Today I realized suddenly that somehow nearly every facet of my life had changed, down to the littlest details of where I get my drinking water, how I communicate with people, and how I get around. Ignore the big changes like having a new job, new profession, new friends, new language, and no family in a new country on a different continent.
-Driving on the left side of the road
-Driving a motorbike
-Waiing before and after almost all interactions
-Always carrying a poncho
-Taking shoes off before entering any house and many stores
-No bath tub L
-Not throwing toilet paper into the toilet
-Excessive heat (in food and temperature)
-Going to the beach after school
-Interpreting world accents and slang (slapper, see you just now, come right with, sticki)
-Assuming any slightly masculine woman is a lady boy
-Drinking and washing cuts with only bottled water
-Being able to get antibiotics/most medicines without a prescription (not condoning this but its come in handy)
-Restaurants closing by 9pm at the LATEST
-Bargaining
-Being size XL instead of a 2 (I’m a 5’6 giant here!)
-Drinking tea as desert
-Taking laundry to someone else to do
-Not using air conditioning in 90 degree weather
-Eating out 3 meals a day almost everyday aka. never cooking
-No oven
-All drinks coming with distressful amount of sugar (at home it’s only black coffee and straight leaf tea)
-Seeing rats scampering around the streets
-Huge spiders in the house, horned beetles in the school (pets)
-Never stepping over bags or backpacks
-Eating fried chicken and bananas for breakfast
-Tiny, brightly colored Buddhist shrines on the side of most roads and outside houses
-Small offerings of food, drink, and incense outside of small businesses
-Not putting feet on anything but the ground (waaayy harder than it seems, you can’t even nudge the door closed with a toe)
-Eating rice with everything
-Street vendors selling fresh caught fish on ice
-Street vendors selling fresh caught fish on ice
-Feeling like it’s all completely normal
Reading this made me very happy. Fried bananas and chicken are the best breakfast.
ReplyDeleteWow, Jackie, so many thoughts, so many questions. Little did we know when we talked several months ago how much we would learn about ourselves and our new environs...you in Phuket, me in NYC. How does one "Wai"before and after interactions? What does "slapper" and "sticki" mean? What is a "lady boy"? If no one is looking can you still not nudge a door closed with your foot? Please feed this inquiring mind.
ReplyDeleteYes, inquiring minds want to know???? Marcia
ReplyDeleteHi guys! A wai is a head bow with hands in the prayer position. Depending on the persons age or rank your fingers will come to different points on your head (the crown being the highest position and reserved solely for the king.)
ReplyDeleteSlapper is British slang for 'slut', sticki is Afrikaans for 'a little bit', and a lady boy is a transgender person (they are very very common) in Thailand.
The foot taboo seems more complex in use than it does on paper. Most of the time efficient foot gestures are fine as long as you never point at anyone or raise a foot above anyone's head. However, there are so many little taboo's here that they are constantly interfering and overriding each other.
For instance, it is disrespectful to step over books or anything that may contain a book. At school there are backpacks scattered everywhere and the rule of thumb is to always assume they contain books. In this case it is allowable to use your foot to nudge the backpack out of your way in order to avoid violating the first taboo.
Another twist on the foot/book taboo occurred when an foreign teacher grabbed an old wooden rack from storage to use as a shoe rack for her classroom. Turned out it was a bookshelf (keep in mind this is a plank of wood with 2 legs) and all hell broke loose- the Thai teachers were furious and the foreigners very confused!
Great post, Jackie! So much to learn.
ReplyDelete