Thread: Experiences with your Thai bride adjusting (or not) to living in your home country

I'm too fond of the Midget to inflict the UK upon her.

Originally Posted by S Landreth

When the girlfriend is over in the states, she is very surprised at the cost of food (vegetables and fruit in the grocery store).

She doesn’t like how long it takes to do some simple things. An example,……..if you need a photocopy here in Thailand,…just go out to the end of the Soi and you’ll find some place open that will copy something for you. In the states you have to go across town (her words) to get a copy. She also doesn’t like to plan her trips out. Here in Thailand she can just head out the door with things in mind she wants to do. In the states she says she’ll have to plan, because places are so far apart from one another.

She also gets upset at times when we are talking to people (sales people, help and not friends and their family and my family) and they will address me and not her, even when she’s doing the ordering/requesting (the gf's English skills are good).

She’ll get upset at me because I’m a bit protective. She wants to drive certain places alone and I’ll ask her to wait for me. She doesn’t understand some neighborhoods in Miami.

Excess bothers the girlfriend. Last time the gf was in the states, a friend’s wife (who has taken to the girlfriend) took her shopping to a nice mall (http://www.balharbourshops.com/photo-gallery/take-a-tour.html) and when she got back, she told me that it was excessive. I’ve taken her to nice places (she likes our outdoor malls around the beach) but even I tend to shy away from those places.

She does enjoy the cleanliness of our beaches/water, public parks, clean open roadways (traffic) and city planning (layout, business vs. residential). She also likes the diversity of people she sees while in the states (Florida, California & NY) and how modern things are.

The girlfriend has told me her experience in the states should be better this time around (March till the end of May) when she’ll be with some of her Thai friends in Minnesota, Seattle and San Diego before meeting up with me in LA on our way back to Thailand.

All in all, she does enjoy visiting the states and the food (loves BBQ baked beans and trying different BBQ sauces). She has also has told me if we stayed longer in Miami, she would want to start Spanish courses (she wants to know if they are talking about her).

A very interesting post - almost a mirror image of what foreigners experience after arrival in Thailand.