6.19.12

Woke at 3:45am with congestion. I didn’t feel sick. Hoped it was a fluke.

I was really looking forward to my classes today. Second class was my Level 3 Foreign Language class. I’m sure you shouldn’t have favorites, but, well, they are my favorite. However, the real highlight of my classes today was that Mim got up with her group and did her sentences in front of the whole class. So proud!

Attempted again to get sandwiches, but the waitress came outside before we even entered the restaurant and told us again that there was no cook. So bizarre. Went back to the cafeteria. I thought I was ordering fried noodles, but I ended up with soup instead. Hot soup. In 90 degree weather. I ate some of it, mostly the chicken for protein, but I couldn’t put much of it away. I had a class I needed to get to and knew I wouldn’t be able to finish in the time I had left. I asked to put it in a bag to take it away with me. I didn’t want to throw the rest out in front of everyone.

I went to my third class with fingers crossed. They hadn’t shown up for the last two weeks, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. They DID show up. Every one of them was at least 10 minutes late. But most of them attended and they were a good group. When I was taking role, the girls were fascinated with how white I am. “Teacher, so white, not tan!” And they would put their arms next to mine and compare. Then I held my arm next to my leg to show that I’m even whiter than they originally thought. They loved it.

Found out from Phil today that the nicknames the kids have were given to them by their parents (not self-appointed, usually) and you can tell things about them or their families by what they are called. If someone is called First or Boss or Neung (one), this usually means they are the oldest child. If they are called Bonus or Surprise or Gift, typically they were an unplanned pregnancy. Phil has had sets of siblings called Top and Ten, Asian and Games, and Olympic and Games. He also had a student called James Bond. I think that’s great.

Spent the rest of the afternoon in the office working on lesson plans and having fun with my Foreign Language class. They tend to come into the office a couple times a day (being that this is the Foreign Language Department). When they came over and asked Phil where he was from, I smiled. I knew that they were doing their homework. Which was to ask at least one of the questions from a list of “10 Questions You Can Ask a Foreigner”. And they asked all of them. Yay! They also sent me friend requests on Facebook.

Tom had asked “You are ok with adding them on Facebook?” I told him I was because I don’t put anything on Facebook that I wouldn’t want my own mother to see (being as we are friends), so, there is nothing on there that I would be embarrassed for my students to see, either. That’s just my opinion on the subject.

Patricia and I planned to go straight back to Songkhla and get massages. We were told about a place behind the Songkhla hospital near a temple that was supposed to be really great. Left school and started our daily walk to find motorcycle taxis. It was actually pretty pleasant out. Still 92 degrees, but no humidity. I wasn’t even sweating. We didn’t walk far before two of our students, Kong and one of my ‘Beers’ (I have a six-pack of them), came along on their scooters. They offered to take us to the clock tower to catch our mini bus. Thirty baht saved is 30 baht earned. We were able to catch one right away. The one with the double green stripes. Which I figured out takes a back route to Songkhla as opposed to taking Lopburi. Yeah, I figured that out on my own. What I also worked out was that these ones don’t pack them as full. So, we were both able to sit comfortably in the front seat and have an easy ride home.

Whenever we get to Karnjanavanit Neung at the end of the day, the motorcycle taxi drivers immediately get on their bikes and just say “Greenview Mansion?” Kind of awesome.

Took 20 minutes to have a quick rinse and change in to comfy clothes (they had moved me back to my old room). I was both looking forward to and dreading the massage. I hate massages. I don’t find them relaxing at all. I find them torturesome and I hold my breath most of the time, as I would do with a particularly painful part of a tattoo. However, I had to do something about my alignment and was willing to give it a go. What have you got to lose for 120 baht ($3.81) an hour? When we got there, it was set up like a covered courtyard with a raised tile area off to the side. There were fans and a nice cross-breeze. Each area had a mattress pad with a pillow and a sheet. I laid down on my stomach and told her about the areas I had pain. Let the abuse begin!

She worked on my shoulders, neck and base of my skull. I think she was scolding me when she was working on my right shoulder. Or she may have just been commenting on all the tension stored there. Either way, it sounded like scolding. I find that I like the smell of tiger balm. That was the most pleasant part of the upper body massage. I thought I was going to go blind when she was working on my skull. She was pressing her finger for long periods at the top of my spine. I kept thinking to myself, “It will be worth it in the end. It will be worth it in the end…” When she moved down to my hip, it felt like I was floating. So very nice. I think my body was mostly elated that she was no longer doing things to my shoulders and my head.

She worked on my hips, my butt and my legs. This was my favorite part. She had me roll on to my back and wrapped a towel around my ankle to get leverage. Then she used her foot to basically rotate my hip back into my pelvic joint. It felt wonderful. She would also press down on the sides of my pelvis for long periods and then release. I could feel the warm rush of blood. Really nice. She also gave me a tummy massage. That was a new one by me. Pressing down on my intestines and internal organs. Time will tell if it makes a difference.

We felt very refreshed after wards and hopped on a tuk-tuk to take us home. For some reason, he wasn’t inclined to take us all the way to Soi Sib-bpat. He said “No, Soi Sib”. Fine. Take us to road 10 instead of 18. Not sure why he wouldn’t take us the other 100 feet to our street. He was going to have to go that way to get back to the main road anyhow…

Had some dinner at Pop’s restaurant. Pork fried rice. Mmmmmm…..

At the end of school, we were informed that they would be celebrating Teacher’s Day (which was this last weekend) on Wednesday and Thursday, so we wouldn’t have class for first and second periods on those days. Told to us AFTER we had already prepared lesson plans. Oh well. I was looking forward to seeing what they would do for us. I had heard reports from Brian and other teachers about what their students did for them the week before. I had high hopes.