Chapter 5 Part 2

Excited to see the new place, so many questions ran through my head.  Would we like it?  Is it clean?  Are there lots of people?  What's the food like?  The list continued (and for those of you who know me, you know that list went on forever) but it didn't really matter I guess since we were gonna be there for at least 1 year.  We'd make it work no matter what.

We arrived on March 18 at around 6am (march 17-- 4pm Louisiana time) and to our surprise, the airport was dead.  Hardly anybody there...nice to not have to fight through crowds of people.  The process was such a breeze from getting through immigration to getting Honey checked in and through customs.  We were over and done in such a short time and didn't have to pay any fees to customs for Honey.  Awesome!  

The taxi driver was waiting for us with Shane's name on a sign rather than mine...weird since it was me being the teacher.  It was cold outside and in the taxi...he didn't have on the heat but luckily my coat kept me quite warm.  Off we went, heading to Dongtan, Korea.  Fighting to keep my eyes open proved to be difficult.  I was so tired due to lack of sleep for a couple days.  In the moments of being able to focus (mostly when Shane called my name to look at something), we knew we were gonna like this place.  It was clean.  That was probably the major factor that determined it all.  So many buildings...so much stuff. 

Chapter 5 Part 1

The semester was coming to a close and we couldn’t wait to get out of there.  Quite frankly, I was tortured at the thought of possibly having to stay in Thailand another semester but would have did what we had to do.  

The question then became, “Where do we go now?”  We definitely didn’t want to stay but didn’t know where else we could go…then came the opportunity we were looking for.

Korea!! We only had a couple week notice from the time the whole mention of it came up to the time we had to be there.  So once again, we were left scrambling to get things packed and on a plane to a new life.  Luckily, we didn't have much stuff so it was easy (if you don't count the stressing over every detail that I did, then yes easy).

Many thanks to the friends who drove us to the airport.  It was most helpful and appreciated.  We arrived at the airport mid afternoon (1pm or so) because we had to get the paperwork for Honey updated.  And another long wait began as our flight wasn't until around 11 that night.  I did crossword puzzles for a while but most of the time was spent twiddling our thumbs, staring into space, what to do, what to do, what to do.  Nothing...nothing what so ever.  

Bangkok Airport

Check-in time arrived and it was a hassle because of Honey and our oversized baggage.  We ended up paying a butt load of money for fees...fees which don't really even make sense but whatever.  We waited in the security screening line, got through, headed for the gate and eagerly hoped on the plane.  It was a (I believe) 5 hour nonstop flight. 

Goodbye Thailand

Chapter 4 Part 6

And elephants…I can’t forget the elephants.  One weekend, we went up to Pak Chong and drove up the mountain.  On the way back down, we stopped to see the elephants they had for people to feed and take rides.  I didn’t take a ride but I fed them…a lot.  They are such massive creatures and very cool.  We had a blast.

Playing soccer

Elephants in Thailand are quite popular, especially when there are events.  A couple guys will take two or three baby elephants and walk around to the markets, restaurants, and festivals offering people the chance to feed them for a small fee.  (Yes, even restaurants.)  One of them even tried grabbing me on a couple different occasions.  I couldn’t help but admire their adorableness… if that’s even a word. 

Chapter 4 Part 5

As I said, along with seeing stuff we were able to meet people, some people we get the pleasure of knowing the rest of our lives.  (That, in itself, is a great experience.)  There was an Irish guy living with his Thai woman with whom we became fast friends.  They helped us out in so many ways—showed us the ropes.  They even let us (people they barely knew) use their motorbike until we got our own.  We are extremely grateful for them.  They would take us around sightseeing as well as to other food establishments to expand beyond the couple we knew of.  

We spent a lot of time with them—even Christmas and New Year’s.  A group of us gathered Christmas day at their home, cooked, laughed, and drank all day…what fun!  My present—a huge block of mozzarella cheese—so delicious and muuuuccchhh appreciated…thank you hubby!  Upon receiving my present, I hid it in the fridge to resist the temptation of eating it all, but later that night I HAD to break it out.  I decided that it was pointless to eat like a normal person and SLICE it…so instead I just ate right off the hunk of cheese…that’s how it should be, right?  

New Years rolled around and we headed to her family’s house on top the mountain in Pak Chong a couple hours away.  While there, we watched a really old drunk man dance wearing only a towel…he was having a blast. Later that evening, lavished everyone with lots of food and provided plenty of entertainment.  Due to the indulgence of drinking by our driver, we all just stayed the night and headed back in the morning.