toto, where are we??

There are 4 students in the room cleaning as I work on the internet. I realized it had been really quiet for about a minute when I turned around and saw all four of them behind my chair stareing at the screen. I laughed, they laughed, then kept on staring. I guess it would bother me if they could understand what I was writting, but I get such a kick when that happens. Even better when they pull up a chair! They love when I write Thailand. THAILAND THAILAND THAILAND.

In other, "you're not in the US" news today my co-teacher, a 40 year old woman who majored in English in college and I had this conversation (in Thai).

Me: Do you have a pencil?
Her: Yes. Do you want a pencil or a pen?
Me: Pencil.
Her: Do you know what a pencil is?
Me: ...???[very confused. Thinking I must have misunderstood some Thai.]
Her: Do you have pencils in America?
Me: Yes.
Her: Oh, I thought you didn't have pencils in America. I thought they were only in Thailand.

BIZARRE!!!

Did I ever tell you the one with my other co-teacher, another 40 year old woman who I think has her Masters in English.

Her: I think Judaism isn't a religion.

I enjoyed that. It took a lot of work to convince her that indeed it is a religion. She didn't believe me when I explained that Judaism is a lot older than Christianity, and in fact Jesus was Jewish. I think I just confused her more.

She wanted to know what Judaism is about? What is our equivalent of crossing ourselves? I can't even explain all this in English!!! But I told her about how Judaism, for me, is about passing on the traditions of the religion to the next generation. That it's not so much about going to temple or praying to God as spending time with your family.

As my Thai is pretty limited, I basically ended up saying Judaism is about telling your children about famous Jewish people. To which she replied "Oh, you tell your children about Albert Einstein."

This will teach us not to send missionaries!!

THAILAND THAILAND THAILAND