Day 7: June 27, 2008
Today I got up early, got breakfast, and did some work for a few hours before heading out with Stacey to Phuket to help her shoot her interview. Her story is about a blind massage parlor where 12 blind people all live together in a pretty small place and run a massage parlor. On the way to Phuket we discussed her questions and basically just prepared for the interview (reviewing everything with the translator and what not to make sure things went smoothly). The interviews went really well, although it got really hot in the room because we had to turn off the air conditioning and fans to get good audio. After the interviews we got picked up again and headed back to the resort (stopping to get Abby on the way). On the way back we saw a beautiful sunset and most of the people in the van fell asleep, but I forced myself to stay awake because it was so pretty outside. The sunset lasted for forever and the colors were amazing the whole way back! Once we got back...I think I just went to the meeting and then back to bed? I'll come back and edit this if I remember differently!
Day 8: June 28, 2008
I honestly don't know what I did this day. Probably just had breakfast, worked, had the meeting, then went to bed. Sorry!
Day 9: June 29, 2008
Slept 4 hours in the middle of the day. Meeting with Mike. Work most of the day. Not much more. Went down to see the sun set and take pictures of it. Erin, Selket, and Stacey came down and met me for a beer- then Grace came down and we had another beer before the meeting. Then we had the meeting and went to bed.
Day 10: June 30, 2008
Today I went out to help Kate with her interview. The van was leaving at 7 am, so I had to skip the resort's amazing breakfast for the first time! Kate's story is about this guy who is a farmer/fisherman- basically he does whatever is making money at the time. His life is very "sabi-sabi" (I probably butchered that spelling- sorry!)- this basically means "whatever happens happens". He was very nice and so animated- though a bit stiff during the interview because I think he was trying to be formal for us, but it still went great. When we first got there we went with him to the bean fields. We got to ride in a side-car thing on his motorcyle, they're called tuk-tuk's and it was my first time on one so I was really excited! When we got there we pretty much had to just sit around and wait for him while he went through all the rows of beans and picked the ripe ones. He has to do this every morning because you have to pick them when they are just right. After that we rode back to his house and did the interview. Then we got in the van, picked up Pat and his family, then went and picked up Grace. We all stopped for lunch in the little fishing town where Grace's story is, then once we got back to the hotel we got chocolate popsicles- yum! After that I went back to the tree house and did some work. I started getting kind of homesick, and the meeting was cancelled so I went back to the room for some alone time (Charissa went out to dinner) and I got pictures off all my old memory cards (really old pictures- and some precious one's of my cats when they were little!). Then Grace and Stacey came and got me and when went for a walk down the beach. We walked to the end of the beach and went up some stairs to a resort that got destroyed by the tsunami. The stairs led up to the restaurant that we've since footage of the actual tsunami hitting taken from and had a few beers- then hung out for a while and headed back for bed.
Day 11: July 1, 2008
Slept in until around 9 (despite plans to meet for breakfast with Stacey and Grace at 8:30- although I discovered Grace didn't make it up that early either!). Got breakfast and then went to the tree house to work on design. Pretty much did that all day until heading out to dinner with some of the group. On the way into town we found a little kitten living in a pipe on the side of the road (little did I know I'd be taking that cat home when me on the way back from dinner!). Had dinner at a place we go to quite often actually, then hit up the 7 Eleven for some snacks to keep at the hotel since I skip lunch almost everyday! On the way back from dinner Erin and I found that cat whining on the side of the road- and just couldn't leave him there! He fits in the palm of my hand and can't be more than 2 weeks old, he would have died for sure! We brought him back to my room and spoon fed him some yogurt, then set up some water and a blanket for him in the bathtub before heading down for the meeting. After the meeting I rushed back to the room to play with him (I'd already given him a bath and what not so he was nice and clean now) and curled up with him to go to bed. He woke up a few times in the night and I took him into the bathroom and left him there while I fell back asleep, then went back for him as soon as I heard the whining and he came back and slept with me! Probably the best sleep I've had since I've been here...I miss my cats!
Day 12: July 2, 2008
Today we had a "design frenzy" as we showed the rest of the group all of our work thus far for the first time. So I woke up around 9 and headed out to catch the free breakfast (like I do every morning). Before going I put away some of my clothes that have been out on the porch drying and played with my adorable kitten I rescued from the road the night before (then had to leave her/him crying in the bathroom as we walked out the door and put the 'do not disturb' sign up so the hotel staff wouldn't catch us!). Had a quick breakfast, then scouted out areas near the restaurant where the kitten could live as a resort cat (and be fed by all the tourists because he's soooo precious). Came back to the room and took a million pictures of the cat (I'll put them up whenever I decided to figure out how to add pictures to this blog), then put the cat in my bag and headed out to find the bank so I could attempt to get my money back from them. I decided to just take the cat to town with me because he's too cute to just leave out on his own so he sat in my bag and eventually climbed out and crawled all over my shoulders and arms as I walked. On the way into town I ran into one of the other members of the group and she offered to take the cat back to the hotel and watch him for a while so I could go to the bank. I walked to the bank (which wasn't that far despite what everyone had made me think) and talked to the guy there and hopefully got everything straightened out. Then I came back to the hotel and got to work on our design frenzy. We worked until around 5:30, then headed back into town for dinner. On the way into town I talked to a guy we had met earlier in the trip who had found a cat and adopted it and asked him if he'd like a friend for his cat- and he said most likely! So tomorrow I'll be taking my kitten down to him and hopefully he'll have a permanent home...yay! We had dinner at a cute little place with a 'lady boy' waiter who was so funny! He guessed I was 27 and Julie was 17- way off on both of us! After dinner we came back to the hotel and power-housed on our design for about an hour and half before our 9 o'clock meeting when we had to present it. Everyone said they loved the design- so we're happy! After the meeting I headed up to bed to update this blog and get some rest before going out to help Julie with her interview tomorrow.
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