Thanksgiving!

After Thursday's slight sadness, we ended up having a really great Thanksgiving with three other neighborhood families.

In the morning we made experimental sausage balls.  We made a small batch, since the sausage was in clear plastic wrapping with a typed up label, so we weren't sure what exactly we were getting.  They turned out great though, and no one got sick, so we'll make more for Christmas.

We took our sausage balls to the upstairs television (the one hooked into a computer) in order to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade off the internet.  Vivian mostly cared about seeing the Pentatonix perform.  The Elf on the Shelf balloon was right behind them, so after that she was done and went outside to play.  Jeff, good husband that he is, stuck around to watch the parade with me.  In return, I fast forwarded through most of the horrible musical acts, except for KISS.  Neither one of us could look away from the train wreck of them lip syncing in over the top outfits.

After the parade, we went across the street to check on the turkey.  Our neighbors hosted Thanksgiving and grilled the turkey.  I had never had grilled turkey before, so I photographed it going in

and after it came out.

It tasted as good as it looked.

In true Thanksgiving fashion, everyone brought something, so we had lots of side dishes and desserts.  Luckily, everyone lives close by, so we just zipped back and forth across the street with extra tables and chairs, and dishes covered in aluminum foil and held with hot mitts.  

The final combination of three different tables looked lovely once it was all set.

All four families have girls about the same age, so they had a great time.  They started off calmly making hand turkeys.

Vivian's artwork . . .

But the calm couldn't last for long, and soon they were running across the living room and jumping on bean bags.  It ended with a pile up.

Luckily, it was time to eat before things got too out of hand.  We got the kids food first and got them settled, and then all the parents could sit down and enjoy their meal too.  

The babies hung out under the table with some rolls which they had fun shredding. 

It's a good thing we did it on a Saturday, because we ended up staying quite late, and the whole family slept in the next morning until almost eight (a Goerss family record!).  Even though we didn't have our family, friends, or weather from home, we managed to make it a fun, if belated, Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving?

Thursday was kind of Thanksgiving, but not really.  Technically, it was the fourth Thursday in November, but it was 95 degrees outside (who knows how hot with humidity), Vivi went to school as usual, and we didn't have our big meal.  We've decided to move Thanksgiving to Saturday instead.  That way everyone has off work (including our German friends who are celebrating with us), the kids have off school, and we will have been able to record the parade to watch in the morning (it would be on at 9pm here otherwise).  We bought the ingredients for sausage balls, so we'll see if we can pull together some of our typical Thanksgiving stuff, even though we can't do anything about the weather being completely wrong.

We didn't do a special meal on Thursday, but for a special treat I picked Vivi up from school.  Pick up came complete with a strawberry banana smoothie and time on the playground.  Unfortunately, it started to rain, so we golf carted home quickly.  After dinner, we all watched the Mr. Peabody and Sherman movie.  It was really cute, and everyone enjoyed it.  I was a little sad about my not really Thanksgiving, but I'm hoping that Saturday will make up for it.

Jeff took off Friday as well, which I was really happy about.  Obviously I enjoy his company, but he also hadn't been to Chatuchak yet, so I thought Friday morning would be a good, low crowd day to check it out.  We drove (with minimum confusion) and parked at JJ Mall.  Navigating from the parking garage to the front door was almost as complicated as getting to the mall in the first place, but we eventually figured it out.

We spent about an hour exploring and decided that our favorite part was the furniture and art section right near the mall.  I didn't take any pictures, because most of the places had a big "no photos" sign.

Even though the walkways are mostly covered, it was so humid that after an hour we were sweating profusely, so we decided to explore the mall a bit instead, since it's air conditioned.  It's not a very big mall, but it still manages some labyrinth moves.  As we wandered, we found a couple photo-worthy gems.

As far as I could ascertain, there is no chicken sold here, only fish.

Again, perplexing, because you'd think if anything Tony would be a Bengals fan.  This store had lots of super hero shirts too, so Jeff and I spent quite a bit of time looking around and holding shirts up to show each other.

After our fun, we got home quite easily, since we were stopped at a ridiculously long red light and could figure out where we were supposed to go.  We only missed one turn and had to do a maneuver  which was probably illegal, but over fast enough that no one saw us do it.  When we got home, we had some lunch, and then headed over to ISB to pick Vivi up.  She played on the playground with some friends for a bit, and then we took her across the street for her first Thai haircut.

First she got a complete shampoo and conditioning, including a scalp massage which she didn't appreciate.

Then came the standard trim.

After we gave it the okay, the hairdresser asked if we wanted it blow dried.  Vivi said please, please.  I don't know why she thought it was something she wanted, but I figured it couldn't hurt.  

She lasted a few minutes, and then she complained that it was hot.  Luckily, her hair was mostly dry by then.  I thought we were done, but then the hairdresser asked if we wanted little braids.  We said sure.

The braids are great, because they look cute and keep her hair out of her face.  The whole bill with tip was $10, so I don't think the braids cost very much.  We'll definitely get them again, and I'm going to try and figure out how to do it myself, because it seems like the perfect compromise for Vivian's desire to have her hair down, and my desire to have it out of her face.

Terminal 21

For today's adventure, I took the embassy shuttle downtown with two of my friends to explore more of Bangkok.  I haven't done much in the Sukhimvit area, so I thought it would be fun to check out one of the malls over there.  The most interesting one is Terminal 21.  It has floors themed by country with lots of fun photo ops.  It's also right off the BTS, so it was a ten minute walk from the embassy to the BTS and then just two stops, easy.

We started by going all the way to the top off the mall, looking as we went, and then we worked our way back down.  The top floor was San Francisco.

We also figured out where the movie theater was.

It was lunchtime, and we were feeling international, so we had Mexican food for lunch.

We continued our shopping voyage in Istanbul,

and then made quick stops in England and China.

When we got to the lower levels we discovered a lighthouse coming out of what turned out to be the Caribbean.

The Caribbean had some interesting bathroom signage.

It also had a crepe place where you could get a piece of cake inside your crepe, but we were still too full from lunch to experiment with that.

We didn't buy anything besides lunch, but we had a lot of fun exploring and taking pictures.  My one friend kept saying that it reminded her of Vegas :-)

Ko Kret

Vivian's class had a field trip on Monday to the island of Ko Kret.  I was guilted into being a chaperone.  Vivian pointed out that I hadn't gone on any of her Kindergarten field trips (in my defense, I was teaching), so she reasoned I owed it to her to go on this one.  I gave in pretty easily, but after doing a full international day on Friday, I wasn't super excited to be heading back to school on Monday.  Luckily, the field trip was fun and low maintenance.  Since there are so many stay at home parents, there were tons of chaperones, so I only had to look after Vivi and her sweet little friend which was easy and fun.

First, we got the kids on a bus and rode about fifteen minutes to the pier which was next to a lovely wat.

Then we got all the kids in life jackets and got on a boat for a quick ride to the island.

Ko Kret is known for its pottery in the Mon style.  The Mon are a group of people who have lived in the Burma/Thailand area for over a thousand years.  Legend has it that a crocodile spirit led them to the island, and then hid under the chedi or stupa, a type of Buddhist monument.  Since there is a crocodile under it, the chedi leans.

Legend says that the chedi will eventually straighten meaning that the crocodile has left, and it's time for the Mon to return home.  We heard this story from one of the teachers at the local school.  There were four teachers altogether who guided us through various activities at the school and around the island.  

First Vivi's group got to play with some clay.  They were supposed to make animals, but Vivian decided to make a snowman fountain instead.

After that, they took them to an area with lots of potter's wheels, and a teacher demonstrated how to use the wheel.  He also helped them with their creations, which is why Vivian's actually looks like a vase.

After that our teacher guide took us on a walk around the island.  There are no cars on the island, and it's easy to understand why when you see the size of the "roads".

Our destination was one of the kilns that had been used to make pottery on the island.

They could fit up to 2000 pots at a time in this oven, but it's no longer in use because it was damaged during flooding a few years ago, and it's too expensive to repair it now.  The flooding was really bad.  The post in this picture shows the high water mark from the flooding up near our guide's head.

The flood was really devastating to the island, because it not only damaged the kiln, it also wiped out all their durian trees.  Durian is the really stinky fruit that smells kind of like rotting flesh, but many Thais think it's fantastic.  Our guide called it "the king of fruits", and apparently the ones on the island were very special and could cost up to $100 a pop, so losing the trees was a real economic blow.

After our tour of the kiln, we walked back towards the pier and the pottery museum that is housed in a Buddhist monastery on the island.  Before we went in to the museum, our guide explained to us how water buffalo were used to soften the clay before there were machines to do it.  To demonstrate, she held up a buffalo head and asked for a volunteer to be the buffalo.  Whose hand should shoot straight up, but my darling daughter's.  I give you, the buffalo.

I was a little worried when we went into the museum because there were pots stacked up everywhere, and we had twenty excited first graders, but we managed to get in and out without any breakages.  

After the museum, we had lunch next to the leaning chedi.  There were picnic tables in a shady area and a nice breeze, so it was quite lovely.  Eventually we worked our way back to the boat, the bus, and finally the school.

I had about an hour between when we got back and when I needed to be at school for Vivi's swim lesson, so I went home, changed clothes (since Vivian had lovingly hugged me with clay all over her hands) and made some coffee.  Then I went back to school for round two and watched her jump in the deep end with pride.  You would have thought after a field trip and swimming she would be tired, but no, she just kept on going, and after I was done tutoring, I had to drive the golf cart around the neighborhood to hunt her down and bring her home for dinner.  At the beginning of the year orientation, they told us to take it slow and not sign our children up for too many activities.  Obviously they were not talking about my child.

Party and a Show

After yesterday's excitement, the girls and I had a quiet morning.  It's good that we did, because the afternoon and evening were busy.

Up first was a pool birthday party.  Since the pool wasn't enough, there was also a giant bouncy house and a pinata.

Needless to say Vivi loved it.  Luckily the bouncy house was deflated promptly at 2:00 pm and it was clear that the fun was done, so extricating her wasn't too difficult.  When we got home, she had a nice long bath.  She then insisted upon putting on her fancy dress.  I thought she would stay in and rest a bit before we went out again, but she spotted some friends out the window, and simply had to go and play.  I told her to be careful of her dress.  To her credit, she was, but she wasn't as careful with her hands and face.

I wiped her down and got her looking presentable, so that we could go and have dinner with another mom and her daughter at the Club.  Then we all went to ISB's production of Hairspray together.  I was really impressed that they had a full student orchestra to do the music.

Of course, half way through the first act, Vivian was SO hungry and kept asking me for something to eat, despite the fact that I obviously couldn't get her any food.  Luckily, the friends we were with live right across the street from the school, so the mom ran home during intermission and grabbed an apple and a banana for Vivian as well as a sandwich for her daughter who had also gotten hungry.  The snack held them through the second act.  Overall, it was a good production and a fun night out.

Vivian and her friend had talked about doing a sleepover, but her friend was too tired for it after the play, so I told Vivian she could have a sleepover with me.  We put on a movie, and she lasted about 10 minutes before falling asleep on the sofa, which is where she is now while I'm typing this.

Hopefully she doesn't roll off in the middle of the night.

A week "off"

My fall quarter finished on Sunday, and I have two weeks before the winter one starts.  Since I"m free of reading assignments and papers, I thought I'd use the time to do some exploring and spend time with friends.

Sunday morning started off with a visit from our neighborhood outdoor cat.  Elena is not sure what to make of the kitty, but she's very interested in him.

On Monday, I went on a lunch adventure with some friends.  We were trying to find a sandwich place that had been recommended to us, but when we got there, we found out they only serve sandwiches on the weekend.  There were lots of other restaurants on the street, and we ended up at one that was a restaurant/antique store.  It was strange, but the food was good.

The name didn't really make sense, and based on the food/beer menu, I think it was a German/Thai place.

On of the bathrooms had some very graphic pictures, and a television playing music videos with gyrating women, so I'm not sure what it's like after dark, but for lunch, we were the only customers, and it was perfectly nice.  One of the best parts of lunch was that we decided to do a book club, and our first book will be The Goldfinch, so I will need to use some of my coursework-free time to read that.

I saved Tuesday for household things, since I knew we had to go to the supermarket, and Young told me we needed to go to Makro as well to stock up on cleaning supplies.  I've been trying to figure out what to do about a Christmas tree, and at Makro they had a seven foot tall fake one for about $50, so I decided that would do for this year, and I bought it.  It's going to be kind of a pain to put together, because it's the kind where you put each branch in to the center, but since all the pieces are long and narrow it fits easily in a small box.  I figure I'll trade thirty minutes of annoying assembly for eleven months of convenient storage.  

Wednesday was another lunch day.  I posted some pictures from last week's trip to the Blue Sky Cafe on Facebook, and several of my friends who hadn't gone yet, said they wanted to go.  Now that I know how to get there, I offered to lead another lunch group.  It ended up being five of us, so we had to use a golf cart that has an extra two seats on the back.  I'm thinking we might want to add the extra seats too, because it comes in handy when you have visitors.  I managed to get an outside shot of Blue Sky Cafe this time.

It's really cute, but I'm worried about how long it will stay in business.  They didn't charge us for one thing when I went the first time, and they didn't charge us for two things this time.  Since we were all splitting the bill, we noticed and told them, but it's hard to make a profit if you're giving away free food.

On Thursday, I was supposed to go downtown with my neighbor to explore a mall called Platinum and then hit the commissary for Thanksgiving supplies, but we had a last minute change of plans.  There was a posting on the expats Facebook site saying that a company was auditioning blond boys between the ages of five and eight to be in a television commercial.  The commercial is going to be shot in the beach town of Phuket, and the company will pay for the flight and hotel stay.  One of our friends figured there was nothing to lose by sending in her son's picture, and he got called to audition.  Obviously she was excited, and really nervous.  She also wasn't sure if the whole thing was legit, so we drove her and her son to the audition to check it out.  

We got to the neighborhood almost half an hour before she needed to be at the audition, so we found a shopping center with a Starbucks and hung out for a while.  The central court area was covered, and had colorful umbrellas hanging down from the beams.  I thought it was really pretty and went outside to take a picture.  It wasn't until I aimed my camera up that I realized what else my picture was going to capture.

I don't know what they're selling in the Playboy store, but I've seen lots of the bunny stickers on cars, nice cars too, that women got out of, so I really don't understand.

After we finished our snack, we spent about ten minutes driving up and down a road until we finally found the little studio.  Shortly after we showed up, several other women we knew showed up with their blond sons, and we felt okay leaving our friend with them.

At that point we were off to the north east of downtown, and we figured it would be better to explore in that area.  The closest big mall is called Esplanade, so we went there.  As a mall, it wasn't much.  We found a place, which I guess was essentially Japanese fast food and ate there.

My friend had sashimi, which was served in a very pretty dish and shaped like a rose, but seemed like a brave choice for the kind of restaurant it was.  My sushi had so much mayonnaise in it that I just couldn't eat it.  Luckily the won tons were fine.  

After lunch, we explored.  It's not a very big mall, so there wasn't anything there that we couldn't find at our mall, except for three things on the fourth floor.  There's a big bowling alley and karaoke place, where you can rent a room for karaoke.  The fourth floor also has an Art in Paradise exhibit, which is this cool 3D art thing where you can stand in the painting and take a picture.  That is definitely on my list of things to do with Vivian.  Finally, the mall also has a full scale theater in it, and it turns out that it's the theater where they're doing the Broadway Beauty and the Beast in February and March.  I was so excited, because they have signs advertising it downtown, but you can't buy tickets online.  I found out why when I bought our tickets.  They are little plastic cards.

They were quite expensive, so I only got two, and I figure it'll be up to Jeff if he wants to take Vivi or not.  I love the show, but I've already seen it three times.

On Friday, I told one of my friends that I would help her out with the American room for international day.  She had said to show up at 8:30, and I didn't ask any more questions.  I will from now on.  It turned out, it was a full day of re-enacting an American county fair for all the first grade classes, who cycled through the room during the school day.  My friend had told me to wear jeans and a white t-shirt, and when I showed up, I got a cowboy hat and a patriotic apron.

At least the American clothes were comfortable and relatively cool.  One of my friends in the Indonesian room had on a traditional outfit that looked like it was made of velvet.  I was in charge of the fishbowl toss (ping pong balls into a bucket full of plastic cups with water and plastic fish in them) and the duck pond/prize drawing station.  It was a fun day, but a lot of standing and a lot of saying the same thing over and over again to kids, which I haven't done in quite a while.

It turned out to be too long a day for me and Vivian, since she was being really rude when we got home, and I didn't have the patience for it, so I just put her in time out, where she proceeded to have an epic crying and screaming fit.  When she finally calmed down, and we talked about it, I found out that all she'd had to eat at school was a banana for snack, corn for lunch, and the blueberry banana smoothie I got for her after school (which she didn't thank me for, sucked down and asked for more, which was part of what got me angry in the first place and now made perfect sense).  My take aways from the day were that I need to start packing a lunch for Viv, and I should remember to ask not only what time I should show up for stuff, but also when it will end.  

Today we have a birthday party, and I bought tickets for Vivian and I to go see the high school's production of Hairspray.  I'm really hoping we manage to make it through the day without either one of us losing it.  I also need to try and take it a little easier on my next week "off".