Sawatdee Bii Mai

This is just a quick post to wish everyone a Happy New Year.  In Thailand the year is 2555 BE (Buddhist Era).
In the last few days I've been to three New Year's Parties, all going late into the night and involving good food, karaoke and good company.
Fireworks and lanterns are abundant in the sky tonight.  Filling the entire horizon with artificial stars and wonderfully colourful explosions.
I have plans for another party in the near future with the other exchange students where we will make some of the food that we've been missing thus far.
I am working on the next retrospective update from November and hope to get it up soon.

I wish everyone a healthy and happy new year!  Try to stick to any resolutions you make and enjoy yourself as much as possible.

(See a nice and quick post)

Not the fireworks from tonight (because my camera couldn't capture them) but fireworks none the less :)

Fa la la la la la la la bacon...

     Hello all, I realize that it has been quite a long time since I've updated. My deepest apologies to any who were upset by this.
     In the last two months a lot has happened. So much so that it would be nearly impossible for me to include everything in one blog post. So I propose this solution: I shall restart my blogging with a lovely Christmas story and then we can Tarantino it back through the beginning to see how I got there. Everyone okay with that? Good, because that is how I have decided it and so it shall be.

A Lovely Christmas Story
     As with most Christmas stories this one begins with hopelessness and end on a high note (or a kiss, but not this time). Over the weeks leading up to the holiday we, that is my friend Deng-Tai and I, were planning a trip to Khon Kaen to join our friends in the celebrations. After many complications and then finally a ban on all holiday travel, due to some exchange students breaking certain rules, the plans were cancelled. It was at this point that we had lost our Christmas spirit; there was no snow, no visiting of friends and no "holly jolly" feeling in the city. 
     However, as we are exchange students and therefore adaptable and resilient, we did not let these draw backs ruin our Christmas. We planned for me to stay at Deng-Tai's house. A main factor in our decision and renewed happiness was that she had macaroni and cheese that her mother had sent. So I set out for her house on the eve of the big day, with a only bag and Christmas box from my mom. We got lost only twice, for a moment or two, but we'd made it before and could this time too. 
     After arriving I headed up to her room where we could begin our celebration. We watched three movies over the course of the night; the Grinch, A Charlie Brown Christmas and the Miracle on 34th Street. While we waited we decorated our tree, a simple drawing in a book, but that was all we needed. At supper time we took a break and made the macaroni and cheese which so swayed our decision. While we worked we listened to and sang the carols of childhood and of our home country.
     We ate way too much chocolate and I nearly threw up with the amount of macaroni we ate.  We finally went to sleep in the wee hours of the morning, anticipating a warm Christmas morning (something new for both of us).  Our plans to awaken early and Skype with our families were ruined when we slept in :D  It all worked out though, we just Skyped later in the day.  Christmas morning was definitely a success! 
     Later in the evening we went to the mall to buy presents for the gift exchange we were going to do at a party later.  The party was at our friend Gun's house and there were farang and Thais alike.  Before going to the house we visited one of the waterfalls in the city.  Fie from France made spaghetti carbonara for us, it was delicious, she did a great job.  There were also French Fries and many other Thai foods (some I liked, some I did not).  We listen to music and comedy, played with his punching bag and his dad let us check out his guns.  We ended up staying the night, unknown to us at the time of arrival.  One of the gifts was a movie Let the Right One In, the original Swedish version of the Hollywood remake Let Me In, and in my opinion a much better movie, so we watched that.  
     Christmas was fun, the party was great (I helped cook shrimp, I don't like shrimp and seeing them cooking didn't help) and  I had an awesome holiday!

Plans for the next week include a Rotary New Year's party and seeing a movie with some friends (A Big C just opened in out city and they have movies in English subbed in Thai, so everyone can enjoy :)).

I will attempt to update much much sooner with more stories from the last two months.  Until then please enjoy my Christmas story and share with me what you did for the holidays!

Flying a kite at Gun's Grandparent's House

Our Super Special Awesome Christmas Tree!