2012

It's the last day of 2012, a blog is in order.

I wish I'd posted more blogs this month, but regardless of the fact that it was SUPER BIZZY, I did actually write some posts - but, I didn't finish any of them... I just went back to read a few and realized they aren't as melancholic as I thought they were, esp. because of the mentioning of my FABULOUS dream where I was a secret/surprise contestant on The Bachelor with Sean Lowe.  %-)  There are those google-y eyes again.  ;;;)  And that's me batting them.  ;;;)  Seriously if it doesn't work out for him on The Bachelor, hook a sista up!  
For now, it's time for reflection - because that's just what happens on December 31st of every year - thinking back on all the changes, events, memories and people of the past year and saying "wonder what I'll be doing this time next year?"  I had no idea that this 2012 would look so differently than what I thought.  weird.
I am so, so grateful for lessons learned, dreams fulfilled, character built and fantastic people along the way of my surprising and adventurous road in 2012.  
I get nervous to be an open book, I know I don't have to be, but it's where my blog is going and I think that's okay.  Julie Powell in Julie & Julia would understand, only her sphere of influence was MUCH greater.  Oh well.  I'm even naming names, this time.  Also, I think I will go ahead and post all 4 of the blogs I DID write this month, so if they seem out of order, oh well again.  One more week of holiday break + A RIDICULOUS LOAD OF UNWRITTEN POSTS & FUN/NEW EVENTS = blog-happy kt.  get ready, yo!

Okay 2012 open book... Have at it - 

I can't believe I just returned from a trip to Bangkok.

I got stuck in a rainstorm in Northern Thailand with people I had just met.  

I bought a necklace in Taylor Swift's hometown with Whitney and Deanna, where I also went on a Civil War history tour.  Yep, loved it. 

I greeted almost every single person who walked into my church on Sundays and it became one of the highlights of each week. The timing of that job was undoubtedly perfect.  The way of the Lord is flawless (Psalm 18).  Thanks, Joni and Chad.  :)

I fed giraffes and elephants from my hands. 

I went on a daddy-daughter date to The Colonial Golf Tournament, my first time there.  

I didn't marry David.

I learned how to grieve.  

I'm still learning how to lament.  

I listened to Florence & the Machine's "Cosmic Love" on repeat for about two weeks.  

I drank A LOT of lettuce juice.  

I drank lettuce juice? 

a lot?  

you can drink lettuce??

moving on. 

I ran into someone I taught English with ONCE in Ft. Worth, while we were at a conference in Chiang Mai, who now lives in China, and we cried together.  Then we went on a safari together.  

Nearly every person in my current Asian sphere, the ones I work with and see every day, the ones I have church with, travel with, hang out with on the weekends - I didn't even know they existed until 5 months ago.

I closed down Pete's in downtown Ft. Worth a handful-ish number of times as well as The Gingerman.  And I still love Jesus, and He still loves me.     

I gained 15 pounds.  Please consider where I started post-mono last January when you think about that.  

I kissed my 16 year old dog goodbye for quite possibly the last time.  He's still hangin' in there in case ya wondered.   

I laughed till I cried with more people than I can count.  

That's my favorite one.  

I learned how to bake.  

... vegan-style.  

I finally tried a Fred's Burger. 

I didn't kiss him when I could've, and I should've.  

Granddad was diagnosed with cancer. 
so was Aunt Charlene.  

I frequented Buon Giornio's Coffee Shop so often that when I called at 7 AM running late for work, Stuart prepared my drink before I even got to the shop.  :)  

I smoked my first cigar, a maple-flavored one.   

I asked a guy to dinner.  I flip-flopped it for a change.  

I went to a bar by myself (okay it was a posh Italian restaurant's bar, but still).  

I didn't finish a single book, but I started many.

I discovered a new love in writing.  

I kayaked UP a river.  

My body was healed the next day after a friend prayed for me.  Wow.  


(Disclaimer:  This isn't completely a high-light reel, I've left out many events, memories, people, etc.  obviously.)  But it's way past my bedtime.  I kinda wanna keep writing! (I kinda wanna hot dog! - youtube ref. again, please ask me about this one if you don't know it, the laughs are worth the few minutes of your time).    


2012 was the most eventful year probably ever for me.  I had NO idea what this New Year's Eve would look like.  Had no idea David wouldn't really be in the script this year - and even though he still sort of was, it wasn't how I thought it would look.  I had no idea that I'd be moving to Thailand, that I wouldn't be teaching at Northbrook anymore, that I wouldn't be living in downtown Fort Worth, that I'd be moving across the world with Nellie Lutz, that my life would get more and more ironic.  Every person in my world here in Asia wasn't on my radar at. all.  
Some friends that prayed for me as I was preparing to move to Thailand all prayed for the same things - individually, but they all said the same thing - this year would be restorative for me, one with joy and adventure.  Check, check and check.  Almost 6 months down, 5 to go!  Thankfully that's not where the joy and adventure stops - that's just how life with Jesus is!  i.t.'s.a.w.e.s.o.m.e.
It is now 4: 40 AM, January 1st, 2013.  I may have a general idea of what the next 6 months will look like, but beyond June, I don't have a clue. I am 27 and single, you can guess where I'd like this year to go.  And about those resolutions - meh, later.  ;)  
I'm really looking forward to finding out what 2013 has in store.  No matter what it is, even if it doesn't look good, it will turn out to be.  There is always something to learn if not to enjoy.   
Goodness I could continue writing but I DID only sleep a few hours last night on a bus from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, then spent today walking around Chiang Mai.  Rang in the new year tonight with dear friends back at home in Chiang Rai where we watched thousands of lanterns ascend into the air at midnight, fireworks light up from every neighborhood around, and a hysterical marathon of New Girl Season 1.  

... wait... 

... Bangkok???  

See you in 2013, blogger  ;)  

Lantern Festival Info.

Check out the blog "Eat. Phrae. Love" on my sidebar for information on what the Yi Peng/Loikratong festival means.

We sent up prayers for the Light of the World and His truth to be recognized, while participating in the beautiful cultural event.  :)  

Yi Peng, and then some.

There is SO MUCH TO TELL about my Thanksgiving weekend.  I'm not going to make you read a NOVEL describing my wonderfully packed Thanksgiving break, so I'll start with just one chapter - the Loikratong Festival, or "Lantern Festival," and more specifically, the opening ceremony called "Yi Peng."

It deserves a stand-alone blog post, anyway.

Nellie & I planned on spending time with our friends in Chiang Mai this weekend, particularly on Saturday evening for the Lantern Festival.  After attending the last morning of the educators' conference, we checked out of our conference hotel and into another one of our favorite hotels in Thailand (so quaint).  I decided that I couldn't take my grown out roots anymore and would go get a hair cut/hi-light.  I was going for the "natural ombre" look, but then realized that it just looked like really poor-kept roots that needed some tlc.  My thinking with ombre was "Well, if I can't be Mrs. Timberlake, then I can at least have her hairstyle."  

%-) 
those are my google-y eyes at the thought of Justin Timberlake.  

Kidding. 
but, not really.  
The man cutting my hair didn't know "ombre," so I went with blonde again (thankful for how far the dollar goes over here!).  
You likey???  

Okay it's a bit of a fancy pic, I'm not sure how I got the lighting to happen that way and I looked like a vampire without the sepia tone.  This is the only one I had of my hair, though, except for one where I'm wearing a fake mustache.
Sepia it is, then.   

But that's not what this story is about.  

Well.  My hair was finished a little after 5 PM, and I noticed I had a missed call from Nellie.  Our Chiang Mai friends needed to leave by 5 PM to drive out to the festival, and it was 5:15 when I found this out!  NOOOO!!!!!  We SO wanted to get to do this festival with our friends, it's a very special thing for the Thai culture.  We were SUPER bummed, and although Nellie could've gone by herself, she was selfless and didn't go without me.  :)  awww.  I got on a song-tao (taxi) to drive home, and after taking me to the wrong hotel first, he stopped because an Asian couple needed a ride.  

Divinity at work and I didn't even know it.  

The guy first asked if the driver spoke English, and when he said no, I said, "Well I do, can I help?"  He handed me a paper for the driver with the Thai words "Lantern Festival" written on it.  

PERF.

He said the words in English even though it was written in Thai. 

(me): "Are you trying to go to Loikratong??  I'm trying to go, too!"  
(him): "Do you want to go with us and split the cost??"  

UM CHYES. 

The couple hopped in the taxi while our driver continued onto my hotel.  When we got there, I hurried out and said, "Okay wait right here!"  I ran inside, spieled it all to Nellie in about 30 seconds, she ran and got her purse and we joined this cute Asian couple on an hour long ride to the university where the festival was held.  

We connected very quickly with our new friends from Tokyo, who were in Chiang Mai for 6 days on a visit to a massage school.  They already have careers but do massages as a hobby.  He's a doctor of internal medicine, can't remember what she does.  Nobu and Chie.  :)  He told us an incredible story about getting to answer the call, "Is there a doctor on flight?!" on his way to Thailand.  He was one of those always prepared, quick-thinking kind of guys.  And they laughed at everything.  Very good friends to be with that particular night.  When we got to the festival, we planned on meeting up with our Chiang Mai friends but soon realized this would be a challenge.  

THOUSANDS of people.  T H O U S A N D S.  We decided to stick with our new Japanese friends because they would need our Thai phones to call a taxi anyway.  We wandered around looking for the main stage, when all of the sudden the crowds began ooh-ing and awe-ing.  Hundreds and maybe even a couple thousand lanterns were sent into the air all at once.  IT. WAS. BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!  Photo opp!  :)  

After several pictures, much more walking, and a scary 5 minutes of all getting lost and separated from each other, we finally made it to the ceremony site.  Here we are sending off our lanterns:  

Here's our sweet company for the night:  

And just some others sending fancy lanterns into the sky... 

We never connected with the original friends we intended to go with, but we sure did enjoy the presence of this adorable couple.  We all worked together to light and send off lanterns and get pictures and videos of it all. 

AND 

THEN

As we were leaving the ceremony site, the wind started picking up.  Giant raindrops began to fall.  We turned a corner onto the little side street next to the river, and 

I swear I thought the apocalypse was starting.  

The wind had picked up so quickly that there was debris flying EVERYWHERE.  The lanterns that had gotten stuck in the trees during take-off and were already on fire made it even crazier, plus people were panicking trying to pack up their bbq's and picnics in the pitch black night, trying to put out lit lanterns that hadn't been sent off into the sky yet.  At one point, we all had to dodge a FLYING, FLAMING LANTERN that was not much higher than a few feet above our heads.  It looked like Hollywood... The Wizard of Oz, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Volcano, Twister, any other movie where crowds are dodging large flaming objects that shouldn't be flying through the air.  As scary as it was, it was still more hilarious.  

UNTIL THE RAIN STARTED.  AND THEN IT WAS FLIPPIN' HILARIOUS.  Now everybody was rushing.  And when I say everybody, I don't just mean us 4 humble little foreigners.  I mean HUNDREDS UPON HUNDREDS of people, kids, babies, grandmas, dogs.  

There was no escaping it.  We were bound to get drenched and had nothing to do except embrace it.  We weaved in and out of hundreds of motorbikes, taxis and trucks along gravelly, rocky, now mud-puddly roads, laughing hysterically whilst trying to see through the TEXAS-SIZED RAINDROPS.  We thought at the beginning that it was tornado, then when our Japanese friends began talking about typhoons, we thought "omg we're in a typhoon!  in thailand!  omg we're in a typhoon in thailand and it's raining fire!!!"  

  

After about 15 minutes of running through the mud and grass in the pouring rain, I thought to myself, 

"Of course I would choose to be wearing my wedge high heels today, of course I would.  With new hi-lights, freshly blow-dried and styled hair, my long jeans and leather purse."  

The price you pay for fashion.  You just never know when you're gonna get stuck in an apocalyptic Hollywood windstorm where it's raining giant flaming lanterns.  Good thing we had our brilliant Japanese doctor friends with us to save the day.

we might as well've jumped in a lake, 

so when we finally reached the place where our song-tao would pick us up, I had no hesitations squatting down in the tall, muddy grass to hide behind a taxi van, somewhat protected from the thought-to-be-apocalypse/Thailand typhoon.  

It ended up just being a really bad rainstorm.  

=/  

haha. 

I did almost blow over one time, though.  That was scary.  I've never felt like I'd be picked up by the wind, but Chie, Nellie & I had to grab each other once and brace ourselves.  

So we're crouched behind this taxi, arms around each other to stay warm, and Nobu reaches in his backpack and takes out one of those hand-warmers that you use when you ski.  He had us take turns holding it on our necks so we wouldn't catch cold.  Then, he took plastic sacks out of his bag and he put them on our heads to protect from the cold rain!  And it worked!  So of course I had to snap a pic - how often does this happen?  

I felt that this picture deserved the "x-large" option.

That's probably a flaming lantern in the background.

Nobu even had an extra shirt in his bag "just in case" that he put on when we got on our taxi.  if you've heard my planes, trains & automobiles story through canada, this might remind you of someone else I've traveled with.  ultra-prepared for any event when all I have to offer is a leather purse and wedge high-heels.  

Y'all need to know that the hour-long song-tao drive back to Chiang Mai included 12 shoulder-to-shoulder sopping wet people from 5 different countries, and it ended with Nobu and Chie giving me and Nellie hand and arm massages.  

Classic.  

Seasonal Things

This, 

 This, 

 And THIS came in the mail last week :)  

My parents sent a package to Thailand with some things I've needed to replenish as well as some sweet *sweet* treats!  The touches of Autumn (I've gotten used to saying that since my ESL kids think of "falling" when I say Fall) have blessed me.  Even my mom's handwriting on the yellow sticky note labels she used blayessed mah hearrrrt.  I have to say, aside from the dark chocolate, flavored coffee and Christmas CD, my favorite part was seeing my brother's Commencement Announcement for his graduation from law school.  Can't believe my younger brother is about to be a lawyer!  I'm totally bummed to miss it, but thankful to have received his commencement announcement - makes me feel like I'm still part of it all!   

Also got a new outfit that I totally love and that fits PERFECTLY - Momma knows me well!  

Youda Youda best!   

new outfit and my mint chocolate cappuccino.
in case you ever need to know - one of the ways to my heart is through mint dark chocolate.
green smoothies, and mint dark chocolate.
okay a really good chardonnay, green smoothies, and mint dark chocolate.
oh and dancing.
okay dancing,  a really good chardonnay, I don't need to keep going, every time I do this I think of The Jerk,
all I need is this ash tray.
... and mint dark chocolate.

It's okay if you didn't get that,
but I really hope you did.  

Besides the festivities that arrived in the mail last week, Nellie & I opened our Christmas Box Sunday night!  We put on Christmas music and sat on my floor beaming over some random Christmas decorations we got from a family who moved back to the states.  The decorations are simple and we split them, but they are a happy touch to our rooms.  I know it's Thanksgiving this week, but it is the beginning of the Holiday season and it's great fun.  :)

haha.  cute, though.

This evening I spent my time baking homemade pumpkin and apple pies with Kate Pennington, her mom Julie and a high school student at CRICS named Kalyn.  It was a rush to get 16 pies made, I looked up one time and saw a piece of dough flying across the kitchen, unintentionally.  Hilarious.  It was bizzy bizzy but LOTS of fun!!  Reminded me of DC Cupcakes or Cake Boss.  Maybe someday I'll go into the baking or cooking business??  Eh, I'm pretty sure I said the same thing after I cut Mandy's hair ("Maybe someday I'll go into the salon business?").  It felt good to get to bake today.  Two of the weird cultural jumps to make in a new country are a) being able to locate ingredients for cooking and b) being able to READ those ingredients.  Thai doesn't quite look like English, huh?  

I'm headed to Chiang Mai tomorrow for an International Christian Educator's Conference with teachers from all over the world, I can't wait to let my networking, people-meeting energy come alive for 2 whole days with INTERNATIONAL EDUCATORS!   

When I have some time soon, I DO have more processing of life to blog, 
as well as some precious stories from the 2nd grade classroom.  
Stay tuned! 





*Yes, I love Jesus, and I appreciate a good Chardonnay.  
Especially when it's paired with mint dark chocolate.  

SeeFood :)

Nellie and I got bold with our dinner tonight.  At the Night Bazaar, a place where you can shop and eat in an area that's kind of like a food court, we decided to finally try the grilled fish that we often see and smell cooking everywhere.

As you can tell, we devoured it.  

The fish was seasoned with salt and pepper spices and was stuffed with stir-fried basil.  We ate it with sticky rice and fresh fruit drinks.  

The food in Thailand is delicious.  Cooking is one of my de-stressors;  there's an art and a science to it.  Must learn how to cook more Thai food.    

A group from Texas is in town visiting us, so I'm looking forward to spending some time with them this weekend.  Next week will be pretty busy, so I'm going to try and update again this weekend since I'm not sure when I'll be able to next.  We have school Monday - Wednesday, and then we'll be headed to Chiang Mai!  I am attending an International Christian Educator's Conference that I'm actually really excited about.  Always wanting to learn... good thing I work in a school.  :)  Thanksgiving plans aren't completely set yet, but I think we'll be attending a big Thanksgiving dinner somewhere.  

Car plans - if we're able to meet up with the man we're buying a car from, we'll be coming home from Chiang Mai in our new car!  It's a Mitsubishi Evolution, unless you're Nellie and then it's a Mishubishi.  I'm sure it's the same thing.  ;)  Which reminds me, I had a student today write the word "thing" only he wrote "thang," and he is from the southern US.  PRESH.  Melted this Texan's heart, my students are the cutest.  

I'm trying to update more often so you can see more of my daily life here.  So - I'll probably be back on blogger tomorrow.  :)  

Until then, sweet thangs.... 

katieloveschachi

Few quick notes...

I got my work permit on Friday, and my Visa was renewed on Saturday!  Hooray, I can stay in Thailand, and I'm officially a teacher here!

Nellie & I are *probably* headed to Chiang Mai this weekend to purchase a CAR!  Yayyyyyy! Prayers over that are very appreciated!

Also, I created a YouTube Channel - it's quickest for uploading videos.  Let's see how many social media websites I can join.  
www.youtube.com/katieloveschachi 

I don't know anybody named Chachi.  

But if I did, I would love him.   

Joy Wins in Match Against Culture Shock

I met culture shock last week.

He went by the name of "Field Trip."

Kinder, 1st and 2nd grades went on a field trip last week to the Jinnaluck Paper Factory in Mae Sai, a town on the border of Thailand and Myanmar.

I could get detailed and dramatic, but I won't - mostly because thinking through the details of that day cloud the fun that was woven through it.  So, all there is to say is that I tried to plan a field trip to a place I'd never been about an hour and a half away and in a country whose language I do not speak.

=]

It was quite different from the regular trip down I-35 to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History.

And it was indeed humbling.  
::sigh::
again.  

But, the kids LOVED it, and so did some of the parents!  We saw the steps to making beautiful paper out of mulberry trees and banana leaves, then got to create some pictures ourselves.  Aside from the surprise best-iced-coffee-I've-ever-had-in-my-LIFE that the adults were served halfway through the morning, the best part was watching my kids c r e a t e for hours.  The joy that was poured onto me from children outweighed the fact that it was the most stressful day I've experienced since I left the Fort.  

Today we received our dried paper creations in the mail, wrapped up in cute mulberry paper with a paper ribbon and bow, with a beautiful paper card and a Thai message inside it.   

Our first field trip was fun, it was a learning experience for all of us, and it was therefore a success.  :)