a friend

It took eight months, but I finally made a Thai friend. His name is Bright (oh-so-fitting, as he's one of the most cheerful people I've ever met), and he owns the smoothie shop at the end of our street.

We discovered his shop shortly after arriving. I've been visiting it for months now, but it didn't occur to me to strike up a conversation with him until that fateful day a few weeks ago when I broke out my Lonely Planet Thai phrasebook. I turned to the Meeting People section and asked, "What do you like to do in your free time?"

"My friends and I shoot BB guns."
Oh, at targets?
"No. At each other!"
Well, huh. Isn't that something?

Our friendship has progressed a lot in the last two weeks. I've started teaching him some English and he's teaching me a little Thai.

I'm also one of the official taste testers for his sister's dessert-baking experiments. They're adding a bakery to their shop next month.

He taught me to say, "I'm full" the other night. That didn't stop me from stuffing my face with sticky rice and mango, a 20-ounce smoothie, and a thick slab of his sister's dark chocolate brownies drizzled with hot fudge and cashews.

Next lesson: "I can't; I'm on a diet."