Isara Volunteer - Terri

[Jennie]

Mmmm, great pics of the tropical muesli... Think I might have to get it tomorrow morning as well... Very adictive... See you at MutMees Terri! Hihi.

[thartley]

You can't print a picture like that and not say what it is! What kind of yellow and red things are out in the field??

I dont actually know what those yellow and red things are out there in that field.  They are kind of beside a wat at the Kon Kaen Park, and they have little metal plaques attached to them, but I dont know what they say.  I was going to ask Ming or someone if they knew what they were.  There were alot more of them than I snapped a photo of.

And Kitkat, Jennie had that for breakfast yesterday morning.  She and I met for breakfast up at MutMee's.  I know Laurie loves the yoghurt, banana, and honey they serve, but THIS looked so good!  And it is loaded with mangoes and pineapples and bananas, not to mention toasted sesame seeds, toasted peanuts, and honey..... it is my new favorite meal here....  and the yoghurt is homemade, I believe.  Very different than the type we have back home.

[thartley]

For the record, I have lost a total of 19 pounds since I left the states.   And I eat everything I want to here.  Curry, rice, scrambled eggs and bacon, coffee, toasted baguettes with butter and jam, tomato and cheese sandwiches, yoghurt and fruit, peanut butter sandwiches, bread and mushroom ragu, pizza on occasion. 

[Ginafish]

Congratulations!

Baguettes with jam? what flavor's?

[KitKat]

For the record, I have lost a total of 19 pounds since I left the states.   And I eat everything I want to here.  Curry, rice, scrambled eggs and bacon, coffee, toasted baguettes with butter and jam, tomato and cheese sandwiches, yoghurt and fruit, peanut butter sandwiches, bread and mushroom ragu, pizza on occasion. 

Wow!! I want to begin YOUR diet.  Sounds like a diet I could stay one the rest of my life.   HA!   You didn't mention all the cycling and climbing 8 flights of stairs several times a day.
Seriously Terri, a huge CONGRATUALTIONS!!   You deserve to see these results, you've worked hard.  I'm proud of you!

[thartley]

Ginafish- the only flavor jam I have ever gotten with the baguettes is strawberry, but its very good, like Smucker's preserves really.

And thanks Kitkat!  I have to admit that the stair climbing was beginning to bother my knees a bit, so I dont take those as often as I was.  But I do get out and ride everyday, somewhere.  Yesterday I rode for a meal (haha!), then around to the ILC to say hello and see what was going on there, then I ride over to Tajadet Market (the bigger market right on the river) and walked all over that place.  The lady singing and playing the tiny guitar was out again.  I didnt make it all the way thru it.  You might remember how the walkways get narrower and narrower the further you go down into the rabbit hole?  Well, there comes a point when I get a little claustrophobic and had to turn around and head back. 

So I do get out and stay busy, except when I am writing.  But even then sometimes I will take a notepad with me and go somewhere and jot things down.

[thartley]

If there is one thing that I have learned about PK since being here that I absolutely didn't know before, it is how much he does not like spiders.  So I thought I would post this particularly good photo, just for him.  If you look, you can see the web it is getting ready to throw down somewhere.  When I took the picture, it was a spider, but when I looked at it on the screen full res, it almost looked like an ant, but believe me, it was a spider.  Right now, it is a tiny baby thing, but it will grow to be HUGE.

[Nick Lane]

That is a fantastic photo, Terri! I usually don't keep up with the individual volunteer threads because I am intimidated by their post counts but it is late (or early, I suppose) and I decided to end my viewing of the DVXUser TimeFest films for tonight; I refreashed the Isara page and saw the only unread post was here so I said "what the heck, I'll check it out!" and I am glad I did.

[Ginafish]

Where did you see this spider at? Isn't that odd how it's legs have little barbs on them, probably so that if it leaps into the air, it has a good chance of sticking to something before falling to the ground, eh? Either way, it's creepy!

[thartley]

He (or she) was my dinner companion the other day.  He is sitting on the chair opposite me. 

Not much time to say much more.  We are getting ready to start shooting the Karaoke Promo video!     Just waiting on a few extras and a couple of props to get here. 

[Ginafish]

A few extras??? AGH! The pain of waiting! The Pain!

[thartley]

A little more to shoot tomorrow.  Then it is ALL in the hands of PK for the edit.  I hope he adds some of the "special features" at the end for us.  It was fun to shoot.  Just the billionth time of hearing "just one more take, do you mind?" was difficult as there just was no calculating the heat index upstairs there.  I had no idea that the front of your legs can sweat so much that it soaks through the fabric of your clothes.  But PK had to be the one most uncomfortable of everyone.   

[Nick Lane]

Thartley, great to hear that things went well at the shoot! I can't wait to see the final product. You know, whenever I am acting, if I go into a scene that I have never rehearsed before it takes me a few takes before I can get into the mode. Thus, what ends up happening, is me getting frustrated and constantly saying "Sorry, do it again." In fact, when I was filming my TimeFest entry (which never got completed) I freaked out at one point. The camera only caught me jumping off screen before it went off, but needless to say, if I am not doing improv I need to rehearse to say everyone the trouble!

[thartley]

Oh, I forgot my lines, PK forgot his, we forgot blocking, there were language difficulties or maybe things were lost in translation...like telling an extra to exit through a particular doorway and they not only exit, but go all the way downstairs to get back on the computers.....     Or they miss their cue for blocking because they actually don't respond to their character's name.

It was either a lot of fun, or the heat just made me delirious.   

[Nick Lane]

Great story, Terri! I like the extra just heading back to the computer and not even responding to the character's name. Great stuff. I love the little quirks of filmmaking. Make it interesting (and sometimes a bit frustrating).

Again with my TimeFest entry, we were filmming a scene where I drive a dune buggy down this dirveway on a property forsale near my house that, needless to say, we didn't have permission to shoot on (gorilla style filmmaking, baby!) So we only had one take because of that reason and because a neighbor was watching suspiciously, alerted by the buggy's noise. This of course ended up being the shot that the camera guy screwed up and the pan came out a bit shakey.

[KitKat]

 

It was either a lot of fun, or the heat just made me delirious.   

Your comment leads my mind to remember my trip to Thailand and all the weird, exciting, funny, embarasing, difficult, challenging and wonderful days I spent there.   I would have loved your being there with me. 
You can turn any  experience into a delightfully funny story.   What a beautiful gift you have!!

[thartley]

I know what you mean, Kitkat.  Today was a lot of fun up at the ILC.  DODGEBALL!!!!


   


I wanted to check with Sean before posting the last one since it looks sort of compromising....like he was trying to hit the girl in the head with the ball while she prayed for him not to....and PK was back there filming it all.  LOL!!!!  But I assure you, he was actually reaching out reflexively to catch the ball, while she batted it away.  Pk was shooting lots of the dodgeball fun, too.

[thartley]

I've been practicing my Thai somewhat with Ming and PK's help.  But I' m here to tell ya, I dont think its helping me.  I went to Tesco today and took a tuk tuk because it was (yes, you guessed it) too hot for me to ride there and back on my bike.  When you come out of Tesco, you are sort of put into a queue for the next ride, and I was trying to talk to the tuk tuk queue manager people.  One lady had given us a ride before and knew we always said to take us to Chaiyaporn Market because from there I know to say 'leo kwa' for turn right and 'leo sai' for turn left.  I was so surprised she would remember me by location that I smiled and said "chai, Chaiyaporn Market, leo kwa, leo sai" while making ridiculous hand movements at the same time.  There were also a couple of men there working the queue and one was talking to me also, though I had no idea what he was saying.  I saw a tuk tuk coming up and the Thai man who had been talking to me said something and put his hand up in the air in front of me.  He didnt put it down, and we HAD all just been sort of talking and laughing, so I figured he was telling me my ride was here and giving me some kind of "adios".  I looked at his hand in the air there and really had no clue what he was saying, so I high-fived him.       

Ended up, he was telling me to wait cuz that wasn't my tuk tuk.  But he and everyone else there got a big laugh out of the idiot falang.  My ride was the very next one.

[Mus.]

You may have started a new fad. Everytime you go there he'll high five you, reminding you of the awkward incident.

[Ginafish]

Yep, I agree with Mus, you can start a new trend. High Fives' from farangs (with the right hand naturally) mean, take me to the Chaiyaporn Market!

[Nick Lane]

Ah, Terri, that is a great story! I love awkward things like that (when they don't happen to me )

[Ming]

Sorry, Terri.  But don't feel like an idiot, you tried your best, i know.  For the tuk tuk in Nongkhai, not a lot of farang can speak thai 
so when you speak thai to them with a farang's accent    they think  you're speaking English to them which makes them not try to get what u say.
But if you say the name of the place they can take you there. 

Promise I will teach you more thai

[thartley]

Thanks Ming!  I think the people there were having fun, the same as me.  Sometimes the language difficulties can be very funny, but we each know we are both trying, and we just laugh at our attempts.  I dont think they really thought I was an idiot.      I think we were all just having fun at each other's attempts to communicate.  I am still laughing that I gave him a high-five because I don't understand why I did that.  It was a purely American reflex.   

[Ginafish]

I'm thinking this thread is missing some pictures and some news about Nong Khai...especially since June 25th is the date of the last post!!

Where are my pictures of the IlC? Where are my pictures of Terri and Laurie exploring Nong Khai and doing touristy things? Where are my pictures of bowls of new foods???

[thartley]

We're not doing the touristy thing.  You've seen every inch of the ILC.  And we've been eating the same food you already have seen.  Laurie will not be photographed and posted, I'm not a fan of it myself, as you know.  I do owe some pics to the doc thread, though.  I think we need to make you a remote volunteer and you post pics of every second of the day, all around your house, and the food you eat.