Hi All!
Am typing this on a keyboard with Thai letters on it and is it everdistracting! So, sorry in advance for the many typos...Hope you are all well!
I am doing more than great here. China Air rocks! Got the little slippers, choices of 4 movies- one of the was Sideways-(thought of you DAN!), good food and it was a nice flight. Just happened that Shari Sunshine, a fellow teacher at the massage school and 2 other Maui gals were on the flight too. They are on their way to India and who knows where after that! Nice surprise to see them at Starbuck's in Honolulu airport. Shari worked on my ankle/leg and it is much better! Thanks again Shari! Bangkok is a huge, interesting, fun, smoggy, thought provoking city. Have immersed myself quite a bit already, and find the people easy to mingle with. Surprisingly few people speak English, so Thai is a must. Spent hours this am by the pool with my books and pencil and paper learning. Speaking of pool... Am staying at Dieter's (my new co-worker) condo while he is in Europe. Quite a surprise... beautiful, spacious condo on the 13th floor in a tower on the river. Amazing is all I have to say. I bought pikake plants yesterday at the huge market in the north of town and potted them this am. They provide a bit of nice fragrance for the lanai as I look out at the city and it's endless sprawl. Bangkok... wow what a city is all I can say. I have only been here 1 1/2 days and I am so excited to see and experience more of it. Will be here in Bangkok for about another week, then down to Phuket for a Thai massage training. Mandara Spas is sending me there to get acquainted with the skill and to meet some of the therapists I will be teaching. The plan is develop curriculum in Anatomy and Assessment appropriate for the spas here. Then to teach it to the therapists. May need a translator if my language learning is slow, but will attend a school here or in Chaing Mai. When Dieter gets back, will have more news on that. So, am going to go to a big grocery store now and see how that goes. Should be interesting and an adventure for sure. Had a real funny one yesterday while at the BIG weekend market... sat down at a little corner food place with a bunch of Thai people. Unable to read the menu, I pointed to what the two at my table (a mom and her twenty-ish daughter)were having. Looked like a fried chicken leg and some sort of stringy salad thing. I just said "no pork, no beef, no peanuts" and the young woman translated it to the waiter as she spoke a little English . I forgot one other thing which was evident the first large spoonfull of the salad. I found out that I was eating green papaya salad with dried shimps. OK. I forgot to mention "mai pet". NOT spicey. Oh my gawd!!!..... I immediately almost fainted -seriously, and everyone in the place stopped eating and watched me as I could barely move except to drink my cold green tea, tears running down my face and my nose running and trying to look just fine. After the worst of it, we all laughed, and they brought me another dish, "mai pet". My most important Thai lesson so far. Wandered the streets and alleys last night and poked into a little home/hair salon. Saw the sign with foot reflexology chart and next thing I knew, sat and had a 1 hr foot massage with all of the nieghborhood coming in to see me, smile, show me their babies, and try and speak English. What a great evening. I'm having a 2 hour full body massage tonight-well deserved after dragging Dieter's massage table halfway across the globe and feeling every muscle to do that. Well, that's the update from Bangkok.... I'll write again soon! Take care all!
Love, Monk
posted by Monica @ 3:17 PM
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