A Busy Weekend

   I celebrated my first Thanksgiving  in Thailand 2 days ago.  A friend at work-Donella and her family invited me to join them at a neighbor's house where many people were coming together to celebrate.  It was fun and I always enjoy hearing stories from people who have lived in Thailand awhile.  Adapting to a new culture has many amusing moments and always fun to laugh about afterwards.  Donella's family are here as missionaries and they regularly serve at a children's home every week.  Other people at the dinner are also missionaries and many have been here for years.  It was nice of our school to give us a half day at work so we could celebrate Thanksgiving during the day by tradition.  Other international school's do not do this.  It was incredibly weird working on Friday the day after however.  Its been years since I've done that.
Friday marked the beginning of the Balloon Festival that our neighboring school puts on each year.  Apparently its an international thing.  I got up earlier than usualy of Friday so I could watch the first launch.  I was also hoping to catch a ride.  These are hot air balloons that were launching and really big up close.  I will add pictures but since my camera is dying, they are a little blurry.  The night show I missed but maybe tonight I can catch it.
Tomorrow I move to my new house.  While the move should be quite quick as I don't have a lot of stuff, its still a little stressful making sure I didn't forget anything.  Moving somewhere new is always good but its hard to tell before I live there if I will still like the place after I officially move there.  I'm optimistic though.  I will miss being so close to the coffee shop near my house and the coffee stand that I no longer need to place orders at.  This one coffee stand, I always order an ice mocha and I go regularly.  So now I simply show up, say 'hi' and she starts making an ice mocha.  Its awesome!  And its only 30B which is approx. $1.