#012 Thailand Update: A Normal Day

Today is the first day that I have nothing unusual or strange to report. We have received our shipment, I ate a decent lunch, and nothing unusual happened at work, on the way to work, or at home. Wow! My first completely normal day!

Well, now what do I write about?

I’m sure I’ll think of something. After all, it is long drive into the office.

Weight Tracking or Weight Loss?
You know that weight tracking contest I’m in? (weight tracking sounds so much better than weight loss, right?) One of the people in the contest is doing what she can to ensure victory. She got sick! Now, she has diarrhea, she doesn’t feel like eating, and losing lots of weight. I’m not willing to go to that extreme. But, as they say when a lion is chasing you, you don’t have to be faster than the lion; you just need to be a little faster than the slowest guy. All I need to do is fatten up a couple of the other people, and I’m set.

Today, I’m going out to lunch with the group, and it is being paid for by the guy who lost last week (Ekgachai). There are only four people involved in this contest; however, if you lose, you buy lunch for eight people. Not really sure how that works out, and I do not recall being made aware of this stipulation when I originally signed up. Oh well, it’s not like lunch is terribly expensive. My lunch yesterday was a cabbage soup that cost me about 10 Baht, plus the 7 Baht for my “Nam Plau Quad Lek,” or small bottle of water. 17 Baht is about 43 cents in the US, so I’m not breaking the bank here. I think even if we ate pretty well, lunch for eight people would still only run about $10US. Isn’t it amazing how cheap things are?

Chromology and Other Stories
When I got home last night, Nathan was showing off his flowers to me. He kept shoving them in my face saying “Mell it Dad, Mell it!” Mmm… lovely. Christian has been rather affectionate as well. He is normally the first one to give me a hug when I get home, and he is the one who has been demanding my attention. I spent the first few minutes playing with him. He’s the only kid who openly admits to me that he wants to be tickled. Of course, I’m always accommodating.

Esaiah was downstairs playing Nintendo. At dinner we talked about school, and he told me he did 40 curl ups (situps) in 2 minutes. I was pretty impressed by that, especially when I first pictured a curl up as meaning a pull-up. I don’t think I could do FOUR of those now, let alone 40. I asked him how the other kids did, and he said some of the other kids did as many as 80 curl ups in 2 minutes. What are they feeding these kids? I didn’t ask him about what’s going on with the girls, although Livonia did mention to me that Esaiah was talking about an Asian girl named “ducky.” I really hope that’s a nickname, although I don’t know how you get a nickname like that, unless you are in the movie “Sixteen Candles.”

Esaiah is also studying chromology, which he said is the study of color. I didn’t realize color was so fascinating that an entire “ology” was created that could be taught in Junior High. At first he said “Criminology” which tended to tie in well with his assignment the other night involving finger printing. Did I tell you about that? I probably did, but I’m too lazy to check the other posts and see. So, I’ll tell you again. Esaiah had homework last night where he had to find out how many 8th grade students had arches, loops, or whorls in their fingerprints. I cannot possibly explain what each of those words mean without pictures, so just rest assured that it’s a particular pattern of fingerprint. All 160 students were fingerprinted and their results were put into a table. From there, they ran a COUNTIF equation in Excel to see how many each had. I was pretty impressed they were teaching useful Excel equations in class. That’s something I know he’ll be able to use later in life.

Anyway… he did all these calculations on fingerprinting, so that’s why I thought Criminology made sense. I’m still confused about Chromology.

Livonia the Explorer
Livonia went the Green Gate market again today. I came home to rather stuffed refrigerator. It’s starting to look “lived in” now. She said she had a better experience this time, and was able to get herself around a little better. Her Thai is improving everday, so I’m sure that helps in the market. This Friday, she’s going out with a friend named Nuet to a place called Talad Market. Nuet pronounces it Thalad Barket. Livonia is also getting connected with our church. I put her name down for the Worship Team since she enjoys singing so much. She is going to be part of the vocal team, and will work the PowerPoint slides during service when she’s not singing. I guess if you’re gonna sing in this church, you better learn a little bit about technology!

Livonia also made a great dinner last night. She made Fried Chicken, Green Beans, and Mashed Potatoes. How’s that for nice, authentic Thai cuisine? When she made the fried chicken, she didn’t have any flour, so she substituted it with the only thing we did have: Bisquick pancake batter. That made for some sweet chicken! Actually, it wasn’t bad. Of course, if I keep eating that, I will definitely be buying lunch next week.

Livonia has also done a great job keeping up on our Daily Devotional. I wish I could say the same. I think I’m a few days behind. I’m very proud of her for keeping up with that. It’s nice to read her thoughts and perspectives on things. I’m trying to get her setup to add to the blog website so you can all benefit from reading her thoughts as well. I hope to get that done soon.

The Ride Home
From the time that I put in all the extra pillows, I have really been enjoying my rides home. Last night, I was really looking forward to it, since I didn’t get any sleep the night before. Just before leaving work, a couple of issues erupted, resulting in a few of us staying later than usual. My friends Kanittha and Ekgachai asked me if I could give them a lift to their homes, since they live along the way and they missed the company bus.

Sure.

Now I have to stay awake on the ride home. It was still a good ride home. It’s nice to have someone to talk to. After all, the ride home is very long. I am learning that if I leave for work by 6AM, I can usually get into work at around 7:15AM, but the ride home will always take at least 1.5 to 2.5 hours. Traffic is a huge factor. Last night, traffic was about average, so I didn’t get home until about 7:30PM. By the time I got home, I was exhausted.

That’s all I have for today. As I said, it was a relatively normal day. I’ll try and get a better update from my boys tonight on how they are doing in school and with making friends. I’m sure you are all wondering about that (so am I).

Until next time...