An everyday girl's everyday life in Thailand.
Monday, February 25, 2013
When Life gives you Vitamin Enriched Prune Juice
Heeeey Peoples!!

As most of you know, the 21st was Mom's birthday. We had spent the day so far opening her AmAzing presents and eating pizza at the mall. This is one of Mom's all-time favorite foods. Pizza with pepperoni. No frills.

Anyways, after we had finished our meal at Pizza Company, (where this pizza is way better than it is at Pizza Hut) we headed home. When we got there we flipped on the AC and decided to chill for awhile before we continued with the partying.

That's when Dad saw Boon Lurt (our 72 year old Thai worker) staring in our kitchen window. Boon Lurt has this thing, where he just can't grasp the concept of knocking on the door. So, he will go around until he finds a window with the curtains drawn back and just stand there peering in until someone notices him.  It's kinda freaky, because you're just walking around your living room and then: BOOM. Boon Lurt.


He is watching you...


Dad walked out onto the porch and Boon Lurt began to tell him that we had just missed this student who wanted to interview us, and if we could just spend a little while talking to this student that would be great.

Dad walked back in and our conversation went something like this:

Dad: "Hey, Margaret, if the student is a girl could you just talk to her for a little while and answer any questions she has?  I really need a nap."

Me: *long sigh* "Ok. What if it's a dude?"

Dad: "If it's a dude you can wake me up."

Dad went to take his nap.

Ok, Before we proceed, you need to know a little back story. I like to do these workout videos on youtube and about 2 days before mom's birthday I had done one (That I have done several times before I might add) that did something terrible to my calves. They were so tight and sore that it took me 2 full minutes to stretch them out enough to stand up straight, because I couldn't put my heels on the ground. And if I ever sat down for 5 mins+ they would revert to their tight and painful state. This resulted in me walking with my legs spread 4 feet apart and on my tiptoes for the first couple of minutes.

Something like this:


That is actually more realistic than I care to admit.

Ok, back to the story. We hear a car pull up and Benj runs to the door.

"They're here Marg!"

"Is it a guy or a girl?"

"Both. There are about 5 of them."

I had been sitting on the couch using the computer, so I got up and walked like Mr. Bean up there into my bedroom to find a top to put over the tank top I was wearing. I spotted the jacket that I had taken off after we got back from the mall. My thought process went something like this:

"Oh, I'll just throw this on. It'll only be for a few minutes. It's not that hot. I can stand it."

BAhahhahahhahahahhahahahhahahhahahhaa

hahhahahhahaha

haha

ha...

*Facepalm*

Anyways, I throw the jacket on and walk out the door. I still haven't had my full 2 minutes to un-zombify my walking. I greet them and ask what they need as I unconvincingly try to make my walking appear normal. They probably thought I was gimp.

They told me that they were from so and so university and if they could get an interview from me for their english class that would be helpful.  They smiled and flashed their gift of Vitamin Enriched Prune Juice -- complete with purple poinsettia.


This is the stuff of dreams. In the comercial any guy that downs one of these instantly gets all the pretty girls in the immediate vicinity. It's really magical. Use with discretion. 

So, of course I'm in.  Besides, these interviews are a piece of cake. I have done them many times. Usually a group of young people approach me at the mall and ask me for one interview. I always do it for them if I have time because I know that they have to go white person hunting until they get their interview. And, If I was a schoolgirl, I would much rather talk to me than any of the 80 year old white guys who sit at Bud's Ice-cream of San Francisco. Trust me. 


I sit down on our bench with one of the girls. She pulls out her magazine and shows me the questions she is going to ask me so I can prepare. Her buddy pulls out his smartphone to videotape our interview. The interview takes about 2 minutes and goes something like this:

WHAT is your name?


WHAT is your quest?


WHAT... is your favorite color?


see? Piece of cake. I know the drill.

Or so I thought. I get up to say goodbye to them when they say, "Oh, no. we need to do this interview with five people."

Great. That means I have to bribe, threaten, and finagle Benjamin, Isaac, Ruth, and Mom into doing it to avoid waking dad up from his nap.

I go in and begin the begging with phrases like, "Could you please?" "It's SO easy." "Seriously took me like, two minutes." "They are just gonna ask you what your favorite color is." "PLEASE?"

They head out and do their interviews. As Mom is watching Isaac do his interview she asks, "Do all five of them need five interviews?"

I reply, "No."  Then less confidently, "Oh, I hope not."

Let it be known that Mom is always right. Or, at least she was right in this case. Do the math people. TWENTY-FIVE interviews.

It took about an hour and a half, Mom telling one of the students that smoking would kill him, Me dying of sweat underneath my jacket (but hey, at least I looked fabulous), and a lot of snarky remarks from Isaac to get through the interviews.

A few snippets from Isaac's interviews:

Thai girl: "What is your favorite food?"

Isaac: "Red Meat. And a lot of it."

Thai boy: "What are you doing in Thailand?"

Isaac: *Puts his hands behind his head and props his feet up* "Livin' the Thai life."

We also found out that Benjamin is a pathological liar. At least about his favorite food.



The interviews were followed by a photo shoot.  You know, I don't even want to know how many pictures of me there are floating around the Thai social networks.



Before they left, Mom gave them each a New Testament.  Dad woke up just as they pulled out of the driveway.

We finished Mom's Birthday with some Settlers of Catan and a movie.

Oh, and Cake. #Duh


The Moral of the story is: When life gives you Vitamin-Enriched Prune Juice give it to the old Thai guy who stares in your windows. 

...And Mom is the coolest woman I know. 
















Sunday, February 17, 2013
Just Some Errands
After living in Thailand for 9 years I sometimes forget how strange my life really is to so many people. My friends say, "So what did you do today?" and I say, "Oh, nothin' much. Just some errands."

But then I stop and remember most Americans have no idea what "Just some errands" entails. So, I thought I would enlighten you. :) Aren't you just dying to know what goes into the everyday workings of Livin' the Thai Life? 

First we needed to stop over at the post office. While whatever business we were there for was being done I decided to walk over and check out a stand full of things for sale. Amongst the bags of soybeans and Menthol based balms I found these:


Yummy. Aren't they cute with their little eyes?!?! You know you want to buy these and stick them in with little bobby's birthday card. 


Or if those are too cute for you, we have these bigger one with genuine rotting flesh wounds.  They're Aunt Martha's FAVSIES. 

let's move onto the hardware store. Ours is called "Global House" which is a way cooler name than "Lowes" in my opinion. Global House has one problem. Waaaay too many employees. There are about three of them to every aisle and they are trained to greet you as faithfully as Chick-Fil-A employees are trained to reply with, "My Pleasure" when you say "Thank you." Since there are so many of them they don't usually have much to do but stand at the end of their aisle and greet you. 

Now, picture this:

30 Aisles. 
3 employees to every Aisle. 
You have to walk to the very last aisle where your people are waiting. 
You are Angelina Jolie. 
Or... You are painted some weird shade of neon orange. How you want to translate the stares is up to you. 

Are you kind of getting the idea? It's really hard for any american to understand what being a "Farang"(White Foreigner) in Thailand really means. The USA is a melting pot. You can walk down the street and see people of every skin color, eye color, and ethnicity in the world. In Thailand... everyone is Thai. And you have (extremely) white skin, green eyes, and red hair. Ok, maybe YOU don't have that, but you know what I'm talking about. I am not Thai. 

How do I handle this popularity? Usually smile big and acknowledge them too, sometimes I stare straight ahead and walk as quickly as I can, and other times I stare at my feet and try not to look at anyone. It really depends. On whether I feel like I'm painted Neon Orange or not. 


And now, Grocery shopping time!!! We do most of our grocery shopping in the Thai equivalent of Sam's Club. It is called Makro. In Makro we find amazing things like: 


The biggest produce in the world.

And... 


These green things. Wanna guess what they are?


Beef Gallbladders


and Spleens. 

We also buy our Dog food at Makro. Only, our dog food isn't Purina chow with meaty bites. We feed our dogs chicken bodies. A chicken body is basically all the meat and bones that are left after all the cuts popular for human consumption are gone. They are very good for dogs and they look like this:


We have around 7 dogs that eat these regularly and as they grow bigger we buy more and more of these things. The butchers at makro have no idea that we feed these things to our dogs. All they know is about every two weeks this white girl comes in and asks in her sweet little Thai voice, "Sir, I would like to order 100 pounds of chicken carcasses please." The first couple of times they were like, WHA? And now they smile, walk around the corner to get my chicken bodies, peer out from behind their glass window, look me in the eye, and we all bust out laughing. 

I can't tell them what all those chicken bodies are for because Mom and Dad think it is way too hilarious to have them all befuddled and confused. (They have overheard employees discussing what we could possibly be doing with all of those chicken bodies)  

I feel like those two butchers are my buddies as we all laugh at each other.  I wonder what kind of crazy jokes they make about me behind their counter? Leave a comment and tell me what you would say about me.  ;)  

These are just a few of the everyday adventures of living in Thailand. 

Love,
That white girl who takes pictures of beef gallbladders and orders 100 pounds of chicken carcasses










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