Stuck at the Mall

Every weekend we take a bike ride to one of our local shopping malls and spend a few hours enjoying the A/C. If you didn't know our school only allows us to have the air con on from 2-4pm and 6pm-7am. These hours basically only allow us to sleep and keep us miserable in this awful humid heat every other second of the day. So it's not like we really want to go waste time doing nothing at the mall, but more like we need to if we're going to avoid heat stroke. Well this last weekend there was a bit of a bike incident and we got stranded! Ok, so not all of us were stranded but I was and that meant everyone stayed with me of course. HA!

I am going to take a slight detour and explain to you the dedication it takes to get on a pedal bike and ride five miles in 90 degree weather that feels like 102 when you factor in humidity. If you know me at all you know I DESPISE any type of physical exercise. I'm not joking when I say I am the laziest person, so why would I ride a bike, in the heat, on a five mile round trip journey to the store? You might be thinking, maybe it's a big mall with lots to do and you can easily spend a few hours there. WRONG! Actually, the malls are about the size of your local Walmart so really there is nothing to do. You could also be thinking, Sam loves to shop for clothes so of course she'd go shopping. Close. The truth is I am OBSESSED with sugar! One of the malls has bubble waffles and the other has ice cream so of course I am always down no matter how far. I think the girls know this of me too and basically can get me to do anything if it means I can get a treat. HA!

Now back to the whole bike situation. We have these neat, yet extremely hard to pedal, bikes with little code locks on the back tire. Ideally these are awesome cause you don't have to carry around a lock and key everywhere you go, just remember the number code and you're golden. Well its been three months and I've had this code memorized, had no issues. We all have our unassigned assigned bikes and I never thought twice about memorizing any of the other bike codes cause I had mine and Kaylas down. JOKES! Someone decided to play a fun joke on Sam and switched the heights on a couple of the bikes so the one I thought I'd been using all this time was not the same bike. We get on our bikes, ride to the store, lock our bikes and head inside.

A few hours go by and we decide, as we're all snacking on junk, that it is time to go home for lunch. We go outside, everyone gets on their bikes and starts heading off, while I am still trying to get my bike unlocked. The code wasn't working! I was like you have got to be kidding me this is the code I have used all semester. The girls come back and ask whats happening. We enter in all the codes we can think of, nothing is working! This was the moment I realized it was a different bike. I message the girls back home and they said they didn't know any codes. So here I am stuck at the mall!

I have no option but to call my manager and pray he wrote all the bike codes down. He basically just laughed at me and then said he'd call the bike shop, but I have to stay with the bike. So we all go inside and wait patiently to hear back. A bit later he calls and informs me the bike shop is closed, the secretary with the codes is in a funeral, and his truck is being used by some friends so I will have to wait until he can figure something else out. At this point I'm like I'll just walk home and we can come get the bike another day, but for some reason he said that's not an option I HAVE to stay with the bike.

All of us are starving and I feel so bad! I tell them to leave, but they all respond with "I knew this was going to happen, I just thought it was going to happen to me so we will wait with you." How sweet! I'm just thinking like wow, I never thought this would happen but of course it has to happen to me. I am the ONLY one who has issues in this country! I got the eye disease, I got the mouth infection, I got the broken air conditioner, of course I'd get the broken bike lock.

After who knows how long, my manger gives me a call saying his friend will be by with a truck to pick me and the bike up. I send the girls on their journey and wait for some random dude to come get me from what I thought was the small Tesco. Fifteen minutes go by and I get a call, apparently I am at the big Tesco so that sure made my driver upset... He gets to the correct Tesco and starts honking at me from the other end of the parking lot, waving his hand out the window to come to him. I carry the bike over and two guys get out to load it in the truck. They're both speaking Thai to me and I only understand like four words so I just say sorry a bunch of times. We get in the truck and start driving away. It was awkward and quiet as he kept trying to communicate something to me I clearly didn't understand. Next thing I know he is driving like a mad man and blasting English rap music. Apparently getting stranded alone comes with a party too. HA! Anyways, my long day at the store finished with a crazy ride home but we all made it out alive and home safely in the end.

Also fun random fact me and Kayla decided to buy a moped this weekend! Kayla has never been on a motorcycle of any kind and I've only drove one a few times... We made it home safely with only one moment of near death! Wish us luck as we begin our journey in learning to drive on the left-hand side of the road. Life is either about to get a lot better with our new found freedom or a whole lot worse with some added injuries. It will be a good time figuring out which!