spontaneous picnicking

i’m starting to feel like a thai tourism promoter, with my unending ranting and raving of the pleasant surprise of the welcoming friendliness that is so characteristic of the people here. but really, where else do strangers randomly get invited to a beach picnic to drink whisky and eat calamari and mussels and watch the sunset with a whole family of eight? there i am, staking out my usual beach spot with a large chang beer, fresh pineapple (สับปะรด sa-ba-roht), and some jack johnson to aid me in an unusually difficult unwinding process after an unusually stressful day of nagging my 3-year-olds to sit down and color instead of jumping off chairs and banging eachother on the head with rulers. maybe the family noticed the exaggerated deep breaths i was taking as i tried to decompress from my day, maybe they thought i looked like a sad alcoholic drinking a giant beer on the beach by myself in the middle of the week,or maybe they were appalled that i had opted to lay down right on top of the not-so-pristine sand instead of springing the 20 baht for a beach chair. regardless, the grandmother, on her way back from splashing on the shoreline with an excited toddler, insists –through random thai phrases i halfway understand and enthusiastic gesturing- that i get up and join them at their chairs. i meet all of the eight extended family members, from the toddler to the two grandmas to the guy and girl around my age that help translate into english the thai questions and exclamations being shot at me from all sides. they somehow are impressed with my language skills after only having been in thailand three weeks (baffling to me since basically all i said to them in thai was “thank you” “teacher” and “bathroom” ). thank god i had just learned this one…i was so excited by the picnic invite that i stretched my bladder to a point of tear-inducing pain to avoid leaving my new friends so prematurely, but am relieved when my desperate “hong nam yoo teenai” leads the girl jane to take me across the street to a secret toilet in the back of her aunt’s pharmacy… after relieving my bladder, i can even more fully enjoy the glassfuls of whisky and soda, mussels in spicy fish sauce, and freshly-grilled squid being eagerly proffered by my companions. finally, thoughts of school and teaching and conscious distressing breathing techniques are washed away, as i enjoy the simple pleasures of a spontaneous beach gathering among new friends…