The day started out with discovering that my face had been a mosquitoe's meal during the night. We sleep in pants, long sleeves, and socks to protect us from mosquitoes (which really aren’t that bad at all in the house), but apparently my face and ears were looking mighty tasty to a few bugs. When I woke up, my lip was the size of a fist! Who knew mosquitoes like to bite lips? After some Benadryl and time, my lip is now back to normal size. Thank goodness we didn’t shoot the video today!Lourd’s parents are really taking tremendous care of us.
They make sure we eat (and eat, and eat, and eat), get safely back and forth to the studio, and nurse us all back to health. Each time we sit down at the table to enjoy one of their elaborately prepared meals, they make sure we get a huge variety of food and are conscious of everyone’s preferences. If our plates are empty, they fill them again and again and again. I’m really going to have to re-learn the art of eating slow!This morning, Lourd’s father helped get rickshaws to take us to the studio. He was really great at flagging them down and being persistent. It was my first time ever in this little tri-wheel contraption! With the 6 of us, we needed to take 2 rickshaws, which turned out to be quite an adventure.
We started out great following each other, but then our driver decided he needed to stop to put air in the tires so we got separated. Apparently the 1st rickshaw driver had heard the address “off Palace Road” as “to the Palace” and took Jon, Kristen, and Arieh to the palace. Our driver couldn’t find the address we wanted to go to so we were lost. Who knew there were multiple roads called 1st Main Road? After a lot of trying to talk over really loud engines and craziness, both rickshaws finally made it safely to the studio.We spent the entire rest of the day rehearsing for the video and making sure we are all clear
about all of the choreography details before the local dancers come in on Thursday to learn. It was a fun day, but very exhausting! We ate lunch at a beautiful little restaurant right under the studio where we got to sit in bean bags and enjoy a wonderful meal.
When we were finally done with practice it was pouring rain and we couldn’t seem to flag down rickshaws. I’m not sure how long we stood around, but we were all exhausted and many of us are fighting illnesses. I’m certainly not used to all the dust and smoke in the air and my throat was killing me. When Giju finally had to give up finding rickshaws, Lourd’s dad again came to our rescue and came over to pick us up. While we waited, we got to go back down into the restaurant for some nice cold drinks.
We got back to the house and got nice hot showers, some tender loving care, and another exceptional meal with a delicious steamed fish that Lourd’s mother prepared from her own recipe.
Lourd’s father made sure I gargled nice warm salt water and his mother made sure I got nice hot soothing water at dinner. It’s just great having parents around!After dinner, my dance partner, Jon saved me with some Tylenol PM so I could finally get some rest. The jet lag had really gotten to me and I hadn’t gone to sleep until almost 5:00AM the night before. So, instead, I’m writing this Blog from the wee hours of the morning (just after 5:00AM) today after falling asleep early (around 10 or 11:00PM) the night before. Hopefully, the switch from going to bed at 5:00AM to getting up at 5:00AM will be just the cure I need for my awful case of jet lag.
Views from my first ever rickshaw ride:
No comments:
Post a Comment