Napkins Please

I was headed to brunch with a friend last Sunday and I was filling her in on life at the Au Pair school living with cultural exchange students. We both sympathized with the strange, unexpected and every day things which catch you off guard when you are the newbie in a culture. We have both been the person who is confused or somewhat embarrassed by the things we didn’t know and were trading stories back and forth.

For instance, in Thailand people greet you with “Where are you going?” instead of ”How are you?”. Being an American I know when someone asks me how I am, they aren’t really looking for the truth, it’s just a polite greeting or opening of a conversation and I respond appropriately. The same goes for the question of where are you going in Thailand except I didn’t know it was the same at all. So when I passed someone from the village and they asked me where I was off to, I used to stop and belabor them with listening to my Thai trying to explain where I was headed.  While they stood there semi confused but politely listening as I ran off my errand list. Ooops.

Then I remembered the napkins.

Thailand food is spicy. A lot of the dishes come with a sauce or dishes have sticky rice which you eat with your hands. And did I mention it was spicy? It made you slurp and sweat and all other kinds of attractive events. Napkins were a necessity. And you could easily accumulate a pile in one meal. No big deal right? Look at how many Dunkin Donuts or a deli hands out for free with just a cup of coffee.

Except in Thailand it was sorta humiliating to need so many.

Napkins on the table were still a relatively ‘new’ concept as they used to only hand them out when asked. Apparently paper products were once so expensive they couldn’t leave them out on the table for fear of all of them being stolen. Now all tables came equipped with a tiny wooden holder of (usually pink) ‘napkins’. Or they had originally been napkins before they had been unfolded, laid out flat, cut into skinny strips, refolded and placed out on the table. In total there were maybe 4 whole napkins in there.

I took it as a badge of honor and a terrific sign of improvement when I was able to successfully eat a serving of delicious Khao Soi and only use 3 ‘napkins’.

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