Conversations with Italian Family, Chinese Woman and her Japanese Friend

When I landed in BKK, I was not worried at all. Thats because my work mate (who graduated from the same school that I did) came to pick me up at the airport. She had also booked a room in a guest house for me for the night so I was not worried about a place to stay. What is more convenient is that my work is only 2 minutes walk from where I stay.

Of course, I felt independent and tasted the feel of being a local when I set my journey to AIT, which is about couple hours away from where I stay (through public transport). The first thing I used was a boat. The wind felt different and free and I felt liberated on that boat full of strangers that spoke different language than mine. Then I got off Taksin pier where I took a Sky Train (BTS) to Siam. There I changed the train to Mo Chit and from there I again too another van to the University. I could have opted for a cab instead that would have probably costed me only few Baht more and saved me more time, had it not been traffic hour. On my way back from AIT, I was on the final train to Taksin river, standing in the middle with a Chinese/Japanese woman and Japanese woman on my left and an Italian family (mother, father and their two daughters) on my right. Seeing that the Japanese woman switched back and forth from Cantanese to Japanese, the Italian mother asked her where she had gotten her Cantanese from. She replied that she had spent more than 10 years in China. This was only a conversation starter. Her Japanese friend bragged about how she had been so helpful to every Japanese who came to BKK to settle. To this, the Japanese/Chinese woman replied that it was her .... to help others, however, she needed the Italian woman's help to fill in the blank for the word "hobby." To this, the Italian woman replied that she was the God Mother for them. Another man joined the conversation saying that she was actually the mother of all new Japanese immigrants to BKK.

Further, the Japanese/Chinese woman started talking about her ancestry and stated that she was named Om Santi at a very young age and that her name means positive, peace, ... She was having difficulty in finding English words to explain to the Italian woman. Also, there was big crown in the train and hence the Italian woman could not get what she meant. So the Japanese/Chinese woman repeated again, adding that her name originated from Hindu religion. But the Italian woman still did not get her. At this, I could not stop myself from getting involved as I had been patiently listening to their conversation instead of listening to my newest addition of audio book on my kindle. So I explained to the Italian woman what she meant to say that her name came from Hindu epics, which meant peace and the Universe as a whole. At this everyone laughed, saying that the Japanese woman has turned into the universe from god mother. The Italian woman asked me how many languages I spoke and I said 5. She just stared at me and smiled with admiration. It is not that fair because out of 5, 3 languages originate from Sanskrit so I have an advantage there. The train came to a hault, my stop had come. I smiled at my right and left company and smiled goodbye at them. The Italian woman thanked me for helping them out with their conversation and I got off the train, excited about my breezy boat trip back to my place!!!