an international thanksgiving: food, kids, karaoke

well hello :) it seems that i have not blogged hardly at all this month… crazy, no?

so, let us rewind back to friday, aka my favorite day i have experienced since living in Bangkok.

friday, ryan and i had the day off of work due to thanksgiving festivities we had been invited to. actually, let me preface this a tiny bit: most of ryan’s clients are up in an area of Bangkok known as Nichada. this is a gated community where Americans live in pretty gorgeous homes. there is also an International School of Bangkok there where their children attend. sooo… ryan does bootcamps up there, which mostly the moms attend while their husbands are working, and he also does bootcamps for the varsity sports teams at the school.

moving on…

one of ryan’s bootcamp clients, a wonderful lady named Michele, invited us to her Thanksgiving feast she was throwing. but before that we decided to go see ISB’s (Int’l School of Bkk), production of “My Fair Lady.” this musical is long anyway, but it seemed 10x longer being put on by high schoolers. i will say this though, the pit (orchestra) was phenomenal! and overall, the acting was really good. but yes, i did critique everything… unintentionally, of course.

after the show, it was about 6pm, we headed over to Michele’s for din-din. she and her husband, Robert (who oddly reminded me of Bob Hope), have five children. another family that was there, Amy and Mathew, have seven children. there were also (which i later found out to be) Mormons who were on their mission, and another couple who happened to be our age. needless to say, a lot of people.

the two families with the children are great because they have interesting jobs. for example, Mathew creates microchips for a TON of stuff (such as Guitar Hero III). and Robert is a doctor, but he is also a researcher and is in the process of finding cures and solutions to crazy diseases. he was fun to talk to because he is a guy that knows a lot about a lot; mostly because he reads TONS of books. so once he found out i was a “triple threat” we talked about vaudeville and theatre stuff. and he let me borrow a book on vaudeville haha.

so… all the children. it makes me want to have lots of kids now. i really only interacted with Amy and Mathew’s kids and fell completely in love with their two year old son, Eli (and i’m pretty sure the feeling was mutual… kinda).

after dinner, i definitely played karaoke with the moms and it was hilarious to see how much they got into it. and i also made the younger girls (and boys) play. speaking of which, one of my favorite things about kids is how much they “lie.” for example, 10 yr. old Libby… granted it was late, i said to her, “You have to sing this song with me,” to which she said “I’m so tired.” of course, i got her to play because when kids say they’re “so tired,” what they really mean is, “i want to play but i might be too cool to show that i’m actually enjoying myself.”

have you ever seen Baby Mama? well, there is a part where the two female characters are playing the karaoke game and Tina Fey’s character is about precision, where as Amy Poehler’s (who i have a girl crush on) character is about having fun. let’s just say, Michele (the owner of the home) was Tina Fey in this particular karaoke scenario. brilliant.

what else?

ah, yes. so… ryan and i are looking for place in the Nichada area to move to. if we do re-locate up there, i will quite possibly start an afterschool drama/singing/dancing program at ISB – which would be super fun. and being up there reminded me how much i miss being around Americans. also, i must say that both families were so incredibly kind and made me feel so welcome and at home.

in conclusion, i have decided i want seven children who are involved in lots of activities, and a large home to host big shin-digs. ryan agrees with most of that…