March 25, 2008

- I smother myself daily with 15% Deet Mosquito Repellant Lotion, and I hate it! I still get bit!
- All the time, is naptime.
- I still have cramps.
- Fred snores SO loud!
- I just wrote Allan another postcard.
- I miss Allan like crazy!!!
- I forgot my f’n ipod charger…grrr…
- Thai girls want their skin to be light and white, while American’s work hard to get a good tan. Hmmm.
- New nickname: Farang Noi (a little bit white)
- We went to the market and shopped a little today, I got some pretty cool bags, and some of the best Thai tea ever!
- I’m thinking that I am going to invent Thai tea ice cream, if it hasn’t been done already

March 23, 2008

Monday March 24, 2008

- I went for another long walk with Mom today (the scenery is so rural and different than what I am used to, it’s a beautiful change of pace.)
- We took the bus to the post office and went downtown to shop a little.
- Everyone looked at me like I was an alien. It is very unnerving.
- I got fitted today for a custom-made silk skirt suit.
- The ice cream man loves me. J Ha, ha!
- The She-man a few houses over, isn’t kidding anyone!
- Fred got Ba Dang a brand new propane “Thai stove”.
- I had Gwit Theal (Thai noodle soup) for lunch
- I miss Allan!
- My cousin P’Sang asked me to go to a cockfight with him, and I strongly declined making an aww hell-no look, while drawing fake tears on my face with my finger.
- I went walking in the town park (which is amazing), with my Mom and Thuc-Tha. We watched the most hilarious display of people doing aerobics! Especially the gay guy in spandex with the cute bubble-butt. J HA!!!
- I have cramps. Buh.

Sunday, March 23

Sunday, March 23

- I love the sound of rain falling on a tin roof (wow, that was very Norah Jones of me)
- I love the bathing ritual of Thai women. They take pride and care of their skin powdering and lotioning (another one of my made-up words), and they wear these sarongs that they switch before they shower, the dirty one- and after, the clean one. It is almost an art form all on its own.
- The toilet situation here is no fun.
- Fresh Thai fruit is unlike anything else!
- Money, my Aunt’s rottweiler, is infested with fleas, BAD. L
- I’m not sure if my Aunt and Mom are kidding with me about the arms length long lizard that lives in the house. (It makes tapping noises at night)
- Mom and I went for a long morning walk around the ‘hood this morning.
- Fred “put mak” (it’s Thai for, talks too much)
- We had a Thai breakfast of sticky rice and fried eggs…enough to make you fall back asleep again!
- I named two of Ba Dang’s nameless Min Pins; the female-Honey, the male-Houston
- Exotic flowers grow like weeds here (orchids, lilies, azaleas, etc.)
- I love watching my Mom and Aunt pick on each other just like kids. It’s easy to picture their childhood of pestering each other.
- I want to go shopping; I’m bored.
- It has been raining all morning long-YAY!
- I wish Allan was here- I love him.
- I wish my Aunt had internet access! What is a girl to do without internet for a whole month!?

March 22, 2008

-I’ve come to realize that I get my magazine obsession and naturally wavy hair from my Aunt.
-I spoke with the MIL, Genny, today and it was really nice and made me feel somewhat closer and connected to Allan.
-Fred’s feet still look like footballs (they have been swollen this whole trip)
-I’m living pretty primitively for my own taste, but my Ba Dang has a refrigerator that plays music when you open it. J
-Bugs love me
-Frogs around here sound like Puerto Rican Coquis, only with a Thai accent
-I’m BORED. Everyone wants to sleep all of the time! (Except for Ba Dang, who just does laundry and sweeps)
-Everyone in this country stares at me like I am a mystical creature; like a unicorn or something. I can’t even imagine if I was blonde!
-Thai game shows are exactly what you expect them to be- RIDICULOUS!
-In Thailand, life revolves around food. It’s not helping me lose weight, that’s for sure.
-I miss Allan.

March 21, 2008

So far, not so good. Allan called early this morning, and told me that we will be transferring to Philadelphia. It was sooo nice talking to him, although it was the hardest conversation I’ve ever had with him since he’s been gone. I think we both had our hopes up for Houston, and with us being so far apart; it was a very emotional phone call. I stood in the kitchen at my Aunt’s house, tears running down my face uncontrollably. I know that everyone was wondering WTF?
Forget the Philly part, the worst thing about this conversation is that I failed to tell Allan Happy Birthday! I feel like the worst wife ever!!! I can’t believe I did that!!! Not to make excuses, but he called right when I woke up, I was disoriented, and still had no clue what day or time it is, and I was still jet-lagged and confused! Ugh, that is no excuse… I CAN’T BELIEVE I DID THAT! I never forget these things, and I feel so terrible that I can’t even explain. I pre-sent him a card, and some gifts before my trip, but I actually spoke to him on “The Day” and didn’t say a word! I feel so awful. He had to call back after we hung up, to say, “Did you forget to say something?” I was like, “I love you???” I AM SUCH A SCHMUCK!!! I hate the way I feel right now. I wish I could just snap my fingers and magically appear before Allan, and hug and kiss him all over, and tell him how sorry I am. I know it sounds like I am beating myself up over this. It is just hard being on the other side of the world, and not able to talk to your husband when you want to, because he is at Officer’s school, and they only have half-assed working pay phones. L I just need to vent. My heart aches right now. I could tell he was bummed; my poor hubby spent a lonely birthday in CT, while his wife forgot to wish him a good one. Way to go Mischelle.

I am lying in bed right now, and there are too many things around me that make me uncomfortable:
- The bed comforter is super itchy…no sheets.
- The mattress is rock hard.
- There are several large spiders above my head.
- The fan squeals like a cricket each rotation
- There is no reading light, just a long fluorescent bulb across the room opposite of those damn spiders.
- My hip hurts
- There is no clock in here
- Allan is not next to me.
I know that I sound like a bitchy-puss, but this is really hard for me. At this point I am having such a bad day, that not even Tylenol PM can make better. I need to sleep and just pray that the next day will bring me sunshine.

Thursday, March 20th 2008

I got, well we got ripped off at the Amari Hotel in Bangkok. We were told at check-in that the cost would be $60.00 per night, so we stayed for 2 nights. At checkout we were told it was over $300.00 a night and that there was nothing they could do about that. I was so angry that I was shaking! I did my best to stay composed, and realized that without anything written on paper, I could not prove this statement. I sucked it up, paid, and left.
After we left the hotel, we went to the Royal Palace and temple in Bangkok. It was incredibly beautiful! The King’s sister recently passed away from cancer, and everyone was there wearing black, and was there to pay his or her respects. Well, my Aunt warned us of this and we prepared by wearing black. Little did I know that it could not be sleeveless? So it was a small fiasco finding the farang some type of cover-up to hide my shoulders. My Aunt’s BFF’s daughter (did you get that?), works at the Royal Palace, and found me some light blue work shirt to put on so that I could even enter the grounds. It made me stick-out like a sore thumb even more! Here, we did a quick 2-hour tour (apparently this should be an all-day event), and I was able to see the infamous Emerald Buddha. This is a gorgeous Buddha that is inside a temple that is made completely of the precious stone. It was breath taking. I prayed, donated a few baht, and left feeling a little more cultured and schooled in Thai history.

We left the Royal Palace and started our trek over to my Ba Dang’s (my Aunt) house. It was about a 9-hour drive, and at this point I have no clue what day it is or what time it is. All I know at this point is that I miss Allan so bad that I want to cry. We finally get to my Aunt’s house safely in Sakkon Nakhon, and I go straight to bed and crash.

Thailand Trip! (finally)

Okay, so it’s been a while, once again, I need to get better at this. I am currently in Thailand visiting my family. This trip is a trip of a lifetime, and I am terribly sad that Allan is not here to share it with me. I want to copy some of what is in my travel journal to give you all an update. Let’s see, this trip has been pretty grueling and unbearable at times, and completely amazing and unforgettable others. I arrived in Thailand on March 17th (having left on the 15th…somehow we missed Sunday altogether).
My travel partners are my Mother, and her husband, Fred. We had a very long flight of over 20 hours that seemed to last a decade. The entire time I was wondering whether Fred was going to make it. He is an extremely large man with terrible health conditions, and probably should not have been traveling in the 1st place. We have a very hard time communicating with each other (okay, who am I kidding, we just don’t get along) and felt that maybe during this trip, we would turn a new leaf and start fresh. YEAH, right!!! I was hopeful in this pursuit, and I know the trip isn’t over, but I feel this is a lost cause. More than anything, I want this for my Mom. She doesn’t need to be stuck in the middle; it just happens. This is just a little intro to how my trip has been so far. I am halfway through at this point, and pray that it gets better.

Anyways, here is my journal entry Day 1:

It’s March 17th (I think) and I am so friggin’ tired and starved. It’s my 1st day in Thailand, and it’s already off to a terrible start. Never mind the 20 something hour plane ride it took to get here, and the fact that Sunday was completely skipped, Never mind all of the family drama that ensued the whole way here… Ugh, I am too tired to even write about it…just never mind.
I’m over it.


In between these entries we stayed in Bang Saen, Thailand, and Bangkok. We stayed on the beach one night in Bang Saen at a pretty low-end, dirty, beachside, “hotel” with no AC. It was a pretty eye-opening experience. I may be exaggerating a tad, but it kinda reminded me of the motel that Leo Dicaprio stayed at in the beginning of the movie The Beach. That evening, we ate at an amazing seafood restaurant with prawns the size of lobsters, and some of the best Tom Yum Goong (shrimp soup) I have ever tasted. My Aunt (that I had just met) and her best friend ended up bunking with me that night in my room, and we all three slept together like sardines in a can. It was interesting- two Thai women who speak no English, and little ol’ me, the farang (white-girl), who speaks hardly any Thai. If only I had it on film, so you could see the cave-man way of playing charades to get our points across.

The next day, after our complimentary breakfast of rice soup, and fried miniature fish, we headed to Bangkok. We went to a beautiful (that is understatement) temple on the way. I have never been to a temple like this before. It was sort of an outdoor temple. There were wild monkeys, amazing Chinese-style artwork, and beautiful bright colors of red and gold everywhere. This was a special place for me, and I don’t really even know why. Incense fumigated the air and there were flowers everywhere. I knelt down on my knees and prayed and prayed. I was full of emotion, not only from the trip, and Fred, and just about to start my “lunar flow”, but because I had finally made it. I made it to this place that has always left my heart a little empty. Tears slowly fell from my face, as sweat dripped from my forehead. Something overcame me as I wiped my tears so that I could see the beautiful, peaceful, shrine that was in front of me. I don’t even think I could explain what it all meant. I just know that, for that small moment in time, all I could think about was Allan, all of the people that I love so dearly, and everything that I am most grateful for. Most of all, I was grateful for being there, at that moment.