My Christmas Tree!

Happy Holidays from Thailand!

As promised here is my Christmas tree that was transported home on the back of my motorcycle. It's a pretty small tree, but I don't have that many ornaments to decorate it with, so it works out quite well. My parents sent out a box with the presents you see there (and anyone who doubted that my family loved me look at all the presents they sent). They sent a few with the tag "open ASAP" and so as per their instructions I did and found that they had sent out a few CD's with Christmas music, a few ornaments for my tree and The Night Before Christmas storybook. I went out to buy the tree and picked up the lights and a few more ornaments (which are few and far between given that this is a 95% Buddhist country...but they are out there). I even found an ornament which reads in Thai "Happy New Year" which I was thrilled about! After planting my tree and a few Christmas songs later, I had my own Christmas tree and had effectively created a new Thai/American tradition of my own...the only thing missing was the eggnog. Boy, eggnog...if anyone knows how to get that in Thailand or has any ideas as to how to get that to me let me know! Anyway, there's my Christmas story.

Despite all of the Christmas related activities described above, it appears that Christmas has once again snuck up on me and it's hard to believe that it is that time of year again. The past few months have flown by and I can't believe it's December much less a week from Christmas. This month marks the several anniversaries for me and I thought I'd write a bit about them to as it's been hard for me to grasp that these periods of time have elapsed already. This week is the middle of the second semester of classes here in Thailand - that means I have 9 weeks to go until I'm on summer holiday. It's been 5 months since I left for Thailand and last was in the US and saw my family. December 9th marked my 1/2 birthday and December 10th marked 6th months since I graduated. It's unfathomable that I've graduated already much less that I've been out of school for 6 months now. I can't believe that much time has passed since then but when I think about trying to write an essay I can't believe that it's only been 6 months! How quickly we forget! Today, December 18th, is the day I left Thailand last year and began the journey home (and some would argue began this journey that I'm on right now).

So there's that entry! I hope you all enjoyed it!

Until next time,

RM