Examples of adjustments to Living in New Country

[thongd4me 69]

This thread is for showing mental adjustments by the non-native spouse,

no matter whether the country is the US or another one.

I expect to have many adjustments when we start to live in Thailand for extended periods after our retirement.

This is an example of an assumption my wife made regarding a co-worker at a major supermarket chain.

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One of her co-workers is "Bob" (name changed). He is a young man, has and "Tourette's Syndrome" (she calls him "autistic").

Bob is a good worker, albeit with certain challenges (the outbursts of Tourette's). He has a prodigious memory, for example.

She remarked last night that Bob, who is an extremely low-paid worker (not management) is on vacation in Switzerland

because his father is very rich. She added her conclusion that Bob is lucky to have a job because he would probably just

stay at home and go crazy if he didn't have it. She added the remark that the store probably hired Bob because his father

was rich. I said that probably was not the case at all, he was probably hired because he had the skills and also that a large

corporation would be obliged NOT to discriminate against the handicapped. The idea that a rich person could "buy" a job

for his child may happen frequently in Thailand, but I strongly doubt it was the case here.

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An adjustment that I had to make in Thailand was when we got out of a taxi at a bus stop, one of the young men working

for one bus company started to grab our luggage in an attempt to direct us to his bus. I took exception to this and angrily

grabbed the luggage back, showing that I was pissed. She said I should not have reacted that way because these were

street boys and capable of anything if they thought I was challenging them. He was just doing his job and I should have

been cooler.

Lesson noted.

Edited February 15, 2011 by thongd4me