Yes, There is a Mouse in the House!

Sunday, 30 January 2005

This weekend consisted of a lot of laziness, watching DVD's, eating, and shopping....and of course, looking for the mouse that is in our house. Some of the movie titles that were watched: "Princess Diaries 2" with Aw, "Bridget Jones Diary 2: The Edge of Reason" that shows the chedi in my town! (But that was the only exciting part of Thailand they depicted in the movie, as the rest of the storyline showed the Hollywood sterotypical parts of Thailand that I have not associated with the culture of Thailand while living here- drugs, sex, and prostitution), and "Van Diesling" with P'Lek on his brand-spanking new 5 speaker boombox combined with 3 disc DVD changer. In his little 10x10 room, it was hilarious to see this 40 year old man cowering in the corner as the surround sound was so loud, I swear all of Nakhon Pathom could hear the movie all the way to the chedi. He finally let me borrow the movie, either because he wanted me to go home so he could listen to his slow song American hits cd, or because he was too scared to continue watching a movie about vampires reverberating the walls in his room.

Saturday, Aw and I went to the morning market at Soi Sawng at 7:30 am and I found myself in a shopping spree as I bought two Chinese embroidered blouses (many vendors are selling Chinese shirts and lycee for Chinese New Year's on February 9th) for $5 each, a silver necklace with a huge turqoise gem for $7, a dress shirt for my brother, pad see iew and two hom bows for my 50 cent breakfast, and a coconut filled with shredded, chilled coconut jello for dessert. Later, Matt stopped by to take me and Jill out for ice cream. For lunch, Ku Ai and Wondee took us to get noodle soup and more ice cream. Then, they took us to visit Ajarn Ong-Ard and Ajarn Kanisnee's house about 15 minutes away. Although they have had the house for 2 years, they are still renovating and fixing it up so that it's ready when they retire to live in it full-time. We looked at baby pictures of the kids, talked a bit about school stuff (how they want me to teach summer school at the end of March and beginning of April, and how the curriculum books from America we ordered are too expensive to get -so it's back to the drawing board!), and then headed home. I was so full from my day of eating, I just ate saimin for dinner.

Today, I cleaned the cupboards, as I discovered the mouse had eaten through a saimin package and one of my snack bags, right through the ziploc bag. There were mouse droppings in the kitchen and on the dining room table, that weren't there last night! So, after the workers spent last week sealing holes in our house and replacing old window screens, I convinced them today (after showing them the eaten packages) that they have "sealed" the mouse in our house. P'Pau came to look through our cabinets for the mouse, but I tried to tell her that it comes out at night, so she probably wouldn't find the critter. I told her we should probably get a mouse trap, but I know they just want to find it, as it would be against Buddhist principles to kill anything (hence all the wild, rabid dogs all over Thailand). So, I tried to clean out as much food as possible, moving some things to our school fridge, as our house fridge will need to be fixed tomorrow anyway due to its neverending iceberg building up in the freezer, constant defrosting puddles that remain on the floor, and with a door that never seals completely tight.

As I finish the book, Mai Pen Rai, I laugh and can associate with many of Carol Hollinger's stories of living with the many critters of Thailand that keep you up at night, or that you know have visited your house sometime in the night. Besides those accounts, her book is one that is definitely a must-have for anyone intending to spend a good amount of time living in Thailand, to understand its people, culture, driving, social system, and, well, just a little bit about everyday life.