New Beginnings

Waking up at 7am, on a rather humid, 30 degree Friday morning...is starting to feel a bit more like home. We're in a hotel - Nantana Garden View - only with a bunch of European, pot bellied men. It's a little strange...but after our expedition to the beach yesterday we realized just how prominent white men with their Thai ladies can be in this part of Thailand. We also mistakenly sat in the gay part of the beach, hence a giant rainbow flag posted behind us which we didn't notice. Caroline: "Did you notice, that it's only men with their Thai boys all over this part of the beach?" Sure enough, as we ventured down the beach we noticed a few more women.... only a few. Not too much of a shock for me, but it's strange to be out numbered.

In terms of projects...we are meeting with Tiew today so she can help us make some phone calls to projects that don't speak English very well. I'm hopefully meeting a gentlemen named Paul from the Camilian Centre, as well as the Canadians that run the Mercy Center in Pattaya. I feel like I needed to establish connections right away, but we've only been here for two days, and we still have jet lag. Patience I guess.

On Saturday morning Sam Cohen - a Brit, will be picking us up and taking us to a yacht club. This is an opportunity for the girls to be able to ask him some questions about the city and culture since their fairly new to pretty much everything here. Our language is starting to come a long, but the different tones on some of the words is a tad bit confusing. The food has been, from my point of view, amazing. There's a giant mall - Carrefour - close to our house that has everything, including a Subway, DQ etc. Very convenient but at the same time I'd like to venture more into the Thai parts of the city than the westernized parts.

Later Saturday - will be our scavenger hunt around the city. The girls will get their objectives to travel around the city and take pictures with certain objects, and find certain facts - an Amazing Race type idea. Because there's only four of us, I decided that we'd stick together as a group of four and then I'd stand back and let them take over so I can see how well they communicate with the locals and how they negotiate taxi fees and songtao rides around the city.


A few beach pics below...and a job posting lol



Right up my alley!