Awesome Thai Commercials

I haven't spent much time watching Thai television, but sometimes I encounter it all the same. On two occasions I was in a room with the TV on and there were commercials that really stood out to me. On both occasions I could understand what was happening in the commercials, but they left me mystified as to why.

In the first commercial we see a handsome young soldier in his dress uniform alighting from a train in a busy station. He carries a letter and a rose and is scanning faces, searching for someone. His eyes finally settle on a 30-something woman, not bad looking, but on the plain side and a little bigger than your average Thai woman. We get the impression that the soldier is looking for a woman he's been corresponding with romantically for some time but has never seen. The look on his face suggests a small amount of surprise and disappointment, but good-natured acceptance. But then the nice looking lady smiles and says...something in Thai. The handsome soldier looks to the side and walks towards a gorgeous, refined Thai woman and gives her the rose. Apparently the normal looking woman was just a decoy so the knock out could have a few more seconds to finish applying her lipstick? Or maybe the soldier had to go through the protective best friend before he got the go ahead to date the star? I guess I'll never know. I have no idea what this could have been a commercial for.

The next commercial that stuck with me was a little more obvious as to what it was selling, but had the same 'wait, was that offensive' feeling to it. A middle aged Thai businessman stands alone on the edge of a roof, apparently ready to end it all. The fire department arrives and scurries about down below. When they spread the big trampoline/net thing that they use to catch jumpers, it is actually a huge newspaper! The businessman looks down in shock and then interest as the rescue workers turn the pages of the giant newspaper so the man can read the apparently fascinating articles. The end shows the man walking away reading the newspaper, on to a brighter day.

In the US we make a big deal of our commercials, though I don't know anyone who actually watches them outside of the superbowl. I think maybe the language gap removes the in your face 'sell sell sell' feeling of these commercials and makes them so charming to me. 

The Copy Shop in Babel

Two months ago I took my Learning Thai book to the copy shop down the road to get a copy made for Josephine, my coworker. I went back in a couple of days to pick it up, but it wasn't ready yet. Actually, when I showed up the lady who works there started looking around like maybe she'd misplaced the book. After a couple of minutes she told me to come back later. But when I came back a few days later, she still didn't have it. At that point she took my phone number. I wondered later if I would even know when she called me. The women who work at this shop speak even less English than I speak Thai, which is very little.

A couple of days later I got a call from someone who could only speak Thai (a somewhat regular occurrence) and I optimistically thought it was the call from the copy shop. But when I showed up to see if they had my book ready it was obvious they weren't waiting for me. The woman was trying to explain something to me but I had no idea what. Finally she said to me something like "don't come back" which was shocking to hear, even though it wasn't said in anger. I had to assume that they had lost my book and the copy they'd made. But I really wanted to know what was going on! I also started to wonder if I should ask them to make it up to me in some way. I hate to be pushy or throw blame around, but they lost my Thai book! I'd found another copy of the book at the intern house and I was thinking I should ask them to make a copy for free to replace the one they'd lost. But how was I supposed to do that?

After a couple days I decided to ask my friend who has lived here for a few years for advice. She said that if I wanted we could go by with her Thai friend and she could ask the lady what was going on. When we got to the place and our Thai friend asked, the woman at the shop launched into an animated retelling of the "how the book got lost" story. When the story was done, our Thai friend said thanks and walked away without any of my suggestions of new copies being made. We got back into my friend's car and she asked us what had happened. I told her that my book was sitting out and suddenly a man on a motorbike drove by, swiped the book and drove off before anyone could do anything. At least that was my interpretation of the rushed Thai and hand movements.

Our Thai friend told us the real story. My book and the copy had been sitting on the counter when another customer came to collect a large job. He must have taken my books along with his. The woman assured us that he was a pretty regular customer and they would ask him to bring it back the next time they saw him. I waited and wondered how someone could pick up an unfamiliar Thai language book and never think to return it to where it obviously came from. He couldn't have been that regular of a customer because two months went by. Until....

This morning I got a call from a number I didn't have in my contacts. I don't like answering these calls because they're mostly wrong numbers (see second paragraph). But I did answer. The call went something like this:

"Hello?"
"Hello, ฎนากุถเขยรวล"
"...sorry?"
"Nakunruin copy shop"
"Oh, yes!"
"Okay, today?"
"Okay, yes."
"Okay."

It had been about a month since I'd completely given up on my Thai book, yet I knew right away what the call meant. I went in to the copy shop after work and there were hugs all around, confetti poppers and champagne (okay, just in my head) as they went under the counter and handed me my books. I was just so excited! Even though Josephine had long since decided to quit Thai lessons. And they didn't even give me a discount on the job.

Hurray!

100 days

Today marks 100 days until I leave Thailand. I know because I've been counting down on an ipod app for awhile. It's been really hard to focus on staying present here and getting everything I can out of the time I have left. I'm really excited about moving back to Southern California! Strangely, even before I came to Thailand I started having fantasies about what my life would look like when I came back. I know that this is just part of the "grass is always greener" mindset, so I try to remind myself that I'll still be basically the same person when I get back. I don't think I'll suddenly find a passion for working out or spontaneously develop new hobbies. Who's to say, maybe I will be inspired to take on something new, but I shouldn't count on it.

People love to insist that we live in the moment and get everything we can out of life. That's all good, but what does it really mean? Do I need to be walking the streets everyday, trying to scare up experiences? Is it a shameful waste of a day if I choose to come home after work and watch tv? There's only so much one girl can do! I like to think that living in a foreign city and interacting with people from all over the world, "life" will find me whether I'm looking for it or not. Phew, pressure off!

All that being said, I had a pretty good day. I slept in until 9:30. When I got up our housekeeper was downstairs cleaning the kitchen. It's been raining pretty constantly for the past few days, so she made a comment about how it's easy to sleep when it's cold out. At least I'm pretty sure this is what she said because she was speaking Thai. I feel so awkward having the housekeeper here on Saturday mornings. I feel like I can't just lie around in my pjs when someone is here cleaning our house. So I usually end up finding something to do outside the house.

I'd been looking at the website with the movie theater listings (http://www.majorcineplex.com/en/ if you're interested) but there weren't any English movies that interested me. So I started looking at the Thai movies. It took me many months to realize that many of the Thai movies have English subtitles, and I'd never seen any of the Thai movies until today.

Before the movie I ate lunch at the food court outside of the theater in the mall. Although it was noon, I hadn't eaten breakfast so I wasn't really in the mood for a rich greasy Thai meal. I looked at the different counters, some with signs in English and others without, until I saw a place with a picture of a dish that looked appealing to me. It happened to be another rich greasy Thai dish, but it still looked tasty. I went to order it, thinking I could just point to the picture, but the picture was facing towards me and away from the woman serving food, so I don't think she knew what I meant. I ran my eyes over the string of Thai letters labeling the dish, but there was no way I'd get past the first couple of syllables. Luckily there was a Thai woman next to me who saw I was struggling and she read the name of the dish to the woman working there. Hurray! Language barrier overcome, if just for a minute and if just for food. I gave the woman a kop kun ka (thank you) when my order was placed. It was only when the woman got her food and walked away that I noticed her shirt had a word bubble that said "Oops." I found that oddly appropriate for the situation.

The movie that interested me was called Shambala. It was about two brothers who had been estranged when they decide to go on a trip to Tibet together. It was the typical road trip bonding movie where the brothers with opposite personalities started off fighting and ended up closer than they ever had been. I don't know if it's because the movie was specifically set in Tibet or if it's an aspect of Thai movies in general, but Buddhism played a large role in the movie. I'll have to watch some more Thai movies to find out.

I took a songtaew home and it started pouring down rain right before we got to my stop. I started the 15 minute walk back to my house with my ineffective umbrella. My flip flops were so wet I was afraid I would slip out of them. Luckily I soon saw a familiar white van coming towards me. Kelly was on her way out of the neighborhood and when she stopped I hopped in and asked where we were going. We dropped the kids off for a play date and then stopped by the market before heading back home. I was happy to have a ride back to my front door.

When I got in, my roommate Laura was home. We went out after an hour and watched the international school's boys volleyball team play in a tournament. They lost by two points. Oh, I guess I should say they came in second in the tournament. Yay! When the game was over we walked down the road to have dinner at a restaurant, Coaches, which is run my a missionary family. On the way we were harassed by a literally ankle biting puppy. We narrowly escaped when his jaws were distracted by a discarded hat. The seating at the restaurant is in a tree house like loft and it was nice to sit and eat with the rain, which started pouring again as soon as we were under cover. It's the rainy season here and I am loving every minute of it, yes, even when people don't show up out of nowhere to give me a lift.