A Very Harry Potter/Thai Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is a favorite holiday of mine. I’m not even ashamed to say that it is solely based on mashed potatoes and pie. This year was much different, and I didn’t think I’d be home sick but the holiday season has really made me miss home. I took charge of our Thanksgiving here and tried to make it as much like home as I could.  I did add a Harry Potter theme though…and there was no Turkey. That is a Kelsey Thanksgiving right there. The best part is all the girls were in favor of this. Here are a few snapshots of our night!

Gryffindors and Slytherins make the best of friends!

Natalie and I with our cute backdrop

Opposites Attract.

Placemats and Goblets and Centerpieces...Oh My! 

The best we could do..which was enough!

Laos: A Pleasant Surprise

Next up would be..LAOS! In case any of you do not know, Laos is a country. We went there to renew our visas and honestly I wasn’t expecting too much. I was actually pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed Laos. It’s a country that I definitely want to learn more about. The history of Laos is very interesting and I would urge you to do some research. You will thank me, If you like learning and like history. If not…I’ll do what I can to give you a little bit of what I’ve learned from being there. Through pictures and captions of course!

Beautiful Laos! We stayed in Vientiane, which is the capital of Laos. 

The entrance to the temple.

Laos was full of strange figurines in shops. Prime example above. 

Downtown Vientiane. 

At the market! Markets have become a favorite no matter where we go.

Laos was under French rule for a really long time. In fact Laos didn't gain independence until 1953! Prior to that, French was the official language and so Laos has a lot of French influence in its architecture. The mix is very beautiful. 

These are pictures taken at the COPE center. I do want to take a minute to write and explain what the COPE center is, because it was one of the best parts of my entire journey thus far. COPE stands for Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise. Laos has been the most bombed country per capita in the world. During the Vietnam war they were a country heavily bombed because the Vietnamese had camps set up there. Huge bombs were dropped that were then filled with hundreds of miniature bombs inside. A lot of the bombing was from the USA and was a secret mission under President Reagan. The biggest problem is that many of these bombs have not yet been detonated and continue to kill 100 Laos people a year, to this day. The people there are so poor and they go looking for scrap metal. Sometimes that scrap metal turns out to be a bomb and it either kills them or leaves them amputated. Many of the victims are children. The COPE center is a rehabilitation center that gives prosthetics to these victims and helps them to function on their own again. There is also a museum where you can read about all that has happened, watch documentaries, and meet some of the victims. They are very open to Westerners visiting, which speaks loads of there character. It was such an emotional day for me, as I watched and listened, taking in everything I was surrounded by. It's hard to put into words how I was feeling that day. Can you imagine being poor enough that you would risk your life digging for metal that could explode at any point? In the documentary I watched they were training Laos men how to move bombs and destroy them so that they couldn't hurt or kill other people. There were two bombs that were discovered in a Laos school yard. The kids were actually a little disappointed to see it leaving because the metal would've been worth a lot of money. 20 dollars was enough for them to risk their lives. The COPE center doesn't charge it's patients and runs off of donations. It was so neat to be able to give back to an organization that does so much good. I was able to meet one of the victims. His name was Peter and he was about my same age. He was left without any hands and was blind due to a bomb. His attitude was so positive though and he was so funny flirting and laughing with us. I learned a lot about the history of Laos through the COPE center. If you're interested here is there website, http://www.copelaos.org/tic a
nd Prost

Those are the little cluster bombs that come out of the big one.


All the red is where bombs were dropped.



Homemade prosthetics that people try and get by on before coming to the COPE center.

hetic EnterpriseCooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise

Vacation from Vacation: PHUKET!

Ok, next big event would be Phuket! We finally had our long awaited vacation and it was well needed and well loved. If I come back to Thailand, which I really hope happens, I will be hanging out on the South beaches. We flew to Phuket for a week of relaxation and fun. We first stayed at Patong Beach. Multiple people warned us about Patong and said to steer clear because it was a party beach and blah blah blah. Sometimes I really hate people, and there is a reason I don’t listen to anyone. PATONG WAS BEAUTIFUL! We stayed at a cute hotel, above a Subway, right across the street from the beach. We rented little beach chairs with umbrellas, ate mangos all day, and played in the clear warm water. I’ve never been in a prettier ocean setting. 

Aside from relaxing on the beach, we ate lots and lots of food. Patong has every type of cuisine imaginable all within a ½ mile radius. I had the best Italian food of my entire life…in Thailand.

 One night Charlotte and I decided to brave it out, and see why Patong has the reputation that it does. We rounded the corner we had never rounded before and BAM it was the Las Vegas strip all crammed together. We went into a dance club called Seduction. It was actually pretty fun and we met lots of Australian boys. That was good enough for me. After a few days on Patong we took a boat ride out to Phi-Phi Island and went snorkeling. I feel like I’m over using the word beautiful, but it was beautiful! It was my first time snorkeling and it was so fun seeing all the blue and yellow fish swimming right up to my face. Aside from a few rude French ladies, Phi-Phi was a success. 

For the second half of our vacation we hit up Kata beach and stayed at the Rick N’ Roll hostel. Kata beach was very quiet and a more relaxing atmosphere. The hostel has great food and lots of karaoke so we were entertained enough. 

On Halloween, Jessi, Charlotte and I headed to the ocean really late at night and the waves were huge! It was the first time we had even seen waves out during our trip. There was only one choice: get in the water. We hadn’t brought our swimsuits, which left us with only one option: get in the water naked. Which we did and it was fun. Don’t worry there were no onlookers, just 3 girls playing in the waves of Thailand. 

The rest of our trip consisted of lying on the beach, eating, and shopping. It is so fun to meet people from all over the world and hear stories of how they got to be there. Taking a vacation from vacation is always needed, right? 

Me in a fish spa! Had to share. 

RUN BKK? No, Run away from BKK. Run Far Away!

While here in Phichit, we were fortunate enough to meet the nicest couple: Daniel and Pat. Daniel is the only other American here and we were pretty easy to spot, so he befriended us. Daniel is from Georgia and moved to Thailand with friends about 4 years ago. He met Pat a couple days after and they have been together ever since! They have been so kind to us and extrememly helpful. Not only have they taken us out to eat at the best places Phichit has to offer, but they’ve given us great traveling advice as well. The best part about this friendship was a wedding invitation! So we went off to Bangkok for their Traditional Thai Wedding. It was absolutely beautiful! It was in a hotel and an experience I feel so blessed to be apart of. It was so fun being there and experience something so different. However, it also made me grateful and comforted to know that when that day comes for me, it will be so different. The feeling that the temple brings can never be replaced my any other ceremony. Even if it does have Thai Monks :) Here are some pictures of the wedding day!

We started out overdressed...so we had to go change. Oops. 

Us with the happy couple: Daniel and Pat!

A Thai wedding tradition! We held those flowers all the way up the stairs as a "gate." Daniel had to approach each gate and to try and pass through he had to answer our question correctly..and give us money :) At first we didn't quite understand it and so Natalie and I decided our question would be, "Name all 50 states!" We then realized it had to be about Pat, so we changed our question to, "What's your favorite thing about Pat?" Much better. 

The rest of Bangkok was rather disappointing. My entire time in Thailand I have seen people wearing these shirts that say RUN BKK ,like the RUN DMC shirts, and I really wanted one. I bought one in Chiang Mai, but after being in Bangkok I’m tempted to cross out the RUN BKK and write, “RUN away from BKK.” The city was huge, dirty, and people were not nice there. The nice and smiling Thai people do not live in Bangkok. I’m feeling upset just writing this. To sum it up Bangkok offers a nice Zoo and an average Mexican restaurant. Other than that, run far away. Hide yo money, hide yo bags, cuz they gettin everyone up in the BKK.

Ok, so maybe the Mexican was better than average. I can't even seem to look up from my food for a picture :)

Me at the zoo. That thing was going to eat me. It just came out of the water attacked me with it's tongue! 

When we got back to the school, we did a little photo shoot in our Thai dresses. Can't let a good dress go to waste now can you?

So that's Bangkok for you. The good, the bad. 

Playing Catch Up..First Up: Sukothai

I’m now playing catch up for the past 2 months. Bad news I know. So here come a few different blog posts about what I’ve been up to lately. Be prepared for some heavy reading…

Well this first post won’t be too heavy actually. We went to Sukothai. It was awesome. Here you go. 

Sukothai was the first capital of Thailand. It's full or ruins and really big Buddahs all over the place.

We were only there for a day, but we rented bikes to ride through the ruins and it was just beautiful.