"Are you enjoy?"

It has definitely been an amazing experience living, teaching and learning in Thailand, but some things just also make me laugh. Some typical questions or comments that we (Monique, Soorim, Drew and myself) get on a daily basis that I thought were worth sharing.

"Are you enjoy?"
This generally means are you having fun or did you have fun. You can bet that you will be asked this question at least 3 times a day.

"Are you funny?"
This is also used for asking if you are having fun or if you had fun. My director at Huatale uses this one quite often when he knows I went on a field trip or after the weekend or something like that. It took a little bit of time to get used to this one and in the beginning I really was lost on why he was asking if I was funny, but then I figured it out.

"Are you delicious?"
Generally the real question is, is the food delicious? Its hard not to stop what you are doing and look at them and , "What are you talking about?".

"Are happy mai?"
This is asking if you are happy in general and what they really mean to say is are you happy?. Mai is put at the end of most words when it is a question. For example A roi mai? Which is actually asking if the food is delicious. Or Sabaiee di mai? "how are you?". Thai people or our teachers are always concerned whether or not we are happy.

"Are you miss home?"
They are very concerned whether or not we are home sick so this question comes up a lot. A lot of Thai people don't move away from home or if they do its generally still somewhere in Thailand so they are not used to being so far away from their family.

"Your face is beautiful ......uh......  like a potato"
This particular comment was said to Soorim when we were out at dinner with some of her teachers. We are not really sure where the potato part comes from, but it makes us laugh every time we bring it up.

Seven

At a famous Thai movie set - everything was made out of styrofoam even the guard dogs in the above picture

I was in Seven tonight with my friendship family after a pad Thai dinner in “Camping” (the area with the stoplight and about 7 kilometers from the compound) and came to the realization that when I am back in America my local seven wont have everything I need. For Thai people Seven is like any normal grocery store plus so much more. If you ever go on any sort of trip you can be assured you will stop at, at least one seven along the way. You can buy minutes for your cell phone, bus tickets to go pretty much anywhere in Thailand, snacks, meals and of course sandwiches, which according to Thai people are hot dogs in bread with a cheese spread.

(My Thai mom, siblings and their cousins)

(My Thai Mom Khun Aoum)

I experienced my first sandwich when I went on vacation with my friendship family about 3 weeks ago. Schools were closed August 2^nd-5^th for Buddha’s birthday (or I think that’s what it was – on a side note it seems that August is the month of birthdays, holidays, exams, competitions, sports and anything else that would be a “valid” reason for not having school). Anyways, my friendship family asked me to go with them for the long weekend to Kanchanaburi west of Bangkok and an area known for waterfalls.
Little did I know that it was a whole family reunion for my friendship father’s family. He has 4 sisters, one brother, and many nieces and nephews. Together on this trip there were about 12 adults and 10 kids. We went to a famous tiger temple on a mountain stayed at “Lake Heaven Resort” – check out the picture…. The resort is made up of a bunch of little bungalow houses tied together by docks that you can walk across with a swimming / play area in the middle. Even though no one really spoke English and I know very little Thai being with the entire family made me feel at home and reminded me of our own family gatherings back in the bay.

(Piy and Plaum my Thai siblings)

Back to the sandwich… As I said before if you ever go on any trip you will stop at Seven if you are with Thai people. We stopped not even 20 minutes into the trip. I wasn’t hungry so I didn’t get anything. AS much as I don’t like hot dogs I couldn’t turn it don because it was given to me by my host sister, a nine year old girl who I hang out with everyday after school.

August has essentially been a month of traveling and I can't even remember the last time I was home for the weekend. We have had so many holidays and trips that the month flew by.

We still don’t have internet at the compound, but I am told that it is almost fixed. So maybe another week or so?