Travel

On April 5, 2016July 26, 2016 By rrainefioreIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

There is so much travel in traveling. I’ve never had more than two weeks off in a row. I’m now a month into vacation and weary of the travel part. I know, whaaa, quit complaining.

Yesterday, I had breakfast at my hotel and the worked on lesson plans until it was time to leave for the airport. I have to turn in my first month of lesson plans before school starts. The rest of the day was travel to Bangkok and a hotel near the airport. The taxi stand at the Don Mueang airport was amazing. I got there and they were serving number 555. But, where to get a number was not obvious. It must be at the back of that room full of people. It was. I got number 630. This system doesn’t appear to be working very well. Then when I finally got a taxi it took 40 minutes to go the 8 miles to my hotel. Whoa Bangkok traffic.

What a wonderful little trendy, cheap hotel. The staff was friendly and I get free breakfast and airport shuttle in the morning. I ate dinner there because I was too exhausted to go further. I had a grilled cheese sandwich that I’m pretty sure was cooked in liquid sugar instead of butter. Come on, Thailand, stop putting sugar on everything. Don’t try this at home. Sugared grilled cheese is not delicious.

This morning came early – breakfast at 3:30, shuttle at 4:00am. Was I high when I booked a 6:00am flight? Maybe it was foggy brain. The airport was a zoo at 4:15. I made a friend within 2 minutes and we decided to navigate the zoo together. Justine was a delightful young lady and we managed to find our way through a mob with no lines, just angry lost people everywhere, ticket agents yelling, and tour groups looking confused. After landing in Bali, the immigration line was the shortest I’ve ever seen. But I had to wait a long time for my luggage because I waited at the wrong carousel. Once I figured it out, my bag magically appeared on the correct one. Funny how that happens. Unfortunately, that meant I didn’t get to say goodbye to Justine. Enjoy your vacation Justine!

I rented a car while here. It seemed easier for wandering around the island. If I didn’t have the suitcase or if I had the SE Asia ability to tie any thing to a motorbike, I’d rather do that. But, that was just a bad story waiting to happen. The car guy took me to an atm and then to the police station to get a “driver’s license”. I don’t have an international license because I didn’t know that was a thing until I had already moved to Thailand. I would have had to get it in the US in person so too late for that information. This license is supposed to get me out of having to pay a bigger fine if I get pulled over. We’ll see.

So then I have to take this sorry excuse of a vehicle from the airport to my hotel. The doors rattle. The steering is loose feeling. The breaks need a heavy foot. The steering wheel is on the wrong side and it’s stick shift. That was a first for me. Then let’s drive on the left side of the road just for fun. As in Thailand and Vietnam, the striping is just for decoration and a beep means “I’m passing you now”. All that said, it went ok and I made it to the hotel.

My hotel is cute and has a pool. I was in it within 5 minutes. I worked for a few hours, then dinner and now travel exhaustion. Tomorrow diving – fingers crossed that it’s great!

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Thai Cooking

On March 10, 2016July 26, 2016 By rrainefioreIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Annaliese wanted to take a Thai cooking class while in Chaing Mai and I really enjoyed the one I took in Mae Sot. I didn’t realize it was an all day class until last night. That seems like a little too much, but I was already signed up. It was a fun day. They picked us up from our hotels and took us to a market and showed us some of the most common sauces we would need. They taught us the difference between sticky rice and non sticky rice. Then the took us to the cooking school which is on an organic farm. That was delightful. The place was beautiful. We each made 5 different typical dishes. The teacher was so high energy and funny. It was a little too long, but I’m glad we did this class instead of a shorter one somewhere else. Not a long blog today – sooooo tired. Here, look at the pretty pictures.

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20160310_154052 — Bananas in Coconut Milk

21 Hour Field Trip

On March 5, 2016July 24, 2016 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.

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20160304_153246 — The 4 food groups? Dairy, Sugar, Fruit and Sugar?

The Lice Massacre

On March 2, 2016July 24, 2016 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.

More stuff about Food

On February 28, 2016July 24, 2016 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:

So much food

On February 26, 2016July 24, 2016 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.

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20160225_172401 — What is this? Arugula?

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20160225_173151 — Dragon fruit grows on this – I had no idea!

20160225_173303 — Giant citrus type fruit

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20160226_205131 — What am I going to do with all this honey?

New Friends

On February 24, 2016July 24, 2016 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.

20160223_171314 — View from the laundry washers – chicken

20160223_203326 — One of the best pieces of chocolate cake I’ve ever had

Disappearing Cow

On February 19, 2016July 24, 2016 By rrainefioreIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

This week has been ok. The morning dreads have been replaced with the morning “nooooooo”. But I think that is a little better. The main issues I’m having is the foggy brain, just being so tired early in the evening and the very frustrating lack of wifi. I want to learn Thai, but nothing is sticking. I can’t go watch videos on line because I can’t get on wifi. The wifi hotspot that Xplore Asia sent me is useless. The school’s wifi might work for an hour or not at all. It seems like after school I cook or do one or two things and then it’s late or I’m tired. There might be a time warp in my house that also take brain cells away. It’s the only thing that makes any sense. It’s getting hotter so that may contribute too.

Monday, I only had two teachers show up for teachers English class. I wonder if I’m not making it fun enough. Is it too hard? Do they think they want to learn English, but really don’t?

Tuesday, a teacher brought me breakfast. It was a “sandwich”. This sounds wonderful. I look in the bag. It’s a hotdog with butter, ketchup and lettuce. I don’t care for ketchup so it was a hotdog with butter. I’ll make a salad later with that lettuce. That evening, I went to the market. I also got gas for the stove in my house. So, now I can fry things. Next week I’m looking forward to eggs for breakfast! Tuesday night I cooked up a ton of greens that my next door neighbor bought from a student. He bought them to be nice, but he doesn’t cook. So I kept some and left the rest in zip lock baggies at his door. I hope he eats it, but who knows? Maybe if I had cooked rice too.

Wednesday evening I went out to dinner with the missionary, Laura. I got to go see the church she is working on. She is overseeing the building of the new church. It’s also a nice time to spend with another native English speaker. She’s lived in Thailand for quite a while so she has some good pointers too. She also understands that salads are not a strange thing, but can be quite delicious.

Last night I was supposed to teach teachers, but there were none. I think there’s still some interest, but I think maybe once a week is more their speed. Who knows? I took the opportunity to do laundry. After that, I thought I’d go see if I could get a pedicure. Laura had shown me a place where a lady does hair and will also do nails. But, it wasn’t open. Well, that’s about the extent of the things I can think of to do in town so I went home. The rest of my evening was cooking and defrosting the refrigerator. Defrosting the refrigerator in 5 easy steps – take food out, unplug refrigerator, open door and let ice melt all over kitchen overnight, put food back in, plug in.

Wednesday during the afternoon assembly, I looked over and saw a cow in front of the school. He was too far away to get a picture, but I thought it would make a great picture of rural life. I figured I’d get the picture later when I was waiting for Laura to go to dinner. Not more than 20 minutes later, I go looking for the cow, but she is gone. Then Thursday as I’m coming home with a bag of wet laundry balanced just so on the back of the motorbike, who do I see, but the cow walking down the street. If I stop for a photo now, it will unbalance my bag. I’ll just go home, hang the laundry and get a picture of her when I head to get my nails done. Five minutes later, she’s gone. How far could a cow get in 5 minutes? Where did it go? They don’t move that fast, do they?

Today when I got to school, a student brought me breakfast from one of the other teachers. I have no idea who it was from since my ability to remember teacher’s names is only slightly better than my ability to remember Thai words. It was something beautifully wrapped in leaves and the leaves smelled horrible. I unwrapped one and of course it involved rice. It looked like sticky rice around some pink fruit. It tasted ok. Later in the morning, I ate the other one. On closer inspection, it looked like half a banana wrapped in rice. The pink color is a mystery. After school today, my plan was to go get a massage! Yay! It wasn’t open. I waited for awhile, just in case. I texted the phone number on the window. I figured calling them would be a waste of time since they didn’t speak English and I could say massage in Thai, but I’d have no idea what their answer would be. Maybe with a text they could translate. But, no response. Well, let’s go do that pedicure. Not open either. I settled for a lime vanilla ice cream bar from 7-11. Once again, I ran out of ideas for a night on the town.

Now that I’m sitting in the time warp, I’m thinking how is it 8:00pm already? Screw it, I’m going to bed. I have to finish packing for the weekend and then I’m done. I have to get up early because rumor is a bus will come to the bus stop around 6:30am and there may not be another bus to Tak in the morning. Or there may be many. No one seems to know. I’m going to Mae Sot for the weekend. It’s a larger town on the border of Myanmar and should be something interesting to see for the weekend.

20160216_074321 — So exciting – These two bananas grew in one skin

20160217_082633 — This cat followed me around for a half hour

20160217_105710 — The shutters in one of my classrooms

20160217_165913 — One of the houses at school

20160217_171444 — Laura, the builder and the church

20160217_173150 — Church builders’ garden

20160218_190916 — Let the defrosting begin

Random Thoughts on Food

On February 18, 2016July 24, 2016 By rrainefioreIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Two thing I normally wouldn’t eat because I don’t like or dislike them are: oranges and cucumbers. But, here, cucumbers are served with most meals. And someone is always handing me an orange. So, I’m eating a lot of both.

Normally I put lots of cream and sugar in my coffee. But the amount of sugar the put in coffee in Thailand is astounding. I’m actually craving and enjoying (when I can find it), coffee with no sugar.

Lots of Lunch

On February 15, 2016July 24, 2016 By rrainefioreIn Awakening, Teaching, Thailand, Uncategorized2 Comments

I would have written a blog yesterday, but wifi seemed to disappear off the face of the planet for a day. I couldn’t connect to the school wifi and although I could connect to my portable hot spot, it didn’t allow me on any websites. All day today was the same issue. Tonight, I seem to have wifi, so fingers crossed that I have it at least for the time it takes me to write this. I find that this wifi difficulty puts me into a downward spiral of “I want to go home” and “I don’t think I can do this until October”.

I had three exploration goals for yesterday, one of which scared me quite a bit. 1. I was almost out of gas for the motorbike. I had been told the cheapest gas would be from the mechanic who fixed the bike, who I don’t like very much. So, this scared me a bit – would I make it to the next village without running out of gas, would he be there, would I be able to communicate what I needed, and would he rip me off? I’m not sure why I don’t trust him, but I don’t. Maybe because he doesn’t smile and everyone here smiles? But, I got there without running out and he was there and understood my charades. They store the gas in old liquor (?) bottles. Not sure if I got ripped off or not. Next time I’ll go to a gas station and see how much it costs. The gas stations scare me a little too. They aren’t like gas stations in a big city, but that will be a blog story for another day. 2. My second goal was to go to the Sunday Market. It’s only on Sunday mornings and I have been asked several times if I went to the Sunday Market, but because of my lack of transportation, I had not been able to. It’s held on the grounds of the village temple and part of a school’s athletic field. It was quite impressive for a small town. It took me over an hour to walk through it all. I stopped to get a few things. I definitely turned some heads as I am the only foreigner and probably looked lost. I did see a few students. I also ran into my new best friend, Noi’s husband who was playing in a small band. 3. My third exploration goal was to go to a new coffee shop. There were at least two I saw in this village. The first one I went to was closed. The second one was tiny – two tables. After making my latte, the owner sat down at my table with me and struck up a conversation. I use the word “conversation” lightly. Her English was as bad as my Thai. We tried to use the phrase book I had, but that only helped a little. We showed pictures of our family. But, no matter how difficult it was, I think she might have sat there all day with me. After I paid for my coffee and was about to get on my motorbike she came running out with a bag of fruit and handed it to me saying Valentine’s day.

I accomplished my 3 things. I have a ton of online stuff I need to do, but can do that later when it’s dark out. I should go explore somewhere else during the day. Wrong – I had no internet that night. But, I didn’t know that would happen so I went home and had some soup that the teachers made for me Friday night. They made me soup that wasn’t too spicy. Shortly after eating the soup, I got a call from Noi. She asked if I would have lunch with her. My past attempts to reschedule have all failed and I know that “No” is not the correct answer so I said yes. She came and picked me up and took me to a restaurant I hadn’t been to yet. She ordered pad thai and I have to say it’s the best tasting meal I’ve had yet in Thailand. So, I ate the whole thing and felt like an umpah lumpah by the time we left. She then took me to the roadside drink stand I had been to with the military students. She showed me a fruit that looked like a tiny grapefruit and asked if I had ever had it. It was a type of citrus. Of course I haven’t. The lady juiced it and added some soda water and a tiny bit of sugar to it. She said she figured I didn’t like too much sugar so she made it less sweet. How did she know that? It was perfect. I tried to pay, but Noi wouldn’t let me. She said next time. Then she laughed and said she thinks she won’t let me pay next time either.

So, after I get dropped back home, I still have daylight left. I had asked Pat where I could get a massage. She said at the golf course. I haven’t had a massage in awhile and I’m hurting, but the golf course is up by the dam and the whole dam area is kind of ritzy so I assumed this would be out of my price range and I might need an appointment. But, it can’t hurt to find out. I needed my phrase book to ask for massage, but it worked and they led me to a small house next to the clubhouse. There were just two mats inside, but one was open. I asked how much bracing myself for what would be cheap by American standards, but probably expensive by Thai standards. 150 baht for an hour. This is 100 baht less than in a bigger city. This is about $4.20 us dollars. DEAL! She was pretty good too. So, I now think that if I can get a massage a week, I might survive living here.

I pretty much forget every bit of Thai I learn within 5 minutes of learning it. This is very frustrating. I’m going to start carrying a notebook and writing things down and see if that helps. My brain is quite foggy and from time to time just tries to shut down altogether. I think if I can either make more of my own meals or somehow get my body to adjust to amazing amounts of carbs, I might be able to use my brain again. Another thought that has come to me is that the foggy brain, wanting to shut down and not remembering anything might actually be part of my awakening process. I’m starting to disengage more from my ego identity and stories and I feel like my brain wants to reboot. I keep getting pulled back into story because I have to teach or I have to buy gas or I have to make a hotel reservation or some type of activity my ego use to do. I just want to lay around and do nothing, but there are things to do so I’m kind of stuck in the middle right now.

Today I was woken up by a man speaking over a loud speaker at 5:00am. My ear plugs wouldn’t block it out. This has happened before and it was the monks telling religious stories during a religious holiday. I’m not sure if it was the monks, but it was an unpleasant time of day to be woken up, especially when I don’t wake up in the best mood to begin with. At lunch, Noi calls me and asks if I am coming down to the cafeteria. They have noodles today. I tried to explain to her that Pat made me lunch and I didn’t want it to go to waste so I was going to eat with Pat. Noi called me a little later asking where I was and I tried to explain it again. I think she got it this time. Nope. About 10 minutes into lunch, a student comes up to where Pat, Mae, and I are sitting and hands me a bowl of noodles. Now I have two lunches again.

20160214_091743 — Yes, That’s a Pikachu Pancake

20160214_091521 — The making of the Pikachu Pancake

20160207_113422 — My new buddy at the coffee shop

20160208_135637 — My first mail from the US!

	eaglegenuinec87d1476… on Going Home
	delicately4f6d967f14 on Going Home
	delicately4f6d967f14 on Icebergs
	delicately4f6d967f14 on ATV Tour
	eaglegenuinec87d1476… on Kluane

Rraine Drops

Tag: ThailandFood