out of it
I forget how strange Thailand is for Americans until we get visitors from the U.S. It took us years to get used to some things, and there is plenty that still gets under our skin, but it all feels "normal" now. There are things in the U.S. that bug me, too, but it is also just "normal" life there.
I can only imagine how weird our lives must seem to someone "fresh off the airplane" from the west. Yet we are happy here, and not too concerned about looking weird. It is more important for us to fit in well with our Thai neighbors and friends, even if we look a little odd sitting on the floor and eating, or eating strange foods and having odd things around the house. Or jabbering in Thai to our friends and to each other. Our clothes are faded, stretched out and sometimes decidedly frumpy. Our towels & dishclothes are stained and old, & smell a little, too. Our furniture is simple and sometimes kind of ugly. But when I compare what we have to what most, not all, of our friends have, I just want to keep things the way they are. We do have wealthy Thai friends, but we don't want to live that way. We want to live in-between, I guess, and comfortable with a wide range of social & economic levels. So we have some nice things, like computers, and a nice coffee-maker, and we have our frumpy stuff, too.
We are certainly not living the American dream, but we love what we do, and we are very satisfied with what we have, and so are our children. What a blessing!
I can only imagine how weird our lives must seem to someone "fresh off the airplane" from the west. Yet we are happy here, and not too concerned about looking weird. It is more important for us to fit in well with our Thai neighbors and friends, even if we look a little odd sitting on the floor and eating, or eating strange foods and having odd things around the house. Or jabbering in Thai to our friends and to each other. Our clothes are faded, stretched out and sometimes decidedly frumpy. Our towels & dishclothes are stained and old, & smell a little, too. Our furniture is simple and sometimes kind of ugly. But when I compare what we have to what most, not all, of our friends have, I just want to keep things the way they are. We do have wealthy Thai friends, but we don't want to live that way. We want to live in-between, I guess, and comfortable with a wide range of social & economic levels. So we have some nice things, like computers, and a nice coffee-maker, and we have our frumpy stuff, too.
We are certainly not living the American dream, but we love what we do, and we are very satisfied with what we have, and so are our children. What a blessing!
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