(I was originally going to make this part of the last post. The "Open Bar" and "Closing the Bar" symmetry would have made for a good title, I think. Alas, the last post was long enough as it was, so I separated the two. Anyhow, on with the actual content ... )
For some reason, it seems like there's always at least one friend that I haven't seen in a while, and I need to catch up with that person. The usual fix for this is dinner and/or drinks. It's a tried-and-true solution; you have time to chit chat & figure out what's new with that person, and the food and drink help to keep you entertained as you do so. I happened to have a friend who just came back from a stint on the East coast, so dinner and drinks was the plan. Of course, things got interesting during the course of executing that plan (otherwise I wouldn't be blogging about it).
Actually, the original plan was just drinks on Saturday night. However, said friend had too much to drink on Friday night, and wanted nothing to do with alcohol come Saturday morning. So, we improvised: dinner and a Rosh Hashanah concert thing after that. Neither of us is Jewish, but it seemed like an interesting event, so we figured we'd stop by to check it out. We also invited a mutual (Jewish) friend along, thinking it'd be a good time for all.
So my friend and I met up for dinner, and had a pretty good meal. It was the first time I've actually been to a Burmese restaurant, even though I've probably had Burmese food before. If nothing else, some of the menu items are similar to some other Southeast Asian cuisine I've had, so it's not like I didn't know what to expect. I learned that coconut rice is pretty good, and that their curry special is also tasty. All in all, good food & a good time catching up with the friend.
Next up, the concert thing. It was a pretty short walk away from the restaurant, so we walked over after the meal (even though we both drove). However, it was too short of a walk, so we got there really early. We decided to just walk around the block a few times to work off the meal and kill time, but not before we noticed a handful of people already congregating outside. By the time we got back to the temple, though, there was a full-blown line around the block.
Now, my friend is Thai, so she's somewhat tan. If you know me, you know that I'm also brown-colored (did you know that the brown crayon is the coolest crayon?). Since we grew up in San Francisco, that's never really made us special. Brown people are a dime a dozen 'round these parts. Brown people, however, were not a dime a dozen at this event. So as we were walking down the length of the line, we got at least one look/eyebrow arch from people. We were amused by it, and I did my best to keep the snarky comments to a minimum. She did, however, comment that, "this [was] going to be an adventure" with an amused smirk on her face.
Eventually, the line started moving, so we moseyed on in. The event had an open bar (hence the post's title), so they had to check ID's. The bouncers must surely have noticed my last name, but they were pretty good about not saying anything. Now, my friend wanted nothing to do with alcohol, and I still had to drive home, so the open bar was clearly not the main motivation for attending. We were going to check out an event, and get some culture while we were at it (I could always use some of that). However, we had a bunch of time to kill before the actual concert started, so I got a beer. We talked for a while & walked around a little bit, but still, the concert hadn't started.
Since we didn't really know anyone there, or what to say to people, we mostly kept to ourselves. I wouldn't say we felt uncomfortable, but we were definitely out of our element. This fact was not lost on the photographers walking around, since one of them specifically made it a point to take our picture (look, brown people!). Seriously, we were in the middle of a conversation about various ways that people try to encourage public health & general public well-being (she's a grad student in Public Health), and this photographer swerves out of her way to come over to us. She interrupts our conversation, taps me on the shoulder from behind, and asks to take our picture. Seeing as how I was drinking their free beer, I obliged. Still, we both remarked that it was only a matter of time before something like that happened, and we half expected to see our mugs on a website or newsletter somewhere.
Anyhow, the conversation that the photographer had interrupted was about a guy in Mexico using TV as a means of changing public opinion. The problem with most public health initiatives is that people don't change their behaviors. For example, teenagers in Africa know what safe sex is, they understand why it's a good idea, but they just don't do it. It's not cool to do that, so they don't. So, this guy has this genius idea that he's going to use soap operas (telenovelas, in Spanish) to try to cover his particular initiative. It's not just that he was preaching through a different medium, the genius part of it was that he single-handedly introduced public health issues into the culture. He took away that stigma, so people felt like it was okay to think about it. And, apparently, it worked.
It's a pretty cool idea, I have to say. As my friend was talking about it all, she was getting more & more caught up in telling the story. It's interesting to her, and you could tell. She was excited enough to throw in the Spanish words where they were applicable ... "yeah, so this guy is working on his telenovias ..." If you either speak Spanish or have good eyes, you'll notice that telenovias is not the same word as the one I used, telenovelas. That's because novela means "novel" in Spanish (so a telenovela is literally a "TV novel"), but novia means "girlfriend" or "fiance." Um yeah, slightly different meaning. I politely pointed out this fact, and then politely chuckled. She realized her mistake, but the damage was done. I wasn't letting her get away with saying "soap opera" for a while.
Anyhow, after standing around for over half an hour, we started thinking it wasn't going to be that great an event. We were far more engaged in our conversation than potentially watching the actual event, so we were just waiting around for our Jewish friend to show up. However, he called to say he couldn't make it, so we bailed. If anyone was really paying attention, they would have noticed that we walked in, used the bathrooms, grabbed drinks, sat & talked, and then left. I did feel slightly bad about that, but in my defense, I had one can of the cheapest beer they had there (Pabst Blue Ribbon) and they were taking forever to actually start up. Besides, the whole "let's get Sam some culture" thing never quite materialized, so my motivation to be there disappeared.
So, to recap the night, here's what I learned:
1. Coconut + rice = delicious
2. There are places & times where I stand out, even in San Francisco
3. If you're interested in a telenovia, I know someone who can hook you up
For some reason, it seems like there's always at least one friend that I haven't seen in a while, and I need to catch up with that person. The usual fix for this is dinner and/or drinks. It's a tried-and-true solution; you have time to chit chat & figure out what's new with that person, and the food and drink help to keep you entertained as you do so. I happened to have a friend who just came back from a stint on the East coast, so dinner and drinks was the plan. Of course, things got interesting during the course of executing that plan (otherwise I wouldn't be blogging about it).
Actually, the original plan was just drinks on Saturday night. However, said friend had too much to drink on Friday night, and wanted nothing to do with alcohol come Saturday morning. So, we improvised: dinner and a Rosh Hashanah concert thing after that. Neither of us is Jewish, but it seemed like an interesting event, so we figured we'd stop by to check it out. We also invited a mutual (Jewish) friend along, thinking it'd be a good time for all.
So my friend and I met up for dinner, and had a pretty good meal. It was the first time I've actually been to a Burmese restaurant, even though I've probably had Burmese food before. If nothing else, some of the menu items are similar to some other Southeast Asian cuisine I've had, so it's not like I didn't know what to expect. I learned that coconut rice is pretty good, and that their curry special is also tasty. All in all, good food & a good time catching up with the friend.
Next up, the concert thing. It was a pretty short walk away from the restaurant, so we walked over after the meal (even though we both drove). However, it was too short of a walk, so we got there really early. We decided to just walk around the block a few times to work off the meal and kill time, but not before we noticed a handful of people already congregating outside. By the time we got back to the temple, though, there was a full-blown line around the block.
Now, my friend is Thai, so she's somewhat tan. If you know me, you know that I'm also brown-colored (did you know that the brown crayon is the coolest crayon?). Since we grew up in San Francisco, that's never really made us special. Brown people are a dime a dozen 'round these parts. Brown people, however, were not a dime a dozen at this event. So as we were walking down the length of the line, we got at least one look/eyebrow arch from people. We were amused by it, and I did my best to keep the snarky comments to a minimum. She did, however, comment that, "this [was] going to be an adventure" with an amused smirk on her face.
Eventually, the line started moving, so we moseyed on in. The event had an open bar (hence the post's title), so they had to check ID's. The bouncers must surely have noticed my last name, but they were pretty good about not saying anything. Now, my friend wanted nothing to do with alcohol, and I still had to drive home, so the open bar was clearly not the main motivation for attending. We were going to check out an event, and get some culture while we were at it (I could always use some of that). However, we had a bunch of time to kill before the actual concert started, so I got a beer. We talked for a while & walked around a little bit, but still, the concert hadn't started.
Since we didn't really know anyone there, or what to say to people, we mostly kept to ourselves. I wouldn't say we felt uncomfortable, but we were definitely out of our element. This fact was not lost on the photographers walking around, since one of them specifically made it a point to take our picture (look, brown people!). Seriously, we were in the middle of a conversation about various ways that people try to encourage public health & general public well-being (she's a grad student in Public Health), and this photographer swerves out of her way to come over to us. She interrupts our conversation, taps me on the shoulder from behind, and asks to take our picture. Seeing as how I was drinking their free beer, I obliged. Still, we both remarked that it was only a matter of time before something like that happened, and we half expected to see our mugs on a website or newsletter somewhere.
Anyhow, the conversation that the photographer had interrupted was about a guy in Mexico using TV as a means of changing public opinion. The problem with most public health initiatives is that people don't change their behaviors. For example, teenagers in Africa know what safe sex is, they understand why it's a good idea, but they just don't do it. It's not cool to do that, so they don't. So, this guy has this genius idea that he's going to use soap operas (telenovelas, in Spanish) to try to cover his particular initiative. It's not just that he was preaching through a different medium, the genius part of it was that he single-handedly introduced public health issues into the culture. He took away that stigma, so people felt like it was okay to think about it. And, apparently, it worked.
It's a pretty cool idea, I have to say. As my friend was talking about it all, she was getting more & more caught up in telling the story. It's interesting to her, and you could tell. She was excited enough to throw in the Spanish words where they were applicable ... "yeah, so this guy is working on his telenovias ..." If you either speak Spanish or have good eyes, you'll notice that telenovias is not the same word as the one I used, telenovelas. That's because novela means "novel" in Spanish (so a telenovela is literally a "TV novel"), but novia means "girlfriend" or "fiance." Um yeah, slightly different meaning. I politely pointed out this fact, and then politely chuckled. She realized her mistake, but the damage was done. I wasn't letting her get away with saying "soap opera" for a while.
Anyhow, after standing around for over half an hour, we started thinking it wasn't going to be that great an event. We were far more engaged in our conversation than potentially watching the actual event, so we were just waiting around for our Jewish friend to show up. However, he called to say he couldn't make it, so we bailed. If anyone was really paying attention, they would have noticed that we walked in, used the bathrooms, grabbed drinks, sat & talked, and then left. I did feel slightly bad about that, but in my defense, I had one can of the cheapest beer they had there (Pabst Blue Ribbon) and they were taking forever to actually start up. Besides, the whole "let's get Sam some culture" thing never quite materialized, so my motivation to be there disappeared.
So, to recap the night, here's what I learned:
1. Coconut + rice = delicious
2. There are places & times where I stand out, even in San Francisco
3. If you're interested in a telenovia, I know someone who can hook you up
no idea who your thai friend studying public health is.
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