Tag Archives: Virtual Coffee

As Spotted on the Polish Side

Journalling Life Abroad
(I’m writing this on Monday morning, as on Tuesday we’ll be driving from Krakow to Prague!)

Did you all have a nice Mother’s Day? I was afraid we wouldn’t get a chance to say hello to our mothers, but thankfully we wrangled a quick bit of wi-fi on the iPhone, and with the help of Skype, managed to say a quick hello to our mothers…from Poland!

But, I’m getting ahead of myself. A bit of a recap: After I last posted, we got to see Toby’s cousins, a couple of whom I’d never met before, and they showed us Berlin’s youth culture. We went bar hopping and indulged in thick, tasty beers and great cocktails – including an accidental stop in what we soon realized was a lesbian bar, as evidenced by the signs that read: Ich liebe meine vagina, and You are leaving the hetero-normative sektor, and the cocktail special “pussylove”: gin, lemon juice, and blackberry liqueur. What can I say? It was yummy.

We have since moved on, however, and now we are in the former capitol of Poland.

Krakow is a gorgeous city. We drove here from Berlin on Saturday, admiring the wide spring countryside dotted with flowers, while cursing the torn up roads, most of the whole way. But we’ve been nothing but enchanted since we got to Krakow. There are still horse-drawn carriages…and the odd bottle of beer (costumed person) strolling down the street. And there is a large market square, much like the piazzas in Italy, where we go in the evenings to drink some beer and indulge in pierogis, or a fresh-grilled sausage, or pork cutlets in a honey-wine sauce as we listen to live music. So far, we’ve been most drawn to the live jazz and the lone trumpet player, but I’ve seen some advertisements for Chopin in the evenings. I couldn’t think of a better place to listen to a Nocturne or Polonaise, so that’s our plan for tonight.

It is pretty freaking cold though, here. For transplants from Thailand, the 50*F (or less) weather and rain in May is a bit of a shock. We go out in layers, tucked up in our thickest coats and caps.

But we still haven’t had much chance to wander the city in the daytime. We spent all day Sunday at an altogether different place. We drove an hour and a half out of the city, to Oświęcim – otherwise known as Auschwitz-Birkenau.

(If you want to skip over this portion of the coffee chat, I wouldn’t blame you.)

We went to two sites. First, Auschwitz I, which was originally a prison before the Nazis took it over. It’s smaller and houses most of the museum information, pictures, and memorabilia. Then we went to Auschwitz II-Birkenau, which is vast and immense. It’s the concentration camp the Nazis created. It’s the one in all the pictures you see, and it’s the one that truly gives you the sense of scale of what happened there.

I thought I would be sad to go there, that it would be depressing and make me tearful. But truthfully, the primary emotion I felt when I was there was: revolted. It was sickening to hear again and anew what people can do to each other, the evil ways the Nazis tricked and lied to people, and the sick ways they took from people and redistributed to others.

There was one point we walked into a large room, and a glass case lined one side of the room, wall to wall, from floor to ceiling. Inside the glass case was the lopped off bunches of women’s hair. I couldn’t look. I spent that portion staring at my sneakers because I couldn’t handle the sight as I listened to how the Nazis took these women’s hair and sent it to Germany to use a stuffing in mattresses, or to weave into fabric for blankets and soldiers’ uniforms, and redistribute to the (unknowing, I’m sure) German public.

I’ve spent a fair amount of time in Germany, and the sense I’ve gotten there is the remaining weight of guilt of the nation, from it’s history, even among those who were not alive at the time and could not bear responsibility for it.

On the Polish side, it’s easy to sense the weight of blame: for invading, for doing what they did to so many people. The blame is directed at the Nazis, but there is an undercurrent towards the Germans who profited (however, unknowingly) from the loss of others.

The history there is complicated. It’s more than war, it reaches to the depths of humanity and evil alike. You still feel it, and it’s nothing that movies and history books can ever really convey.

Anyway, we spent a day there, and as awful as it was to see, I think it was important that we made the effort. And thankfully, we’ll move on to more pleasurable aspects of our trip. We’re certainly lucky to have that choice.

Today, we both need to get some work done, but then we’ll grab some food and wander around the city some more, and catch our evening concert before we leave for Prague.

Thanks for the coffee and the chat! Tell me, what’s going on in your pocket of the world?

also linking up with:

As Spotted en Route to Berlin

Journalling Life Abroad

Is it true that travel vacations are kind of like dreams in the sense that we are never so interested in other people’s as we are in our own? Well I’ll try to make this interesting anyway. That photo up there was taken as we were flying over Kabul. As soon as I saw it on the flight monitor that we were flying over the capitol of Afghanistan, I whipped out my phone camera, because hey…we were over Afghanistan. How often does one get a chance to say they’re flying over a freakin’ war zone – and, you know, not be dodging bullets?

Most of the country looked like an endless sea of brown, but right there? It was gorgeous with the Hindu Kush mountain range (a subrange of the Himalayas) extending out into the horizon, dotted by white clouds.

Now, I say it’s the Hindu Kush mountain range as if I know what I’m talking about, but I totally had to wikipedia that. My knowledge of world geography is shameful and humiliating. There were two whole countries (Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) between Afghanistan and Russia that I could not recall the names of – other than to say they were a couple of “Stans.” And as we flew over Khazakstan, I thought it was Mongolia.

But, after a 10-hour flight, we landed in Moscow, which incidentally is remarkably swampy and flat (who knew?)…

…and, desperate for drinks, we grabbed some sodas and a beer at…TGI Friday’s.

The world is strange. But thankfully they took credit because we didn’t pack any rubles.

Anyway, after a 4-hour layover and another 2-hour jaunt, we made it to Berlin – another home away from home. Berlin is just so comfortably western and familiar to me that sometimes I totally forget I’m in a foreign country until I remember that I can’t speak the language and there’s that awkward moment where a salesclerk is looking at me expecting me to say something to them and I give them a feeble smile and they wonder who this dope is that’s just staring and smiling at them. Yeah, that happens often.

Lucky for me, Toby can do the talking.

So far, it’s been a busy vacation though, because every day we’ve gotten up, grabbed some coffee and croissants (with prosciutto and gruyere, or liverwurst, or fresh jam) and hit up at least two museums in one portion of the day, took a break for lunch (asparagus soup is my favorite), and then taken long walks around lakes, or in vast, cultivated castle gardens.

There was one day though, where Toby and his younger sister wanted to go to the computer game history museum. I took the opportunity to go shopping instead.

And oh, the fashion in Berlin is awesome. I could easily spend all my money there.

(I discovered a new photo filter, so please pardon my excitement as I overuse it.)

I’ve been very glad for the long walks, though, because it gives me a chance to work off the prosciutto and gruyere (and marzipan). And yesterday, we went to one castle garden modeled after English gardens, so I spend the afternoon pretending quite convincingly that I was in a Jane Austen novel.

But Toby can always be counted upon to bring things closer to home.

All right, I’m sure I’ve long abused my visit by now. Thanks for stopping by for coffee and a chat. There’s a cappuccino with my name on it. What are you drinking? Tell me what’s going on in your part of the world!

Also linking up with:

As Spotted on the Thai Side

Journaling Life in Thailand

I’m clinging to my coffee today like it’s a lifeline, my one-way ticket to salvation. If we were really meeting over coffee today, I’d have the french press filled up to the brim and I’d set it right between us so we wouldn’t even have to get up for a second cup.

But before I get ahead of myself, I should relay the news that the lovely Amy of Lucky Number 13 is no longer hosting Virtual Coffee chats, at least for the next undetermined length of time. I wish her well on her break, but me? I love these coffee chats. I NEED these coffee chats. A little breathe of peace in between here and there. So I’m a gonna’ hold on to my coffee, and if y’all want to join me, there’s a seat here just waiting for you.

So how’ve you been? Last week was stressful at work, the kind of stress that just isn’t worth talking about because I’m just going to get all worked up again and say things I probably shouldn’t. It was HOT, too. The kind of heat where fans do nothing more than just push around the steaming air. One of my coworkers was explaining to me how silkworms produce less in the cold season; as it gets colder they work slower and slower. And I was thinking, I’m just the opposite. The hotter it gets, the slower my brain functions. In the dead of those afternoons, I’d literally feel my brain cells come to a full and complete stop. Please exit the vehicle to your left, and thank you for the ride.

We were hoping for rain to cool things down. Well, we got rain and storms enough to put out the electricity and bend trees over. But it was still hot. I was taking cold showers up to three times a day just to cool down my body temperature. Doing that always reminds me of being a kid and being sick with fever and my parents having to put me in a cold bath to get the fever down. I still remember how much that seemed to hurt, and how sorry my parents seemed to have to do that. I’m sure it probably hurt them more than me.

However, the good news this week is: WE’RE GOING TO EUROPE! We’re heading out for a month to go visit Toby’s family in Berlin. We’ll be there most of the time seeing loved ones we haven’t seen in a year and a half. Plus it’s Toby’s dad’s birthday, so we’ll get in some extra celebrations. But we’re also taking a side trip to Krakow and Prague. It’ll be our first time exploring bits of Eastern Europe.

Part of the reason we want to go to Krakow is because we’d like to see Auschwitz. Well, I don’t know if one can say one would like to see Auschwitz. It’s more like we feel it’s important to see Auschwitz, given the opportunity. Such history sometimes seems so long ago, and yet it isn’t really. Toby’s grandfathers, one German, one American, fought on opposite sides of the war. And the nanny who helped take care of Toby’s father and his brothers, when she was just fifteen WALKED from Poland to Germany, in an effort to survive through the war.

But we’ve also been hearing good things about visiting Krakow. Several friends who have traveled there have really enjoyed the city so I’m excited to see what’s happening there.

Truth be told, though, I haven’t even looked up the slightest thing about Krakow or Prague. We totally do not plan in advance when we travel. We get the basic things down (like flights)…and then pretty much just wing it. Do you wing it when you travel, or do you plan out detailed itineraries? When I arrive, I might put together a list of things I’d like to see and do (and places I might want to eat) while I’m there – and if I’m really organized, I’ll mark out what’s in the same general area to be somewhat efficient about travel time from place to place. But the rest of it is subject to time, energy, mood, and whatever else comes along that sounds interesting.

Even on our honeymoon in Costa Rica, we just booked our flights and our hotel for the first two nights so we didn’t have to be harried and rushed finding a place upon arrival. The rest of the nights in various cities, we just called around when we arrived to see what was available and left things flexible for recommendations from fellow travelers when we were actually there.

But as excited as I am to jetset it to Europe, there’s one thing that makes me sad: leaving Dot for a month! I’m sure gonna’ miss this puppy face.

We’ll leave her at a kennel for the month (which is actually more like this elderly British gentleman’s yard that has a bunch of dogs running around than a kennel), and I know she’ll be fine, she’s not going to die or get lost. But I still feel a wallop of sad and a thwack of guilt every time I think about it. A WHOLE MONTH. {ugh}

But she’ll be fine.

{…right?}

Anyway, I’d better get going. Lots of loose ends to tie up still before we leave tomorrow night. Oh yeah, did I mention we leave tomorrow? Because yeah, we leave tomorrow! Have a great week everyone and the next coffee chat will be in Berlin!

Also linking up with:

As Spotted on the Thai Side

Journaling Life in Thailand

Happy Tuesday everyone! This week, I’m posting from Chiang Rai, the area in northern Thailand where my NGO work is located. It’s hot here. Freaking hot. I miss A/C. I really do. Occasionally we catch a breeze, or cool off in a cold shower, but mostly we’re just languishing in heat.

I’m here for the week, instead of just the weekend, because it’s summer vacation for the kids and we have a bunch of camp activities planned for them. Did you know in Thailand there’s only three seasons each year? Hot, hotter, and hottest is a good guess, but here, they’re delineated as: hot season, cold season, and rainy season. We seem to be at the peak of hot season right about now. (God, I hope it’s the peak. Please let it not get any hotter.)

So are you Hunger Games fans all ready for our discussion forum tomorrow? I’m super excited! Come back here Wednesday, April 25 to share your thoughts and impressions and see how others reacted to various aspects of the trilogy. If you missed the discussion questions I posted last week, you can see them here.

I also wanted to extend a thank you to all your support and kind words last Thursday on my post about that thing I wasn’t sure I even wanted to talk about. Your words were truly a comfort and reassurance and it was really special to know so many people are out there rooting for us. So thank you.

Anyway, I’m going to have to cut this coffee chat short because the heat makes my aluminum covered laptop burn my hands (ok, not quite, but almost – it sure does fry my brains). I also want to let you know I might be scarce around these parts over the next week or two because I’ll be busy with the kidlets and then next week, I’m jetting down to Chiang Mai, doing a quick bit of laundry and packing, and then we’re heading to Europe for a month (SQUEE!!). I’ll try to post as I normally do…but in case I’m absent…that’s what I’m up to. In the meantime, because I love seeing her sleep with her tongue out….I give you: Dot’s tongue.

Ciao for now!

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As Spotted on the Thai Side

Journaling Life in Thailand

Happy Tuesday everyone! Would you like a macaron with your coffee? I have some raspberry ones, passion fruit, caramel…I’m pretty sure chocolate is involved there too. Take your pick! These are from the Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi’s bakery. When I saw they were 18 baht a piece (about 55 cents) I snatched them up like a fiend because the last time I saw macarons was in Hong Kong and they were more like US$5 a piece.

By the way, if you ever have a chance to come to Chiang Mai and can afford to stay at the Mandarin Oriental, you really should. That place is seriously Shangri La, with a gorgeous Asiatic-colonial aesthetic, vintage bicycles for the guests to ride around the property, cultivated rice fields and shimmering pools. My friend visiting from Prague works for Mandarin Oriental so we managed to snag a tour of the grounds with one of her colleagues. I don’t usually get excited about hotels, but this one makes me think we should save up our pennies for our next anniversary.

Anyway, the big excitement this week was Songkran – the Thai New Year, where everyone goes around with water guns and buckets of water and commences on a mission to get everyone else as wet as possible. We joined up with some friends and hopped in the back of a pickup truck with two huge barrels of water and hit the town. I managed to get one picture before I had to sneak my phone back into the safety of a ziplock bag.

The streets basically turn into a parking lot, with music pumping from loud speakers, vendors selling hot grilled snacks and water guns, pedestrians aiming water pistols at people passing by in trucks, and pickups full of people dumping buckets at everyone else. It took us approximately 5 hours to drive 3 kilometers.

Here’s my favorite picture from last year (taken from the safety of inside the truck cab):
I think it effectively captures the pure glee you see on everyone’s face. The water fight lasts 3 days and still it never ceases to amuse.

Plus, it’s 97+ degrees out here. Getting sprayed by cool water while enjoying a beer in the hot sun is pretty much the best thing I can think of for a good time.

We got home so tuckered that first day out, all we could manage was to order some pizza for dinner and crowd around the laptop and watch Bridesmaids.

What else did we do this week? We visited an organic farm, rode some elephants, played with baby tigers, ate some crickets and live shrimp, and bargain shopped at the night market. You know, the usual.

Anyway, have you all had a chance to read The Hunger Games trilogy? Don’t forget we’re having a discussion forum next Wednesday, April 25. Come back tomorrow, too, if you want to see some discussion questions I have in mind!

Well, it’s my friends’ last day here in Chiang Mai, so I’m gonna’ head out and soak up the last of our time together here. Hope you’re all having a great start to your week! Thanks for joining in for coffee and a chat. I’m looking forward to hearing about what’s going on in your part of the world!

 

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As Spotted on the Thai Side

Journaling Life in Thailand

Happy Tuesday, everyone! How has your week been? Did you have a nice Easter weekend? Out here, the big excitement coming up is Songkran, the Thai New Year, where as some of you might recall from my posts last year, Thailand erupts in a three-day long water fight. That’s coming up starting Friday, though water guns and buckets are already being sold everywhere alongside gift baskets of incense and candles, monk’s cloths, and soap which people buy to bring to temple to make merit. With all that excitement going on here, I almost forgot it was Easter until just a couple days before.

I did get in the Easter spirit a bit though and made some deviled eggs.

I make mine with a dose of cumin and Burmese curry powder. It adds a nice zing. How do you make yours?

Songkran is a heck of a lot of fun; it’s such a treat to see and join in with an entire nation as the people indulge in their inner childishness for a few days. There are a few curmudgeons who grumble about getting wet (why, I don’t know, since it’s 98-degrees out here and the water cools you off), but they usually have the good sense to stay home.

But, as with any major holiday, it means you should be extra careful on the roads. To warn us all about public safety over the coming week, Thai female officers took to the streets…and danced.

Awesome.

In the meantime, Toby’s cousin Susi finished her trip down south on the islands and came back up to finish her trip in Chiang Mai. We all went to see The Hunger Games together, and then went out to eat noodle soup for dinner at the street-side stalls by the university.

By the way, if any well-meaning (but uptight) person warns you not to eat the street food in Thailand…IGNORE THEM. The food is cheap and varied and good – an experience not to miss. Sure, there isn’t the FDA or OSHA coming to check on them, but if you see a bunch of Thai people eating the food there, it’s a pretty safe bet it’s good. Also, most of the street vendors buy and prepare their food each day, so in many cases it’s fresher than what you would find in a restaurant where the food has been housed in a huge refrigerator for several days.

Tonight, our friends Nuala and Garren are flying in and we’re super excited to see them. If all goes to plan tomorrow, we’re going to try to head out to a big farm about a half hour outside of the city. It’s run by a couple of young guys who look more like college hipsters than local farmers, but it’s organic and fair trade, they deliver produce straight to your front door once a week, and they’re working on some awesome sustainable development projects to help out the local hill tribes here. I’m excited to go see what they’re up to!

And one last bit of news….today is my dad’s birthday! Happy Birthday Dad!! I wish I could be there to celebrate with you, but we’ll have to make do with Skype. I hope your birthday is fabulously full of love, good food, and good wine.

Hope everyone’s week is off to a good start! Thanks so much for dropping by.

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As Spotted on the Thai Side

Journaling Life in Thailand

Sometimes I get a little tired of living abroad and of being two or three steps out of my comfort zone. It’s great, and it’s what I want, but it does take energy. But then we have friends and family come to visit and that’s when I remember that where we live is awesome, because we can do things like:

Play with baby tigers!

I kind of want to take them home with me, except for the whole part where baby tigers become big, actual tigers. With fangs and claws. And diseases. And we wouldn’t need a litter box so much as a litter vault. Keeping them fed might be a challenge too.

I prefer bottle feeding them.
We also got a chance to check out this reservoir nearby we keep hearing about but never managed to go to. They have these fantastic little huts floating on bamboo poles right on the edge of the lake. You can sit inside and they bring your food right out to you, and you can eat and cool off in the lake all you want.

You can also teach your dog that she can swim. Whimpers, claw marks, and scratches included, free of charge.

She may act like she’ll never forgive you, but it’s pretty cool seeing the look of pride on her little face when she makes it to safety and everyone is cheering her and giving her snacks.

I may be anthropomorphizing a bit.

Plus, now she knows she can swim…which is a good thing because the last time she was near a large body of water, she fell in and sank. Good to know the doggie paddle instinct kicked in eventually.

Oh, and the food they serve includes goong dthen, literally, dancing shrimp. Because they are still alive, in their shells with antennae, served in a chili and lime sauce, when you eat them. Remember how last week I said I was a pretty adventurous eater? Um, yeah, I didn’t eat the shrimp. My husband did, and his comment was you have to chew quickly.

Anyway, that’s pretty much the excitement for last week. Toby’s cousin, Susi, is down south at the islands contemplating whether she should take a dive course, and our friends, Nuala & Garren are exploring sights in Bangkok, but they’ll all be up here in Chiang Mai next week. So this week, I’m just doing some house cleaning and laundry and getting as much work done as I can so I can play when they all get here.

What’s going on with you?

 

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As Spotted on the Thai Side

Journaling Life in Thailand

Happy Tuesday everyone! What’s in your cup today? I’m just grabbing a quick coffee today as I’ll be heading out with Toby’s cousin, Susi, this morning. She just arrived from Berlin on Saturday and we’re so excited to have her. We’ve been alternating between encouraging her to relax by the pool and hightailing it to all the things we want to show her about Chiang Mai and Thailand, like shopping in the night markets, petting tigers, visiting temples, and hanging out with the locals. And of course, all that includes a food tour of our favorite places to eat, because what’s travel without good food, right?

Are you an adventurous eater when you travel or do you tend to stick to what you know? I consider myself pretty adventurous, but I draw the line at bugs and dog meat. (Luckily, Thai people don’t eat dogs.) And I’ve tried but don’t like liver, blood, snails, and chicken feet.

It’s funny; last night I counted up how many people we’ve hosted at our house or entertained from out of town. In the last year we’ve been here, we’ve had 29 different people! By the end of this year, I think we’ll have had 36. (And that’s not counting repeat visits!) I’m thinking I should open a hotel.

Last night we took her to one of the little street market places. Our favorite is right by the agricultural university, and it caters to the university students. We love it because it’s close by, there’s a vendor we’re friendly with, and it’s kind of fun that we’re pretty much the only white faces there.

In other news, I finally (finally!) started watching Downton Abbey. That show is awesome! I knew I’d love it and couldn’t wait to get my grubby little hands on a copy. In the words of my husband, “Maggie Smith is a gangsta.’” Even if I didn’t love the show, I would watch it just to see her say something ridiculously fantastic.

{Mrs. Crawley: “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Lady Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: “Oh, I must have said it wrong.”} HA!

{and my other favorite: “What is a weekend?”} I love that woman.

Anyway, I’m going to have to cut this short as I have a lot of prep work for SOLD to do this week as well. And I have to go to a Europeaid meeting tomorrow. We’ll be meeting with EU representatives and other NGOs about funding, which is exciting, but it will be a whole day. Bleah. So I can count on getting nothing done tomorrow. And I’ll be going up to SOLD a day early this week because a bunch of our kids graduated (YAY!!!), some from high school and a couple from technical colleges. We’re so excited and we’re going to celebrate with them.

Thanks for dropping by for coffee and the chat. Tell me what’s going on in your pocket of the world!

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As Spotted on the Thai Side

Journaling Life in Thailand

Happy Tuesday everyone! Sorry I missed coffee last week. I needed a bit of a hiatus to catch my breath – a.k.a. read The Hunger Games and process what the heck I just read. Seriously, those books gave me so much to think about. They’re still on my mind a week later. Have you read them? I’ve been chewing on them so much, I decided I’d like to hold a Hunger Games discussion forum on my blog here, so I can hear what you all thought of stuff that came out of the books. We could have a Hunger Games Pow Wow.  I’m going to hold it on Wednesday, April 25. Just a little over a month out, so that those of you who haven’t yet finished the trilogy have time to read them, and those of you who are kind of thinking about reading up on what all the fuss is about have some time to pick up the books too. Sound like fun?

About a week before hand, I’ll post some potential discussion questions that we can talk about, and if there’s anything in particular that stood out about the books for you too, please feel free to submit some questions you’d like to put to the group. To give you a taste of some of the questions I’ll pose, I’ll tell you I’d love to talk about how people read the ending of the trilogy. And I’ll ask: do you think the books are Christian in nature or agnostic? Do you think Katniss is an advocate for democracy, or is she essentially an anarchist? And: Team Peeta or Team Gale?

Anyway, aside from that, things here have been interesting. I think I mentioned before that it’s burning season here, where people burn down old crops to fertilize the soil for the new year, which pretty much means the sky is filled with smoke all. the. time. I try to go for runs in the evening, but it’s getting so bad, I can feel my lungs tighten. No bueno. But last week, we had some serious storms rage through here. The winds were so bad they ripped off part of the roof of our resource center at SOLD and started dumping rain on one of the staff bedrooms. So we had to get that fixed. And our security guard to our little neighborhood must have got caught out in it because, as we were going to dinner, we saw him wandering around the neighborhood in his undershorts. It’s not often we see toothless old men walking around in their skivvies. The upside of the rain, though, is it did clear the air for a couple of days.

I don’t really want to pray for rain because the heavy rains we had last year is part of what caused those horrible floods in Ayutthaya and Bangkok. (But I’m kind of praying for rain – just not as much rain as we got last year.)

On Saturday, I did a special Dental Health class for the kids at SOLD, and they were so surprised when I told them that you have to floss all the way up into your gums when you floss; not just the sides of your teeth. They were like, “Doesn’t it hurt?” Umm, no. And if it does…get thee to a dentist.

By the way, I read (and I have no idea if this is accurate information or not, but I did see it on a kids’ dental health website) that in the early 1900′s, it was common practice to have ALL your teeth removed as a 21st birthday present. The idea was teeth just give you grief in the end, so take them all out at once and just wear dentures. (Umm…what? No, thanks.)

The other thing that happened was Toby and I went out to dinner and just as we started to eat, one of the lenses popped right out of Toby’s glasses – the frame had totally snapped. He’s been thinking about getting LASIK done for awhile now, especially since it’s so cheap here in Thailand compared to the States, the doctors are excellent and they often have newer equipment. He vowed never to have to buy another pair of glasses. So now he’s making do with contacts (which he hates because they really irritate his eyes), until he can get down to Bangkok to get LASIK done. Have any of you had it done? How did it go for you?

And the biggest excitement going on here is that Toby’s cousin, Susi, is coming out to visit from Berlin! We haven’t seen her since about 2009, so we’re very excited. She gets here on Saturday and I just can’t wait to show her around.

Anyway, I’m sure I’ve prattled on long enough. Tell me, what’s going on in your part of the world?

 

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As Spotted on The Thai Side

Journaling Life in Thailand

I think I should have titled this post “Desperate for Coffee” because that’s what I am today. Except I did just finish a cup and I’m still thinking longingly of bed. I’m not quite sure why I’m so exhausted. I have been busier than usual lately but I feel more tired than I think I should. I guess that just happens sometimes, doesn’t it?

Everybody seemed so excited about the pictures of flowers I posted last week – spring fever must be in the air! – so I’ll share some more with you this week. These are all taken in my neighborhood, along the path I tread for my daily run.

Well, okay, those aren’t flowers. That just seems to be a funny place where all the coconuts go to die.

This weekend, I had such a blast teaching the kids at SOLD how to bake chocolate chip cookies. Most of them had never baked, and many had never even eaten a chocolate chip cookie before. But they had so much fun digging their hands into the dough and forming little cookies to place on the baking sheets. One little boy – I swear he’ll be the next Jamie Oliver – got so into it that when I put the cookies into the oven, he sat down in front of the oven to watch them bake. Then, when I took them out to cool, the kids gathered around the cooling racks, waiting for me to give the signal the cookies were cool enough to eat. We made over 36 cookies, and they were gone in less than 5 minutes.

Speaking of SOLD, I’m doing a special series this week talking about some of the things I’ve learned and experienced while working to prevent child trafficking here. If you’re interested to know more about it, the series began here and I’ll posting on it daily this week. At the very least, I would like to encourage you all to read the first post, which talks a bit about how trafficking happens. It’s not strangers who abduct children into the sex trade. It’s often the people we know and trust. It doesn’t just happen in far off places. It happens at home too. Please make yourself aware of this, so it doesn’t happen to you or your children.

On to lighter topics! Is anyone else bummed that Picnik is closing? I’m so sad! I love Picnik! It was such an easy way to edit photos. I mean, yeah, I can use Photoshop, but Picnik did many of the same things with so much less fuss. Boo. Sad face.

In other news, I’m totally looking forward to this weekend to catch the Women In the World Summit! I’ve watched it every year since it began (okay, two years ago). But it’s so inspiring and gets me thinking so much every time. And I love it because it’s one weekend a year I get to feel connected to larger global policy and trends. Yes, I am a total nerd. But we knew that.

Also, in just a couple of weeks, Toby’s cousin is coming from Berlin for a visit and we’re so excited to see her. We haven’t seen her since around the time we got married and this will be her first trip to Thailand so we’re super excited to show her around to all our favorite places. We’ll introduce her to Thai coffee, and go ride some elephants and pet some tigers. I can’t wait!

Ok, y’all. I think this fatigue is finally winning, so I’m going to sign off for now. But I’ll be around to say hi again real soon!

 

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