As I was walking towards Myra's place, she and Sue and Chong drove by and picked me up. Chong drove us to the charcoal sauna place. We put our shoes in lockers downstairs, then paid the entrance fee and received keys for the lockers upstairs, as well as towels and an outfit. We all trooped up to the ladies changing room. We changed into the red outfits and left everything but the water bottles in the lockers. Then we went back downstairs.
First we sat in the charcoal room. There was only a man in there. He told Chong we should not have water bottles in there – something about germs. So she and I took our bottles out and left them in the resting hallway. I call it a resting hallway because it is wide and has mats people lay on to rest between sweats. When I sensed that Myra was pretty uncomfortable there, I suggested we go into another room that was not so hot. Actually, the charcoal room is a myriad of temperatures, ranging from normal room temp to extremely hot, depending how close you sit to the fire pit. The other rooms are evenly heated. So we sat in the other room for awhile.
Then Sue and Chong popped their heads in to find us. They wanted to go to the salt room. So we did. No one was in there so we laid down on the salt stones. Half of the room was really hot, and that is where I laid down. I had to put my towel under my calves to protect them from the heat. The outfit protected the rest. It got very quiet in there and I could imagine all of us falling asleep. But eventually I had a feeling I should get up. I can't quite explain it. So I got up and left.
I sat in the hallway and drank water for awhile, then found another hot room to sit in. This one was empty. When I thought I heard English spoken in the hallway, I came out. But my friends were still in the salt room. I went into the charcoal room, but soon a man herded us all out so he could replace the charcoal. I went in another closer room. When they came out, they said we should break for lunch at noon. We sat in the medium heat room for half an hour. We all did stretches.
Then we went to lunch. The restaurant was built into the same edifice. We all had the seaweed soup. I had decided this morning to skip grains for a period of time, so I did not eat the rice. There were plenty of little side dishes, and a big bowl of soup. When I pulled the money out of my pocket, it was drenched in sweat. I apologized to the cashier. She gave me $6 in change since I paid for both Myra and myself. Then we wanted to soak our feet in the charcoal water, but the man drained it and said only on Sunday, Wednesday and Fridays. We sat in the medium heat room again, digesting lunch. Then we laid down in the salt room. I lasted longer this time. In fact, I was the last one to leave.
A lady popped her head in to say that there was going to be a presentation and whomever listened to it would get a $9 package of wet wipes. I did not care about that, but once all my friends were gone, I wanted to join them. Sue told me that the man was selling individual packets of pure concentrated blueberry juice. At the end, he passed out packets and I drank one. It was pretty good. I am guessing there was about 2 T in there. He claimed health benefits for those who drank one every day, twice a day for sick people. AND, for those who bought today, he would give three months supply for the one month price. It worked out to be about $2 a packet.
We sat in the medium heat room again. Then Myra and Sue went out. When Chong and I came out, Myra and Sue were there to tell us they had been in the heart room. They showed it to us – it had a hot tile floor and people were laying on it. There was a metal cylinder of aromatic herbs simmering. So Chong and I laid down for a bit.
But then we decided it was time to go. We went upstairs to the changing room. We took our showers and got dressed. We threw our outfits and towels in the large bins. I watched Myra twist her hair into a hairdo that looked like it was braided. Then we went down to get our shoes. Then we got in Chong's car and drove away.
But just as we got near the interstate, Myra asked if I had enough money for the jewelry and then I remembered the $6 in the pocket of my outfit. I wasn't sure it was worth it for a sweaty $6, but they went back. I hunted through the wet clothes and towels in the bin until I found mine and pulled the money out. And finally, we really were on our way back. Dynee texted me to go for a walk, but I had to say I wasn't home. Chong dropped Myra and me off at the Eco Park. We walked to the jewelry place, but the artist was not there. The lady in charge said to come back tomorrow. So we headed to base. We passed a place selling coconuts. Since it was the last day of the festival and many vendors had left, and not many people were walking around, I asked for a discount. The original price was $5 each. He lowered it to $4 and I tried to come up with a better offer. Myra suggested three for $10. He reluctantly accepted. He pulled out a cooler and selected three coconuts from it, put them in a bag and threw in some ice. I was surprised because I was expecting coconuts from the pile on the table in front of him. Anyway, I paid him and we parted happily. Myra and I looked at jewelry at one more place. We found our way back to post. But she went to the Nex while I went home.
I put down my three coconuts, which had gotten heavier on the way home. I heated a bowl of onion soup and made a green smoothie. Then I put on an old shirt and pants. Myra came to get me.
She drove us to Turtle Cove for the Corks and Canvas class. Dynee and Anna were already there. Some people had drinks. The small tables were set with canvasses and paints and brushes. Brittany showed us the target picture. I did not particularly care for it, but I had already paid for the class. She told us to spread orange paint over all the canvas except generally where the peacock should go. I watched people do this, but could not bring myself to dabble so. I got a pencil and sketched the peacock. THEN I started painting the background. I did not like the bright orange background because orange just never seems to go with anything decorative. So I mixed the red and orange together. In fact, I did a lot of color-mixing because I wanted more colors than she gave us. Not all the mixes turned out well. And I had trouble getting the colors in the right place because it seemed so free-form and yet my free-form did not look like the picture. In the end, I decided I would be happy if only I could make the black lines thinner on the crown. I tried to cover them with orange, but the black wasn't dry yet so it smeared. Brittany gave me some orange to take home. She took a picture of all of us showing off our work.
Then Myra and I went to her car. Anna and Mai and another lady got in the back. Myra took all of us home. I showed my picture to Chris and he said it was good. Then I cut up a piece of sugar cane while Chris hooked up my laptop. Then he showed me how he thought it should be cut up. We sat down to watch two episodes while I chewed the chunks of cane. He went to bed and I stayed up, hoping I could remember everything that happened today.
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