At school on Friday, Lun told me and Emily that we were invited to go to a birthday dinner that night for her niece who was turning 15. We obviously had no plans due to our lack of independent transportation so we gladly accepted. We were not sure what to expect but we were thinking it was going to be a decently-sized gathering that we could observe quietly while smiling and pretending to understand what was going on.
We heard a beep outside our house around 5pm and outside in a small pickup truck was Lun, her brother (a private detective in town who has long hair and dresses like a teenager to trick drug dealers into thinking that he is one of them before he busts them), and her 19 year old nephew named Dat. First we drove to a car shop where Dat picked up his car after having a new CD player installed, from which he bumps hilarious American music like Lionel Richie sung by a Thai man (which Emily refers to as his “smooth beats which he probably seduces Thai girls with”). Then we drove to the restaurant where the “party” was being held. We quickly realized that it was not a big celebration that we had been invited to, but instead a small, intimate family gathering. Lun’s sister-in-law and the birthday girl, whose name we asked about a million times but could never quite understand the pronunciation of (Emily thinks its “Din”), were the only other people waiting for us at the restaurant. This is when me and Emily found out we had become birthday crashers (possible sequel to “Wedding Crashers”??). When we saw the birthday girl we immediately greeted her with excited “Happy Birthday’s”, but her only reaction was a half-smile. Overall, it seemed like she was pretty unhappy that we were joining her birthday celebration. This is totally understandable considering she had never met us before, didn’t invite us, and we don’t even speak her language.
Luckily, the dinner was one of our best meals yet (Emily liked more than one thing on the table for once!!). The Thai always order many dishes and share them, so even if you don’t like them all you are bound to like at least a few. There were chicken drumsticks, beef, rice, papaya salad (called somtam), and soup to name a few. Me and Emily also shared a big Heineken and the dad kept looking at us and yelling “Drink, drink!” while doing a chugging motion. At first we thought this meant that we needed to drink faster because we were about to leave, but then we realized that he just thought it was funny to watch us chug our beer (we are always the joke). The best part of dinner was when we tried to get a picture taken of the table. We asked Lun to ask the waiter for us, but he declined and had to ask someone else to take it for us (still not sure why). We couldn’t tell if the family really wanted to be in our picture or not, but then Lun’s brother requested a second picture be taken from the other end of the table, so we thought they were getting into it. Upon inspection of the photo we realized that Emily and I were the only ones smiling though, with extra-big and dorky farang (foreigner) smiles, so I guess they really weren’t feeling it…whoops (check it out below)!
We heard a beep outside our house around 5pm and outside in a small pickup truck was Lun, her brother (a private detective in town who has long hair and dresses like a teenager to trick drug dealers into thinking that he is one of them before he busts them), and her 19 year old nephew named Dat. First we drove to a car shop where Dat picked up his car after having a new CD player installed, from which he bumps hilarious American music like Lionel Richie sung by a Thai man (which Emily refers to as his “smooth beats which he probably seduces Thai girls with”). Then we drove to the restaurant where the “party” was being held. We quickly realized that it was not a big celebration that we had been invited to, but instead a small, intimate family gathering. Lun’s sister-in-law and the birthday girl, whose name we asked about a million times but could never quite understand the pronunciation of (Emily thinks its “Din”), were the only other people waiting for us at the restaurant. This is when me and Emily found out we had become birthday crashers (possible sequel to “Wedding Crashers”??). When we saw the birthday girl we immediately greeted her with excited “Happy Birthday’s”, but her only reaction was a half-smile. Overall, it seemed like she was pretty unhappy that we were joining her birthday celebration. This is totally understandable considering she had never met us before, didn’t invite us, and we don’t even speak her language.
Luckily, the dinner was one of our best meals yet (Emily liked more than one thing on the table for once!!). The Thai always order many dishes and share them, so even if you don’t like them all you are bound to like at least a few. There were chicken drumsticks, beef, rice, papaya salad (called somtam), and soup to name a few. Me and Emily also shared a big Heineken and the dad kept looking at us and yelling “Drink, drink!” while doing a chugging motion. At first we thought this meant that we needed to drink faster because we were about to leave, but then we realized that he just thought it was funny to watch us chug our beer (we are always the joke). The best part of dinner was when we tried to get a picture taken of the table. We asked Lun to ask the waiter for us, but he declined and had to ask someone else to take it for us (still not sure why). We couldn’t tell if the family really wanted to be in our picture or not, but then Lun’s brother requested a second picture be taken from the other end of the table, so we thought they were getting into it. Upon inspection of the photo we realized that Emily and I were the only ones smiling though, with extra-big and dorky farang (foreigner) smiles, so I guess they really weren’t feeling it…whoops (check it out below)!
After dinner we went to the mall to get ice cream cake. Emily was obviously in heaven because she had prepared herself to go the 5 months in Thailand without one of her favorite foods, but to her surprise the Thai enjoy eat ice cream too! Of course we had to make it awkward by singing “Happy Birthday” in English to the little girl. We promised to sing quietly as not to be totally embarrassing, but they said they don’t always sing on birthdays and we thought it was too sad for her to miss out on.
After dessert, we went to an outdoor bar that was located right in the mall parking lot called “Beer Garden” (it is hilarious how many English words can be found in Thailand, for example on shirts or signs or as restaurant names, when so few people speak the language). There was a live band singing Thai songs and an overhead projector shooting a European soccer game on a big screen…and there was obviously beer, too. Emily and I got another Heineken to “Drink, drink!” together. At one point, neither of the two children was at the table and when we asked where they went we were told that they had gone inside to sign karaoke. Of course, Emily was pretty mad she wasn’t invited since she loooves karaoke and has been having withdrawals. When they came out we asked them how it went and they said they had sung two Thai songs together. Emily and I found it hilarious that a 19 year old boy would sing duets with his 15 year old sister by choice…but then again, we are surprised everyday by the people here!
PS: Emily tried to hug Lun’s sister-in-law goodbye because we were so thankful to her and her family for taking us so many places and paying for everything. Unfortunately, since the Thai don’t often hug one another Emily’s hug ended up looking much more like a head lock and I had a nice laugh watching it happen (I made sure to skip the hug when I said goodbye).
Update: We hung out again with Lun’s niece all day on Sunday and we think she likes us now and would possibly even invite us to her next party so we don’t have to crash!
Update 2: Emily tried to hug another Thai on Monday, this time the daughter of one of our co-workers. Again, it didn’t go so smoothly. Will she ever learn?
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