No Monday Blues for Me

Another great morning in Khon Kaen.  Betsy and I went to Starbucks for coffee and muffins.  It was nice getting to hang out with her and hear about all that is going on with her and the women she ministers to here on campus.  Afterwards, we went to Tops for a little grocery shopping.  I love going to the grocery store here and seeing all the different things they have.  It is also fun to see American items with Thai writing on it.  For example: Colgate toothpaste.  It looks like a tube you would see in the states except that it has Thai writing on the side of the tube.  

I bought my favorite Thai snack - grape Yoyos.  It is grape flavored gummies.  I also like the Lychee Yoyos but I haven't seen those in a long time.  I also bought some fruit mentos.  

Speaking about snacks and such, one interesting thing is the gum.  Blaa gave me some gum the other day and it tasted Like a cough drop.  I was like "whoa, this tastes Like a Hall's cough drop"; I looked at the package and it had mentholyptus in it.  It definitley has a whole new taste.

By the way, Starbucks isn't cheaper in Thailand.  You pay pretty much the same price.  I was going to buy a coffee mug with Bangkok and a tuktuk on it but they wanted 420 baht for it which translates to $12.50 in U.S. currency.  Most things are less expensive here so it throws me off when something pretty much costs the same as the States.  They really need to get a Khon Kaen mug.  They really only had the big tourist cities such as Bangkok, Phuket and Chiang Mai.

My feet and ankles are still swollen.  Unfortunately, I left the houseshoes I bought in Bangkok at Julie's.  Actually, all my extremities are swollen.  I can't wear my ring and my watch ends up getting too tight on my wrist so I take it off as the day progresses.  Anybody who knows me, knows I always have a watch on.  Well, the one extremity not swollen is my head. Ha! Ha!

I had lunch with the Lewis': Mark, Sherry, and Sophie today at one of my favorite restaurants in Khon Kaen: a Vietnamese restaurant that I do not know the name of.  You take rice paper and make your own little wraps to eat.  They bring out a couple of bowls of lettuce and fresh greens, a tray with different vegetables sliced up thinly, a plate with meat  that is sort of like sausage but not really like the sausage we eat (it isn't highly seasoned or spicy), some bowls of sauce that have peanuts on top, and moist rice paper.  The food is really good and I love eating here!  I am really enjoying getting to know the Lewis family.

After a small 30 minute nap this afternoon, Sano gave me a ride on her motorcycle to the Firpo's house.  It was just a ride within the same neighborhood; she was headed to the Hunt's who live next door to the Firpo's.  It did give me a chance to get a picture of the Hunt kids since I didn't get a picture of then the night before.  I get so excited about spending time with everyone that I forget to take a picture of them.

Tonight, I had dinner with the Firpo's: Brian, Terri, Will, Matt, Amy and Caleb.  Terri is a fantastic cook.  I loved spending time with the Firpo's.  After dinner, Terri and I went to Oasis, a shopping center and went to a bookstore.  I bought a couple of books in Thai.  We went to another Thai shop and then we went to Swensen's to have ice cream.  I promise we didn't use the bookstore as an excuse to leave the kids with Brian to go get ice cream.

My time here is flying by too quickly!