How do you say "Day 1" in Thai?

A full day is almost over.  Before I crash (like Angela did about 30 minutes ago), I wanted to share a few of the things we did today (briefly).  I've included just a few of the pics here, but you can see the Facebook album for more.

I woke up at about 4 a.m. while Angela continued sleeping for another two hours.  I stayed in bed until 7, though, mostly because I couldn't think of anything better to do.

After a good western breakfast -- Angela had oatmeal, I had eggs and toast with a great cup of coffee -- we set off to meet my colleagues.  We did this mostly over a good lunch where I tried not to tear up as the Thai chiles burned my tongue to pieces. 

Then it was time to meet Pi Nook, the woman who will be helping us at our new house, at our new house.  Suffice it to say that Angela and I will probably never be able to have this much house the rest of our lives.  Thank goodness for affordable housing prices in the Chiang Mai area.

Following our visit with Pi Nook, I took a little time to nap (the couch was the lucky recipient of my first nap in Thailand).  Angela attempted to read up on Chiang Mai, so her nap was unintended and only half as long. 

After my hour nap, our friend Jit arrived, and we returned to what Americans do best: Shopping.

We set up our bank account, which was much easier than any of us anticipated, then we purchased cell phones.  Our two phones together were a hefty $30.  Then we had to get new prepaid SIM cards, bringing our total bill to about $33.  We would have loved to stop the spending there.  Unfortunately, we needed sheets for our new bed and towels, because air-drying is more difficult in the rainy season.  After finding a "bed-in-a-bag" in our pricerange and two towels that were on sale for a reason, we had a great Japanese meal with Jit. 

We were dropped off to fireworks exploding in the backgound.  Apparently our intel that the 4th celebration was postponed was wrong.  Angela and I ran up to the fourth floor garden just in time to see the smoke still hanging in the air.  Not quite as exciting, but still beautiful.



That was our first day.  I'm hoping this will be a much longer second night.  I hope all of the fireworks going off around you remind us how much we still fight for freedom and equality in the United States and around the world.