Top Ten Tuesday

And now for our final post (for this trip at any rate)... In honor of old grammar school friend Bethany Manning, whose blog is similarly inspired by our late Junior High friend Jennifer, here are the top ten things – or make it a baker’s dozen – that are grateful for:

13. The Thai urban health system is more thorough and cheaper than the US system.

12. Cool tile bathroom floors on feverish cheeks.

11. Getting through the airport calmly, 2.5 hours before protesters occupy it and shut it down. (Although it would have made for an entertaining blog post.)

10. Tropical diseases eliminated those extra pounds we’ve been trying to take off.

9. Fish soup is actually not a bad thing for breakfast, especially when served by a kind, smiling nurse.

8. Ginger in Mae Rim, looking out for us and befriending a feverish Rozie who nonetheless motor biked out the 17 km, in search of peace and quiet.

7. Kristin, no longer of Chiang Mai but wonderfully in Seattle where she can deliver us soup, and who warned us of the impending hair loss and depression in 2-3 months, so we won’t freak out.

6. The sympathy that exudes from a hostess (Lizzy) even when we overstayed our welcome in so many ways, especially once she experienced first hand the meaning of “communicable.”

5. The hilarity that can ensue with cultural differences, especially with inter-cultural communication around bodily fluid samples.

4. Jamie, the housesitter/ housemate who was happy to let us come home early and muscle in on her newly claimed territory, and friends who instantly offered to feed us Thanksgiving dinner.

3. How easy it is to appreciate a Bostonian Anarchist (cap A), who will not cede to foreign queue cutters and can seamlessly merge into Chiang Mai traffic anarchy (small A).

2. How unfazed one becomes about airsickness, once 4 days have been spent in a foreign hospital.

1. Laughing at ourselves and with each other, and loving with a deep constancy… even when (or especially when) sicker than dogs, and when trying to escape a foreign country before a coup, and even though whilst we were away California, Arizona, and Florida said it isn’t worthy of the term “marriage”.