December: Christmas

Okay, so I know all of you have been anxiously awaiting the promised 3rd post from the month of December, so here it is.
Christmas in Thailand... it's kinda like Christmas in July. IT'S HOT! I never knew how much weather cues affect your perception of what time of year it is and your ability to recognize that it is actually Christmas time. My Christmas was pretty amazing... here is a short summary:
Christmas day I went to some other m*s house and there were about 15 or 20 of us there for a good american breakfast. Had great fellowship and was able to hang out with the other Sara Beth and Lindsay (the girls who work w/ the deaf here that are about my age, but i hardly ever get to see). So that was good. After we had been there a few hours my grandparents decided we should go home (to their apartment) to do gifts. My grandpa was driving (in BKK... on the left side of the road... in BKK). First piece you have to wrap your mind around. We get in the car to leave our friends' house and the car won't start. So one of the other guys there jumped us off. Not a problem, just took a few minutes in the 90 degree heat. Well, we get about half way home and the car stops... as we are driving, in one of the middle lanes, in BKK. Try to wrap your mind around that. try to imagine the worst traffic you've ever been in in atlanta... okay now times that by 50 and throw in the fact that you're white and don't speak the language. Sooo... my grandpa gets out of the car as we are being honked at by crazy drivers and pushes the car to the side of the road and into a parking lot. Then he leaves and mumbles kinda under his breath that he was gonna go find a battery. So me and Sybbie are sitting in the car (heat index of at least 95 that day) in the middle of a hotel parking lot. He didn't even feel the need to put it into a parking space? haha He comes back about 5 mins later saying i don't see anywhere down that way pointing right of the hotel.. so i'm going to go the other way. Well, at this time I decide I better go with him b/c even tho I'm still very limited on my language capabilities, I do know more language than he does. So we go to three different places and finally find someone that understands what we need. We got it taken care of and were home opening presents about 2 1/2 hours after we left the Christmas breakfast. We opened gifts and then just spend good time together before we decided to go see Narnia. It was good and had pretty amazing parallels for the gospel. I recommend it. After the movie we walked around the city looking at all the Christmas lights. There were more people on the streets and in the city that day than I've ever seen in my life. I'll post some pics of the mobs of people. We decided to go to Dairy Queen for dinner. It wasn't turkey and dressing, but it was still satisfying. it was really good to be able to spend Christmas w/ my grandparents. I'm very thankful to have been blessed with the opportunity of serving alongside them my first few months.