After a day of relaxing at our "hostel" (which was really like a tropical resort) we met the head honch of ISDSI (Don't ask me what it stands for I keep messing it up..just look up the website ISDSI.org) Ajaan Mark. He introduced us to some of the other ISDSI staff: Ajaan Wilasinee, Pi Pu, and Pi Ben.
We were given a culture crash course that left me dizzy and sure I was about to either fall off of a four foot high squatting toilet or get thrown into the street for pointing at something with my feet. There were so many rules, so many phrases and tricky syllables that everything started to blend together into one big ngai-cheu-di-chan-messssss.
1.“Don’t touch people’s head. Ever. Even friends, even kids, no exceptions.” (Great I had ruffled a little boys hair the night before, I’m definitely going to be deported)
2.People don’t drink out of bottles. They use cups. If Thais see a stupid drunk tourist stumbling down the street shirtless with a beer bottle in his hand, Thai people will be most confused about the bottle. (Jordan and I look at each other. Yup, we were those people last night..don't worry we had our shirts on and we were actually walking pretty straight..to avoid being run over by motercycles or running over any tiny thai grandmas at night markets)
3 - infinity: Don’t point at things with your pointer finger, always take your shoes off before entering the house, use your right hand for eating and left for the bathroom, put your fork and spoon together when you’re full and done or you will look away for a second only to find your plate refilled by your host mother (who wants you to gain weight in order to feel like you love her and her cooking), don’t expect any privacy, Always, Never, ahhhh. Let’s face it, it’s impossible for me not to mess up in some way or another. Can't wait.
Before the crash course is over we notice that our families are beginning to show up and gather outside. They look as nervous, intrigued, and excited as we do. We get a departure bag with emergency numbers, a journal, an ISDSI shirt, and we’re sent to greet the crowd in our broken, newly learned Thai.
‘Soo-wat-dee-ka, di-chan-cheu Anna” Hello, my name is Anna.
The crowd applauds, and I stare back at the faces wondering which ones will soon be my new family. We gather our luggage and wait for Pi Wilasinee to call our names. Finally I hear mine and I am whisked away by two adorable girls. My new sisters? No time to waste, they whisk me away carrying one of my bags and I follow behind with my remaining one, wondering so many things. We load up into a truck and they introduce themselves. Fong and Ting, 25 and 16. The car ride was actually surprisingly fun, and they spoke pretty good English so I learned a little about them. They are from two different families Ting is one of 4 and is the oldest, Fong is one of 5 and is number four, like me! Phong likes thin noodles, Ting and I like medium ones. Ting plays a little tennis but prefers table tennis, her brother is fat. You know…standard stuff (?) (?) (?)
But really it was great we had a few laughs and they taught me some random words. I’m excited to get to know them.
We stop by a jewelry like shop and say hello to mama, she looked happy to see me, but who knows (I haven’t quite been able to distinguish between the thousand smiles of this land yet). We switched cars and went to eat meatballs with noodles and patient? Juice, it tasted like orange to me but they assured me it wasn’t. Then they took me home.
There is one house for living (I have a huge bed it nearly fills the nearly empty room it’s in…probably built for 3) with bedrooms, a TV, computer etc. and one house we eat in. Well probably another for living on the other side too, I’m not sure, it’s so confusing I don’t know if they are all relatives (probably) or what the deal is but it’s a lot of space and they said I can make myself at home. Besides being slightly confused by the living arrangement and people’s relationship to each other, I’m just happy to be here and excited for things to get super awkward. Here we go. Sa-wat-dee ka
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