Hello everyone!!

 

Well, I received the package from my family today.  I cried so much, I’m not sure if they were tears of joy, sorrow, or both, but there were lots of them (tears—that is).  Thank you so much for everything!!!  I can definitely use the chocolate!!  Hannah, your bead work is AMAZING (I thought it was store-bought until I read the note from mom!).  Thanks for the necklace, Lizz.  Mom, your necklace really meant a lot to me.  I’ll truly treasure it.  Lizz and Chrissy, I hope you’re feeling better after your wisdom teeth experience.  Chrissy, I hear that your concert with William went great, and I’m sure it did!!  I decided to write a mass email about Bangkok cuz it would be tons easier on me.  Don’t worry tho, I’ll be writing personal ones again starting tomorrow. I’m going to type what I wrote in my journal entries about Bangkok so here goes:

 

Aug 18th

Well, it’s Monday—we made it into Bangkok last night around 10 pm.  Although, I don’t know HOW with my hostdad’s driving… he’s quite possible the WORST driver EVER—but hey, what do I know about stopping at stop signs and red lights… not driving in the oncoming lane of traffic—not passing on double yellow liens and most importantly—NOT honking your horn every 60 seconds (literally) at other people when you’re the one screwing up…. We stopped at this really cute restaurant (1 of 3 stops on our 8 hour trip) and my hostbro got steak—me n Mirijam shared French fries and rice with SPICY chicken.  Our hotel is beautiful with REAL toilets!! Today we ate an excellent breakfast together at the hotel and then went to purchase a bus for the ravel agency.  Then we went to eat @ “MK” and we got… uh… “ice cream”… for dessert… actually it was a little bit of vanilla ice cream with a lot o f other stuff including beans, corn, sticky rice, and random bright yellow and pink things, and clear frozen “gum” things… Well, that was interesting… Then we went shopping and I bought a few things for my hair and some more chap school supplies.  Then I hit the jackpot!  I found a HUGE pile of several different “Thailand shirts” for ß60 (baht) a piece.  So I bought 8 for presents!!!  After that we returned to the hotel and me n Mirijam got some r and r that ended with a ring from Pom saying that we were gonna eat in about 25 minutes (eat AGAIN??!!).  We went to a really nice buffet that was 240 baht per person!! (dude—that’s 6 times the average amound for a meal!!!)… so say the average is $8.00 in the US—that’s like spending $48.00 per person… WHAO!!! Dinner was pretty good but I got sick quicker than usual and had to run to the restroom-- in the middle of the meal… Well, since it was a buffet, it had a little bit of everything considering the price it wasn’t that great, but it was good.

 

Aug 19th

Well, today we went shopping at a huge mall in Bangkok.  We started our day by eating breakfast at the hotel around 9:15am and then left for a Bangkok mall which we arrived at a little after 10am.  We bought tons of stuff!!! I bought 3 surongs, 2 sabai pants, a really pretty shirt, and a red skirt that looks kinda Spanish-- all for like 2000 baht ($50.00)!!! I also bought a digital camera that meets all of mom and dad’s requirements except for the fact that it’s Sony—sorry—but that’s like all they sell here.  We ate at a really nice Japanese restaurant for lunch and I ordered yakisoba with chicken—it was really good.  After that we continued shopping—we arrived back at the hotel around 5:30pm and got ready to go to dinner at 7:00… We went to a Chinese/Thai restaurant.  It was pretty good.  I think I might have the flu—I got sick FOUR times during the night last night and I felt really lousy today…

Aug 20th

“Wan nee sawai”  … “Bad luck day”

Note: sawai can mean beautiful or bad luck, depending on the tone used…

Well we took Bom to the airport at 3:45AM and I decided to take my brand-new digital camera with me… I went to take my first picture and realized there was NO ZOOM!!!! What kind of idiot makes an expensive camera withOUT zoom?!?!  Well, needless to say, I didn’t get any pictures.  They took me back to the mall so that I could exchange it.  We wanted to leave Bangkok around 10am.  EVERY store in the mall was open—except the one that sold me my digital camera… The sign said it opened at 10… but they didn’t open until NOON!!!!  So  we left Bangkok 2 and a half hours later than we planned.  I ate 3 meals a day in Bangkok ( I usually eat 1 in Ubon)—so I got even MORE sick than usual and had nightmares.  Which brings me to the next downer of the day…  I’ve been anxiously awaiting to check my email cuz now that Jarred’s back in school—he should’ve emailed me, but when we got home we realized that Pam (my aunt) sent the CPU to get fixed from the virus that Bom couldn’t fix which means—AHHHH!!!  ANOHTER DAY before I can check my email!! Oiy!!!  Also, more bad luck—I “got sick” at a Thai toilet (a.k.a. “squatter”)—which was DISGUSTING!!!  AND I had to sit squished in the middle the whole 8 hours home from Bangkok.  On the up-n-up, my AC is working (I thought it was broken—but all I had to do was flip the switch for the circuit braker? And on our ride home we stopped at a beautiful place in the rugged Thai mountains (on a little lake) and I took some really neat pictures with my (new and better, equipped with ZOOM) digital camera that I’ll be sending to you guys via email soon.

 

I love and miss you all SOOOOOOOOOO much!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Love always,

Kati

 

à¡ÊÃÕ          ßthat’s my name in Thai!! (kesari)



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