Heading into Hua Hin

On the day after Christmas, my family took off to explore the rest of Thailand. It was sad to see them go, and it was disappointing that we couldn't travel around more, but it was best for us that we didn't try to stretch the kids too much more. They were already starting to get tired, and Cade especially was ready to go home since he hadn't been feeling well.

So that afternoon, we reserved a taxi to take us into Hua Hin, about a 30 minute drive from Dolphin Bay. My goal was to see a bit more of the culture, have some authentic Thai street food, maybe see some elephants, pick up some Thai ingredients in a grocery store, and maybe get a few souvenirs.

Eric went to the front desk to sign us up for the taxi. They told him they would take us to the "market village". That was perfect. Exactly what I wanted. I thought.

When we arrived, I discovered that it was not at all a market village. It was "Market Village". A mall. Full of expats. Full of white people. With a Starbucks right in front. I laughed out loud. Literally.

So we checked out the mall. It was a lot nicer than a Korean mall, but it wasn't particularly exciting. I told Eric that I wanted to go for a walk down the street outside just to see what we could see.

As it turned out, we couldn't see much of anything. It was hot in the city. Really hot. So, we walked up the street a little bit and basically turned around and headed back as soon as the kids started whining.

We ended up having some boring ol' pepperoni pizza. It reminded me of some of our experiences here in Seoul. We leave the house with these notions of what our experience will be and end up settling for something incredibly ordinary. And then paying way too much for bad pizza to make up for it! It's always some kind of experience, even if it's not the one pictured in my mind!

After lunch, Kennedy and I went to the grocery store while Eric and Cade picked up tacky souvenirs in the mall. We checked out the interesting snacks (15 baht is about 50 cents) and we got some satay and curry seasonings--things that are hard to find here in Seoul. Then we went to meet our driver.

We relaxed a bit on the lawn when we got back to the resort.

We let the kids play with some of the kids at the resort even though we probably shouldn't have since Cade still wasn't feeling well.

We had a light dinner at the resort that evening.

I had Thai iced tea with nearly every meal I had in the resort restaurant, so Eric thought we needed my picture by the sign. As you can see, I was pleased.

Cade managed to stay awake through the meal, but he wasn't even hungry enough for chicken satay. He put in a special order for toast with jam, and they were happy to oblige him, thankfully.

The beach was really beautiful in the evening, especially once your eyes are trained to look straight past the ugly green fence!

I've spent the entire day poring over my students' resumes and cover letters, so that I can assign them jobs for the big research project we just began. It turns out that it takes quite awhile when not only do you have to determine whether or not they are a good fit for the job they applied for, but you also have to grade the resumes and letters themselves. It took me all day to get through one class, so I still have three to go, which does not bode well for my weekend!