13 February
Today I got up early and caught the skytrain to Thong Lor. I had a new class at my school.
My new “class” consisted of one girl. She was 23 years old, tall, white skinned and beautiful. Her spoken English was very good and her written English was very bad. She told me that she liked watching movies and going shopping.
“Your accent is very good,” I encouraged. “Have you ever been abroad?”
She smiled and nodded which, among Asians, usually means that they don’t understand.
“Have you ever been to America?” I asked.
She shuddered. “Oh no! Too big. Dangerous!”
“Have you ever been to Australia?”
She shuddered again. “Oh no! I’ve never been to Europe! Don’t want to. Too big. Dangerous.”
After the lesson, I took the skytrain to Silom where I played table tennis with a middle aged Thai businessman who turned out to be an ex government official.
In the evening, I met up with Mina and we had dinner together. After, as we came out onto Silom Road, we saw an old beggar hobbling slowly and painfully along the pavement with the aid of a crooked walking stick.
“Ben! Look at that poor beggar!” said Mina. “I feel very sorry for him.”
Just then, another beggar who was crouching in a doorway called out jeeringly to the old man with the stick.
“Ho! So you’re walking bent over with a stick today! You’re clever huh? Guess you’ve made lots of money today hey?”
“What business is it of yours?” demanded the old man straightening upright and suddenly appearing much younger. “How about you? Got our arms back today, have we? Seems that yesterday when I saw you, you had your arms stuck inside your shirt and was pretending that you didn’t have any! Well, guess that trick didn’t work, huh?”
Today I got up early and caught the skytrain to Thong Lor. I had a new class at my school.
My new “class” consisted of one girl. She was 23 years old, tall, white skinned and beautiful. Her spoken English was very good and her written English was very bad. She told me that she liked watching movies and going shopping.
“Your accent is very good,” I encouraged. “Have you ever been abroad?”
She smiled and nodded which, among Asians, usually means that they don’t understand.
“Have you ever been to America?” I asked.
She shuddered. “Oh no! Too big. Dangerous!”
“Have you ever been to Australia?”
She shuddered again. “Oh no! I’ve never been to Europe! Don’t want to. Too big. Dangerous.”
After the lesson, I took the skytrain to Silom where I played table tennis with a middle aged Thai businessman who turned out to be an ex government official.
In the evening, I met up with Mina and we had dinner together. After, as we came out onto Silom Road, we saw an old beggar hobbling slowly and painfully along the pavement with the aid of a crooked walking stick.
“Ben! Look at that poor beggar!” said Mina. “I feel very sorry for him.”
Just then, another beggar who was crouching in a doorway called out jeeringly to the old man with the stick.
“Ho! So you’re walking bent over with a stick today! You’re clever huh? Guess you’ve made lots of money today hey?”
“What business is it of yours?” demanded the old man straightening upright and suddenly appearing much younger. “How about you? Got our arms back today, have we? Seems that yesterday when I saw you, you had your arms stuck inside your shirt and was pretending that you didn’t have any! Well, guess that trick didn’t work, huh?”
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