Christmas this year was... how you say... different than normal for Reffa and I needless to say!
Thailand has hardly any Christmas celebration- and we both worked on Christmas day but it was fun anyways. We got to teach the students about Christmas ! it was somewhat unsuccessful mindyou.. i taught the children about baby Jesus and they think that christmas is a celebration about "baby kittens" ...... hmmm ...... anyways. mai pen rai (oh well, nevermind... )
we had some lovely christmas parties at reffa's school where she teaches! lots and lots of food. mmm thai food. it's so good here! I love waiting for the fruit and vegetable stands to drive by with their bells so we can buy the cheapest most delicious fresh food EVERRRR
oh ps..
are you ready for this ?
this is a revelation..
it's huge..
are you sure you can handle it?
I LIKE BANANAS NOW
that's right. Jessica, I , like bananas. I eat about 3 or 4 a day. they are so so delicious. and you can buy about 20 for less than a dollar. you can pick them from your neighbor's tree if they're not looking- the thais fry them, grill them, bbq them, boil them, cover them in caramel, cover them in dough etc etc.... bananas EVERYWHERE. I love them. mmmm . weird eh?!
OH and our parcels came from home! I've notified most of you. but mom and dad's came and char and mag's came to me and reffa via motorbike!! it was SO exciting to get something from back home in the mail!!! eeeeekk!! we love our new underwear and christmas money and EVERYTHING!!! thank you so so so so much!!
okay I have to go catch a ride home. sorry this was rather brief. miss you all!!! will keep you posted as much as possible. we are happy :) love love love love love!! xoxoxxoxo
Jesse
Monday, December 29, 2008
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Single Entry
Me and Jess both got approved for 3-month single entry Visas.
So im gonna take 3 months of Thai, and then we dont know what next.
We get 2 days off for New Years (but not Christmas) so we may go to Chiang Mai up north with Greg, Lorraine and Daryl our little buddies.
If all goes well, we may be able to make a 5 day trip out of it, and the bus should only be about 40$ there and back.
We dont care that much for Penang. Its ok, very hot though! But its extra civilized and like being in Toronto or a big city like that. we are looking forward to going back to our small town with our market and our "friends" (the people that say hello to us every morning)
=)
Miss everyone, except Kevin, just kidding!! HEHE
I hope that you are are enjoying the christmas season, and the cold weather that comes with it!!! Stay warm, wear your mittens! Its cool to be warm! :)
Love
Reffa
So im gonna take 3 months of Thai, and then we dont know what next.
We get 2 days off for New Years (but not Christmas) so we may go to Chiang Mai up north with Greg, Lorraine and Daryl our little buddies.
If all goes well, we may be able to make a 5 day trip out of it, and the bus should only be about 40$ there and back.
We dont care that much for Penang. Its ok, very hot though! But its extra civilized and like being in Toronto or a big city like that. we are looking forward to going back to our small town with our market and our "friends" (the people that say hello to us every morning)
=)
Miss everyone, except Kevin, just kidding!! HEHE
I hope that you are are enjoying the christmas season, and the cold weather that comes with it!!! Stay warm, wear your mittens! Its cool to be warm! :)
Love
Reffa
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Malay
...kinda sucks. Its very expensive here!!! Like...very. Like...almost the same as Canada.
We are staying in a guest house called "Banana New House" (they speak English here)
and its got its own money exchanger (they use ringgets [9ringgets=1baht] in Malaysia) and they are doing our visas for us! In the morning, they go to immigration and take care of it for us!! So we lucked out.
The man told us that we probably wont get approved for a 1-year visa, and that nowadays its very rare. he said that some people who even own buisnesses have to leave the country every 3 months and ususally the odd time that people get 1 years is if they have a work permit with a company for a long period of time.
So... we're in Penang until 2:30pm on Friday. I think overall it only took us 12 hours to get here. And we stopped over in Hat Jai City(Hat Yai, Had Jai, Haat Yai...etc..its a different spelling everytime) which is in Songkla province of Thailand. There was a lot of nice little markets and vendors. and we sat down with some tuktuk drivers and practised our Thai with them. Then a police officer came up to join in. And he had a newspaper in his hand, and he opened it up to show us and he was on the cover of the front page, wearing his uniform and he stood the exact same. He was a really nice man and he was tall and skinny and he gelled his mustache into thin little curls (like the pirates do) bu tthen he got walkey-talkied to take care of something and left. But we had fun sitting there.
We went through customs at the border and they let me take 15 clementines, 2 apples and coconut water!
We really miss Chompoo. But Uncle said he'd take care of her for us! We we're trying to find her a home up until we left, but no luck.
Our friend Astch (pronounced Ash...which...im just going to spell it that way cause its easier) is building a house near us. Its actually in a very beautiful spot. He took me down to see it the other day and its right on the riverfront, and hes got a little gazeebo and a longtail boat and a really big lawn and then he has part of the jungley forest to do whatever he wants to, and its very quiet and secluded and he has no neighbours execpt for his parents. I want to live down there now. And he gets to hang out all day down there are relax cause he works mostly around suppertime for 2 or 3 hours. He works with football ( soccer) and he recruits people from all over Thailand and he trains them to play for this team (dunno the name)
But he brings them down by his house and they do all their training like running and stuff down there! Hes very cool. He took me and Jessica out for coffee the other day and picked jessica up from work , which is like a 20 min drive away. Hes got a sweet truck and he is introducing us to some really thai reggae music like Palmy and T-Bone! Check them out. Palmy looks like a younger, half thai version of Janis Joplin.
Back to Penang. We dont really care for it all that much. Its just like being in any other city except for everyone is frowning or staring blankly. I dont know why they arent happy.
:( we're just sticking around the guesthouse and playing it safe. Gotta hide from the mosquitoes too because they carry Dengue fever here. Can't take the chance right now! Although that powder stuff really comes in handy. It was less than a dollar and its like baby powder and you just put it all over you and it smells the same as baby powder but it scares away mozzies!
Ok time to go find a book.
xoxo
We are staying in a guest house called "Banana New House" (they speak English here)
and its got its own money exchanger (they use ringgets [9ringgets=1baht] in Malaysia) and they are doing our visas for us! In the morning, they go to immigration and take care of it for us!! So we lucked out.
The man told us that we probably wont get approved for a 1-year visa, and that nowadays its very rare. he said that some people who even own buisnesses have to leave the country every 3 months and ususally the odd time that people get 1 years is if they have a work permit with a company for a long period of time.
So... we're in Penang until 2:30pm on Friday. I think overall it only took us 12 hours to get here. And we stopped over in Hat Jai City(Hat Yai, Had Jai, Haat Yai...etc..its a different spelling everytime) which is in Songkla province of Thailand. There was a lot of nice little markets and vendors. and we sat down with some tuktuk drivers and practised our Thai with them. Then a police officer came up to join in. And he had a newspaper in his hand, and he opened it up to show us and he was on the cover of the front page, wearing his uniform and he stood the exact same. He was a really nice man and he was tall and skinny and he gelled his mustache into thin little curls (like the pirates do) bu tthen he got walkey-talkied to take care of something and left. But we had fun sitting there.
We went through customs at the border and they let me take 15 clementines, 2 apples and coconut water!
We really miss Chompoo. But Uncle said he'd take care of her for us! We we're trying to find her a home up until we left, but no luck.
Our friend Astch (pronounced Ash...which...im just going to spell it that way cause its easier) is building a house near us. Its actually in a very beautiful spot. He took me down to see it the other day and its right on the riverfront, and hes got a little gazeebo and a longtail boat and a really big lawn and then he has part of the jungley forest to do whatever he wants to, and its very quiet and secluded and he has no neighbours execpt for his parents. I want to live down there now. And he gets to hang out all day down there are relax cause he works mostly around suppertime for 2 or 3 hours. He works with football ( soccer) and he recruits people from all over Thailand and he trains them to play for this team (dunno the name)
But he brings them down by his house and they do all their training like running and stuff down there! Hes very cool. He took me and Jessica out for coffee the other day and picked jessica up from work , which is like a 20 min drive away. Hes got a sweet truck and he is introducing us to some really thai reggae music like Palmy and T-Bone! Check them out. Palmy looks like a younger, half thai version of Janis Joplin.
Back to Penang. We dont really care for it all that much. Its just like being in any other city except for everyone is frowning or staring blankly. I dont know why they arent happy.
:( we're just sticking around the guesthouse and playing it safe. Gotta hide from the mosquitoes too because they carry Dengue fever here. Can't take the chance right now! Although that powder stuff really comes in handy. It was less than a dollar and its like baby powder and you just put it all over you and it smells the same as baby powder but it scares away mozzies!
Ok time to go find a book.
xoxo
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Visa
I sure hope that Reffa gets one longer than 15 days UGHHHHHH lol that would be so shitty. best case scenerio tomorrow: we both get a one year visa and we're okay to stay here in thailand until next December with no issues. Not even another visa run or border crossing =) keep your fingers crossed for us.
I heard that Gram's operation went well, i'm stoked about that. Congrats grammie!
Please keep the emailing updates coming, and lots and lots of christmas pictures please!! there is a sincere lack of Christmas in Thailand!!!
on my way to the market now to get some fried dough. mmmm.
xo
I heard that Gram's operation went well, i'm stoked about that. Congrats grammie!
Please keep the emailing updates coming, and lots and lots of christmas pictures please!! there is a sincere lack of Christmas in Thailand!!!
on my way to the market now to get some fried dough. mmmm.
xo
Penang
We are going to Penang, Malaysia tonight, to do the visa run. I'm hoping to get a one year so i dont have to come up with the money to do this again in 3 months time. Its kinda like lottery ....what kinda visa am I gonna get? 3 month? 15 day? 6 month? 1 year?? Nobody knows!!
They speak English in most parts of Malaysia, so it'll be a nice refreshing, head-ache free change! :P
Actually, its a lot of fun learning and speaking thai. In fact, I signed up to take it through a language school. minimum 10 hours a month.
So we wont know when we will be back, but we are hoping before Friday!
Still trying to find a home for Chom-puu. I took her to school with me yesterday, but i left her home today. She would be better off with someone who sticks around home a lot more, like a shop owner or something like that. Maybe I will ask the fruit stand lady if she wants her.
lol
They speak English in most parts of Malaysia, so it'll be a nice refreshing, head-ache free change! :P
Actually, its a lot of fun learning and speaking thai. In fact, I signed up to take it through a language school. minimum 10 hours a month.
So we wont know when we will be back, but we are hoping before Friday!
Still trying to find a home for Chom-puu. I took her to school with me yesterday, but i left her home today. She would be better off with someone who sticks around home a lot more, like a shop owner or something like that. Maybe I will ask the fruit stand lady if she wants her.
lol
Saturday, December 13, 2008
champooh
chompoo is our new puppy. I have posted a video of her on facebook if you'd like to see!
we got her from a box of abandoned puppies found near scott's school. she's really really cute (and messy!!! )
daryl is coming to visit us for the night tonight YAY!!
miss you all. missing desperately the christmas surroundings snow, lights, trees etc. send pictures please!!!
ps. parcel has been sent home. costed 549876846321654654987 dollars. you better like your presents!!!!
xoxoxox
we got her from a box of abandoned puppies found near scott's school. she's really really cute (and messy!!! )
daryl is coming to visit us for the night tonight YAY!!
miss you all. missing desperately the christmas surroundings snow, lights, trees etc. send pictures please!!!
ps. parcel has been sent home. costed 549876846321654654987 dollars. you better like your presents!!!!
xoxoxox
Sunday, December 7, 2008
a nice little vacation
we had a really lovely weekend with our friends in phuket town this weekend , greg lorraine and daryl!! we went to the beach, shopped, ate a ton, saw ong buck 2 (WICKED MOVIE), went to patong to see our old friends and hung out . it was a BLAST a really nice break from our small thai town in surat.
we're back here in surat now getting ready to teach again in the morning.
this week we have wednesday off because it's constitution day so I Think reffa and I Are going to try to find a cool park or mountain or something to climb/hang out in / explore. we need to start seeing more of our hometown !! hehe
this weekend we might go to koh samui to visit our friend daryl and the weekend after that we're going to malaysia for a visa run!! then the weekend after that I Think we are going to go to chiang mai (if reffa can get this many weekends off in a row) . we all have new years weekend off so our fivesome of travelling friends might get together for a 5 day trip to northern thailand where the elephants are plentiful and the merchandise is CHEAP!
anyways, off to lesson plan. miss you all .
xo
we're back here in surat now getting ready to teach again in the morning.
this week we have wednesday off because it's constitution day so I Think reffa and I Are going to try to find a cool park or mountain or something to climb/hang out in / explore. we need to start seeing more of our hometown !! hehe
this weekend we might go to koh samui to visit our friend daryl and the weekend after that we're going to malaysia for a visa run!! then the weekend after that I Think we are going to go to chiang mai (if reffa can get this many weekends off in a row) . we all have new years weekend off so our fivesome of travelling friends might get together for a 5 day trip to northern thailand where the elephants are plentiful and the merchandise is CHEAP!
anyways, off to lesson plan. miss you all .
xo
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