"Sam" I Am

Several people have emailed us asking about Sam, so we grilled him at lunch yesterday (Saturday). He’s 30, single and lives in a studio apartment with a roommate about an hour out of the City Center. He has a brother who’s 10 years younger and will be starting the University next year and whom Sam will help support.

• Like many Thai people, Sam freelances in a lot of things. He has a university degree in accounting, but hated it from the beginning. Unfortunately, he wasn’t allowed to change his major.
• Sam spent $1000 US (a significant chunk of change to a Thai) to do a 6 month study to get his license to be a tour guide. He’s been doing this for about 2 years, and with the company we booked him through for about 6 months. Before that he was in computer sales.
• Sam is fluent in four languages, most of which he self-taught. Mandarin Chinese is his other major language (besides Thai, of course).
• His parents live about a seven hour drive from Bangkok, so they only see each other about once a year although they talk on the phone about every other day.

We like to think that we participated in something of a cultural exchange, since we answered about as many questions about the US as he did about Thailand.

We introduced him to http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/, talked politics and relative costs, and invited him to come stay with us in the US if he gets a chance.  Saturday was our last day with him as our guide, but we really enjoyed the time with Sam.