Almost done with 1st week of Thai massage

Our class:

We really blend into our class, don’t we (as usually we’re the only couple, I’m the only male, and we’re old enough to be everyone’s parents,even the teacher’s)?

During dinner last night I turned one of the German students into a punk fairy with a bird’s beak:

When we walk to the local market along the small road, we pass fields of rice as well as very small shops.  Lots of motor cycles.  Some have side carts attached like this one.  There’s a little cage in this one that holds a chicken.  I saw one yesterday that carried a woman in her wheelchair. I looked closer and saw she was driving the motorcycle from her wheel chair in the side cart…  no one was sitting in the motorcycle seat.

Our Massage teacher has a piece of property with his house, a few shacks for students and a little house as well.  There’s also a house on the property that a family from Burma lives in – they take care of his property for him. I’ve played with their kids almost every day. The youngest one is still deathly afraid of me (they don’t speak any English).

We just finished the last lessons of the first week of Thai massage.  The teacher, Mac, is wonderful… with a good sense of humor (I need that in a teacher).  He often says, “You need more coffee!” …. Annie loves to hear that).  When he lectures and demonstrates, I feel like I’m listening to Tony Randall when he played Dr. Lao (in The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao).

Tomorrow we practice everything we “learned(?)” so far.   To do this 1-2 hr massage would probably take us 4 hrs at this point (so much to remember and so many positions to get into).   With practice it will get quicker… but will we practice?

We tried deciding what to do next week…. and rather than making up our minds to go to the next location (wherever that will be) we decided to stay for another week of classes (level 2).  Saturday we’ll go with Mac to a mountain village where he helps a family with a child who has special needs.  In the US families can get help when they have children who have special needs (especially if they have the right insurance) but here there’s little government or other assistance.   Mac raises money and goes there once every other month to help as best he can.  We’ve given him a donation and will accompany him on Saturday to this little village (about an hour away in a remote area) and of course I’ll be bringing balloons as well.

The following weekend there’s a big Flower parade festival in Chiang Mai… so we’ll stay in town and enjoy it (sounds like fun for my birthday).  Then we think we’ll take off for a village which is know for its “hippie” atmosphere, hot springs, and lovely nature scenery – Pai (lots of videos of Pai have been posted on Youtube).  We’ve been looking for hotels there and see places from $4/night to $300…. and the $4 ones look pretty nice to us.

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