This and That

Well, well - it is a weird day today. For some reason I was picked up 5 minutes to 8 this morning and brought to the office, despite the fact that the person I need to discuss my main project with is not here today. On the other side, I had the pleasure to meet everybody else, who works here. The introduction process has made me realize that I am even worse with remembering people's names than I thought I was (keep in mind that I have never had any illusions about myself in that aspect :P) - the pronunciation is so different from what my ears are normally used to, that Im having a tough time deciphering the individual sounds, not to even mention how its all put together. It is funny, all right, though Im just waiting for and fearing the situation, where I will make a complete fool out of myself because of being unable to hear "through" the peculiar accent :) Before I came here, I read that Thai people are very shy and now I can without doubt say: that is absolutely correct. One of the girls from the office here was so shy that, instead of saying her name (during the introduction process), she started to giggle and would not stop :) Well, all I could say is "Maybe next time" and walk away smiling. Extremely polite and helpful people (I guess that can be said about most of the Asian cultures) - you don't see such a level of consideration and politeness in Europe very often. The man that picked me up at the airport, for example: the sweet soul actually took my luggage trolley out of my hands! And to do that after like 2 hours of waiting (the queues for the passport control were extremely long)! My patience would have run out like ages ago :) Such a simple thing to do, but as with all the "small" things - makes a tremendous difference. You cannot avoid warming up to the Thai people :)