T.I.T.: This is Thailand

Stuff I've observed in Thailand:

-When you order food in a resturant everyone's meal shows up at a different time. There's been several times that one of us has gotten our food a full 15 minutes before anyone else. Just yesterday Nelly, Josh and I were DONE eating our meals for at least five minutes before Brandon's food came out. A couple of times two of us have gotten our food at the same time but there's never been once that we've gotten our food all at the same time.

-So apparently Thai girls are considered unattractive by Thai men if they have dark skin. Here's how it was explained to me: a tan thai girl is unattractive in thailand just as a fat girl is unattractive in America. I'm sure it must be true because all the Thai billboards, commercials and advertisements have pasty-white models on them. And then there's the whitening cream..... whitening cream is sold EVERYWHERE. Even Chanell has a line of whiteners. ALL (and I mean all) lotions, deodorants, moisturizers, and sunblocks have whiteners in them. During the day you always see Thai girls wearing long-sleved sweaters, hats and scarves around their faces (in the 100 degree heat) so that they don't get tan. Before I got here I heard that you'll never see a thai girl on the beach and it's pretty much true. The only ones I've seen carry around umbrellas to block the sun. I wonder what the Thai girls would think if they knew that Americans went tanning and did fake-n-baking?!?!

-We learned in our TEFL course that in Thailand you're expected to list your "personal information" at the top of your resume/CV. You have to list your date of birth, nationality, sex, marital status and many employers even require a photo. Unbelievable. It's 100% legal (and normal) to discriminate based on race, sex and age, and schools are totally open about it. With job postings the most common thing I've noticed is the phrase "Asian Americans are not welcome to apply." TEFL told us that many schools will only hire white people in their 20's. I read that if you're asian or black that it's next to impossible to get a teaching job here. As they say: TIT (this is Thailand).

-Cars do NOT stop for pedestrians in this country..... AT ALL. There's crosswalks everywhere but if you step into one NO ONE will even slow down. Once you've waited however long and dodged your way to the center of the street, you'll have to wait in the middle of the freaking road to wait for a gap in the traffic from the opposite direction. It's insane. There's been several times that it's been pouring rain (rain is MUCH more intense here than back home) and it's taken me a good three or four minutes to cross the road because no one will stop.

-Motorbikes. Everyone has one!! If you pull up to a market or a mall you'll see literally hundereds, sometimes thousands of bikes. There must be 20 bikes for every car on this Island!! And it's amazing to see how many people they can fit onto one bike. Several times we've seen four people plus a baby on one little bike. It's insane!! And yes, I did say baby.... aparently it's not child abuse to hold an infant with one arm while you're weaving through traffic going 65mph+!!

-Driving is insane in this country. We've seen two car accidents in the past two weeks but I'm surprised we haven't seen 50 more. People here are wreckless on their tiny bikes!! And it's especially scary because more offten than not there's multiple people on one bike and if there's any helmets at all there's usually only one. I hate how you'll see a dad with a helmet on but his eight-year old son doesn't have one. And there's TONSSSSS of husbands with helmets on but the wife never has one. Unbelievable!!

-People actually eat Durian here. Durian is a "fruit" that literally smells like decaying flesh. Most nice hotels have signs saying that Durian is NOT permittend because it smells soooooo strong and soooooo bad! The two grocery stores that we go to have durian and I can't look at anything in the produce section because the durian smell is too overwhelming. I hate it!!

-When you buy a beer from a 7-11 they ask you if you'd like it to be opened.