It Wasn't Dengue!

It's a beautiful day.

Let me set the soundtrack for this day, the first song that came on my shuffle this morning when I walked out of the house in search of coffee and noodles.

Allow me also to set the tone for this post... It is Saturday today, and I am finally feeling myself.  On Tuesday, however, I thought I had dengue fever.  A coworker had told me that I was looking quite tired on Tuesday, and sure enough, I was.  After work, I went into my strange borrowed apartment and settled in to watch Mr Holland's Opus, an old favorite that happened to be on cable.

About half way through the movie (when he starts teaching driving school and the big parade reveals that his son is deaf), I started getting the chills that felt like a big fever was coming round.  It was not pleasant.  It reminded me of when I realized I had dengue back in Cambodia.  Shivering, teary-eyed, I went and had the doorman call me a taxi so I could get a blood test at the hospital.  I'm not prone to believing I have illnesses, but it is rainy season, and I had seen a tiger mosquito in my house the week prior, so I was mighty nervous.

The taxi man didn't quite know how to handle my unkempt appearance, or the fact that I didn't have the comfort clothes that I may usually have had.  In fact, I was wearing my school dress still, a brown frock, with my bright sarong pants beneath it, and a blanket on top to handle my feverishness.  However, we made it to the hospital, and the staff anxiously tried to understand my limited Thai amidst my chattering lips.

The blood test told me that I didn't have dengue (thank the Lord), and they prescribed me some medicine to take that would ease the pain and kill any other flu symptoms that I may have had.  I managed to make it through the week, thanks in great part to my coworkers who kept me in Reese's cups and distracting chatter, and even made it to a staff BBQ at a friend's house on Friday.

I had never really believed in the 24 hour flu, until this week, when I had it.

Fast forward to this morning.

Sheaf of mail, all bills and important things.

I had a ton of errands to run this morning, because when I got back to my apartment, I found a stack of mail from bill time.  There's things to do to get ready for summer, for my month back in the US.  I've got to get to packing up, and doing laundry, and setting up my home for my absence.

One piece of mail that I got, I couldn't read.  At all.  However, a little detective work, and I realized that there was a package at the post office for my house.  My detective work consisted of me looking at the little logo, and realizing that the map on the back was for this far off errand.

Detective work required. I do see that I owe 120 baht.

In order for me to go to the post office, where all the packages arrive, I typically take the songtaew down Ramkanghaeng, this big long road in the city, then take a moto to my destination.  It's usually an adventure, because it feels like it is in the middle of nowhere.  You drive down all these mixed up roads, and all of a sudden, this post office appears as if by magic.  Since the place is actually two buildings, you can't even go in the main entrance.  You have to go back around the corner, and enter this secreted away building with a sliding door to retrieve your package.

Post office logo. Importante.

I was enjoying my new musical playlists though, as I took this journey today.  I ate my noodles with my favorite noodle ladies, and a local even mentioned as I was paying that she sees me here every week.  "You must really like these noodles," she said.  I do.  They are the most garlicky noodles in the city.

I walked up to the bank on the way towards the bus stop where I catch the songtaew, determined to take in the collection of .25 baht and .50 baht coins that I had collected, things that I get as change from 7/11 when I pay my bills but cannot actually spend anywhere.  No one will take them, and I had a years' worth collected from various forays into the city.  The clerk, who recognized me, of course, asked me how much I had, picked out the Hong Kong cent and the Singapore cent from the mix, and gave me a 20 baht bill for my trouble, after she counted the whole mess.

I caught the songtaew, and even attempted to grab a taxi, wanting a brief respite from the heat.  He told me to grab a moto because the mess of roads wasn't something he wanted to deal with.  It wasn't a big deal, because he only took 20 baht instead of the 40 that the meter said I owed.

I walked across the bridge to the moto stand by the pagoda, and was lucky enough to land a female moto driver.  The moto stands here are amazingly well-organized, and they take turns for fares.  Whenever I am lucky enough to have a female driver, I always tip.  I try to support them in this male-dominated business whenever possible.  Khun Ann, the school staff's favorite taxi driver, is the same woman who brought me home from the eye surgery, and I trust her with my safety.

So, this very petite woman and I go flying through the city, all the way to the post office.  I step in, put my paper on the counter, and wait for my turn.  The woman behind the counter calls my house number, and I step up.  However, she keeps asking for another person.  I begin to fear that I have come to collect something that isn't mine.  Luckily, the man next to me can speak both languages far better than myself, and I let him know that I'm a renter, and that this is the owner of the home.  There's some conversation that I don't really understand, and he thinks about a translation for me.  I say, "She has to come get it herself." And he says, "Yes!"  No problem.  I grab the paper, get back on my moto, and get back to my village.  As I leave, another customer gives me a paper I dropped, very nice of them, and exit with several "Ka pun kas" on the way.

On the way home in the songtaew, I was standing on the back (where I quite like to be, since I can see everything), and yet another nice person tries to stand up and give me his seat.  It is a beautiful day in Bangkok today.  I politely decline, trying to explain with my remedial Thai and a bright smile that I like this place on the transit, and he sat back down with another smile.

Just then, this song came on, and I was unable to help myself from bobbing back and forth to the rhythm while riding through the city.  Fair warning: the video is a bit more risque than the song itself.

I was really feeling that burst of post-illness energy, and was able to make it to the other post office, where I mailed some letters, and the market, for some Rizza foods for summer, before I came on back home.  I even tried to pick up a dress at the tailor's, but she told me she had to go get some extra fabric to fix the momentous tear in the back.  So, another week before that is ready!

The rainy season has begun, bringing a more pleasant temperature to Thailand.  I don't have dengue and I finally feel myself again, and this day was too beautiful to not share.  I think I may need to see my favorite massage ladies today to celebrate the loveliness of the day, and the fact that I'll be setting food in my homeland in less than two weeks.

Goal Update: Money

One of the first blogs I wrote when I moved here was about money, and my current lack of it.

This blog, and the couple that are similar to it, inspired several comments from a variety of people.  Some people offered to front me some cash, some respected that there were words out there similar to their thoughts, some understood the place it was coming from.  Moving is hard.  Moving abroad is also hard.  I came over here with the expectation that I would be saving money, hence my goals, and those first months were quite the opposite.

But here we are, in June, and I'm reevaluating the goals that I had set, and seeing where I am now.

I've acquired a few extra jobs these last few weeks.  I'm tutoring for a neighbor kid, and also captioning videos online, a job which doesn't make much money, but gives me something to do besides sitting at home and watching television.  It's also entertaining; I've captioned for feminist MTV webcasts, alternative energy science videos, and a documentary about the Beach Boys.

These past two weekends, I've been spending only the money in my change cup.  I would go convert it to cash, but I would just be that a**hole who brings in a bunch of change to the bank and makes the ladies count it for me.  So, I've been using my coins to purchase my moto ride to the market, my coffee and water, and my rice noodle breakfast, making sure to use up all the coins that I've kept for the year.  The money stuck in there has bought two weeks' worth of breakfast routines, which is pretty nice.

All the other money I've used this week has been from my weekend tutoring gig.  My neighbor, who I rarely see, asked me a few weeks ago if I'd be willing to tutor her nephew, studying for the IELTS to get over to Australia.  We've worked on English pronunciation, and test taking skills, and reading comprehension.  Then, she buys me lunch, which is pretty neat.  I believe that people my age have an above-average appreciation for free foods.

I've been proud of myself this year.  I've saved some good money.

I saved enough to pay for eye surgery, and I couldn't be happier with the results.  I still have some astigmatism in my left eye, but they say that it may correct itself with more time.

I have saved enough to get myself home for summer, which is very exciting.

I have saved enough to pay down some of my student loans, which do nothing but stress me out.

Given the good news I had this week, I also indulged in a massage and a haircut, two desperately needed times at the spa that turned out to be well worth the money.  My hair and my neck were unhealthy in their own ways, and I've taken steps to make them better.  I also saw a movie, Spy, even though I accidentally purchased a ticket for the Thai dubbed version instead of the English one.

I've been thinking, though, that I don't usually try that hard to save money.  My colleagues seem to spend considerably more than myself, and I am often wondering why.  Granted, I live in a village far from the city center, which means my opportunities for certain activities are limited.  That will change in the fall; I'm moving into the city to be more able to acquire transportation and independence.  Hopefully, I can find an apartment that mimics the joy that I feel in my current place, and still provides me a community.

Speaking of that, I took a step to save money during Summer School (June) by moving into a friend's apartment.  She lives in an apartment complex basically across the street from school.  This saves me having to take taxis to and from school everyday, which would cost something like $15-$20 a day, along with the added stress of finding one in the morning.  The closest shopping center to school, and these apartments, is Mega Bangna.  It is mega, in every way.  There is an Ikea, a grocery, a department store, and wings full of the same types of stores.  I hate it there.

As I've been staying here, I have really wondered if I could have moved here.  The answer, undeniably, is no.  This helps me to realize what I'm looking for in my next apartment in the city.  I couldn't put my finger on what I really disliked about the place, not immediately.  It's great to be able to leave for school with 10 minutes to spare and be 5 minutes early.  It's great to have a movie theatre a cycle away from your house, with every possible type of food.  It's not great that I must brave the wall of noise in order to eat all the food.  It's not great that a ton of kids and coworkers live in the same building.  It's really not great that there's no sense of community.  I need community.  It's the small town girl in me.

I've gotten off topic.  Living in this apartment is saving me money, even if I am close to a mall with tons of things I want to eat in it.  There's very little I'm inclined to buy otherwise.  I did buy a hose and some canvases, but other than that I've been able to restrain myself.

I'm in a good place financially right now.  The extra work, despite not always working out fantastic hourly rates, makes me feel productive.  I did say I wanted to save every extra baht, and I have.

My goals for this summer with some additional cash:
1. Pay off at least one loan, and all the interest for all four loans.
2. Keep at least $2K in both Thai and US accounts.
3. Allot money to emergency saving fund.

Slowly, but surely, I'm getting on my feet and looking to pay off the momentous debt that the American education system has left me with.

A Clean Sweep

This week, the library is working on inventory and weeding.  It’s fairly tedious library work, scanning every single book and double checking its place in the collection, but also somewhat rewarding.  The library that I’m working in hasn’t had a book removed from it for years, since 2008 I believe.  Librarians know that things get accumulated during those times.  Librarians may also know that without any oversight on purchasing or selection, the library ends up as a repository for all the things that will never be checked out.

I find the process immensely satisfying.  To remove the dusty, underused books from the collection to be able to see the fresher, newer, better books provides me with such mental clarity and peace.  Perhaps that’s nerdy.  I don’t mind.  I need a bit of nerdy since my librarian glasses are permanently removed.

It’s amazing to me what the people around us begin to care about when it may not be available anymore.  A book, left unused and unloved for years, suddenly becomes the best, most special book in all the land.  I doubted Mary Kay Biagini when she talked about this in library school, but I’m beginning to see just how crushing it is to lose these sentimental things called books.

I’m sitting here, thinking about the week, and the discussions I’ve had.  I’m ruminating about the massive amount of time my colleagues and I have spent pouring over texts and deciding their fate.  The dusty, the unused, the graphic (lots of boobs), all will need to find a new home.

There was this show that used to be on TLC before that channel became reality show nonsense, and I loved it.  It was called Clean Sweep.  Their goal was to take one of those spare rooms that houses had, ones that were full of… whatever… and turn it into a usable space.  In order to accomplish this gorgeous new room, the staff took all the belongings in the room, put it on a big tarp in the front yard, and gave them an equally large tarp for “garage sale” as well as a tiny tarp for “keep”. The counselors, or hosts, or whatever, would talk them through this, and I remember some of the phrases at play…

What have you used this for in the past couple of years?

Does this really add value to your life?

Why are you keeping this thing in this room if it really is so important to you?

I found myself thinking about this show because it’s what we’re doing with the library… giving it a clean sweep.  I also find myself thinking about it in terms of my own personal belongings and possessions.  I came to Thailand with a couple suitcases.  Before that, I destroyed my mom’s basement getting rid of stuff that I hadn’t touched for years.  With my photos, my music, I’ve done the same. 

In this age of overload,  I want to clean up my spaces and make sure that the only things in there are things that I can pick up and enjoy and love with a moment’s notice.  I don’t want to sift through 15 albums I feel neutral about before I find one song I love.  I don’t want to have to pick through 30 versions of the same photo before I find one that I like.  I want all the best, right now.

This is my goal at the moment, finding the simple life and enjoying what I have.  And the library is my current show of that goal.