That's so Thailand

Remember the horrible car?

Haaaaate yooooou.

We lent it to a co-worker for a few days to see how he liked it (he likes it a lot, but he wants a truck). Earlier this week he parked it at school to return it. He left the windows open, which I figured was fine. Air that sucker out.

After school today, Nick took Sophie to the store in our real car, and I stayed late to finish entering grades. Sascha stayed after too, so she and I planned take the car home.

She got in the passenger side first and started freaking out immediately. "BUGS! BUGS! BUGS!" flailing and screeching. I looked in the open window on my side and saw a swarm of about 100 mosquitoes. There was no standing water in the car so I can't figure out how that many of them could get in there. I yelled for her to get out of the car, Sascha get out of the car, SASCHA GET OUT OF THE CAR!!! She couldn't hear me because the rain was driving like a thousand bullets on the metal carport roof, so it was rain + two screaming females for a moment. I had to get in the car to move it out of the tight parking spot so I could open the doors for a while.

As luck would have it, an hour earlier I got a long-awaited package from Amazon (hooray for expensive gel deodorant!) which had some picardin mosquito repellent in it. We greased up and got back in. We drove home with the windows down in the angry tropical rain, swatting at the few dozen mozzies still in the car. Of course, of course we got stuck behind some huge cargo vehicle lumbering down the road going about 15 mph.

Something like this.

Then Sascha got some of the mosquito repellent in her eyes, and the ride got more fun. And more loud. We got home and I immediately poured myself a glass of delicious box wine. I think I didn't get bitten, although it's hard to tell. I'm still scratching my head like a POW* and I don't expect that will change for the entire duration of our stay in Thailand.

*I got a hair cut & color a few nights ago. The woman who washed my hair scratched my head, hard, for a good 5-10 solid minutes. Heaven. It didn't itch again for an entire 12 hours.

I wanted to record one more point for the small school: report cards. I spent a big part of my day entering grades, and because I have such small classes (I think I have like 65 total students?), I was able to write meaningful comments for each kid. I feel like I'm giving my students the education I want for my own kids. 

We leave for a week on Koh Kood tomorrow! The timing is perfect. It's always darkest before the dawn, and this week has been pretty heavy. Lots of late nights working. Next post from the beach!