Christmas Day

Even though my Christmas Eve started out not-so-great, I am thankful to have amazing friends like Leah, Erin, Stephanie, and newly acquired friend Amanda. 

Erin and Leah kindly invited us to spend the night with them in the Marriott so we could all be together on Christmas! So Christmas morning Stephanie, Leah, and I woke up to the sound of the hotel door being opened. It was 7am, and we didn't know what to think of that. All alarm was set aside, however, when we recognized Erin's voice coming from the door

way. There was another voice, though....one that was laced with an Australian accent. "Ahhhh...", I thought - "this must be Amanda". I knew that Amanda, a friend of Erin and Leah's from Ubon, would be joining us today. I just didn't realize how early...haha. They quickly realized they had awoken us, apologized, and tiptoed out of the room headed toward the lobby for internet access. A few minutes passed and I flipped the covers off and said, "Well, I'm headed to the lobby to call my Momma." haha - I couldn't sleep anymore and apparently neither could Stephanie or Leah. They followed my lead. We all got gussied up in our Christmas best :o) and headed downstairs to join Amanda and Erin who were already talking to loved ones online. After we all got to talk to family, Stephanie and I headed over to Starbucks while Erin and Leah ate their buffet breakfast. We all met up after this, put our computers back upstairs, and headed out for a day 

of SHOPPING!

Goodness! We should have been stopped! Leah, Stephanie, and I shopped till we dropped. Erin was with us, but she displayed amazing restraint. Go Erin! We lost Amanda to the tantalizing purchases and decided to meet up with her later. After the 3 of us shopped so much our feet were killing, we decided we'd begin looking for a massage place. We had already discussed getting a massage on Christmas, so all we had to find was the place. You know that saying, "You see them everywhere till you want one?", well we were experiencing it. We have seen countless massage parlors all over Bang

kok, but when we actually wanted one, we couldn't find it. We finally gave up, went in the mall and ate ice cream! It was delicious by the way - I had Ferrero Rocher(who knew, right?). After downing some burgers(yes, after the ice cream), we met up with Amanda and headed up to the movie theater in the Mall. After searching through the showtimes, we were excited to find a showing of Australia just 5 minutes from then! We quickly bought our tickets, popcorn, and found our theater. OH MY WORD - please, if you haven't already, GO SEE AUSTRALIA!!!! It is an amazing movie. Long, but oh so amazing. After the movie, we were quite famished(to be expected after a day of shopping and an emotional roller coaster). 

I must say, I was the one to have the brilliant idea of........HARD ROCK CAFE. We thought of Hard Rock earlier in the week, but never did go. "Why not Christmas?", I thought. So, we headed back to the Marriott to set our things down and so Stephanie and I could grab our things from our sleepover. While we were still in the hotel, we called the restaurant to ask about their wait. Surprisingly, it was only 15 mintues. Nonetheless, we set up a reservation. We hurried out and made our way through the city. We thankfully got there just in time to make our reservation(it took us a little longer than anticipated). It was so awesome! All the waitors and waitresses were wearing santa hats and they had Christmas decorations everywhere. I ordered the Grilled Chicken Mac & Cheese and it was SO GOOD. Leah had the same and I don't remember what everyone else got. I'm sure it was just as delicious though. After our meals, we ordered desserts! Erin and I shared a Hot Fudge Brownie Sundae - yeah, it was just as delectable as it sounds. We were so glad that we decided to share because it was much too big for one person to finish off. 

After we finished up at the restaurant, we headed outside to the Christmas festivities! They had a huge picture taking area set up. There were tons of people there snapping away. There were Christmas trees, huge presents, Snow White and the Dwarves statues, huge pop cans, and a ginormous Christmas tree. We had a blast taking goofy pics. It was a lovely way to end the Christmas holiday - with amazing friends. We soon parted ways, and Stephanie and I made our way back to Soi 37. I decided to sleep over at Steph's cause I didn't want to spend the rest of my Christmas alone(that and I was much too lazy to walk home ;) ). 

I hope that you had as good a Christmas as I did. I also hope that you were surrounded by those that you love. That is the most important thing. We didn't exchange gifts here in Bangkok and I didn't even miss it. I was just so thankful that I had Erin, Leah, Stephanie, and Amanda there for me to be my family. That was all that I needed to have an amazing day :o)

Rebecca's coming on New Year's Night at 12:30am!!!! Stephanie and I are super stoked about her arrival. I will post pictures of her arrival and such and I'm sure I'll be posting numerous blogs concerning the certain mischeif we'll get into while she's here - ;oP

Christmas Eve ?!

It's Christmas Eve. It doesn't feel that way, though, I must say. Currently you find me ending a not-so-good day :-( I do not feel the need to go into what all made this day bad, but in short it includes: a 3 hour bus ride, headaches in taxis, guards holding my Christmas package hostage, and reading a not-so-welcome e-mail. I guess I am just having one of those days where I miss America so much. Not America for the burritos or the clean air, no, I miss America because my family lives there. I miss my family so much right now. I miss my baby boy, Cujo, so much. I have always appreciated and loved the Holiday Season, but that feeling that I'm missing out is amplified so much when I think of my family. Sure it's hard not to have the Christmas decorations surrounding me and the Christmas music in every store. But what I miss the most is what so many people seem to overlook throughout their Holiday Season. So please, if you're reading this, don't take the people that mean the most for granted. Hug your grandmother, take time to talk with your siblings this Christmas. Take the time - because there are those of us that would give anything for what you have - time with your loved ones. 

Don't think that I am not loving Thailand. I am. I am just having one of those "hmmm.....I kinda miss home" days. Everyone has those, right? 

I love you Mom. I love you Daddy. I love you Granny, Grandpa, Memaw, Papa, Aunt Cherie & Uncle Ivan, Uncle Chris & Aunt Dena, Grant, Garrett, and Devon. I love you Aunt Terri & Uncle Tim, Baron & Emily. I miss you guys so much. You can not possibly know how much I would love to hug each of you tight around the neck this Christmas. Know that I will be praying for each one of you this Christmas Day. Big Hug and Kiss. 

~Me :o)~

Nakikipasapalarun & Goosebumps

Friday, the 12th, was our technical last day of school. That following Sunday we had our Christmas program for the kids, and Monday we had a day off. On Tuesday we set out on a great adventure - a Scouting trip with my school! With my packed backpack, I made my way to the school on Tuesday morning at 7am. I quickly found the other teachers, had myself some yummy fried rice with veggies for b'fast, and before long, we were loaded on the bus with all the kids. Honestly, all I knew was that we were going camping! I was told that it would "be cold", but I thought that that was simply from an Asian perspective. My oh my was I wrong....

The trip to the camp was 3 hours from Bangkok. When we finally emerged from the bus, we set our things in our chalets and made our way to the meeting hall. We broke into our groups for the next 3 days, got our color-coordinated bandanas( I was light pink), and made our way out into the field for our first activity. This was rather rushed and unplanned, so we just made up an activity. The kids were to count the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, and steps in the house....??? After this, we rested a bit, and got situated in our rooms a bit better. After the kids washed up, they all broke into their groups and set up preparations for dinner. They made Tom Yum, omelettes, and stir fried vegetables. I was so lucky to be paired with Mrs. Un because I'm pretty sure that she's about the best Thai food cook EVER. She was quite considerate to leave out the huge amount of chiles that she usually uses when she makes those dishes.....thoughtful, huh? Although, I would like to add that my tastebuds are really starting to appreciate spicy foods :) After dinner, we had a meeting with the kids, and then they all headed to bed. I was told that Kanyarat(the EP 1 teacher) and I had watch duty. We were to stay in between the boys' and girls' cabins and make sure that no one crossed the line. Fortunately for us, we were assigned 9:30-10:30, which was before they even went to bed. I was so happy! This meant that I could get some sleep! I was exhausted from the trip in the bus and because I got maybe 3 hours of sleep the night before(couldn't sleep). But before bed, guess what I got??? A HOT SHOWER. While here in Thailand, I haven't had a hot shower. Not until I went to Laos was I able to finally get a hot shower. Let's just say that I may or may not have been in the shower for 30 minutes. I enjoyed every second. This would be because it was 40 DEGREES OUTSIDE! That's right - we were in the country and it gets really cold at night in the country. Unfortunately, I only brought capris with me on the trip because I didn't think it was possible to go below 60 degrees in Thailand. Boy was I wrong. By the time I headed back to my cabin, I was looking forward to that hot shower to thaw me out!

The next day was full of learning new things - mostly things dealing with Scouting. One of those things was learning new knots. To be honest, I never did get the english name for the knot group I was assigned to, but I can do it in my sleep now....I had to learn it so I could help the kids with it. I enjoyed the time I was with 2 other Thai teachers. At school I don't get to talk with them - mostly because A. They don't know English and B. We're always rushing to our classes. While we were teaching the knot, I got to use my little knowledge of Thai, but they were the ones who exercised their second language knowledge more....Anywho, it was a joy to get to know them on a more personal level - well, one more than just a collegue level. We spent most of the time giggling at my lack of Thai language skills....but hey, I can honestly say that I learned more in those 3 days than most of my time here. When you submerse yourself with the language and really have no choice but to speak it, you learn quickly. I was so happy! 

While I was learning Thai throughout my 3 days on this trip, the Filipino teachers thought it would be fun to try and teach me some Tagalog words. Unfortunately the only 2 I remember are tu big(water) and nakikipasapalarun(trying his luck). Please don't hate me if you're Filipino and those are spelled wrong :( I cracked Jennifer up trying to say those words. But at least Tagalog isn't a language that depends on tones...makes life a bit easier. 

The second and last night I was at the camp was quite fun. First of all, I downed who knows how many cups of coffee to keep warm. This may be the reason Jenn and I were quite giddy. All of the kids gathered around a "campfire"(which was 3 long sticks tied together into a tent shape with a light bulb hanging down the center of it) and sang Thai songs and danced around the "fire". While this was going on Jenn & I received Thai dance lessons from one of the other Thai teachers. Let me tell you - it is difficult! Your hands start to hurt because while you're dancing, you hold your hands out in a fashion where you bend your fingers back as far as they'll allow. It is a beautiful art and I'm pretty sure I was slaughtering it for her, but she was SO nice to take the time to show us the proper way to dance in a traditional Thai way. After a little bit of lesson time with her, we went out with the kids and used our newly acquired dancing skills to wow the rest of the teachers. It was a blast. 

We headed back to Bangkok the next day, on Thursday. I was definitely glad to be home, but I was so thankful for that opportunity to get to know my colleagues so much better! They're amazing men and women and I feel so privileged to know them. And my Thai skills are getting better and better. I wish that a light bulb would just go off in my head and I would suddenly understand everything they're saying! Alas, that shall not happen.....unfortunately. I'll struggle through the few sentences I know and hopefully pick up some new words frequently so that I will know gist of a conversation. We'll see how it goes. I'll keep ya posted!

I bet I had a better Thanksgiving than you did

As much as I hate to admit that I was feeling a bit homesick before our Thanksgiving here, I will. I really wanted to spend some much needed time with my mom and I REALLY wanted to bake numerous pies. Mom, don't feel as though you are not needed, you are! But my Thanksgiving here really was wonderful. Pastor & Kim Williams invited a large group of us over. In this group there was me(of course), Stephanie, Mike, Tatiana, Maria, Kelly, Jorge, and about 6 other people I can't exactly remember the names of(no offense if you're one of those people). First of all, I understand that Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday, but us folks here in Thailand like to mix things up a bit. This could be because the majority of those in attendance were off work on Friday, but I'll continue with the "we're so original" train of thought. 

I was thankfully able to head out of school early on Friday. It was Sports Day(which I may or may not write about at a later date), therefore no classes were going on. I got home at 12:45, laid down for 45 minutes or so, got all dazzled up(hey, it's Thanksgiving), and headed over to Kim's. The night before I had stayed there rather late(sorry Kim) baking my pumpkin swirl cheesecake, so today I was all for helping Kim. Turns out, I spent a large majority of my time whisking. They didn't have any whipped cream for the pumpkin pies, so I whisked heavy whipping cream and sugar together to make some the old fashion way. See, this usually works in the States because we have A/C and a colder atmosphere. If I haven't mentioned it before, it's just a smidgen warm here in the Thai Land, so it proved to be a challenge. I love challenges, and was rather creative if I may say so. I went to the neighbor's house and asked for some ice cubes, put them in a large bowl, and set the smaller bowl with the whipping cream in that. How clever am I? While I won't say it was as thick as say Cool Whip, it was pretty darn tasty! Way to go me, Arielle, and her 2 friends! 

Once the food was set out, we dug in! There was turkey, some sort of veggie meat, mashed potatoes, Kim's macaroni & cheese(scrumptious), a delectable chilled corn salad(also by Kim), a carrot souffle, and salad. My oh my the party that was going on in my mouth! It was so nice to have homey food. I do enjoy the Thai food here, but it was a welcome change. I will not hesitate to let you know that I went back for seconds. After the dinner, we had an apple pie(thanks Kelly), 2 pumpkin pies, a pumpkin swirl cheesecake(by your one & only), and ice cream! You know that feeling your tummy has after what only a Thanksgiving meal can give you? Yeah, we had that - multiplied by a gagillion. We were quite content. After helping clean up, us ladies went for a power walk - hahahaha in some hope of walking off what we'd just consumed. Honestly, we more or less waddled most of the way, but it was the thought that counts. Once we waddled ourselves back to the middle of the compound, we enjoyed tossing a football around(a favorite American past time on Thanksgiving, why abandon it in Thailand?). Once twilight hit and the mosquitos found a Thanksgiving buffet themselves, we headed inside for a worship. What a wonderful way to end a wonderful day :) My family here in Thailand was so kind to have all of us college folk over to consume a ghastly amount of food. Thank you Pastor & Kim! You are truly a gift from God being the family that He knew that I needed here. 

I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving yourselves. I'm sure that it was pretty great, but I bet mine was better! Just kidding, of course. I hope God blessed each one of you and helped you realize the things that you are truly thankful for. I know I did. Now that it's already December 5 the Holiday Season has officially begun! If you haven't already, you better get on the decorating bandwagon! Mother, I am talking to YOU! haha - love you Momma. Happy Holidays to everyone. I'm praying for all of you each day. Please pray for my former boss. Her name is Amanda Moore & she is suffering from cardiomyopathy. She has a baby girl that is just now 2 months old. She is slowly making progress and the doctor did say that she is no longer "in the woods". She will make it, and so we are praying for a full and swift recovery so she can return to being the mother and wife she needs to be. Thank you for your prayers - they are powerful.