Yesterday we had a meeting about how to design a fitness program for a client according to their goals and abilities. Now this is all stuff I already did knew from elements, but it was a good refresher course for me and its good to know that the other trainers will understand some of those concepts too. The class consisted of me, Gina, and 6 male Thai trainers who are absolutely hilarious. They are all jokesters (at least that's what I call them). We laughed almost the entire time. And that's saying a lot because half the time I had no idea what they were saying! And sometimes I can tell they are talking about me but again, I have no idea what they are saying!! But they are all very nice and have made me feel a part of the team already.
Most Thai's have nicknames. It can either be a shortened part of their name (Nan for Sunan) or it can be something from their childhood or a certain part of their personality. The Thai trainers are named Joe, Jome, Boy, Arm, Chin, Yan, Ake, Tor, Jui or Juice, Dan, and Yo. Yesterday at the meeting, Jome decided that I needed a nickname too. They call Gina Mom sometimes because she looks after everything like a mom would. Jome, who doesn't know a whole lot of English, decides that my nickname is going to be Jeap. Phonetically it sounds like GeeAp and its said very quickly. At first they told me it means a baby chicken. They all agreed that this was true. Then I find out it is really the sounds that a baby chicken makes, like how we would say cheep cheep. I decided this nickname was fine so now that is what everyone calls me! I also found out if you put Nam in front of Jeap, then it means sweetly which I like also.
It all makes for an interesting day at the office, that's for sure!!
So the second part of this blog is my experience running my first 10k. I'm not much of a runner and have never been super competitive with it, but my new boss invited me to join so I thought I should go. I woke up at 3am on sunday morning and of course didnt actually get out of bed until 3:25am. I had to get a cab to get to the Racquet Club which is where we were meeting at 4am. I met up with Gina and one of the club members who owns a glass making factory, took a van about 35 minutes out of Bangkok, and met up with my boss Sunan at the race. It was just the 4 of us and we were specially invited to this race. It was a special run just for employees of a Sealect Tuna. I met the owner of the company as he is friends with Sunan and the other man we were with (I can't remember his name). The race was great, the 10k began at 5:30am and I got to see a lot of countryside, food vendors, people getting ready for a day at the markets, etc. it was all very interesting.
It was sooo humid though! I was dripping with sweat and am still not sure why I decided to run my first 10k when it is 80 degrees at 5 am!! I'm proud that I ran the entire race without stopping though. It has inspired me to do another one and Allison is going to train with me.
The best part of this story is what happened afterwards. There was a little after party and all the Thais were dancing and singing and having a grand ole time. We walked overland Gina and I decided to go dance too. It was really fun. Except that we were 2 of the 3 Anglos at the entire race. There were 20,000 people there. And it seems that most of them have never been in the same vicinity of a white person before. I'm pretty used to being the minority and didnt feel weird about it at all. Then someone walked up to me, a little thai girl, and grabbed my arm and her friend took a picture. Then they switched places. Then 3 more people did the same thing. Then a group of 7 people all took turns to take pictures with me and Gina. I probably took at least 50 pictures with them that day. They were holding my hand and putting their arm around my shoulders and grabbing my arm and telling me to do a thumbs up...it was crazy. Sunan was saying that we were like celebrities. It was all very weird, but I couldn't help but laugh and smile. They were so sweet!! Finally I had had enough and my fave hurt from smiling so much (not to mention I had 4 hours of sleep, ran a 10k, and it was only 7:30am!) that I had to just walk away. They were so funny and it's an experience I will never forget! Very different from being in Bangkok where they are used to tourists being around all the time. What a great start to my week!
