Two Years Ago on Jan.3rd-4th

Saturday, Jan. 3rd, 2009

The day started out with us riding on the sky train to the MBK shopping plaza. A cheaper place to shop then some of the upscale shopping plazas, and the place where I found some silk cloth to buy Penny. At first I thought I had actually bought her a dress already made, wrapped up in a package. Later, I discovered that I had actually only bought the fabric and would need to find a tailor to make it into a dress. It was a bit frustrating that I didn't understand enough Thai to know exactly what I was purchasing. After shopping at the MBK market we walked to the Jim Thompson Home. It was a beautiful place where the American, who revived the silk industry in Thailand, lived.


We ate a delicious lunch there and then walked along a canal until we got to a busy street that led us to the Siam Center, across from an awesome mall, called the Siam Paragon. That was the place where we had seen the Siam Ocean World back during our first few days in Bangkok. Penny especially loved the toys and children's play area on the 4th floor. That is where we bought her princess version of Uno. I think what Penny liked best here was the fact that they had large posters of all her favorite Thai pop singers outside. I guess they must put on concerts in the plaza area there.

Sunday, January 4th, 2009

In the morning we went to a Christian worship service at the Evangelical Church of Bangkok. That was very refreshing and encouraging for me and Jay. And Penny didn't seem to mind. She enjoyed reading the comic version of the Thai bible during the service. After church we thought we'd be getting a phone call from someone who I thought was a nanny. Turns out that later I discovered that she was not a nanny. But, due to our language barrier I couldn't really understand what Penny was trying to explain to me about this person. All I knew was that she was a very important person in Penny's life from the Girls' Home in Udon Thani. Unfortunately, we didn't receive her expected phone call. Most of the rest of the day was spent playing with kids at the hotel, watching videos and playing Princess Uno.

We were hoping that by the next day we might hear something from the USCIS, since they'd finally be back in their office. We also found out from our hotel manager that we would need to move out to another hotel, because they had a large group renting all the rooms in the guest house coming in on Monday. So, we also started researching hotels and guest houses in the area to try to find something affordable and close to the U.S. government offices.