Good Morning!

I have found it surprising how quickly I have become integrated into this culture so far away from home. Of course I have no grandiose plans of fitting in, to the point of merging within the culture so much that I am no longer consider a Farang (foreigner from the West) to them. My blonde hair and green eyes will prevent that. But I have found that I am starting to make friends. The lady who owns the hair salon always wants to talk to me about where I have been and where I am going. Despite how it sounds, she is not nosy. We have just found that with her limited English, and my limited Thai, this is the easiest conversation that covers the most information. Today she was eager to offer me my first fried bug. It was a beetle of sorts and incredibly squishy and salty. Of course I didn’t turn it down, but should the offer come up again tomorrow, I will politely say I don’t care for eating bugs. Which reminds me, I must look up “No, thank you” in my translation book tonight. Then there’s the lady that owns the washing machine that I use on a regular basis. She has become my favorite neighbor. Her smile is a genuine reflection of, I’m positive, the kind and thoughtful heart behind it. Conveniently, she also has an eager-to-learn English mind which combines nicely with my eager-out-of-necessity desire to learn Thai. She and I always try our best to exchange a few thoughts in a broken Thai/English blend. I’m interested to see how our friendship progresses over the next five months because there is something about it that seems, well, different. Like, I think we could fill many afternoons with insightful conversation, but at this time and in this place, our vocabulary and sentence structure limits us to just a few words and a couple of laughs everyday.

Following those conversations are the 4 or 5 shop owners who stop me to say hello, and of course my favorite little boy who is always on his bike and always yells “Hello! Good morning!!” to me, no matter what time of the morning, afternoon, or night it actually is. At first it was too cute to correct. The last couple of days though, we’ve been learning new greetings like ‘good afternoon’ and ‘nice to meet you’. I am here to teach English after-all.

All of this happens everyday in Groundhog day-esque fashion. Two weeks ago it would take me 5 minutes to walk my block of the world in Saraburi, Thailand. Suddenly it is a 20 minute adventure. So long American sense of urgency and efficiency. I will say ‘good morning!’ to you again in five months.