New Friends

If you read the post about my mom and I visiting the palace, you know that we ended up meeting Kerstin and Phillip from Heidelberg, Germany. Before the end of that day, we exchanged emails and kept in contact. Last night on their way home to Germany they stayed in Bangkok again and met us for dinner and drinks. I think we will be life long friends.

My mom and I with Kerstin and Phillip at The Grand Palace. 

We learned that Phillip, at 28, has his doctorate in molecular-biology and Kerstin is a German history teacher. Phillip is starting a job with Proctor and Gamble in April working on developing a non-petroleum low cost fiber to be used in diapers. They are hoping to be expatriates in SE Asia themselves within the next few years.  Kerstin is hoping to find work wherever P & G gives the opportunity to move. I enjoyed talking with Kerstin about teaching, the perspective that many people have of teaching, and the joys we both find in teaching. We also reflected a lot on US and Germany relations and the fact that if it were 70 years earlier we would have never met under such circumstances. We had a lot in common and by the end of one evening it was as if we'd known them for a long time.

It's things like this that make us love living abroad. Who would have thought that we would make friends with a German couple while they were on holiday in Bangkok?