Christmas in a Box

Today at school I get a message - "There's a package for you from America in the security office" so I head over, and lo and behold - a package from Momma Dukes. What was in it?

CHRISTMAS SPIRIT!!!!

Since I am in a Buddhist country, we don't get any vacation for Christmas. PLUS, there's no Christmas parades, big Christmas dinners, and etc. So my mom did the next best thing - sent a box of Christmas decorations to get me in the spirit!!


The Package came with all of the following:
- Let it snow place mats
- Holly Wreath
- Candy Cane Garland hanging decor
- Santa decorative hand towel (FANCY!!)
- Santa Hanging decor
- Small knitted stocking
- Large Stocking (filled with Reese Cups AND Christmas earrings!!)
- Elf Hat
- Artificial Tree (not pictured)
- Ornaments for the tree
- Light up Angel (tree-topper)
- Light up Tree (tree-topper)
- AND GOODIES!!! Holiday M&M's and Double Stuff Oreos

Everything is already up in my apartment, ready for the Holidays. Well, except the tree. I am using that in class to demonstrate a lesson I'm teaching. But I'll have that home tomorrow and all set up soon after I get home :)

I've never had my place decorated so early after Thanksgiving, nor have I ever favored an Artificial tree. But this year I think I can be happy with it :p

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Sawasdee Kha,
Apes :)

Thai-giving

So with this being my first Thanksgiving out of the country, and it being my first in 3 years that I didn't host my annual Potluck Thanksgiving, I was excited that some of the other Farang in town wanted to have a Thanksgiving celebration on Thursday night.

On Wednesday night I headed to my favorite dinner market: Sam Pow Thong and got the ingredients for Grandma Mislan's layer salad; Carrots, Lettuce, Peas, Bacon, Onions, Mayo. That's right, deliciousness in a bowl!!

Thursday the bad news came...Thanksgiving was cancelled. Something about the rain. So I decided to make my salad and eat it on my own. Hey, it's not Thanksgiving without it! When I got home, UGH, the lettuce had frozen! So I just ended up eating the carrots with Ranch (via Shannon) and the bacon on its own.

I woke up about 2am Friday morning, and sat on my Skype watching my family scarf down on Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Bread, etc. How did I get even? I taught them how to say 'fart' in Thai. :)


So Friday was potential Thanksgiving #2. The Chinese teachers has invited us to a Thanksgiving dinner. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was determined to go anyways. So I hailed a Tuk Tuk and BOOM. He drops off the other passenger and then shows me 80baht. He was telling me he would take me to the address for 80baht. I said NO, 20baht (normal Farang price). He said no. I asked him to take me back to where he picked me up, and he said 20baht. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!? YOU PICKED ME UP AND DROPPED ME DOWN THE STREET! So I got out and started walking. I called my fellow teacher, Angie, and told her the story. I told her I wouldn't be able to make it since it was apparently 80baht each way. She sent someone to pick me up, and I headed over with my new ride. But I was already upset about the whole ordeal.

BUT when I showed up, lo and behold...there it was: MASHED POTATOES, GRAVY, STUFFING, ROLLS, CORN (on the cob), GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE! No turkey though, but grilled chicken, which I was still happy with. Ah....I was a happppppy camper. And camping out was exactly what I was doing at that table. In between my football talk with an older Boston man, I ended up going through 2 plate fulls of food. After grace (yes, I said Grace 2 times in ONE day DAD!!) we all said what we were thankful for.

The table had a mix of Thai's, Chinese, American's, Englishmen, and a Filipino. Turns out, it was an English Christian group that put the dinner together, and the we had come as guests of the Chinese Teachers.

After the dinner, there was even dessert. CHOCOLATE CAKE. AND GOOD chocolate cake. MMM.

One of the Chinese teachers and I got into a talk about cooking, I was saying that I didn't have a kitchen, and she offered hers up. So it looks like I will be making dinner for some of them coming up soon. I am thinking Chili, because I know I can make that here. I also plan on a Mexican meal - but I have to wait for Baloo to send over the Flour Tortilla Shells from America...he said he was sending some months ago...so if anyone is reading this, please feel free to send some.

I am feeling Thanksgiving Fat, and Happy. I will sleep good tonight, and can wake up and go on a run since I finally have my running shoes back!!!

Sawasdee Kha, and Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Apes

Christmas Party? Sign me up!

So today started out (almost) like any other. I got up, got ready for school, then hailed a Tuk Tuk. Unlike all the other days though, instead of taking me to school - he took me 10 minutes THE OPPOSITE WAY across town. So fighting to get BACK to the correct way wasn't so fun. But I made it to school, with enough time to learn that our first class of the day was cancelled.

Since our classes were cancelled, our Assistant Head of the department (AHOD) decided to have a 'quick' meeting with the 3 of us foreign teachers. During the meeting we discussed many things. My focus was on the fact that our Week off for Christmas was gone, and the week we had off in February was changed to only 3 days. Yes, my morning was not going great.

Then we talked about incorporating Christmas into our lessons during the no-longer-Christmas-time-off week. The conversation ended with a decision to have an actual Christmas Party for the MLP students (about 120 students). The party will consist of Christmas performances (songs/dances/skits) performed by the students, lunch brought in, and Christmas presents. There might possibly be a tree to put the gifts under as well!! Well, The AHOD decided that there should be a director in charge of this party. Well kids, lo and behold...it looks like I'm planning a Christmas Party. WOO HOO! The best part, it's not a "Holiday Party" or "Winter Party" it's a straight up "CHRISTMAS PARTY". We can have Santa Claus's and presents, and carols. Oh what merry fun we will have!!!

Sawasdee Kha,
Apes :)

A weekend of Ice, Prizes, and Curry!

So this weekend was my first weekend alone in my town. A bunch of the Farang (foreigners) teachers were headed to Koh Samui but since I had just travelled to Malaysia, I stayed here to save some money.

Saturday morning I got up and skyped with some of my ADPi's back home. Lil B skyped me at the rehearsal dinner for Ashley Carey's wedding. In true Icing fashion, we iced her :) That's right, she got iced from THAILAND at her REHEARSAL DINNER! Good teamwork Lil B :) Once she was iced, her hubby-to-be Tony got a huge kick of it and came to say Hi. I've captured the moment below.
Yep. That's the now married Stegman's. CONGRATS GUYS!!!

After the "icing from around the world" I gave my apartment a good cleaning and then made plans with the few teachers left in town to meet them for drinks later.

A bar in town, Bali, was celebrating it's one year anniversary and had cheap drinks all night. And by cheap, I mean CHEAP. Usually at a bar, a big beer is a little less than 100baht. When you buy a big beer from 7-11 or another convenient store its maybe 50-60baht. Bali was selling big Singha (the 'pricier' beer) for 45baht. So I spent my night drinking Singha for CHEAP!! Plus, every 2 beers you ordered, you got a prize! Tigger (who gave me a ride) got a t-shirt, the girls we were with also got a t-shirt and a purse, and an older Australian we were with got a bottle opener, and a Heineken glass (he was drinking Heinekens). Since it was their anniversary, they were also giving out plastic ice buckets (perfect for a trash can!) so I picked up one of those for myself, and we wore them as hats.


After we left Bali, we decided to head to Siam Blue so we could dance. And dance we did! About 10 minutes after we got there, 4 of us were onstage having our own dance party which lasted for a while. Then we got a hookah and finished off our night with whiskey (yuck!).


Sunday night the Thai men around the corner cooked me a delicious dinner. They told me they were going to make me Massaman Curry because they know I love it and they did! It was a little spicy was it was still delicious. Along with Massaman, they also made Green Curry, and a spicy fish curry. When they had me try the fish curry they laughed when I said "Ahh, Pet Pet!!" which means spicy. After dinner they told me they were taking me to a birthday party tomorrow. So tomorrow, it's Thai birthday party time!!!

Sawasdee Kha,
Apes :)

Apes goes to Malaysia.

Whelp, it happened. I had to do my first VISA run. And since I am in the South of Thailand, the closest border was Malaysia. So on Sunday I packed up and headed out (alone) for a few days in a country I had never even had on my list to visit. I had many different emotions: excitement for a new adventure, irritation for having to have planned it in such short notice, worried since it wouldn't be as cheap as a trip to the market for dinner, eager for the experience of traveling alone.

So with my Chrome bag, and my many different emotions, I crossed the border to Malaysia. My first actual border crossing. It wasn't full of excitement as I thought it would be, but instead it was; stand in a line, get stamped, get back in the van, ride to customs, get out, xray my bag, then get back in the van. There was no "WELCOME TO MALAYSIA" dancers, or a complimentary "national drink". Just stamps in the passport.

Once in Malaysia, I stayed at the Banana Guest House - which of course, accompanied a reggae bar. Just like Thailand.

Since I got in during the evening on Sunday, I didn't do much before bed, except dropping off my VISA papers to get processed. The guesthouse had sold out of the fan-only cheap rooms, so I had to get a pricier AC room for the night. My room had no windows, so I had to make sure I didn't sleep past checkout.

Monday morning I woke up, and since I have been on an "India Kick" with reading Shantaram (I highly recommend) and watching "Outsourced" I decided the first stop for me was Little India (plus it was a few blocks from the guesthouse). Mostly, I just wanted Naan. So I stopped in a restaurant called Kareem Mustafa and had Indian rice with Chicken, and cauliflower vegetable, and naan. MMMM naan. That was the best part of the meal. It was ALL delicious, but the Naan is what did it for me. The dipping sauce for it was the best I had ever had and I couldn't stop eating it! I almost ordered a second one!

After lunch, I took the free shuttle around town to look at the different areas in Georgetown. That took about all afternoon, and then I decided to just relax for the rest of the evening. I knew I wanted to get up early and get to Penang Hill (a huge hill in town that you have to take a trolley for) but I knew I needed to be back in time to pick up my passport. So I sat outside and did some more reading of Shantaram, and then ended up meeting a guy from London who was headed to Thailand in about a week. We chatted about what I should see in Malaysia, and what he should see in Thailand, and then we both retired to our respective guesthouses.

Tuesday I woke up, and headed to the bakery restaurant for a BLT on a BAGEL!! AHHH A BAGEL!! Those still exist?? YES, and they do in Malaysia! Afterwards I figured my way around town using the town buses, and got to Penang Hill. The lookout point was GORGEOUS!!! You could see ALL of Georgetown - and the bring connecting Penang to the rest of Malaysia.

Hello Panoramic View on my new camera!!

I spent some time at the top of the hill just wandering and taking pictures, and it was GORGEOUS! After wards, I had to head back to grab my new Visa and then the road back to Thailand. Luckily I made it with enough time to pop over to the bakery to get actual fresh bread. Not sweet bread like Thailand has, but REAL bread! I bought a sesame seed bagel, a cinnamon roll, a loaf of focaccia(sp?) bread, and a loaf of '6 cereal' (aka 6 grain) bread. It all costs me about 9RM (Malaysia money) with was about 90 Baht (Thai money), and which is about $3.00 USD.

Once in the van back to Thailand, we passed through the border once again and we passed right as the Thai national anthem started playing. Aww, they were welcoming me back!! We didn't go through customs this time...maybe it was too late in the day?

Anyways, I had to stay in Hat Yai for the night, and then finish the rest of the trip to Surat Thani on Wednesday. I ended up getting back to my apartment around 2 or 3pm Wednesday. It was actually the first time I was in my apartment by myself since I moved in. Tim was with me for a while, then his stay overlapped with Bri's visit, and then her and I left on the same day. Today is my first night with no one in my apartment - its a strange feeling.

Anyways - I loved Malaysia, and would have liked to stay longer...maybe for a long weekend after a paycheck?? And travelling completely by myself wasn't that bad. I ended up making friends on the travels, and learned that I have to rely on myself to adventure out and find places to eat and things to do. Hopefully I will get the chance to do some more "self-discovery travel" in the future. And now I can add Malaysia to my list of countries I've been in - woo hoo, that makes 3 countries I've visited outside the states!!!

Sawasdee Kha,
Apes :)

Where will I live??

So now that I had a school to work in, and a town to explore, I needed a place to hold my stuff and set up some living space.

After DAYS of looking...I had no results. All the flood victims from BKK had come down south and rented rooms out. Before they came, all the students in our school had found apartments (YES, 12 year olds LIVING ALONE) since their parents live too far outside of town for daily trips (they are all wealthy). That leaves a very small (if any) selection to look into. Plus add the fact that I want AC and Hot Water (Crazy, I know!) and the pool gets even smaller.

LUCKILY...one day at school one of the teachers took me to look at an apartment (also full) and on the way back I pointed out what looked to be apartments. Turns out - THEY WERE!! And there would be a room available on Nov. 1st. So I paid my deposit, and celebrated with ice-cream.

Once move in day came (Tim moved all my stuff from the hotel room while I was at work), I settled in to my new AWESOME apartment. Here's what i have:

- Fully furnished
- Cleaning 1 time a week
- In room bathroom (WITH HOT WATER)
- Balcony (with a view of the sunset)
- TV (with MULTIPLE ENGLISH CHANNELS- including Law&Order and CSI marathons)
- Air Conditioning (with a remote)
- Fridge (bigger than a mini fridge - and has an actual freezer!)

I have tons of drawer space, and all the furniture looks new. This girl is quite pleased.

All I had to get was towels, sheets, and another pillow - I got all that plus hangers, bathmat, trash can, and padlock (for the door) for all less that $30USD!!

So now I have a place to live :)

If you want to mail me some love, send it to my school address (as it will go right to my desk):

Aj. April Mislan
MLP Program
Suratpittaya School
388 T.Talad
A. Muang
Surat Thani
Thailand
84000

Sawasdee Kha!
Apes :)