December

This last weekend, Sarah and I decided to stay in Chachoengsao to save money and to take a much needed rest from traveling. Thankfully we did, because I developed a debilitating illness!

On Friday, we met up with some of our Thai friends Bomb, Gang, Pek and May, and went out to dinner with Kevin, Beth and the teacher who used to teach me classes - Elliot. Elliot was traveling in India for 2 months after he finished teaching and is back to visit for a week before leaving for Australia. We ate at this little place called Steak n Pizza by our apartment and much to my surprise, 2 students joined us! It was fun, because these 2 twin boys are fantastic students but drinking with them was slightly awkward. We all had a good meal and then the students left so we went to a bar down the street to chat. Elliott told us all about India and Bomb loaned us some English books that he has been collecting from past farang. It was a good night - everytime we see Bomb and Gang is sure to be a hilarious time. The next day we woke up early to go visit the Old Market. After some confusion, we finally found Banmai and were not at all impressed. The market was the smallest one so far and mostly just had food (aka dried jellyfish, disgusting). We walked around for a bit, got some smoothies and fried bananas, bartered with some people and ended up leaving. We got massages with our friend Erica and it was fantastic! After a quick nap, we went out to dinner with all the British and Irish teachers and hit the town! Our friend Calan came into town for the night as well and it was nice to relax with some English speakers. On Sunday, Sarah and I slept in finally!! we went to Big C (kinda Wal-Mart place) and ended up eating some delicious pepperoni pizza. After going home with a food coma and relaxing the rest of the day, enjoying the nice weather I decided to goto bed around 10, the earliest ever so I was very excited to be well rested. Well, then I started getting dizzy, then I got horribly, terribly sick. I cthought it was food poisoning but some of the other girls in town had a terrible stomach bug so it could have been either. I didn't get any sleep that night so obviously missed school on Monday. They took me to the Dr. and got me some medicine which worked miracles and now I'm back at school, on the mend but absolutely exhausted. One more class and then I can nap. I think Sarah and I will be staying in town again this weekend to get healthy before our big Phuket/Phi Phi vacation but we may take a daytrip to Kow Yai, a national park pretty close to us. I can't believe it's almost Christmas, with the warm weather, it doesn't feel like it. Pretty soon Sarah and I are going to be working on our travel plans after the program ends so we're very excited about that. Until after Christmas then, I miss you all and happy holidays!