The Little Things

I love how living abroad makes me feel more grateful for the little things I would take for granted in America. For instance, I think it would have been pretty lame in America if on Thanksgiving instead of eating a slice of freshly-baked, chocolate pecan pie with one scoop of vanilla bean ice cream slowly melting and making a gentle river around the pie moat, I was instead given a slightly stale, pecan cinnamon roll and told to eat it and pretend it was pecan pie.

But this Thursday, I anxiously awaited going to Au Bon Pain before work to eat my pecan cinnamon roll complete with a cappuccino. It was the closest I would get to pecan pie, so I savored every bite. For one brief moment, I imagined with closed eyes that I was at my parent's house crunching the caramelized pecans with my family chattering around me instead of at an over-priced American sandwich/bakery shop with random tourists I didn't know around me.

When I was halfway through my imitation pecan pie, pondering when I should call home later to see how my family's Thanksgiving was, my phone began to ring and showed the phrase, "Unknown Number". 

It was my parents, ringing me on my Thanksgiving! I felt so loved and grateful to have parents who know to call at the right time. It made me feel like I had one foot in Bangkok and one in Waxhaw. 

After work, I even got to have a Thanksgiving potluck dinner at a pool hall with Newsong (my church) friends. I was so delighted to eat sliced sandwich turkey meat, mashed potatoes, and canned corn. We even had a pumpkin pie which was actually good! And of course we had to have some Thai flavor, so Dominic made a Thai dish, chicken with basil, to make our Thanksgiving truly Thai-American.

I felt so blessed to be surrounded my Newsong family on Thanksgiving, to have a family to be with. I miss my American family and friends, but I also was thinking how blessed I am to have people to miss on Thanksgiving. Not everyone in the world has that.

Not on the Menu

So it wasn't one of the drinks printed in bold, black font on the menu hanging up over the drink-concocting area. But in my Sherri-mind, it didn't matter. I have had it before at another coffee-shop, this shop had the ingredients, so no big deal. Hoping that they will give in to my wish, I made my request to the two brown aproned, bored baristas at Sabrosa Cafe, a Thai coffeeshop I always meander by on my walk to work.

"Mocha Strawberry." Their sullen-faces, now morphed into bewildered sullen-faces. 

Ok, so maybe I had the wrong Thinglish inflection when I asked for it and didn't stretch out strawberrrrry enough. 

"Mocha," Bored baristas nodded. 

"Strawberrrrrrry." The confused look arose again. 

I pointed at the menu which proudly proclaims "Strawberry Latte" and then under it "Mocha Latte". 

"We don't have Strawberry Mocha on the menu. Only Strawberry Latte or Mocha Latte." She said this to me like I was asking her for steak and potatoes instead of just a coffee drink.

The mirage that I was in an artsy coffeeshop in America dissipated. I was hit with the realization that I am in Thailand, where in most places, if it isn't on the menu, it doesn't exist. These baristas seemed computer programmed to only make drinks on the menu and nothing else, or the world will combust. 

I repeated the saying in my head that I learned from a past cross-cultural training course: it's not right or wrong, it's just different. With a longing sigh for the ways of American coffee-shops, I gave in and got a strawberry latte.

I watched one barista with a tight frown on her face, pick up the strawberry syrup and squeeze it into the the bottom of a small, glass measuring cup. Then she oozed on top of it the same amount of sweetened condensed milk and stirred. Her hand brushed the chocolate syrup container as she put the strawberry syrup back in its proper place right next to it, against the back of the counter.

Just to let you know, at Sherri's Coffee-shop (name still to be determined), if you come up with an innovative drink, you will receive the drink for free and perhaps if it is good enough, I will even name it after you.