Dartmouth Club Dinner

Charnice and I were invited to a special dinner thrown by the Dartmouth Club of Thailand at the president's house. So on Sunday evening, Professor Kennedy and his wife picked us up from Evergreen, and we drove to his house on Sukhumvit road.

The president, David from the class of '48, has been living in Thailand for 29 years. His house is beautiful - classic Thai style, with exotic artwork and furnishings, including several furs from South Africa and ceramic pots his wife handpainted (they were amazing). There was an open stairwell with wooden steps that...well, they're hard to describe, but they were made of a shiny wood and beneath them was an open area filled with sand and plants and stones.

The meal was prepared by the host's wife, who is an amazing cook, but it was served by waiters, who also attended to the drinks. The food was fairly Western in style but with definite Thai touches - for instance, a cut of meat that you slathered in garlic butter which was to die for. Actually there wasn't a dish there I couldn't have eaten ten times more of. It was seriously classy entertaining.

And the people were fantastic. All Dartmouth alums and their family - the most distinguished guest was called Nit. He was Dartmouth '62, served as Thailand's ambassador to the UN, then the ambassador to the US, then as Foreign Minister of Thailand, though he's currently retired. Also there was another David (I'm terrible at names so I didn't mark anyone's last name, though I'm sure I could look his up), a journalist who was a correspondent in Vietnam during the Vietnam War and wrote a book entitled "The Fall of Saigon." I want to read it now, especially since his notes for the book are in the Rauner library at Dartmouth. Also in there, because he was editor and columnist for Playboy for several years, are eight years' worth of hardbound old Playboy magazines. I find this to be hilarious. Any fellow Dartmouthers know about this?

There were about twelve guests in all, including ourselves. One thing I realized during the evening was this: what I truly miss about Dartmouth are the conversations. Those conversations you have with your friends late into the evening about politics, philosophy, religion, morality, current events, and all of the above. And it isn't limited to Dartmouth by any means - they're the sort of conversations that naturally occur when you get a group of intelligent people from anywhere together in the same room for any length of time. The evening ended with a long discussion mainly between Professor Kennedy, Nit, and journalist David about Thai politics and how convoluted they have become - I learned more in that half hour than I've picked up in two months here.

And I mentally contrasted that conversation with one I had with Chelsea and Jordan - we were watching Chocolat and started discussing religion and politics, and it somehow came around to gay marriage. And Chelsea and I were just starting to talk avidly about it when Jordan shushed us, saying we should talk about it later because we "obviously all agree." We never did finish that discussion. So call me an intellectual snob - I prefer the conversations, which simply don't happen while amongst the other exchange students here.