just another day

We’re here in Thailand, safe and sound.  And exhausted.  Nothing says “Happy Independence Day!” like a 19-hour journey with a two-year-old.  I could write and tell you about all the interesting cultural sights I’ve seen here, but all we’ve done is sleep in until noon, watch the Disney Channel with Chickpea, and go to the grocery store.  And in a few hours, we’ll be going to sleep again, so that we get used to the time change (it’s 12 hours ahead of Texas time, if you’re interested).

As modern as our current country of service is, Thailand is even more westernized, at least according to our friends who have been to both.  At the store we visited today they had a KFC, Dairy Queen, and a Dunkin Donuts - places we never patronize in the States, but it was still a trip to see.

I’ve always enjoyed the 4th of July, for some reason.  I think it’s because as a child we always did something fun together as a family, since it’s my brother’s birthday, and then later on I always did fun things with friends and/or family - and so I associate it with being with people, one of my favorite things.  I also love the food involved, from the barbecue to the potato salad to the ice cream to the beer.  It’s pretty much the only day I look forward to in the summer.  Well, except for my birthday.  And Kabob’s birthday.

Anyhoo, that’s why, to me, it was a bummer to have missed out on any July 4th celebration this year.  Even overseas, you can manage to find ways to have a shindig - we always had Independence Day parties in our village in Kosova, there are other Americans to hang out with in our current city, and before we got to Thailand, we read about a free beer-n-bbq party happening here at the U.S. Consulate.   But alas, we celebrated in the air, drinking German beer (Kabob) or Sprite (me) and watching The Pursuit of Happyness (us) and Finding Nemo (Chickpea).  Oh well.   Maybe next year.

My first doctor’s appointment is tomorrow morning, so we’re just taking it easy until then.  Our biggest goal here, obviously, is to start getting better.  This involves both medical stuff, counseling stuff, and generally making it a major priority to live a balanced life as a family.  If we have time, we’ll take a few vacation days and sightsee - but only if it doesn’t cause added stress, because we’re supposed to be keeping that at an all-time low.  It’d be crazy not to take in some of the abundant tropical fruit and an elephant ride or two while we’re here, but beyond that, we’ll see.

Well, I’m going to rest before I have to wake up at 4 a.m. my-body’s-time.  Hope you had a good July 4th!

Q: How difficult is it to pack for a two-month trip to, essentially the equator, when you’ll be 14 to 21 weeks pregnant?

A: Very.

Thankfully, we did all our packing yesterday, so all we have to do today is pick up little loose ends around the house, and then hopefully go to a waterpark that’s a 10 minute walk from us.  Then tomorrow, we’ll be on a plane.  Again.

But I had a hard time deciding - do I pack for my early pregnant belly and my mid pregnant belly, thereby packing far more than I normally like?  Or do I go ahead and pack for my mid pregnant belly exclusively, and just look baggy for a month or so?   I went with the latter, because quite frankly, when you’re pregnant and on the equator, baggy is good - keep as little fabric touching you.  I’m just guessing here.

I am officially a PRO at packing.  Seriously.  I made a master list of my packing list this time, and I’m going to keep it on the computer for future reference.  I’ve discovered over the years that whether you’re gone for a week or three months, you pretty much pack the same - just a week’s worth of clothes, and bring laundry soap, a clothesline, and clothespins (or pray for laundry services where you’re going).  At least that’s the way I like to do it.  I absolutely detest overpacking.  I still manage to do that with books, though.  But this way, it’s easy to travel about, deal with a toddler in the airport, and generally have peace of mind that you’re going light.  I mean, I basically wear the same five things at home anyway - why pretend I’m going to break out and wear something different while on the road?

So yeah, while it’s fun to think we’ll be in Thailand - new country, good food, living cheaply - it’s a bit exhausting right now to think about being in another culture.  And to be somewhere so humid and hot.  I mean, we checked the weather, and it’s actually been hotter here than it has been there, but I have a feeling by late August, the temps are going to climb.  The ironic thing is, our other place of consideration was nestled among the Alps on the French-Swiss border.  But it was too expensive, and it didn’t meet our specific needs anyway.  Oh well.

But really, I can’t imagine it getting much hotter than we’ve been this past week.  I’ve never in my life experienced daily living this hot.  And I’m from Austin.  Temps dropped 10 degrees yesterday, and we could feel it - there was a breeze, you could tell people were breathing a little sigh of relief, and we ate dinner outside.  The thermometer in the shade read 96 degrees at 2 p.m.  So if that’s a cool front, I don’t even want to think about what it’s been like, especially without an A/C.

Okay, enough about the weather.  In a few minutes we’re going to stroll down to the waterpark, very casually, because we can’t tell if it’s actually open.  I can’t imagine why it wouldn’t be, but we’ve never seen anyone on the slides.  But we don’t want to get Chickpea all pumped up, only to be disappointed.  So we’ll just tell her, let’s go on a walk!

Hopefully our walk will be full of slippery-slidey goodness.

I really, really don’t want to sound like I’m complaining, so I’m sorry if it does.  But it seems like everything done in life here right now, for everybody, is how not to be hot.  Which is pretty impossible, since it’s hot everywhere.  It’s about as hot here as it is in Austin during the summer, but at least in Austin you have A/C in your home, and when you go anywhere else indoors you get an almost arctic blast from how cold stores crank up the A/C.

Not here.  We cranked up the A/C in our car rental, but it never did get truly cold - you still constantly had that sticky sweaty feeling of being in the process of cooling off, but not actually finally getting cool.  IKEA was somewhat cool, and we hung out there for a long while, as though the kids’ furniture section was actually a playground.  Then we drove around town rather pointlessly, only to stay in our car.  We even bypassed a quality naptime for the sole purpose of keeping Chickpea in A/C.  Last night we went to eat at the nearby mall, thinking they for sure would have A/C.  They had a pathetic version of it - coolish in pockets, depending on where you were.  Let’s just say I was sweating while we ate our pizza.

It seems like everyone’s conversations involve the weather and how hot it is.  “Hi there, it’s hot.  Are you hot?”  “It’s hot.”  “Yep, it’s hot.”  “Do you have A/C?  No?  Neither do we.  It’s hot.”  “Yep. Hot.”  I’m pretty sure it’s because you just never get a break from it.

Until, you know, October.  Or so I’m told.

Many of you know that we have some whirlwind upcoming plans, and everything’s happening fast.  We’ll keep you posted as we’re able (sorry to be so vague, but it’s best for now).  But thanks for continually praying.

In the meantime, I’m entering this contest for a baby sling and one of the entry requirements are that you need to mention the contest on your blog.  So this is me, mentioning it on my blog.

• Number of hours since I had last thrown up: 24 (woohoo!)
• Temperature outside: 104
• Number of A/Cs within home: 0
• Temperature inside: 94
• Cold baths taken by Chickpea: 4
• Time she finally went outside to play: 8:30 p.m.
• Heat rashes on the 2-year-old’s body: several
• Number of uterine-attached additional heaters on my body: 1
• Number of times I got dizzy from the heat and had to hold on to Kabob so I wouldn’t fall:  1
• Days ahead of us with a car rental WITH A/C: 2 (praise our holy God…)