Isara Volunteer - Terri

[thartley]

SOMEONE PLEASE ASK LAURIE ABOUT HER WATCH!!!!

 

[Ginafish]

Hey Sneaker! Tell us about your watch?? (your momma told me to say that)

And really, Sneaker, you are in freakin Thailand! WooHOo! You are going to volunteer with Isara! This is your thread too! Tell us about your adventures! Or I'll force you to start a blog.

[KitKat]

SOMEONE PLEASE ASK LAURIE ABOUT HER WATCH!!!!

 

Hey Sneaker! Tell us about your watch?? (your momma told me to say that)

And really, Sneaker, you are in freakin Thailand! WooHOo! You are going to volunteer with Isara! This is your thread too! Tell us about your adventures! Or I'll force you to start a blog.

Hey Sneaker!!! Please tell us about your watch???  Come on, please!!

[Sneaker]

I dropped my bloody freaking expensive watch out of an eight story hotel window. It glimmered in the hot sunlight before crashing into a dense outcrop of vegetation, over a fence and in the back of a very angry Thai womans' backyard. I spent atleast an hour searching for it, such deep sentimental value.

I spent most of my time on the bottom floor looking for a way over the fence. Mind you I managed to straddle the seven foot fence, but ended up just sitting there yelling at myself for being a sissy and not taking the two story jump down into the backyard. I decided I would get down and take the safer way around; around the block, down an alleyway and up to the angry Thai woman. I tried all sorts of hand gestures to convey to her that I was on some level retarded and dropped my watch out of the top floor of the hotel room just on the side of her backyard. She didn't get it, seemed very angry and started yelling for someone in the house.

I don't really know what shocked me more, the handsome young Thai gentleman in boxer briefs coming out of the home or the fact that said gentleman knew what I was asking for. Regardless, I followed him into the backyard and started rummaging through the foliage, uncovering all sorts of insects I'm sure are not yet discovered by the rest of the world. At some point a neighbor of the angry Thai woman came to help with a detached broom stick, pushing aside brush and leaves. Then the manager of our hotel showed up with a machette(?) and proceeded to behead every living plant in the vacinity. Somewhere along in this little adventure I stumbled across a Toad roughly the size of a football. At first I thought it was a coiled snaked and blurted "Good Lord!" figuring this was the end of me, no more would I play in strangers backyards looking for items I threw out my window. I was either going to die of a heart attack or humiliation that I was going to die in mud and trash, most likely adding to the 'ick' pool when I messed myself at the sight of my maker. Good thing I figured out what the ugly thing was before I made a fool of myself. q;

About half an hour later the manager hooted in joy and showed me my watch, unbroken. But... he proceeded to shove it back in the dirt to show me where it had been.

I've left out alot, Thartley can fill you in. (=

[thartley]

HAHAHAHAHA!!!!  She didnt leave much out, except that I was up on our balcony with binoculars, sure she was going to find one of those scorpions before she found the watch.  Then it occurred to me, this was a GREAT photo-op!      Does that make me a bad mom?    (Laurie says "Yes, it does."  She's standing right over me at the moment)  So anyway, I snapped a few pictures...and there were up to seven people out there mucking around in the mud looking for her watch.   

If it had been me, I would have said goodbye to the watch before it hit the ground.  The longer she was out there, straddling tree stumps and getting muddy, the more I was sure she was suffering from a heat stroke and didnt know she should give up.

[Ginafish]

So IS the WATCH stILL in the DIRT??

[Sneaker]

So IS the WATCH stILL in the DIRT??

No, no it's not.

[KitKat]

That was quite a afternoon you had Sneaker. I'm glad you found your watch.  The odds of finding it were pretty slim.
Did the angry Thai woman ever understand what you were looking for? Did she smile for you when it was finally found?

[Ginafish]

No, no it's not.

*whew!* I thought when you said he shoved it back in the dirt, you might have left it there or that he shoved it in realllly deep so he could go back after dark and take it for himself!

[thartley]

While Sean was hooking up with WiFi at the building we both stay in, I left Laurie at the ILC with PK for classes with the kids and later, the adults.  Around 8:30pm, Laurie comes in our room, looking just worn out.  I thought, my God!  What kind of class did PK teach today?  But as it turned out, Laurie went with Ming and played badminton and basketball.    We had taken a decent bike ride earlier in the day with PK so I could get a modem for the WiFi, so Laurie was pretty tired.

We rode our bikes back over to the ILC and had pizza while we watched an episode of Lost on dvd from season three (randomly shouting out spoilers to these people will get you lynched!) and then the bottom dropped out of the sky.  It was POURING!  After one episode of Lost, Laurie was ready to go home...no matter that we needed an Ark to make the short trip.  We stood on the porch long enough for me to see that the raindrops were the size of quarters, and I muttered something like "I'm going to get you for this" and stepped off the last dry spot on the earth.  And right then, ZAP! a lightning strike!  Anyone who knows anything about me knows I am deathly afraid of lightning.  I'm not real sure what happened after that, its all a blur really.  I think I spoke in tongues for a brief moment before hopping on my bike and pedaling like Hell was coming after me.  I never even looked back to see if my daughter was even with me. And I didnt hit the handbrakes on my bike until I was rocketing into the little parking space in the building.

My entire backside was dry.  The front of me was soaked to the bone, but the back of my shirt and pants was completely dry. haha!!

[Sean]

While Sean was hooking up with WiFi at the building we both stay in...

Hey, I like Wifi just as much as the next person, but let me clarify.....

While Sean was hooking us up with Wifi...

[thartley]

Ha!  Sean got me on that one.      Good one!

Well, after a good afternoon of hanging signs on tuk tuks, Ming and Jennie are making a homecooked meal!      PK's only rules on food are apparently, no vegetables, no seaweed, and no something else.  I can't remember.  He killed me at "no vegetables" and my brain shut down.     But he looked like a kid at Christmas discovering all his presents contain boxes of Little Debbies when he heard Ming say they were making cashew chicken.     PK LOVES cashew chicken!

The place smells awesomely delicious!  Laurie is taking pictures so maybe she will get to post something in the "In the Kitchen" thread.  I need to get some things added to my laptop before I can post pics. 

[PK]

Hey, I like Wifi just as much as the next person, but let me clarify.....

Hilarious. lol

[Ginafish]

No Way! Actual cooking at the ILC? This, I've got to see. (major hint)

I can totally see you pedaling like Lance Armstrong but most bikers slump over so their stomach would stay dry in the rain. How did you manage to keep your back dry?!?!?

[thartley]

The whole back staying dry thing is a mystery to me.  PK said it must have simply been that I was going VERY fast!  I was NOT going to get struck by lightning, girl!   

We have some pictures of the food tonight, and I think Jennie snapped a photo.  We all actually sat in the classroom at tables and sat in chairs!  There was cashew chicken, wonderful white rice, and a bowl of cooked green things called Morning Glories.  And Sean just went down the road to buy us little things that are the Thai version funnel cakes (sort of, he said).

[thartley]

Here are some pretty random pics I just resized using a firefox add-on called snipshot, but I'm going to get photoshop.  Using the online tools is soooooo slow!  It took the better part of an hour to get these four pics done.    

The first one is of Bangkok traffic, and the next two are from Song Kran (or PK trying to find creative ways to cool me off).

     

And sometimes we can get the drivers to agree to let us hang signs on their tuk tuks if we ask them in their sleep, like this nice man.   
 

[thartley]

After walking around while everyone hung up signs today (I was taking pictures and filming), I went to get a bite to eat at one of my favorite places, called OJ's. It is where I rented the Dean Koontz book from I mentioned in the book section here.  Anyway, Laurie has got me hooked on red curry, so I ordered that with some rice.  And then Dear, the girl who works there who is a great cook, brought me a plate of sliced mango.  I have never in all my life tasted sweeter or more delicious mango anywhere!  I am glad she brought it, too, because after a few bites of the curry, you really need to fruit to cut the fire out of your mouth. 


         

[KitKat]

This is great news Terri. How is the coffee? You've found a great place to eat!
In your photo I see an English print newspaper. It's feeling more like home for you every day! 

[Ginafish]

Is that 35 baht for coffee??

OJ's looks like a good place. Thank you for pictures of the food!! I think that's the first ones' we've seen from you. Is it?

[KitKat]

Is that 35 baht for coffee??

Terri, what's the Thai baht exchange rate now?  Is your coffee about $1 or more US currency?

[thartley]

Ginafish, I have posted a few pics here and there but they were incredibly difficult to resize and upload.  I finally got photoshop today on my laptop and have been sooo busy working on the pics.  (I also posted ANOTHER new blog entry with shots of Casa Hartley!)

Kitkat, the BHT:USD exchange is roughly 32bht:1USD, so yeah, about a dollar for the coffee there, but I actually have yet to buy a cup of coffee anywhere here.  I have a container of Taster's Choice here and I nuke some water in the mornings.  I have not even set foot inside Starbux here yet.  I'm afraid to.  I wont want to leave the building! haha!!!

[thartley]

I think we are actually going to Statue Park this morning.  Laurie is (drum roll please) AWAKE!  She is awake and dressed and left the building to get breakfast for herself.  So now, I have to get off of here and throw some clothes on and get to creackin'.  (HA!  I meant to say crackin', but creakin is probably more appropriate!)

I hope the weather holds out long enough for the trip. 

[Ginafish]

I hope you made it and that the weather was sunny and hot for you instead of rainy!

[Sean]

Is it just me or does it look like Terri is in a trance walking towards the statues??

[thartley]

OMG!  that DOES look like a maternity shirt in that shot! haha!!!  I was holding that pose for most of the time we were there, because I was saying "Look at THAT statue!  No, Look at THAT one!...No, Look over there!!!"

hahaha!!!!!