Looking Past Stereotypes

Meg, our English/Secondary Education major, contributed this post about our first day in Thailand.

 

“ผ้าขี้ริ้วห่อทอง” –Thai Proverb              

Translation: “Waste cloth covers gold”

                Living in the United States makes it hard to travel to another country without having a preconceived notion of what to expect. The media molds our psyche to feel certain ways towards other cultures. “The French are stuck-up.” “They have poor hygiene in the Middle East.” The negative, conservative stereotypes that our culture nearly forces us to believe. So what about Thailand? How to Americans view the Thai culture and its people? I cannot speak for everyone; however, I was under the impression that Thailand would be unsafe and have an extremely traditional culture. I also thought the Thai people would be extremely judgmental towards Americans and would not want anything to do with us. However, once the waste cloth of negative perceptions was removed, gold was revealed.

                Based on first day impressions alone, Thailand makes sense. Everything is practical, no extra, ostentatious ‘fluff’. The people are overtly kind and do not look down on you for speaking English. And Hua Hin is proving itself to be safer than Erie, Pennsylvania. We are told from a young age to never judge a book by its cover, and there could not be a more useful moral.

                 Hours later, I am still amazed at the dining arrangements.  Tonight we went to eat at one of the local night markets. The night markets consist of different vendors selling food, clothes, souvenirs, etc. We went to a sit-down restaurant type deal inside the night market. I noticed on the table that there were no set napkins or silverware but rather a box of tissues. When we were severed dinner, we did not receive a roll of silverware or a cloth napkin transformed into an artifice of a swan. I ordered fried rice and got a plate of fried rice with a fork and a spoon resting on the plate. But wait, where is my hanky that doubles as a model airplane? I asked Dr. Hartigan, our faculty advisor who lived in Thailand for five years, if using the box of tissues as napkins when being served a meal was customary. He said yes and that people do not put a napkin on their lap during a meal. What a notion, being civilized enough to eat food properly and not need a landing pad for all the scrapings. After working at a hotel with a large banquet facility for about a year, I have realized how asinine folding napkins and setting five different forks for each place setting can be. I am most certainly going suggest to my manager that we switch from rolled silverware with a cloth napkin, to a box of paper napkins and silverware served as needed. We’ll have to see how that goes over.

                While preparing for the trip, Dr. Kingston told us that everything was very inexpensive. After doing my fair share of traveling, I was just like ‘yeah, ok, whatever. I’m going to need to save as much money as I can.’ But oh boy, was Dr. Kingston right. Early in the day, we went to the local floating market. Here a series of shops and vendors framed a pond, hence “floating”. I took out 3,000 bahts, around $100, and brought back a skirt, a pair of pants, a dress, a pair of shoes, two coffee mugs, two bracelets, four little elephant and Buddha figurines, and three postcards. At the end of the day, I still have 700 hundred bahts or $23 left. Even at the night market, you could buy an ice cream cone for 10 bahts or 33 cents. Yes, cents. Now I can join the grandparents club: “when I was young, we could get ice cream for 33 cents!”

                All and all the first day was spectacular. Souvenirs were bought, laughs were had, but most importantly, I was enlightened. Thailand has welcomed us with open arms. It is times like these when I remember how truly blessed I am. I feel guilty for ever judging a place like this. But always remember, waste cloth covers gold.