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First Day At School

Posted by Garth on Monday, June 2, 2008

Not sure how to write this post without sounding like a whiny little bitch. Suffice it to say, I'm going to. Sound like one that is.

Let me start off with the accommodations. Signed up for the Tropical Bungalow. Pricey, but private and seemingly nice. And it is, to some extent. Outside there's a nice little (actually pretty decent size) deck with 2 chairs and a table, and it's got a wooden roof over it to keep off both sun and rain. Inside there's a TV and DVD player (neither of which I really intend on using since I have my lappy and the 'net), an air conditioning unit, a closet (no drawers), a mini fridge, a microwave, an electric kettle and some dishware. And a hot shower and toilet - that flushes. Two sinks (one in the kitchenette and one in the bathroom), neither of which seem to have any control over water temperature. It's either on or off. Then there's the bed. Hmm... what to say about the bed? It's a decent size... probably a double, maybe even a queen. But OH MY GOD is it a horrible mattress. Sitting down on it makes you feel like you do when you sit down on a waterbed, except it's not. It just has no support whatsoever. In fact, when I plant my fat ass on it I can feel the springs give way all the way to the bottom, at least if I move towards the middle. Around the edges the mattress stays up, so you have a sort of concave effect going on. Surprisingly I slept alright last night... until I woke up, at which point there was just no way I was getting comfortable. I've only paid for a week so far, so I'll stick it out til then, but I may have to do something when my lease runs out, cuz I already have back problems and this sure as hell isn't gonna help. Also, from the deck you can see some sort of giant buddha on the top of a hill (mountain?). Oh, and did I mention the bungalow is lucky # 13?

On to the training. Woke up at around 5:30 this morning without my alarm (it was set for 6:45). Lay in bed til it went off (as there was no way I was getting back to sleep, both from an anxiety and a comfort perspective). Went to the office at around 7:20, met up with one of the trainers who helped fit me for gloves (14 oz), as well as wrap and a mouthpiece (though I don't plan on doing any sparring for quite some time). Then it was off for the morning run. I have no idea how far I went, but suffice it to say that running down a road in Thailand at 7:30am is nowhere near the same as running on a treadmill in an air conditioned gym. It was hot. It was humid. And whenever we ran past some (day? week? month?) old garbage, it stank. Probably ran 1 or 1.5 km before giving up, turning around and walking back. But still made it in time for the training at 8am.

First we did skipping for 30 mins. Though I probably did about 15 of those mins, if not 10 or 5. I was already covered in sweat from running, and to be honest at around 8:30 I was thinking to myself that this is probably the sweatiest I've ever been. Wow, did I have no idea what was coming. 8:30 we did stretching, which was nice and gave my heart a chance to slow down to around that of someone having a stroke (do hearts beat faster or slower when having a stroke? No matter - mine was beating fast). At 9:00, since I was a newbie, I got some special attention from one of the trainers. Then he realized there were 2 more newbies in the crowd so the 3 of us got into the ring (the rest of the group had to use the mats - suckers!) and he proceeded to show us how to stand and how to throw punches, elbows, knees and kicks. Then we practiced. And practiced. And practiced. Now, around this time, I'm thinking to myself that my left side kinda hurt. Not like a stitch, but more like the ribs or something. Then I remembered that last week it was bothering me a bit when I bent down to the left to tie my shoe, but I didn't really think anything of it then. Well, at around 9:30 we had to do 10 pushups, and I couldn't go halfway down due to the pain in my side. But, not wanting to look like a little girl, I toughed it out for awhile. Awhile being about 15 mins. Then I had to slow down. Couldn't switch from right-leg-forward to left-leg-forward stance (Vinh - proper terminology please?) properly cuz each time I did I'd get a shooting pain. At any rate, my form suffered I'm sure, but I tried really hard to do what I could. Around 10:00 we put on the gloves. Us 3 newbies had 2 trainers for the 3 of us, and we practiced punches, elbows, knees and kicks some more - but this time with a trainer with pads. I was ok with my right side, but anything involving my left side was pretty painful. Anyway, kind of pussied out on the pushups and situps that followed at around 10:30, though not from lack of trying. And to be honest I had both the arm strength and abdominal strength to do them, but that pain in my side was, well, a pain in my side. Did final stretches at around 10:45 which I partook in. By the end of this (actually, probably by about 9:00am) I was absolutely covered in sweat. I mean, I've played intense games of squash where my shirt is soaked and my shorts are half soaked. Uh uh. Shorts, shirt, everything - soaked all the way through. And it just kept coming. Dripping. When I threw punches there were droplets of sweat that shot off of me, like Iceman... except I was Sweatman. In fact around 10 I took my shirt off and wrung it out, though it didn't really make any difference (at this point one of the trainers said to me that I'll lose 5kg within a week and 10kg within 2). Went through 3 litres of water and a 500ml Gatorade before the session was over. But if it was any sort of competition, I DEFINITELY had the biggest pool of sweat under me, so that's gotta give me points for something.

At 11:00 I proceeded to come back to my room, carefully shower (pain was really bothering me at this point), and grab a taxi to the hospital, just in case. X-Ray didn't show anything broken, but the doctor said the area was inflamed. So he gave me 3 different prescriptions that I'm supposed to take in various combinations of each meal and/or just breakfast/dinner. The unfortunate thing was that the hospital didn't accept travel insurance from North America (WTF?), so I paid cash and have to claim it somehow through Blue Cross. The fortunate thing was that with the x-ray and prescription the bill was about 2900 baht - or under $100 CAD. Went back to the camp, ate some chicken fried rice (100 baht for that and some sort of orange juice-type drink) and took the first of my Thai Cocktail (i.e. my meds). It's been about 30 mins since I took 'em, and I'm noticing a slight improvement, but it still hurts. And I'm concerned about tomorrow, but the doctor said I don't need to lay off or anything, so hopefully the duration is decent (i.e. overnight + 3 hours), cuz breakfast doesn't come til 11 and I don't wanna be a little girl again tomorrow. I'll be good tomorrow and not take them without food, but if it's a repeat of today I'm gonna have to buy something to keep in my room and eat it at like 6am so that I can take my cocktail. Or just take them without food when I wake up. I mean, I already wanted to puke multiple times this morning... what's an upset stomach from some meds gonna add to that?

And that's how I spent my first day at school.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

whew....i got exhausted just reading that. If you keep this up for a week you are in danger of losing your title as Laziest Man on Earth. Keep it up Sweatman!

Anonymous said...

Good work dude! Bring a towel to class and it's a lot easier.

Eat healthy and you're gonna cut weight like crazy!

Anonymous said...

were you thinking of the word orthodox?

Anonymous said...

Advice from mother-take that cocktail with food!!!
Crazy workout, man!

SparklyD said...

Can u pull the mattress onto the floor to make it more firm? Might help your back...

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