Hospital

Tim had to go to the hospital for a few days.  She is fine, and there is nothing to worry about. 

Today I took the kids to visit her.  She had text messaged her room information to make it easier to find her.  Although it is an English speaking establishment, she still thought it would be easier. 

The hospital is not along the main roads, so the kids and I took a taxi.  After we got on the expressway, I realized that I left my phone at home.  I would have requested that the cab driver turn around, but my track record in communicating something like that is not stellar. 

When we arrived at the hospital, I went to the information desk to find out Tim's room number.  She asked for the patient's name.  I thought that Tim had probably used her Thai name, so I said Temcharoen.  I told her how to spell it in English, but I have no idea how to spell it in Thai.  She searches for a few minutes and then asks me for the family name.  A little confused, I told her to try Vogel.  After a minute, she finds her.  It seems that when she asked me for the name, she wanted Tim's first name, Pawaree.  In the U.S., you would search for a patient by last name.  Here they do it by first name.

I noticed something else interesting when we were waiting for our cab to return home.  There was a sign on one of the doors that said "Closed 23:00  Open 05:00".  That is the first time that I ever noticed a sign that had the closed sign first.  It was that way in both Thai and English.