A new peer group can lead to a new way of thinking.

A few weeks ago when Loren and I were in Chiang Mai, Thailand we met a guy named Dave in the Air Asia ticket office. Dave was an anthropologist helping his girlfriend do research on Aquaculture in Southern Vietnam. We ended up spending the rest of the day with him, visiting temples, eating a variety of dishes at a phenomenal restaurant off the beaten path and all around having a good time.

As we walked around the city we kept seeing signs for walk-in dentists. Bill, our other companion and a doctor, told us that the dental work in Thailand was great and that if there was any work we needed done, we might as well do it in Chiang Mai. Being image conscious products of Los Angeles culture, $100 for 1hr tooth whitening was too good a deal to pass up. Dave even perked up a little at the prospect - he had teeth, he drank coffee, why not?! It came to pass that there were only two dentists open at 8pm with seats available for teeth whitening, so Dave missed out.

When I ran into Dave a couple weeks later, he remarked "It's suprising how quickly your thought processes can change when you're with a different peer group. When I was hanging out with you and Loren, I somehow thought that getting my teeth whitened was the absolute perfect thing to do - forgetting that I didn't even have $100 to do it with."

Which made me think of a few things about my thinking that have shifted since my arrival:

• Safety: In the states, I am safety conscious to a point that could be characterized as psychotic paranoia. Anyone who has seen me do a speedy silly walk across the street to avoid a car 3 blocks away is well away of this. Well, since I've arrived I've had to give up:
• Seatbelts - Most cabs don't have them, and if they do they don't work.
• Helmets - Nobody wears them in Cambodia, so there's not sense waiting for a moto driver that has one for you; he doesn't exist.
• Sanitation:
• Soap - over here, soap is practically nonexistant. You're lucky to find running water, and when you do you're even luckier to find a hand towel.
• Toilet Paper - TP is now to be used as a napkin, hand towel, tissue, almost everything except toilet paper. A lot of toilets don't have TP, have to bring your own.

Well, there are plenty more things that have changed, but this is all I have time for at the moment. Perhaps I'll start a regular feature: stuff that was weird but now is par de rigeur.