Musings from the Past Week...

First of all, a big thank you to my family and friends for your comments on this blog and overall support. Your messages make writing this blog worthwhile. Wish I could be in more contact with everyone individually, but internet time is very limited these days. We are generally stationed in the hotel only once per week, so I will try to post weekly updates as I can. Below is what I've been writing throughout the week. All in all everything is still great here, although learning the language looms as a constant struggle.


Wednesday, January 27

A few mornings ago, I saw 3 monks walk by the front of the house. A few people in my family met them and dished out rice into the bowls they were carrying. I found out the monks come by each morning. Yesterday morning Brooke and I were there to meet them with two others in our family. As they were coming we took off our shoes and stood on them. The family members had given us each a little food and bottles of water. When the monks arrived, we gave them the food and water one by one. When finished, the monks blessed us through prayer while we crouched down and waiy-ed.

On Monday we went to another market. This one was a huge collection of vendors selling clothes, games, food, etc that happens once a week. It was mobbed with people, and needless to say I drew attention from pretty much everyone we passed. I bought a shirt for 150 baht ($4 or so) and am pretty sure I got totally ripped off.

Last night we broke out a deck of cards and taught the family how to play crazy eights. It was a resounding success. We must've played close to 10 games straight. It was the most fun I've had at the home, just because everyone was into it and having a good time.

The food is still excellent. Our family is very careful to warn us which dishes are "pet" (spicy). It seems like Thais generally assume that westerners have no tolerance for spicy food. I happen to prefer it. So initially each time I went for the spicy food, everyone assumed I didn't understand it was spicy and tried to stop me. They seem impressed now that they realize I like it.

Each day I have to bike to our meeting place, generally about a 20-30 minute ride. Although I'm still far from an expert, I'm definitely starting to settle into a comfort zone.


Friday, January 29

I'm tentatively feeling like I'm starting to settle in here, although the challenges are really coming into focus. It starts and ends with learning the language. The only other language I've ever taken is Spanish and I consider myself far from competent in it. That being said, there isn't much I wouldn't give to be able to speak Thai half as well as Espanol. For the past three days we've been in intense language class for 4 hours each day. I've tried to study beyond that for a few hours each night, and have been moderately successful in engaging my host family to help. So far we've learned basic greetings, numbers, family, and food. Although there has been a marked improvement in my conversational skills with my host family, it's a grueling process with no instant gratification - 95% of the time I still don't understand what's being said to me, even though it's slowly getting easier to express myself.

If anything is gaining me favor with the host family, it continues to be my love of the food. They laugh at the fact that I eat anything and everything, and a lot of it. In fact, it's pretty easy to make Thais laugh. Having relatively no language skills, it would be really tough to get by here without a sense of humor.

Yesterday I was about to ride to class before realizing my rear tire was flat. They taught us how to change the front tire, which I've had some practice with by now, but the rear tire is more complicated because of the chains and gears. My host grandma walked me to a home-front repair shop 5 minutes away to get it patched up. So far it's holding up.

Other than that, it's amazing how quickly the biking has become natural. We ride in some pretty heavy traffic at times, but it barely fazes me anymore. It's starting to become one of my favorite things to do here.


Sunday, January 31

This morning I put on my shoe and felt a slimy lump with my toes. A frog apparently decided to make its home there. They warned us about scorpions in our shoes but failed to mention the possibility of frogs. Fortunately I didn't crush the little guy and let him loose near the house.

Last night we went to a big town party with music, food, and dancing. When we went in, we were greeted by a prestigious-looking group of Thais centered around a nicely dressed, tall bald man. They asked me something in Thai and the only words I picked up were "Prateet America" and "Prateet Thai" (country of America and country of Thailand). I tried to say I like Thailand a lot, but judging by their laughter I completely missed the point of the question (or just butchered the answer). I just laughed along. Later in the night the tall bald man was on stage being honored by all of the local village heads. Turns out this was his party before being fully accepted into monk-hood. As someone in our group astutely pointed out, the scantily clad dancers and rock music made it seem more like the Thai version of a bachelor party than the typical ceremony one might picture to swear in a monk.

Some random Thailand observations:
-The king's image is everywhere. Schools, houses, hospitals, beauty shops, markets, etc etc. You do not ever say anything bad about him.
-Many places around Chainat have western-style toilets, as opposed to squat toilets. But 99% of the time there is a hose - no toilet paper.
-I recently found out my shower actually has hot water through a separate electric heater. Regardless, I don't use it - cold showers are way too refreshing, especially when I need to wake up in the morning. Thais tend to shower at least twice per day and seem to always ask us to shower as well.
-Bugs are everywhere. My feet look like they have chicken pox from all the bites. Ants are in my house in abundance, mainly the kitchen and sometimes the bathroom. Little lizards also find their way in, but tend to stay on the walls and away from people. I keep my bedroom door closed at all times and the bugs generally stay out.
-Families spanning 3-4 generations tend to live together. Customarily a newly-married husband will move in with his wife's family, which is the case in my house.
-Cool fact: my host grandfather is the Na-yok (leader) of the Tambon (a group of villages, kind of like a county). Brooke and I apparently lucked out with our placement.
-Most people in our group, including me, haven't actually worn sunscreen yet. Maybe since it's winter and only a cool 85-90 degrees, the sun isn't as powerful. Haven't gotten burned at all yet.
-There are about 10 farangs (white foreigners) permanently living in this area. I met a few the other night. They were originally from England and Scotland. Their cute Thai wives/girlfriends seemed to suggest their reason for staying.
-There is a store close to my house called Tesco Lotus - a glorified Thai Wal-mart. In addition to the shopping, there is a KFC, Dairy Queen, and Mister Donut.