Randomness

Wow, I just realized I haven't posted in over a week! Things have been crazy busy. Still having work done on the house. We also started our "official" Thai language learning last week. We've been studying Thai on our own up until now (Damien has been learning to read too). The tutor comes 4 days/week for 1 1/2 hours and then we have to study as much as possible when we're not with her. It's amazing how much that time is taking away from just doing my usual "mommy" things.

Here are a couple of thoughts I've written down lately.

Labor is so cheap here. You never have problem getting someone to help in the store. Literally, there is always someone like 5 feet away. So many people are just waiting around and half the time there are more people working there than shopping. People are almost always very friendly and helpful. I'm sure they are happy to have jobs, even if they don't pay a lot.

On that note, Damien is getting used to women in the bathroom. :-) Ok, you're probably wondering how that is related. But one thing is that there is always someone in the bathroom cleaning. And it's not like in the US where they close the bathroom. The woman is just walking around sweeping and mopping...ladies or men's bathroom. It's obviously completely normal around here because no one else seems to notice. I'm just glad I've never seen a man in the ladies bathroom!

It's been really difficult getting used to always having to have cash on me. Seriously, I NEVER used it in the US. Here, most places don't take credit cards, and the few that do you don't want to be giving your credit card to anyway! So I'm always making a quick run to the ATM to get out more cash...and that's not easy either because many ATMs here aren't safe to use.

Sometimes it's interesting having no hot water in the house. Well, we do have hot water...but only in the shower. Of course, it also depends on your definition of "hot." The other day Damien had a soda explode in the freezer. So to try to defrost some of the ice we had to keep going to the bathroom to get warm water. It was sort of funny...and it didn't work very well. Later we realized we should have just warmed water in the microwave. Oh well. Next time we'll know!

Now that it's winter "hot" water in the shower doesn't get hot enough. It's pretty miserable taking lukewarm showers. Once Damien happened to flush the toilet while I was showering and voilà, the water got hot for like 30 seconds. It was heaven. So now my shower routine includes flushing the toilet about 5 times during my shower. Yes, I know, a waste of water. But I figure my kids never flush the toilet so we're saving on water there! And whenever I start to feel bad I remind myself that I save a lot of energy by hanging my close to dry...so I may be wasting some water but I'm saving energy. It all evens out...right?

I got stopped by a police man the other morning. Scary! You don't see people get stopped. In fact, since we've lived here I've never seen someone stopped. I've never seen a police car with flashing lights (well I don't think they even have police cars here...they just ride motorbikes). I was actually stopped by a police man directing traffic in the middle of the street. The morning traffic is the craziest I've ever seen! I'll have to write more about it some other time. But there are cops everywhere directing traffic. I turned left onto a street. Now, there isn't a sign or anything but he walks up to my window and says, "No left turn." Well, at least he spoke some English or I would have no clue what he was saying. I threw out my best Thai ("I'm sorry" and "I didn't know"). He didn't seem impressed! The police all wear those surgical masks over their faces...so they look extra scary. Let me tell you. It worked! I will never turn left from that street in the morning ever again!

When we first came, we got stared at ALL of the time. People are always touching the boys...especially Micaiah's hair. We'd sit in a restaurant and the servers would just stand in their corner staring at us (and talking about us) the entire meal. It wasn't easy on us. It's really weird never feeling like you have any privacy. We are so happy that we have finally gotten used to it. Well, we still notice when someone touches the kids...hard to miss. But the stares - I hardly notice them any more. Then, all of a sudden we'll be somewhere and I'll here someone laugh and I'll sort of instinctively look at them to see what it was, and realize they were laughing at us...you know, maybe something cute one of the kids did. And then I'll look around and notice lots of people staring at us. But it's so nice to be able to "tune" it out. I think the kids are pretty good at ignoring it too. The hardest part right now is that people are ALWAYS saying "hi" (in Thai) to the boys. They usually don't want to say "hi" back. It's been difficult to find a balance of giving the boys their personal space but also teaching them to be polite. We usually make them politely say "hi" to someone who greets them. But we've told them that they do not have to let someone touch them if they don't want it...and they usually don't have to carry on a long conversation (believe me, we could stand there for 10 minutes while people asks their name, age, etc...)

If all of the seats are taken somewhere, adults will get up to let our kids take their seats. This is one thing I DON'T like. I don't want my kids thinking this is the way it should be. I want them to respect adults. It was like this in Korea too but this is long term. This could definitely go to their heads!

Ok, this is crazy. We've lost Micaiah's 4 times since we came here! It's seriously ridiculous and I feel like a horrible mom. One second he'll be with us and then next he will have vanished. It's scary. I think we've taught him well enough never to leave the store and to scream if someone takes him. We think the problem is that when we're walking he likes to look at our feet to follow us. He seems to have a problem keeping up with which feet are ours. Then 5 minutes later he'll realize he's been following someone else's feet. The first three times it was in the grocery store...sort of like a Walmart. He'd have to go down elevators and long halls to get out of the store. So we weren't extremely worried. We'd find him talking to some Thai person who spoke English. This last time though was at the Mall. The HUGE mall. I was scared. One second he was with us on the escalator and the next second he was gone... completely out of sight! Damien and I split up...5 minutes later we ran back into each other and still hadn't found him. Damien went up a floor (up one floor of the five in the mall - like I said, it's huge). Still no Micaiah. There were so many places he could have gone. Finally I went another way and about 100 yards later I found him. Again, talking to a sweet woman. He never finds them...they always notice a Farang (i.e. white) kid wandering around without parents. Because he's been lost so many times we've had some conversations about what he should do. 1. NEVER leave the store. 2. Once you realize you're lost (which amazingly takes a really long time for him to realize) stay right where you are; don't move. 3. NEVER, repeat, NEVER go anywhere with anyone. Even if they say they are bringing you to your parents. Stay where you are. So, when I found him this time, the first thing he did was get a huge smile (he's such a pro at being lost that he wasn't worried at all) and say, "Mommy, I stayed right where I was." And literally, he was standing in the middle of the mall with people walking all around and he hadn't moved. He said that the lady who found him asked him to come with her and he said, "No, I have to stay right here." I was very proud of him. It makes me feel much better knowing that the next time he gets lost (and with our track record I assume there will be a next time) he will stay safe.

Orin is doing well with school. Usually when we pick him up he's excited and happy and tells us about the good and bad parts of his day. But this week he's had a more difficult time in the mornings. He'll say "School is boring" and that he doesn't want to go. I'm glad he hasn't cried yet when he does this or try to convince me to not have him go. He has said on more than one occasion that he thinks I should teach him at home. :-) I know he'll get used to going soon. The hardest part for him is missing whatever we do as a family while he is at school. Especially since Damien is home all day. Most of the crying he's done has been over something Caiah has done (like watching TV) or if we go to a restaurant that he really likes. I try to remind him that he had 5 years of doing fun things and that when Caiah is 5 he'll be going to school too. I do think he understands this and that helps. Here are a few pictures of his first day of school:

With his little buddy Christopher. Christoper's parents are with our organization so Orin has played with him a few times. He was excited to know they would be in the same class. Christopher is from the UK. The little boy next to him is from New Zealand. The little girl next to him is from Thailand. Definitely a diverse group!
Once the bell rings they all line up and wait for their teachers to come and get them.