Thursday, December 13, 2012

I dislike roofs

Want to hear a story?  Here. We. Go.

Monday was Constitution Day here so we had the day off. Some of my friends were going to Phuket for the weekend so I decided to be social and go. Left early Saturday morning, got to Phuket around 12:30ish. Drove around for a bit looking for a place to stay. Ended up finding a little place a 2 minute walk from the beach. Had two beer waiting for people to get dressed, started throwing a frisbee around with Arvid. It might also be important to note that I'm not very good at frisbee. I can sort of catch and know how to run at a moderate speed but throwing is not one of the skills that the world blessed me with. So I eventually throw an awful pass to Arvid, goes way hard right and lands on the roof. We walk over to check it out. Looks a little flimsy but I'm not that heavy, won't be on it long and bad stuff doesn't really happen to me. I also didn't want to be responsible for losing a $5 frisbee. 


So I jump onto a small wall, put some weight on the roof, no problems. Start walking across the roof, get a hold of the frisbee, immediately throw it to Arvid. Then things started to go poorly. My left leg fell through then the rest of the roof I was standing on collapsed. I fell tailbone first, apparently landed on a water jug/cooler which may or may not have helped ease my fall. I fell into a Thai kitchen and luckily didn't land on anyone or anything dangerous. I really think I got lucky by not getting more injured. 


So picture a bunch of Thai people working at their restaurant, taking orders, speaking Thai and a massive white, shirtless white man rudely crashes into your kitchen via the roof. The word surprised might be a tad of an understatement. They immediately called for an ambulance, gave me water, fanned me down and were pretty understanding considering I ruined their roof. Ended up taking my first ever ambulance ride. Doctor took some X-rays, broke my wrist, got some stitches in my leg, a few cuts but overall feel way better each day. At the hospital they have a chart from 1-10. 1 being a green smiley face and 10 is a bright red angry face. They ask you about different parts of your body and you are suppose to point to the corresponding level of pain. I opted for orange for my back and a yellowish color for my wrist. Really is a brilliant system for a place that is inundated with several different languages daily. Tailbone felt like when you take a super hard fall snowboarding but multiplied by 9. Cast might be on for 8 weeks, I'm shooting for four. 


Waited until I came back to Nakhon to get my cast done, wanted to trust whoever was in charge of my long term health. Decent care here in my opinion. Although I have been called stubborn by a few doctors and friends the past two days; I disagree. My school covered all of the costs. Whenever people see me though they assume I am some dumb white tourist who got hurt riding a bike. I'm not a dumb farang. If they only knew I fell through a roof, they would respect me way more...


I returned the next night to apologize and ask about the cost to repair their roof. They could have easily called the police and gotten a bunch of cash from me but they were surprisingly reasonable considering it is such a tourist island that tends to overcharge for everything. Paid what amounts to about $45. To sum up, I'm fine, no scuba diving in Bali for Christmas and just happy I didn't get more seriously hurt. Enjoy both of your wrists everyone!

No matter how bad things are, they can always get worse.


Thursday, December 6, 2012

A Canadian summer?


I'm starting to think I might like to come home. My reasons for not wanting to come home are not wanting to get a serious job with only 5-10 days off a year, a Canadian winter and a feeling that once I get home I will stop traveling, get a job, girlfriend, car, house etc. HOWEVER, the thought occurred to me on Wednesday during the Father's Day celebration that I could get the best of both worlds if I spent the summer in Canada, got a few part time jobs that aren't serious and once I stopped having fun or once it started to get cold, head out to either South America or Japan. The key would not be getting tied down by jobs or a serious relationship.

The only thing that might be better is if I got a job in May working in Brazil for the 2014 World Cup, which is the dream.
I legitimately miss my family. My brother and his wife are having a very cute baby soon and would like to be around to play with him. I'd like to see my mom, sisters, friends, go to concerts, cottages, festivals, patios, movies, play some beach volleyball, barbecue, flannel sheets, constant English, poutine, and other Canadian staples. And bagels, I love bagels. And pink lemonade.


These are my thoughts. If you have any comments or concerns let me know but I think I might be on the right track with this. Now I will stop talking about my feelings and have 2 more fun posts coming up about the internet and expectations.