Hanging out with Phu's Family

Sunday, 5 September 2004

I woke up yesterday morning and felt like someone punched me in the eye (perhaps I did punch myself during my sleep!), as my eye hurt when I blinked, and it was a little swollen. I let a day pass, but this morning, I woke up and thought it may be a case of pink eye, so I asked my neighbor, the chaplain, about the hospital clinic next door. They said most of the clinics are closed on Sundays and that I should call Phu's mother. I called Phu's mother, who is a doctor, and she arranged for me to go to her friend who is an eye doctor at a private hospital. Her husband and Phu picked me up after church and took me to the hospital.

The hospital was just as nice as any western hospital in the states; and after the doctor was finishing eating his lunch and Phu was busily playing in the kiddie section, he examined my eye and said it didn't seem serious, but would give me eye drops.

After working in the classroom for a few hours (Christy and I have to re-write the curriculum lesson plans according to the district standards to publish and present to the Ministry of Education who will be visiting our English program classroom on the 21st of this month.), Phu's family picked me up to take me to a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner. We talked about American politics, and Phu's father talked about how he doesn't like many American attitudes. We talked about my family background and what led me to come to Thailand. It was very interesting to talk to Phu's family (and actually carry on a full English conversation with Thai people, which seemed weird to me, because I am trying to practice becoming more fluent in Thai), enjoy their light-hearted humor, and accept their generosity as they offered to take Christy and I around Nakhon Pathom, Bangkok, and take my family around when they visit Thailand. After dinner, they took me to a park, where there are nice tennis courts and beautifully terraced gardens and grounds. This park used to be the palace grounds for King VI, Rama. It was formerly a tourist site, and then a public park for running and jogging, and now they are turning it back into a palace museum area, so it is heavily regulated by security guards.
It was beautiful to walk around and see all the palace buildings lit up and see visitors pay their respects, lighting incense and leaving flowers near certain monuments. I had wished I had my camera to capture the moment, but I was told you cannot take pictures in the evening anyway, so I will have to come back during the day. All in all, it was a very pleasant and enjoyable day.