Christmas in Thailand

This is the second Christmas I have been away from home, but the first being by all by myself. (The other was in on our senior year trip to London, and I had most of my friends and Chris's snoring to keep me company and make me less homesick.) The day started off as kind of a bummer, and waking up all alone in a guesthouse, with nowhere to go and no one to get up to see was, I will admit, a little depressing. But I skyped some family and friends pretty soon after I woke up, which helped put me in a better mood. I also started watching Its a Wonderful Life, which always cheers me up. (Those are tears of happiness, don't worry about it.) Left around lunch time with Julia and we took a bus to the mall for a phone. Bought the cheapest one I could find (about 19 dollars), and put the one number I have in there - Julia's. But it is nice to have one, to be able to put on my resume for giving to schools, and to have some way for people to contact me, if (and when) I make some more friends. Came home and took a nap and watched some more of the movie. Woke up around 6 and Julia and I headed out for the night.

We had made reservations at a restaurant serving Christmas dinner - basically we paid a flat fee for a preset meal they brought out to us. The food was good, though it was exactly what we had for Thanksgiving dinner in Cambodia. (So see that blog entry if you want to see pictures.) Turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, vegetables, bread and pie. The restaurant we ate at actually had the same meal available for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years, so apparently Asian's don't understand the nuances of the different foods at American holidays. But regardless of that fact, and the fact it probably wasn't worth the 10 bucks we paid for it, it was still nice. Both of us weren't exactly thrilled to be away from home and our families on Christmas, so I think we were both kind of happy to do something a little special for the holiday.

We had read about a few bars that were supposedly big hits for expats on the holiday, so after dinner we headed out to try and track them down. But all of the places we found seemed to be kind of dead. So we wandered the streets looking for some place that was hopping and that had live music (yes, I said hopping). Stumbled upon this bar called Guitarman that had a band setting up, so we grabbed some reclining mats (this is Thailand) and hung out for a while. The band was pretty good, though it was a Thai guy singing and rendition of 'No Woman No Cry' was pretty weak. But it was fun, we took off after a while and headed home. We were walking along the big street near our places and walked right past an elephant. Just a real live elephant standing there on the side of the street. I didn't have my camera or I would have snapped some pics, but he was just standing there with his trainer on the sidewalk! So no my Christmas didn't have a tree, but it did have an elephant. :)

Came home and opened the two presents I had, a crossword book and a sudoku book from Mrs. Brewster that she gave me before I left and made me promise not to open them until Christmas. It was actually very sweet and nice to be open something on Christmas, so Anna, tell your mom I said thank you very much! Read a little bit and hit the sack.

So I made it, I survived Christmas alone in Thailand. It wasn't the best Christmas I've ever had, but none of my siblings cried (that I know about), so I guess it wasn't the worst either. Really, it wasn't that bad. It would have been nice to be home, but like today, I wake up, its not Christmas, and oh yeah, I'm in Thailand. So I guess, like the rest of life, its a trade off, and I'm still pretty happy I'm here. At least until my birthday rolls around that is... :)

TPWWLT - Head Over Feet - Alanis Morissette