One of my first outings after I started feeling a bit better was a trip to Prem International School, a beautiful boarding school up in the mountains, to watch Darling Daughter's track meet.
They only get one meet for the whole season, unfortunately, but most of the international schools in the city made it and CMIS was well-represented. Darling Daughter earned a new PR in the 800-m race, shaving almost a full minute off her previous time! It was so awesome to see her push herself so hard. She also tied for 3rd in her age group in high jump, her new favorite sport! We were sad to see the season come to an end so fast, but happy she could have the chance to participate and can't wait to do it again next year.
The trackmeet took almost the whole school day, so I got to take Darling Daughter home early. We stopped for icecream to celebrate. I felt so grateful to be able to support her and spend the day with her.
We spent Valentine's Day with the family at the Samoeng Strawberry Festival, but My Man and I got to make up for it with a fantastic day date on President's Day (the kids don't get most American holidays off at school!).
We started with a wonderful brunch at the Thapae Gate Lodge. It was beautiful (set outside in a covered garden) and as we ate our delicious food and amazing smoothies, we heard 5 or 6 different languages from other guests.
After that, we headed out to explore a few of Chiang Mai's temples. Our favorite was Wat Chedi Luang because of the fantastically old chedi there, originally built in 1441.
There were also the typical ornate meditation rooms with golden statues and many interesting and beautiful buildings.
One room houses a huge "ugly monk" sculpture with a funny (if misogynistic) story.
We finished the day with 2-hour long massages. Pure heaven. I can't wait for our next day date!
That Wednesday, both Darling Daughter and Funny Guy had a field trip to the Hope House, a nonprofit orphanage/school here in Chiang Mai that helps children from many of the Hill Tribes nearby. By providing a home for them and teaching them English, among other skills, the Hope House helps offer these children better opportunities.
The staff and children organized a presentation about each Hill Tribe, which the school kids rotated through. They taught them traditional dances, showed them traditional costumes, explained about traditional life, and had several games and activities for them to try, including crafts, blow guns, stilts, and bamboo swings. The kids loved it and I loved that I was able to be with both kids on one awesome field trip!
The next day I went out with several other ladies from the consulate to celebrate Chinese New Year. There was a huge celebration with dancing dragons, huge crowds, and lots of incense in Chiang Mai's Chinatown. It was hot and chaotic but an interesting outing.
The next day (talk about a busy week!) the kids had Thai day at school. This is a huge celebration of Thai culture and the kids have been working on their performances for weeks so I was excited to go. Each grade had different costumes and performed a different traditional Thai or Hill Tribe dance.
Funny Guy got to do an energetic dance that was perfect for him (he was especially enthusiastic about the quick spins that he said were really hard for most people but he just thought they were fun). His costume has little bells that are tinkle whenever he moves (which means they are constantly singing).
Darling Daughter was part of a much more elegant fan dance, which was also perfect for her. She looked so beautiful and did her part so well. It was one of those moments when you look at your child and realize how quickly and wonderfully she is growing up.
Afterward, there was Thai food and an afternoon of activities. One of the school photographers caught this fun picture of Darling Daughter! Looks like she'll need to try hurdles next year during track & field.
After Thai day was finished, we dropped Young Man off to go to his Scout campout, then hurried over to pick up My Man from work and to go to the Consulate friendship games where he would be playing football on the U.S. Consulate team.
I have to say that if you've never been to a Thai football game, you haven't lived! There is nonstop drumming and announcing and singing and shouting and drumming and stomping and drumming at maximum decibels. The. Entire. Time. After a couple Exedrin, it is very fun and exciting. :-)
My Man did awesome even though he was fighting asthma from the air, which was just starting to get a bit smoky, and the consulate won the game!
After the game there was a fierce tug-o-war (which we won quite handily) followed by an awards ceremony and dinner with wonderfully delicious phad Thai and other Thai dishes. After eating, My Man and Funny Guy played football on their own for awhile.
And then came the karaoke! When the Consulate General started singing "Country Road," Darling Daughter couldn't restrain herself and started singing along so they waved her up on the stage along with My Man. They were great. Finally, it was time to head home and get ready for our outing to Mork Fa waterfall the next day.
My Man was able to organize a tour and presentation for Young Man's scout troop the following Monday. The scouts heard from most of the Foreign Service Officers at the consulate, including the Consulate General! It was a great opportunity for the scouts to learn more about the American mission here in Chiang Mai.
That week I also got to start taking Thai again at the consulate for a few hours each week. It is extremely slow progress, hard to realize how much there is still to learn to even converse at a basic level, but it's still good. After each lesson, I start hearing and recognizing new words. I'm learning almost a hundred words a week, so I figure at this rate I will eventually start seeing some progress! Two of my favorite parts of Thai class are getting to meet My Man for lunch and going to the Muang Mai market.
My favorite is to walk through the crazy maze of people, vendors, vehicles, and wares early in the morning (an incredible feast for my senses), seeing everything that is available that day and checking prices. It is a great way to hone some basic Thai phrases and numbers.
Then on the way back I fill my bags with vegetables and fruit and herbs (I'm not Thai enough yet to buy meat at the market!).
By the time I get back to our car, I am usually staggering under the weight of the many kilos of fresh produce (usually I park in the consulate and the guards always laugh when they see me coming). There are bananas at the market too, but just up the street is an even better spot for bananas.
We eat a lot of bananas (don't worry Barbara Kingsolver, they are local here!), so it's pretty awesome to be able to get a small bunch for just 7 baht (about 5 cents).
And then My Man got hit by a truck, we went to Buathong falls, and February was over!
In early March, Darling Daughter got braces and Young Man got his off (only for a month to get his teeth healthy and switch brackets). They both look great.
 |
| Darling Daughter before braces |
 |
| Young Man after braces came off |
We are just hoping that Darling Daughter forgives us one of these days soon. :-)
 |
| Darling Daughter after braces went on (don't worry, it gets better sweetheart!) |
Funny Guy was a good sport and used the time to catch up on a few of his new favorite books.
The next day, however, he started coughing, a lot. The dreaded northern smog had set in, and I started worrying about his breathing. We gave him a couple puffs on the inhaler and he seemed better, but later that night he got worse. We decided to take him in to the ER, which was a good call since his oxygen levels were getting pretty low.
I expected them to give him a nebulizer treatment and send us home, but his asthma attack was a real doozy and they admitted him and told me it would probably be a week in the hospital before we could go home.
I was stunned. It had been less than a week since My Man broke his foot and I'd only been recovered from my pneumonia for about 2 weeks. Life since then had been a whirlwind of activities, and catching up, and errands. Frankly, it was all a little overwhelming.
But Funny Guy was a good sport, cheerful through everything, and friends stepped in to help, offering My Man rides to and from work, helping with the other kids, and even bringing by books and games to help entertain Funny Guy in the hospital. And luckily, he got better faster than expected.
The smog didn't though. We had heard that March would be bad, but had no idea how bad that really meant. Visibility dropped, everything became gray and dirty and smelly, and we only went outside on our way to and from buildings. Even a few minutes outside was enough to give me a bad headache and start coughing. It made us so grateful for the blessing of clean air, something we normally take for granted.
The kids couldn't go out for recess at school and had to wear masks any time they were outside. It was pretty bad. We changed the boys' birthday plans to bowling (which was awesome) and canceled pretty much any plans for going out for the month. But amazingly, it rained this week! Usually the rain doesn't come until mid-April during Songkran, so we were overjoyed to see it come early.
The kids didn't lose any time going out to play! It wasn't a wimpy storm either. We had a tropical downpour and the result has been beautiful, clean air. I took advantage of the clean air yesterday to hike up to Wat Phalad, an interesting Buddhist temple on Doi Suthep that is often overlooked. It is nestled away in the jungle with beautiful views of Chiang Mai and a serene, tropical beauty that was a balm after all the days inside.
Thursday night, My Man surprised us and took the family out for ice cream (the boys had birthday gift certificates to use up) and to watch Home (cute movie, by the way) in 3D. It was a fun outing.
Friday the kids didn't have school (parent-teacher conferences) and we spent the morning at school where Funny Guy and Darling Daughter played with other friends also there for conferences. Young Man left for a scout camping trip at Doi Po Hom Pok, a mountain a few hours north (he had a fantastic trip and said it was fun and beautiful). We finally dragged the younger kids away from school so we could join My Man for lunch at a beautiful little restaurant along the Ping River.
I also found out that I have been selected as the new Assistant Management Officer at the U.S. Consulate here in Chiang Mai! I applied for the job at the beginning of the month and interviewed Monday. I am so excited to be doing something new and helping out with the U.S. mission here, though I will definitely miss some of the incredible freedom I've had. I'll have Fridays off and a wonderful maid/nanny to help out at home three days a week, so it should be ideal. I probably won't start work until after spring break next month, which is good because we plan to have lots of fun with Songkran (the kids are already busy practicing)!
Today was one of those absolutely perfect weekend days (for me and the kids that is--My Man had to work again, sorry Love!!). The weather was beautiful, so Funny Guy and Darling Daughter talked me into going to play tennis with them. They got tired pretty quickly (it was already HOT!) so I played solo for awhile (against the wall--forgot how fun tennis is!) and then we headed home to get ready for swimming. We spent the next several hours at the pool. It was one of those days that make up for any inconvenience we have ever had with moving here! I swam laps while the kids giggled and splashed and played. Then I relaxed in the shade while they played some more.
They still didn't want to leave so then I swam more laps. The sun was hot but the water was perfect and I just kept thinking, Wow. We live here! Palm trees and sunshine and lazy pool days in March. This really is the life.
