Hey Everyone,
We have been getting adjusted to school, climate, house, Bangkok, and our life here. Things are good. We have been in country now beginning our 5th month! Time is passing very fast. Here are the main events that have happened since we have been here:
Our shipment from the US came, and we were really happy to put our house together! We have also taken a boat down town and are happy doing art at home.
We found our UU (Unitarian Universalist) people here!
There's a small group of folks who meet on Sunday evenings for UU services. We rotate hosting our gatherings and the host chooses the topic of discussion, and the kids create their own curriculum and share it with us at the end. It is lovely. We all love this time each week and are so glad to have found our faith community here in Thailand.
Spent a long weekend in Chiang Rai at the Bamboo Nest in September.
I asked the kids if they wanted to visit the mountains or beaches and they both said mountains! True north-westerners! So on the advise of another teacher we went to the Bamboo Nest. It was beautiful; nine bamboo huts nestled on the top of a mountain over looking rice patties and jungle. We went on a 7 hour trek through the jungle and rice patties to a river for a ride on a long boat, visited hot springs, ate lunch in a village that was cooked in bamboo that we harvested, and then hiked back through the rice patties. We learned how to do traditional weaving and relaxed in our bamboo huts. It was lovely!
Explored an island town southwest Thailand called Koh Lanta.
We stayed in Narima right on the beach in a little bungalow, explored the island on mopeds, went on a speed boat to the island Koh Rok for some spectacular white sand beaches and snorkeling, went sea kayaking around an island, visited the monkeys in the mangroves, had lots of seafood and visited with an old friend of mine from Up With People who lives on the island.
Halloween in our community was huge!
We kept thinking this reminds us of that scene in ET where the kids go trick or treating! It was a wholesome family event. Everyone was dressed up and enjoying themselves. There were TONS of kids going from house getting candy, the costumes were homemade and so cute! Our apartment complex gathered all of the kids on the playground for a picture, we carved watermelons (instead of pumpkins) and then the children visited all of the apartments for treats. A great community building event.
Visitors! We were lucky enough to have a few visitors in November!
Danny Higdon a forever friend from Edmonds CC, came to visit. We loved having a piece of home here for a few weeks and were sad to see him go. During that same time, we got to host our friend Maya Magee who has been a child care provider for the girls since they were babies and a church friend from home. She had been traveling in southeast Asia for the past several months and was going through Bangkok. So nice to fill up our guest room with guests!!
Thanksgiving dinner!
Our community of teachers all got together and put on a HUGE potluck. Everyone pulled out their best recipes and made ham, chicken (no turkeys in Thailand) sweet potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, veggie dishes, quiche's, potatoes, gravy, pies and cookies! It was fabulous. The evening ended much too quickly due to an impending monsoon that blew through. We were eating outside and as it approached and we all made a mad dash to put away the remaining food and clean up the tables and chairs before they got drenched! We were also lucky enough to be able to attend another thanksgiving dinner at my co-worker Ashley's house where she made an absolutely delicious meal. The atmosphere was relaxed, welcoming and communal. So nice to celebrate these events with friends.
Loy Krathong, a thai holiday celebrating the end of the harvest and hope and prayers for next year.
Loy Krathong is a holiday where people make small boats of banana leaves and flowers light a candle and release them into the water with a prayer for next year and thanks and gratitude for the harvest. In some places, especially in the north, people light paper lanterns and release them into the air. Remember the scene from Tangled when they release the paper lanterns? That is very similar to how they celebrate here in Thailand, especially in the north. Just beautiful! We took a boat down the Chao Prahya river into down town Bangkok, visited a temple (Wat) and put our wishes out with a Krathon onto the river.
Andy had his first choir concert and had a tux tailored just for him.
In true Andy style, he had the kids moving and enjoying themselves on stage. The theme was home, which was perfect for the season and really brought a feeling of community and warmth to the event. We all enjoyed the concert and left feeling refreshed and inspired.
Kids are enjoying school activities: Strings, drama, choir, ballet, softball, girl scouts, violin and piano, school field trips and field days.
Addie has been loving being in an orchestra for the first time in her life and has her first concert on Wednesday next week. She has auditioned for the elementary musical Peter Pan, and has landed the part of Cookson the pirate! Both the girls are playing softball, in girl scouts, and are participating in the after choirs. I am helping with the junior choir, which is for 2nd-3rd graders and I love it. AJ is doing ballet once a week and is taking piano lessons! She stopped taking viola, may be she will come back to it at some point. We are just glad that she is still involved in learning an instrument. Addie is loving the violin and soon, will be also taking piano lessons.
Ok, so that takes us up to now. I am sure there is much more that I am leaving out, but at this point it is all I can remember. We are looking forward to a visit from Andy's Dad and Nancy who are coming to visit the first two weeks in January. We plan to take them down to Koh Lanta where we have rented a house on stilts looking out at the ocean for a few days. We have our house decorated and ready for Santa to make a landing on Christmas Eve.
Happy holidays to you all! We love and miss our community back home and hope that you are well and happy.
From,
The Marshall's:)
