The (ca.) 9000 miles from Bangkok to Minneapolis took about twenty four hours via airplane. It was 78 degrees when I left Bangkok at 6am and minus 5 when I landed in Minneapolis at 11:15am the same morning.
The temperature shift is an apt metaphor for the culture shift from Thailand to the United States. The rapidity of the travel does not allow time for much reflection on the experiences and personal changes that have happened when I was abroad. A leisurely trip home via ship would provide time for reflection before being re-immersed in everyday life at home.
So what is different about me when I'm in Thailand? The most obvious is that I am an outsider looking in. Dependent upon Thailand's gracious use of English and my minuscule grasp of Thai I understand very little of what is being said to and around me. Perhaps it gives me a little sense of the experience of immigrants in America.
Smiles communicate. It appears to me that many (most?) westerners in Asia walk rapidly with serious faces. Catching some one's eye and smiling is invariably rewarded with a smile in return. Thailand is appropriately known as "The Land of Smiles."
In Thailand there is high value placed on not getting upset. I try to practice that as I encounter interruptions or situations that I cannot control. As we approached Tokyo from Bangkok on the first leg of my return journey it was announced that the flight from Tokyo to Portland had been cancelled. I was grateful that it was not my flight and I wondered how I would have responded if the flight to Minneapolis was the one cancelled. It would have been a good test of my resolve not to get upset about that which I cannot control.
In the days ahead I will try to carve out some time for reflection about my experiences and I will share those thoughts in this space.
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