Lots to Learn

This was the END of a wonderful Thai meal we had recently. Brian said it didn’t really have an official name, but it had chicken, some type of pasta, lots of veggies, salad ingredients, sauce, with a fancy dish of fruit on the side.

This was my first real Thai meal. Brian is trying to help me eat healthy, eat less, and avoid food that will blow the top of my head off. By the way, protocol dictates you DON’T eat the fern or the pretty flower…

Every day I learn more about how I should act, what I should and should not do to honor the culture and the people. The list is long and my life may not be long enough to absorb it all, but I’m trying my best to absorb as much as I can.

Examples:

• Taking off your shoes in all private dwellings, some businesses, some doctor’s offices, etc. I am learning to LOOK for signs that shoes should come off. (shoes outside the door, a rack of temporary slippers to put on after shedding your shoes, etc.) That’s the main reason we bought the Skecher Step-Ins so we could ‘toe’ them off and then quickly step back into them.
• Don’t point – ever. Thai people don’t want to do anything to get your attention. If you point for whatever reason, it means to THEM you think that something you’re doing is wrong somehow.
• When you see someone, bow, smile, and fold your hands together in front of you. You can even do this partially – if you have something in your hands. Smiling, bowing and hands equal you are happy with them, and honoring them – something very important.
• I am trying to learn to say, ‘hello’ (pronounced ‘sawat-dee-kah’) and ‘thank you’ (‘cawp-coon-kah‘) in Thai. We’re still looking for hearing aids, and Brian said my pronunciation is terrible. So, until I get my hearing aids and can practice, I have returned to smiling and speaking English.
• For the same reason you never point, you never look around – say at seeing someone’s home for the first time – and smile and say something like, ‘what a beautiful home!’ You are just supposed to smile and say nothing. The logic behind this one still eludes me.
• When you cross the street, you cross each half – one at a time. When traffic will allow you, you cross and wait in the center of the street. You wait until the traffic will allow, and then continue to cross. If someone is suddenly there in their car or motorcyle and allows you to continue to cross, you bow your head, thanking him for allowing you to cross. You NEVER – WHATEVER YOU DO – try to run across any part of the road. It is better to stand spread-eagled, blocking the whole road, making it all come to a standstill, than to run. Brian says MANY people are injured or killed because of not following street crossing protocol.
• I have a Google search bookmarked on my phone now so I can figure out what something costs here. I see a price listed, and I can reasonably quickly type, ‘12,000 bht to usd’ on my phone to find out that it costs $365.74 U.S. dollars. There is no sales tax here. The price listed is the price you pay.
• ‘You pays your money and you takes the ride.’ When you pay someone here to do a service, you are literally putting yourself in their hands, showing them that you value their expertise, judgment, and workmanship. I am going to a clinic tomorrow for an initial assessment of how I am doing since moving to Thailand. It would be insulting for me to TELL the doctor that I had my thyroid radiated for Graves Disease several years ago, or that I have a new pacemaker. You trust them to find that out, or ask you what they want to know. They finish their tests, tell you their assessment, and make their recommendations.
• I’m going to have a haircut soon. It’s the same thing there. They have a good reputation, lots and lots of reviews. You go in and ask them to make you look better, and then cross your fingers…. 😳
• I hope you’re beginning to see why I feel overwhelmed a lot of the time, combined with fascinated and thrilled. I make a LOT of notes!