life in pattaya

As my new cultural broker/translator M promised me yesterday, he delivered a friend. Just after I arrived home after dragging out my time spent eating dinner and then in a coffee shop which I was taking advantage of the free wifi, I had enough time to use the bathroom when there was a knock at my door. Who could it be?

Well it was the newly married couple that live in my housing complex. Funny enough S (the husband) said some stuff in English to me about hanging out at their house when I am bored or need somewhere to go. Then he dropped his wife off in my house. Now I had a friend. 

This caught me a little off guard, I mean I was looking forward to 4 more hours of reading on top of the 6 I had already done today….but here it was! My golden opportunity. You don’t really put yourself in this situation, in a new country, where you don’t speak the language, hungry for friends who can and desire to teach you about their world – unless you are willing to be ready for this: The unexpected drop ins. Now, I need to practice cleaning up just a little bit better and live my life ready for whoever or whatever may come. And buy some cups so I can share my water. 

Luckily I had put up some pictures around my mirror so that gave us a great start to talking….in whatever language we could figure out. Then I also luckily had some playing cards sitting out and about so we played a version of Go-Fish. Then she began to teach me Thai. Ahhh, yes….here we go! It’s a bit confusing trying to decide what language to dedicate my free time to. I mean I’m in Thailand, but I work with Burmese people, and many of who are Kachin – not Burmese. Where do I fit into this as the English Teacher?
Again, a blessing is always there – my new friend well call her W. -- had worked in Korea for 3 to 4 months so she knew some Korean! So our Go Fish game consisted of Thai, English, and Korean. Fabulous! Needless to say she beat me several times, and after feeling bad, changed her “methods” of playing to even-out the game.

Also, she happens to be pretty amazing at reading! So my newly purchased copy of the Bangkok Post was a great way to spend the time. She can read very well, but as with my Korean, reading doesn’t necessarily mean understanding. But we read about Gareth Bale who didn’t play for the Wales team and blah blah blah…..We also spent a good amount of time looking at maps of Burma which are in the books I am reading and trying to find out where she is from and other ethnic groups as well. Very interesting. She consistently refers, wait wait, blames her teachers in Burma and Yangoon for her bad English pronunciation. Quite humorous…makes me think of Korean students who go to the Philippines to learn English. That might not be the wisest decision. But regardless, interesting!

Apparently in my apartment building there are several Indians living here as well as Burmese people. I was still unsure whether or not she was from Burma or not…But then we were listening to the racket in the hallways, and she looked to me, “Many Burma people live here.” I just kind of nodded at her while she had a bit of a disgusted look on her face. Meanwhile I’m thinking, your husband is from Burma….or did I get this all wrong? “But I am not Burma. I am Kachin.” She smiled at me. Then it all made sense. Makes me want to research the possible prejudices here. I mean is it similar to some Koreans you meet who hate Japan but don’t hate Japanese people, just the politics. Or is it that they really don’t like Burmese people for the ruling regime that has controlled and ruined many of their lives? I don’t know.

But I’m thankful for a great day with a fun new friend. We are meeting for food at 8:30am tomorrow! Hahahaha…. She is teaching me how to order in Thai so I can get food downstairs. I know, I know, it’s not hard to get street food. Trust me, I’d love to pay less than a dollar for a plate of noodles but when there are no pictures it makes it really hard to order. Plus all the old white men sitting around everywhere really makes me wonder if I’m really a valued customer or not. Hehe….I’m getting over that intimidation factor, meal by meal.