Somewhere in between

Thailand is an amazing country and on our first visit in late July it captivated us. The culture and lifestyle is a beautiful combination of all delicious things Asian and we enjoyed our 10 day experience there thoroughly! Unlike China (and specifically Beijing) Thailand is not as harsh, competitive and cut throat...the food is also so much better and so is the weather! The Thai people are friendly and open; whereas sometimes we find the Chinese complicated and secretive. We also got the rare experience of seeing life lived out in some of our closest friends - Bron & Noiy. Their lives are a complete merging of East and West (she is a friend from school who has lived in Thailand for 5 years and is married to a Thai guy; and they now have a son Daniel), in them we saw the closest picture to how we'd like to live when it comes time to raising a family. I had no idea how influenced by Asian culture we had become, but that said there are also aspects of our Western lives that we treasure. Thailand is like the merger between these two worlds which is probably why we enjoyed it so much.

I also learnt some interesting things about my husband during our trip to there: I watched him acquire a new language. Ever since I've known Kyle he's been well established in his list of 6 languages, but for once we were in a country where he had zero language ability to start. So we bought a phrase book at the airport and from the moment we got in the taxi he was flipping through it and finding ways to communicate. He got so good that after he had used up his full knowledge in the language (which at first amounted to 2 senteces), he was mistaken for a fluent speaker of the language and had to stop the taxi drivers mid conversation and admit that he was still an amatuer. He didn't stay one for long though. By night 2 he had written down the entire phonetic and alphabet system and by the end he was reading some Thai words, bargaining, counting and talking about food. It truly amazed me; firstly because I have never been one for phrase books (although now I see how useful they can be), and secondly because I realised yet again what a flair and gift my husband has for languages. Chinese has not come easy for him but his facination and inclination to learn languages does, and it never stops. I know no-one else quite like him.