She was most excited to show us her science work. They've been studying insects and each student got two mealworms to take care of. They are keeping them in little tubes. Vivian moved around the science area like an expert. She got a paper plate to gently empty her mealworm onto, and then got us a magnifying glass so we could look at it more closely. She decided he seemed thirsty and got him a piece of potato for refreshment. It was really cute.
In addition to the two days for conferences, Vivian also had the following Monday off, which meant five days without school. Originally, Jeff was supposed to be traveling at this time, and so I had made reservations for Young and I to take the girls back to the hotel near Hua Hin that we went to a few weeks ago. I couldn't cancel the reservation, so we decided to go ahead and do the trip even though Jeff wasn't really excited about it. I had also booked a taxi to take us there, because I hadn't wanted to drive, so Saturday morning we got in the taxi and headed off even though Vivi was the only one who was excited.
When we got there, they told us that they had upgraded us to the suite on the top floor. This sounded good, and when we got up there the balcony that ran the length of the room was impressive.
Less impressive though was that the entire room was open, unlike the "junior" suite which had the bathroom between the living room and the bedroom making it easier for us to hide from Elena at bedtime. When I called the front desk to see if we could downgrade, the lady I spoke to told us she was really sorry, but the hotel was completely booked and no other rooms were available. That was also the reason they couldn't help us out with the fridge that didn't get cold, which meant Jeff was stuck with warm beer. Not a good start.
Vivian really wanted to go to the pool to try out her new inner tube and go down the water slide, so I left Elena with Jeff, and took Vivi down for some pool time. She had fun on the slide, and then floated around making up games.
When we had come for Chinese New Year, there were lots of English speaking kids, but March and April are the summer break for Thai schools, so all the kids there this time were Thai and didn't speak English. Vivi shared some smiles, but couldn't really find anyone to play with, and in the kids club, the movie was in Thai with English subtitles. Vivian, being the reader she is, thought the subtitles were a fun challenge, and took the whole thing in stride, but I felt bad.
As the night wore on, it went from bad to worse. Elena wouldn't go to sleep and wailed at the top of her lungs. Jeff tried to put on a good face, but I could tell that the crying and warm beer were not making him happy. The tipping point came in the middle of the night, when Vivian woke up crying. She's had a cold, and she was so congested that she couldn't clear her throat. She cried, she gagged, she ran to the bathroom thinking she was going to throw up. Elena woke up and cried because Vivian was crying. It was bad.
We got the girls settled, and everyone but me fell back asleep. Both the girls were whimpering in their sleep, and it was the saddest little sound. At that point, I decided we needed to go home the next morning, and not try to push through to the second night we had planned. I was really regretting taking the taxi, because it meant that getting home was going to be a problem. I was already upset about the taxi, because when I had called and asked how much the trip was she had told me it would be 3000, but then when we got there, she said, oh no, 3000 each way. Well, our favorite van driver had told me it would 6700 roundtrip for the van. I figured his vehicle was twice as big, so it cost twice as much; turns out I was wrong. I decided since the price was pretty much the same, I would send the van driver a text (it was 2:00am at this point) to see if he could pick us up the next morning. He forever cemented his place in my heart as the best driver ever when he responded five minutes later with an okay.
When everyone woke up the next morning, and I told them we were going home I could tell Jeff was relieved. Vivian was a little disappointed, but quickly got over it when she realized she could play with her friends at home. We all spread out comfortably in the van for the ride home, and I knew I had made the right call. It was not a fun experience, but I learned a lot from my mistakes. The most important takeaway was that I need to stop stressing about planning activities for Vivian when she doesn't have school. She's perfectly capable of keeping herself busy, and hotels with a baby are stressful! I realized that when Vivian was one she had only ever stayed in one hotel for one night. Elena, on the other hand, has already stayed in six different hotels. Our life here is already a vacation, so we don't have to leave our house often, and when we do, we're going to have Young come with us, so that it can be a vacation for me and Jeff as well as for the girls.
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