Saaaahm, SEE!

Apparently uploading pics after the 10 second video were too much for my blog. Here are some more pictures from Sports Day:

Why does she even have this thing?

So I realize that I haven't posted in a week or two, and for that I apologize. But in my defense, I have had four short teaching weeks in a row, either for Thai exams, holidays, sports day, or something else, and have...been lazy about it. So here is the first of two potentially long posts. Sports Day was the week before last (yes, I know, I'm behind), and took up Thursday and Friday of that week, so the kids had no class with us. We still had to come in to the office though, of course. And wear the Sports Day polos that the school had made for us. Oh you want to know what kind of sports? It was more like "Dance Day." Or Cheerleading Day. Silly, I think, but two free days and having something to watch wasn't bad. They work very hard practicing their routines, and most of the groups were really good. And of course, the makeup and costumes were beyond elaborate.
Girls rushing for their pom poms

First, one of my 5/1 students

The start of the parade

Way to rain on my parade..

What's that saying about "no such thing as a free lunch?" Well I do get a free lunch (if I want it) here, but apparently bandaids are not free. On my way out of the doctor's office today I was handed a bill for the two dressings so far, and I have to go back to do another one tomorrow. Ugh..so much for being under 3000B. I'm now a few hundred baht over that. sigh..
Total bill for the day: Taxi: 87B to (due to traffic), and 111B home (due to a driver who didn't follow my directions and kept yabbering away at me in thai).
Dressings: 1065B

And as if the bill and the taxi driver weren't enough, rainy season reminded us of it's presence today in full force right around lunch time.

Hey there, Gimpy!

So as I mentioned in my previous post of my adventures in Pattaya, I injured myself while attempting to tame a motorbike. I didn't see a doctor right away, or even put a bandage on it right away, because it didn't look like more than a big scratch that didn't even bleed. Apparently, shame on me. Hindsight is 20/20...where's my foresight gone? My week went something like this:

Day 1 (Sunday, July 25)
My leg is cut, but not too badly (or so it appears). I cringe a little for the first few minutes, then the pain dulls and I move on with my day (and return the bike of course). It's a little stiff to walk with, but nothing a few Tylenol wouldn't mask.


Day 2 (Monday, July 26)
The cut looks like it's starting to heal, but my ankle is a bit swollen, so I elevate it for an hour or two before heading to the bus station to head home.


Day 3 (Tuesday, July 27) ...sorry don't have a picture for day 3
I sleep in, do laundry, try to stay off my foot while applying neosporin 3 times a day. The cut is still numb, and my ankle is still a little puffy, but nothing hurts, and I make sure I'm stepping gingerly.

Day 4 (Wednesday, July 28)
When I got up in the morning, nothing looked different, except a bit more redness around the cut. When I got home from work, massive swelling, much more redness and dark purple splotches on my feet. Great. Internal bleeding. Super.


Day 5 (Thursday, July 29)
Ankle's still pretty swollen, starting to worry me, but I'm not at my breaking point yet. I take a cab to Carrefour, do some grocery shopping, and stock up on some more first aid supplies. I got home, elevate my foot and apply a hot, damp cloth. Also had my first of two observations for my probation; passed with flying colors, of course, lol, but forgot to capitalize two days of the week on the board, and Sunny made sure to point that out to me. OhandIneedtospeakmoreslowly.


Day 6 (Friday, July 30)
I wrap my foot and ankle before heading to work, and this seems to help a little, though there is now more dark purple bruising on my foot, and my leg is hurting more. My cousin Cary, head of the Trauma Center at one of the hospitals in San Juan, Puerto Rico, comments on a picture telling me I need antibiotics. My aunt (her mother), sends concerns of infection. I receive an email from my parents strongly urging me to see a doctor (to put their worries at ease). I decide it is time to swallow my stubborn pride and comply with their requests. I call up Khun Pooh, who gives me the name of the closest hospital, and then tells the taxi driver how to get there. The hospital staff were very helpful, spoke English pretty well(and the doctor understood me quite well; I liked her) and took me into the emergency room to get my wound "officially" cleaned up (I'd cleaned it, but apparently that's not good enough). They smear this slimy brown liquid (possibly iodine) on it, then wrap it with a roll of white gauze. They send me on my way with a muscle relaxant, an anti-inflammatory, and something for muscle pain, along with an appt to come back on Saturday to get the dressing changed.
Total bill for the day: Taxi - 75B each way, Meds - 1068B



Day 7 (Saturday, July 31)
I wake up early enough to eat breakfast and start my meds before heading back to the hospital for my "sometime between 10 and 4" appt. I get there, hand my appt reminder slip to Information, and they point me down the hall to the Orthopedics Dept. I wait no more than two minutes before I am called to come in the back and have my wound re-dressed. It was a little painful when the doctor(which I thought was really great otherwise) was cleaning it with what appeared to be a pair of oversized tweezers, but other than that I just sat and watched them wrap it up again. He sends me off with a Rx of a big purple horse-pill of an antibiotic, and they make another appt for me to come back on Monday to get the dressing changed again.
Total bill for the day: Taxi - 75B each way, Meds - 1098B


Also saw Despicable Me with April and Pooh, and went to the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra's Rogers and Hammerstein concert.

Lunch at MK Restaurant




Day 8 (Sunday, August 1)
Couldn't believe it was August already. Had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, shopped a bit, then went to church before heading home.

DIY fajitas. Mmmm..



Day 9 (Monday, August 2)
Went to work with a very sore left calf. The doctor told me that I should only walk on the ball of my foot and not to put pressure on the heel, and that does a number on your calf muscles, especially climbing up and down three flights of stairs to my first class (no elevator in that darn building). Left after work and headed to the hospital again to get the dressing changed, and this time the doctor said it should be almost healed in a few more days, but the swelling may take another week or two to go away. Lame.
Total bill for the day: Taxi - 75B each way, and no meds = no hospital bill.

Hopefully I will be able to scamper and frolic by next week, and all will be well again. :D

Oh and in case anyone was wondering, my medical insurance will reimburse up to 3000B per month, and at this point as long as they don't give me any more meds, I should be okay.

Pattaya

So the original plan was to head to Cambodia this weekend to see Angor Wat, but since HR decided to hold my passport hostage and told me they'd terminate my contract if I left the country(AFTER I'd already booked tickets; jerks), Colin invited me to join him and his wife Na in Pattaya for the weekend. Left straight from work Friday afternoon, took a taxi to the bus station, then a 3 and a half hour-ish bus ride to Pattaya. For those who haven't yet googled Pattaya, it's a beach town, like Santa Cruz...only not like Santa Cruz lol. More Russians, for one thing. One Russian chick outside my hotel looked lost, so I walked over to her and she rattled of something in Russian. I looked her square in the eye and, making sure to pronounce every syllable with clarity, said, "I only speak ENGLISH." She held up a cigarette and asked, "Fire?" I laughed...and said no. lol

Friday night the three of us met for dinner, then headed to walking street...for about ten minutes and decided we were too tired to walk further and we'd do that street later. Saturday morning I was up bright and early, had breakfast at my hotel, then managed to get the only taxi driver who didn't know how to read a map. I don't even live there, and I knew he was going the wrong way. Anyway, he finally got me to the Elephant Village, where I chose the combination tour, which included elephant trekking, a hike through the jungle, a raft ride to feed zillions of catfish, an ox cart ride, and lunch. Oh and apparently sword fighting. Thankfully it also included a van to take us back to our hotels.
Hit the beach, rented a jet ski for an hour, and then had a delicious dinner at the Hongsa Kitchen before meeting up with Colin and Na for the Tiffany Show at 9pm. The Tiffany show is dazzling and sparkling with fabulous choreography and excellent sets and musical numbers....all performed by ladyboys. ALL. ah..fun times.
Sunday brought even more fun. I grabbed my backpack, laced up my tennis shoes, and set out in search of a motorbike to rent for the day. I found one on Soi 6(they're everywhere, but this was the first one I came to), and the lady refused to rent me one because she said I didn't have experience. Hmph. Well, stubborn as I am, I was determined to ride a motorbike, so I wandered off in search of someone who would rent me one. Lo and behold, two Sois down, I found one. But before I approached them, I called up Colin(since he's been riding motorbikes "his whole life"), and he came to help me out so I didn't end up sprawled out under a truck somewhere. We found a good one, Colin drove us off to get "petrol," and then we went to the side streets so he could show me how to control the beast. Well the beast was only semi-tame, and although I managed to go back and forth up and down the streets a few times, it did a number on my left calf, and I gave up. I believe I had the bike for no more than two hours when we drove it back into the rental place. The guy looked surprised to see me back so soon until I showed him what that monster did to my leg, and his gaze darted instantly to the bike(which was unharmed). He handed me back my deposit, and I bought Colin a beer to thank him for his trouble. Na met us at the beach(it started raining, we grabbed lunch under cover, then went back out on the sand) and while she ate her seafood, Colin and I talked her into going out on a jet ski with me. She finally agreed, but then got nervous about 50 yards out and I brought her back to land. Finished my half hour, headed back to the hotel to wash off all the salt water in the pool haha, then showered and headed out to walking street to meet them for dinner and sightseeing.
Checked out this morning, taxi-ed to the bus station, and we got back to MoChit at around 2pm. I plan on spending tomorrow doing laundry and propping up my swollen ankle. :D
My room at the Grand Sole Beach Hotel

The beach Friday night

Isn't she the most beautiful elephant?! (she's happy cuz I was feeding her bananas)

On our elephant trek

The rest of the "trekkies" lol

This is Tony. He likes to sit on people.

Our jungle hike

Hand-made Thai silk being woven

Ox Cart

Sword fighting

Jet Ski! (yes, mom, I wore a life jacket, this was just for the picture)

The beach

Ladyboys at the Tiffany Show(the ladyboy on the left had to be edited out because he/she was falling out of his/her top)


The Tiffany Show, the first number(later in the show, they did an excellent mock Tina Turner performance)

The beast

The beast's damage

On Walking Street watching Thai boxing

I don't know what these are called, but they were absolutely adorable!

My Daily Route

So I thought I'd share with y'all a few pictures of my way to and from work. Enjoy.






Home Sweet Home...ish

ตุ๊กแก

Now before you go busting out your English-Thai Google Translator to read the title, read the story, and you may figure it out by the end.

Sunday night I woke up at 2am to what appeared to be, in my groggy sleepiness, a firefly dancing and buzzing around behind my microwave. Then I smelled something burning, and thought the poor stupid bug had gotten itself singed on a wire or something, turned on the air to eliminate the smell, and went back to sleep. Didn't see anything out of the ordinary Monday morning, so I headed off to work without giving it so much as a second glance. Only when I got home after work that evening and my microwave wouldn't turn on did I start to think maybe it wasn't just a little firefly.

I turned my microwave around, and this is what I saw:


It was a lizard. It had apparently decided to climb, or try to climb, into the back of my microwave and commit suicide. It was disgusting. I tried calling Rani to come help me deal with it, but he didn't answer. I grabbed rubber gloves(so glad I'd decided to buy them "just in case"), unplugged the box and carried it out to my porch, then used a shishkabob stick to pry the little sucker out.

I sprayed the army of ants with my brand new can of RAID(which was almost instantaneous death for them, something I was quite thankful for), and then brushed them off. I carefully disposed of the fried critter in the dumpster outside, and cleaned the back of my microwave the best I could before taking it back inside. It works fine now.

Mission accomplished.