Our flight over was so great! We didn't have any problems in the airports or
anything with having contraband items (I was kind of nervous about the diaper
rash creme, but it is a necessity, just ask JoJo). To be honest, the 2 domestic
flights are kind of a blur but the LA to Bangkok was awesome. There were
literally only about 35 people in the entire economy class section...first class
was more crowded than we were (rich suckers!). Also when I boarded the plane
there was a bottle of water in every seat, curtosey of Thai air. So my water
fear was eased, especially after we ended up with 7 seats for the 3 of us (7
bottles of water!). Jonas slept alot and also charmed the flight attendants and
came away with a free toy airplane, a plastic puzzle, 2 toy ducks, a Thai air
bib and 2 free diapers. Not to mention an in-between meals crossant. Thai air
also provided toothbrushes and tooth paste in the bathrooms, so that was very
nice. We also had the personal TV screens and movies on demand in every seat. I
won't say it was the quickest 17 hours of my life, but it wasn't so bad. I even
managed to catch a few Z's, which doesn't usually happen for me on airplanes.
Jonas was happy to see Von (our baby sitter) again and has been calling her "nah". He still talks
about Nana (my mom) and ChiChi (my brother) and Yaya (my dad). I asked him if he saw Nana today and he said
yes. I'm not sure what he was thinking about.
He is almost back on schedule
sleep wise. He got a stuffy nose on the plane that hasn't cleared up yet.
We went to playgroup yesterday and Jonas played in a baby pool wearing his speedo. Playgroup was at someone's house who i had never met before. She is from Austrailia and has like 5 kids or something. Her husband works for an Austrailian Gem mining company here in Laos. Needless to say, they are LOADED. Their house was enormous and they had tons of toys imported from Austrailia, as well as a swing set with a cabana built over it and a huge sand box in the yard. I noticed her kids had made alot of paintings and other crafts so I asked her where she got the paint. I have been wanting to do paint stuff with our Sunday School kids and I also wanted to get some tempera paint powder because you can use it to make your own finger paints and other cool stuff. Anyway, the paint was from Austrailia too so no dice. People who work for big foreign companies often get all of their household stuff shipped here for free. Sadly, for us as teachers, we can only bring what we can fit in a suitcase. Which is suprisingly alot.
At one point Jonas was jumping on her couch and I didn't think a thing about it until she asked me to make him stop. I mean he is less than 2 years old and he was barefoot. For some reason that really hurt my feelings to where I felt like crying. Of course i didn't actually cry but I felt very scolded and sheepish for the rest of the time. I'm not sure why I had that reaction. Its not like it was an unreasonable request.
Then when I was riding home with one of the other moms from playgroup I asked her if she knew if the public schools had started yet, because the private schools have. And she said in a seemingly snotty way, "I don't have any reason to keep up with the Lao schools." And I was thinking "what a jerk.." but I just said "I just thought maybe you had seen children in their uniforms or something." I mean she had just finished telling me how she thought the business school had started because there were alot of motorbikes there the night before. I'm not a fan of unecessary rudeness. I don't know if I was just too thin-skinned yesterday though.
Was it me? Or would you guys have been offended too?

Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2006 at 8:31 AM