Thanksgiving

Dear All,
Happy Thanksgiving!
I suppose it is still the day before where you all are but the day has come on my side of the world and there's nothing much to celebrate.
Of course Thailand could care less when it comes to an American holiday like thanksgiving. Erika has been teaching all of her classes this week about the holiday and what it is all about and it just makes us wish we were home to celebrate it with our family and friends and eat all the food that is so familiar to the day.
Instead it's just the two of us and we're going to a restaurant owned by an American that is putting on a special dinner in honor of the occasion and we're hoping it's something familiar and homey if nothing else.
Life continues on at a snails pace for me and my big worries of the day are getting our room cleaned by the Condotel staff and getting our laundry in to be washed by someone else. Erika's life is somewhat more difficult as she has to bother with the people at school and all the miscommunication and new revelations that never seem to stop. There are days when we are optimistic and think that at some point we will get used to things and understand more and then there are days we realize quite clearly how lost we are and how lost we will continue to be until we step on the plane to return home. It's not always bad but there is a constant state of confusion in one degree or another and my job is to sit back and listen to Erika as she describes the newest episode or revelation, knowing that I can do nothing to help the understanding or communication on either side it's sometimes hard to hear but as that's my only job I do my best.
People continue to ask me if I will be returning to teach or asking Erika where I am or what I'm doing. There is no privacy here. When she tells them that I am at home writing and painting and carrying on without her they are astonished to find I am alone. We begin to realize that this is not a culture that prizes down time, private time or anything of the sort. They are always doing something or about to do something, you don't go anywhere without them asking you where you're going or what you are doing- as if it's there business in the first place- heaven forbid you are just going for a stroll, they would not understand. And they are always together, whole families sleep and live in one room of a large house and they travel from one place to another together and preferably in groups and they congregate on street corners and at schools- places where they will be sure to be with other people. So to hear that I am at home, alone, planning to be alone all day and keeping this habit of being alone up the whole time we are here is beyond their belief.
I hope life is as interesting for you as it is for me here, write soon and often. Love to you all, Kristen Rose

Company Dinner

Dear All,
I'm sorry it's been so long since my last update.
I'll try and fill you in on what is going on and what has been going on.
Last Friday we had the two Filipino teachers from the school over to our flat for dinner. We attempted a new recipe from our Asian cookbook and chose one from the Philippine section. To our relief and amazement it came out incredibly good and Marie and Milou said it even tasted like it did at home- almost. So we were relieved. After dinner we watched one of our movies they had picked, asking first if it was a love story, as the girls hadn't seen any TV or anything since they've been here. It was fun to watch their faces as they followed the story, we had to pause it a couple of times to explain what was going on because they talked so fast.
They said they had to call their husbands as soon as it was over! It's got to be hard living away from your family and especially husband for so long, knowing that it will be at least another year or two.
Last Saturday we went out to eat to celebrate our two month anniversary in Thailand and had a nice, big meal at an Italian place on "Farang Street" we ended up eating with a French woman from the Condotel and another woman we'd met at the Condotel and has since moved to a house out of town. They are both very interesting and we had a fun dinner with bread and olive oil, drinks, lasagna for Erika and a pizza for me and a chocolate ice cream roll to share after wards! It was heaven, with cheese, chocolate and alcohol we were extremely happy!
Yesterday was our first time taking something to eat to share at the potluck dinner after church and we managed to pull off something pretty good though we can only take so much as our pot is only so big.
We certainly are a puzzlement to everyone here, they are not accustomed to seeing farang walking through the streets carrying pots of potatoes and the like. They laughed at us the whole time or else stopped us to see inside and ask us questions in Thai, we just smile and continue on as we have no idea what they are saying.
We're starting to get to know more and more people at church and they are becoming more friendly. Our friends Ruth and Phil who we met our very first Sunday are leaving for Australia today to try and renew their year long visas and as they don't know if they'll get them and then if they do they don't yet have the support to last them for another year their in an interesting predicament.
Well, that's not all that's happened but you are at least partly caught up on the large parts of our lives and I have to run do some grocery shopping for dinner tonight. We're having a vegetable curry and I need coconut milk.
My love to you all and feel free to write often and when you can,
Kristen

Sending Away Our Past

This last weekend was the celebration of a Chinese holiday. People float boats made of banana leaves and flowers with candles in the center of them and sticks of incense burning down the river as a sacrifice to the water goddess ironically for any polluting they might have down that year. Their sending boats with nailclippings and coins down the river to appoligise for last years boat apparently.
They also send up balloons, made of a paper like plastic with a wax covered log underneath it that you light, when the balloon fills with hot air you let the balloon go and it floats up into the sky taking away all your troubles and cares of last year with it.
Erika and I bought a balloon and sent it up not because this last year was difficult in any way but because the balloons look so amazing lifting off and floating through the sky. With a piromaniac like Erika you have to take every opportunity to light things on fire legally or we're in danger of getting in trouble.
Walking through all the tents and everything we had a fun time looking at everything there was to see, anything you could ever want was on sale there and food f every kind. We bought a super large bottle of some of the best honey I've ever tasted and found a bottle of strawberry wine that we couldn't pass up. Erika got a couple of traditional Thai shirts that are appropriate in the schools eyes for teaching in and something she likes enough to want to take home, i.e. not another yellow polo.
We went up to the bridge where the festival was taking place two nights, the second we went up with Michael, our neighbor, and enjoyed walking around with him as he talked about what he was doing last year when the festival was going on. Apparently he was "wooing" a woman that he knows- she's now with another man so it didn't seem to go so well for him.
Now school has started for another week and we're happy in our room with the addition of lounge chairs and a fan to our little home.
Love to you all Kristen Rose

Snow, School and Peanut Butter

Dear All,
We're now known around a lot of town and people recognise us as "usuals" people from school tell Erika they've seen me places or walked past me somewhere, they know me now by my umbrella. I carry a tall rainbow striped umbrella almost everywhere I go. There's no real threat of rain anymore but it's a nice walking stick and is now sort of a part of my image around town. I think it's great, Erika thinks it's funny.
As I said, school has started again so Erika now wakes up much earlier than we used to and I usually manage to drag myself out of bed at the same time since we're in a studio and there's no sleeping once she's up anyway. She's gone all morning but back at noon for our Australian soap opera that we've decided to get hooked on. Then she's gone again until after four thirty. That leaves me all by my lonesome for several hours during the day and while most of the time I keep myself busy with planning dinner, shopping for groceries or household whatnots that we need, drawing and writing, I also spend a lot of my time playing Free Cell or Hearts on the computer, that or watching movies on TV. She doesn't have any classes on Friday though so after signing in in the morning she's scot free until she has to sign out in the afternoon.
There's a festival going on in town this weekend and firecrackers seem to be going off all the time. Supposedly there was a parade yesterday but we were told it would go right by our building and we never saw it. Tonight we're going up to the area of town that has all the entertainment and tents and things going on to see what all the fuss is about and enjoy some local culture. Ha.
The other day a friend of mine from CO sent pictures of the snow storm they had, it was amusing to say the least. I went outside after seeing those pictures and I can't even imagine seeing snow in this place. Erika tried telling her students about snow when she was introducing herself and telling where she came from, it's not an easy thing to explain. Snow.
We finally got screens put into our window which is nice in several ways, now Erika doesn't have to have nightmares of me falling out the window to my death and we can keep them open all night and most of the morning and only use our air conditioner in the afternoon which will certainly cut down on our electricity bill and makes the apartment a lot more comfortable.
I actually found a store yesterday that carries peanut butter and jellie and real whole milk! It's rediculous how happy this made me! Now if only I could find a place that sells chocolate cake at a reasonable price my happiness would be complete.
Sorry it's been so long since my last update but not having much to say I'll finish up now and let all of you go. Thanks for your prayers and your letters and keep them up, love to you all, Kristen Rose