There is a big sports field near my house called Sinaam Geelaa. I go there a few times a week to run (as the staring is much less frequent there than if I were to run on the street), and sometimes play basketball or badminton. I had just finished my run and I was passing by this group of people all undernieth this tent that I had seen there for a few weeks, but never quite understood what it was about. This man then approached me and explained a bit about what they were doing...they were testing people's hearts and fitness, and he asked me if I would like to be tested as well. I kindly declined, but I decided to sit with some of the people there and talk to them a bit. After a bit of persuading, I finally gave in and proceeded to go through a series of tests. First, they measure your height (they had to bring the bar up quite a bit for me), then your weight, then your body fat percentage. They write all of these scores down on a little page that's all in Thai and then they send you on to the next test...following of all that, they test your blood pressure, your pulse, then they make you lift something, push something, blow into something, and squeeze something. Then the grande finale is to sit on a bike with a heart moniter thing and pedal for 5 minutes. I seriously had no idea what was going on. After it's all over, they take your little score card and put all of your data into a computer and it spits out this reading that tells you how healthy you are. Apparently, I'm kind of fat. A guy that was helping me out (who appeared to me to be quite fit) was said to be just plain fat. I think I have discovered a bit of a cultural difference! Anyway, it was well fun even though I hardly understood what I was doing and what my results were all about.
Now, my second incident is this little treat that I discovered a few months back. There is a store here called Big C. Boy, do I ever love this store!!! I guess the best way to describe it is it's like Walmart, but way cooler!! Plus, it's a little taste of the familiar so I like going there. Anyway, after you are done shopping you go to this magic counter and you hand them your receipt. Sometimes they give you something, and sometimes they don't. I have no idea how it works or why they do it, but it's awesome!!!! I often come away with free cans of pepsi, one time I got a laundry bag, and another time I got a book...but this time...oh, this time!!! This time I got a haul! When I walked up and handed the guy my receipt he took a look at it and said, "My mii khong" (which means 'we don't have the things', or something to that affect), so I thought that either I wasn't going to get anything this time, or that they didn't have the thing that they were going to give me. I started to walk away, but I saw him bustling around behind that magic little counter and before I knew it he handed me a mug, two small packages of cookies, and a package of squid!!! I was so excited!! I was meeting Bitsy somewhere after that and I couldn't find her, but all I could do was smile with my free things in my hand and chuckle to myself at how wonderfully odd this country can be sometimes.
My strange, new free things!!! Hooray!
1 comment:
sorry had to comment and can't believe noone else did. It is obviously a platipus with a test tube. Isnt it? I miss your sense of humor. I cant speak Japanese much and even if i could they just dont get my sense of humor here. I have had to sacrifice it for the greater good. That has been a culture shock. Maybe it was stolen.
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