Thai'd Up A SUMMER ABROAD ENTANGLES WESTERN CONSUMERISM IN THE EAST by Natalie Vichnevsky photo: Natalie Vichnevsky 'Thailand --The Land of Smile.' this is how one slogan highlights the characteristic Thai disposition, which I have come to see as being generous, happy, and uncomplicated without the fettering concerns of most Western cultures. Spending the summer in Thailand, allowing me to see what brought the smiles to all of their faces. Living with strong bonds to the land and the community and concentrating their energies on people, relationships, and spirit (instead of centering life on individualism and materialism), gives the Thais a lot to smile about. And once in Thailand, I found that smiling has much to do with understanding and embracing this dynamic southeast Asian culture. As a tall blond I was quite a conspicuous traveler in Thailand. Of course, pigment and size were not the only elements which set me apart from those around me. Cultural norms and practices took getting used to and required a good deal of attention to detail in order not to come off as an obnoxious, ignorant Westerner. But ironically, juxtaposed to this Western volume, it was the gentle Thai nature that made adjusting to life in a foreign country easy. I quickly learned two general rules, which pretty accurately characterize their laid back attitude: first, you canfix nearly anything with a smile, and second, when in doubt, just say "yes." It was irrelevant if you really couldn't do what you had just promised; it is considered more impolite to say "no" then not to follow through on your affirmation. I never figured out if people actually didn't expect you to do those things that you promised, or if they were initially just asking you out of politeness anyway, never really planning on following through themselves. Either way, it never became an issue. This whole practice led not only to confusion in terms of meeting times and places, and general uncertainty about reality, but it also often led to gross, excessive food and drink consumption. "Sure, I'll have some more rice. Hey, you already put it on my plate anyway; how can I refuse?" This, however, was a well-received custom on my end of the cultural assimilation spectrum. The only small setback was my veganism, which, until I got a hang of things, caused a number of puzzled looks and days of plain rice laden with condiments. These times soon came to an end, however, and for the remainder of my time there, I ate like a queen (or a pig). Everything about Thai mealtime was greatly appreciated and quickly adopted into my own culinary habits. In Thailand, eating is a communal event -- in my opinion, exactly as it should be. One of the first nights at Khon Kaen University, where I studied, we had a little welcoming dinner gathering. A woman from Brown and I were watching Thai students get their food from the buffet. They were really piling it on, and we thought, "Jesus Christ that's a lot of food, I guess we don't need to worry about seconds ..." So we got our food, sat down on the mats with everyone, and that is when our idiocy hit us. We were the selfish pigs. They each got a good deal of each dish to share with everyone, while we Westerners, well, we definitely did a good job of taking care of ourselves. No one minded; they just kept offering us more and more food. Although there is usually an overabundance of edibles on the table, you can occasionally get screwed on the whole sharing deal if you don't plan it right (having a "sharing strategy" sort of defeats the spirit of giving, but I'm trying to illustrate a point). Once, while eating at a market, I offered some pineapple to the people I was with, before I had eaten any. Everyone accepted, and the pineapple was promptly consumed by everyone but myself. This is how I learned. Be nice but take a bite first. Of course, I only had to fork over the equivalent of 20 cents to get two more pineapples. This fact in itself can cause some confusion. Food in Thailand is amazingly cheap. When one can buy an incredible dinner for six for the same price as a single pineapple at Whole Foods, the ability to budget becomes a non-factor. For a while, any sense of financial rationality is lost. Unfortunately, there are 7-Elevens all over Thailand. Here, a granola bar sells for the same price as a green curry in a restaurant. Upon realizing this discrepancy, I started doing transworld price comparisons, "Ok, this costs as much as a meal, let's say an average meal costs eight dollars, would I buy this granola bar for eight bucks? What a fucking rip-off." Needless to say, it's really painful to see people pay four dollars for six Oreos. While I was there, the Baht (the Thai monetary unit) underwent all sorts of fluctuations which added to any existing personal financial chaos I might have had. Unfortunately, it dropped quite significantly, to the point in which indicators, like canceled government business trips, became evident and headlines regarding the situation appeared daily. This didn't stop merciless tourists, however. Chiang Mai, one of Thailand's largest cities and most popular tourist towns, has a nightly market. The streets of the night bazaar are lined with booths selling everything from hill tribe headdresses to "genuine" Calvin Klein belts, made to order, and everything in between. A true consumer's dream. Watching tourists in action here is high caliber entertainment, but bargaining can get ugly. The funniest, or perhaps saddest, part of all this was watching people haggle over what turns out to be the equivalent of about 30 cents. At times I found myself leaving a stall cursing the vendors in the company of their six kids, solemnly believing that they were trying to take advantage of you by not letting you have both the Buddha and the Ganesh for what you'd pay for two hours of parking in Georgetown. Having the money, or at least looking like you do, simply because you are a foreigner, puts a Western traveler in an awkward position. If you pay whatever is asked without any negotiation, you promote the stereotype that foreigners have plenty of money to throw around without much thought (hmm, funny, someone must have given them that idea ...). On the other hand, if you haggle too fiercely, you come off looking greedy, not willing to share your "wealth" with those less fortunate. Even once you realize what's going on, you still aren't exactly sure what is right and what is wrong. I do, however, know that I'm much more willing to be "ripped off" by a talented craftsman trying to feed his family than by the corporate hand of the ever encroaching 7-Eleven chain, but that is not specific to this cultural context. If there is an "answer" to cross-cultural understanding, I believe it would come from working inside another culture, without using your own as a yardstick. It is vital to balance your views and reach a point where you are not only paying due respect to the foreign country, but also representing your own culture in a respectable way. In other words, you don't have to model your life after Buddha, but at least eat your noodles with chopsticks.

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