Hello. Sorry for the lack of updates. I haven’t even gotten around to taking the motorbike photo I promised. It’s just weird to stop during a daily activity and say, “Hold up guys I need a photo!” Zooming off to the city has already become far too normal to be event-worthy. But I will get you that photo, maybe this week!
Settling in has been good and bad. I love all the people here and the new friends I’ve made. I feel pretty insecure about my job and my abilities as a teacher. Somehow we keep getting through another four to five classes each day, but it seems like the material is always too easy for the kids sitting in front and too hard for the kids sitting in back. It’s hard to find a balance.
This weekend is a holiday weekend. There is no school on Monday for the Buddhist holiday of Vesākha, where (from what I’ve gathered from my students) it is traditional to visit a temple, light incense or a candle, and process around the temple three times. I was feeling a little bummed that I didn’t have any exciting travel plans for the long weekend, but simultaneously relieved that my lack of exciting plans precluded any exhausting overnight bus trips, since I never sleep well on those. I had decided to drive to Sukothai, a historical site a little over an hour away, but relaxation won out when I woke up with a fever yesterday morning.
It is a truly bizarre experience to be living in Thailand and find yourself unable to get warm. I had to get one of the comforters out of storage. It is a bright blue which actually matches some of the pillowcases I had bought, and the design features a child’s version of the solar system complete with all the planets. I stayed in bed literally the entire day aside from necessary trips to the bathroom—which is more challenging than it sounds, because there are stairs, and you can see through the stairs, and part of my illness manifested in a touch of vertigo. I thought I was feeling better in the evening, until I ran downstairs to ask a valiant friend to bring me some items from the convenience store (yogurt, and grape juice). I tried to move back up the stairs too swiftly, nearly fainted, and had to sit at the bottom for a few moments and regain my composure.
When I woke briefly at 3 AM my fever had lifted, and things seemed promising for today aside from the killer stomach ache which seemed to have manifested in place of yesterday’s headache. I couldn’t decide where eating was a good idea or not, but I eventually went with yogurt and plain, room temperature noodles. When I said I hoped to lose weight in Thailand, this isn’t quite what I had in mind. Now it is afternoon again, and the stomach ache has receded for the moment…. only to make way for the return of headache and fever! Huzzah!
Hopefully I will fell better enough to give you a more exciting update soon.
Grace Makley 