From GHETTO to LUXURY!

Song for the day : Natasha Beddingfield "Unwritten"

My spirits are slowly lifting. I now feel like a local rather than a tourist and I am known in our little "village". The pool staff know me, the security guards and the staff at the local restaurant know me as well so everytime I pass by they wave and talk to me! To make myself feel better in the morning, I eat my American Style breakfast (toast, eggs, bacon with tomatoes on the side with coffee and O.J) Reena and I think it is a bit of a splurge 70 baht ($2) but I figured I should at least find ways to enjoy myself here. We are starting to think like Thai people. The old me and I am sure ALL of you (if not, then DANG DAWG you must be a cheap arse :P) think that $2 for a big breakfast is cheap but now I am thinking that it is splurging as most complete meals here cost only $1 or even less. Reena and I treated the OPENaid staff to dinner and we had about 10 dishes and it was 480 baht which is about $13 dollars. Why am I always talking about food?

So anyways, tomorrow I will start my first swimming lesson at 8am! I am teaching a 4 year old girl how to swim. I feel so nerveous coz A) She doesn't speak a word of English B) I don't speak a word of Thai (I've been here for about 6 days and today I am able to finally say THANK YOU properly) C) I am not a strong swimmer. I've been at the pool 2 days in a row ALL day but all I did there was nap, drink, read and do about 4 laps but within 1 hour intervals. So it will definetly be an interesting morning. I just hope she doesn't cry when we say goodbye to her mom and I hope she doesn't panic and freak out and in turn make me drown! My homework tonight is to write down all the possible phrases I may ask the little girl. I will be with her for 3 hours! I was advised not to talk loud as she is sensitive to loud people and loud sounds! She comes from a poor family and has probably gone through a lot for such a young girl and they pair me up with her....probably the loudest person she will ever meet! ; )

Yesterday Reena and I finally caved into luxury. We are such wusses and checked out of our non air conditioned house and traded it in for a 5 star hotel apartment. We couldn't handle our oven of a room and Reena got sick of having to sleep next to her half naked friend. Yes, it was I who was the nasty one between the two of us! I never had to be like that so you can just imagine how hot it was in our room! Yes, you all read right....I am actually complaining about heat! Our bathroom is gorgeous! Totally westernized (except for the hose beside the toilet), jacuzzi style tub with one side of the wall ALL window (it looks like ice cubes so it allows the light to come in but does not allow eyes to gaze in!) I am so picky with bathrooms so if they are stellar as that, I can handle ANYTHING. So our living conditions are now amazing! We now have cable TV with 50 International Channels like CNN, FOX, BBC, MTV ASIA, NHK (Japanese channel that is AMAZING) and the African Channel so we are able to watch BIG BROTHER AFRICA and so on. It sure beats our lovely Antenna that we had back in NYC (North York Centre).

So you'd think everything is fine and dandy but then you look out and our view is the SLUMS. So when I am in my air conditioned room and gaze out the window I see poor people sleeping in tents made of cardboard and trash piled up everywhere. It's sad because you see their clothes hanging from sticks and you see little kids' clothes and baby clothes...all dirty of course and old toys just scattered everywhere. It's hard. Especially knowing that is it kids and babies suffering and having to live like that. Poverty is one of the issues I would like to end because I don't think anyone should suffer in horrible conditions and to ever go hungry. Their little tents are not even shielding them from the nasty pollution or bugs or even the rain! To see it in my "backyard" makes it harder for me to put it aside from my mind because it's in my face and makes me realize that it is real and raw and just so wrong. I bet my parents are now wishing they took me to the Philippines when I was younger so I wouldn't have been as bratty, unappreciative and spoiled as I was. Thinking about how I was as a child, teen and tween makes me wish I could go back in time as my mother and beat myself sooooooooo bad. I am now thinking "SOMEBODY'S GONNA GET A HURT REEEAAALLLL BAD". Ok, I woud never beat my child or any child for that matter...I would just send them off in a plane to a third world country!

This is off topic but I just learned something yesterday....Reena was ridding beside me last night as we were going home and she was dying of laughter when she saw me holding my taxi man tightly and squeezing my thighs tightly around him. I didn't understand why and she told me....

Lesson number 5 : There is no need to straddle and hold the scooter taxi men, as the scooter rides are totally safe and there are handles that you can hold from behind the seat.

So I tried it today and it works and the rides are totally safe. So now I know how to avoid getting strange marriage proposals from Ong Bok 1, 2 & 3!

BTW (By The Way) I have so many amazing pictures I want you all to see and that I would love to download to make my blogs a little more interesting, but I left my USB wire at home and none of the computers accept my little memory card to upload pics...so until I find one, you will all have to remain without visuals!