When I first got into Chiang Mai, and moved into my dorm room, my roommates were not even in the room because we arrived on a holiday weekend where all students, and employees have a 4 day weekend. The holiday was Mother's day--which is actually the Her Majesty the Queen's birthday weekend. This was kind of the first thing I experienced as something very different from the western world. The Thai's respect the Royal family in such an intense way--there are billboards everywhere of His Majesty the King, Her Majesty the Queen, and the Royal Princess. Not only that, there are posters in most stores, as well as on the streets of all of their pictures. This being said, right away I kind of knew this experience of living in a country that was never colonized by the western world would be a really cool experience.
But basically for the first weekend I never really felt any kind of culture shock, because everyone that I was around (including the people I came in contact with at the university) spoke English. Even when we went out to eat, and went out to the city at night to checkout some night life, we went to Furong (as the Thai call us--it means Foreign in Thai) places, where not many Thai people hangout.
Sunday morning (the 15th) came around though and one of my roommates came back from her long weekend. Her name is Numpu, and she speaks close to zero English, and we used a translator to introduce ourselves and to make small talk to start to get to know each other a little bit. A lot of the way we have been making contact with each other the last couple of weeks is with very broken sentences, and with hand motions. She is one of the sweetest girls i have ever met though-- when I was unpacking a little bit more the day I met her, she said something to me in Thai, and then motioned for me to move my mattress to the empty bedframe that was closest to her bed (there are 4 bed frames in our room, but only 3 mattresses). When I took a nap later that day, she had been napping and got up a little bit after I had layed down. After a few minutes while I was still falling asleep, she got up to move her fan so that it was blowing on me. She even invited me to stay at her house for a night next weekend. She's so sweet!! Orientation week was nuts though, so I havent really had much time to hangout with her at all, and then this past week after orientation week we spent at a homestay in a rural village in Mae Chem (I'll talk more about this later). So it's been hard to get to know her more while I've been settling in, but I did get to spend a night with her and her friends, which was nuts because it was basically them trying their best to speak what they know of English, and then speaking back and forth in Thai to figure out another way to say something.. Its pretty silly to not know whats going on, but to laugh along with everyone else anyway!
More on how sweet Numpu is though--it's not only here. Every Thai I've met while here so far in Thailand has been so welcoming and so nice. They actually love Furong's, and love to see what we're doing, and to try and hangout with us. Adding to that, what I didn't know about Thailand was that it is known as the "Land of the Smiles." Everyone in Thailand is always smiling, and the reason they will associate Furong's with sometimes being rude is because we don't just smile at most everyone we see (even on the streets). When I flash a smile at anyone living in my dorm, I see their face light up while they throw a huge smile back my way.
Basically though, in short, I don't really feel like I've been experiencing major culture shock, but I think a lot of that is coming from still feeling like I'm in a little bit of a bubble with all of the kids who also came here from St. Lawrence, and even just being around all of the other kids in our group because we haven't yet had very much of a chance to branch out of this group with all of us having been booked solid with orientation business, and even just getting to know each other before we try harder to make more Thai friends and branch out a little more. Even with the Thai friends I have made so far, its been a large group of the people in our program, going out with them and having them order drinks and food, and explaining directions, etc. Also, the Thai people I've befriended so far are actually 4th year english majors who have participated in helping the kids out in the program for the last few years, so they all speak English very very well.
This all being said, culture shock will set in eventually, I can feel it, and I'm very much excited about it. But I'm in Thailand!!!!! Before I became interested in this abroad program, I really never thought I'd be traveling to South East Asia any time soon. Here I am!
No comments:
Post a Comment