Carpe Diem

So, I was supposed to stand in front of a classroom filled with eager smiling little Siamese kids, but a dangerously cocktail of Malaria-medication and Thai Whisky voted against any such plans. I went out yesterday evening, bought my first teacher-uniform and all, two neat shirts and two black pants, and tought I would just drop by good old Hole in the Wall, a sort of Kassa4-Barracuda-BarTabac in the heart of bloody Khao San Road. Anyway, by the time I got back home, I was way past my schedule, and I vaguely remind putting my alarmclock about 2 hours later. I can do this, I remember telling myself, I can do this. I even found strength in the memorie of one of my good old friends in Belgium, who is specialised in waking up adfter two hours of sleep and with still enough inflammatory liquids in his system to get pulled aside. I was thinking of the bravado with which my dear friend would stagger of to work, and to succesfully perform whatever devious duties lay ahead of him on that day. And so I fell into a coma, only to wake up with a screaming headache, a burning liver and a slightly irregular heartbeat. This had happened to me two weeks ago, and I knew I wasn't going to show up at my first day of work. Iwasn't even gonna make it to the nearest 7Eleven if I ran out of soda and aspros. Which happened eventually, six hours of vomiting agony later. I allready had warned my boss, who was sweet about it, since I only told about the being sick part and not the night before, so now I only had to warn myself never ever to mix my Lariam with suspiciously cheap whisky again. (5 euros a bottle.) Somehow I remember dragging myself 5 flights down to get in the burning blistering heat of the 2 o'clock tropical sunny asphaltos, and by the time I had gotten in the airconditioned 7Eleven, my shirt was soaked with rancid hangover-sweat. I managed to carry my supply of water up the stairs, and after another encounter with mr. Loo I sank into a sweaty afternoon nap. Later that day I kindly returned my schoolbooks to my boss, who told me to get well soon (no acting required for calling in sick when Lariam is working on your hangover at a 200 heartbeats a second.) and also that she had high hopes of me becoming a teacher. I couldn't believe it. Only in Thailand! Seemed like the impression I made in class the other day erased any doubts about my capacity of going to bed in time. So, I kindly told her I was going to call her if I was back in shape, but also that chances were big that I would spend the next three weeks in laidback Lao. She gave me a kind smile, and wished me luck, and told me to keep her number for when I was ready to settle in buzzy Bangkok. Amazing, Thai etiquette is just not what I expected it to be. I guess my days of learning are far from over...