the fish that El "caught" in her hair. Much smaller than my fingernail.
Teaching the kids at church
For the past week, the waves have been absolutely massive! Earlier in the week, they were fun to just jump up with (they'd lift you about 3 feet off the ground). But yesterday and today, the whole ocean was just churning with crazy waves! Usually there will just be basically one wave that breaks on shore all along the length of the beach, but now they're breaking in many spots and going in different directions, too. I've never seen it so stirred up in the 7 months that I've been here! Yesterday El, Paul, Liz and I went to the beach in the late afternoon (as we usually do, to avoid the hottest part of the day), and all of them went in for quite a while to get battered about by the waves. I never ended up going in very far, b/c as soon as one came, it would knock me down and carry me along w/ it. Even when I tried to dive under them, they would still sweep me away! The whole shape of the beach has changed, too. Since the tide has been up so high, it has carved out some sand dunes and little hills and drop-off points, whereas it's usually just sandy (loose sand) and fairly flat. Pretty interesting. I've been told that the wind blows in the opposite direction during the low season, and that's what causes the waves to be so big, while the ocean is normally very calm during the high season. And it's definitely the low season (more about that in a minute!). When El got home tonight, as she was taking a shower, a tiny fish fell out of her hair! Apparently he'd gotten tangled up and couldn't get free, and then he went for a ride to Step Ahead. Unfortunately, he didn't survive the journey. I tried to take a picture, but it's so small that you can barely see it.
Low season: I realized that the low season has really started when, on Thursday morning, Liz and I ventured to Khao Lak (a 1/2 hour walk) in hopes of having a nice breakfast at Stempfer Cafe, a lovely German bakery/ cafe.... only to find that it was closed- until OCTOBER! I was pretty sad. I'd been looking forward to a nice European breakfast and a strong coffee (and buying some bread to take home). Even the small German bakery right down the road from us is closed, but I'm not sure if they'll be closed for the whole low season. Lots of shops and restaurants are closing around here for the next 5-6 months. It's becoming a ghost town! But I expect we'll still have plenty of students in the low season; Paul said they did last year.
I'm going through a phase where I'm kinda tired of Thai food. It seems like we eat the same stuff over and over (which we probably do at home too, but it's just different to eat the same foreign food over and over... not sure why). I was especially annoyed w/ Thai food when I got food poisoning 2 weeks ago- from a noodle shop where I had lunch- and threw up literally the whole night (I haven't thrown up in years; I have to be REALLY sick to actually throw up). I'm seriously thinking I need to learn how to make my own bread. I think I've had enough rice to last me a lifetime. But it's ok; I'll pass through this phase if I persevere. Also, my plan is to search out bagels and cream cheese when I'm in Bangkok... something I haven't eaten in 7 MONTHS! And I'll probably make a few trips to Starbucks as well.
On a happier note, my friend Pia told me that I can now read and write Thai at first-grade level! So I'm now about as smart as a 7-year-old Thai kid.
1 comment:
um hello!!! those waves were from a cyclone!
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