This last weekend was so much fun... as usual! We planned a lockin for all the college and youth group. We had a short devo, played silly games like "Take A Hike", "Scoot Your Buns", and then divided up into teams for competitions. The teams competed in lots more silly games that had every one CRACKING up! It was great! After declaring a champion we had a ping pong tournament and then watched movies the rest of the night. Overall I think our plans were pretty successful and everyone had a good time. The next day we woke up early and went rafting with a lot of the same people. We were on these long skinny rafts, going through some pretty crazy rapids with NOTHING to hold on to... so much fun! Overall the weekend was busy and tiring but worth every second!
So I realized I haven't mentioned a lot about the culture here in Thailand so I thought I would share a few of the cultural differences.
- You can't point your feet at anyone, even when sitting down. Its very disrespectful.
- You can't wear your shoes inside, so you take them off before entering most places.
- When greeting people you put your hands in a prayer position and bow while saying "Sawatii kha".
- There isn't just one preacher, all the guys just take turns preaching at church.
- They drive on the left side of the street, which still freaks me out cause I think we're always going to get hit!
- 75% people dive motor bikes, not cars. I've never seen so many bikes in my life!
- To add to all that, they drive CRAZY here (not quite as crazy as Cambodia). They don't stay in the lines and swerve around people stop in front of them.
- There taxis are called "Rotedangs" and they are trucks that have benches in the back you sit on. they hold about 12 people.
- Anyone older that you you add a "P" in from of their name. Some of the high school girls call me "P Terri".
- Most Thais have long first names I can't pronounce but they all have short nicknames like "O", "Wah", "Woot", "Boi". Then no middle names and last names I can't pronounce either.
- You eat rice with every meal all the time.
- Lots of drinks come in bags, not cups.
- They are VERY blunt. They tell other people they look fat, if their skin is breaking out, if they smell bad or anything like that. This one has been a little bit of a problem with 5 American girls! They are blunt in positive ways too, like they may just walk up and say "You are very beautiful".
- They ask, "have you eaten?" as a form of greeting.
- We we eat out every meal, but one meal is usually about 30 baht which is about 1 US dollar.
- MacDonald's and Pizza Hut are much more expensive that most restaurants.
- They don't eat much beef at all, mainly chicken and pork.
- They eat TONS of fruit. There are fruit and other food stands everywhere you go!
- Most Thais don't read books much at all, they would prefer to watch movies.
- Boy/ girl relationships are very secretive so normal American flirting means that you REALLY like someone. Thais also DO NOT kiss in public.
- Thais eat small meals but are constantly eating throughout the day.
- Thais smile all the time, and they have lots of different smiles that mean different things.
- On your birthday YOU treat everyone else and plan everything. No one "picks up your check" or anything.
- They are not wasteful at all. They don't buy things unless they need it, right now. They don't understand when we buy a lot of something of buy something for later on. (good to learn from them)
There are many more but those are just some of the fun highlights I could think of!
More picture albums I've added...http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2059674&l=c0c7e&id=54602099
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2059677&l=ba189&id=54602099
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2059769&l=bfb88&id=54602099
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2059769&l=bfb88&id=54602099
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2060325&l=57e88&id=54602099
No comments:
Post a Comment