birthday shout out

This post is dedicated to our friend Nick.  Happy Birthday!  Glad you finally got those White Power Ranger gloves....We love you and are thankful for your friendship.

--da

Fail...

KM Trip

After Thanksgiving, Logan and I, along w/ another friend, took a few days vacation to relax in KM.  We took a sleeper bus (which despite the bad rap it has gotten before, we thought it was the way to travel if you have to go by bus), and arrived around 8 am Sunday morning.  We spent Sunday eating Papa John's, exploring, and enjoying Charlie Brown Cafe--which provided free wireless and a strong americano.  Monday we enjoyed a trip to a fake IKEA...literally, it is like they robbed an IKEA truck and stocked their store.  Or maybe it is IKEA rejects, or maybe they just took a camera into an IKEA and took pictures and then copied it all.  I don't know.  Regardless, Logan did buy our bedspread from an IKEA, and we saw the same bedspread pattern at the fake IKEA.  It was an enjoyable experience, and we bought some fun stuff.  Don't you love this red couch, Mom?  (Unfortunately, we didn't buy it.)

That afternoon we met up w/ our friend Greg Lavo, who was making a trip through our part of the world and was able to swing a few days to hang out w/ us.  He and one of his friends traveling w/ him spent about a day and a half w/ us.  We drug them around to western food restaurants, the bookstores, and this park where you can feed the seagulls...did I mention we are pretty landlocked here?  I guess they imported seagulls.  We fed the birds and then later that day had some great Indian food.  Here's a picture of me and Greg at the park.

We headed back home to our city Wednesday evening, of course, not after about a 30 minute delay.  Which is actually not that bad.  It was good to hang out in a different city for a few days, buy a few things we can't get here, and see our friend.  One more picture of the four of us together...at 7 AM, not such a pretty sight.

--da

Happy Late Thanksgiving!

Hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving.  This post is late (naturally), but we do hope you all had a good Thanksgiving, and we wish you a Merry Christmas too!

--da

A face mask? Are you serious?

So, I am finally sick. Not serious sick, but just sinus infection sick. Which is abnormal for me...since I usually have one every month during winter. However, since it isn't really winter here...I've been good. Regardless, this is all background for my story:

After lunch, I went to the pharmacy close to our house and asked if they had amoxicillin. The pharmacist lady replied that they did, and handed me a box of 16 tablets. Great! She asked then if I had taken it before, or literally "before eaten?" Of course, I told her....in America. I asked her how often to take it, she told me, and then she asked what my sickness was. Not knowing the words for either sinus or infection, I told her I had a cold. She looked at me like I was crazy for taking an antibiotic for a cold. (Which surprised me b/c most people here will go get an IV for a backache...) I then looked up the word for infection and told her I had an infection in my nose. (I mean..that's pretty much right.) Her eyes got wide. At this point, another lady in the store asked if my throat hurt. Yes, a little I said, but not too bad. The pharmacist then pulled out a face mask and tried to sell it to me! Not wanting to be forced to buy a face mask and wear it, I played down my illness and insisted that I didn't have H1N1, it wasn't serious, just a cold. The other lady asked if I had a fever. Of course I don't, I replied. Having seemed to quiet their fears that I was going to spread some terrible disease all over the city, I paid for my antibiotic, and then was asked if I wanted Chinese medicine. No thanks, I replied. I thanked them for their help, and headed home.

--da