mass email #2: first one in thailand, "greetings"
well hello to everyone,
i fired out a short little email from the airport, but i understand it didn't get to many people...i think the thai spies are on to me.
at any rate...HELLO! i have arrived in thailand last friday, stayed in bangkok for the weekend, and then headed down to where i currently am in hat yai until tomorrow morning, when we head to the beautiful isla of PHUKET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
holy holy moly...there is so much to tell. i think the best way i can describe what i have experienced is.....shock. everything i thought i was going to be experiencing, everything i thought i was to expect has been thrown out the window. nothing is the way i pictured it, and for this, i am really happy. while the nice little story i convinced myself of was quite romantic, this is more real, more surreal i suppose.
i have met up with my three fellow farang teachers (farang in thai = foreigner...my new name also...) and we have been spending some great time here in the south. there's brandi from regina, liz from down under who has sailed here with her husband and two girls...and mark who has spent the past year or so in india and is from the uk. the four of us have been hanging around trying out some chang (cheap thai beer...cheaper than water...and quite strong...) and being stared at like gods and goddesses. it's quite bizarre.
thailand is beautiful. but i can't lie...it is most certainly a third world country. i will be making each month more than a whole thai family will make in a year, and then some. prices are dirt cheap, but i have been told to take the western price, and mulyiply it by five, and then we have what it costs in the thai mind. for example, water here is around 20 b (baht) for a bottle...a huge one. this is about 50 cents american...and it's about a liter. but then to find the price for a thai, you must multiply this by five, and you ghave $2.50 for one bottle of water. this, is expensive, especially since the average thai salary is quite modest.
david, my boss, is a sweetheart. i think he has given me the best advice so far. i had a rough experience with two of the thai teachers when they took me to the beach on sunday...there were some muslim men at the restaurant we went to, and they were obviously talking about me in thai, they were more or less swarming around me, and saying obnoxious things, and i was quite uncomfortable. (there is a certain fondness for bright blue eyes and fair skin...) and i was talking to david the next day saying i couldn't understand why they were doing this. i said i wanted to know what they were thinking. he then told me, "think of the way your mind works. now think of everything totall opposite to your logic. lines on the road are meant to be driven over...the thai buddhist mentality is to be free. think of the way you see lizards and rats, and how you dont like them crawling around, and think of the opposite. this is how thais think." i think this has been my best advice so far.
at any rate, i have to get going, the thai teachers are going to be arriving today who i will be working with and i have to air off. thais are born without sweatglands, i swear. i have been wearing skirts and t shirts since i have arrived and i am surviving as if i am a faucet. it's not pretty, that's all i can say.
i have so much more to write...i am keeping a jounal i hope to bind one day for people to read...and i have a list going of "things i have learned in thailand." like my minimal thai words (hello, thank you, how much is the water...do you have geckos?) be sure to post this once i am on my ISLA BONITA!!!!!
thanks for the emails, and please keep them coming. i think i am going to be getting a cell phone this weekend. (though all these damn europeans have me saying mobile...i am talking to myself at night to protect my accent...)
mom, if you could call pops and bo, i havent had a chance and the phone booths either are covered in slime or dont take international cards...i will be better off in phuket...but even read this to them. grazie
and christopher...i will call you this weekend...xxx
gros gros bisous, and please keep in touch.
teacher heather, miss heather or farang.
i fired out a short little email from the airport, but i understand it didn't get to many people...i think the thai spies are on to me.
at any rate...HELLO! i have arrived in thailand last friday, stayed in bangkok for the weekend, and then headed down to where i currently am in hat yai until tomorrow morning, when we head to the beautiful isla of PHUKET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
holy holy moly...there is so much to tell. i think the best way i can describe what i have experienced is.....shock. everything i thought i was going to be experiencing, everything i thought i was to expect has been thrown out the window. nothing is the way i pictured it, and for this, i am really happy. while the nice little story i convinced myself of was quite romantic, this is more real, more surreal i suppose.
i have met up with my three fellow farang teachers (farang in thai = foreigner...my new name also...) and we have been spending some great time here in the south. there's brandi from regina, liz from down under who has sailed here with her husband and two girls...and mark who has spent the past year or so in india and is from the uk. the four of us have been hanging around trying out some chang (cheap thai beer...cheaper than water...and quite strong...) and being stared at like gods and goddesses. it's quite bizarre.
thailand is beautiful. but i can't lie...it is most certainly a third world country. i will be making each month more than a whole thai family will make in a year, and then some. prices are dirt cheap, but i have been told to take the western price, and mulyiply it by five, and then we have what it costs in the thai mind. for example, water here is around 20 b (baht) for a bottle...a huge one. this is about 50 cents american...and it's about a liter. but then to find the price for a thai, you must multiply this by five, and you ghave $2.50 for one bottle of water. this, is expensive, especially since the average thai salary is quite modest.
david, my boss, is a sweetheart. i think he has given me the best advice so far. i had a rough experience with two of the thai teachers when they took me to the beach on sunday...there were some muslim men at the restaurant we went to, and they were obviously talking about me in thai, they were more or less swarming around me, and saying obnoxious things, and i was quite uncomfortable. (there is a certain fondness for bright blue eyes and fair skin...) and i was talking to david the next day saying i couldn't understand why they were doing this. i said i wanted to know what they were thinking. he then told me, "think of the way your mind works. now think of everything totall opposite to your logic. lines on the road are meant to be driven over...the thai buddhist mentality is to be free. think of the way you see lizards and rats, and how you dont like them crawling around, and think of the opposite. this is how thais think." i think this has been my best advice so far.
at any rate, i have to get going, the thai teachers are going to be arriving today who i will be working with and i have to air off. thais are born without sweatglands, i swear. i have been wearing skirts and t shirts since i have arrived and i am surviving as if i am a faucet. it's not pretty, that's all i can say.
i have so much more to write...i am keeping a jounal i hope to bind one day for people to read...and i have a list going of "things i have learned in thailand." like my minimal thai words (hello, thank you, how much is the water...do you have geckos?) be sure to post this once i am on my ISLA BONITA!!!!!
thanks for the emails, and please keep them coming. i think i am going to be getting a cell phone this weekend. (though all these damn europeans have me saying mobile...i am talking to myself at night to protect my accent...)
mom, if you could call pops and bo, i havent had a chance and the phone booths either are covered in slime or dont take international cards...i will be better off in phuket...but even read this to them. grazie
and christopher...i will call you this weekend...xxx
gros gros bisous, and please keep in touch.
teacher heather, miss heather or farang.
posted by isobella at 3:21 PM
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