6.18.12

Woke up at 2:45am with a sharp pain in my lower right back. Couldn’t get rid of the pain in any position except flat on my stomach with my arms at my sides. I’m surprised I fell back asleep like that.

When I woke for good at 5:45am, I was finally able to get comfortable on my side. Unfortunately, it was pretty much time for me to get out of bed and get ready for work, so… I think I may finally have to cave in and get a Thai massage. Something is out of alignment. There was a tweak in my knee and my hip on the right side, also.

Found out that the new 3rd teacher, Larry, never showed up. Well, ok. Instead, Phil was back in town and would be taking over Tom’s classes for the week.

I had a more relaxed day than originally planned because only one and a half of my three classes showed up. I have no idea what happened to my special accounting class. I have them for two periods on Mondays. In the second class, the only ones from that group who showed up were three students who had never before attended out of the previous three classes. So strange.

When lunch time rolled around, Pat and I tried to eat at that little cafe with the nice sandwiches again. But they handed us a menu and then told us “No food. Cook on holiday.” Seriously? Why are you open? And why did you hand me a menu?

There was no food left in the cafeteria. I found these little pre-packaged thin pancakes with jam in the middle at the commissary. They were nice, but just something to get me through. We were going to be taken out for “western” food in the evening with Apple, Phil, Fon, Lara and the new teacher at the Dream school, Anelia.

Apple and Phil got a little taste of what we go through at the end of the day. We had to walk most of the road near the school before a tuk-tuk came by that could take us to Siam Nakarin. It was another large, modern shopping mall. Not as extensive as Big C Extra. But still giant. We ate at a “steak house” called Jeffers. I got a cheeseburger. It was actually really nice with lettuce, tomato, onion, cucumber and something like a taziki sauce. We had a good meal with great conversation that primarily consisted of re-telling Tom stories. They left the other teachers in tears laughing out of disbelief.

Pat and I went out to the curb and got motorcycle taxis to take us to the clock tower plaza so we could catch a mini bus back to Songkhla. We apparently caught the last one, even though it was only like 6:30pm and we had been told that they don’t stop running until 7 or 7:30. Phew! One of the girls who got on works at TMB (a bank here) and had studied in BKK. She spoke wonderful English and lives near Thaksin University in Songkhla, which was fairly near to where we are staying. Yay for new Thai friends who speak English! Her name is Junpook. She goes by Pook.

Once we got home, we were beat. Fortunately, I had finished my lesson plan for the next day while I was still at school. This actually left me wondering what I should do for the rest of the night. I opted for writing and TV. I know, I know. My nights are super duper boring. I’m just hoping for a night of uninterrupted sleep with no back pain. I got half my wish.