Thirteen Things about My Valentine's Day
1. I did not receive any Valentine's cards
2. I did receive a rose
3. I did not receive any chocolates
4. The boys in the office did treat the girls to 'Happy Hour,' where we had Korean bar-be-que and beer
5. I received this text message: Happy Valentine's Day! I wish u healthy, good luck, good night and sweet dream. i miss you so i will dram to you. see u in next 3 hrs from a friend's son. He's a medical student and I've been funding his tuition and English language training.
6. I enjoy watching Lao people celebrating Valentine's Day. They really enjoy the roses and gift-giving.
7. The first few Valentine's Days I spent in Laos, no one did anything special, especially upcountry. Everything was just too rough - no running water, electricity only at night, horrible roads so it took a long time to go anywhere. Suddenly, one Valentine's Day (I think it was in '98), the director of one of the hospitals drove up with another friend to solemnly deliver a rose. Roses were rare back in those days - I think it had to have been flown up from Vientiane. It's probably the best Valentine's gift I ever recently because it meant so much.
8. I don't miss not getting chocolate. For some reason, chocolate produced in SE Asia has the appearance, texture and taste of wax. More to be given and not eaten.
9. I'm running out of things to say. Valentine's is not that big a deal for me.
10. Oh yeah. Most of my Valentine's greetings came by text message. I didn't realize that the inbox on my phone is so limited (I have an old generation phone), so if I save any texts, I can't receive new one.
11. Regarding #10 - that meant I missed receiving the one million text messages from my admirers.
12. I posted a Valentine's picture of kids settling up a Valentine's display in front of a beauty shop. Check out my main blog for the day. They really looked like they were enjoying themselves.
13. We're extending Valentine's Day to Friday when someone convinced me (while I was tipsy)to agree to support the regular Friday Happy Hour. We're going to do it at a restaurant on the Mekong River where we can watch the sunset and talk about Valentine's Days past.
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