Random Thoughts and Events

Damien was really excited when he saw that they sell Cadbury chocolate here. He would always hunt for it in the US too. The first time he ate it he in Thailand he started thinking, "This isn't as good as I remember. Maybe I don't like Cadbury as much as I thought." Then someone we know from the UK mentioned that they always have their family send Cadbury chocolate from home because it isn't as good here. The Cadbury chocolate we have here in Thailand is actually manufactured in Malaysia! It's amazing how things can change flavor just by being produced in a different place. On the other hand, I'm totally excited that the Milka sold here is actually sent from Germany! I haven't been able to find my favorite type here yet, but I've had fun trying kinds I can't get in the states.

I guess it doesn't matter where you go, or what language you see, you just know what certain products are! :-)

The only problem is that when you get soda you've never had before (this is Miranda Root Beer) you can't read the ingredients to see whether or not there is caffeine!

Our apartment actually had a TV in it with cable. It's been fun to see what Thai cable TV is like. We actually have about 7 English channels. I think there are three news channels and it's definitely a hodgepodge. The only US news channel we get is FOX news. We also get Al Jazeera which I actually enjoy watching because it's much more International than US news is. I get to see major headlines from the US but also news from all over the world. We also have some Australian news channel. There is a sports channel called Euro Sports,(only sports from Europe) a couple of local movie channels that show movies in English. Ironically other channels show movies in English but they are dubbed over in Thai so we can't watch them. :-) There are a few cartoon channels. One is always in English, but the other two have some cartoons in English (we've seen random things like Inspector Gadget, Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry) but some cartoons dubbed over in Thai. The kids seem to not even care some times and watch it in Thai. Once we start language training I think it will actually be useful to watch Thai cartoons since cartoons have such simplistic language and conversation. We also have the SyFy and Universal channel which are in English. Damien says that Universal is basically a Law & Order channel. :-)

If you've ever gone to a web page that is in another language, you'll know that sometimes at the top you can click on a link for "English" and it will change the web page into English. Before coming here we were doing research into things in Thailand and going to a lot of Thai web pages so we did this a lot. Sometimes instead of having the world "English" they would just have a little USA flag you'd click to turn to English. But here, you actually click the flag for Great Brittan to change to English. The first time I went to a web page I totally missed it. I though it just didn't have a translation. I totally didn't notice the Great Brittan flag. Growing up in the US I'm so America focused that it totally didn't cross my mind that Thai web pages would use the GB flag to indicate English instead of the US flag. So it chuckle every time I click on the flag. :-)

Thursday night (the last night before CLI was over) we went with the family next door to find some Indian food! I've been craving it so Damien finally found the few we have in the city. We went down to the Night Market (which I'll have to write about another time). It was yummy. They actually call Indian food "Muslim Food" here. Mainly because the Indian restaurants here are usually owned by Muslims...who may not even necessarily be from India...but Indian food is very similar to the food of the surrounding countries. The "mom" of the other family actually grew up as an MK in Thailand so she speaks fluent Thai. It's amazing how much easier outings are with her around. We went to the restaurant in a Songthaew which is the main "public" (although I don't think there is anything public about it) transportation here in Chiang Mai. We've used it A LOT since we've been here. It's a nice, cheap way to get around. Although if you are in them for more than 5 minutes you'll be feeling a little sick from all of the exhaust you breath in. Here is a picture of the kids as we headed to the restaurant.

Here are a few pictures of Songthaews from the outside.