Katie... Searching: Home and life is on fast forward! (part 1)

Charlie and I have both decided that jet lag is ridiculous! haha We've never suffered this much from returning home from Thailand. :( Perhaps the 7 weeks of total travel added to the 48 hours of travel time to get home?

So when we got to Thailand, we were pretty exhausted to say the least. We left Paris (after being robbed blind by the airline to get our extra bag out of the country) and flew for about 11 hours to Sri Lanka, where we had a layover for a few hours...

(the nice map they provided for us to track where we were)
then we headed to Bangkok. I slept for the majority of that short flight and felt like a zombie when we landed in Thailand. We LOVE the new airport in Bangkok and were very pleased to enjoy the awesome exchange rate for the euro and baht. :) After exchanging most of our money there we found a taxi service that would drive us the 30-40 minute drive into the city and to the train station - where we ended up waiting for the rest of the group (La Sierra) to meet us. We played card games and watched the Thai television stations for quite a while and then my Uncle Danny finally showed up! Finally the other 50 or so people followed and we were reunited with my mom, Krissy, Nick, friends both new and old and lots of new faces that we got to know over the next 2 weeks.

(my favorite boys... seriously)
Unlike previous trips we took the later train (7:30 pm) from Bangkok, which meant it was already too dark to see a lot of the outskirts of the city - most of the people zonked out within the first hour of the journey anyways. The night on the train has always been one of my favorite things about the entire Thailand experience.

(Shelly zonked out)
By 9-9:30ish everyone was asleep so Nick and I stayed up and enjoyed the train ride talking about everything under the sun. I think I'm pretty lucky to have such a cool cousin!
The next morning (Friday the 1st) we woke up to the sounds of Steph's laugh... and then watched the jungles of Northern Thailand whip by us (along with the occasional rice patty). Getting checked into our hotel was wonderful - finally taking a shower!!! and eating an actual meal can lift anyone's spirits. Charlie, Nick, Uncle Danny and his sons, Alex and Eric all wanted to have suits made, so we went that afternoon to a friend of Dan's who is a tailor's shop. Charlie had a beautiful suit made for his upcoming med school interviews and such. We found an awesome little outdoor Thai restaurant on the way back to the hotel... amazing veggie food :) and our taxi driver ate with us. :) I fell sleep later on while sitting at the Friday night church service.. oops?
Saturday morning, we all had to wake up bright and early to go to one of the 4 or 5 church options. Charlie, Nick, Steph, Shelly and I decided to go back to Chiang Mai church and potluck. We got to have Sabbah school with a group of people who live there in Chiang Mai or are SDAs traveling/are missionaries there, who all spoke English. It was a lot of fun interacting with all of these people from different walks of life and experiences. After church we had a delicious lunch - quite spicy but amazing!!!

The group of us went for a nice swim after lunch and then had to be ready to to go to some of the Buddhist temples to sight see...

(the first temple we saw, its also the oldest)

(Inside of the temple)

(some of us before climbing the million step walk up to my favorite temple in Chiang Mai)

(part of their ritual is to ring the bells...)

(I'm not sure where exactly Charlie found this, but I LOVE the picture!)

(Charlie, Steph and Nick were all baptized by the monk)

(Krissy and I)

(family...Nick was taking the picture and Tim wasn't there... so its incomplete!)
After the temples we got ready to head out to the night market! :) :) :) Charlie and Nick had to go to a fitting for their suits so us girls went and found a good Italian restaurant for dinner and waited around for them to join us and head down there... we had a blast - as always!

(we had to stop to get ice cream cones, and we all thought that this was priceless)

(Charlie helped Shelly bargain)

(fun stuff)

(on the way home)

(cold, wet and tired... but sooo happy to be there)
The night market is amazing and probably one of my favoritest things about Thailand, its basically streets in the center of the town that have stands crowded together full of amazing Thai stuff, burberry and coach purses, food, souvenirs, etc... all of it you can haggle for the price!!! We had an amazing time and even survived the tuk tuk ride there! :)
Sunday we did the popular "craft run" which entails stopping at all of the major factories there in Chiang Mai, the silk factory, rice paper, wood carving, jewelry... etc. You get to see the stuff being made and buy stuff right then and there. We got some really really fun stuff :)

After that a small group of about 14 or so of us, decided to leave and then head up into the northern villages to go zip-lining!!!! I've never been so terrified in my life - and yet very very excited! They let us walk up and explore the waterfall that was right there while we waited for our group's turn to go out onto the 18 line course.

The waterfall was beautiful - it was such an amazing sight to see. Once we got back to the little hut, we got strapped into our gear and then bused out to the first platform - got instructions and lined up to go across the first line.

(me getting geared up)

(Charlie getting all geared up)

(Before we left to go...)

(Our group)

(In the van... FREAKING out!)
I screamed the entire way! haha By the third line I was hooked!

(Nick going across)

(Charlie going across)
We had a few straight down drops - Mission Impossible style -

(almost died)
that was horrifying (at first). The whole course took us about 3 1/2- 4 hours. When we were done we were taken back to our hut and had dinner.

(At the end)
When they found out some of us were veggie, they ran back into the kitchen and whipped us up an entire WONDERFUL vegetarian dinner. SOOOO yummy! :)

(Veggie soup... YUM!)

(Us eating our dinner in the middle of the jungle!)

(their backyard is the jungle... jealous)

Monday morning we had to check out of the hotel and be gone by 6:30 am... ridiculous! Really! We made the treck out to the academy and had worship/week of prayer with the kids in the beautiful church (that we helped finish 4 years ago) by 8 am. Enrollment is WAY up there, so seeing the building filled with children brought a sense of contentment and happiness that I can't really describe in words. It was truly amazing!

(Charlie and Nick in chapel)

(view from the church)

(the church, that we dedicated 4 years ago!)
After worship, we went to our nearby "bungalow hut" hotel - kinda creepy but it was close by and had AC so it was liveable. We had a water buffalo chilling outside of our hut... sooo random! haha NO warm water - so ICY showers was what we had all week... and the bed was literally made of wooden planks covered by a sheet. soooo comfy... but not at all!
All week we worked down at the site for the new vocational building.

(Rain across the rice patties)

(Work site)

(Mom and Nick)
50 or so people out there for 8-9 hours straight with week of prayer and worship at the beginning AND end called for a break day mid way through the week.

(Shelly and our new friend Yonah)

(We really really liked hanging out with us... :) )
We went to the Elephant camp and watched the show - then rode them for a little bit.

(feeding the mama)

(new baby)

(the show)

(playing his instrument as a part of his band)

(Krissy and her boyfriend during the show)

(He painted a picture...)

(giving him his tip - a sugar cane)

(Nick bought the perfect hat)

(on the elephant ride)
I love the elephants. But I have to say our next stop took the cake for all of us - the tiger sanctuary!!!! for less than 30 bucks we got to play with 3 1-month old baby tigers, then 4 4-month olds and finish off with some time with a few 9-month olds... WHAT AN EXPERIENCE!!!!!!!

(1 month old... saying "hello!")

(best experience)

(baby)

(before he bit Charlie's back)

(one of my favorite memories)

(sleepy 4 month old)

(so pretty)

(9 month old)

(it was slightly intense)

(slightly terrifying - but so amazing!)

(15 month old.... thank the Lord for the fence)

(walking down memory lane with my hubby at the orphanage)
Thursday night there was an amazing drama production done by our group for the evening worship meeting

(the video is on Youtube - just search La Sierra University Church Thailand drama skit Thailand)
followed by a great big party at the academy in honor of the dedication of new classrooms. They had traditional Thai dancing, the bamboo dance, papaya salad (God help me! it was soooo good), floating lantern competition, interaction with the children, live music and of course fireworks!

(getting dark)

(the administration building... where the party was)

(the coconut rice dessert... heaven)

(Yonah loved the camera...)

(Krissy and Jordan)

(lighting a lantern, with Charlie even though he's not in the picture... and letting it float up)

By Friday my heart was pretty much done from the heat and the work - so instead of going down to the work site I went with the principal and two of the ladies on the trip to the academy to pass out gifts to the children. I LOVED that! the Kindergardeners were so happy to get a new sparkley pencil that their faces just lit up!

(We went to the Venden chapel, which is dedicated to our great-grandpa)
That afternoon we went back to the hotel in Chiang Mai and checked in to the Empress Hotel once again. While the boys went for their suit fittings, I took down the laundry to the little laundry mat. We got to drive back out to the academy that night for the final Week of Prayer meeting... and obviously by the time we got back to the hotel we were all wiped!

Saturday we went back out for church and potluck at the academy. We loved it - the food and again the interactions with the children were so amazing!

(Pad Thai OR green curry)

(Yonah LOVED Shelly)

(everyone eating lunch)
Saturday afternoon we all went to a really big waterfall, which I decided to not walk up -

(the ants were WAY too big there)
then we all went back to the hotel which was followed by another trip to the night market. :) The group of us had so much fun walking around the stands, bargaining for favorite items... I was able to buy a Dolce & Gabbana purse and wallet, and haggled the price down to about 1/8 the price they wanted at the beginning. :)

(boys on the back of the truck)

(its real... haha - not really)
We got back in time to pick up our laundry and head to the massage place - Nick, Charlie and I were there until 1 am getting 2 hour long massages!!!! We only paid about $12 bucks each and they were some of the best massages we've ever had - the deep tissue thai massage was excellent!

Sunday we woke up and headed to the airport to go down to Phuket for a few days! Beautiful!

(everyone was all excited about the Olympics)

(our hotel lobby)

(hotel at night)

(Shelly and I)
Monday we went out on the boat tour to Phi Phi Island, went snorkeling and played on the beach for a while... we all got quite sunburned.

(Leaving Phuket)

(Phi Phi Islands)

(Charlie and Nick on the boat)

(Charlie jumping in to go snorkling)

(Nick and I on the boat)

(Krissy and Jordan on Phi Phi Island)

(Charlie and I... I heart him mucho mucho)

that night a few of us went to see Thai boxing - which is something that I've wanted to see every time we've been there and haven't had the chance to go. We were there for about 5 hours and saw 7 fights, quite an experience!!!

(fight #3)

(Charlie and I)

(little kid boxer... awe)

Tuesday we took the day to relax while most of the people went surfing and such. Nick, Charlie, my mom and I hung around the hotel most of the day, went to eat and tried to relax as much as possible. :)

(Nick, Charlie and Jordan... napping...)
that evening after a yummy family dinner (the first mexican food Charlie and I had had in 2 months)

(Thai Coca Cola... light :) )

(their nachos... they were better than nothing)

(the family.... Charlie, Me, Nick, my mommy, Jordan and Krissy)
we decided to brave the night market down there to get any last minute things before leaving the next day - kinda scary in Phuket, I'm not a fan at all!

(View of the night market in Phuket from our hotel room)
When we got back to the hotel, Shelly and Steph got to try Durian for the first time. (gross)

(I don't think Steph liked it)

(neither did Shelly)
We promptly had to go back out to 7 11 for gum and stuff to get rid of the taste. haha

We wanted to pull an all-nighter so we could sleep on the plane the next day - great in theory except even though I only got 3 hours of sleep I wasn't able to sleep! haha We watched Sex and the City The Movie, and all of us fell asleep at one point or another.
Wednesday morning we got up, ate a big breakfast and headed back to the airport on the other side of the island to head home!

(Mangosteens!!!! THE BEST fruit in the WHOLE WORLD!!!)

(Phuket airport runway/beach)

(on the plane from Phuket to Bangkok)
We got to Bangkok mid-afternoon and promptly ran so everyone else could get checked into their next flight...

(we were sad to have to say goodbye :( )
Charlie and I had a much later flight so we hung out with them while they were in line and said our goodbyes while they rushed to make their flight.

(its purty)

(the view from the customs line)
We wandered around and explored the new airport, found a restaurant that had grilled cheese and french fries! So of course we ate there and then found a place near the check in counter for our airline and watched Wanted... :)

(comfort food before the LONG LONG journey home)
Finally after about 6 hours we were able to check in for our flight home... I love the new airport, its like a shopping mall after you pass security - they have designer stores and restaurants... we actually left at 11:30 pm. We flew to South Korea, which is about a 6 hour flight... we only really slept the last 2 hours of it. We landed as the sun was coming up and were happy to get to our next terminal to find that it was empty and we could lay down on the chairs and snooze. :) Which is exactly what we did for about 3 hours. I wish we had been able to get our passports stamped but no luck... we were there for almost 9 hours!!! We found a Dunkin donuts!!! and that made my day! :)

(ignore the bags under my eyes...)

The next part of the trip took another 12 hours... sigh. Exhausting!!! I had the misfortune of sitting in a middle seat, which if you know me you know I only like the window. :( But the guy who sat next to us was really nice and from the midwest... :) so we had lots to talk about. I couldn't get comfortable, so I only slept maybe an hour or two the entire flight... but I was able to watch lots of movies. haha I watched Smart People, The Bank Job, What Happens in Vegas and.... Made of Honor - all were surprisingly good. :) It was a long long long journey and when we finally landed in LA, we were actually happy to be home.

(about 12 hours later, we were home)
LeAnn picked us up from the airport, and thankfully it only took us about a half an hour to go through customs and baggage claim. :)

That afternoon we were extremely happy to have a shower, clean clothes and a good meal at LeAnn's... we fell right to sleep after lunch and slept until my mom came over early evening. Tim was so excited for us to be home that we all went out to dinner for mexican food! Kristi came over to see us - and it was sooooo good to see them! (we missed the people more than anything else!)

Friday we slept until 2 pm... yep, we finally were able to catch up on some sleep!!! We spent the day unpacking and TRYING to organize our stuff...haha We went out to macaroni grill for dinner, came home and stayed up way too late - jet lag is EVIL!
Saturday we had to go to church here at La Sierra so we could all get up on stage while they showed a video and slideshow from the Thailand mission trip - followed by a potluck at my mom's house. It was fun to see everyone from the trip again and hang out with friends and family. After everyone left we headed over to Tim's friend's place with Nick - who got that tattoo the we had designed while in Thailand...