Family In Thailand

During the last two weeks of August we had the gift of Iven’s little sister and mom coming to visit us in our new “home.” Our time with Mary Kay (Iven’s mom) and Ally (14 year old sister) was really delightful and a great time of memory making for all. We took a break from language school during the time they were here and ran them all around – sharing the sights, sounds, smells and people that make us love Bangkok. The unexpected highlight for Ally was the thunderstorms that characterize the rainy season here – she had never seen lightning before and was totally mesmerized. We found it quite amusing that she came all the way to Asia and the most exciting thing to her was found in the sky.  🙂 A much more expected highlight for Mary Kay (and all of us, really!) was the elephant ride we had during our stay on an island a few hours from Bangkok. High atop an elephant – the royal animal of Thailand – we tromped through a forest and over streams, and finally under the boughs of some Som Oa trees (pomellos, in English, for those of you know who what they are – a little like giant, sweet grapefruits the you eat with your hands…Kashmira’s favorite fruit). Our Issan elephant driver chatted with us in Thai as he reached up and picked a Som Oa for us to eat. There we found ourselves, barefoot, riding through the jungle and sharing a Som Oa with our elephant as our Issan driver sang us the Thai Alphabet song. It was a special little moment.