A whole blog about walking down my street

Large multi-winged fast flying insects swarmed my house last night. And I am not talking about a few innocent bugs, I am talking about hundreds of lunatic flyers racing around my driveway, zooming around the lights, dive bombing my porch and glass doors and even sneaking into the living room. Once in the living room they crawl very slowly across the floor like they think they can hide from me just because they sort of blend into the tiles. I haven’t been able to predict their arrival in the past but right after they left it started to pour rain and so now I think they may be rain heralds. So I guess I’ll be seeing more of them. I take my amusement where I can find it here and spraying them with large cans of bug spray is sort of satisfying.

Have I mentioned that I have a puppy again? Talay (my team named her – it means sea or sometimes it means seafood!) I will spare you the long story but in summary she is tiny and fluffy and full of passion for chasing bugs. Normally she spends a good hour or two each night patrolling the driveway and eating them but even she was overwhelmed last night and begged to come in and escape from them!

So my unnatural interest in the bugs last night got me thinking about just how different my days are here than back at home. Not exactly good different in terms of social life (I have none), definitely good different in terms of work, but overall just strange. Here is a typical day.

In the morning I walk my trash down the street to the communal garbage can (yes, just one normal sized can for each street of houses to share) because that is when it is empty and not swarming with stray dogs picking through people’s toilet paper and strange leftovers. On the way I am joined by Floppy Dog (his real name is Milo but picture lots of hair tied back in bows and an annoying penchant for trying to mount anything that moves), my own puppy, and Luc Luc, the neighbor’s puppy. This is 7am. I pass my neighbor as he is walking in a sarong and nothing else looking for water at some of the empty houses (we have a chronic water shut off problem)-he waves and I hope the sarong doesn’t drop. I pass the Burmese young men heading down my block to work in the rubber plantation which starts 2 houses away from me. They stare at me like I am the first woman they’ve ever seen and laugh and they like to shout “good morning” really no matter what time of day it is. Then I pass the car washing woman. She scrubs her shiny black car every morning and every evening. Usually wearing only a towel. And how does she have water to waste I do not know! She doesn’t make eye contact. I think she may be the maid and her employer has some weird passion about her and his car. Sometimes he watches her from his porch. Weird.

Then I get to Luc Luc’s house where toothless grandma emerges and laughs and laughs at me. I have no idea why. She finds my morning walk to the garbage the highlight of her day apparently. She talks and talks to me in Thai and follows me around and feeds my puppy and Luc Luc all sorts of terrible things that make them both sick. Last week it was some sort of rancid milk that left Talay’s lips green for the entire day. I don’t know how Luc Luc is still alive really. Sometimes the owner of that house comes out and shouts “goodbye miss” like she is annoyed with me. Not a greeting-definitely a very strong “get away from here”. No idea why. Maybe she doesn’t want grandma so worked up?

This is all before I get to the end of the block!

Today I found a spider in my underwear before I put it on. It was just clinging to it looking for a new home-on my skin! I was not pleased and realized that I haven’t been examining my air drying clothes well enough before using them. Yesterday I found a HUGE spider in my kitchen and honestly it was just too big to kill. I had to usher it out the door. I have given up.

The rest of my morning, until I leave for work, is usually spent fighting the leak on my water tank while I try to take a fast shower (at least this is better than a bucket) and then dealing with the myriad of people who like to show up before 8:30. Ok, not a myriad, but Nong (the caretaker of my house) and her fix it people. They come, they ask if my cable is on, I tell them it is still off and has been for 7 days now. Same as every day that they ask. They apologize. They ask if the water tank is fixed. I explain that it still has a leak. Like it has for 10 days. I don’t know why they think these things have fixed themselves?! Then I explain, again, that I get no water from the street. AND, once again this morning, Nong miraculously turns it on. She thinks I am crazy but I swear I turn those knobs at the curb pipe that controls my house water every morning and nothing comes on. Today I think she was explaining some complicated system of turning it until I hear a click and then turning it back the other direction. If only Jeremy were here. I absolutely hate trying to figure this out. Pluming, electricity, bugs, the tv, they all hate me!

Ahhh…is it weird that I find all of this so entertaining? I think I am severely socially deprived.

I did have my team and some of their significant others over for dinner 2 nights ago and we had a lot of fun. We went to the market and bought Thai junk food (fish on sticks, fried shrimp, unidentifiable soup, sticky dessert things and sticky rices) and brought it all back to my living room floor. I like the Thai style of eating at a party. No one ever sits on chairs or tables. We just sit in a circle and dip our hands into everything. It is a lot more fun. We played everyone’s favorite game of make Amanda read long and complicated sentences from my Thai/English phrasebook and try to guess what she is saying. HOWEVER, my Thai pronunciation is too good now and they actually understood me. I am quite proud.

In really good news, Laura (my college roommate and kindred spirit) is arriving in 2 weeks from Sunday!

Nothing more to report from Bang Niang.