thailand's smiling faces

Trenton here. So here we have emily drinking out of a coconut, and the grand palace... And some monks. But i think they're imposters because i saw one taking pictures with his cellphone!









This is a hut we stayed in. Underneath us are bantams and their little chicks. They woke me up, and disturbed my meditating.













































here are some monkeys, and below is a blowfish. He puffed up right in my hand! Twice. But he is poisonous so i did not eat him. But i did eat the monkey. Tastes like chicken : )






Emily says i have to tell you i did not eat the monkey!

















Emily is sad because i really did eat the monkey. We are going through a small stream covered by mangrove trees. The trees are basically in mud and water, like a swamp.

















So i overcame the fear of drowning and swam with the fishes! So many fishes with so many colors. Yes i do teach enlish. I could not catch any fishees but i did touch a few. We stayed in a mountain village and a resort. The pictures are not in order, just so you know.
Emily got a tattoo and a piercing. One of them is fake.


































i made a sand-turtle and called him squirmy. i also rode a elephant. All by myself when the trainer fell off. And then we went bamboo rafting and emily got wet.






























































below is a little girl who's actually a cute monkey dressed in human clothes.








i had two one hour long massages that day :)

christmas in chiang mai

we're doing our utmost to forget that tomorrow is our favourite holiday of the year... to block out memories of stuffing and turkey, family and laughter, stockings and candles, and simply focus on the gifts of this very moment. however, it's hard. there's something so lovely, so warm about christmas. and for all of you experiencing it, we pray it's a very merry one.

as for us, we're going trekking :) we've arrived in chiang mai... a huge yet strangely town-like city in the north of thailand. today was spent shopping in the sprawling, inexpensive markets, and being entertained by a live monkey show :)

what with it being the flower festival, commemorating the king's 60th year of reign, the city is packed with visitors from all across the world... so tomorrow we're escaping into northern thailand on a two-day trekking trip.

highlights of the thailand trip so far? our snorkelling trip in ko lanta... the waters were clear to the bottom, and we saw fish of every colour... we are now officially addicted to ariel's 'whole new world'. after snorkeling we picnicked on a secluded beach... we were served rice and curry by the thai, and then lounged around in talcom-powder sand.

we've met so many funky folks from all walks of life; in Krabi (on the way to the airport, two days ago) we took a spontaneous boat trip (in one of thailand's long-tailed boats) with some newly-made friends down the river to visit a local cave (where we rock climbed) and then to a fishing farm (where we held all kinds of fish, including a blow fish and a 'block' fish)...

sorry for the randomness of this blog. i am very sleepy. we will write again after the trek. supposedly it includes a bamboo rafting trip, another elephant ride, sleeping overnight in a village, and lots of walking :)

may Christ fill your spirits to overflowing.

elephant ears and crystal clear waters

you can't come to thailand and not ride an elephant... or so we've heard :) so today, on the southern tip of thailand (in the province of krabi), we rode the thick-skinned, beautiful animals, and then fed them bananas.

it was a neat experience... a slow-trotting, lumbering ride through the jungle. our driver had a huge smile and spoke minimal english. we sat aboard a strapped-on seat and passed rubber trees (which were tapped to bleed rubber) and countless kinds of foliage.

currently we're at an internet cafe on the beach; the water is literally sky-blue, and clear to the bottom. we're taking an express boat to phi phi island tomorrow, and going snorkelling. phi phi is known for its gorgeous beaches... actually, the leonardo decaprio movie 'the beach' was filmed there. we wish we could share our pictures with you... that will have to wait until we return to korea. just picture heaven :)

one last note... trent had the best massage of his life this morning. it was an hour of pulling, prodding, and even standing on his body to produce utter relaxation...

thanks for reading our blog guys. we love staying in touch with you this way.

peace!

from under the sun...

so much to tell you, so little time:

i am sitting here in the open lobby of the Bed and Boat, surrounded on one side by banana trees and orchids. on the other side of me, the traffic is streaming by... bike taxis, motorbike taxis, and metre-taxis are all begging for passengers. upstairs, trenton is stretched out on our huge bed, watching thai tv, and relaxing after a day of intense shopping and sightseeing in the warmth of thailand's rays.

bangkok is, as one tourist put it, 'insane.' its 8 million people are all crowded onto boat-taxis that ferry up and down the river... today we took a boat tour which not only allowed us to encounter 'river markets' (vendors selling items from their boats) but which let us meet another couple from sydney australia, who we then lunched with, and then accompanied to 'the sleeping buddha.'

this is a very buddhist-influenced country, with hindu undertones... and while trent and i toured the buddha's grounds, my heart felt very torn for the people. i actually felt spiritually heavy.

we then toured the king's grand palace, ordained with gold and glass, and also entertaining very heavy buddhist influences. we hired a tour guide, who taught us the meanings behind all of the many demons and monkeys surrounding the buildings... we weren't allowed to bear our arms or legs, so had to borrow skirts and pants for the occasion. to top it all off, i drank from a coconut :)

after that we hopped aboard the ferry and visited the ever-popular, foreigner-packed 'kau song' road... where trent and i bargained up a storm. we bought authentic thai clothes, bracelets, leather 'diesel' watches, plugs (for emily :)) and more... all at a very reasonable price.

by this time the sunlight had turned a corner and darkness was falling. we ferried back to our hotel, and ate at one of the many 'street' restaurants... tonight we had noodles and duck.

tomorrow we fly to the beaches of ko lanta (where the tsunami hit awhile back)... we will be staying in a resort there. our plans include 2-hour massages, snorkeling, and lying on the hot sand :)

it's a fruit-filled palm-tree paradise of beautiful people and sweet deals. we are resisting the urge to move here :)

love y'all! talk again soon.

an artist's musings

years ago i wrote a song for my husband, which got lost somewhere along the way... this past week, i wrote my first 'worship' song... it was inspired by a devotion trent and i read together where Peter, one of Jesus' disciples, is asked by Jesus three times if he loves him... after responding, "Yes Lord", Jesus then tells him to 'feed his sheep.'

it feels so good to strum my own chords and belt out my own lyrics. i love that God can pour through us creatively...

anyway, i just wanted to share this milestone with you. i'm sorry trenton doesn't write on this blog -- he isn't much of a writer, but he approves of everything i write before it's posted. most of the time :)

we are off to thailand for a couple of weeks, starting this sunday. we'll still be checking our e-mail and trying to post blogs, but we just want to wish you the holiest of Christmases. we love and miss you!

the irony of it all

saint nick must be rolling in his grave. after all, he was a devout Christ-follower. the very beauty of saint nick is the fact that he loved people... and he did this because he was doing as Christ did. giving gifts to the undeserved. i find it so sadly ironic that a holiday birthed by God's Son has been overriden by a man who only wished to honour that baby in a manger.

this christmas, trenton and i are striving to share the good news of Jesus with our students. which brings up another sadly ironic factor: while we are teaching in a 'christian' school, there is no mention of Christ whatsoever in our staff meetings or classrooms.

where oh where has my dear Lord gone?

scoping out the slopes

boarding and skiing in korea are relatively new phenomenons, as we discovered at 'phoenix park'. thousands of young folks piled onto gondolas and chair lifts for this year's first official weekend of boarding the slopes.

having lived near the Rockies, our hearts weren't set on anything 'high' -- but we were pleasantly surprised by the piles of soft powder and the length of the runs. true, only the black and green runs were open -- so we stuck to the black (which is equivelant to a canadian blue) but it made for a pleasant, albeit expensive, saturday excursion.

some quirks and delights:

-families dressed to the nines boarding together

-mothers taking their children on the gondola just to give them a toboggan ride at the top

-hundreds of cellphones snapping pictures everywhere, all the time

-hundreds of people collapsing on the hills in front of you as you manouever your way down

-huge speakers blaring out korean christmas carols and avril lavigne all across the mountains

-a fake tiger appearing out of nowhere in the middle of the woods

-countless air hoses to clean off your boards and skis before returning them

true, it felt lonely to be some of the only white people there, but in the end, God is everywhere, as evidenced by the beauty of nature and the diversity of the people surrounding us.

my cocoon

once again my husband has come through for me.
i'm the kind of person who needs a 'hide-away' spot... a cocoon of sorts, where i can listen to james blunt and tom petty, and paint. who would have thought that in our tiny korean apartment such a spot would emerge?

just beyond our patio, where we hang our laundry, sits a ladder, which climbs into a tiny attic room just big enough for a table and chair. so trenton, seeing my need, carved out my niche. he set up a computer and my paints, as well as a heating lamp (yes, korea is now in the full swing of winter -- snow is plastering the ground!) ... and there i sit and paint.

i am so thankful. spending time in my cocoon give me the strength to 'spread my wings and fly' .

girls just wanna have fun

sacha, my 'seoul' sister from pusan, met me in seoul this weekend for a chicks' chill-out weekend. we craved shopping, deep talks and munchies :) we stayed overnight at a korean run international bed and breakfast -- jonnowon... and hit as many areas of seoul as possible in the pursuit of materialistic happiness... lol.

we found shawls, sweaters, christmas lights, gifts for our hubbies back home... and we practiced our minimal korean bargaining at one of korea's most famous markets -- namdaemun -- which boasts 10,000 shops. at night we hit up one of the local 'norae bangs' which literally means 'singing room' where we belted out songs like 'dancing queen' and 'i will survive.'

one our most amusing finds was a pair of hip jeans which, when turned over, revealed a rear plastered with swear words. we couldn't believe it! (see below)...

perhaps one of our highlights was playing in the piles of leaves... gigantic orange korean leaves which we threw all over the sidewalk in childlike frenzy :)

i praise God for deep friendships like these. after all, sometimes a girl just wants to have fun!