Exercise, Thai Store, Burmese Poems and Life

Believe it or not, I started going to the gym. It's not as bad as I had imagined, probably because my trainer,Corei, is really nice. After the initial interview, she realized I am really new to the gym, its vocabs, machines and everything about it. Since, the gym I use is at the American Navy base in Negishi, (her husband is with the Navy), there were procedures to follow so that the gym won't be liable for anything happened in there. Use at your own risk I suppose. So I signed so many pages of contracts, disclaimers, more contracts and something like a vow (my expectations of myself, of the trainer etc.) I don't know how many trees were used for making those papers because I decided to exercise. Anyway, Corei came up with exercises (tube exercise or something along those words) that were not difficult for me to give up the next time. So I went back to the gym without her. The first time, I did that, I didn't remember most of what I did with her. So I walked for 13 min and tried to do some but realized no chance. So I tried to use two machines with some success and looked at several machines but felt unsure. After that I just sat at the massage chair for 12 minutes. In total, I stayed at the gym 40 minutes without her.
This week was my second week with Corei. She brought me a booklet with photos and we followed the booklet as we exercised. Today, I went back to the gym alone again. I am proud to say that I did all the exercises from that booklet and exercised for 40 minutes without sitting on the massage chair at all.

After the exercise, I decided not to return home but went to a Thai Store. I went there twice before but still got lost by making the wrong turn as I followed my instinct (not the map and GPS). There, I picked all the food I wanted, hoping I have enough money to pay. I had 10,000 yen (about $110). People here use cash more than credit cards. Actually, they use all kinds of debit cards too but I am not a debit card fun. Well, I had enough money. In the process of telling the Thai shopkeeper that I was worried about not having enough money, we started chatting. Rather, she started asking me about where I was from and the news she heard about 9 migrant workers being killed in Thailand because they didn't pay the transportation fees of $33 (maybe I misread that number but 9 lives for $33 is a bit too much to swallow). Anyway, that Thai lady and I chatting away in which language do you think? Dont' forget Thailand and Burma are neighboring countries and there are over 3 million Burmese migrant workers and refugees in Thailand. Yes, you probably guessed correctly that we were conversing in Japanese. How funny I thought? Don't you?

After the Thai Store, I came home and had lunch with tealeaves salad. Then my brother and I started singing Burmese poems because I wanted Zey and Khin to speak Burmese. But I am not displined enough to talk to Zey in Burmese all the time. I speak more Burmese to him than I used to. He knows two Burmese poems but I can't remember most of the poems. So in order to teach him, I decided to record these poems and make a CD to play on stereo. So we recorded some on my digital recorder at first. Then I had this brilliant idea to record it on my iphone, which can be connected to stereo right away. So there we are, four poems recorded with me singing and my brother playing guitar.
Then, I went to pick up Zey from his daycare. He saw me driving and was so happy to see me. I brought him a toothpaste because he has been brusing his teeth without toothpaste for the last five months (I didn't know that the daycare didn't give toothpaste). He was really excited to see his toothpaste and it made me want to cry because I felt so bad for not knowing that he didn't have toothpaste. I am still new at this, ok? I only found out yesterday that he was the only one without toothpaste. Oh, what a miserable feeling this toothpaste caused me yesterday and what a pleasure to see my son happy because he finally has his own toothpaste. Ok, enough about toothpaste, right? Anyway, so we came home together in this giant car, chatting half Burmese and half English. He speaks more Burmese now but his English is amazing. Better than mine, honestly. Once we got home, he stayed outside and played with neighbor kids and my brother. Later, his friend Fernando who is our next door neighbor came home from school. So Zey kept playing with Fernando and Rob and I were chatting with the mom, Ana. We opened a bottle of white wine and drank on the front porch. Did I forget to say that today we had a very nice weather? About 16 or 17 C.
To wrap it up, today, I felt so alive and happy. (Btw, I started writing again on my story yesterday).

Here's the link to the video of kids and my singing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1OxE-nu50c