For the past three months my pii chai (big brother) and pii sao (big sister) have been looking out for me day in and day out. They are the first people I see in the morning and are usually the last ones I see at night. They always greet me with a "gooood morniiiing!" and at the end of the day a "have a good dream" (their version of "good night"). They take me to the market, they feed me breakfast and dinner (dinner/ Thai food will have to have a whole separate blog even though words will never do it justice), take me to run errands in the city, and they always pick me up from Peter's house when I need a ride home. Pii chai always helps me when I need something and is very protective of me. They are very aware of cultural differences and so they help me when I need it and give me space/ privacy when I need it (something most Thai’s don’t know anything about… what’s privacy). Living with Pii chai and pii sao has really helped me 'ease' my way into this culture... if you call 'easing' moving to (not visiting) a foreign country on your first trip out of your own country, not knowing anything about the country, not knowing a lick of the the language, having only eaten their food twice prior to moving here, and living in the most remote part of the country in a small rural rice farming village where I am the only native English speaker! Anyways they have really helped me a lot and so I really appreciate and love them. BUT... This week my pii chai and pii sao are down in Bangkok!?!
When they left I didn’t even think twice about it. I told them “good luck and to have fun.” But I quickly realized how much they have done to make things easy for me when I had to fend for myself for dinner all week. My other roommate pii Awn, has kept to herself for the most part and never eats with us. I am not exactly sure why but I think a lot of is because she doesn’t speak very good English and pii chai and pii sao do. A lot of Thai’s, i.e. most of my students, are too shy to speak English because they are worried about making a mistake and ‘loosing face’ (I guess this is like loosing respect or something). So this week pii Awn has been helping me with dinner and eating dinner with me. It’s been really nice to finally hang out with her some but, it has also been very challenging because of the language barrier.
Some of the other teachers, who are friends with pii Awn and who usually don’t eat with pii chai and pii sao, have been coming over to eat with us. I could tell they were excited to get to eat with a ‘fahlong’ because it’s not something they usually get to do, but it was also a bit stressful. I felt like I was under a magnifying glass and every little thing that I did that was weird to them was thoroughly discussed, in Thai, so I could not follow what they were saying and they didn’t bother telling me what they were talking about. I guess I have taken for granted how ‘used to’ pii chai and pii sao are of living with a foreigner, how well they can speak English, and how they let me know what they are talking about when they talk in Thai.
On Tuesday night, I realized that I just don’t really like cooking/ not very good at it. I didn’t burn anything, I just cooked some pasta, but if I am just cooking for myself I always settle for the bare essentials. I will cook with what ever I have in the fridge that will take the least amount of effort and time. And so on Tuesday night that happened to be pasta, butter, peanuts, and chili powder. I was totally ok with that as a meal,I was going to take it up to my room to eat by myself, and to do some work but, when the other teachers showed up unannounced (at least unannounced to me…seems like a theme here in Thailand) that little plan changed. The teachers and pii Awn were all fascinated by my cooking. They were so curious to see what/how a fahlong cooks. They were all standing looking over my shoulder, like I was Tom Callicilo, analyzing every move I made and it was a bit stressful/ annoying. It was also a bit frustrating. I kept trying to tell them that this was not a typical meal that you would cook for someone and that it was just ‘survival food’ (throwing in whatever ingredients that you have to make a meal… see dad I learned something in college). Haha but I don’t think that message got thru to them and it’s probably because that concept doesn’t exist here. Thai’s have a culture that revolves around food, and so everything they eat is incredibly delicious and full of flavor. When I finished making my pasta dish, the teachers were waiting for me to add something else and they were very confused when I didn’t. Then they just laughed with each other at me and my pathetic looking dinner. Haha it was so embarrassing because I knew that once Thai’s learn one thing about a culture, they just assume that everything else in that culture is the same. So here they are eating another delicious Thai meal, that I think they threw together in five minutes, watching me eat my pasta probably thinking that this is how all American food is. So I have come to the conclusion that I don’t like cooking especially in a food snob culture because I will never be able to produce something that can live up to their standards.
It’s been an interesting week for me trying to fend for myself. I appreciate much more all the little things that pii chai and pii sao do to make me feel less like a foreign alien and more like a member of this community. But I have learned a lot this week and have become friends with different teachers. I have also made leaps and bounds with my Thai because I have been forced to speak it because pii chai and pii sao haven’t been around to help. I have also asked everyone around me to help me learn Thai and I have been getting tutored everyday after school. I am really going to focus these next couple of months on learning Thai now that I feel a little bit more comfortable teaching/planning.
This week was another ‘normal’ week for me in that when I showed up for school on Wednesday to teach, no students were there. Ooops! Another announcement that didn’t get relayed to me… mai pen rai! Tomorrow is Friday! And I am very excited for my classes tomorrow. I have good lesson plans and so I think it’s going to be a fun day. Anyone else excited for work tomorrow?!?
Pictures still pending… sorry
Mai pen rai
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