I’ve pointed out some of the ways that my life has changed in the last year. A friend of mine said that they wanted to know about how morning routine has changed, so I’ll break that down for y’all here.
| US | Thailand |
|---|---|
| Alarm goes off at 6:30 | Alarm goes off at 6:30 |
| Snooze alarm until 7 | Snooze alarm until 7 |
| Take a hot shower from a shower head in about 15 minutes | Take a chilly shower by dipping a bowl into a trash can of water and dumping it over my body in about 10 minutes |
| Get dressed | Get dressed |
| Put on make-up | Skip the make-up because I’ll just sweat it off |
| Mix up some muesli and Greek yoghurt to eat in the car | Eat some rice and usually fried eggs for breakfast |
| Drive to work getting there a little bit after 8 a.m. | Hop on my bike and bike the 2 kilometers to the school arriving a little bit before 8 a.m. |
On the surface, it would seem as if not a whole lot has changed in my morning routine. But it certainly feels like I’m a world away in the moment. Most of the bed here are super firm, which I find really uncomfortable. Add to that the heat and no air conditioning and the day is already starting off on the uncomfortable side. But no matter, it’s easy to shake it off and put on a smile and be excited about being here.
Getting Dressed
Getting dressed here is a bit of a different process. There is a concept called riap roy, which means complete and appropriate. It can be applied to anything, a form being filled out, a room being tidied up, payment being made. We PCVs first learned about it in regards to dress.
There is the idea that any shirt with a collar is instantly more riap roy than one without. So polo shirts are a norm here. Women are also often expected to wear skirts and dresses. I get told that I am “so beautiful” the most when I wear a skirt or a dress. I have only received that compliment when wearing pants once.
Riap roy is more than just dressing for a dress code like business casual, because there are cultural overtones to it. Skirts that are more than an inch above the knee are not appropriate, showing shoulders is definitely not OK. But while these things are not acceptable, no one will point it out to you really. There are also trends here that have become ingrained into the concept of riap roy as well beyond the collared shirts, such as pencil skirts and black slacks are better. Not that A-line skirts or khakis are not appropriate, but they might get an odd glance.
Breakfast
One thing that I pointed out above was what I eat. Here, everyone eats rice with every meal. It is the staple food. I asked my co-teacher if Thai people ever get tired of eating rice. She didn’t understand the question. She said they will just eat different things with the rice.
A lot of Thai people think that American eat bread at every meal and that it is the base of every meal. I get asked if I want some bread a lot. (One time I got a literal ice cream sandwich: ice cream between two frozen piece of white bread.)
After being here for nearly six months now, it seems like my rice tolerance is about three months. Every three months I get really tired of eating rice and have a difficult time eating it for a couple of weeks. I’ve also eaten more eggs here than I have in my entire lifetime in the States. I think it is mostly because I’m a vegetarian and my host family doesn’t really know what to cook me other than fried cabbage or fried cucumbers or fried eggs. I did go to the market and buy a pumpkin, so now that is thrown into the rotation as well.
Commute
My morning commute has certainly changed. Whereas in the States I was in my car, spending about 15 minutes on the highway and just another anonymous person heading to their own daily grind, here I hop on my bike and before I even go 50 meters (I’ve also switch to the metric system) I’m greeted with calls of “Hello!” and “Good morning!” Sometimes they are too shy to say anything to me directly, so I just hear surprised gasps of “Farang!” which means foreigner.
I make sure to say hello or sa wat dee ka after I hear that. On my ride, I dodge huge potholes and dogs and chickens. Sometimes I notice the dead frogs and snakes in the road. Sometimes I have to dodge a cow. I’m always dodging cow pies. When I pull up to the school all of the kids shout “Hello!” and “Good morning!” to me. Some of them wai to me, but I’ve gotten some of them to just wave which I like better. My commute is definitely not anonymous in my village.
So while the logistics of my mornings in Thailand are pretty much that same as my mornings in the States, they certainly don’t feel that way.