Last night I discovered a pretty large frog in my bathroom.  There are lots of cracks and holes in my walls, but I haven’t seen one big enough for him to fit through.  Where did he come from?  How long has he lived here?  I think they eat bugs so maybe I should keep him.  I looked for him this morning, but didn’t find him.   How did he just appear and then disappear?

I had a rough evening last night with bugs, but it prompted me to put up the bug net they gave me.  I did a pretty crappy job of putting it up, but it helped.  I think I might re-do it this weekend and maybe rearrange or even move into the other bedroom.  It was also hot last night.  I had really been enjoying the cool evenings.  Where did they go?

School went ok today.  I had 3 classes and they seemed to get into the lesson even though they are shy to speak English.  I was told that the Director of my school thinks I’m too serious.  Now I have to try to remedy that.  There are a lot of times of the day where I’m just exhausted from not knowing the language.  I think the teacher that has been assigned to me is exhausted too.  I still have a homework project for my TESOL class that is due Saturday so I’ve been working on that in the evenings and then I’m to tired to learn Thai.  You’d think that if you didn’t know the language, you could just zone out and relax, but it’s not like that.  I feel like a fish out of water, a really tall fish.

I have to go to a teacher parent thing on Sunday.  They want me to give a speech.  I was told today that if I could do it in Thai, that would be great.  That makes me tired just thinking of it.

The wifi here is awful so I struggled all day trying to do lesson plans.  I didn’t get anything done in between classes.  I have lost internet connection 7 times while writing this.  (It took me over a half hour to upload photos last night before I gave up).  I asked for advice from other western teachers in Thailand.  The advice I got was to buy a mobile hot spot.  There’s no phone store here.  I think there’s one in another town, but I can’t get there, even if I remembered where it was.  And they didn’t speak English, so we are back to the issue of the day.  

I tried to have my agent arrange a motor bike rental for me.  Then I was told the school would lend me one.  Today, I was told that wouldn’t work.  I think they are still working on it, but don’t know how to get it here.  I asked if I could take a bus to Tak and then drive it back.  They looked at me like I was nuts and said no.  I feel so struck.  Amazing how attached to our cars we are.  And how we equate mobility with freedom.  Today, one of the teachers gave me a bicycle to borrow.  I still feel a little stranded, but it’s better.  

After school, I rode my bike up to the dam area to help a girl with kayaking.  Wow, that bike was not made for those hills.  I got a serious workout in.  But, that’s the first exercise I’ve seen in months.  So, now I feel a little better about the bike.  It will be nice to get in shape again.  And I can go to the market and get food because I have a basket.

Then I got home and Pat had a refrigerator delivered to my house.  It was her old one before she moved to a new house.  Stuff is in there cooling down right now.  I hung up a wind chime that sounds like a frog.  I bought it in Hua Hin.  It sounds great.  I tried to upload a video of it here.  Not sure if it will work…..

The Thais often have a spirit house out in the front of their house.  The house is intended to provide shelter for spirits that may cause problems if not appeased.  They often leave offerings of food and drink on the house for the spirits.  After all the bug drama, my friend and I decided I needed to make an offering.  I don’t have a spirit house, but tonight I left a small offering of fruit, a gummy worm and fruit milk.  I like gummy worms so spirits might too.

(c) all rights reserved Kimberly Fiore