So Today I Went to Prison...

I honestly didn't think it was possible to outdo yesterday's complete lack of activity. I was so, so wrong. At least yesterday was a planned 'chill day'. Today just sort of morphed into one all by itself. Granted, no one was complaining and no one tried too hard to change the course of things. We just fully embraced it for all it was worth. Turns out we are super skilled at doing nothing much of anything.

Breakfast was around 10. A plan for the day was formulated somewhere around, oh, noon or so. We finally got up from the table to begin putting it into action around 1. We left by 1:30. Not too bad, considering.

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The Plan, in its entirety, was to go to the local women's prison to get massages. Bet you didn't see that one coming, did you? We had heard about a rehabilitation center in downtown Chiang Mai that teaches work skills (cooking, pastry making, sewing, massage, etc.) to women who are about to leave prison so they will be prepared for life back out in the real world. It's a brilliant program, really. And we were certainly happy to do our part to contribute to it. And, really, how often in life do you get to say you spent your afternoon having a massage at a prison?

We even talked the guys into coming with us so all seven of us summoned all of our collective energy for the walk to the prison (easier said than done in this group, I might add). We got there and were were told there was a wait so... we sat and had some drinks at the restaurant the women run. More loafing, more talking, more laughing. Went back and were told we had to wait some more. So we played cards. When you're with cool enough people, even a long tedious wait can be part of the fun. We didn't even mind (or notice) the wait turning from 20 minutes into over an hour. And then we got in and all got lined up in a row in the same room for our massages... good times. The whole experience (come on, it was a massage in a women's prison, after all) was ripe for all manner of jokes, none of which we tired of no matter how many variations we made of the same ones. There were also a few moments during the massages that will live on for eternity in our collective memories. They will continue to crack us up hysterically for just as long.

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On a completely different note, in the evening I had a totally different kind of really cool experience. When I was a little kid growing up in tiny Bellefonte, PA, my second grade teacher was Miss Gibson. I always loved her and her class and have thought of her with great fondness over the years (she used to wear a perfume that, even into adulthood, would bring back instantaneous memories of her whenever I caught a whiff of someone wearing it). Shortly before my trip, my parents mentioned that they heard that Miss Gibson (now Mrs. Cochran) was living in.... you guessed it, Chiang Mai, Thailand! When I got to Bangkok, I wrote to her to find out if it might be possible for us to see each other while I was here... and tonight I saw my second grade teacher for the first time in many, many moons. When I saw her on the street, I recognized her immediately. We went to a great restaurant for dinner and caught up on so many years. Kind of crazy to be having dinner with her as an adult, when my last memories of her were as a little kid, looking up to her as such a huge, important adult in my life at the time. Also kind of crazy to meet her here on the other side of the world, an absolute eternity away from little Bellefonte. It was kind of surreal, actually, to be walking down the street in Thailand and see such a familiar face from half a world away and a lifetime ago. So cool.

Came back to the hostel and checked in with the posse... we actually have a plan for tomorrow. We're making progress! We rock.