It's Really Real!

I was a whole lot of worried over nothing! Tuesday morning, the movers arrived thirty minutes early (the last time that happened was never!) and got right to work. I sent PeePorn out at noon to get them lunch, they ate and took a little siesta on our driveway before getting back to packing. At 4:00 pm, our first floor was completely packed and they had packed a few large items from the second floor. Yesterday, they finished packing the second floor. Today, they will move all of the boxes into crates, load the truck and take our stuff out of here! Our shipment will then be processed through Thai Customs and granted (hopefully!) the appropriate permits to be exported before it is all loaded on a ship bound for Baltimore. 

I know not everyone has a choice as to what relocation company they use but, based on our experience so far, I would definitely recommend Asian Tigers. A crew of 6, including an excellent English speaking supervisor, is working at our home. They are all nicely dressed, conscious about keeping the work areas neat and very hardworking. Of course, I really won't know how good (or bad) of a packing job they are doing until we get to the other side of the world but so far, so good. 

The boxes in the photo below will be sent via air freight and, if all goes well with Customs, they should be delivered to us shortly after we arrive in the U.S. Our air freight allowance was 700 pounds and that portion of our shipment weighed in at exactly 699.96 pounds! Yay me! The supervisor and I were carefully keeping track of the weight as each box was packed. Not realizing that he was telling me the weights in kilograms, after we totaled everything at the end of the day, I was so excited because I had a lot of weight left to use. Then he said, "oh, you probably want to convert that to pounds". Total. Bummer. Is the U.S. the only country left in the world that does not use the metric system?!?

 

The office and den all packed up!

 

Of course, in the midst of it all, is Sonder. He knows something is going on and follows PeePorn or I around the house, afraid to let either one of us out of his sight. I thought about leaving him with a friend during the day while the movers are here but didn't want him to think I was abandoning him. 

There really isn't much for me to do while they pack (other than to clarify if something is going or staying) so I read a book for most of the day and walked Sonder several times. It is nice to have this down time after being so stressed for the last couple of weeks.

I finally broke down on Monday and went to see the doctor about my stomach. It has been bothering me for two weeks now and has not improved even though I have been very careful about what I eat and drink. Some days I feel fine and can function as a (somewhat) normal person but there are other days when I feel fine, eat something (it doesn't matter what) and then end up in bed, feeling horrible for the rest of the day. The doctor ran some tests and has diagnosed me with giardiasis, an intestinal infection caused by a microscopic single-celled parasite. Most likely, I got sick by either drinking contaminated water or eating food that had been washed or irrigated with contaminated water. While it can be treated with antibiotics, if the infection is left alone, it will resolve itself in 4-6 weeks. Since I am already at two weeks of being sick, I opted not to treat with antibiotics just yet. We are going to Vietnam after school is finished and if things haven't improved by the time we return from there, I will treat with antibiotics. 

The doctor and I were discussing what foods I should avoid in order to ease the trauma on my stomach and he told me that this infection can cause (or further aggravate) lactose intolerance. So, I wasn't imagining the troubles I was having with my post-run chocolate milk!

Have a great Thursday!