This weekend I heard Thai yodeling on the radio.  Noi said they were mimicking music they had heard from another country.  Thai music is pretty awful, Thai yodeling, well, those two things just don’t go together.

I asked Noi to take me to Tak to shop (I can’t get cheese or cereal here).  It was another all day event.  We went to the Saturday morning market which has a lot of plants.  I found a snow cone place as she was negotiating lime trees.  I asked for a small and she told me no small.  Ok.  No small.  I’ll take what you got.  Then it was a game of pointing to colored pictures on the sign until I found one she said yes to.  She must have been out of a lot of flavors and didn’t quite figure out that I have no idea what flavor any of them are.  I picked pink flavored.  Pink has to be good, right?  Her husband shaved some ice and put it in a bowl – oh got that’s a lot.  Then he shaved some more ice.  Oh, now that’s just ridiculous.  My eyes got so big and I said oh my god or something like that.  They just laughed.  Then she poured liquid pink sugar crack on it, then condensed milk, followed by some other white liquid, and fruit out of a can on top.  All around the base she put pieces of white bread.  How is white bread a good ingredient for a snow cone?  I love snowcones like I’m 8 years old, but no human being should ever eat this thing.  I tried to eat it, but I could barely hold it in one hand.  I walked up to Noi and she laughed.  I didn’t even make a dent in it.  I ended up throwing out most of it and felt horrible the rest of the day.  I think the pink stuff was toxic.

Noi bought 20 lime trees for school.  She is helping the students to plant a small farm.  It’s really cool.  So far the will have banana trees, lime trees, dragon fruit and a vegetable garden.  It’s a decent sized area at school.  It’s next to the school’s water filter system where I can fill my water jugs for free.  What?  How did I not know about this until now?  Pat had told me I could bring the water jugs to her and she’d fill them because she had a filter at home.  Is her filter better than the school’s?  I’m very confused.  After a full day, I had one of the worst headaches I’ve ever had.  I blame the snow cone atrocity. As soon as I got home, I went to bed and slept for 13 hours.  Well, I laid in bed praying for death for the first 3 hours until the advil kicked in.

Sunday I went to Mae Sot with Tip, Fai and Jeab.  Tip had a package that she had to pick up at customs.  I need to do a border run before the end of the month and I thought spending my Sunday doing this sounded better than going with Pat and Robin in a couple of weeks.  We stopped in Coffee Boom in Ban Tak on the way for breakfast.  I remember Tip taking me there once before and introducing me to Boom.  He was so nice.  I was disappointed that he wasn’t there today.  The road to Mae Sot is quite scary, but it was so much better in a car with Jeab driving than in a giant bus.  Fai had never been to Mae Sot and was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen squealing “weeee” in the back seat with her mom.  As Tip was picking up her package from customs, I ran to the border, left Thailand, crossed the street and came back in.  Now I can stay 3 more months.  Strange requirement.  We went to one of the coolest restaurants I’ve ever seen.  It was like eating in a garden.  There were waterfalls and orchids and other flowers everywhere.  The food was meh, but the atmosphere was top notch.  By the time I got home, I was exhausted and felt like I had a cold coming on.  Yay – great timing – just when I need all my energy for trying to finish my job and move.  Or, I guess I’m not moving.  That implies that I have somewhere to go.  I’m just preparing to be homeless.

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore