Eating our way through Thailand

As I was looking through all of my pictures from Thailand to put together my facebook album I realized something scary. A surprising amount of our pictures were of us eating some type of food. We spent one week in Koh Samui, an island off the east side of Thailand. There we had great pad thai, seafood and even hamburgers!! It was amazing to have beef again!! On the way home we spent two days in Bangkok. Stephen and I stayed at a different hotel than the team so we had one day on our own and one day with the whole team. We ate at the coolest restaurant right along the Chao Pharya River which runs down the west side of the city. So, although there was a lot more to our trip than food, it seemed appropriate to start off by showing you all the pics we have of us eating our way through Thailand!

Happy 2009!!

Happy New Year Friends!!  I am leaving to visit Thailand until Jan. 14th so I won't be blogging for awhile!!  Hopefully I will have fun pictures and stories when we return!!  

We brought in 2009 while driving Mark, Jan and Jennifer Magers to the Hyderabad airport.  They were so great and we really enjoyed our time with them.  It seemed like a good thing for their family to come over here- for them and for us.  

Because we were driving at midnight we decided to celebrate the New Year again with all our friends living in central standard time.  So we woke up, made pancakes and watched the Fox New Years show via slingbox!!  It was fun to watch the ball drop and to yell "Happy New Year," even though it was 11:30 in the morning.  

Hope all of you had a fun New Years Eve!!  

Funny Faces

Last year I got to go over to Beau and Laynie Snider's house. They had done a great job decorating but I have to admit my favorite part was the collection of pictures they had on their refrigerator. They had taken pictures of all their friends and family making "the ugliest face that you can." I thought it was so hilarious and have wanted to do it ever since.

When we were setting up for our Christmas party we tried to take pictures looking really disgusting. They are pretty funny so I thought I should share them with you all...

Who do you think looks the funniest??

Christmas in India

We had a unique Christmas this year.  I wouldn't ever choose to be away from my family during the holiday season but we did manage to have a good time.  We tried to incorporate everyone's holiday traditions into a week of fun.  We baked and decorated cookies, opened presents that the WET team brought from our families, and had a hot chocolate bar.  We ate so much food it was crazy.  We had two gift exchanges with our team: one with a two dollar gift (100 rupees) and one with a good Secret Santa present.  Stephen got a box full of 100 rupees worth of bananas which I personally think is the most hilarious white elephant gift ever.    Get excited too because we got a Wii!!  Stephen did not know about it so it was a huge surprise!!  We are still searching for a transformer so that it will not blow up in India's weird electricity but we can not wait to use it!!  I'm sure we will have hours and hours of fun - I'm thinking that we need to do a team golf tournament sometime soon!!  I do not prefer being away from my family on the holidays but we were blessed with another great Christmas.  

Nothing too Exciting...

Right now I feel like there isn't anything too exciting to write about. The most exciting events are to come. Right now several of our friends are on their way to visit us in India!! Megan, Pam, Heather, Jason, Ray and Dave are all going to arrive in Hyderabad on Tuesday morning. We are so excited to see some new faces.

Imagine spending 24 hours a day with the same 9 people for an entire year... We love each other and are building some lasting friendships but it is going to be so refreshing to see some other Americans. It will be fun to have someone to tell a story to who hasn't heard it 5 times already.

I am nervous though. Because our team spends so much time together we have just developed a way that we interact with each other. Most of it involves inside jokes that will not be funny to the normal person. Hopefully we can still socialize like normal human beings.

Random fact of the day...
You can not get regular cow milk in India. Although we have a grocery store with lots of stuff, India is seriously lacking in the dairy department. We have found two choices of goat milk: box or bag. I had forgotten that box milk is weird until I was talking with mom and Billy the other day while making pancakes and they saw it. We have tried it from the bag because it is a lot cheaper but it is so difficult to manage that we have settled on the box.



You can thank my self-timer for this amazing pic.

Thanksgiving Pics

I just realized that I hadn't posted any of our pictures from Thanksgiving...

Our team plus Saji and his family gathered around the turkey!

Saji and Blake making sure Stephen was carving the turkey correctly.

It would not be Thanksgiving if Brittan and I didn't peel 1000 potatoes!


Everyone getting ready to feast!!

We have so much to be thankful for!!

Electricity

There are three stores in Hyderabad that sell imported products. They import the strangest things (example: the tins of sardines that have been there for the entire 6 months we've been here) but also things that can make your day (example: Funfetti icing.) The 99 Rupee store is probably my favorite. It is close to our house in City Center, the nicest mall in Hyderabad.

Last week we went in to try to gather up the ingredients you need to make a Thanksgiving feast. We needed evaporated milk, pie crust, french friend onions for green bean casserole and cream of mushroom soup. We park our car and head into the mall only to find out that the store is closed in the middle of the day and noone could tell us why. Usually in India this would not surprise you but in this mall it was odd.

Today the 99 rupee store finally reopened after 10 days!! When we asked why the manager told us it was "because we didn't pay our electric bill."

Does this happen in the US?? I don't think so but I am not sure.