6.1.12

Patricia finally returned from Malaysia around 6pm on Thursday. Fortunately her trip was not in vain and she was able to secure a tourist visa. Phew! I caught her up on the happenings since she left the day before. If you know how I tell a story, you know that it took a while but was thorough…

Bright and early the next morning we got all of our things together and ready to check out of the mansion. We were to meet downstairs at 8:30am so we decided to walk about and find some breakfast. 7-11. Like I have said before, they are like the local supermarket here. And they are much more accommodating than in the states. Patricia directed me to the brilliant little croissant sandwiches with ham and cheese. They look like they were prepared with one of those Snackmaster sandwich makers that presses the bread together. You hand one to the girl at the counter and she toasts it up in, well, a Snackmaster sandwich maker. They put it in a sleeve so you can walk and eat it. AH-mazing. Oh, yeah, and they have chai yen nom in those machines that, in the States, would contain lemonade or something of that sort. Oh thank heaven for 7-11…

We continued our walk and went to the market behind the mansion. I guess that it convenes on more than just Tuesday mornings. We were in search of some fresh, already-cut-up fruit. Found it. They had these lovely miniature pineapples from Chiang Mai. They have this great way of skinning pineapples here in this lovely spiral pattern so that you don’t lose a bunch of the fruit. The tiny pineapples have such a small core that you can actually eat the whole fruit, stem and all. They cut them into quarters and you can hold them by the stem piece to eat. Brilliant! And amazingly delicious.

It was time to head back to the mansion to grab our things and head to the school. After checking out, we got in to a truck sent by the school, picked Phil up at his hotel and went to training/orientation.

It was an…interesting orientation. Since Tom had not been with us the day before, he hadn’t had a chance to ask any questions or have any of his concerns addressed. Let’s just say it became heated at one point and it was a fairly tense morning. However, the training went very well and I am more at ease about starting this teaching experience.

At about 3pm, we hopped in the truck and headed to Songkhla where the guesthouse is located. It was the hottest part of the day and, coupled with the tense morning, I was not feeling very well. When we arrived at the house, the others looked around a bit. I took my things up to the large room. We found that they had indeed brought in beds. Brand new bed frames with brand new mattresses, two sets of sheets and a new pillow each. Our two drivers (the one who brought us and the one who brought Pi Ying, our fellow teacher and neighbor) set about assembling the four oscillating fans. Since the house had been shut up, it was a bit stifling. I was sitting outside to catch the breeze and Pi Ying was making fun of me. She was telling me how she was not hot at all. Patricia set off to find an international calling card so she could phone her daughters and Tom went to his room to lie down. I puttered around for a while. Then Ying (“Pi” just means ‘older sister’) had to go home for a bit to take care of her kids but told me she would be back. She doesn’t speak the best English but I can typically get my point across with a bit of charades.

Our driver, Chai Ya (sp?), came back a little while later and asked me if we needed sheets. I let him know we were set on that front but that I did need to go somewhere to buy a towel. Little did I know how complicated a task that would be. First, he doesn’t speak very much English. Charades weren’t helping. Finally, I asked for a supermarket. He lives in Hat Yai so he isn’t familiar with the area. We started walking in the direction that Ying had told Patricia to go earlier. We came upon a 7-11 and he pointed at that. No, I cannot buy towels at a 7-11. We walked some more and found another grocery store. No towels. He started asking a couple of the women in the store, but I don’t think he yet even knew what I was looking for. I started acting it out for a woman by patting my arms down. She thought I wanted baby powder or lotion or something. No. That won’t help. We headed back in the direction of our house and got lost for a second. I knew we hadn’t gone back down the street far enough. I asked for “Saiburi Soi Sib-sam?” and some kind old ladies directed us down a little alley and between some houses and got us to our street. Pi Ying was waiting in front of the house with her son and daughter when we got there. Tom was napping and Patricia hadn’t returned. She still didn’t understand what I was looking for. The lady who lives across the alley (about 70 years old whom I was told to call “Banyi” which I believe means ‘auntie’) speaks better English. I think she knew what I was asking for. We piled in to the truck and headed out. Ying said we were going to Liwiwat. When we got there, I found that it was an indoor, 4-floor (the 4th being an arcade) department store. The first two floors had restaurants such as Swensen’s, KFC, Dairy Queen and Dunkin’ Donuts in addition to clothing and electronics and a drug store. On the third floor…. Blessed towels! I grabbed a couple and asked how much. Twelve hundred baht each. Yikes! Oh, but they were 25% off… She showed me some cheaper ones that were 50% off. I still paid almost 1,000 baht for two large towels. Wow. Besides my hotel in Ban Phe, that is the most that I have spent on one single item in the entire time I have been in Thailand. When I spoke to Patricia about it later, she said that when she bought a towel, it was rather “expensive” as well. I am not sure why.

Pi Ying asked me if I wanted to get something to eat or what I wanted to do. At this point, I hadn’t eaten since lunch, but I was tired and run down and filthy (still hadn’t changed out of my school clothes other than to put on flip-flops). I asked to just be taken home.

When we got back to the house Tom was up and Patricia was just getting in. Tom went out to forage. Patricia left to meet up with another teacher-friend who was in town from Krabi. I stayed at the house and cried. And cried and cried.

It hit me very suddenly, homesickness. I think it was because we weren’t in a hotel anymore. This was a real house. And it wasn’t homey. No furniture besides the beds. Very large and empty. And the lack of internet made me feel so very, very isolated and lonely. Had I been able to get online and talk to Spencer or someone back home, I would have been ok. But I couldn’t. And the other two teachers weren’t there. And I was tired. So, I sobbed while taking the plastic off my bed and putting the sheets on it. I blubbered while showering. I wept while I watched Quantum of Solace. Eventually I stopped crying. A little while later, Banyi came over and told me to lock the door. I tried to explain that I couldn’t because Tom wasn’t back yet and I hadn’t given him a key. She insisted that I put the padlock on. Fortunately, Tom got back soon after.

We chatted for a bit and I told him about the homesickness. We sat in the living room, on the floor, and talked for at least an hour. His attitude seemed to have improved since the couple of lengthy talks that Phil had with him earlier in the day. We didn’t talk about the tension that there had been between us, but he was feeling homesick as well. I think things will be better between us.

I eventually went to my room with the fan blowing directly on me and put James Bond back on. You know I fell asleep watching it (which Spencer will tell you I do almost every time I watch a movie). At 11:30pm, I put the computer away and fell fast asleep.

Tomorrow would be a better day.