12-17
Hey everyone-
This Wednesday (Dec. 17), I’ll
be headed off to Chiang Mai. It’s in
Love,
Kati
Hey mom and dad!!
I got BOTH packages today.... yeah, Thai mail is officially booty whack....
do you mind seeing if I can sell the unopened
Lord of the Rings... or do you
want me to send those home so you can return
them?? thank
you soooooooooooo
much for EVERYTHING!! I think I might have to call you tonight...or
now...
and ask you how much money I can take out...
yeah.... hmmmm......nothing
much exciting has happened lately except for the
packages... the christmas
stuff?? I
was balling... we're gonna bring it all to Chiang Mai
with us and
set it up in our room when we do our Christmas
stuff together on Christmas
morning... we reveal who our secret Santas are... I’m so excited...it's
gonna be a
blast. yeah, so
we head out for Chiang Mai tomorrow morning...
I'm really excited... it's supposed
to be the best out of the three
tours.... I get to ride an ELEPHANT!!! yay!!! well,
I guess I’ll let you
guys go now... talk to ya
soon...
love and miss you guys bunches!!
love always,
Kati
12-24
Hello everyone!
I'm in Chiang Rai
right now, I've just finished 5 days in Chiang Mai.... it's so beautiful up
here, but definitely NOT Christmas.... it's so weird... you know that wonderful
feeling that encompasses your entire body from the moment you begin to put up
the Christmas tree to the time you take it down???... I just don't....just can't... feel that this
year.... I truly can't believe it's Christmas....
well, I can't wait to hear from all of you!
Just wanted a chance to
wish you all a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR. May
your lives be blessed, and may you be a blessing to all you meet.
I miss and love you all so much!
-Kati Kimmer-
12-27
Chiang Mai tour was very different from what
I expected… and some things, such as the culture of the north, surprised me
about how different and wonderful they were…and how much difference I truly
noticed. Like, the Thai dance style and
outfits are so different. And there’s an
obvious Chinese influence with Chinese Buddha images, dragons, and giant
pandas… speaking of giant pandas…. We were supposed to go see the only giant
pandas in Thailand, but they were sick—so we didn’t get to see them….that was a
big letdown… we went to the zoo and it was so sad… their cages in America
would’ve been too small for say one leopard…as opposed to the 4 that were
staying in there. it
was just so sad…and the fact that the pandas weren’t even there, just made it a
really depressing trip.
In truth, I would say that a brief overview
of the tour would be “too many temples, being sick….and THE BUS”…when Mike tells
the story about the bus… he just doesn’t quite make you understand how horrible
and obnoxious it really was. And the
second time the bus broke down--was just YUCK... (the first bus broke down so
we got a NEW bus and it broke down too… it took THREE HOURS to fix it….we were
starting to think they were building a brand new bus by hand out of clay…and
that we were just going to have to run behind it, pushing it the rest of the
way to Korat…this is how long that 3 hours
seemed…)….we saw at least one temple every day… and every night we were lucky
to get 4 hours of sleep…and having soooo many teenage
girls together with only a few boys….always creates quite a bit of drama… truly the only thing that I really enjoyed
about the tour weren’t the things that rotary had planned for us… like one
night, we all went out together and saw “Return of the King” in English…just
little stuff like that…and dancing with the Brazilians…and the stories and
jokes…and the beautiful culture and people of the north….that’s what made this
trip worth the money.
Christmas wasn’t the same without all of
you….but somehow; foreign exchangers manage to make the most out of
everything…well… I wish you all a blessed New Year…
Love always,
Kati
Hey everyone!
And happy NEW YEAR!!
For New Year, I went to two parties. The first party I went to was me and Thisie and a bunch of our Thai friends from Thisie’s school. We
ate Korean barbeque (YUM!) in this beautiful hut…then we fed a baby elephant….
You know elephants have become so normal that the other night I heard a strange
sound outside…and then said “oh, it’s just an elephant”…weird, eh? After we did a Chinese gift exchange
(actually, I didn’t participate because I didn’t have enough time to buy a
gift), me and Thisie said our good-byes and walked a
couple miles to our second party. At the
second party we ate some more and watched SWAT...then we headed off to the
fair... we rode some rides, shopped, ate some more,
and watched the fire works...afterwards we walked home... it was really fun...
May you all have a blessed new year! You’re all in my thoughts and prayers!!
love always,
Kati