Feverish

I think that we are just about over the jet lag, but we still get tired at around 6:00pm and have been heading for bed early at 8:00pm – 9:00pm every night. I think that will gradually get later and later every day. Jet took Ben to the doctor for his 18 month shot on Friday morning and his pediatrician noticed that he had a fever (101 degrees), so that concerned her enough to postpone giving him the shot. While checking Ben’s blood, she also noticed that his iron level was low (anemic), which concerned her as it was also low before we left for Thailand. Ben’s pediatrician didn’t know if was low because of something genetic or because of something else, so she told Jet to take him to the hospital to have his blood drawn for tests. Jet did all of this on her own as I suspected it would be a routine visit, and from Jet’s reports at the hospital, I would have had a tough time there. The nurse that drew Ben’s blood appeared to be new as she stuck Ben in the arm and couldn’t find the vein, so she just wiggled and circled the needle around while still in his arm until she hit it. All the while Ben was in absolute agony, so much so that Jet said that he “dropped a deuce” in the middle of all of Ben’s screaming and crying. Poor little guy. While Jet was enduring all of this with Ben, I spent the morning picking weeds and cutting the grass. Although I was able to pick six plastic grocery bags full of weeds (a whole lot), our grass, in general, was in great shape. Our lawn was thick and green as Donald had given it fertilizer a few times while we were away and Brandan (neighbor kid from Wisconsin) had regularly cut it.  We also had much more rain this summer here in Alabama than last summer, so that really helped out our lawn as well.  By the afternoon, Ben’s fever started to take hold of him as he was just in sad condition, not wanting to eat and only wanting to be held by Jet.  Before we left for Alabama, one of our neighbors had given us a plastic sand box to have, which I filled up on Friday afternoon with sand left over from Buddy’s new house that is currently being built.  Ben was in such pain that he didn’t want to try out his new sand box at all. 

We had planned on going to Atlanta on Saturday morning because I had an Aussie Rules practice and it also would have given us a chance to stock up with some Asian groceries, but Ben had an awful night as his fever was high and he just had a hard time sleeping in bed with us – which meant that we had a hard time sleeping.  Jet took the worst of it, though, as every time I would try to hold him, he would just cry for “Mae” or mommy.  All of this while Jet was still feeling sluggish with a cold made it extra hard on her.  I decided to go to Atlanta alone while Jet took care of Ben at home, something that I got an earful from Linda from after I got back.  The practice was good as I had a chance to do a lot of running and kicking the footy around.  I knew that it was a good workout as even though I have been running quite a bit over the last few weeks, my legs felt sore that afternoon.  I stopped at the Asian store after practice and chatted with Jet over the phone to get everything that she needed.  One of the real important reasons for me going to Atlanta was to pick up rice and a new rice cooker as Jet gave our old one away to one of her friends before we left for Thailand.  Our old rice cooker had been with us for probably about five years and had been used very heavily, so we needed to get a new one and giving our old one away certainly gave us incentive to just that.  I also picked up a few other goodies while at the store, including several snacks that Ben loved eating back in Thailand, so hopefully that will be something that he will enjoy.

I got back home from Atlanta at around 2:00pm, which was just over an hour before the “welcome home” gathering that Donald and Linda threw for us.  I was surprised at how well planned this event was as it ended up being close to one of our usual neighborhood gatherings as quite a few people showed up.  There was a lot of food to eat (sandwiches, potato salad, chips, etc.) and a few tasty desserts (cheesecake, coconut cake) that was perfect for a get-together on a warm afternoon (mid 90’s).  We were also surprised at how many kids were there (probably around a dozen) that were playing around in the front of Donald and Linda’s house, which Ben enjoyed watching, and before long, he wanted to join in.  That was a good sign because until that point, Ben just didn’t feel like eating.  After playing and running around for about a half hour, Ben was eating normally again.  We ended up packing things up at around 6:30pm so that everyone had a chance to get back home and watch the Alabama game.  I ended up just taking all of the tables and chairs and bringing them over to our garage as we will be having another neighborhood gathering (“Greystone Gathering”) next week Saturday morning at 9:30am.  We decided to schedule this gathering early again so that everyone would have a chance to stop by and relax before all of the football action.  But to get back to yesterday’s gathering, we greatly appreciate Donald and Linda throwing this party for us to welcome us back home.  As seamless as the party went, it surely meant that a lot of planning and effort went into putting it on, we are just thankful to have such caring neighbors.  I am beginning to think that having these parties might just be a way that Linda is trying to “fatten me back up” as I the first question I still get from everyone back here in Alabama is “Have you lost weight?”.  I now weigh 168 pounds, which is something that I haven’t last weighed since my senior year in high school (13 years ago … yikes!), but I feel great and I haven’t been starving myself.  Well, I can easily see myself packing on the pounds again if I keep getting coconut-themed desserts set in front of me.

The Alabama game was great to watch last night – at least until I fell asleep at around 9:00pm or just after halftime.  Ben and Jet went out a few minutes ahead of me.  Ben’s fever returned, but the toughest part of the night was just giving him Tylenol and Motrin to keep his fever down.  Ben didn’t have as rough a night as he had the night before, so I hope that is a good sign that the worst is over.  Knock on wood.  Today (Sunday) would be the third day of his fever, so if it goes as all of the other times he has had his fever, it should be ending today.  If there is anything good to say about Ben’s condition it is that at least he was not like this during our flight back home.  The weekend before our trip he had a fever and now the weekend after he has a fever. 

Not much planned for today and tomorrow for us, though.  No big plans, that is.  Jet has applied to several different jobs over the past week so we hope something will turn out for her there.  One of the jobs that she applied for is at the Anniston Army Depot for the secretary to the commander, who actually just lives a few houses down from us.  We haven’t met the commander yet, but we hope that she will turn up at the gathering next weekend.  I don’t think that knowing the commander will help Jet get the job, but I don’t think that it would hurt.  I’ll keep you updated on how the job hunt progresses.

Jet Lagging

The adjustment to “Alabama” time has been different for each of us.  On Tuesday I was aided by two cans of Coke to get through the “walls” that I hit at about 1:00pm and at 6:00pm.  On Wednesday I was much better as I did not have any soda, but hit a wall at 6:00pm again.  This time I was only able to fight it for a few hours before I went to sleep at 8:00pm.  I don’t know if it was the jet lag or just being excited for the first day of class, but I ended up waking up at 11:00pm and not being able to get back to sleep.  I stayed awake for a few hours getting some work done at home when I just decided to head off to JSU at 2:00am so that I could get even more work done.  It is now 8:00am and I am feeling a bit sluggish, so hopefully I will be able to make it through my first class at 12:30pm.

Jet and Ben have been having ups and downs adjusting to the time differences, but they seem to be having a harder time with it than I am.  Ben has not been happy sleeping alone in a room in his crib, so Jet has either put him to sleep on our bed only to move him to his crib afterwards or not moved him at all.  When Jet went to wake Ben up from his afternoon nap yesterday, Ben didn’t want to wake and everytime Jet asked him to get up, he just stayed crouched face-down and said “no”.  When Ben has been awake, it is almost like Christmas morning for him as there are so many toys around that he either forgot he had or was just happy to see again.  It is just fun to watch him have such a good time playing with all of his toys, but I wonder how long that will last.  Jet has just bought all new child-locks for all of our cabinets as Ben was quick to raid them after we got back.  We have slowly been able to meet up with many of the neighbors just to say “hi” and let them know we are back, but catching up with everyone in the neighborhood can be a bit exhausting when you are already a bit sleepy.  We are so lucky to have such nice neighbors wanting to know how our trip was, though.

Jet has had the chance to spend time shopping with her good friend Amber and Ben and Amber’s daughter Olivia (about the same age) have had a great time playing together.  Jet has been feeling a little under the weather to which she suspects that it might be her allergies acting up again.  Ben has a scheduled visit to his pediatrician tomorrow so it will be interesting to hear what she says about Ben after four months in Thailand.  Jet is also applying to lots of different jobs in the area, so hopefully something will turn out this time around.

That’s about all to report right now.  We are doing well and are excited about getting over the jet lag and return to our normal lives.  Hopefully we will be back full-steam ahead by the Labor Day holiday.

Safe, Sound, Home

We made it back just fine last night after a long day of flights.  The only snag we hit in our travels was a 30 minute delay in our flight from LA to Atlanta due to the heavy rains in Georgia.  Ben was a trooper again, but he did have his moments when he wanted to complain (cry) because he didn’t want to sleep.  Those moments were few and far between.  In fact, Ben slept for the entire 4+ hour flight from LA to Atlanta.  Our Wisconsin neighbor Dan was there waiting for us to take us back to Alabama and after about an hour and a half drive in the rain, we were finally back home … about 11:30pm.  And guess who was waiting there for us … Donald and Linda.  They had the house air conditioned, vacuumed, and all set for us to move back into.  Linda even had a full, hot meal waiting for us in a crock-pot with cornbread and a very large apple pie from Cracker Barrel.  How’s that for a “welcome home”?  I bet it would be hard to beat because it was surely appreciated after such a long day of traveling.  And Donald, Linda, and Dan didn’t mind that we were all smelly and sweaty either.  What great neighbors and even better friends to have.

I went to bed shortly after midnight last night while Jet kept Ben up a little longer and did some unpacking.  I tried to stay up for as long as I could on the flights back so that I could help minimize the jet lag, but I still found myself up wide-awake at about 4:00am this morning and as it is now 10:00am, I feel as if I just hit a wall.  Good thing a brought a couple of Coke’s with me.  I might even try a sip of coffee to keep me awake as well.

Signing Out

Since I will likely not have Internet access after today, this may be my last post before I return back to the US.  Again, nothing too exciting to report on.  On Wednesday evening, Father Joesph (Vietnamese) took me out to eat some Thai food for dinner which was very kind of him.  I was up until the early hours this morning finishing grading the final exam for my students and completing all of the paperwork that goes with turning in their final grades.  Unlike at UWM and JSU, there is nothing that you submit electronically for grades, just two forms to complete.  The first form is a class list with spaces to fill in scores for the exams taken and assignments as well as what each student’s final grade was.  The other sheet is used (I think) to judge how you graded the class; it requires you to indicated your grading criteria (e.g., 92.50 – 100 = A, etc.), how many students received each grade, then a calculation to complete to judge the average score for the class (e.g., 4.0 = A, etc.).  They have a recommendation that the class average should be “between 3.2 – 3.6″, which I recall I was over for my executive MBA students.  I had one student that only showed up for two classes (F) and two others that did poorly on their exams (C-) which brought my overall class average down to 3.49.  The rest of my students did quite well (3 B’s, 6 B+’s, 4 A-’s, 9 A’s).  Today I am just finishing up the last details for my first two weeks of class at JSU.  That has been where I have spent most of my efforts this week, getting those first two weeks ready.  I figure that will allow me some flexibility in case the jet lag takes a big hit on me once I return.

Tonight Father Bipin (Indian) will take me out to eat for some Indian food for dinner, which again, is a nice gesture.  I gave him my lovely ironing board to have, but he said that he will just use it until I return next year.  Don’t worry, although I have been given several offers, I haven’t committed to coming back to Thailand next year.  That decision likely would not be made until after the new year.  Tomorrow morning I will be leaving ABAC for good and I will meet up with Jet and the gang.  We are planning to have lunch with Jet’s uncle (President of MFLU) and dinner with Jet’s relatives – the one that just had the wedding last month.  Sunday is wide open, but Sup said that he wanted to take us all out for lunch or dinner before we left.  Our plane leaves early (around 8:00am) on Monday morning, so that will end our travels here in Thailand.  Our plane will arrive late on Monday night in Atlanta (around 9:00pm), so it will be a long day ahead of us on Monday; a 2 hour flight to Hong Kong, a 13 hour flight to LA, and a 5 hour flight to Atlanta.  It is interesting that a tropical storm is about to hit Hong Kong and a tropical storm may track towards Atlanta in the coming days.  I just hope that doesn’t mess with our arrival time.

I already have a busy week planned next week.  I have a picture scheduled to be taken for being awarded “teacher of the year” in May from the Arts and Sciences College.  I guess that picture will hang outside of the dean’s office.  I hope that I am able to keep my eyes open.  Tuesday evening will be the annual dinner for faculty at the President’s house, which should be a lot of fun.  All morning Wednesday I will be doing advisement for CS/CIS students that want to register for classes for this coming semester (help them pick out what classes to take).  Thursday I have my first class at 12:45pm.  Friday I am planning to meet with Oxford High School (has yet to be confirmed), which is another partnership that I have been trying to work on while away here in Thailand.  This meeting will be in addition to all of the other informal meetings that I will have to get things moving on partnership opportunities between JSU and Thai universities.  I finally have a break in the action on Saturday as Jet and I will look forward to the “Welcome Home” gathering of all our neighbors planned by Donald and Linda at 4:00pm.  So the first few days back will just be a whirlwind of activity.  Some advice I got from one of my colleagues that has returned twice from Asia in the past few months is to try and stay awake during “normal” hours once I get back as it should help with the jet lag.  I suspect that I will need all of the help I can get.

We are all looking forward to being back home!  See you soon!

5 Days Left!

Only five more days left.  Ben started getting better yesterday (Tuesday) morning and this morning Jet has reported that he is as much of a handful as he was before he had his fever.  Let’s just hope that is the last of this for the next few weeks.  I just wonder how we will be able to manage Ben on the long flights back home.  Wish us luck!

Something I forgot to mention in my last post is that after a week of terrible weather, things have rebounded quite nicely and the weather has been spectacular.  Great weather for our weekend resort trip.  Great weather since I have been back here in Bangkok.  It is really amazing how a change in the weather can just bring your spirits up.

Not much to report on here.  Jet and the gang will be arriving in Bangkok tomorrow and I plan on joining them on Saturday after I had a chance to grade final exams and submit final grades on Friday.  I think we will be fine with our packing, but we will see.  When we arrived, we were allowed to have up to 70 pounds per bag of luggage.  That is now 50 pounds.  With this change, Jet is a bit sad because she likely will not be able to bring back all of the Thai canned goods and other snacks (small, but heavy) that she usually brings back from her trips to Thailand.  I have told her that it is not that big a deal because she can get the same stuff at any international grocery store in Atlanta.  Not much planned otherwise.  I hope to visit a shopping mall with Jet over the weekend so I can get any last-minute purchases done, but nothing too exciting.

As an aside, I have been talking to Dad over the past few weeks about him coming back for the third year in a row for the fall Talladega races.  At first he said that he might be busy, perhaps suggesting that airfares are too high – that should not concern him as we always pick up the tab for him and flights are only a few bucks more expensive than last year.  Then, he said that he might like to drive and was going to see if anyone else wanted to come along.  I guess all the driving he is doing right now to Colorado has taken the wind out of his driving sails as he now says flying down would be fine.  So I have booked Dad’s flight for the races, but again he will need rides to/from the airport.  His flight will be leaving Milwaukee on Wednesday, October 1 at 8:24am and will arrive back in Milwaukee on Wednesday, October 8 at 12:50pm.

White-Water Rafting

We left for the Wanathara resorton Friday afternoon and we were not disappointed.  The rooms were fantastic and matched those from “The Legend” resort in Chiang Rai.  The difference was that our room was located right next to the Kek river so all evening long we could fall asleep to the sound of the roaring rapids.  We did some walking around the resort area which was very large in size, and it was walking around that I realized that I had actually been here before.  Either four or five years ago during one of my vacations to Thailand with Jet we stopped by this same resort for sightseeing after eating at a nearby restaurant.  In my mind the resort looked so much different as there was a lot of additional growth of the landscape around us and the river was much more veracious than the small trickle that I remembered walking through.  I think I have pictures from that previous visit so I will have to dig those up to see visual evidence of the difference once we get back home.

Looking for something to do on Saturday morning, a few of us were set on doing some mountain biking, but Jet’s cousin Bolly convinced us all to go white-water rafting instead.  I am sure glad we did because that ended up being a highlight of my four-month visit to Thailand.  Since my only rafting experience comes from the five or six years of rafting on the Peshtigo river up in Wisconsin, that is all I have to compare the Kek river rafting too.  The Kek river compared very favorably and was much more enjoyable than rafting up in Wisconsin.  There were several class three, class four, and class five (most challenging) drops that we went through which made the ride very fun.  In fact, in the two hours or so of rafting, it seemed that only about a quarter of that time was spent in “dead” or placid water.  That differed greatly from rafting on the Peshtigo.  With my history of being a “floater”, that is, always finding a way to fall out of the raft almost like an anchor searching for the bottom of a lake, I decided that for all of the class five drops (about four of them) that I would sit in the middle between Jet and her Mom so that I would minimize my chance of falling in.  I am glad I did too because one particular drop we went over Jet almost fell out and I am positive that if I had been sitting in her place that I would have been a floater.  I always knew when Jet’s aunt and cousin (her other cousin named “Kung”) were nervous about an upcoming drop because they would stop paddling and just grab on to the back of my life vest.  If they only knew about my previous history of falling in the drink they might not have been so eager to cling onto me.  But what a blast it was.  And to think, the two-hour tour with two guides in our boat along with snacks, drinks, and a CD with pictures of our trip all for about $15 per person.  What a bargain!

I would have loved that to have been my final memories of Phitsanulok during this summer, but unfortunately they were not.  Ben woke up with a fever again on Saturday night and was not doing any better Sunday morning so we stopped by the clinic to have him checked out.  He didn’t want to eat much (particularly crackers or any “hard” chewing snacks) so I figured it could be Ben teething again.  The doctor ended up giving Ben a shot and three different liquid medicines for us to give him.  Getting Ben to take any medicine is not any fun.  It was so bad this time that when you would pin him down and get his mouth open to give Ben a spoonful, he would gag on it and actually throw-up some of the little food that he had eaten.  For lunch, we went to the shopping mall in Phitsanulok to meet up with Jet’s relatives and have pizza (Jet had the taste for it).  Unfortunately, Ben seemed only to be getting worse as he was just burning up and only wanted to lay his head on your shoulder as you held him, and he didn’t want to be put down.  Poor little guy.  When we got back home we cooled him off as best we could and Ben ended up taking a three-hour nap with me, which was good as his body surely needed the rest.  His temperature ran up again in the evening, but by the time I put him to bed (9:00pm) he seemed back to normal and had me feeling much better about leaving back to Bangkok on the 10:45pm bus.  I have spoken to Jet a couple times briefly this morning, but apparently Ben is not over the fever yet.  I guess he was burning up pretty good again last night after I left so they took him to the hospital and gave Ben some medicine where he would not be able to “spit it up”, if you know what I mean.  Poor little guy.  He was still running a temperature this morning so Jet took him again to the doctor clinic to be checked out.  Though Ben had a temperature, he was playing around at the clinic, which was something that the doctor noted was good.  The doctor’s biggest concern right now is whether he contracted anything from a mosquito or something of that nature, but the good news is that playing around like Ben was does not match the symptoms for something more serious.  I just hope Ben gets over this soon as it is weighing pretty heavy on my mind right now.  If there is anything that is good to be said about this is at least this fever happened this week instead of next week because exactly one week from now we will be on a plane bound for home.  I am not sure what we would do if Ben was still sick.  Hopefully we won’t have to find out.

Last Dance

I got a few moments to write this post while Ben is taking his morning nap.  My class finished late last night (Thursday), but thankfully I had enough time to catch the last bus as well as a good seat with no one sitting next to me.  With the empty seat, I was able to slip off my sandals and get some sleep halfway laying down while occupying both seats.  This is the last few days that I will be spending in Phitsanulok and although I will miss being here, I am looking forward to getting back home.  Jet is off to her baking class this morning where they will be teaching her how to make Thai fried chicken.  Jet asked me if she should skip and I said “no way!”.  I love the way they make fried chicken here in Thailand.  Then again, is there any fried chicken that I haven’t liked?

When Ben wakes up from his nap this afternoon we will be heading out to a nearby resort (about an hour drive away) to relax and spend the evening.  This is the one-night resort that Jet won in a contest a few weeks back that I wrote about.  It turns out that this was a “cutest kid” photo type of competition where family photos were sent in.  Ben ended up winning us second place, so I guess we all have him to thank for our stay at the resort tonight.

I have finally put up some more pictures.  These will likely be the last pictures I post before we return back home.  The first set is from our trip to Chiang Rai and the Golden Triangle a few weeks back.  I love that shot of the “double rainbow” that I took where you can actually see the end of the rainbow, but no pot of gold at the end.  The next set includes all pictures taken since that trip including pictures from Jet’s Mom’s birthday last week Friday and them honoring Jet’s Mom on Mother’s Day this past Tuesday.  Enjoy!

Miserable

It is still cloudy.  It is still gloomy outside.  It is still raining on and off throughout the day.  This kind of weather just puts you in the dumps.  Yesterday was Mother’s Day in Thailand and most everything around ABAC was closed, both on and off campus.  Not many places to eat at.  Not able to use the computer lab.  So what did I do?  I spent most of the day cooped up in my room doing some work, but was just being lazy for about 75% of the time.  What a waste.  Jet was on her way back to Phitsanulok so I could not hang out with her and her relatives and with the weather so miserable, I just did not have the motivation to do much of anything at all.  Just a plain lazy day.  I was intent on breaking out of this funk today (Wednesday), though, so I decided to do a good run this morning in the light rain.  That helped.  Since it has been raining so much lately, I haven’t done any exercise in the past week since noone wants to play basketball in the rain and it is not much fun running in the rain.  Today’s run was good though.  Not enough rain to make you want to turn back and just enough to keep you cool in the humid weather, although it has been much cooler in the past two weeks (only up into the 80’s during the day).  I have been able to get a bit of work done today and I am in much better spirits.  A good run will do that to you.

Tomorrow will be a very busy day for me as from 9:00am – 3:00pm I will be interviewing candidates for the MBA program at ABAC.  I agreed to do this a few weeks ago because I just wanted to help out and be involved in some way at ABAC before I left.  As part of the admission process, prospective students must go through this oral examination/interview.  I was given a list of general questions to ask (e.g., what are your academic qualifications, what work experience do you have, etc.) each candidate and during these 15 minute interviews I am also to assess how well their English is – an important thing since all classes are taught in English.  I was told that there are going to be 100 candidates interviewed tomorrow (I will have some help) and there are about 150 total that have applied.  Out of those 150 or so, ABAC will only accept 50 so they asked if I could provide good details about the interview and even recommend rejection so that it will help them with the admissions process.  I was also told that I would get 100 Baht (about $3) for each interview I do.  I would have done it for free, though $3 is not that much anyways relative to American cost-of-living.  After interviews, I have my class in the evening where my students will give their team project presentations and a review for next week’s final exam.  After class, it will be a quick rush to get to the bus station before the last bus leaves so that I can be on my way to Phitsanulok for the weekend.  This will be my last trip to Phitsanulok as next weekend (my last weekend in Thailand) Jet and the gang will be coming to Bangkok to spend our last days together here. 

Speaking of the gang, the new thing that Jet’s Mom has taught Ben over the weekend is how to say “Daddy”.  It’s funny to think that it took Ben so long to say this after his first words were “Da Da”.  We’ll see if we can get Ben to say “Mee-Maw” and “Paw-Paw” before we come back.  Don’t hold your breath!  And by the way Aunt Sue, I have not seen the infamous Packers bar here because 1) I haven’t ventured much “discovering” beyond the few blocks around the ABAC campus where I teach and 2) I don’t visit bars anymore.  If I would be living here during the regular season I certainly would have this as one of the necessary things to do/find as I imagine it would be tough watching the Packer’s game live elsewhere.  Lucky me I will be back well in time for the Monday night opener and all season long with Dan’s (our Wisconsin neighbor) NFL Ticket season package.

What’s Up With That?

Not running on much sleep as Jet and I arrived with some of her family in the wee hours this morning (Monday) to Bangkok by van.  I headed back to ABAC right away because I had a meeting at 10:00am while Jet stayed with her relatives for her cousin Bolly’s visa interview today at the US Embassy.  Unfortunately, Bolly did not pass his interview and will not be coming back to the US with us.  I don’t know all of the details yet as I am waiting the full scoop from Jet, but from what I was told so far, he ended up having to wait most of the day for his turn to interview, he had a “tough” interviewer that asked lots of questions, and (what I find shocking) the person at the US Embassy giving the interview recommended that he just stay in Thailand if he wanted to learn English and take business classes.  If that were true, I just don’t know how to respond to that.  I will have to wait and get the full story from Jet later today though as Bolly and his mother (Jet’s aunt) are just devastated with this news.

Rain is the story here in Thailand.  I arrived in the wee early hours in Phitsanulok on Friday (3:00am) and was up and about a little after 6:00am as Ben had an early start to the morning.  Jet was not exaggerating in describing him as a “handful”.  Ben just wants to go out and explore everything and loves playing hiding games with you.  At least we had the portable DVD player handy because Ben just could not get enough of watching “Horton Hears a Who”, which would give us a few minutes break resting. 

Friday was Jet’s Mom’s birthday so before we went out to eat lunch, we headed off to the hospital where Jet’s Mom sings for the sick people every other week.  Jet’s Mom had donated lunch for the entire children’s ward at the hospital and was there serving all of the sick/injured kids and their parents food.  What a nice gesture that was.  After that, we went out to eat at a relatively nice restaurant for lunch, MK, which is probably akin to an Applebee’s or TGI Fridays back in the US.  After we ate, the servers all circled our table, gave Jet’s Mom a banana split, sang “Happy Birthday” to her (they do it with a lot of clapping here in Thailand), and took her picture.  I didn’t know that there were places in Thailand that did this sort of things for birthday’s.  When we got back home, Jet gave her Mom the nice cake and then Jet’s Mom threw a party for all of her employees by supplying all the food and drink for a BBQ.  The workers were out into the early morning singing and clapping and pounding on drums having a good time.  The only thing that put a damper on the day was that in the afternoon it started to rain.  It was then cloudy, gloomy, and it rained on and off for the rest of my time in Phitsanulok.

Some fun was watching the Olympics during some free time in-between watching Ben over the weekend.  When Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon, who is Thai (can’t you tell by the long name?), won the gold in women’s weightlifting yesterday, there was just tons of excitement all around Jet’s Mom’s house and all over the news stations with live coverage.  Since I mentioned her Thai name, there was a story that I read before the Olympics began that I saw repeated after she won the gold.  Such things as changing your name on the advice of fortune tellers to avert evil or bring good luck is very common here in Thailand.  Before Jet came to the US I think she had her name changed several times before.  And I’ll never forget when we were about to get married and we had to fill out some paperwork that asked for Jet’s Mom’s name.  Jet told me in a serious tone of voice, “I’ll have to check and see what her name is right now”.  I don’t know if Jet yet realizes how bizarre that statement was.

Just two weeks left now before we will be on a plane back home.  Just two weeks.  After a cloudy and gloomy morning here in Bangkok, it is now raining.  I hope this is not the weather for the remainder of our time here in Thailand.  I downloaded the video from TMJ4 from the opening day of the State Fair where there is a reporter giving her report in front of the mister, but it passes a bit too quickly to make out the children in the background and tell if one of them is Sam.  Nuts.  I’m glad to see that the Brewers have turned their fortunes around in the past week (I hope I didn’t just jinx them!) but it is just too weird seeing Favre in a Jet’s uniform.  What a strange saga that has been, but I certainly will be rooting for him and the Jets this season.  I just wonder when the big interview will happen where he will tell his side of the story, presumably dumping on the GM and coach.  I hope the Pack will be just fine this season, though.  I hope.

Happy Mother’s Day

After class tonight I will be off to catch a bus (hopefully there will be seats left this time!) to go visit Jet and the gang in Phitsanulok.  It is just plain wild to think that it has been three weeks since I have last been to Phitsanulok after having spent nearly three weeks in a row there.  If anything, that just goes to show how fast time has been flying by lately.  This is a good thing as I am excited that in just over two weeks I will be back home!

Tomorrow (Friday) is Jet’s Mom’s birthday so we plan on going out to eat that evening at the all-you-can-eat BBQ buffet.  It is also just plain crazy for me to think that the only time I have eaten there was when we first arrived in Thailand.  The food is just so good and just so cheap there, I would have figured that I could have managed about a dozen trips there by now.  I guess the fact that I haven’t eaten at this buffet so often has been good news for my weight.  Jet has ordered two cakes for her Mom, a large sheet cake that will be baked by her Thai baking class instructor which will be shared during the day by the employees/workers at her Mom’s company, and a smaller, “special” cake to be shared in the evening with just a select few.  We didn’t quite know what to get Jet’s Mom for her birthday, so I think we have settled on just giving her some cash.  I mean, how many purses and jewelry can you get one person?  Besides, I think Jet’s Mom appreciates/values money just the same.

This is also another holiday weekend here in Thailand as Mother’s Day is celebrated on August 12 and coincides with the Queen of Thailand’s birthday.  Father’s Day in Thailand, therefore, is celebrated on December 5 – the King of Thailand’s birthday.  The current King of Thailand has been ruling for over 62 years now (the longest serving of all active monarchs) and is absolutely revered all throughout the country and is treated as if he is their own father.  I think that says something about the respect that Thai’s have for their elders.  Anyways, there are no big plans for the Mother’s Day holiday coming up.  Jet, her cousin Bolly, and I will be returning back to Bangkok on Sunday because Bolly has his visa appointment on Monday, August 11.  I also have a meeting scheduled on Monday morning at ABAC. 

Though this will be a relatively short weekend visit to Phitsanulok in comparison to my previous visits, I do plan on spending an extra day or two there next weekend as well.  Next weekend will likely be my last trip to Phitsanulok as the following weekend Jet and the gang will be coming to Bangkok with all luggage in hand ready to return back home.  Jet has told me that Ben is just a handful lately and is quite fun to watch and be around when you have the time, but when you are busy, it can be quite worrisome.  I will just be glad to see Ben again after about a week and a half since last seeing him.  Jet has told me that Ben doesn’t care much for the Sesame Street sing-a-long videos that he used to continuously watch for the first three months here as he now loves watching the movie “Horton Hears A Who”.  Ben really just likes watching Horton (the elephant) and just laughs endlessly when he goes jumping around and splashing in the water.  I can’t wait to see him again.