MicahJohn

สบาย:comfortable. สบาย ๆ: chill, relax, take a deep breath, easy going. (ๆ is a repeat sign. สบาย ๆ is read สบาย สบาย)

That’s without looking in a dictionary, so it may be a little off.

Translation aside, today was a reminder that living here in this country it’s best to be able to face things and just think สบาย ๆ. (This is probably true anywhere in the world). This afternoon I had a test scheduled for my some of my students. Today at the flag pole it was announced that there would be no afternoon classes. These schedule changes regularly occur without any warning. As far as I can tell the Thai teachers are just as unaware of the changes ahead of time as I am. (I do not say “just as surprised by . . .”, merely “just as unaware of . . .”).

When I first showed up here at school I tried to get an idea of what attire is and is not acceptable. A lot of teachers wear yellow polo shirts (yellow is the the color associated with Monday, which is the day the king was born on, so yellow is the king’s color, so wearing yellow shows support for the king).

A lot of teachers wear untucked aloha-esque shirts.

I figured a tucked in polo (even if it wasn’t yellow would be acceptable). While wearing a blue polo. I was asked by one of my supervisors to “wear something that is presentable.” I was a bit taken aback.

I accordingly went shirt shopping. I picked up the pictured shirt because it is cut to be worn untucked. I figured if untucked was acceptable, I would wear something untucked.

I checked the shirt with my supervisor. Asking if it was okay. The response was “very okay.”

Later in the day someone asked me why I was dressed so nice. I was a little slow to pick up the meaning. I was wearing a short sleeve shirt untucked. The person told me this shirt is the style worn by village headmen. I asked if it was okay for me to wear. The response was affirmative. The person could not understand why I would dress up so nice if I didn’t have to.

I like being able to be dressed super classy without even tucking in my shirt or putting on a tie.