Say What?

I've decided to start compiling a list of some of the somewhat strange things that make me smile, to share with you. So often I think, I should put that in a blog and then I promptly forget. Here are some short stories that while not outrageously funny, I hope will bring a smile to your face.

• Khruu Ooy talking about when we go to Khruu Kae's "weeding" (also known as a wedding). And Khruu Ooy trying to tell us a story about "love" we were so confused until she started saying "the Australian who helps at our school" we knew then she was talking about Rob not "love."



• My roommate Amy frantically trying honk the horn to warn a car coming into our lane that we were already there, but only succeeding in making several clicking noises. Later when she had discovered the one spot on the horn that would produce a noise actually audible outside of the car, she started honking out jingle bells as we drove down the street.



• At one of our major groceries stores there are no places to return your cart to which means that after every trip someone has to face the awkward "Where do we rudely leave our cart so as to affect the least number of people situation." Last trip it was my turn. I moved the cart behind a car one over from us, at the same time a Thai lady was having the same awkward situation. So, we pushed our carts near each other, gave each other sort of sheepish glances and then quickly walked off to our waiting vehicles. As we were backing out so was her family and I looked up to find her staring at us. I gave her a big smile and she smiled back. Several minutes later as we were driving down the main road their truck passed by us and the lady saw us, decided to practically hang out the window, and enthusiastically waved. So easy to make new friends...



• On one especially hot day after traipsing around town trying to find a shop who would make PE uniforms for our students and after already literally almost being hit by a car while walking across the street we decided to go to Airport Plaza for air conditioning. Khruu Ooy was driving our car and is a bit of a maniac while driving. I think about half of the city of Chiang Mai decided to go to Airport Plaza as well so the parking garage was packed. After circling several floors we ended up finding a spot that someone was just leaving. Trouble is that because parking is so difficult to find many people just park sideways behind cars that are parked in spots. Everyone knows to leave their car in neutral and to not put the parking brake on. We also saw many cars parked mostly up on the sidewalk with just a little bit on the actual lane. Anyway, as we left the building and walked to our car we discovered our car was blocked in, no surprise. We started on one end pushing half of the cars one way and half of the cars the other way. It works best to have one person pushing and one person stand at the front to "catch" the car before it crashes with the next one in line. Rearranging vehicles in a parking garage is definitely a fond memory.



• On that same trip with Khruu Ooy we went to one store that said on the door that it was closed, we weren't sure if she would run and check and if she wanted us to wait or come with her. We all started climbing out of the car when she started half-yelling, "Back, back." So like obedient ducklings we all climbed back in the car and shut the doors. A minute later Khruu Ooy looked over at us and was saying, "No, no, no." Which made us all quite confused. She came walking over and we opened the doors when she explained she was saying, "Bag, bag" and only wanted us to bring her her bag.



• We are all a little fearful of dogs around here. Reason being that in the previous eight months of our life here people in our house have gotten bite five times by dogs in our neighborhood. Needless to say we are weary of even the smallest dogs. So, for the trip back Amy's grandpa gave her some dog spray kind of similar to pepper spray. A couple of evenings ago Amy and I went for a walk in our neighborhood, and we of course took the dog spray. We walked past this humongous dog which we have always been scared of, he is usually attached to this thick harness which worries us a little bit. I was standing on the side closest to this monster and Amy told me not to worry, if he came after us she would push me behind her and attack him with the dog spray. No problems. We continue on and we see this dog bounding towards this poor person on a bicycle and we think this is the dog that is going to attack us. We turn and quickly walk/jog in the other direction. We look up and this dog is galloping towards us. So we huddle near this tree (Amy hiding behind me, but with the spray out in front of us) and watch as this dog goes flying past us while giving us kind of a strange look. Then two Thai boys ride by on their bicycle after the dog saying, (in English) "He don't bite." Amy and I looked at each other and burst out laughing embarrassed at our reaction. A couple minutes later we took off running when this tiny little dog really was after us barking ferociously. Needless to say, I'm pretty sure our neighbors are quite entertained by us farang girls running away from their dogs.