Tag: Thai Life

Tokay

On By rrainefioreIn Uncategorized1 Comment

Today I still felt sick.  I tried to pack for the two months off.  Noi came and got me for lunch which was nice.  It’s too hot to be in my house and too hot to be outside.  The restaurant offered no relief – it was hot.  After lunch I finished packing and went to the coffee shop.  I met with Laura one more time before she takes off on sabbatical.   I stayed at the coffee shop until it closed because it’s the only place with air conditioning.  After I came home, I tried to do more of my turbotax when I looked up and saw a large head and eyeball looking down at me.  That is either the biggest gecko I’ve ever seen or a snake.  It’s head was about 2″ long and I couldn’t see a body. I’m not ok with either one hanging out in my kitchen above my head.  I called my next door neighbor over since it was sitting on top of the wall between our houses.  He couldn’t see it from his side so he came over.  “I’ve seen it before, maybe gecko, not dangerous”.  That was it.  It just stared down at me most of the rest of the night and then disappeared.  So, not much useful got done the rest of the night.  I didn’t feel like cooking, it’s hot so how do I sleep, and I tried to do stuff on the internet, but was quite preoccupied with the gecko on my wall.  So, the question of the day to ponder is why is this ok for other people and no big deal and why do I want it to be different.  How can I be one with everything if I can’t be one with this mystery housemate?  I think once I’m no longer sick, it will be better.

Today I woke up at some 0 dark 30 to the monks broadcasting the good word of the day or whatever that is that sometimes happens at way too early in the morning.  It was still dark out.  I feel like death.  I’m so sick and it’s hot.  I don’t care too much about the gecko anymore.  I just am ready to not be sick.  I get it, when I get sick, I ate too much sugar and need downtime.

I only had one class to teach today so I mostly sat at school with my computer open looking like I was doing something, but just zoning out.  I showed Pat a picture of the head and eyeball on the top of my wall and asked what it was.  She said it was a main power switch.  Then I said what about the thing sitting on the power switch.  She got all grossed out and passed my phone to one of the students.  Then within seconds there was thirty 14 year olds squeeling “tokay, tokay” while passing my phone around.  So, by unanimous squeeling vote, it’s a tokay, which is a large gecko.  Even though she was absolutely horrified by it, she told me that it’s normal and they aren’t dangerous.  If they chased it out, another would just come in.  So, the tokay stays.  He better start eating way more bugs.  If he eats the rat, I’ll give him a name.

By the end of the day my head feels like it might explode.  I have to do taxes and book hotels for my trip, finish packing and eat the food I have before it goes bad.  Instead, I decided to lock myself in the pretend safety of my bug netted bed.  The fan is in no way mistakable for cool, but better than no fan.  I’m going to watch Game of Thrones because I downloaded it on my computer and then try to sleep.  I think that is the perfect plan.  Now you all go look up tokay on google and sleep tight!

(c) all rights reserved Kimberly Fiore20160306_191745

Low Key Day

On By rrainefioreIn Uncategorized1 Comment

Today I slept in until 8:00am. I would have slept later, but, the roosters won. Still sick, but I did some work for my old engineering company while sitting in the air conditioned coffee shop. Also did some laundry. My new friends Ging and Tip asked me to go to dinner. Even though I felt bad, I think I got the cold from Ging’s daughter so I figured I couldn’t infect them more. And sitting in my hot house by my self sounds less fun. We went to the sunflower garden, but the sunflowers were all gone. Still, the farm had strawberries and a bunch of other interesting things so we wandered around for awhile and then drove up to the dam for a picnic dinner.  The video was from the other night when I watched frozen – forgot to post it.

(c) all rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

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Tip and Ging

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Tip and her son, Dam

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Trying to do a selfie

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crepe layer cake

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21 Hour Field Trip

On By rrainefioreIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Friday each grade had a different field trip.  I was told to be at the school at 1:30am as I was going on the M3 field trip.  What?  Sure enough, 1:30 am and most of the class and a bunch of teachers were there.  We loaded onto two buses and headed to near Suphan Buri.  I tried to sleep on the bus, but these are not the greatest buses in the world and the roads were horrible.  It was quite difficult to sleep while being tossed around with every bump in the road.  I had no idea where we were going.  Pat isn’t real good at filling me in on stuff.  We stopped for breakfast at a rest stop around 8:00am.  They have a lot of rest stops here, kind of like in America except with a much more elaborate food situation.  Then back on the road.  At some point we passed a zoo and I was excited because I liked the idea of a zoo.  Nope.  We drove a little farther, parked and started walking away from the zoo.  Finally, someone filled me in.  We were going to an aquarium.  It was a pretty decent aquarium.  After that we went to a market that is supposed to be over 100 years old.  It was pretty neat to see.  The old shop fronts lined the streets and the awnings from the shops opened up to touch those across the street, giving it the feel of a typical Thai market, but not as temporary.  It had a lot of different things you could buy, but we’ll call it the fish, sweets and restaurant market.  I assumed after that we’d be heading back to the school since it was such a long drive, but since no one had filled me in, I had no idea.  The next stop was a buffalo park and history museum.  They had old houses and equipment they use to use with the buffalo for farming.  They also had close to 30 buffalo and a buffalo show.  Then we headed home.  The heat had taken it’s toll and I’ve caught a cold.  Add that combo to the fact that I got up at 1:00am and I was hurting.  We stopped at another rest stop for dinner and I found some coconut juice which I think made the difference between just feeling sick and having heat exhaustion.  I love the coconut.  We got back to the school around 10:30pm.  Wow.  Hard core field trippin.

(c) all rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

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The 4 food groups?  Dairy, Sugar, Fruit and Sugar?

Pictures

On By rrainefioreIn Teaching, Thailand, Uncategorized2 Comments

Here are the pictures from yesterday’s blog and some videos.  It seems they didn’t upload yesterday.

(c) all rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

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Overseeing me doing laundry

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Counting votes for something

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More laundromat chickens

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This one wants food

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XploreAsia sent me this for doing a write up of my town

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Like a grapefruit, but not sour?  Wonderful

The Lice Massacre

On By rrainefioreIn Teaching, Thailand, Uncategorized

I tried the idea of using my flat iron to burn the lice to death.  I actually felt better yesterday and today so I think it helped, at least until I could get the medicated shampoo.  Today Pat brought lice shampoo to my house and put it on my head.  I was instructed to leave it on for 4 hours.  Really?  4 hours? Well, I want these critters gone, so I sat around the house in my shower cap for 4 hours.  I have to retreat again tomorrow and then in 9 days.

Yesterday near the end of the day I heard someone on the loud speaker and a lot of cheering.  Then I heard the same few words over and over.  I went outside to see what was going on.  About half the school was in a court yard and a teacher was reading out votes out of a big lock box.  Students were tracking the tally on a large piece of paper.  I assumed it was student council election, but I was told election was for government, this was selection for next year’s leadership.  I think it’s somewhat the same thing as student elections except I think a group is chosen instead of a few people.  I got that it was about 20 students, but I never quite got what they do once selected.

Today was Congratulations Day.  I knew I wouldn’t have classes, but I had no idea there were no classes at all.  I arrived a morning assembly and it was all excitement, flowers, balloons, stuffed animals, pictures, and decorations.  M6 is graduating soon and M3 just had (or will have) a big national exam.  So, it was a day to celebrate these two accomplishments.  There were ceremonies, speeches, dancing, singing, a band, lunch, and lots and lots of selfies.  Each grade created a booth and decorated it.  It looked like they were all set up for taking pictures in front of.

There was one ceremony that really touched me.  They put a row of chairs up front and had most of the teachers sit, including me.  They handed us bundles of string.  We made smaller bundles of string and tied a knot in the middle.  Then students came up and sat on the floor in front of a teacher. (Students usually kneel or sit on the floor when a teacher is sitting.  If they pass in front of a sitting teacher, they bend over lower as they pass. It’s a sign of respect).  The teacher then put the string on their arm like a bracelet.  I was not quite sure what I was doing, but I just watched the other teachers and tried to figure it out.  The best I could tell is that it was a chance for the student to say thank you to the teacher and for the teacher to impart words of wisdom or wish them luck.  It was a closure type ceremony for sure.  Later in the day students would bring string up to the teachers they had not been able to get bracelets from.  At one point I watched a teacher put bracelets on three girls and the girls were crying.  Another teacher told me they were saying goodbye to their Physics teacher and calling him father.  Then I started crying.  I asked a couple other western teachers if their school did this and they said they didn’t think so.

Tonight after the lice massacre, I went to Tip’s house for dinner.  We made spaghetti carbornara.  She looked it up on youtube to figure out how to make it.  It was pretty darn close.  Her house is small and cluttered, but much nicer than a lot of houses I’ve seen.  It was clean and felt much more bug free than mine.  Her kitchen was tiny by American standards, but indoor and delightful by Thai standards.  She said I could stay there any time.  They have a guest room with AC.  I joked that I was moving in when hot season comes.  I met her husband who speaks pretty good English.  He’s a dentist and he’s into fish.  He has tons of tanks around the outside of the house with Koi fish.  He  kept saying over and over that I need to come over all the time.  If I want to got to Tak, he told me I should ask Tip and she will take me.  I had met Tip’s daughter before.  She’s 3 or 4 and not too interested in talking to me, but not shy either, just preoccupied with other things.  Then Tip’s son came home.  He’s around 8 or 9 and speaks fluent English with great pronunciation.  He kept showing me things he had made or dragons in a computer game.  After dinner, I stayed and watched Frozen.  The girls in Thailand are as in love with that movie as they are in the US.

(c) all rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

 

Lice

On By rrainefioreIn Teaching, Thailand, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Yes, that’s what I said, Lice.  I have lice.  My head has been itching for a while now.  I can’t deny it any more.  I asked Pat what I should do.  Within 30 seconds she had me in a chair with 4 students surrounding me picking at my hair.  They confirmed it was lice and proceeded to pick them out for almost an hour.  I think they would have done it all day, but I had to go teach.  Pat was so sketched out she kept making funny faces and I could tell she was itchy just thinking about it.  I guess it’s a good thing I don’t embarrass easily because there was nothing discrete about this adventure.  Pat told me to give money to one of the students and she would get me the medicated shampoo tonight.  I think I would have rather just attempted to find it in the school myself, but it didn’t go that way.  Another student suggested I flat iron my hair tonight to see if that killed some.  Brilliant.  So tonight I washed my hair several times and flat ironed it.  It is slightly better.  Tomorrow I’ll be sporting a straight hair do to school and doing some lice killing tomorrow night.

(c) all rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

More stuff about Food

On By rrainefioreIn Thailand, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I still have a rat living with me.  The other night I heard a lot of rustling in the walls.   I looked up and he was staring down at me from a rafter with such a look of confusion – ‘What is she doing here”?  He paused for a second as we both stared at each other not sure what to do.  He ran back into the walls.

I also still have cockroaches.  I bought some bug spray at the store that I’m sure is toxic and shouldn’t be in my house, but neither should ants and cockroaches.  I also bought this plug in mosquito repellent thing that I’m not sure does any good.  So, the bug spray works great on ants and two days ago, I got to try it on a cockroach.  I was skeptical since I grew up in Florida and nothing killed them there.  I found one on my toilet seat.  I didn’t want to spray the bug spray on my toilet seat in case it is toxic enough to burn my legs off.  So I waited until he ran.  He ran for a hole in the door.  Perfect.  The bug spray has a tiny nozzle that fits in the hole in the door and now he can just die in the door, out of sight.  Oh no, it did not go down that way.  Five minutes later I heard a loud flopping sound and looked over.  In the middle of the room is the roach flopping around and creating quite the drama and he flopped across the room on his back, legs flailing everywhere.  Just before he died I heard him say – “you did this to me bitch, now you have to watch me die”.  So, the bug spray works great, but the roaches have attitude.

Yesterday I spent a good part of the day at the coffee shop trying to book my plans for vacation and eating/drinking sugar.  I should call it the sugar shop instead of the coffee shop.  I sat outside for a change because the weather was delightfully not hot!  I also tried to cook some of the food I have before I have to toss too much of it out.  I made scrambled eggs.  I haven’t had scrambled eggs since I left the US so that was a nice treat.

Last night I went to Ging’s house for dinner.  I was looking forward to seeing a Thai house from the inside to see how it compared to mine.  Not much different except that they have lived there for awhile and have a preschool daughter so it has stuff everywhere.  For a lot of houses, the kitchen is outside.  That was the case at their house.  So, that’s different than mine.  I really don’t have an outside area.  I helped her cook dinner as she told me the Thai names of everything we cooked.  I remember none of it, but I now carry a notebook with me everywhere and it’s in there.  Tip came over after dinner and took me to see her house which is a couple blocks away.  She has a little electric cart that looks like a golf cart except smaller.  She took me over in that.  And she took me around the front of the hospital and showed me where the dental offices are, there are also acupuncture offices and they have massage at the hospital too.  They both live at houses at the hospital.  I also love that they speak to their children in English as well as Thai so they will learn both.

Today, I went to the market with Ging.  Then I went to get a massage.  I went to the same lady I went to a few weeks ago.  Without exercising and sitting in these tiny plastic chairs all the time, and stress, I’m a disaster.  It was a painful 2 hours.  Still, I think it’s important and will get better as I become more comfortable living here.  Some interesting things came up.  I’ll put them in a separate blog.  It was a beautiful day so I didn’t get much done that I wanted to do because it all involved a computer and I just wanted to sit out side.  It probably didn’t get over 80 degrees today.   I found taro ice cream and since I’m in love with taro milk, I thought this might be the most exciting thing to happen all week.  No.  It wasn’t.  It was meh.  I’ll stick to the lime vanilla ice cream bars I found at 7-11 in the future.  I feel like I’m posting a lot of pictures of food in these blogs, but it’s interesting to me.  So, here are your food and flower pictures for this blog:

(c) all rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

So much food

On By rrainefioreIn Teaching, Thailand, Uncategorized1 Comment

I got a package from my best friend, Sharon yesterday!  It was a huge box and it was so wonderful to see it!  It was full of cheesy american junk food (goldfish crackers, smartfood popcorn and easy cheese).  I’ve been missing cheese so much.  It had some other snacks and a candle too.  Pat helped me open the box and  a couple of other teachers helped me look through everything.  Pat wanted to try the easy cheese so I put some on her finger.  She made a funny face and basically thought it was horrible.  She proceeded to try to get everyone else that walked by to try it, but no one would.  Ok, so easy cheese is not really cheese, but in a land of no cheese, it’s wonderful.

Yesterday after school, Noi came and picked me up to take me to her house.  I was excited about this for a few reasons.  1.  It meant I finally was able to communicate “later” to her.  2.  She has a garden and I was excited to see it.  3.  Her husband is the one I met at Scout day that was so delightful to talk to.  4.  I think she really enjoys my company and this feels more like someone that wants to spend time with me than someone who wants to take care of me so I will stay here, teaching.  It may seem like a small difference, but when you are truly alone in a town, it’s a huge difference.

I wanted to see in her house to see what a Thai teacher’s house looks like, but I wasn’t invited in and I didn’t want to ask.  They had a lot of plants and trees everywhere.  They had a really old dog who just wanted to go lay in the road.  She insisted that I pick stuff from the garden.  They have a bunch of fruit trees in the back and she gave me some fruit I’ve never seen and I have no idea what it is.  One, I think is like a pomelo, but giant.  The other, it sounded like she was calling it an olive, but it’s too big to be an olive (or it’s a giant olive).  I plan to to food prep tomorrow so I’ll update you then.  They gave me bananas (I have way too many bananas now) and a bottle of honey.  Someone else gave me a bottle of honey.  So, now I have more honey than I’ve ever eaten in my life.  I don’t know what to do with it.

After the garden, they took me to the temple.  The temple near their house has one of the oldest Buddha images.  It’s over 1000 years old.  The pagoda next to the temple was rumored to once float in the river and then was moved later near the temple.  They also showed me a temple for ordination of monks – no women or non monks allowed in.  After the temple, they took me to dinner.  I am grateful for the information on the temple.  It was a good evening.

Today one of the teachers and the school driver took me to Tak to turn in my paperwork for my work permit.  The lady rejected the paperwork because the signatures were photocopies and she wasn’t reading my passport correctly and was trying to explain that my visa expired soon, which it doesn’t.  I have a year on the visa and I have to leave the country and come back every 3 months.  I have until the end of March to do the border run.  And there were two other documents she handed me that needed to be filled out.  It all was confusing to me and to the teacher that came to help me so we went back to Sam Ngao.  We will do originals, fill out the other paperwork and pick up where we left off in May.

After school today, my new friends Tip and Ging picked me up and took me up to the gardens by the dam with their two daughters and Ging’s husband.  We started Thai lessons and they brought food for a picnic.  It was a beautiful evening.   They want to hang out again tomorrow.  I think I will bring a fruit salad and hopefully they will accept it.  It’s nice that everyone wants to buy me dinner, but it does make me a little uncomfortable.  I’m not use to being this taken care of.  And I want to be generous in return, but no one will let me.

(c) all rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

 

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What is this?  Arugula?

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Olives?
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Dragon fruit grows on this – I had no idea!
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Giant citrus type fruit

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dong mai lu ang
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Is this an olive?
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What am I going to do with all this honey?

New Friends

On By rrainefioreIn Awakening, Teaching, Thailand, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Last night after work, I went to wash sheet.  No, that’s not a typo.  They only use a bottom sheet here.  There seems to be no top sheets.   So technically I went to wash sheet and blanket.  There are 4 washers they are next to someone’s house.  The house has big roll up windows like a lot of houses do so people can sell stuff or have some kind of store out of their house.  The windows were open for the first time that I’ve seen and the smell of chocolate came flooding out of them.  I looked over an several chocolate cakes sat on the counter of a large kitchen.  She had just finished cooking the chocolate that would be the frosting.  Most people just put their laundry in and come back later, but I don’t really have anywhere else to go so I usually bring my nook and read.  Yesterday I got to read while smelling chocolate.  She cut the cakes up into smaller cakes, frosted them and put nuts on top.  I bought one.  That and clean sheet were the highlights of the day.

It’s getting hotter.  By 11:00am I am uncomfortable.  By the end of school, I’m not sure I’m going to survive.  Today was the worst so far.  I had a giant headache and was so physically uncomfortable.  I couldn’t seem to stand or sit or find any way to get comfortable.  I had an overwhelming desire to go home, but I have no AC so home wouldn’t solve anything.  There’s no pool or ocean.  I’ve never seen anyone in the river and I think I’d be eaten alive by bugs before I even made it to the river.  No AC.  So, after school, I went home and took a shower.  It helped for a minute.  I bought a coconut at the market yesterday and had the brilliant foresight to put it in the refrigerator.  After a few minutes of hitting it with a knife I made a hole in it and had cold coconut water.  This actually was the best thing I could do.  The electrolytes in the water helped with the headache and I felt like I might survive.  I’ll have to buy more coconuts.  I’ll try to figure out how to get it open and eat the rest tomorrow.

Tonight, Laura and I went out to dinner again.  As I was heading down to meet her, I ran into Noi driving up to the house to get me.  She wanted to take me to her house for dinner.  For the first time, I think I successfully rescheduled with her.  She knows Laura and seemed to understand that we already had plans.  I think we rescheduled for tomorrow.

When I met up with Laura, she said we were meeting a couple other ladies for coffee and then we’d go to dinner later.  She dropped me off a the coffee shop and then went to run an errand.  The two ladies found me when they arrived and started talking with me.  They were delightful.  They  use to be English students of Laura’s when she was teaching English on the side.  They immediately wanted to practice English with me, know how to get in touch with me later and said if I needed any help to let them know.  I told them I needed help learning Thai.  So, I think I may have found my Thai teachers and two new friends.  Laura is leaving in a week and a half for a 10 month sabbatical.  She set up this coffee on purpose knowing how nice these ladies are and that they would want to befriend me and that they will try to take good care of me.

I think this will be a huge help in settling in to live here after vacation.  I’m trying to take it in that life is supporting me and taking care of me.  It just doesn’t look the way I would have wanted it to look or would have expected it to.  I think subconsciously in the back of my head I had the idea that I would learn to trust life, but that it would be by meeting other expats and building friendships that looked similar to the ones I left behind in America.  One of those, of course would be the man I’ve been looking for for so long.  I didn’t realize I had these specific expectations until the reality turns out to be so different.

While at dinner, it rained.  Now it’s hot and muggy and I’m wondering how I will ever sleep.

(c) all rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

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View from the laundry washers – chicken
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One of the best pieces of chocolate cake I’ve ever had
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Salvation

 

Back to Sam Ngao

On By rrainefioreIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

I tried to sleep in as late as I could, but I just feel yucky.  I try to cry or scream or figure out how to release this, but I can’t so I just get up.  Maybe leaving Mae Sot will help and that’s on the schedule for today anyway.

I had another meh breakfast and then my taxi arrived early to take me to the bus station.  So, I was way too early, but that’s ok.  I didn’t have any issue with my ticket bought on line so that was good.  It was a different bus station than the one I came into and the bus was sold out so I’m real glad I got the ticket ahead of time on line.

The bus has a stewardess of sorts who takes our tickets, finds where we are getting off, gives us water and a very random snack.  When I tell her Ba tan cuen, she doesn’t understand me although I know she does.  I tell her about 3 or 4 times and she keeps saying Chaing Mai (the final stop)?  She repeats Ba tan cuen with a distrusting look several times and then walks off shaking her head.  Several times during the trip she asks me again.  I try to explain I live and teach there, but she thinks I’m nuts.

I was told or read somewhere that this stretch of road is dangerous on a bus.  I rode in on a van and was wondering what it would be like on a bus.  It’s not scary so much as it’s just intense.  There are a lot of trucks and buses on the road.  It’s steep and full of switch backs.  There’s not much you can do as you are getting tossed side to side a lot.  I try to read, but writing or typing on the computer is out of the question.  There are no run away truck lanes like there would be in Colorado, but I don’t smell burning brakes either.  Some of the hills, the bus struggles to even get up.  I’m sitting on the wrong side again to get any pictures of the mountain views.  I tried to get pictures, but they don’t do it justice, of course.  I’m dropped off at the correct stop even though she still looks skeptical and then I have to take the motorbike taxi back home.

Now I’m guessing the police stops on the way into and out of Mae Sot may have something to do with refugees.  I’m not sure, but that makes the most sense.  I did some research on line about the Burmese refugees.  It was quite eye opening, but that is all I will say about it.

I wanted to go out to the temple tonight to see what the holiday celebration might be like, but by the time I heard the monks on the loud speaker, I was tired and just wanted to shower and eat so I didn’t go out after all.  Now, I’m kinda bummed I didn’t go.

I’m using my new phone as a wifi hot spot as I write this so that’s a huge hooray!

My house is just full of bugs and I’m over it.  My bedroom floor was covered in wings when I got home.  There were some bugs.  I don’t know what they were – termites, flying ants?  I swept it all up and didn’t do much looking at the bugs because I just don’t want to know.  My head has been itching for days so I wonder if I got bugs in my hair now.  I feel like I’m 8 years old again.  I washed my hair twice today although, I doubt that will do any good.  I looked at my sheets and they were covered in tiny dead gnats that I’ve been battling every night when I try to read on my nook.  Still, the amount of bug on the outside top of the bug net lets me know it’s not a complete failure.  Guess I’m sleeping on my sleeping bag tonight and washing sheets tomorrow.  I did get an electronic bug thing that Laura recommended.  It’s for mosquitoes, but maybe it’ll deter other bugs too.  Fingers crossed.  Alright, I’m going to leave it on that note so all of you reading this can share in my creepy crawly feeling.

(c) all rights reserved Kimberly Fiore