Monday, July 26

I'm feeling a little low about all this lockdown stuff. It just sucks that so many people here are suffering so badly. Hospitals are running out of beds and people can't even get tested in order to get admitted to those hospitals and several people have literally died on the streets in Bangkok. Construction workers are being locked into construction sites and given very little food or care. The vaccine rollout has been a total mess. I think Thai people are in general very upset with how the government has dealt with Covid. There were protests just last week, in defiance of the ban on public assembly: https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/politics/2150783/police-fire-water-cannon-rubber-bullets-tear-gas-at-protesters

And, you know, just personally, I feel kinda low—low energy, low motivation to do anything. Over the weekend, we had thought we might go to Lumphini or Benjakiti park, but on Friday, the government announced the closure of all public parks. We took a trip to the market and another trip to Chinatown to look for some lightweight masks, but I felt a kind of heaviness in my chest throughout.

In some ways, I feel a little like I'm reliving March/April of 2020 in the United States. I don't leave the house much, I always wear a mask when I'm outside, I cook most of our meals at home, and I don't see many other people. I'm actually a little more isolated here—I continued to work in Chicago, whereas here I'm working from home (and it's hard work—I keep thinking of all the teachers I know who had to figure out all this online teaching stuff in 2020!). In Chicago, I still regularly saw Megan & Aaron & Mirah, and that funny little baby was such a joy. Nowadays I only really see Roman in person (and the street food cart vendors and sex workers we say hi to on the street, but we don't really have deep conversations).

Still, it is totally different from 2020 in the US for other reasons. Roman & I are fully vaccinated, and almost all our close friends & family members are fully vaccinated, which makes a huge difference in my emotional wellbeing. And we elected to come here. And also, you know, this isn't my country and my government, so I don't have the same expectations or frustrations, though I feel a lot of empathy for people here.

So while in some ways, I'm in the same position I was in a year ago, and in the same position as my Thai neighbors and coworkers, I am also very much not, and am very lucky in a lot of ways. Still, feeling a little bit loooooowww.

Anyway, I have a few photos to share. Here's Roman eating a meal in a totally normal way:

On Friday, I made some videos for my “science experiment” for work. They asked me to create an experiment about food that had something to do with healthy vs unhealthy foods, so I soaked some eggs in plain water and soda for a couple days and asked the students to observe the results.

But man, one of the other teachers made a freaking volcano! Which doesn't make my EGGxperiment look that cool.

And...here are some pics of Roman rescuing a toad off the busy Sukhumvit sidewalk...

Hopping right out of his hands!

I wrote most of this blog Monday morning...and then spent all afternoon asking a bunch of four and five year olds to move like a crab or make a sound like a monkey, and well, I don't feel so bad anymore.