Day two, día dos, wan song

The title of this email gives you a little glimpse into what happens in my mind now.  As I suspected, lots of random Spanish phrases are spewing from my mouth. There are actually quite a few Spanish speakers on staff at school, but it's still not going to get me anywhere here! 

A few observations:

• There are tons of Western brands here- McD's, KFC, 7-eleven, Boots, McCormick, Betty Crocker, Kraft, and on and on.  A good deal of imported food, though it's expensive.  
• There is also quite a bit of English.  Most signs are in Thai and English, and lots of packaging is labeled in both. 
• Freebies are very popular here.  Yesterday when I bought my shower curtain, I got a free pair of scissors with it (child size).  Today I got two free pillows with all my bedding.  

Today, I shopped.  I went, I spent.  I took care of bath and bedding mostly.  I also bought a really nifty oscillating fan.  I probably spent more money on my bed than anyone else on staff will, but it's worth it.  It was one of my "quality" items. I shall sleep like a queen.  Buying all this awesome bedding, however, was quite amusing...

In Thailand the stores have lots of workers.  Like Argentina, I think they make systems that specifically need to employ more people.  These people follow you around the store constantly, not because they think you are stealing, but to help you with whatever you need.  The store was pretty empty today (it's like the Thai IKEA) so there was a whole pack of women following me around the bedding section trying to help me.  Problem was, I have a queen bed, which apparently is rare, so I have this entourage trying to convince me, in Thai, that I wanted one of the queen designs, which I did not.  I did find a design I liked, but it was only in twin.  Eventually the pack whittled down to one girl who spoke some English and I decided to just get a king set.  In our rather humorous attempts to communicate I was able to use some of my Thai (very exciting) which of course just made her switch to Thai and prattle on about some very complicated discount thing.  After maybe 10 years of debate and discussion I settled on a set that I liked in a quality I liked at a price I could shut my eyes and live with.  At least I got 2 free pillows thrown in. Too bad I already had pillows from the school and didn't need them, but I do like them better than the school ones and now I have plenty for all my future guests:)