June 9- Aisunee

Breakfast this morning was Khao Niaw Muu Bing. I have a picture, it's on my phone, and my phone is currently out of battery. Basically, it's small pieces of pork marinaded in the best sauce ever and then barbecued. It is served with sticky rice and is probably one of my favorite type of Thai food.

After breakfast, I hopped in a taxi and headed to the Chaengwattana chapel to head to church. I love going to that ward because it's where I served for 9 months of my mission. I love the whole area and the people are amazing. Church was wonderful. There was lots of food afterward, but I didn't take any pictures. 

After church, I went to Aisunee's house for several hours. She is a good friend of mine. She's fun to talk to. She is kind-hearted and incredibly talented. Last time I was here, she took me to sing karaoke which was one of the highlights of my trip. I'm sure you'll be seeing more of her later.

The following pictures were all taken tonight at the Muang Thong Thani condos. Enjoy.

Coco Yen- Milk, Chocolate, Sweetened Condensed Milk, and Ice.  You really can't go wrong with this one.

Coco Yen- 20 baht

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Easy Peasy is an air-conditioned food court. We used to come here  regularly as missionaries to escape the oppressive heat. Sister Robbins and I also had an investigator that preferred to be taught here. Eating here tonight brought back lots of memories.

The condos at Muang Thong Thani. This place is a mini-city. I'm sure I'll be spending lots of time here because I have several friends that live here.

Inside Easy Peasy.

Shaved Ice Shop

My dinner- Bami Muu Daeng- 40 baht. I felt very satisfied the entire time that I was eating this.

I wonder who invented the two finger pose. 

The major rainstorm of the day happened at about 6:45pm. It lasted about 25 minutes. I wish it rained like this in Utah. It's pretty incredible to watch.

Ngah (AKA Rambutan)- Aisunee gave me some of this to take home. 

We walked through the night market to get back to the main road. This is Aisunee. She's awesome.

The market.

Santa serves as a good luck charm for this store.

I'm not quite sure where they get all these clothes to sell. Aisunee said that some people get them from charities  and then sell them. I wonder who this precious gem belonged to.

I wonder about this one, too.

And this one. 

I remembered tonight why I drink so much in Thailand. It is dang hot! This is a mango/pineapple smoothie. 

June 8- Jet Lag

Oh, the wonders of jet lag. I didn't get to bed last night until 2:30am because I was wide awake. I intended to sleep in until about 9:30am, but I woke up, WIDE AWAKE, at 6:38am.

 I headed out the door for breakfast at about 8:00. I found a little store and bought the following for a combined total of 15 baht.

Yogurt Milk. This stuff is so good. 

Jello with various mix-ins. You drink it through a straw and the combination of textures is simply delightful. 

Then I bought some real food for breakfast.

Fried Rice- 30 baht

By this time, I was getting tired again, so I went back to my hotel room to sleep. 

Nest Boutique Resort- It was pretty impressive for the $17 that I paid to stay there.

I checked out at about 12pm. The lady at the front desk told me that a taxi would cost 500 baht to get me to my next hotel. I opted instead to have one of the workers hop on his motorcycle and go get me a metered taxi. Even with a 20 baht surcharge, it still only cost me 200 baht to get to my next hotel. 

I love chatting with taxi drivers. It is one of my favorite parts about Thailand. Their lives are always so interesting and so very different from my own. This particular driver, Surin, should be a teacher. We were chatting in Thai, and he would stop when he got to a word he thought might be unknown to me. I knew some and didn't know others. If I didn't know the word, he explained it to me and then asked if I understood. Or, he would explain it and then ask me what the word translated to in English. It was great. Kept me on my toes. I had to really listen and figure out what the word meant. The teacher in me loved that whole conversation.

My new hotel for the next few days is called Padi Madi guest house. It will do. It's not great, but the door locks and the location is pretty good. I'll put up some pictures tomorrow. My goal next week is to find a cheaper place where I can stay the rest of my trip. 

I hopped on the sky train, conveniently located about 30 seconds away from my hotel, and headed to Tesco Lotus to shop for some essentials: fan, cooling powder, shampoo, and conditioner. I got lunch at the food court. 

ข้าวมันไก่- Khao Man Gai Tod- 45 baht. I had forgotten about the soup. 

I then headed back to my hotel room. I was getting tired. I broke the rules for getting over jet lag and totally fell asleep at 3pm. I woke up briefly at about 7pm to watch an incredible rainstorm, then fell right back asleep. A phone call from a friend woke me up at about 10:15pm. It was too late to venture out for some food, so my dinner was a fruit roll-up and goldfish crackers. 

The Trip

Prepping for this trip was pretty intense. There was a lot to do and not a ton of time to do it. I couldn't have done it without my mom. She helped me move my classroom, pack my apartment, move my stuff into storage, clean my house (she basically did it all because I was at all day trainings), and then took me to the airport. I love her and I really appreciate her help.

I won't bore you too much with the details of my trip. But, here are some of the standouts:

-I got a middle seat, again. Ugh!

-My neighbor on the plane was headed back for a visit to Vietnam. He suggested I go try Asia Palace at 1774 W. 3500 S. and Pho Cali at 1631 W. 3500 S. when I get back.

-I realized that the headrest could be bent to make life a little bit more comfortable for your neck. Unfortunately that realization came during the 10th hour of travel rather than the 1st.

-Parental Guidance is a funny movie. Mom, you should watch it. You would laugh.

-This was a daytime flight. It was bright outside all 12+ hours of the flight. For several hours, they turned nearly all of the lights off inside the plane. But due to their desire to see a whole lot of sunshine and clouds, people kept opening their windows and filling the cabin with blinding light. 

-I had the perfect layover in Korea. I got off of plane #1, went through security, used the restroom, and walked onto plane #2. 

-Navigating an airport while wearing glasses that haven't been the right prescription for over a decade proved to be a bit challenging. 

The only picture I managed to get of my travels. This is the airport in Bangkok at 11:45 pm.  The camera saw it more clearly than I did.

-Thanks to Sumana and AJ, I have a phone to use while in Thailand. I bought my SIM card and was on my way. 

-I had to pay 150 baht (about $5) for my airport shuttle to the hotel, but since it was nearly midnight, it was worth the hassle of not having to deal with giving directions.

-The world has certainly changed since my mission. It is so very convenient now to keep in touch. My hotel room has decently fast wifi and my phone has internet access. I was able to facetime with my dad for a couple of minutes right before I went to bed. So nice. 

Ready to shower after a LONG day of travel.

The Trip

This is going to be short tonight. I'm typing it on my ipad and I don't have any idea how to format things on here. Mostly I just want to tell everyone that I am here. And safe. And not currently hot because my air conditioner is definitely set at 17 degrees celsius. I will write about the trip tomorrow.  

My $17 hotel room. The sleep sheet and pillowcase are a must.

Swollen feet. This one is for Brittany.

The bathroom. 

Random Moments

 Can you believe how old they are getting? I get to teach piano to Avery, and it has been really fun to see her progress over the last couple of years. I also love getting to see Aidan, Lucy, and Natalie each time, too.

 I was in Salt Lake right by Steph's house, so I called to see if I could come over and chat. Not only did she let me come over, she also fed me delicious pot roast. What a friend!

 The Thai Ambassador to the United States came to Utah for some business, and I had the chance to perform some Thai songs for him with Rachel and Weston. It was fun to pull out some of my old songs and get them performance ready. It was also fun to catch up with some mission friends. The Ambassador is the man in the bottom picture. He was such a kind man. Very impressive. He even did an impromptu solo at the end of the evening. I'll have to try to find someone who recorded it and put it on here.

This is me and Becky Castleton, one of my MTC teachers from long-ish ago. Look out for her in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir!

Easter

My mom is the queen of Grandmas and always manages to throw a pretty fantastic Easter Egg Hunt. This year was no exception. It was fun to be in Boise and play with Keyton, Lola, and Mads. 

Pre-hunt

Mads

Lola

Tom

Dad

More Mads

Post-Hunt

Pottery

I signed up for a community pottery class this term. These are my finished pieces. I definitely learned that I don't have the patience of an artist. It was really hard for me to sit for two hours each week and create pots. I'm glad I did it though. 

The Pencil Holder

The Pregnant Pot

 My First Pot... Hmmm.

The Flower

 The Stalagmite

The Bowl

 Coils

The Mug

 Candy Bowl

Funky Pot. I enjoyed making this one.

 One of few pieces I actually liked.