Rice Grains

Tomorrow morning (Saturday) I will be heading to Korat with a carload of girls. Tawan, my friend and Anita's roommate, invited us to go home with her for the New Year holiday. Tawan's younger sister and our friend Payao will also be going, so we will have a full car. We will be returning on the evening of January 3.

I am excited to see Tawan's home area and to meet her family. She has been such a good friend, and I sometimes still marvel at the way God made our paths cross (on a crowded, standing room only, early morning bus on my way in to school last year).

Happy New Year to you all! And happy birthday to me!!!!:)

PS I won't be able to blog until after I get back from Korat.

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Christmas afternoon I spent shopping for my last-minute gifts.:) You can tell I'm a true procrastinator--in the US I wouldn't have the option of shopping on Christmas day, so I get it done the day before. But in Thailand, well, that's a different story. Christmas is not a national holiday here, so everything is open for business as usual.

I managed to be home by 5:00 to finish getting ready for our 7:00 party at Tom and Candice's. It was a really nice time; we each brought a snack, and it turned out to be a cheese and cracker theme with a few veggies and cookies thrown in. All very delicious!

Nice pose, Ashley and Joelle! (and Eliza grinning from ear to ear in the background!:)

Tom and Candice serving our drinks

After eating, we sang some Christmas carols, played one of those crazy group games (meaning FUN), and then opened our gifts.

Beth had my name and gave me awesome gifts, including a coffee cup, a bag of coffee, a pack of cookies, and money for a massage or two! Wow, how could anyone go wrong with a gift like that??!! THANKS a BUNCH, Beth!

Two more characters opeing their gifts:)

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OK, I just have to share some photos that my brother and his wife sent me. Most of these photos were taken when I was home in September, so they are not Thailand pictures.:) And a couple I believe are from Christmas Day. Humor me.:)

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Yesterday morning I went with the REACH team to ECB, an international English-speaking church in Bangkok. It was a really good service.

Then, after eating lunch with the team, I met my friend Kwan, and we did our typical Thai massage followed by eating and window shopping. Kwan is so much fun to be with; she is in some ways not so typical Thai because she speaks her mind. But I like that about her.

This afternoon, I went to run errands, and found this stand stand selling grilled squid.

From there I took a bus to The Well to take care of some business, then headed to my favorite little restaurant close to the sky train. This place has a really fun family working there; the guy is always joking. He is the one that said I eat so much chicken my face is starting to look like one.

Tonight I told them to choose a food item for me, so they served me stir fried liver and garlic stalks??? served over rice. It was VERY tasty, believe it or not. I will probably order it again sometime.

After I ate I asked to take their picture; immediately they asked if I am returning to my home country already.:)

At 7:00, I met Anita, and we went looking for Christmas decorations in Bangkok.

We also visited the Erawan Shrine, also festively decorated. It is sad to see all the people that bring offerings and incense there in hopes of good fortune. Check out this website for more history on this shrine: http://www.thailandguidebook.com/erawanshrine.html

Check out the video below to see the action at the shrine.

After leaving the shrine, we discovered a McCafe, apparently a McDonald's effort to become part of the coffee shop scene. I had a caramel macchiato. It was really pretty good, but a bit sweet. Thais typically like more of a light sweet in their treats, and I've come to like that myself.

After a nice time sipping our drinks and chatting, we headed toward home. Now I can't sleep because I have caffeine in my system.:)

Posted by Sharon Rice at 11:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

On Saturday morning, a couple REACHers, Anita, and I attended a community Christmas outreach at Promise Baptist Church. After the main events were finished, we asked Pastor Num if he would allow Anita to see the piano upstairs in the sanctuary.

Of course, we had to hear her play; we were very impressed!

Then we discovered that Num also plays, so he had a turn. Again, we were impressed!

After the mini concert, we headed out for home, but we didn't get very far. Thai hospitality once again kept us supplied with food, this time sweets. Remember that ice cream on hotdog bun that I mentioned before? Well, this time we got the real thing. As one of the girls stated, "this is a REAL ice cream sandwich!". Yep, I think she's right!

Once we were finished stuffing our mouths, we needed to work our way past this big play area to go home.

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Wow, this year I feel like I am really getting a dose of Christmas busy-ness! Last year I spent Christmas in Malaysia renewing my visa. Not so this year! There seems to be one party after another, I suppose because I am involved at a number of different ministries.

This past Friday I attended the Christmas party at Abba House preschool. Pastor Num came and told them the Christmas story after which they opened gifts. It was fairly basic but fun.

After the children went home, Lee Davis, who over sees the ministry, took us out for an appreciation lunch to MK Restaurant. This restaurant chain serves what is considered to be Korean barbecue, I think. It is one of those places where you cook meat and vegetables in a pot on the table in front of you. Ony MK is a classier air-conditioned version of all the outdoor places. The food is not only delicious; it is also nutritious--you can't go wrong with that combination!

The Malone family then invited Lee and I to their home Friday evening for the carolers from Promise Church who were to come between 8:00 and 10:00.

The Malone family and Lee

The carolers--I will never figure out how they manage to wear such warm clothes in 90 degree weather--finally arrived around 10:00 or soon after. As they had quite a few places to go yet, they stayed only a short time, but it was fun to experience a familiar tradition in Thailand.

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Last Thursday night was the Christmas party at The Well. I was amazed at the number of people there. In addition to residents and staff from three different houses, there were some "alumni" there (gals who had been there in the past) and other various and sundry guests.

It was a festive time; many of the girls dressed up for the occasion. Plus the girls from each center had a part in a program following the meal. And then there were the group games. Somehow I got nominated to help play musical chairs at one point. I must admit, it was fun, though I was very hot and sweaty afterward. Playing musical chairs in 90-degree weather MIGHT have had something to do with that.:)

First video: Thai dance performed to a Thai Christian song

Second video: children's musical chairs

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Tonight as I was waiting for a bus along Sri Nakarin, a busy street, an elephant came walking down my way, so Of course, I paid the 20 baht to feed it some sugar cane, then took a picture. Because it was so dark, the picture is not so great; I had hoped to get a picture of the elephant with buses and cars whizzing by, but all I managed was a motorcycle.:) Nevertheless, here it is.

Even funnier was watching the elephant continue on down the street; he had a little red reflector attached to his tail! Oh my, I wish I had gotten a picture of that!

More about tonight tomorrow??

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This afternoon I taught English to the guys at the Shelter. The last part of the time, we played the white elephant gift exchange game. And where did all the gifts come from? Well, I have some awesome friends who sent some LARGE packages to me. One of those friends told me to use anything in the box as gifts for others. And I'm hoping the other friend feels the same way, because I used a couple little snack packages from her box.:)

The guys absolutely loved the game, though they really didn't steal each other's packages very much at all. And I had sooo much fun watching them.

Mos got the ear warmers; those ear warmers were a real hit!:)

Por is having a tough time choosing which package.

Eak got SNOWMAN socks??!!:)

And they FIT???? (or maybe not really:)

The whole gang

Plus teacher:)

These are the people who run the Shelter: Ping & Jane with their two children; Rolf and Trujit

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This morning as I stood on the corner waiting for a bus to take me into Bangkok, I couldn't resist taking the following picture. Isn't it CUTE???:)

I made it to the coffee shop in Bangkok where I needed to do paperwork before going to Cambodia on my visa run. Walking in to the shop, I saw this sign:

Pretty clever English translation; Thai merely says, "Caution: slippery"

Here is the coffee shop with outside tables where we always fill out our applications.

I received yet another name today. When Philip, the guy who runs the business, saw me, he greeted me as "Sister Rice". In the past I've gone to his office to discuss visa options, and I fear I "preached" at him one time; he apparently hasn't forgotten that.:) I am very grateful for the advice he gave me. It was his idea to contact the consulate in Texas about a one year visa, which is what I did and is what I now have!

Instead of needing to leave the country every month, I now only have to leave every 3 months. So today I boarded this very nice, air-conditioned bus to make my first run on my new visa.

The trip includes free "farang" movies, bottled water, lunch, and no hassles at the primitive Thai/Cambodian border where we go.

OH yeah, and free TP too!:)

Well, anyway, below are sights leaving Bangkok...

...and beyond.

We stopped at 11:30 for a 10-minute break at a rest area, where our lunches were picked up. I had fun playing with a 6-month-old puppy.:)

A few monks were enjoying lunch at the rest area.

(continued in extended entry)

Back on the bus we ate our lunches. I had ordered vegetable fried rice. It is some of the most delicious veggie fried rice I have ever tasted.

Following are a couple more sights along the way.

We arrived at the border about 1:00PM.

All we had to do was walk through the Thai immigrations office...

...and wait on the other side of the building for about 30 minutes. We didn't really have to cross the bridge to Cambodia.

But I did walk over just to say I was there.:) A barricade prevents people from venturing very far into Cambodia. Here is the basic view of Cambodia that I experienced.

And here is a view of Thailand from the Cambodian side.

I crossed back over the bridge, handing out a few baht to a beggar sitting there.

It didn't take long for a couple little beggar boys to spot me, and they made a beeline for me, only to be chased off by a laughing guard. I think it's a kind of game they play just to go through the motions.:) At any rate, it wasn't long before one little boy was sneaking back my way, so I accomodated him by walking his direction and emptied a few more coins into his hands.

Soon I saw him pointing me out to another little guy who also headed my way. I gave him my final few coins, telling him I had no more to give. Of course, it didn't stop more from asking. I fear I would've broken down and dug a little deeper for more than my designated amount to give to the cute little ones below. But fortunately (for me and for them), a foreign couple walked over and handed them some bills. That couple just made their day. The kids delightedly scurried off to share the goods.

Soon after, it was time to pass back through Thai immigrations and get our passports stamped. The guy inspecting my passport asked me what kind of visa I had; I thought for a minute and told him it was a type O visa. I'm not sure why, if he didn't really understand, or what. But he corrected me and told me I have a business visa. And that is what he wrote on my new 3-month stamp. Hmmmm......????? Whatever.

We made it back to Bangkok a little after 7 pm, and I was ready to get off the bus at Sri Nakarin Rd, figuring I could get a bus from there to my apartment. But the ones in charge told me to stay on. Once again (this happened one other time), they insisted on taking me to within walking distance of my apartment (and I was the only one left on the bus). They insisted it was not so out of the way, but I'm pretty sure they went at least 30 minutes out of their way. Remember, this is a business! I continue to be overwhelmed by the generosity of the Thai people.

So I made it home between 8:00 and 8:30, mission accomplished.

Posted by Sharon Rice at 09:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

Yesterday morning the church I visited included "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" as part of the worship songs.:) Hmmmm, really???:) As I looked more closely at the Thai characters, I realized that they had "spiritualized" the song, because I could see the word for "Jesus" included in the lyrics. The English translation on the overhead, however, was the song as we know it. Fun!

Last night I invited the REACH team over to see the area where I live. We visited one of my neighbors, who treated them all to a shaved ice treat complete with bread cubes, corn, kidney beans, sweet red syrup, and sweetened condensed milk. I think one person liked it pretty well; as for the others, they put a good face on it and ate it like troopers.

After that we bought food on my busy street corner and took it back to my apartment to eat.

After a fun evening of talking and playing Hearts, the REACHers headed home to Samrong. This morning, then, I met Brittany and Deanne in Samrong, where we boarded a bus and went to Abba House, the nursery school for slum children.

We also walked out back to see the slum.

From the slum we got back on the bus and went in to Bangkok to our respective language classes. I got home tonight in time to eat supper and wait for my friend Nui to come for English help. I was feeling tired, so it felt like a God thing when she called to cancel because she had to work late.

Tomorrow I go on a visa run to Cambodia; that will be an all day activity, but it should be relaxing.:)

Posted by Sharon Rice at 10:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I won't say a lot about our Christmas party on Saturday night, since Tom and Candice covered it pretty well on their blog. I was disappointed that the families I invited didn't come, only to find out that there was a miscommunication; they thought the party was on Sunday evening. OH my, I am really sad about that. Maybe there will be another time????

Anita, Pud (Ben's girlfriend), and Ashley prepare the fruit kebabs.

Joe and Uthai

Pud is a real sweetheart; she knows English very well, so she served as translator when needed.

Last but not least, a father-daughter picture:)

Posted by Sharon Rice at 10:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

OK, remember this picture from last week?

When I looked out my window the following morning, this little shop was being completely dismantled. I watched in fascination as the guy welded the poles loose as he perched on the few poles left. His balance was amazing! So the next set of pictures show this guy doing the balancing act as he works. Sorry if you're bored; I wasn't!:)

I wonder if his other job is driving taxi??:)

Posted by Sharon Rice at 09:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This morning I looked out my window and saw two men adding on to the series of homes/shops across the street from me. If I would've been them, I would've gotten dizzy and fallen to the ground! (There are some people who would say being dizzy is nothing new for me.:)

This afternoon I took Anita to The Well to show her around. The girls there loved her; they all wanted their picture taken with her. Below is one sample of probably ten.

Nuut, the lady sticking her tongue out, helps to design cards at The Well. She was feeling spunky today!:)

It didn't take long for Nuut to recruit Anita into helping design cards.

Today, in addition to the fruit vendor coming to sell fruit at break time, the girls also persuaded the ice cream man to sell his goodies to them. I had an ice cream cone filled with sweetened sticky rice in the bottom, and sprinkled with sweetened condensed milk, then sprinkled with peanuts.

Several of the girls, however, went for the whole shebang and ordered their ice cream on buns. Such a sight is common in Thailand.

As today was a slow day, I ran out of work before my time was up, so I got to play with Champoo, the adorable little girl who lives there.

From The Well, I took a songtaew, a motorcycle taxi, and then the skytrain to go for my language session with Kruu Yu. There I learned that I am "chopjai" because I laughed when Yu called herself a "dting dtong" (ding-dong). I didn't quite understand the meaning, so when I got home tonight, I looked up the word in my dictionary, where "chopjai" is described as "pleased with, happy, amused". I think "amused" fits the best.:)

Riding the bus home tonight, a lady with a very cute, very curly-headed little girl sat next to me. She began talking in English/Thai and told me that the girl's father was African, hence the curly hair. This lady talked non-stop until she needed to get off the bus.

Immediately another girl popped into the seat next to me. She really talked non-stop in a harder-to-understand mixture of English and Thai. She ended up asking me for my email address and phone number. As we talked, another lady across the aisle asked if she could have my email address as well. Then after that lady got off the bus, she called back to my other new friend to give me her phone number too.

Oh my, there is no way I can keep up with all the requests. Tonight was a bit unusual to have 3 people eager to talk on the bus, but it is not uncommon for people to ask for my phone number so we can be friends and speak English together.

So, anyway, now I am home and able to relax my brain a bit.:)

Posted by Sharon Rice at 09:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

ME!!! I used to think I didn't need one, but here in Thailand they seem to be a necessity to make contacts. This morning Carol and I made plans to meet at Seacon Square, a huge, block-long mall not too far from here.

We simply said we would go to Seacon Square and then call each other on our cell phones to find each other. OK, no problem.

OH, wait a minute! I hurried so much I forgot my phone back in my room and didn't realize it till I was already on the bus heading to Seacon! OH GREAT! Now what?? I decided to continue on with the hopes that maybe we could meet up at McDonalds, since I had mentioned (in passing) that there is a McDonalds at one of the main entrances.

When I got there, no Carol was in sight. I walked nervously back and forth, sat down, got up and paced again, then decided to go to the customer service desk nearby and ask them to page Carol. They did a really good job of pronouncing her name, but alas, no Carol appeared. The mall is so big and so noisy that I was not very surprised.

Customer service paged her once more, and I waited a while longer, then walked the length of the mall on one floor, just in case I could find Carol. No such luck. So finally I went back to McDonalds, ordered a fish fillet sandwich, and headed to my next destination. So much for meeting up with my friend!

Fortunately, when I called Carol tonight, she said she figured I must have forgotten my phone, so she did some shopping and went on her merry way. OH my! I seem to forget my phone at the most inconvenient times!

My mom used to say we kids would forget our heads if they weren't attached to our necks. I think she was right! (OK, maybe I should speak for myself!:)

Posted by Sharon Rice at 08:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Tonight after language training, I walked around Paragon Mall, a classy mall that caters to foreigners. Most of the pictures below are of gourmet desserts; I guess you can tell what my interest is!:)

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This morning I taught my last English class at The Promise Baptist Church. Afterwards, we had a potluck meal; we had waaaaaaay more than enough food. The highlight of the meal for me were the kabobs that they grilled on a little charcoal grill. Yummm! It reminded me of a cookout back home!

Here are the six gals who received a certificate; Noom, the pastor, is also on the picture, as well as Gaew's little girl (and me:).

After handing out the certificates, Lee and Pastor Noom presented me with a gift. It is BEAUTIFUL! It is a type of porcelain known as "benjarong", which means "5 colors", including gold. The writing inside my box says 18 Karat gold is used on this particular piece of pottery. I also just read that painting this type of pottery is extremely time-consuming, as the piece is kiln-dried after application of each color.

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December 5 (this past Wednesday) was a big Thai holiday, the king's 80th birthday and, therefore, Father's Day. My friend Tawan (Anita's roommate) took Anita and I to Lopburi province, about 150 km from Bangkok, to see some sunflower fields and the Pasak Jolasid Dam. It was a wonderful day, relaxing and refreshing to be out of the big city for a day.

Here we are at our first field!

And here's an overview of the first field (we discovered as we visited other fields that this one was past its prime though still beautiful).

Anita--and Tawan, I might add--got their first elephant ride ever, while it was my second time.:)

The next 4 pictures are just a few of MANY photos we took at various fields.

Anita and Tawan are both very photogenic; I had to laugh at the many creative poses they invented.

One other fun little incident occurred at the last sunflower field we visited. UBC TV, Thailand's main satellite TV operator, was filming there. I believe it was a promotion for tourism in that area; at any rate, as Tawan forewarned us, UBC asked us if they could interview us. So they asked questions in Thai, which Tawan translated, and I managed to mess up my Thai in answering the questions. It would be interesting to see what they actually air of their interview with us, but I have no idea when that might take place.

Sometimes being farang makes you feel like a star.:) It's not unusual for people to ask to have their pictures taken with us; that happened a couple times in the sunflower fields. I think this destination is not one that foreigners visit very often; I saw no other foreigners there that day.

From the sunflower fields we drove to a little road-side shop to eat a tasty lunch of barbecued chicken, somtam, sticky rice, and something called waterfall pork. Then we headed for our final destination, the dam. For a description of the rest of the day there, please click on extended entry.

The dam reminded me very much of parks in the US on Labor Day or Memorial Day. The place was covered with picnickers. Only these picnickers weren't grilling anything; they brought their standard rice dishes and spread out on their mats to eat, talk, and relax.

Tawan and Anita decided to rest for a bit, so I eventually wandered off with my camera (big shock there, eh?:).

Following are various views at the park.

Behind the dam were fishermen catching fish.

There are something like 14 kites in this picture; kids and their parents were having lots of fun flying kites in one area of the park.

It was while I was walking around taking pictures that I first felt slightly ill, a bit lightheaded and a little weak; however, I figured it was from being out in the sun for an extended period of time. But as we got back in the car and headed the 2 hours for home, I began to feel increasingly nauseous, till I eventually emptied my stomach's contents "gracefully", as Anita described it, into a plastic bag in the car.

Then we managed to find a place to pull over and rest and wait...till finally we got back in the car and made a beeline for home. Let's just say I made it home with no further episodes, but the exertion of going up 5 flights of stairs to my room re-ignited my stomach's protests.....

I took Thursday off from doing anything, hoping that would cure me. I am certainly much better, though not completely back to normal health. I am just glad not to be as sick as I was Wednesday evening. It's been years since anything like that has happened to me.

SO. I honestly had a great day; it just ended on a "sour" note (pun intended).;)

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Today after my Thai lesson, Kruu Yu and I ate lunch together--kanom jeen, another sort of Chinese food available here. Yu tells me that almost no farang like this food. I'm not sure why; I think it's really tasty. It's a noodle dish served with lots of fresh herbs, vegetables, and hard boiled eggs. OH, I just remembered why farang might not like it; supposedly they often have stomach issues after eating it. Not me! Maybe my stomach is made of iron (or not!).

After lunch we found a shoe repairman sitting at his table under a stairway leading to the sky train. I had a sandal that came apart 3 weeks after I bought the pair. Yu told me it is very inexpensive to repair them. Sure enough, this guy charged me 30 baht for gluing and sewing the strap back in place. That's about a dollar. Now I have my shoes to wear again! Yea!

Posted by Sharon Rice at 09:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

OK, that's my name for what I ate for lunch today. I ate at a little Chinese restaurant with some of the people from the church where I teach English. They had some new types of food for me to try, including some sort of red drink made from a flower, little pork-filled wontons, and the above-mentioned soup. I call it "supreme" because they told me the pork parts included in the broth were lung, heart, liver, esophagus, and stomach. There may have been one or two others as well. It really was tasty, though I could have done without the lungs.

Me, Mon, and Elle

Tonight, as I was going out the door to buy supper, Kitti, the apartment manager, called me back in to the office. He and his wife and sons were ready to eat supper, and they invited me to eat with them. OH MY, last week they gave Anita and me cow man guy, and now they want to feed me AGAIN???

But I agreed, and they had an excellent meal of rice, barbecued duck, and fried pork throat (thin, crispy strips of delicious pork). Because I was expecting to make a quick run out and back to my room, I did not have my camera with me, hence no pictures.:)

They had 2 bottles of wine sitting on the desk; they were apparently gifts to the office help from Ruung's boss. Kitti wanted me to figure out where the wines came from, as the info was not written in Thai. Well, the one bottle I could read; it came from Australia. The other bottle I think came from Spain or Italy; at least the language looked that way, but no English.

Then he wanted me to see what year they were made. Again, the Australian bottle had the year 2004 clearly displayed, but I could see nothing resembling a year listed on the other bottle. Then I discovered why Kitti wanted to know; he wanted to give the better quality bottle to Sommai, the apartment owner. Hmmmm, I wonder which one he will decide is better.:)

Posted by Sharon Rice at 10:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

On my way home one night this week, I passed this restaurant.

The two main pizza companies (Pizza Hut and Pizza Company) have delivery service by motorcycle. It's a good thing, too, considering motorcycles are fastest form of transportation in a traffic jam.:)

Posted by Sharon Rice at 10:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)