at me
Is this the place we used to love?
Is this the place that I’ve been dreaming of?

Oh simple thing where have you gone
I’m getting old and I need something to rely on
So tell me when you’re gonna let me in
I’m getting tired and I need somewhere to begin

And if you have a minute why don’t we go
Talk about it somewhere only we know?
This could be the end of everything
So why don’t we go
Somewhere only we know?

[break]

Oh simple thing where have you gone
I’m getting old and I need something to rely on
So tell me when you’re gonna let me in
I’m getting tired and I need somewhere to begin

So if you have a minute why don’t we go
Talk about it somewhere only we know?
This could be the end of everything
So why don’t we go
So why don’t we go

This could be the end of everything
So why don’t we go
Somewhere only we know?

I’ve been back to the Netherlands since Sunday afternoon. I’ve had such an emotional roller coaster ride during the past few weeks. We celebrated my mother’s birthday for the first time with all of us together in one room. My siblings took me out to dinner for my be-lated birthday celebration and bought me a chocolate ice cream cake. They later took me shopping for new clothes and new shoes so I can be back to school in style.

To top it off, the most wonderful event in my life occurred on late evening of September 30th. I got a call that night from a friend of the family asking for my youngest sister. She wanted to know my phone number. After a few minutes, she realized that she was talking to me. The nice lady handed the phone to a man, who was no other than my Papa. He was in town for a funeral and asked if I would meet him in person. I said yes to the invitation and went to meet a man I have often thought about all these years but never knew what he looks like or if he is still alive or not.

The meeting was emotional for both of us. I cried a little bit of course and Papa told me to be strong and not to cry. He gave me pictures of my younger siblings and told me a little bit about each of them. The departure was rather painful, mostly for Papa I think. We promised each other to keep in good contact and I told Papa I will pay everyone a visit in a couple of months.

After our meeting, I found out Papa’s birthday was only a few days away. What a great news it was for me, to know for the first time in my life when my father’s birthday is. I want him to live forever so I can celebrate his birthday and make up for the lost time.

I also found out about my Grand-Papa who was in the hospital back in Laos. I’ve met him during my years in elementary school and have spent a great deal of time with him. At the time I didn’t know he was my Grand-Papa. At 96 years old Grand-Papa was in the hospital because he couldn’t speak or eat. I knew the worse news will come sooner or later.

Then last Saturday (7th of October) I received a call from Papa with the sad news a couple of hours before I left for the airport. Grand-Papa has passed away on Friday night. I thought about how I woke up after 3 hours of sleep due to a nightmare that I couldn’t recall. My heart was pounding so fast and I thought about Grand-Papa as I sat up on my bed.

It was an emotional day for me. Papa was very sad because he wanted Grand-Papa to make it to his 97th birthday, which is today. I felt so bad for the entire family and for myself. I was just getting to know my Papa and wanted so much to see Grand-Papa in the near future. The only comfort I found was the thought of knowing that I have spent time with my Grand-Papa and have fond memories of him.

Grand-Papa’s funeral was on Sunday in a traditional Buddhist customs. Rest in Peace Grand-Papa. Thank you for letting me hang around the construction sites and for telling me that I could be anything I want in life, even though I am a girl.

On September 30th, I went to visit my former university. I wanted to see if much has changed since last year. It was nice to there again, to walk around the tiny campus and think about the old days.

The center of the campus is the clock tower.

The engraving on the clock tower.

The student center, where I ate my breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

I was happy to be at my former second home.

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October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, also known as NBCAM for short. You will be most likely to encounter the pink ribbon everywhere you go. The pink ribbon is to remind men and women and to raise awareness about breast cancer.

In Kansas City, also known the city of fountains, the fountains are dyed with pink color to help raise breast cancer awareness. The above pictures are from the main fountains at the Kansas City Country Club Plaza.