Yesterday was rather uneventful.  I woke up with the same foul mood that I do every morning.  It slowly fades as the day goes on.  I taught some classes.  I brought a salad in for Pat.  She thought it was a funny thing to eat.  Another teacher and Pat’s husband joined us for lunch.  The other teacher found the salad strange too.  Pat’s husband finished off what they didn’t eat with quite a bit of excitement.  I bet he had a bunch of energy the rest of the day and didn’t even know why.  It was still cold most of the day, but tolerable.  I decided to brave the cold shower – I survived, but barely.  Then I ate what was called a pizza and looked like a mini pizza with bread, cheese, ketchup and radishes.  I am not positive about what it was, but my best guess is the cheese was a sweet glaze kind of like frosting.  It was most definitely not cheese.  Cheese was the part I was most looking forward to.  The bread was bread and the ketchup was ketchup.  I think the stuff that looked like radishes was fish.

Today was teacher meeting day so I didn’t have to go to school because it would be hours of me not knowing what they were talking about.  They asked me to come for lunch, though.  I feel quite uncomfortable with how much people are feeding me.  I feel like, if I didn’t work and didn’t attend meetings, I shouldn’t get free lunch.  I assume they feel the same, but they probably don’t.  So, another thing to investigate – receiving.

I went to the coffee shop this morning and had what tasted like cookie crumbs with yogurt and jam on top.  Then washed it down with coffee flavored sugar.  Pat’s husband came into the coffee shop while I was there and wouldn’t let me pay for my sugar.  There it is again – uncomfortable.

They asked me to do English lessons for the teachers after school.  I agreed.  One teacher asked me how much and I said free.  This makes me feel a little better.  They have taken such good care of me that I wouldn’t feel good about charging for this.

In the afternoon, Pat took me to Tak to go to the clinic.  I guess as part of my work visa I need to have a doctor certify that I don’t have tuberculosis, leprosy, drug addiction, alcohol addiction, elephantiasis or tertiary syphilis.  Where do they come up with that list of illnesses?  The doctor wasn’t going to be in for another hour or more.  So she gave me the list and took me to the bus station.  I got on a bus to Sukohthai because I need a weekend of sight seeing.  She said I could go to a clinic in Sukohthai and get the certification done.  Oh jeeze, I have to navigate that task alone?

I was going to stay on the couch of some of my TESOL classmates that live in Sukohthai, but I decided I’d rather have my own place where I can hopefully stretch out and sleep well.  I found a place near the bus station for $11 a night.  I got to Sukohthai ok and to my guesthouse ok.  The people at the guesthouse were nice and spoke good English.  The room has a double bed, air conditioning and a hot shower!  I don’t have to sleep under a bug net and there are no frogs in the bathroom!  I got to have a hot shower for the first time in over a month.  This is the best $22 ever spent.

The guesthouse rented me a motor bike for 200 baht a day ($6/day).  So, I set out on my motorbike to find a clinic.  Thank god for google maps!  I love you google maps.  I think you have saved me much drama and will get me out of trouble in the future.  So, I haven’t ridden a moped in over 15 years. Now I’m going to drive it 2 blocks and then get on the highway driving on the other side of the road from what I’m use to while trying to find a clinic.  It was simply terrifying.  Turning and accelerating at the same time almost did me in a few times before I got the hang of it.  And by hang of it, I mean not in panic mode, but on extremely high alert.  Oh, well, it had to be done sooner or later.

The first clinic I went to was no where to be found.  The second one told me I needed to go to the hospital to get the certification.  Luckily, there was a hospital a block away.  The people at the desk didn’t speak English, but a nurse did.  I had to show my passport, sit and wait, then go to the pharmacy to pay for the tests then sit in a new spot to wait.  Then the nurse took my blood pressure and moved me to another spot to wait.  Then I got moved to a chair in front of a door to wait.  All these different spots to sit and wait were all in the same room.  Then the door opened and I went in to see the doctor.  He used a stethoscope to listen to my lungs, signed some paperwork, gave it to me and sent me on my way.

I went next door to a restaurant and had a lime slushy and a ham and cheese sandwich.  Even though it cost about 3x as much as a Thai meal would have, it was a wonderful break from Thai food.

(c) all rights reserved Kimberly Fiore