Tha Ears Are A Novelty Here

If you don't know this about me already, my ear lobes are stretched out to an inch. At least once a day a trainer comes by and sticks his finger through my ears, smiling. So today I took a picture with Joy, on the left (a huge culprit; you can see what a kick he gets out of them) and Petsila, on the right, after afternoon training (notice how sweaty and gross I am; I could never lie about being a sweaty Italian, so I won't begin to now), with their fingers in position, LOL!

In fact, after my afternoon one-on-one with Tuk (finally), Yib came up to me, feigning "concern", handing me my "earring" (which is shown in my hand). At first I was all grateful, then I took a better look at it. It was the plastic rim from a water bottle. He was dying at his joke, and it was pretty cute.

Turns out my earring HAD fallen out, though, and he did have it in his other hand. Since I lost one of the black pair I brought in the ocean, these are all I have left until I can buy some more (here, preferably). It came out because I was grappling with Tuk, kneeing him. It was GRUELING. I finally sweat enough it slid right out, or he likely bumped it out since it involves each other grabbing each other's shoulders in lock position. Time to start taking them out and taping the ears for training.......

I'm proud of myself today. I woke up early and did a 4 km power-walk/slight run (at times) from 6 to 6:50am, and even ran into my friend Bob, whom I just love, so we walked together the rest of the way. It's a simple and nice route that is peaceful and safe. Snake-free thus far, too. Then I made it to morning training for about 2 hours.

Afterwards, I showered and then walked to Tesco, the grocery store, about a mile away. Nobody could believe I was going to attempt this, but I wanted to just take my time there, and figured it would be good exercise. At least 4 Thai citizens stopped by to see if I wanted a ride; NOBODY walks anywhere here. I just smiled and thanked them ("Ka - Poon - Ka!") and patted my stomach and said "exercise!" They laughed and took off. How very kind of them, though.

Walking home with like 40lbs on my back and carrying another bag, in the heat and uphill, was DEFINITELY another forty minutes of cardio (it may be a bit more than a mile, actually). I rested up for an hour and a half since it was too close to afternoon training to eat, then went to the afternoon session. The grand finale was finally getting Tuk.

Michelle (my roommate) and I did rock, paper scissors (jokingly) as far as who got to get him, because she ate too close to training, and last time he worked her until she almost puked. But he called out "Mary!", so it's not like we had a choice. So today I trained with the recent world champion. He's fabulous, and always communicating, and speaks some of the best english of all the trainers. I learned a lot, he praised me a lot, too, and by the end of it I just was laying on my back in the middle of the ring, dying.

I feel good. And like I can walk to the cash station still (a short walk) and make a mean stir fry. I really feel the urge to do a lot of garlic and onion (anti-parasitic, etc.) but cannot do them raw, personally, so at Tesco I stocked up on some GREAT veggies. Today was a job well done, and I feel on point with my goals. I'll be early to bed and early to rise again.

I just can't stress enough how easy it could be to be intimidated by the trainers level of fitness, but honestly, it's a non-issue. They love their jobs and they love people. It's just a wonderful place, and a wonderful land.

Note: I swear to God my chest looks smaller in person!