Diana Wasn’t Home…

It took me a bit to find Diana (the couchsurfing  host’s) house.   I took the skytrain  and followed the streets using educated guesses looking for 205.   I kept passing 201, crossing an intersection and then  seeing 283.    I showed a man standing  on the curb the address and he pointed me in the right direction.

When I arrived, the door up to the apartments was  open, so I climbed to the second floor and knocked on  my hostess-to-be’s  door.   No answer. 🙁   So, I stationed  myself on the couch at the top of the  stairs and started pondering what I would do if the stay fell through.   Then I knocked again.   Still no  answer.   So, I went to inquire  at the front desk as to whether I might pay to stay here anyway for a night.   The woman spoke no English, and I no Thai, so after some funny exchanges, I finally wrote “Diana” and her apartment number on a piece of paper.   Score!   She got (the very british) Diana on the phone for me.   Our conversation went something like this:

Diana: “Hello?”

Me: “Hi – Diana?   Is this Diana”

D: “Yes.   This is Diana.”

M: “Oh, hi.   Are you coming home soon?”

D: “Hello?   I can’t hear you.   Who is this?”

M: “Hello?”  Diana?

D: “Yes.   Who is this.”

M: “This is Jema.”

D: “Who?”

M: “Jema.   From couchsurfing?

D: silence.   silence… silence… ” OH SHIT!   SHIT  SHIT SHIT  SHIT SHIT!   Oh I’m so sorry!   Oh the room is a total mess and my things are everywhere!   Oh shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.

She  came home fifteen minutes later, apologizing until I begged her to stop.   I tried repeatedly to convince her that I was so thankful that she was still going to let me stay.   Since we’d both eaten, we took moto  taxis to the 7-11 by her friend’s house.   We became part of the river of rushing motos  squeezing through impossibly small gaps in traffic.   She laughed at me the whole way there since I apparently didn’t know how to hold on with my knees instead of my hands, like a local would.

We bought several beers and headed up the street to Matt and Julie’s apartment.   Diana teaches english at a local school, and she made friends with the newest crop of teachers that had arrived.   Matt and Julie are from Texas.   Sarah from Massachusets  and Hans from Germany live in the same building.   We sat around drinking beers, looking at pictures, telling stories, and ordering in KFC  until midnight.   Not exactly what I was expecting for my first evening in Bangkok, but it made for a supersoft “landing” and took the edge of the culture shock – of which I am feeling almost none.   I did feel a bit like I was in college.   The apartments here are pretty spartan – really just a single room with a bed, desk, table, fridge, and closet, and a bathroom behind a door in the corner.   Since there is no furniture, everyone sits on the bed, just like in a dorm room.

I fel straight asleep when we got back and slept soundly until around 6am.   Diana had warned me that I would wake up very early feeling completely rested until my inner clock adjusts over the next few days.

So far, everything is great!