Preparations

Tomorrow we leave for Thailand for two weeks. Technically, we leave on Sunday, but our flight takes off at 2:55am. Yeah, I’m not going to bed before that. In fact, I’m going to an engagement party for my youngest cousin . . . so I’ll probably be drunk when I get to the airport. No, no I won’t. Three years ago Ian and I went to Europe for five weeks, and we attended a tequila-tasting party with this same family the night before. Yeah, the overseas flight wasn’t all that much fun. So I’ll be on my best behavior. I can, ultimately, learn from past mistakes (another cousin promised there wouldn’t be any tequila at this party, anyway).

It’s been a bit strange planning for a big trip right at the time the holiday season is ramping up. I mean, I get into Christmas. One of my friends describes my house from Thanksgiving to New Year’s as looking like “Christmas barfed” in it. Don’t get me wrong—it’s no Christmas Vacation house. But I will admit that not all our decorations are what you might call “tasteful” or “subdued”. But the fiber optic angel was less than ten dollars! And she changes color, and there’s a point where she’s all red for three beats—Devil Angel! And the Christmas Village is so cute with its little lights and its diner and shop and Grandma’s Cottage and the Skaters and the wildlife—lots of wildlife (cloned evidently because there’s not a lot of variation)—because my mother, who buys me pieces for the Christmas Village each year, occasionally forgets what she’s bought me before.

I bake, and host parties, and drink eggnog (or rather, Silk nog) lattes, and make presents and shop for presents (almost exclusively for others) and wear Christmas socks and red and green—together—and listen to the Messiah for days on end. I pull out all the Christmas books Mom’s given me through the years, from The Pokey Little Puppy’s First Christmas (which I once won an award reading at an interp festival for competitive speaking in high school) to The Polar Express—and I read them, out loud to friends and family if I can get them to sit still.

But this year, I’m taking two weeks—two weeks—of this most important time of year, and traveling to a foreign country, one I’ve never visited before, on a continent that I’ve never been to before (we were briefly in Turkey last year, on the Asia side of the Bosporus, but really. What kind of a traveler am I if I count that.). Granted, considering how inexpensive—no, downright cheap (lodging for two for less than $10 per night???)—Thailand seems to be for us North Americans, I am likely to save some money, as these are probably two of the most expensive weeks of the year for me, generally. And, we’re going to visit two friends of Ian’s who’ve been in the Peace Corps for the last 11 months, and they’re ready for visitors, so that’ll be great. And we’ll get to see my aunt who used to live in Bangkok but now lives in Singapore but still has an apartment in Bangkok—she’s generously putting up the four of us in her downtown flat, and coming for the weekend, too.

And then we’ll be home, having finished our Christmas shopping, and had a welcome infusion of warmth and sunshine, and I’ll be able to dive right back into Christmas insanity where I left off (I couldn’t resist—I pulled out the Christmas Village and the CDs tonight—I mean, packing’s basically done . . . ).

But for now—Thailand! I’m suddenly very excited to go!

Stay tuned for our adventures . . .