Athid Na

SO. I've basically been gearing up for vaycay next week, thats pretty much the story of my life. It seems like in ORDER to leave or go anywhere you have to kind of get your vacation desk in order and your fun-face on, haha. Being new to the 'real world' I think its probably something everyone feels like they go through, probably not unique to Thailand, just my life.
Today I got a fun chance to hang out with an SM from Bogota, Colombia named Brenda. I was so worried my Spanish would suffer when I came here and I looked at Spanish speaking options for countries to go to when I finally realized I would "go" somewhere. Amazingly I've made so many Spanish friends I haven't had the option to forget it yet!
We went to this Christmas program at the Ekamai International School Church and got to listen to a lot of the students and teachers sing carols, not helping the NOT-home-for-the-holidays-syndrome thats for sure, but it was cute. After we grabbed a bite to eat at this Thai restaurant Green House that Brenda hadn't been to yet and met up with Andrew to go to Lumpini Park in the center of the city. After looking at a map I kinda realize its a lot like Golden Gate Park, kind of a city community hub/activity park. As luck would have it we ended up going during an International Street Show! Basically there were about fifteen mini-stages set up all around the park and different street preformers from different countries at each one. We saw a CREEPY puppet show from Laos, a Thai clown, Aussie Kangaroo's on stilts and some Scandanavian acrobatics!!! The only downside to the day was the heat...so intense today. I think humidity had to be 90% it felt like breathing water...
Our park day ended with a Christmas bon-fire at the Venns and some amazing lentil stew and guava fruit. How is it that all I can talk about is food when I think of Thailand?

Laos

We survived!! 
Talk about the most amazing/insane adventure yet here in the continent of Asia. 

The run down: basically, every 90 days the governement of Thailand requires all 'farang' or tourists to go renew their visas if they're spending another 90 days in the country. So Andrew, Sandrina and me had to make a Visa run and leave the country to one of its many bordering nations in order to get a stamp in our passport that says something like "welcome back!" 

So we went to Laos for (what we thought) would be just an over-night stay. **You have to leave your passports for at least 24 hours at the Thai embassy in your destination country. So we get on this bus on Tuesday night, and drive 10 hours north to a city called Nong-Khai. Now the bus was first class, but here in Thailand when you pay for first class anything there's an a/c fee...apparently we were the FIRST of first classes because we were refrigerated by the end of the ride...it was sooo cold!! They give you a snack, and coffee in the morning and one pit stop on the ride there (probably smarter in the long run not to drink the coffee).

Once we arrived in Nong-Khai we had no clue how we were actually going to cross the border, but we asked around and found out there was a bus heading to the capital every couple hours or so. Upon arrival at the border or "friend-ship bridge" as its called in Thai, we realized I had a multiple entry visa and didn't have to go through all the paperwork the other SM's did anyway. Surprise! So I was just along for the ride after I got my stamp. When we got into Vientien (the capital 'village' of Laos) we were bombarded immediately by tuk-tuk drivers wanting to scam us off the bus, we managed to barter one down to a reasonable price and get a ride to the embassy after 10 mins though and didn't have to wait that long for Andrew and Sandrina's paperwork.

After the embassy we had to drop off a package at the Adventist Mission in the city so we found the school next. They were so nice to us and one SM named Rachel even took us out to dinner at an indian place near-by. We learned a lot about how Thai-Lao culture is similar and different. We could basically speak Thai everywhere and be understood, but the Lao people have a different accent and a few different key grammar elements...sometimes frustrating, English was almost easier for once. Most of the city was a mix between dirt roads and minimal pavement, poverty and tourism, super different from Bangkok. I immediately realized how modern Thailand was compared to Laos, I even saw my first domesticated elephants right in the city!!

We found out our second day we were supposed to leave Laos was actually a Lao holiday so we ended up having to stay another night. I was THRILLED because I felt there was so much more of Vientien I wanted to experience first! We had a crazy day of looking around, it felt like the city was a lot bigger, but actually its almost physically impossible to get lost. They have one mall, no 7-11's (unlike Thailand) and they have dozens of national landmarks, temples and tourist sight-seeing locations. It felt like we saw pretty much everything in one day though. That night all the shops started to close early (its a communist country and curfew is at 10:45) so we grabbed french bread loaves, peanut butter and jam and had a "picnic" in our room.

The next morning our fun vaycay took a slightly more sinister tern however when Andrew knocked on our door asking if we had been in his room the night before. O.O! He was robbed in his sleep! Someone had walked into his room, taken his wallet and iphone sometime during the night while he was sleeping! We were just happy he was alive but it kinda put a dark cloud over the rest of the day...we had to file a police report but of course the only police station we knew was the hut on the street corner with 4 motorbikes parked under it.

So after a long and tiring day, we managed to get some church members to translate to the police at a slightly more legit station, to get a report, to file a claim...ugh. While Andrew completed the depressing run-around, Sandrina and me had to go to the Visa office to claim their passports before three and grab food for our bus ride (which we hadn't bought tickets for yet O.O)

No worries! Everything worked out fine, we managed to get our Visa's just in time, picked up lunch from these super sweet Lao ladies that practiced some Thai with me, and Andrew walked up just as we were ready to buy bus tickets. We managed to get on the bus leaving the city in the next half hour and I was thrilled that my passport was all good and I managed to leave Laos without hassle (I was secretly still scared I might need another type of Visa).

So all's well ends well...we're back safe...I'd still ironically reccomend Laos as a great several day tourist destination (the city was fantastic) just watch your stuff...

Happy *Belated* Thanksgiving!

I figured that Thanksgiving deserved a blog-post right? Sorry its been so long! It's been an interesting several weeks...! To catch you up:

1. Health Expo was a success!! The banners went up and looked gorgeous, and my posters were miraculously finished on time...it was a race to complete the website however, but we did finish by Opening day. During the event I worked the kids table and ran eye exams on these machines that showed if you were near sighted or far sighted. The machine was a fairly simple process, you aim for the iris then click this button and try and get everything to zooom in...

2. Almost immediately after the Health Expo ironically I was sick. And I mean IMMEDIATELY. That night I had a fever and a cough and the next day Goi and me went to a clinic to get meds for it. Its interesting being sick here because everyone thinks they have the cure for you. The Thai's I work with rarely get sick and seeing me be sick for a while has defnitely inspired them all to try and fix me, haha. I've been randomely handed, fruit, herbs, medicine, you name it.
Two weeks and two doctors visits later I'm still trying to kill this Asian virus but I definitely don't think my body was used to it. Hahaha, I looked at a calendar though and realize...I only have two more days to be sick. So, I plan to be well on Monday :)

3. Beginning part 2 of sick week I went to a festival called "Loi Katong" (sp?) basically its a Buddhist holiday where people send these homemade flower rafts with incense sticks and candles down any body of water nearby. The rivers are flooded with them and lots of times people play music and have carnivals to celebrate. Apparently the holiday is to give thanks to the water for giving them life.
I went with Goi to her University in Ramkhamhaeng and we got to see their school carnival, music, talent show stuff and even send off a little raft of our own!

4. Holiday blues...I'd not reccomend being abroad over major holidays like Chrirstmas and Thanksgiving. Luckily for me, its the tropics so it rarely feels like the holidays anyway. It just seems like summer extended itself and the holidays will be back home for me waiting. Unless of course you look at a calendar, go to a mall thats all decked out, get invited to a Thanksgiving party...like me.
I didn't quite realize I was missing the holidays until I walked into the Venn's house (the family of the pastor I'm working for) and heard Natalie Cole singing Christmas songs and helped cook mashed potatoes and gravy in the kitchen...ooooooooh boy I need to be on an island for Christmas! Thanksgiving was bitter-sweet and Christmas I imagine will be the same.

Next stop Laos! Tuesday we're going on our visa run, we have to get to the border, get our passports stamped for another 3 months, cross back over, get checked again, then we can come back *crosses fingers* Wish me luck! Choc dee!